A Rabbit Looks at 69…
Happy Birthday Bugs Bunny! On this day, in 1940, the world's most famous long ear made his debut in a short film called The Wild Hare. The original concept was a rabbit-version of Groucho Marx, the carrot standing in for a cigar and the catch phrase "Of course you release this means war," lifted from the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup. In the 2000 documentary "Chuck Jones: Exremes and In-Between," the director Jones claimed that Bugs's voice and mannerism were that of a Brooklyn cabdriver (Blanc called the voice "a blend of the Bronx and Flatbush"), met to contrast the flater heartland affectations of Walt Disney's characters.
First directed by animation legend Tex Avery and voiced by the peerless Mel Blanc, Bugs appeared in over 150 before-the-movie cartoon shorts from until the medium faded from popularity in 1964. The "What's Opera Doc?" parody of Wagner's "Ring Cycle" (Kill the Wabbit! Kill the Wabbi!) was the first cartoon short inducted into the Library of Congress's National Film Registry. In 2002, Bugs Bunny was named the greatest cartoon character of all time by TV Guide, an honor he shares with his crosstown rival Mickey Mouse.
Bugs Bunny was my boyhood hero, a smart-aleck unimpressed by pretense who outwitted rather than overpowered naysayers. He rarely lost his cool and rebounded from setbacks. He was the perfectrole model for a short, shy kid who wished he was as funny as his dad.
Happy Birthday Bugs. I can't imagine where we'd be without you.