Arthur Davis

Arthur "Art" Davidavitchhttps://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/animator-profiles-arthur-davis/ (14 June 1905 - 9 May 2000) was an American animator and director for the Termite Terrace studio. 
== Career ==
Davis' career started at Paramount's cartoon studio under the supervision of Max Fleischer, and is reputed to have been the first in-betweener in the American animation industry. Another of his distinctions was that he tapped out the famous "bouncing ball music" of the "Follow the Bouncing Ball" cartoons of the 1920s. While one of the Fleischer brothers played the ukulele, Davis would keep time with a wooden stick with a white thumbtack on the end, which was photographed and incorporated into the films as the actual moving ball. Later, Davis moved over to Universal as an animator for the Charles Mintz studio. While there, he helped create and develop Toby the Pup and Scrappy with fellow animators Dick Huemer and Sid Marcus. Davis would eventually be promoted to animation director and remained at the studio even after it became Screen Gems in 1940.
By the end of 1941, Davis was fired from Screen Gems and was replaced by Bob Wickersham. He managed a liquor store for three months before he moved to Warner Bros. where he worked for director Norman McCabe by summer 1942. After McCabe left for the army and when Frank Tashlin returned to Warner Bros. by September, Davis worked as an animator for his unit and remained briefly when his unit was assumed by Robert McKimson after Tashlin left in 1944. Later in 1945, when Bob Clampett left to pursue a career in television, Davis left the McKimson unit and took over Clampett's unit.https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/animator-profiles-arthur-davis/https://books.google.com/books?id=GnnGCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56&dq=arthur+davis+animator&source=bl&ots=PKzMunbUqt&sig=cwsxvt-70-JsdPhudGrBpiUxSGU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjFtq_Wr9DVAhVDz1QKHfpuD1w4ChDoAQgsMAE#v=onepage&q=arthur%20davis%20animator&f=false
Davis supervised twenty Warner Bros. cartoons (with an additional four that he only contributed to), with a tone somewhere between those of Clampett and McKimson. He had a distinctive characteristic visual style, which can be seen as far back as Davis' Columbia shorts, in which the characters move from the foreground to the background, as well as from side to side, using all axes of the animation field. His department was shut down only two years later in 1947 when Warners was having a budget problem.https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/robert-mckimsons-a-ham-in-a-role/ Davis then was taken into Friz Freleng's unit, and served as one of Freleng's key animators for many years, until the studio closed. Davis also served as a key writer for the 1955 cartoon, "Sandy Claws".
== Later Years ==
Fifteen years later, Davis directed a cartoon for Warners again, using Freleng's unit. (There were several shorts released around this time, from not only Freleng's unit but Chuck Jones' as well, with the direction credited to varying subordinates.) This cartoon, "Quackodile Tears", was also his last Warners short. After the studio closed in 1963, Davis went to Walter Lantz Productions as an animator. He left Lantz in 1965 to work briefly for Hanna-Barbera Productions, before moving over to DePatie-Freleng Enterprises to direct The Pink Panther shorts and other cartoon series. He also directed the Television Special, The Bugs Bunny Mother's Day Special, and created new shorts "The Yolks On You" and "Daffy Flies North" for the Television Special Daffy Duck's Easter Egg-citement.
== Death ==
Davis died 9 May 2000, aged 94. His ashes were buried at sea courtesy of the Neptune Society of Northern California.https://www.awn.com/news/warner-bros-director-arthur-davis-passes
== Looney Works ==
=== Director ===
* Bacall to Arms (1946) (with Bob Clampett (uncredited)) (uncredited) 
* The Big Snooze (1946) (with Bob Clampett (uncredited)) (uncredited) 
* Mouse Menace (1946) 
* The Goofy Gophers (1947) (with Bob Clampett (uncredited)) (uncredited) 
* The Foxy Duckling (1947) 
* Doggone Cats (1947) 
* Mexican Joyride (1947) 
* Catch as Cats Can (1947) 
* Two Gophers from Texas (1948) 
* What Makes Daffy Duck (1948) 
* A Hick a Slick and a Chick (1948) 
* Nothing but the Tooth (1948) 
* Bone Sweet Bone (1948) 
* The Rattled Rooster (1948) 
* Dough Ray Me-ow (1948) 
* The Pest That Came to Dinner (1948) 
* Odor of the Day (1948) 
* The Stupor Salesman (1948) 
* Riff Raffy Daffy (1948) 
* Holiday for Drumsticks (1949) 
* Porky Chops (1949) 
* Bowery Bugs (1949) 
* Bye, Bye Bluebeard (1949) 
* A Ham in a Role (1949) (with Robert McKimson) (uncredited) 
* Quackodile Tears (1962) 
* The Yolks on You (1980) (with Gerry Chiniquy, Tony Benedict, and David Detiege) 
* The Chocolate Chase (1980) (with Gerry Chiniquy, Tony Benedict, and David Detiege) 
* Daffy Flies North (1980) (with Gerry Chiniquy, Tony Benedict, and David Detiege) 
=== Animator ===
* 14 Carrot Rabbit
* Acrobatty Bunny
* Ain't She Tweet
* All a Bir-r-r-d
* Ant Pasted
* Apes of Wrath
* Ballot Box Bunny
* Behind the Meat-Ball
* Big House Bunny
* A Bird in a Bonnet
* A Bird in a Guilty Cage
* Birds Anonymous
* A Bone for a Bone
* Booby Hatched
* Brother Brat
* Bugs and Thugs
* The Bugs Bunny Show Episode 2
* The Bugs Bunny Show Episode 5
* Bugsy and Mugsy
* Bunker Hill Bunny
* By Word of Mouse
* Canary Row
* Canned Feud
* Captain Hareblower
* Catty Cornered
* Censored
* Confusions of a Nutzy Spy
* Cracked Quack
* D' Fightin' Ones
* Daffy Duck's Thanks-for-Giving Special
* The Daffy Duckaroo
* Devil's Feud Cake
* Dog Pounded
* Dr. Jerkyl's Hide
* The Ducktators
* The Fair Haired Hare
* Fowl Weather
* Foxy by Proxy
* From Hare to Heir
* Gift Wrapped
* The Goldbrick
* Golden Yeggs
* Goldimouse and the Three Cats
* Gonzales' Tamales
* Goo Goo Goliath
* Greedy for Tweety
* Hare Brush
* Hare Lift
* Hare Remover
* Hare Trimmed
* Hare-abian Nights
* Hare-Less Wolf
* Heir-Conditioned
* Here Today, Gone Tamale
* His Bitter Half
* His Hare Raising Tale
* The Home Front
* Home, Tweet Home
* Hop and Go
* Horse Hare
* Hyde and Go Tweet
* Hyde and Hare
* I Gopher You
* I Got Plenty of Mutton
* A Kiddies Kitty
* Knighty Knight Bugs
* Lighter Than Hare
* The Lion's Busy
* Little Red Rodent Hood
* Lumber Jerks
* Mexicali Shmoes
* Mouse and Garden
* A Mouse Divided
* The Mouse-Merized Cat
* Mutiny on the Bunny
* Muzzle Tough
* Napoleon Bunny-Part
* Nasty Quacks
* One Meat Brawl
* Person to Bunny
* Pests for Guests
* Piker's Peak
* A Pizza Tweety-Pie
* Plane Daffy
* Porky Pig's Feat
* Prince Violent
* Puss n' Booty
* Putty Tat Trouble
* Rabbit Every Monday
* Rabbitson Crusoe
* The Rebel Without Claws
* Red Riding Hoodwinked
* Robot Rabbit
* Roman Legion-Hare
* Room and Bird
* Sahara Hare
* Sandy Claws
* Satan's Waitin'
* Scrap Happy Daffy
* Show Biz Bugs
* Snow Business
* Southern Fried Rabbit
* Speedy Gonzales (short)
* A Star Is Bored
* Stooge for a Mouse
* Stork Naked
* A Street Cat Named Sylvester
* The Stupid Cupid
* Swooner Crooner
* Tale of Two Mice
* Target Snafu
* This Is a Life?
* Tokio Jokio
* Tom Tom Tomcat
* Tree Cornered Tweety
* Tree for Two
* Trick or Tweet
* Tugboat Granny
* Tweet and Lovely
* Tweet and Sour
* Tweet Dreams
* Tweet Tweet Tweety
* Tweet Zoo
* Tweety and the Beanstalk
* Tweety's Circus
* Tweety's S.O.S.
* Two Crows from Tacos
* The Unruly Hare
* A Waggily Tale
* Walky Talky Hawky
* Which Is Witch
* Wild and Woolly Hare
* Yankee Dood It
* Yankee Doodle Bugs
*Russian Rhapsody
*Hollywood Canine Canteen
== Characters Created ==
IMG 2457.png|Wellington
Rooster (The Rattled Rooster).png|Rooster
Worm (The Rattled Rooster).png|Worm
Fox d.png|Fox (What Makes Daffy Duck)
Pierre the Termite.jpg|Pierre
1467728809778.png|Sureshot
Slug McSlug.jpg|Slug McSlug
Steve Brody.jpg|Steve Brody
Bluebeard for artie.jpg|Bluebeard
Heathcliff cropped.jpg|Heathcliff
Louie the parrot.jpg|Louie
Vlcsnap-2020-06-26-11h16m43s217.png|El Toro
ElmoTheMouse.jpg|Elmo
Blackiethemouse.jpeg|Blackie
MouseGirls.jpeg|Daisy Lou
Herman.jpg|Herman
== Gallery ==
Arthur Davis.jpg|Caricature of Arthur Davis, drawn by Jean Blanchard for the July 1947 edition of Warner Club Newshttp://www.animationmagazine.net/top-stories/disney-wins-by-a-head/
Art-Davis-1948.jpg|Davis in 1948
Artie davis.jpg|Davis at Warner Bros. c. 1954 https://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.4/articles/sito1.4.html
Art-Davis-1972-DePatie.jpg|Davis at DePatie Freleng in 1972
EVlIP0sWAAEKKtL.jpg|Arthur and Rae Kessler with Sid Marcus and his wife c. 1940
Braintrust.jpg|Arthur with Joe De Nat, Charles Mintz, Sid Marcus, and Dick Huemer
WARNER PHOTO.png|Arthur with Don Williams, Richard Bickenbach, Anatole Kirsanoff, and Cal Dalton
Arts-90th-party-3.jpg
Arts-90th-party-6.jpg
File:Davis Cartoons production order.png|Davis' cartoons listed in production order
==References==
 
Category:Animators
Category:Directors
Category:Real People
Category:Deceased
Category:1905 Births
Category:2000 Deaths
Category:Looney Tunes Animators
Category:Looney Tunes Directors