Creative collaboration is a hallmark of the Golden Age of Animation and nowhere is it more apparent than in Unit A of the Warner Bros. Animation department, headed by Chuck Jones. On September 17, 1949 (just 4 days shy of his 37th birthday) the Chuck Jones-directed, "Fast and Furry-ous" premiered in movie theaters around the country.
Today, we're pleased to present two original pre-production gouache on paper paintings by Chuck Jones gifted to his friend, Lt. Jack Hill, in 1949.
Lt Jack Hill first contacted Chuck in 1949 after seeing "Fast and Furry-ous". Jack was in the Army Air Corps (later the Air Force) and wrote to tell Chuck that the pilots, who were under radio silence when on maneuvers, had started saying, "beep-beep" over their radios. Of course, in those days, it wasn't possible to know who had said it and so someone else would answer with another "beep-beep" and soon the air was filled with it.
Chuck wrote to Lt. Jack Hill on September 29, 1949 and explained the genesis of the characters this way:
"This picture came about mainly because we got a little tired of cats chasing dogs, dogs chasing cats, cats chasing birds. Our determination to avoid these situations, even temporarily, however was not sufficiently ingrained to result in our abandoning the idea of a chase per se. So, we toyed with the idea of a dugong chasing a wildebeest, or a solenodon chasing a Gila Monster, or perhaps a civet cat chasing a sea otter. None of these revolutionary concept's bore thematic fruit however: not natural enemies, size factor prohibits, whoever heard of a solenodon?, etc. In short, impasse.
"Suddenly out of the pit that covered us, lighting the night from pole to pole, the voice of Michael Maltese, writer and gagman extraordinary, originator of most of the bright ideas out of this plant:
"'Why not a coyote chasing a Road Runner?'
"The discovery of the wheel receded into obscurity; Marconi's innovations became tarnished nonsense. Why not indeed! The inertia starters squealed, the giant turbines groaned into action, assembly belts flapped, steam pressure steam pressured, the giant (I just said that) sinews of the motion picture industry flexed, a thousand skilled workmen applied industrial know-how and out the other end; like a strip of celluloid spaghetti came: FAST AND FURRY-OUS!"
