Today in History

A dvd on Amazon

Happy Birthday to Daffy Duck!

Today in 1937, Daffy Duck made his debut on the the animated cartoon "Porky's Duck Hunt." I loved Looney Tunes (and Merrie Melodies, remember them?) growing up, so I had to give a shout out to Daffy and Porky today.

According to the Looney Tunes trivia buffs, Porky's Duck Hunt is also the first cartoon where Mel Blanc voiced both Porky and Daffy. Prior to that year, Porky was voiced by Joe Dougherty, who had a natural stutter (that's right, folks, Porky's charming stutter wasn't an act!). But Joe's inability to control his stutter led to the role being recast. I'm just amazed and impressed that someone with a stutter would get into the voice-acting business. Hats off to Joe.

You can watch "Porky's Duck Hunt", which is roughly 8 minutes in length, on YouTube as several clips (here is clip 1) or on Daily Motion (colorized, requires Flash).

One other piece of trivia about Porky's Duck Hunt: the original end card reading "That's All Folks" had Daffy dancing around. This was cut later and replaced with the standard Looney Tunes end card due to some licensing issues with Warner Brothers. Later reissues restore it the original end card.

And now, Porky has something he'd like to say: