Robert Cannon
1909 - 1964Robert 'Bobo' Cannon was born in Ohio. Not much is known about his early life, including the city he was born in. He began his animation career at Leon Schlesinger Productions in 1934, assisting ace animators Robert Clampett and Chuck Jones. After a two-year apprenticeship, he graduated to full animator.
Cannon became an integral part of that anarchic Warner Brothers in-house cartoon outfit, known as 'Termite Terrace' (due to its cramped and austere quarters). In the process, he labored on such iconic Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies characters as Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, and Elmer Fudd. He animated for Tex Avery, Clampett and Jones from 1936 to 1944, after which he became co-founder and a leading light in the innovative United Productions of America (UPA). Unlike at Warners, UPA allowed him to direct, including cartoons featuring the famous character of Mr. Magoo.
Cannon later taught animation at San Fernando Valley State College and was awarded in 1976 with the International Film Society's Winsor McCay Award for Lifetime Achievement. He died at the age of 54 in 1964 due to a heart attack.
Looney Tunes Wiki
Willie the Kid
Robert Cannon
Little Willie's large imagination turns his family-home in the suburbs into the old Wild WEst when he puts on his cowboy suit, guns, holsters and hat, and goes out to play with his friend Archie.(No, this is not Archie Andrews.) The two boys have some desperate adventures, until Willie's mom calls him in to take his afternoon nap.
Willie the Kid
Christopher Crumpet
Robert Cannon
Marvin Miller, Marian Richman
Through drawings, an illustrator tells his dog the story of a boy named Christopher Crumpet. Christopher can at will change himself from a little boy into a chicken. He threatens to do so if his father, Marvin, won't buy him a rocket ship.
Christopher Crumpet
Ballet-Oop
Robert Cannon
Marvin Miller, Marian Richman
Dance teacher Miss Placement is dismayed to learn that the head of the School of Ballet where she teaches has entered her beginners class in a contest just three weeks away. But she manages to get them ready and they are a huge success. The school owner is so pleased that he enters all of the school's 1400 students in a contest where they have to learn "Swan Lake" in just two weeks.
Ballet-Oop
The Wonder Gloves
Robert Cannon
Uncle George is showing Little Johnny, his nephew, the pair of boxing gloves he claims enabled him, when he was the janitor at a training-gym, to beat up the bullying prizefighting champion. Little Johnny scoffs at the tale until the 'wonder gloves' gives him a spanking.
The Wonder Gloves
Gerald McBoing-Boing's Symphony
Robert Cannon
Marvin Miller
Gerald McBoing Boing, a little boy who can't talk but can imitate any sound, is working as a one-man sound effects department for a radio station. When a scheduled symphony orchestra does not show up, Gerald replaces them. He is doing fine until he mixes up the score with the sound effects script, and creates an original symphony. He is fired, but the critics hail his work as that of a genius.
Gerald McBoing-Boing's Symphony
Brotherhood of Man
Robert Cannon
Made from a pamphlet and financed by a union, the message that the similarities between people are greater than any racial differences, was part of a post WW2 optimism which was soon to be seen as leftist propaganda and now reads like simple multiculturalism.
Brotherhood of Man
How Now Boing Boing
Robert Cannon
Marvin Miller
Gerald's parents, frustrated at his inability to talk, call in various experts (including the world's greatest voice professor) to teach their boy to speak in words instead of sound effects. They all fail until, by chance, Gerald tries to phone home.
How Now Boing Boing
Little Boy with a Big Horn
Robert Cannon
John T. Smith, Marian Richman
Ollie loves to play the tuba but his playing upsets all the people in town. He goes to the country and disrupts the milking habits of the cows. He finally takes a boat and practices at sea in order not to disturb anyone. His tuba-playing saves a ship from going on the rocks and he becomes a town hero.
Little Boy with a Big Horn
