1931

"Lady, Play Your Mandolin!", the first in the Merrie Melodies series

The earliest banned short in the "Censored Eleven": the Piggy cartoon "Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land"

"Red-Headed Baby", the first one-shot Warner Bros. cartoon

1931 is the year the Merrie Melodies series started. In that year, sixteen cartoons were released. The oldest entry in the infamous Censored Eleven, a series of cartoons that United Artists pulled from circulation in 1968 due to offensive stereotyping of black people, was released this year.

History

• As the Looney Tunes series became established as the title for the "Bosko" series, a second series known as Merrie Melodies was established with songs and one-shot characters and concepts similar to Disney's Silly Symphonies. This would split Hugh Harman's and Rudolf Ising's directing roles for both series, with Harman focusing on Looney Tunes and Ising focusing on Merrie Melodies.
• Bob Clampett begins working for Warner Bros., starting as an assistant animator on "Lady, Play Your Mandolin!", the first of the Merrie Melodies series.

Theatrical Shorts

All Looney Tunes cartoons are directed by Hugh Harman (with Rudolf Ising for cartoons prior to "Lady, Play Your Mandolin!"), while all Merrie Melodies cartoons are directed by Rudolf Ising (with Hugh Harman for "Lady, Play Your Mandolin!").

1.  "Ups 'n Downs" (January 30) 
2.  "Dumb Patrol" (March 2) 
3.  "Yodeling Yokels" (March 28) 
4.  "Bosko's Holiday" (May 1) 
5.  "The Tree's Knees" (May 15) 
6.  "Lady, Play Your Mandolin!" (August 2) 
7.  "Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!" (September 5) 
8.  "Bosko Shipwrecked!" (September 19) 
9.  "One More Time" (October 3) 
10.  "Bosko the Doughboy" (October 17) 
11.  "You Don't Know What You're Doin'!" (October 21) 
12.  "Bosko's Soda Fountain" (November 14) 
13.  "Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land" (November 28) 
14.  "Bosko's Fox Hunt" (December 12) 
15.  "Red-Headed Baby" (December 26) 
16.  "Bosko at the Zoo" (December 31) 

Character Debuts

• Bruno
• Fluffy
• Foxy
• Piggy
• Roxy
• Uncle Tom

People

Births

• 18 May - Robert Morse

References

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Timeline

1932

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