Crusader Rabbit

Crusader Rabbit, first aired August 1st, 1950.

Crusader is the world's first cartoon series made for television.  Alex Anderson, nephew of Paul Terry, came up with the idea.  Jay Ward is part of this, huge surprise there.  It was filmed on a very low budget and has little animation, mostly still shots and camera pans making up the bulk of the cartoon.  Here Crusader is about to demonstrate his lack of superpowers.

https://youtu.be/C3hHQvkUhJo

Ragland T. Tiger, Crusader's partner and best friend.  The 'T' stands for 'the'.  When asked about it, Rags would tell people his middle name was Larry but his dad couldn't spell!  Rags is none too bright and is the beginning of a long tradition of dopey cartoon sidekicks.

This is a cast photo, I cannot find out who is who in this.  But never mind that, what is this picture behind the bar?

I would not be astonished if this was by Martin Provensen, he worked for Disney 1936-45 on such films as Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Dumbo before he hit big with Tony the Tiger, him and his wife Alice were major players in the illustration game. They recieved the Caldecott Medal for The Glorious Flight in 1984.  I suspect this is an animator's bar somewhere in or around Los Angeles, early fifties.

The Animal Fair, 1952.  Alice and Martin Provensen.  See what I mean?

Animation sheet, Quartet Films of Hollywood, 1950's.  Martin Provensen, Tony the Tiger.  Since I have Rags here I may as well put up his better known cousin.

St. Louis Post Dispatch story, April 13, 1949.  This seems to have been a ploy by the producers to present Crusader Rabbit as wholesome and valuable to watch.  William Gaines could have learned something from this instead of lipping off to the Senate about how EC horror comics were presented with good taste, obvious bullshit and I like EC.  The cartoon was over a year away when this article ran.

Needless to say, nothing like this appears in the cartoon.

Crusader was merchandised, naturally.  This is a 1950's jigsaw puzzle.

Coloring books...

Toys...

...more toys,

Soda.  This is new, and good for Crusader after all this time!  Oops, the can contains no soda but just the doll.  At 13 dollars a pop, that works for me.

Comics, of course.  Ward brought production costs down to about 2,500 dollars a four minute episode, 4 drawings a foot as compared to 40 for a fully animated production.  How could they go wrong?  This formula was to serve him well for Rocky and Bullwinkle.
Dell only brought out two Crusader Rabbit comics, at ten cents each.  I started buying comics at twelve cents.  Blackhawk, mind you, something realistic!

As a tot I would watch these religiously.  By about 1965 or so I saw my last one, there were other things to watch that at least moved.  Hanna-Barbera and Jay Ward made a fortune by cut rate animation and great voice acting.  Jay Ward proved that wit trumped production values every time, a lesson entirely lost on Hollywood today.  This ad is from the second series aired in 1959, Ward and Anderson had lost control over their creation.  I don't remember watching any of the color episodes.  In both series the voice of Crusader was provided by Lucille Bliss, who is all over voice acting in animation, including video games.  Her last role was in 2012, when she died at age 95.

As a lagniappe, this is Colonel Bleep, 1957.  First color made for TV cartoon.  I never heard of this until recently, it did not show in Dallas when I was growing up.  The artwork is stunning.  Syndicated out of Buffalo, only about a third of the episodes survive.  There is no original anything about this left to speak of. When the films were being moved c. 1971, they were loaded into a van which was stolen.  They have never been seen again.  The 44 extant were found in the vault of a TV station that had aired them.

https://youtu.be/lEhYJdygMEQ

It was always a game, and if you don't see it that way you've lost.  1956.

 Crusader Rabbit, original character sketch.  This one is going for 995 dollars.

 Simplicity is the essence of cartooning genius.

Incredible artwork.  https://w.artcld.com/art/1913069

 Most of the art was thrown away decades ago, without a doubt.  All those Looney Tunes shorts had their cels carted out to a landfill and bulldozed over, a greater loss than that of the library at Alexandria.  It's fantastic to see that Crusader is still remembered, the first made for TV Cartoon is Willie the Worm, 1938, when there were all of 50 sets in the U. S.  I can't find it anywhere, I suspect it no longer exists.

Godspeed, little rabbit.

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