April 27
Walter Benjamin Lantz's Birthday

When your kids become famous and get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, they have cemented their celebrity immorality. Although famed animator, cartoonist, and film producer Walter Lantz never achieved this honor, one of his progeny did in 1990 when Woody Woodpecker received his star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame on 7000 Hollywood Boulevard. However, Walter may have been even more deserving than Woody since he was responsible for the creation of the first Technicolor cartoon. But it was always Woody that got all of the attention.

The concept of Woody Woodpecker was ironically conceived while Walter was on his honeymoon in 1940 with actress Grace Stafford when the incessant pecking of a woodpecker on the roof kept interuptioing their lovemaking. Grace suggested that the irritating pecker (the bird) would make a great cartoon character. Walter was a bit skeptical but introduced his Woody Woodpecker character in an Andy Panda cartoon feature and the public loved Walter's irritating little pecker. Mel Blank who created the voiced for Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Bird, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, Elmer Fudd and hundreds of other cartoon characters provided Woody's voice for the first three cartoons. After wards the voice was by Ben Hardaway, although Walter kept Mel's unique laugh.

In 1948, the Lantz studio had a hit Academy Award-nominated tune in "The Woody Woodpecker Song", featuring Blanc's laugh. Mel sued Walter for half a million dollars, claiming that Lantz had used his voice in various later cartoons without his permission. Although the case was dismissed, Walter began to search for a new voice for Woody Woodpecker. In 1950, Walter's wife Grace secretly made her own anonymous audition tape and submitted to the the Lantz studio, Not knowing whose voice was being heard, Lantz picked Grace's voice to do Woody Woodpecker which truly made the irritating little pecker their love child. Grace's version of Woody was notably friendlier than the manic Woody of the 1940s, and Lantz's artists redesigned the character to suit the new voice personality.

Woody Woodpecker cartoons were first broadcast on television in 1957 under the title The Woody Woodpecker Show, which featured Lantz cartoons bookended by new footage of Woody and live-action footage of Lantz. Woody also made a cameo alongside many other famous cartoon characters in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.(1998).

So let's toast Walter on his birthday with a Woody Woodpecker cocktail and watch Woody in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Woody Woodpecker Cocktail.

Ingredients

5-oz orange juice
3-oz Galliano Liqueur

1.3-oz Cachaca Liqueur (made from fermenting sugarcane and
orange juice)
1-oz ice

Instructions

Mix Cachaca Liqueur and with your orange juice.
Add the ice then shake the three elements in a cocktail shaker for fifteen to twenty seconds and pour mixture into a Collins glass.