Bugs Bunny Gets A New Leading Lady

Warner Publicity Merges Cartoons With Live Stars

So the question is, how often did Warner Bros. cross-promote talent with cartoon characters the studio owned? Bugs Bunny turns up in Two Guys From Texas and My Dream Is Yours alongside Doris Day, Jack Carson, others, but I've found little of him as publicity partner to live-action stars. Here on rare such occasion is Bugs lending 1945 hand to WB pactee Joan Leslie for Easter promo of upcoming Too Young To Know, plus greet to servicemen in ongoing receipt of pin-up art from Hollywood. Bugs Bunny was hugely popular with military personnel. They liked his irreverence and can-do spirit. You could argue that Bugs contributed as much to winning the war as any personality in films. Was there other occasion when the rabbit posed with live-act colleagues? And what of Daffy, Porky, and the rest? I suspect the association would have been a lot more valuable than Warners realized. Was there snobbery among human personnel toward animated co-workers? Had they given me charge of promotion, I'd surely have arranged for Bugs to visit the set of To Have and Have Not and pose with Bogart, Bacall, Hawks, etc. Then perhaps George Hurrell could be brought in to photograph D. Duck or Elmer in romantic mood with Ann Sheridan or Ida Lupino. As to the "Booking Confirmation" at top, it's here to indicate how small rentals could be for WB cartoons as late as 1958 when the company's Oklahoma City exchange tendered Bugs and Mugsy at flat rate of $2.50 for play in Barnsdall, OK. By that time, cartoons had greater value for eventual TV use, where many more viewers would enjoy Bugs and Mugsy than ever did in a theatre.