Today's Merrie Melodies Hidden Staff Reference

Warner Bros. cartoon staffers show up in the most unexpected places. Take, for example, “Yankee Dood It,” one of the Sloan Foundation free enterprise cartoons made by the studio that ended up in theatrical release. There’s one montage sequence which shows cheques signed by prospective investors in a business. About those names…



Emmet Simmons. Can’t find anything about him.



Don Foster was the guy who drew the lobby cards for Warners cartoons.



Veotis Richmond (note the spelling) was a cel washer for the studio when he got married in 1945. I don’t know what he was doing for Warners when this cartoon was made. He was a member of IATSE local 839 at the time of his death.



I won’t even take a guess on this name.



Hugo Henkel is another mystery. I found one who died in 1967; location unknown. As a young man, he had been a chemist in a paint factory in New York City in 1940.



Sid Farren was an assistant animator in the Freleng unit.



Russell Jones was the studio janitor. Chuck (no relation) Jones lauds him in Chuck Amuck.

You’ll notice the cheques are all dated 1957. The cartoon was released in 1956.