Vintage Cartoons. . . And "Vintage Movies"

Boris and Natasha were a cartoon duo that appeared on The Rocky Bullwinkle Show. Natasha Fatale was a character in the show and was voiced by June Foray. June pass away in 2017, she was 99 years old.

Natasha is a spy for the fictional country of Pottsylvania. She takes orders from the country's commander; his name was Fearless Leader. Natasha usually serves as an accomplice to fellow spy Boris Badenov who was originally voiced by Paul Frees. 

 Boris and Natsha were both modeled after two original characters, Gomez and Morticia Addams, do you remember the "Addams Family "tv show? 

The original version of this comic strip was published in 1940. Bullwinkle and Rocky were the first characters to star in a cartoon series. The series began with "Rocky and Bullwinkle," and continued with "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle," "The Bullwinkle Show" and "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show." Rocky and Bullwinkle first appeared in the comic strip "The Bull-Moose" in 1940. The first Rocky and Bullwinkle animated cartoon was aired in 1959-1962. The comic strip continued until the end of production in 1962. The original Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon series was revived in the 1990s.

BJ 🙈🙉🙊

 Who wouldn't want that futuristic talking phone watch back then. I know I played like I had one back in the early sixties. That is about the timeline Dick Tracy became an animated cartoon series, 1961. Dick Tracy could receive and transmit messages on his talking watch, now that was cool beans high tech back in 1961. Now lets do a little history on Dick Tracy that I researched. Chester Gould's first idea

for a character was a detective who worked for the Chicago police department. He then submitted this character idea to the syndicate (Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate), which suggested changing his name to Dick Tracy and creating a story where he worked for the Chicago police department. Dick Tracy was first published on October 4, 1931, and he was instantly popular. Dick Tracy would be the most popular comic strip character in the United States. In April 1937, a poll of adult comic strip readers in Fortune voted Dick Tracy their third favorite comic strip after Little Orphan Annie and Popeye. However, Dick Tracy was also attacked by some journalists as being too violent.

1946: The two-Way Wrist Radio is the first wristwatch radio. It was invented by Martin Cooper who was working at Motorola at the time. Cooper is credited with inventing the mobile phone. It was originally called the Wrist Radio and was an upgrade to the original wrist radio. In 1964, the two-Way Wrist Radio became a two-Way Wrist TV and was the first wristwatch TV. The watch was also upgraded to include a built-in camera and microphone.

Now what about the animation Cartoons: The cartoon series was made from 1961 to 1962 by United Productions Of America(UPA)it was called the "The Dick Tracy Show".

In the episodes, policeman Dick Tracy was supervisor over a few subordinate characters to fight crime each week, contacting them on his two-way wristwatch radio. Dick Tracy himself hardly ever appeared in the cartoons at all. His boss would be barking orders into a intercom to Tracy, with Tracy answering "Okay, chief, I'll get onto it right away." 

Negative Controversy: 

The Dick Tracy Show was pulled from the air in the mid-1970s and mid-1980s, some people seen it as ethnic stereotyping and was not seen for years later. This was do to characters Joe Jitsu, an Asian bucktooth character and Go Go Gomez a Latino character. Here is a cartoon short so you can see for yourself.  UPA chairman Henry Saperstein 1990 said this," it's just a cartoon, for goodness sake". Well some folks just don't get it !, maybe he would if he was Asian or Latino he might feel differently. BJ 🙈🙉🙊

 As a director at Warners, he was known for his ability to create innovative and original imagery. He did so much so quickly that he had to leave Warners to work at Disney. He was making $150 a week at Warners. At one point he had an argument with the studio manager and resigned.  

He was a Columbia Pictures executive in the 1930s. He was fired in 1941 for a heated argument with the studio executives. He then went on to found the Fox and the Crow series which was one of the better products of the studio.

Tashlin stayed with the studio during the Second World War and worked on numerous war-related short films, including the Private Snafu educational films. He stayed with the studio until his departure in late 1944 and directed some stop-motion puppet films for John Sutherland.

He was known to have made a number of films at Warner Bros. His last film, Bugs Bunny Hare Remover, is his last credit at the studio. one co-worker described him as "Here today, gone tomorrow. Now you see him, now you don't. That was TishTash, who would be working at your studio one day, and, suddenly, gone the next day. He died at age 59 from a heart attack in los Angeles..... BJ 🙈🙉🙊