"Oh, You Thing from Another World, You": How Warner Bros. Animators Responded to the Cold War (1948-1980)

Birdwell | "Oh, You Thing from Another World, You": How Warner Bros. Animators Responded to the Cold War "Oh, You Thing from Another World, You77: How Warner Bros. Animators Responded to the Cold War (1948-1980) Michael E. Birdwell Events on the world stage unfolded with such dizzying rapidity between 1945 and 1948 that few people could make sense of them. After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki hastened the end of World War II, the harsh reality of an unstable peace quickly became apparent. One crisis followed on the heels of another leading to a series ofmeasures and countermeasures from the Soviet occupation of Poland and the demand for a zone ofbuffer states to the Berlin Blockade and Airlift. Such terrifying events led to Draconian measures at home with the announcement of NSC-68 and Truman's insistence upon loyalty oaths which opened the door for new investigations of domestic subversion, spearheaded by the House Committee on UnAmericanActivities (HUAC). Hollywood found itself dragged into the spotlight as Cold War hysteria settled in for the long chill. Amidst this increasingly hostile environment , Warner Bros, animators, under the leadership of Charles M. "Chuck" Jones, launched their own, albeit mild, counter attack when they introduced Marvin the Martian in 1948, several years before The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Fail Safe (1964), Seven Days in May (1964) Dr. "Warner Bros. MarvinMartian provided Strangelove (1964), or Boris and Natasha, the Russian spies in the Rocky andBullwinkle cartoons ofthe late 1950s and early 1960s.1 Created by veteran animation director Chuck Jones, Marvin is a denizen of the red planet, who wears a red shirt and sports a green helmet reminiscent of the expansionist Roman Empire.2 A faceless creature from Mars, Marvin reflected the perceptions ofthe Soviet Union many Americans held, that it was a country bent on global domination. Marvin wants more. A sneaky villain who zooms into the mise-en-scene by surprise, he subversive crticism of U.S Soviet relations in the guise of harmless cartoon entertainment. wears sneakers festooned with red circles on the ankles. His helmet and Roman skirt are green, representing the envy he has of other planets who would compete with Mars. Armed with weapons of incredible destruction and a will to use them, he is bent on conquering the galaxy, at any cost no matter how inhospitable a planet may be. According to Chuck Jones, Marvin had a mythic dimension for he represented a miniature version of "theRoman god ofwar. . . Then Ifigured , black ants are scary, so I put a black-ant face and a couple of angry eyes in his helmet" (Chuck Reducks 235-236). Between 1948 and 1980 Warner Bros, produced seven cartoons featuring this faceless and lethal enemy. They includedHaredevil Hare (1948), Hasty Hare (1952), DuckDodgers in the 24th and1Ii Century (1953), Hareway to the Stars (1958), Mad as a Mars Hare (1963), Duck Dodgers and the Return ofthe 24th and V2 Century (1980) and Spaced Out Bunny (1980). All of these cartoons appeared at crucial junctures during the Cold War, and all but two ended with massive destruction of planetary bodies for no good reason. The Marvin Martian cartoons used humor to criticize the Cold War developed by the U.S. and the Soviet Union, including brinkmanship (which promised mutually assured destruction ofthe world as we know it), the space race, the perceived missile gap crisis, and seemingly capricious desire for more territory to assert one's ideology upon. "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist party?" J. Parnell Thomas asked witness after witness duringHUACs investigation ofHollywood.3 Stars and lesser known personalities either cooperated with the committee and named more names or denounced HUAC as an indignity to 34 1 Film & History Birdwell | Special In-Depth Section America's sacred ideals. Those who opted for the latter found themselves blacklisted, and in the case of the Hollywood Ten, imprisoned. Some Hollywood personnel, such as Warner Bros, screenwriter Howard Koch, known for his work on Casablanca andMission toMoscow, were offered up as the studio's sacrificial lambs.4 Warner Bros, participated in the blacklist and studio chief JackWarner testified as a friendly witness twice. He added to the...