Looney Tunes logos

This is a list of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies logos that differ from year to year.

1930-35 Opening Logos

The earliest logos start with the "Warner Bros. Pictures Inc." logo on top, then in small letters, "& The Vitaphone Corp" below. The small WB shield lies below, then in the middle, the word "Present" appears. Behind is a flag divided into three sections, "Warner Bros.", "Vitaphone" and "Pictures", from left to right. Below is the copyright information with "Passed by the National Board of Review" on the bottom. The NBOR info was removed in 1933. A variation of this logo with "Warner Bros." on top and "Productions Corporation" in small letters below was introduced in 1934-35.

1930-35 LT & MM Logos

After those titles, the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies title appears, with the following information:

• Leon Schlesinger, Producer; or Produced by Leon Schlesinger
• A Hugh Harman - Rudolf Ising Production. Shown until 1933, when Bosko was moved to MGM.
• The 4-digit production number below.

Usually, characters of each picture would be shown in these titles, until 1933 for Merrie Melodies, and 1944 for Looney Tunes.

The Rings and Zooming Shield

The Merrie Melody, I Wanna Play House, introduced the concentric rings in 1936. Earlier, in 1934, Merrie Melodies switched to color. Looney Tunes remained completely in black and white until 1942-43. The new WB shield didn't appear until a cartoon or two later. The rings were blue until mid-1937. Looney Tunes didn't adopt the rings until 1942-43, when those cartoons switched to color. The color of the rings changed every year after that. The shield was red from 1938-39 until the series' run ended in the 1960's.

The year that the rings were introduced, the zooming shield was introduced. The following information appears in those titles in order:

• The rings FADE in
• The large shield zooms in from center
• The words "Vitaphone Presents" and the copyright data with "The Vitaphone Corp" fade in: "Vitaphone" above shield, "Presents" in cursive below, and copyright data on bottom
• In mid-1937, the production number moved to the first title from the second title.

In 1939, the words "Warner Bros." began to appear in Vitaphone's place. At first the words were on a scroll, then next season, the scroll was omitted. "Presents" changed to just "Present" when that happened.

1935-45 Looney Tunes Logos

The following appeared on those logos over the years:

• 1935-36: From top-left corner, in clockwise order, Beans, Kitty, Porky Pig and Oliver Owl appeared. The shield zoomed in from the center of a porthole in the zooming shield logo.

The porthole is a variation of the rings.

• 1936-37: Until the 1938-39 season, the titles were on a gray background with MusicAL notes scattered around. Fat Porky Pig's head appears in center, "Looney Tunes" curved on top, and "Produced by Leon Schlesinger" and production number on bottom.
• 1937-38: Porky Pig FACES left and is placed slightly right from the center. "Looney Tunes", not curved, appears on top; "Produced by Leon Schlesinger" appears on bottom. There was no production number, as it was, from here until production ends, placed in the title before that title.
• 1938-39: Porky Pig appears like last season, except that he faces right, is correctly centered, and "Looney Tunes" is curved on top.
• 1939-40: The background changed; instead of the musical notes being scattered, many small musical notes form rings. Those were the earliest LT rings until the newer, current rings appeared in 1942. Porky Pig faced left while holding a hat. The words "Looney Tunes", now in its current style from that time until today, appear curved on top. "Produced by Leon Schlesinger" appeared on the bottom.
• 1940-41: Porky appeared like how he just popped out of the drum, just as how he does it in the ending titles from 1937 until 1945. The "LT" and production information appears as usual.
• 1941-42: Porky appears lying on top of a fence. The "LT" and production information appears below him on the fence.
• 1942-43, 1943-44: Looney Tunes adopt the newer, current rings. Those rings will always be Thicker than the Merrie Melodies rings. Porky's head appears on center and Daffy Duck's head and arms are beside him. The "LT" and production information appears as usual, with "In Technicolor" on bottom in color cartoons.
• 1944-45: Same as last two seasons, except that the background is blue. One notable cartoon with these titles is Tom Turk and Daffy.

1945-53 Titles

When Leon Schlesinger retired in 1944, "Produced By Leon Schlesinger" changed to "Produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc." for a few cartoons, then to just "A Warner Bros. Cartoon". The length of time for the titles to appear was shortened by a few seconds from now on. No character will appear on titles from then on except for Bugs Bunny (and sometimes Daffy Duck and Porky Pig in a few cartoons). The shield was somewhat smaller from the mid-1940's to 50's. In the 1945-46 season, "Pictures, Inc." was added to the "Warner Bros." legend, so the top will say "Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc." for the rest of the series production.

The following appeared in those titles in order:

• Rings and copyright information fade in
• Shield zooms in

1953-64 Titles

The rings and shield appear smaller from that time period. The music from the last time period played in these titles until 1955, when the newer version of that music played. After 1960, "The Vitaphone Corp." in the copyright information changed to "Warner Bros. Pictures. Inc." The closing titles bore the additional legend "A Vitaphone (or Vitagraph) Release".

Ending Titles

From 1930 to 1933, Bosko appears from behind, and stands in front of, a fence that says "A Looney Tune." Then he says "That's all folks!", while a dog next to him barks and jumps up and down. Merrie Melodies did a similar thing with a drum instead of a fence that says "A Merrie Melody". The main character of each cartoon appears from behind it, stands next to it with left arm stretched toward it, and says "So long, folks!" Under all those titles, "A Hugh Harman - Rudolf Ising Cartoon" appears. Until mid-1932, the line "Licensed under BRAY-HURD Patents" appears over that line.

From 1933-35, the background setting is a curtain. The infamous character, Buddy (for 1933-35 Looney Tunes), and various charaters (for Merrie Melodies) is shown on the right of the screen with hand pointing to the LT or MM logo on left of screen. Below are the lines "Produced by Leon Schlesinger", and "Distributed by Warner Bros. Productions Corp." In 1935, Beans the Cat takes Buddy's role, and a jester appears in all color cartoons with this end title. The time for these titles to occur were a second or three shorter than the last end titles, and no music played over these titles.

The Famous write-in appearance of the "That's all Folks!" logo appeared a year later, at the same time the concentric rings were introduced.

For Looney Tunes from 1935-37, these lines appear in order, in a plain black background:

• "That's all Folks!" writes itself in. Version one had the exclamation point appear outside the quotation marks ("That's all Folks"!). Version two doesn't capitalize the word "Folks" ("That's all folks!").
• Above, the words "Looney Tunes", in capital letters, wipes itself in: bottom to top in version 1; left to right in version two.
• Below and to the right of the "That's all Folks!" line, the words "Produced by Leon Schlesinger" appears.
• At the same time, at the bottom, the words "Released by Warner Bros. Productions Corp." appears.

1935-37 Merrie Melodies ending titles are similar to those titles, except that the background is the usual rings, the word "Distributed" replaces "Released" and in the bottom, the line "In Technicolor" appears glued to the middle-most ring. In 1937, the "In Technicolor" line was omitted, and the word "Released" replaces "Distributed". These titles appeared until 1944.

In mid-1937, Porky appears in one of the most famous Looney Tunes end titles. You see a drum, with the words "Looney Tunes" on top, and "Produced by Leon Schlesinger" glued to it, in front of a decorated curtain. Porky POPS out of the drum and says "T-Th-T-T-That's all Folks!" Variations appeared from time to time in order: Porky's eyes got smaller, and face less pudgier, making him cuter, starting in late 1939 or early 1940. In 1942, for color cartoons, the drum is, from now on, in a plain red background. When Schlesinger left the studio, the production credit changed to "A Warner Bros. Cartoon", and the "Released By..." line was omitted. Some 1945 cartoons even have Bugs Bunny taking Porky's place (Baseball Bugs is an example)! Production of this end title appeared until 1945.

From 1944 to 1964, the lines "That's all Folks!", "Looney Tunes" or "Merrie Melodies", and "A Warner Bros. Cartoon" appeared. After 1960, the line "A Vitaphone Release" (for MM), or "A Vitagraph Release" (for LT), appeared below the third line.

Variations

• From 1931-33, different characters of certain cartoons appeared on the opening and closing titles.
• Unique color titles appear on the first two Merrie Melodies cartoons, Beauty and the Beast, and Honeymoon Hotel. Both cartoons were in Cinecolor.
• Some 1939-40 titles have clouds in the background, and some do not. One cartoon with clouds in its titles is Elmer's Candid Camera.
• From 1935-1938, the titles and credits of some cartoons appear on the backgrounds of the opening titles.
• 1940 introduced Bugs Bunny reclining on top of the Warner Bros. Shield. Then he pulls the Merrie Melodies logo down like a windowshade. The first version lasted in 1941, then from 1945-48.
• The second version of the reclining Bugs Bunny logo shows him chewing on his carrot and winking; crossfade into MM logo. This version lasted from 1941-45.
• Another Bugs Bunny variation included the WB shield fading into his head. Lasted from 1944, 1948-64.
• The Cat's Tale, Joe Glow the Firefly, and This is a Life? used special music for these cartoons only.
• Special titles were used for the only 3-D Warner Bros. cartoon, Lumber Jack-Rabbit. The shield zoomed in much farther than usual before retreating back to its usual position. The closing "That's all Folks!" appeared in a line instead of being written out.
• Some Looney Tunes used the Merrie Melodies rings. Some are from the 1945-46 season, and the 1955 cartoon Ready, Set, Zoom! accidentally used the MM rings.
• The opening title from the cartoon Deduce, You Say was used for 1967 reissued colorized Looney Tunes.
• Some Blue Ribbon cartoons reissued in 1952-53, and the cartoon Old Glory used the words "The End" instead of the usual That's all Folks! logo.
• A couple of cartoons, Two Crows for Tacos and Nelly's Folly, used different end titles. Nelly's Folly, from 1961, didn't have "That's all Folks!" on the end title. The ending credits from that cartoon were on a plain black background.

References

• Toon Zone - Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies: The Early Years, a defunct website that includes a page for all the opening and closing titles from 1930-43.
• Warner Bros. Cartoons Filmography and Title Card Gallery, a website that includes a list of all cartoons produced by Warner Bros., and a guide to the concentric rings of each opening title.