Dear Kid,
If you had been around in 1940 (you weren’t) and if you’d been paying attention (you probably would have been looking in the other direction), you might have been aware that there was a new cartoon. If you’d been time traveling, you might have understood the implications of a buck-tooth bunny. Otherwise, you might not have immediately grasped the implications.
Bugs Bunny first appeared in his own short (A Wild Hare) on July 27, 1940 (which makes him older than you), and he shot to stardom like a cartoon character jumping on an Acme Products trampoline.
FACT: Mickey and Bugs were the first cartoon characters to have stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Bugs is a US Marine. (Hard to imagine him with Gibbs.) In 1943 Bugs wore a Marines uniform in the movie Super Rabbit (one of the Private Snafu instructional cartoons) and the USMC decided to make him an honorary private. Then he was promoted. And then promoted again! Rinse and repeat until Bugs was a Master Sergeant. [Extra points if you know what Snafu stands for.)
FACT: Bugs Bunny was the first cartoon character to appear on postage stamp.
Mel Blanc provided the first voice for Bugsy and it was originally supposed to sound more like Daffy Duck, but Mel went in a different direction. Also, he actually chewed on a carrot while he voiced the carrot-chomping parts (and then he spit the chewed up carrot pieces out so he could go on recording).
Love, Mom
SNAFU stands for Situation Normal All Fouled Up.
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