Yosemite Sam

MEDIUM: Original Production Model Drawing
PRODUCTION: Hare Trimmed, 1953
IMAGE SIZE: 9.5" x 12"
SKU: CCV2617

ABOUT THE IMAGE: This polished final animation drawing of Yosemite Sam was created by Warner Bros. Studio animator Virgil Ross and his assistant (probably Warren Batchelder) in production of the Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, and a cel painting was made directly from it.

Yosemite Sam is intent on marrying Granny, the local widow who has inherited "50 million dollars," and shows up at her front door decked out in his Sunday-best. wide-eyed and bearing candy and flowers. With romance (or, perhaps more accurately, money) on his mind he sweet-talks Granny: "I want you, baby...your eyes, your lips. Come with me to the 'cashbah.' We'll make beautiful music together." In a funny series of gags Bugs Bunny, a self-declared Boy Scout, does his good deed and protects Granny from Sam, eventually disguising himself as Granny and "eloping" with the fortune-hunter.

ABOUT THE ARTIST: Famed animator Virgil Ross supervised the animation of this scene, and the extensive red pencil under-drawing is his work. The animator wrote the studio designation “S-21” at lower right to indicate this original's place in the scene and Sam's words of dialogue—"baby"— above the drawing.