July 05, 1941 –
The Merrie Melodies short, The Heckling Hare, directed by Tex Avery and starring Bugs Bunny, was released on this date.
This is the cartoon that led to Tex Avery leaving Warner Brothers. The final gag of this cartoon originally had Bugs and Willoughby (the dog) fall off an extremely steep cliff, with Bugs telling the audience, “Hold on to your hats, folks. Here we go again!” Producer Leon Schlesinger didn’t like the ending and cut it. According to Avery, Schlesinger thought the ending lines were too similar to the punchline of a then-popular dirty joke and therefore too risqué to be in a cartoon, and that the audience would believe there was a connection between the fall and the punchline. Avery was enraged and walked out of the studio. He was promptly suspended, and when MGM heard about it, animation producer Fred Quimby quickly hired him.
The Haus of Dcaligari 