Originally Posted by indyfabz

OK. If you are a fan of earlier Looney Tunes stuff you may recognize the name Leon Schlesinger from credits. He was a producer who founded what later became Warner Brothers Cartoon Studios. Jones started out as animator. He described how he and his fellow workers labored in horrible conditions (e.g., dark, dank studios) cranking out 6 min. animated shorts to be shown before films. He also said Schlesinger was a real ass who treated them with a total lack of respect.

Leon had somewhat of a lisp. So when Daffy was being created, the animators went to Mel Blanc (I am going to assume you know who he is.) looking for a voice for this new character. They asked him if he could do Schlesinger and his lisp as a screwball duck. When the first short was ready, Schlesinger entered the screening room, sat down and said, as he often did, "Roll the junk." They all expected to be fired on the spot. Just the opposite. After watching the piece Schlesinger told them he really loved the character's voice and asked how they had come up with it. He never knew they were mocking him.

I forget the story as to how, but my stepbrother, who later went on to own a video production company, somehow became acquainted with Mel Blanc. Blanc was nice enough to record personalized answering machine greetings for him; one in the voice of Bugs and the other in the voice of Porky Pig. Pretty cool to hear.