- Was the inspiration for Daffy Duck's lisp.
- Withdrew his cartoons from Academy Award consideration in 1938 as a protest for perceived preferential treatment afforded to Walt Disney.
- Left an estate worth $904,700.00
- From its creation in August, 1931 through the end of the decade, Schlesinger's 'Merrie Melodies' (the second series created after Looney Tunes in May, 1930) were contractually obligated to contain at least one song out of the Warner Brothers licensed catalog. This requirement often resulted in the story lines being stopped dead in their tracks; his unit directors hated this requirement.
- As bad as Schlesinger could be to work for, his replacement, ex-Warner Bros. publicity director Edward Selzer, was worse. Schlesinger simply ignored the creative process, while Selzer was annoyed by it. Chuck Jones recalled Selzer admonishing his directors laughing in a hallway saying, 'and just what the hell does all this laughter got to do with making animated cartoons?'
- Schlesinger was notorious for being an tightfisted producer. For instance, the studio he arranged for his creative staff was so substandard that they nicknamed it, "Termite Terrace." In addition, the main reason Mel Blanc received exclusive credit as the films' voice actor was that it was a compromise that Schlesinger agreed to so he did not have to pay Blanc more money to perform for him.
- He has produced one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Porky in Wackyland (1938).
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content