filmica.

Milt Franklyn

Milt Franklyn

Sound
1897(USA)-1962
Milton J. "Milt" Franklyn (September 16, 1897 – April 24, 1962) was a musical composer and arranger who worked on the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes animated cartoons. Franklyn moved from New York to Salt Lake City at the age of three, where he went to high school and finished one year at the University of Utah. He was the state junior tennis champion in Utah for six years. The next two years were spent at the University of California, Berkeley, then he began a term at Pennsylvania University when he was called to service in World War One. Franklyn did not serve overseas; he trained as a naval officer for three months and then the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918. He returned to Berkeley to finish his education. As Franklyn could play a number of instruments, he joined a band in San Francisco and for the next few years played at the Palace and St. Francis hotels. He began his own nine-piece orchestra, known at various times as the Peninsula Band, the Super Soloists, and the Merrimakers, and appeared in San Mateo (1926 to June 1927), where he also owned a music store, and San Jose (1928 to January 1929), where he was Master of Ceremonies and wrote revues for the California Theatre before moving on to Fresno and Oakland. For two years he was emcee with Fanchon and Marco at Fox West Coast in San Diego; musical director and emcee with Paramount Publix Corporation, travelling to Seattle, Denver, Houston and Toledo; and finally worked on the Loew's circuit in Providence, Rhode Island and New York City from 1933 to 1935. Franklyn quit vaudeville to go to Hollywood in 1935 and spent a year doing occasional work. In early 1936, he joined Warner Bros. as music arranger to Carl Stalling, becoming music director in 1953. The first cartoon with Franklyn credited as a composer was Bugs and Thugs, released in 1954, though Franklyn estimated at the time his 599th cartoon for Warners was Past Perfumance. Franklyn always composed his scores at home early in the morning; he only went to the studio to watch the 30-piece Warner Bros. Orchestra record the music or to view the finished cartoon. Among the songs Franklyn is said to have composed with director Chuck Jones and writer Michael Maltese is The Michigan Rag for the 1955 cartoon One Froggy Evening, featuring Michigan J. Frog. However, the ASCAP database lists only Maltese as the composer. He became the sole composer in 1958 upon Stalling's retirement. Franklyn died of a heart attack on April 24, 1962. At the time of his death, Franklyn was composing the score for a Tweety cartoon, The Jet Cage. The first two minutes of the cartoon were scored by Franklyn, the rest by William Lava, who had been working on the Warner Bros. main lot and replaced him as musical director. The Jet Cage opening credits lists Franklyn and not Lava, while the ASCAP database credits Franklyn with composing the opening title, with no mention of Lava, but a change in composing style in the cartoon is noticeable. Franklyn joined ASCAP in 1954 and was a member of the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. After his death, Franklyn's music also appeared in Bugs Bunny on Broadway.

Participates in

  • What's Opera, Doc?
  • The Rebel Without Claws
  • Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs
  • One Froggy Evening
  • 90 Day Wondering
  • Bedevilled Rabbit
  • Bill of Hare
  • Broom-Stick Bunny
  • Boyhood Daze
  • Devil May Hare
  • Ducking the Devil
  • The Abominable Snow Rabbit
  • The Wearing of the Grin
  • Baby Buggy Bunny
  • Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z
  • Lumber Jerks
  • Show Biz Bugs
  • Steal Wool
  • The Last Hungry Cat
  • Rocket Squad
  • The Mouse That Jack Built
  • The Honey-Mousers
  • Birds Anonymous
  • Baton Bunny
  • Bugs' Bonnets
  • Ali Baba Bunny
  • To Hare Is Human
  • Cat Feud
  • Knighty Knight Bugs
  • Easter Yeggs
  • A Witch's Tangled Hare
  • Bugs and Thugs
  • Zoom and Bored
  • Scrambled Aches
  • Whoa, Be-Gone!
  • Heaven Scent
  • Heir-Conditioned
  • Go Fly a Kit
  • Hare-Less Wolf
  • Wet Hare
  • Rabbit Romeo
  • By Word of Mouse
  • Gonzales' Tamales
  • Pizzicato Pussycat
  • Tugboat Granny
  • Nelly's Folly
  • Quackodile Tears
  • Tabasco Road
  • Mexicali Shmoes
  • My Little Duckaroo
  • Rocket-bye Baby
  • The Hole Idea
  • Mexican Boarders
  • The Pied Piper of Guadalupe
  • Tortilla Flaps
  • Tweety and the Beanstalk
  • Yankee Dood It
  • A Star Is Bored
  • Much Ado About Nutting
  • Bugs Bunny's Lunar Tunes
  • Milk and Money
  • Knight-Mare Hare
  • Robin Hood Daffy
  • Honey's Money
  • Pests for Guests
  • Rabbitson Crusoe
  • Boston Quackie
  • I Taw a Putty Tat
  • Rabbit Rampage
  • The Jet Cage
  • Beep Prepared
  • Mother Was a Rooster
  • Dr. Jerkyl's Hide
  • Apes of Wrath
  • Wild and Woolly Hare
  • Bugs Bunny at the Symphony
  • Weasel Stop
  • Weasel Stop
  • Weasel Stop
  • Daffy Doodles
  • To Duck.... Or Not to Duck
  • Aviation Vacation
  • A Street Cat Named Sylvester
  • Roughly Squeaking
  • The Cats Bah
  • Little Beau Pepé
  • Hiss and Make Up
  • Louvre Come Back to Me!
  • Greetings Bait
  • Dangerous Dan McFoo
  • Daffy's Southern Exposure
  • Fighting Tools
  • Fastest with the Mostest
  • Horse Hare
  • Goldimouse and the Three Cats
  • Person to Bunny
  • Who Scent You?
  • Hyde and Go Tweet
  • Wild Wild World
  • West of the Pesos
  • Mouse and Garden
  • Rabbit's Feat
  • From Hare to Heir
  • Crockett-Doodle-Do
  • Ready, Woolen and Able
  • Mice Follies
  • The Dixie Fryer
  • Hopalong Casualty
  • Trip for Tat
  • Dog Gone People
  • Zip 'n Snort
  • Hoppy Daze
  • Strangled Eggs
  • Birds of a Father
  • D' Fightin' Ones
  • Cannery Woe
  • The Mouse on 57th Street
  • Bonanza Bunny
  • French Rarebit
  • Duck Amuck
  • Stork Naked
  • High Note
  • Claws for Alarm
  • Water, Water Every Hare
  • Too Hop to Handle
  • Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt
  • Meet John Doughboy
  • People Are Bunny
  • The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie
  • Roman Legion-Hare
  • Hare-Way to the Stars
  • Two Scent's Worth
  • How Bugs Bunny Won the West
  • Daffy Duck's Quackbusters
  • Deduce, You Say
  • A Scent of the Matterhorn
  • Cat's Paw
  • Dime to Retire
  • A Kiddies Kitty
  • Lighter Than Hare
  • Zip Zip Hooray!
  • A Broken Leghorn
  • Tweety's Circus
  • Forward March Hare
  • Bugs Bunny's Creature Features
  • Adventures of the Road-Runner
  • Have You Got Any Castles?
  • Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur
  • Big House Bunny
  • Baseball Bugs
  • The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie
  • Daffy Duck's Thanks-for-Giving Special
  • High Diving Hare
  • Rabbit of Seville
  • Wabbit Twouble
  • Mouse-Placed Kitten
  • Crows' Feat
  • Prince Violent
  • Compressed Hare
  • Long-Haired Hare
  • The Henpecked Duck
  • Picador Porky
  • Rabbit Every Monday
  • Fowl Weather
  • Bell Hoppy
  • Leghorn Swoggled
  • Lovelorn Leghorn
  • Mouse-Warming
  • Sheep Ahoy
  • Sahara Hare
  • Double or Mutton
  • Red Riding Hoodwinked
  • Wild About Hurry
  • A Sheep in the Deep
  • China Jones