Does it seem as if there is a national day for everything? It does and there is. Just ask the folks at National Day Calendar. Visit them on Facebook at NationalDayCalendar. Bugs is a national icon well deserving of his own day.
April 30 is National Bugs Bunny Day. It commemorates the first appearance of the prototypical wisecracking cartoon rabbit that came to be called Bugs Bunny. This debut came in a short film named Porky’s Hare Hunt. This short as they were known back then was released on April 30, 1938.
It took several years for illustrators to refine Bugs’ appearance to what we recognize today. But from the beginning he had the same hell-be-damned attitude that 3 generations of movie goers and TV viewers would laugh at.
My first encounter with Bugs was when I was a small child and I locked on to a TV show that featured Warner Brothers cartoons. My next significant encounter with Bugs happened after my children were born. They were trying to find something to watch on cable TV and I joined them and found a cartoon show playing Warner Brothers’ Looney Tunes cartoons including Bugs Bunny. There are worst things on cable TV.
The first voice of Bugs was actor Mel Blanc, who voiced Bugs for a half-century.
Bugs is the second cartoon character on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, following the legendary Disney staple, Mickey Mouse.
Along with his nation, Bugs went to combat in the Second World War. Two of his films were eventually pulled from circulation after the war as political and cultural sensitivities changed. They were Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips and Herr Meets the Hare.
Bugs was an honorary Marine Corp Master Sergeant in that war. The ears were a novel touch but the defiant attitude was the same. He could have been facing off against Porky Pig or an enemy sniper. Let me see what you got.