MF
Milt Franklyn
Composer, Additional Credits
Born September 16, 1897Died April 24, 1962 (64 years)
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.
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.
Milt Franklyn Filmography
| 1991 | Bugs Bunny's Overtures to Disaster · as Composer |
| 1988 | |
| 1987 | The Duxorcist · as Composer |
| 1986 | The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show (TV Series) · as Composer |
| 1983 | Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island · as Composer |
| 1982 | Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales · as Composer |
| 1982 | Bugs Bunny's Mad World of Television · as Composer |
| 1981 | |
| 1980 | |
| 1979 | Bugs Bunny's Thanksgiving Diet · as Composer |
| 1979 | |
| 1979 | The Bugs Bunny Mother's Day Special · as Composer |
| 1979 | Bugs Bunny's Valentine · as Composer |
| 1978 | |
| 1978 | The Daffy Duck Show (TV Series) · as Composer |
| 1977 | Bugs Bunny's Howl-oween Special · as Composer |
| 1977 | Bugs Bunny's Easter Special · as Composer |
| 1962 | |
| 1962 | The Slick Chick · as Composer |
| 1962 | Zoom at the Top · as Composer |
| 1962 | Bill of Hare · as Original Music Composer |
| 1962 | Quackodile Tears · as Original Music Composer |
| 1962 | Fish and Slips · as Composer |
| 1962 | |
| 1962 | |
| 1961 | The Last Hungry Cat · as Original Music Composer |
| 1961 | |
| 1961 | Daffy's Inn Trouble · as Composer |
| 1961 | |
| 1961 | Compressed Hare · as Original Music Composer |
| 1961 | |
| 1961 | Strangled Eggs · as Original Music Composer |
| 1961 | Zip 'N Snort · as Original Music Composer |
| 1960 | |
| 1960 | |
| 1960 | Trip for Tat · as Original Music Composer |
| 1960 | The Bugs Bunny Show (TV Series) · as Composer |
| 1960 | Hopalong Casualty · as Original Music Composer |
| 1960 | From Hare to Heir · as Original Music Composer |
| 1960 | Ready, Woolen and Able · as Original Music Composer |
| 1960 | Mouse and Garden · as Original Music Composer |
| 1960 | Hyde and Go Tweet · as Original Music Composer |
| 1960 | Goldimouse and the Three Cats · as Original Music Composer |
| 1960 | Horse Hare · as Original Music Composer |
| 1959 | Tweet Dreams · as Composer |
| 1959 | Unnatural History · as Composer |
| 1959 | |
| 1959 | |
| 1959 | |
| 1959 | Here Today, Gone Tamale · as Composer |
| 1959 | |
| 1959 | Wild and Woolly Hare · as Original Music Composer |
| 1959 | |
| 1959 | Hot-Rod and Reel! · as Composer |
| 1959 | |
| 1959 | The Mouse That Jack Built · as Original Music Composer |
| 1959 | Hare-Abian Nights · as Composer |
| 1959 | |
| 1959 | |
| 1958 | Cat Feud · as Original Music Composer |
| 1958 | |
| 1958 | Dog Tales · as Composer |
| 1958 | Whoa, Be-Gone! · as Original Music Composer |
| 1958 | |
| 1958 | |
| 1958 | |
| 1958 | Don't Axe Me · as Composer |
| 1957 | |
| 1957 | |
| 1957 | Touché and Go · as Original Music Composer |
| 1957 | Zoom and Bored · as Original Music Composer |
| 1957 | Bugsy and Mugsy · as Composer |
| 1957 | Ducking the Devil · as Original Music Composer |
| 1957 | Birds Anonymous · as Original Music Composer |
| 1957 | |
| 1957 | Boston Quackie · as Original Music Composer |
| 1957 | |
| 1957 | Boyhood Daze · as Original Music Composer |
| 1957 | Bedevilled Rabbit · as Original Music Composer |
| 1957 | |
| 1957 | |
| 1957 | Scrambled Aches · as Original Music Composer |
| 1957 | Tweet Zoo · as Composer |
| 1956 | |
| 1956 | 90 Day Wondering · as Original Music Composer |
| 1956 | |
| 1956 | |
| 1956 | |
| 1956 | Tree Cornered Tweety · as Composer |
| 1956 | Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z · as Original Music Composer |
| 1956 | |
| 1956 | |
| 1956 | Broom-Stick Bunny · as Original Music Composer |
| 1956 | |
| 1955 | One Froggy Evening · as Original Music Composer |
| 1955 | |
| 1955 | This Is a Life? · as Composer |
| 1955 | Lumber Jerks · as Original Music Composer |
| 1955 | Past Perfumance · as Composer |
| 1955 | Hare Brush · as Composer |
| 1955 | |
| 1955 | Lighthouse Mouse · as Original Music Composer |
| 1954 | Baby Buggy Bunny · as Original Music Composer |
| 1954 | |
| 1954 | Devil May Hare · as Original Music Composer |
| 1954 | Bugs and Thugs · as Original Music Composer |
| 1951 | |
| 1947 |
| 1957 | Rabbit Romeo · as Music Editor |
| 1957 | What's Opera, Doc? · as Music Arranger |
| 1956 | Deduce, You Say · as Music Director |
| 1956 | Too Hop to Handle · as Music Director |
| 1955 | Roman Legion-Hare · as Music Director |
| 1955 | Red Riding Hoodwinked · as Music Director |
| 1955 | Knight-Mare Hare · as Music Director |
| 1955 | Double or Mutton · as Music Director |
| 1955 | Rabbit Rampage · as Music Director |
| 1955 | Tweety's Circus · as Music Director |
| 1955 | Sahara Hare · as Music Director |
| 1955 | Pests for Guests · as Music Director |
| 1954 | Claws for Alarm · as Orchestrator |
| 1954 | Dr. Jerkyl's Hide · as Orchestrator |
| 1953 | A Street Cat Named Sylvester · as Orchestrator |
| 1953 | Much Ado About Nutting · as Orchestrator |
| 1953 | Duck Amuck · as Orchestrator |
| 1953 | Forward March Hare · as Orchestrator |
| 1952 | Water, Water Every Hare · as Orchestrator |
| 1951 | Lovelorn Leghorn · as Orchestrator |
| 1951 | French Rarebit · as Orchestrator |
| 1951 | Rabbit Every Monday · as Orchestrator |
| 1950 | Rabbit of Seville · as Orchestrator |
| 1950 | Big House Bunny · as Orchestrator |
| 1949 | Long-Haired Hare · as Orchestrator |
| 1949 | High Diving Hare · as Orchestrator |
| 1946 | Daffy Doodles · as Orchestrator |
| 1946 | Baseball Bugs · as Orchestrator |
| 1943 | Hiss and Make Up · as Orchestrator |
| 1943 | To Duck... or Not to Duck · as Orchestrator |
| 1943 | Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs · as Orchestrator |
| 1942 | Daffy's Southern Exposure · as Orchestrator |
| 1941 | Wabbit Twouble · as Orchestrator |
| 1941 | The Henpecked Duck · as Orchestrator |
| 1941 | Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt · as Orchestrator |
| 1939 | Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur · as Orchestrator |
| 1937 | Picador Porky · as Orchestrator |
| 1936 | Milk and Money · as Orchestrator |