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Calvin Moore Dalton (December 2, 1908 – June 9, 1974) was an Americananimator anddirector atWarner Bros. Cartoons.
Dalton's first commercial animation work was in 1930 at the ill-fatedRomer Grey Studios.[1] He later worked on an animated short version ofThe Wizard of Oz that was produced byTed Eshbaugh's independent animation studio in 1933.[2] Afterwards, Dalton left to work atLeon Schlesinger Productions, with his first project being 1934'sViva Buddy. All together, Dalton worked on 33 Warner Bros. cartoons as part of their animation department. In 1937, he animated on theBob Clampett directed segment forWhen's Your Birthday?.[2]
In 1938, followingFriz Freleng's departure, Dalton was promoted to director; for unknown reasons, he was never allowed to be sole director, and shared his duties initially withCal Howard, and thenBen Hardaway. Dalton later admitted feeling aggrieved about the fact that while he was meant to be nominally in charge of Freleng's former unit, he tended to be overshadowed by the presence of the more experienced Hardaway.
Cal Dalton's major contribution to the legacy of Warner Bros. animation was having co-directedHare-um Scare-um in 1939 with Hardaway. The short featured a gray and whiterabbit that served as the prototype forBugs Bunny.[3] Dalton directed or co-directed a total of 17 Warner Bros. cartoons from 1938 through 1940. He spent the rest of his years at Warner Bros. doing strictly animation work before leaving the studio in 1947. Dalton's last project wasThe Goofy Gophers (1947), which was the first cartoon to feature those characters. He also did some uncredited animation in theDaffy Duck cartoon calledMexican Joyride (1947).
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