Duck Dodgers

Chuck Jones's Letters to His Daughter, Linda #4

Friday, October 3, 1952Good morning, my darling!

We put the finishung touches on “Duck Dodgers in the 24 ½th Century”

yesterday, saw it complete with music, sound, color—the works, in

short.  It’s a parody on the “Space Cadet”, “Captain Video”, type

television show, but the funny thing is, it came out not only quite

funny, but exciting, too.  The backgrounds were beautiful and very 24 ½

th cen-tury-ish.  Try to say 24 ½ th century.  It’s very difficult, is

it “twenty-fourth and a half” or “twenty-four and a halfth”?

There’s a nice word in the first sentence up there:  “Fin-ishung”,

sounds like a Chinese fabric.  SPECIAL TODAY!!  GENUINE FINISHUNG,

Imported from Lontung, China!!  $2.34 a yard!!  Don’t be pitied by your

neighbors!  You, too, can be dressed in fashionable, easy-to-clean

FINISHUNG!!

My diet ends tomorrow.  I have lost ten and one half pounds and look

quite stylish.  [We are going to a] dinner party tomorrow night and I

presume the food will be quite fancy.  I hope I have the good sense to

take it easy as my stomach has become used to what are genially called

“bland” foods.  You know, Linda, I really haven’t minded it.  I’ve

gotten to appreciate the rabbit’s point of view: green vegetables are

really delicious, especially raw.

I hear the Le Conte [Jr. High School] bugle tootling away behind me

(I’m at the studio pretty early, hm?)  and all the activity of the

schoolyard pauses for a moment. I look out occasionally, surprised to

realize that none of you kids are still there.  From a distance the

children look pretty much alike.  I became aware, only while you

attended Le Conte [Junior High School], that they were not the same

children year after year.  It is quite conceivable that there are

children of children attending school this year.  It will be twenty

years next March that I have worked on this lot.  It is hard to think

of myself as sixteen, having worked here that long, it means I started

four years before I was born.

I wrote to [my sister] Dottie on her birthday, Sept. 27th, and got a

lovely letter back.  She sends her love and highest regards to you.  A

very, very fine person, mother, and sister.

I’m sending a myriad of kisses this morning because I have always wanted to use that word and because it means innumerable.

Love lOve loVe lovE LOVE! …….

s/Chuck (thy sire)