C Archives — Page 20 of 43 — The Cartoon Databank

Chilly Willy was a penguin who starred in a series of self-titled theatrical shorts from 1953 to 1972. He was arguably Walter Lantz Productions second most popular character, behind Woody Woodpecker. In 1957, Chilly Willy made a successful transition to the small screen when his theatrical shorts aired alongside other Walter Lantz cartoons on The Woody Woodpecker Show.

A penguin has two main concerns, staying warm and finding food. Chilly Willy spent a great deal of time attempting to do both. He may have looked cute and innocent, but woe to the poor soul who stood in the way of his finding either, because Chilly was nothing if not persistent.

One of Chilly Willy’s earliest and most frequent nemeses was a dog named Smedly. As a standard setup, Smedly acted as caretaker or guard dog for some establishment that Chilly Willy raided for a free meal or to find shelter from the cold. Smedly could easily foil Chilly’s ambitions, but the tiny invader returned no matter how many times he got booted from the premises. If Smedly threw Chilly out a door or escorted the pesky penguin from the grounds, he would turn around or get back to find Chilly already there, as if he had never left. Similarly, Chilly Willy had the habit of appearing in the most unlikely of places, such as sardine cans or closed vaults he had no real way of accessing.

The cast of characters expanded slightly after the series became established. Later friends to join Chilly Willy’s exploits included a polar bear named Maxie and an albatross named Gooney.

Sara Berner provided the voice for Chilly Willy in the very first short “Chilly Willy”. However, the silent penguin didn’t speak again until the mid 60s, when Daws Butler took over voice chores for most of the characters.

Despite penguins being indigenous to the southern hemisphere, the creators placed Chilly in whatever location they found convenient. The first cartoon took place in the South Pole, but Chilly would later find himself in places like Alaska or the Alpine Mountains. Perhaps he was just looking in all the wrong places for a warm climate?

Secret agent Cool McCool had the task of apprehending some of the world’s most eccentric villains. He was under the directive of a cigar smoking boss called Number 1, who only ever appeared as an arm extending from the back or side of the chair that hid his face. Like all good secret agents, McCool outfitted himself with numerous handy gadgets that served more than one purpose: he had a gun that doubled as a phone, a watch that also doubled as a phone, a mustache that doubled as a phone… In emergencies McCool actually pulled out gadgets that didn’t function as a phone, but they always backfired (due to his faulty implementation). Perhaps the most reliable tool of his trade was the Coolmobile, a multipurpose vehicle that could transform into different modes of transportation. Other members of the agency who made an occasional appearance included Riggs (the developer of McCool’s gadgets), Breezy (McCool’s sometimes sidekick) and Friday (Number 1’s dumpy secretary).

So why the name “Cool?” Cool fit McCool’s name because he didn’t panic. When things looked grim he remained cool under pressure, never minding that whatever action he took was largely ineffective. But results matter more than technique, and putting aside that his luck resolved more cases than his skill, McCool captured every criminal he tracked down. Of course, those very same villains — Hurricane Harry and Bellows Belle, the Owl and the Pussycat, the Rattler, Jack-in-the-Box, Dr. Madcap and Greta Ghoul — returned again and again in subsequent episodes to further their nefarious plots.

Each half-hour episode consisted of three short segments. The first and last segments featured Cool McCool, while the middle segment followed the adventures of McCool’s father, Harry McCool, and his two brothers, Dick and Tom, as three inept police officers patterned after the Keystone Kops.