J.B. Kaufman conducted two telephone interviews with Freleng in 1991, while collaborating with Russell Merritt on the book that would become Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney. The following transcript is edited from those two interviews. Freleng’s Disney memories are sparse, not surprisingly, but they have an immediacy that helps to recreate a vivid picture of the studio at a pivotal time in its history. Some of Freleng’s post-Disney memories are also included here. Similarly, they give us a sense of the haphazard evolution of the Warner Bros. cartoon studio, in the frenetic melting pot that was the American animation industry in the late 1920s and early 30s.
