Bob Clampett (1913-1984) was one of the pioneers of American Animation. While he was still in his teens, Clampett designed the first Mickey Mouse doll for Walt Disney. Shortly thereafter, Clampett went to work for the Harman-Isling studio, animating the first Merrie Melodies ever made, Lady Play Your Mandolin.

In 1935, the studio still looking for a star, producer Leon Schlesinger suggested a cartoon version of Our Gang. Clampett created fat little pig named Porky, and a black cat named Beans. Although Beans got top billing, Porky was the hit with audiences and became the first Warner Bros. star.

Later that year, Clampett teamed up with director Tex Avery in a dilapidated little building at the back of the Warner lot dubbed Termite Terrace. Avery and Clampett forged a new direction in animation with their wild, irreverent sense of humour, what soon came to be called Warner style. It was at Termite Terrace these two created a character that gave Looney Toons some of their wildest moments- Daffy Duck. 

In 1937, Clampett was promoted to Director, and for the next nine years he would create some of the wildest, funniest and most memorable cartoons produced at Warner Bros. Studios. Some of these, such as Porky in Wackyland (1938), Corney Concerto and Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs (1943), and The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946) are widely considered classics. Clampett also introduced two other prominent Warner characters, Beaky Buzzard and Tweety. 

In 1946 Clampett left Warner Bros. and opened his own studio, Children's Express. He went on to create and produce The Beany and Cecil Show, Albert Einstein's favourite puppet show.

Children's Express occupied every nook in Bob Clampitt's house. It would eventually dominate 21 years of his life. Since he founded it in 1975, the nonprofit news service has trained more than 3,500 reporters (ages 8 to 13) and editors (ages 14 to 19) in bureaus in Manhattan, Harlem, Newark, Boston, Atlanta, Oakland, Indianapolis, Washington, D.C., Michigan, London, Tokyo, Australia and New Zealand. Its young news teams published five books, held national hearings about violence and the juvenile justice system, broadcast award-winning television and radio shows, reported from a Cambodian refugee camp and covered every political convention since 1976.