A few years later, I was given Adamson's book "Bugs Bunny: Fifty Years And Only One Gray Hare." On page 65, I saw this similar image:
Since I tend to document articles that include items I collect, I scanned the image from the book and filed it away with my other images from the cel. But I didn't really give the whole thing too much thought. Later, when I was editing my image database, I noticed that the cel that I owned had writing on the spine of the book and there was no writing on the image from Adamson's book.
An enlargement of my cel showed "By Bugs Bunny April-1946." Since "Falling Hare" was released in 1943, this cel was not from the movie! Bottom line, I have no idea how the cel came into existence!
It's still a great cel and it makes for a great story!
Now, I should mention that ANY cel from the World War II era is a little more difficult to find. Due to a shortage of materials during the war effort, a number of cels were cleaned off and reused. There is a little variation here, since some studios were more aggressive in reusing cels than others and some of the more interesting cels were spared the cleaning process. As a side note, I've often wondered if the threat of cel cleaning in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988) was a reference to the cleaning that took place in the 1940's.
----- DATABASE NOTES -----
From “Falling Hare” (1943). Cel of Bugs Bunny and Pantone background. "Hare Power" is the book that Bugs Bunny is holding. The cel from that era is reasonably rare. Segment a parody of Disney’s “Victory Through Air Power” (1943). [Image: 10.5"W x 7-7/8"H] Acquired 1992. SeqID-0143 Updated: 7/15/2005
Reference: Similar image in “Bugs Bunny: Fifty Years and Only One Gray Hare,” pg. 65. Adamson, Joe. "Bugs Bunny: Fifty Years and Only One Gray Hare." SeqID-1507
