John McGrew

Who was John McGrew?

John Burton McGrew was an American animator, painter and musician. Although best known for working at Warner Bros. Cartoons, where he was the studio's first designated layout artist, working under Chuck Jones, he was also known as a member of the Hollywood blacklist.

McGrew trained at the Chouinard Art Institute, and joined the Warner Bros. background department shortly after graduation. When Chuck Jones was promoted to director in 1938, he soon became dissatisfied at the backgrounds being provided for the cartoons. At this stage, the animation units did not have their own layout artists or background painters, and a separate department was tasked with providing background elements for each of the studio's three main units. The directors were generally not given any say in what backgrounds they were provided with. Eventually, Jones gained permission from studio head Leon Schlesinger to take a layout artist and background painter for his own unit, and Jones picked McGrew as layout artist, with Paul Julian serving as background painter. The experiment proved a success, and the backgrounds department was soon disbanded, with directors choosing their own layout and background artists.