I wrote about Jack de Mello a few months ago. Thursday was his 100th birthday, and I saved some stories about him to help celebrate it in “Rearview Mirror.”

Jack is perhaps the most prolific recording artist in Hawaii history. He has produced more than 200 Hawaiian albums and written more than 500 Hawaiian songs. As a composer and orchestra leader, he brought big symphonic sound to Hawaiian music.

The late John Heckathorn, former Honolulu magazine editor, said de Mello created the “largest body of Hawaiian music ever done by a single individual, most of it recorded in the lush de Mello style with full orchestra, large string sections and vocal choruses.”

His musical interests stretch from Hawaii’s royal period to today’s slack key. And yet his Hawaiian music is only a fraction of his output. He’s recorded more than 50 albums in Japan, including Japanese traditional music and children’s songs.

He’s recorded American and European motion picture themes and background music for more than 30 American cartoons.

Cartoons? My mom, Martha Sigall, worked in the cartoon business as an inker and painter from 1936 to 1989. She was at Hanna-Barbera Productions at the same time de Mello was writing music for the company.

Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera worked at MGM animation and were famous for “Tom and Jerry.” In 1956 MGM thought it had enough cartoons in its vault and closed its cartoon unit.

Hanna and Barbera left and founded their own studio that produced such hits as “The Jetsons,” “The Flintstones,” “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” and “The Smurfs.”

With over 600 employees, it was one of the world’s largest cartoon studios. De Mello was hired by Hanna-Barbera to do scoring and composing for “The Flintstones,” “The Jetsons” and “Magilla Gorilla” cartoons.

He became good friends with Hanna, who visited Hawaii often when he wanted to get away from Los Angeles.

“The producers sent me the storyboards (rough drawings illustrating the storyline), and I fit the music to it,” he told me. “Sometimes I didn’t even see the drawings or know what the story was about.”

The instructions would read:

“Mood: happy to sad … 8 seconds.”

“Mood: Mad chase to warm love theme … 11 seconds.”

Sometimes Jack would be shown the nearly finished cartoon, which made it easier to match his music to the action.

So de Mello would sit down with his stopwatch, shut the door, pick up a pencil and begin to write — on paper, not at a piano. Some time later he would emerge with seven minutes of background for each cartoon.

“The art and humor of cartoon music lies not so much in the composition as it does in the orchestration,” he said. “A song might be lovely on violin and ludicrous on tuba.”

Tempo is also important. “Three elephants fighting 10 monkeys would need to be up-tempo. For a more somber or tragic moment, woodwinds might be more appropriate.

“You simply have to think funny. One way to do that would be to use instruments in unusual places. Bassoon solos, for example. Or two oboes and a French horn. No one normally wrote just for them.”

The selection of musicians is important, too, de Mello said. “Some musicians can play funny and some can’t.

“Composing funny music is a good way of flushing out your mind,” de Mello said. “You can say anything you want musically. You can be funny or romantic or moody or sad or happy, and everyone will understand it.”

I asked de Mello why cartoons used classical music so often. Classical music is usually public domain and free to use, he told me. There are no licensing issues or restrictions.

And, a lot of people might not know that before television, cartoons were shown between films in movie theaters. “The Flintstones” and “The Jetsons” were shown on prime-time TV when they premiered. (I remember having big cartoon parties at my house when they debuted in 1960 and 1962.) Cartoons were for adults as much as children.

De Mello was born in Oakland, Calif., but his father was from Kona. His first work in Hawaii was around 1944, de Mello told me, with lyricist Eaton “Bob” Magoon (who wrote “Numbah One Day of Christmas”).

“We wrote an album about ‘Coconut Willy’ for Aloha Records,” he said. He sang some of it over the phone to me: “Coconut Willy lives in a tree. He’s plenty pupule, it’s easy to see. Tourists in Hawaii think he’s a king. They come to Waikiki to see his opu swing.’

“It was my first break from classical,” he recalled. The song was a big hit locally, and de Mello was hired to turn it into a review at the Waikiki Lau Yee Chai restaurant (it could hold 1,500 people). It played there for nearly a year.

De Mello soon found himself at Hawaii’s largest advertising agency, Fawcett-McDermott. He was there for 34 years and one year was named salesman of the year by Sales and Marketing Executives of Hawaii.

De Mello came up with several slogans and jingles, such as “Ala Moana Has Everything,” and the “Wonderful World of Aloha” for Aloha Airlines.

My all-time favorite jingle he wrote was for KGMB and based on the song “I Am Hawaii.” Many readers might remember “One of the good things about Hawaii … is wonderful KGMB.” That was one of Jack’s.

De Mello also “created” the Brothers Cazimero. They originally were part of a trio called Sunday Manoa with Peter Moon. “They came to me when their contract with him expired. They auditioned, Hawaiian style, sitting on the floor.” De Mello liked what he heard and suggested the name for the new duo.

He produced their first two albums and got them a contract to play at the Royal Hawaiian Monarch Room, where they performed for 12 years.

This was when tourists flocked to nearly 20 Waikiki showrooms for dinner shows.

De Mello also managed Keola and Kapono Beamer and produced their second album.

Jack’s son, Jon de Mello, who runs Mountain Apple music and record company, says some people might not realize how multitalented and complex his father is. When Jack was just 23, NBC in San Francisco hired him to be its radio station band director. He also helped direct successful U.S. Senate campaigns for Hiram Fong and Dan Inouye. He founded KHVH radio in 1956 with Henry Kaiser and Hal “Aku” Lewis.

Jack de Mello lives in Las Vegas today. He and his wife, Ilse, have been married 39 years. Four generations gathered last week to celebrate his 100th birthday.

“Rearview Mirror” readers might want to send him well wishes for his 100th birthday. Jack said he’d enjoy that. You can send them to Jackde@cox.net.

Happy 100th birthday, Jack!

Bob Sigall, author of the “Companies We Keep” books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at sigall@yahoo.com.