Why 'What's Opera, Doc?' Looks Like That

What's always been a bit surprising to me is that the conductor Leopold Stokowski had enough 'cultural cachet' that there was some expectation that people watching the cartoon would recognize the reference to him ("Leopold!"):

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Stokowski#Hollywood_Bo...

Not sure that the general public would have any kind of awareness for conductors or anyone in the classical music world today: perhaps Yo-Yo Ma, and some years ago 'The Three Tenors' were a thing.