Tuesday 22 December 2015

The Shanty Where a Radio Star Lives

Celebrity caricatures were big in cartoons during the ‘30s. Even in Christmas cartoons. One appears in the Warners short The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives (1932).

The shanty is full of toys. One tries to blow up a balloon and blows herself up instead—and turns into Kate Smith. “Hello, every-body!” was how Kate opened her radio show and that’s what the inflated toy says here.



Her version of Shine On Harvest Moon is interrupted by a couple of Scotch terriers, who give us Tony Wons’ radio catchphrase: “Are ya listenin’?”



Norm Blackburn and Ham Hamilton get the animation credits. The soundtrack includes Cuban Iceman, What a Nice Man, co-written by Joe Meyer, who also co-penned California, Here I Come and A Cup of Coffee, a Sandwich and You, well-known to any lover of Warners cartoons.

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