tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738012638904762739.post836940645495309320..comments2024-03-27T01:19:56.698-07:00Comments on Tralfaz: Cartoons of 1931, Part TwoYowphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264605351878574044noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738012638904762739.post-47913605333914193932016-09-01T08:29:46.993-07:002016-09-01T08:29:46.993-07:00An item you've missed is the advertisement, pu...An item you've missed is the advertisement, published 18th October, for Mickey's Birthday.<br /><br />One of a series of ads placed during the autumn, apparently by the Studio's new publicity manager Harry Hammond Beall, that variously promoted Mickey, the Silly Symphonies, and the Mickey Mouse Club, it Minnie and Mickey holding a birthday cake with three candles and bearing the message "Happy Birthday Mickey". The text ran: <br /><br />Surely Your Theatre<br />will be celebrating<br />MICKEY MOUSE'<br />3rd BIRTHDAY<br /><i>Saturday, October 24</i><br /><br />The choice of a Saturday was for the sake of Children's Matinees, and I presume the whole thing was tied in with the Mickey Mouse Clubs. I guess the date would have been chosen to suit those Theaters that ran Clubs. This is the first print reference to Mickey's birthday that I know of. I suspect that the short "The Birthday Party" (released 4 Jan 1931) with its 2-candle cake had been intended to be the centerpiece of a 1930 Mickey Mouse Club celebration that failed to happen (lack of time or lack of organisation) although I've found no published evidence for this.<br /><br />Mickey's 4th Birthday would be a big splash, with all the backing of United Artists - and held on Oct 1st, the Saturday closest to September 30th: the anniversary of the recording of the soundtrack to "Steamboat Willie", when Disney's first Mickey Mouse Sound Cartoon was completed, and the Mickey we know was 'born'.Peterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08141250556479971763noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738012638904762739.post-6717342899871515482013-06-08T18:20:20.879-07:002013-06-08T18:20:20.879-07:00Interesting to see the intense reviewer dislike fo...Interesting to see the intense reviewer dislike for "You Don't Know What You're Doin'", which at least to me, comes across as one of the wilder and more inventive of the early H-I Merrie Melodies (given that the entire cartoon revolves around two characters and a car being three sheets to the wind 18 months before Prohibition was repealed, I can't help wonder if that might have been one of the main factors in the bad review).<br /><br />Also interesting to see the note on the ratio of releases at Disney in connection with the new United Artists contract. I've never seen anything written about the change, but it seems like part of the agreement Walt made with UA was to bump up the number of Mickey cartoons to roughly one every three weeks from once every four, while dropping the number of Silly Symphonies to just one every 6 1/2 weeks from one every four weeks. That probably speaks more of Mickey's huge popularity by 1931 than any problem exhibitors were having with the one-shot Disneys, but it might have helped nudge Walt towards the color Silly Symphonies a bit faster.J Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15175515543694122729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738012638904762739.post-66906892215428962252013-06-08T16:10:42.836-07:002013-06-08T16:10:42.836-07:00The "Betty, Boop and Bimbo" cartoon revi...The "Betty, Boop and Bimbo" cartoon reviewed on Sept. 27, 1931 may be referring to "Minding the Baby", which was released the day before (Sept. 26) and featured Bimbo and a still-prototypical Betty. See http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/1660-Minding_The_Baby.html (...Not to be confused with the Scrappy cartoon with the same title, released by Columbia on Nov. 16 that year.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3738012638904762739.post-41656771794892963832013-06-08T13:26:40.751-07:002013-06-08T13:26:40.751-07:00The "Tom Johnston" referred to in the Gr...The "Tom Johnston" referred to in the Gross piece is Tom Johnstone.Mark Newgardennoreply@blogger.com