Friday, 28 November 2014

Beans, Beans

Oswald the Rabbit’s boxing rooster Jumping Bean is almost out for the count—until the lucky rabbit pours some Mexican jumping beans into him. Then luck strikes.



The bean-powered Bean (even though he’s passed out) bounces into Pancho Pete’s rooster and knocks him cold. Bean wins. And since this is a cartoon from 1930, the ring posts come to life and dance around them.



The other “bean” in this cartoon is Frederick Bean Avery, listed in the credits for “Mexico” along with Manny Moreno, Ray Abrams, Les Kline, and Pinto Colvig, as well as co-producers Walter Lantz and Bill Nolan.

At one point, Jumping Bean rides a motor bike around in the ring, a far cry from the tricycle gag in “Porky and Daffy” eight years later at Warner Bros. The story isn’t great in this one but the second half of the cartoon is taken up with a song, which is about all a cartoon in 1930 was about.

Thanks to Devon Baxter for the frames.
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2 comments:

  1. Joe28 November 2014 at 09:26

    I think "Porky and Daffy" is a Clampett cartoon...

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    1. J Lee28 November 2014 at 09:42

      "Porky the Wrestler" was Avery's ring-related cartoon -- he had been sequestered in the color Merrie Melodies by the time "Porky and Daffy" rolled out.

      (Given how miserly most studios in the early 1930s were about awarding credits, Lantz's operation was surprisingly generous in fully naming names, much to the delight of anyone trying to piece together the early histories of Avery, Bill Nolan, Pinto Colvig and some of the others at the studio who made names for themselves there and in other locations.)

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