Baloney is an easily grasped synonym for rumours. Propaganda cartoons (even aimed at your own army) are never subtle.
The baloneys wing their through Private Snafu’s camp, passing over a tent with two soldiers who sound like writers Tedd Pierce and Mike Maltese.
The rumours slowly drive Snafu mad. His baloney sandwich talks to him.
He’s chased by baloneys and some Seussian-like creatures.
He rides a baloney that woo-hoos like Daffy Duck (and is played by Mel Blanc).
Snafu is locked away in a padded cell. A crazy baloney (you can tell by the Napoleon hat) bounces around with him to almost end the cartoon.
The short ends with a play on the old newsreel ending with the grinding camera and the words “Sees all, hears all, knows all.” This camera is grinding a baloney.
The Friz Freleng unit was responsible for this cartoon.
Note: E.O. Costello, in the comments, corrected a mistake in the original version of the post. The Paramount News was being parodied in this short. Carl Stalling even does a mock variation on the newsreel’s march theme. Thanks for the correction, Eric. We don’t want to feed anyone any baloney around here.
.png)
.png)
Actually, I'm pretty sure it's not the closing for the *Fox* newsreels, it's the closing for the *Paramount News* newsreels ("The Eyes and Ears of the World"). An early 1945 Paramount newsreel (with more modern camera) is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvFzbD5OH9Q. If you compare the two, you'll see that there's the same sort of turn to the camera. This version parodies the older version of the Paramount News closing. Compare with the ending of 1941's "Porky's Snooze Reel," where the link to Paramount news is very clear; also note that that ending is very similar to the one in "Rumours"
ReplyDeleteThe Paramount newsreel was also parodied as "The Eyes, Ears, Nose and Mouth of the World" in the Betty Boop cartoon "Stopping the Show".
DeleteAlmost four years late, but here's a 1937 Paramount News clip from the Sherman Grinberg library that happens to retain an earlier end title with the hand-cranked camera: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/king-george-vi-and-queen-elizabeth-stand-on-balcony-of-news-footage/532300358
DeleteOn the subject of Paramount News cartoon parodies in general, reckon I'll also add that the Famous Studios "Kartune" Snooze Reel (1951) parodies the later version of the ending.
There's also a good reason the baloney looks Seussian: A certain Ted Geisel had his hands in the Snafu series. :)
ReplyDelete