Bird Fight

Two birds fight over a worm taken from a fishing line in the Van Beuren short A Cat-Fish Romance (1932). Animation by Jim Tyer (courtesy Milt Knight).



The best scene may be the one where a, well, it’s fish of some kind. These early ‘30s New York cartoons had the lumpiest characters.



There’s a bit of reused animation from The Haunted Ship (1930), and I’ll bet the high-kicking mermaids were redrawn from somewhere else. (Note: Milt points out it’s from the Tom and Jerry cartoon The Rocketeers).

The highlight may Gene Rodemich’s enthusiastic arrangement of “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby” from the Broadway show Blackbirds of 1928. It’s sung by Margie Hines and a man whose name may some day be rescued from the bowels of history.