Musical Pogo Stick

What do you do when you want to sing “Is You Is, Or Is You Ain’t, My Baby?” to a sexy white cat and have to keep a dog out of the way? The answer is at the start of Solid Serenade. The best part of any almost any Tom and Jerry cartoon is the expressions. This looks like Ray Patterson’s animation, though he doesn’t get screen credit.

I love how Tom hops away on the bass like a pogo stick.

One theatre in Buffalo played this with Warners’ The Big Sleep. Maybe they couldn’t get the Bugs Bunny cartoon The Big Snooze to run with it.

Actually, the highlight of the cartoon is Tom accompanying himself on the song. The cat has Ken Muse’s trademark upturned grin and closed eyes.

Variety reported on October 9, 1946:

METRO has four Tom and Jerry cartoons it plans to put up for Academy awards for 1946. Group includes “Cat Fishin’,” “Solid Serenade,” “Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Mouse” and “Part-time Pal.” Studio feels it has good chance to win award for one of quartet, since cartoon characters have garnered three consecutive Academy Oscars.

An MGM cartoon won, all right, but it wasn’t one of the four listed. Fred Quimby rushed The Cat Concerto into production and it beat Chopin’s Musical Moments (Lantz), John Henry and the Inky Poo (Pal), Squatter’s Rights (Disney) and Walky Talky Hawky (Warners).