I love the expressions, even in the in-betweens. Here are some of them.
There are plenty of pop culture references. The "Discontented" comes from the slogan for Carnation Evaporated Milk, which came from "contented cows." Brenda and Cobina cows are reacting to a bull on the package of "Fulla Bull Tobacco," a parody on Bull Durham tobacco.
The original credits on this cartoon listed Tubby Millar as the story man and Vive Risto as the animator. On the Hope show, Brenda was played by Blanche Stewart and Cobina by Elvia Allman. In this cartoon, as best as I can tell, Sara Berner is playing both parts. Allman had done cartoon voices for Leon Schlesinger; maybe Leon didn't want to pay to use her. Stewart had voiced cartoons at MGM. (No, Bea Benaderet is not in this cartoon).
Ah, yes. Clampett loved his pop culture references. At least his were actually in taste most of the time compared to modern movies like say, Shrek.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Cobina would be used by Clampett again as inspiration for the lady spider in "The Moth Who Came to Dinner" the following year. "Look, a man!"
This and "Farm Frolics" were the two color cartoons Bob ended up doing with his original B&W Katz Looney Tunes unit, before he took over Avery's group, and you can tell thanks to the goofy/dumb facial expressions that were common in Bob's B&W Porky shorts, but mostly disappeared once he was working with Tex's higher-caliber animators. (And at the same time, you can also tell that Clampett and his animators put a lot into "Goofy Groceries" in terms of the design, layout and the story continuity, which is less haphazard that most of Bob's 1939-40 LT efforts).
ReplyDeleteIt's a little sad we don't know who is responsible for some of thd artwork. Dick Thomas had been doing backgrounds in the Katz unit and Foster was in story, but I couldn't say if they worked on this. I don't know who was doing his layouts.
DeletePerhaps for legal reasons Elvia Allman wasn't cast in this cartoon, and she almost apparently finished her stay (with one of Avery's last, the "Cagey Canary" as one of these last).Steve
ReplyDeletePardon my incorrect grammar, but I'm not sure that it's not Allman. It's an educated guess. Berner did that kind of voice in The Henpecked Duck for Clampett. Allman was a shade harsher.
DeleteI don't think legal reasons would have been behind it. Allman did the same kind voice on a bunch of radio shows; Abbott and Costello and Moore/Durante come to mind. It may have been money. The cartoon had to fit within a budget. Besides Berner, it also paid Mel Blanc and Jack Lescoulie for vocal work in it, as well as the chorus.
This looks like Norm McCabe's animation to me, Yowp.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mark. I guess this was close to one of his last jobs for Clampett at Warners.
DeleteSurprised that Clampett didn't just call that one cow Cow-bina..I've een familiar with the socialite origin story..
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