Let's Rub Noses

The 1939 Porky Pig cartoon Polar Pals has a nice energy to it, and the animators look like they had fun in the main musical when a chorus sings Silverman and Meyer’s “Let’s Rub Noses (Like the Eskimoses).”

Porky chugs along and sings facing sheets of ice that act like a funhouse mirror. And in another scene, a polar bear sweeps his arm in a bit of smear animation.



John Carey gets the animation credit on screen. Bobe Cannon, Norm McCabe and Izzy Ellis were also animating in the Clampett unit at the time. Warren Foster wrote the story.

Thanks to Jerry Beck and his friends, we know from this sheet music cover they supplied that this 1935 song originated in a stage show at the Radio City Music Hall (and, presumably, not a Warner Bros. movie musical). Carl Stalling also incorporates into the score “Old Pal” (G. Kahn/E. Van Alstyne), “Deep In a Dream” (E. De Lange, J. Van Heusen), “Singing In the Bathtub” (M. Cleary/H. Magidson/N. Washington) and “Old Tar” (J.S. Zamecnik).