Monday 17 December 2018

Opening Night

Santa Claus and his reindeer open the Van Beuren cartoon Opening Night, the debut short for Cubby Bear.



The jolly old elf pours the Christmas gift of stars from his bag. They form a lit marquee for New York’s Roxy RKO Theatre.



Santa and the Christmas season now disappear entirely from the cartoon.

So why were they there in the first place? Simple. The cartoon was designed to run on the opening night of the real RKO Roxy, which took place on December 29, 1932. A little late for Santa, true, but this is a Van Beuren cartoon, after all.

The print that ran at the Roxy was hand-coloured by Gustav Brock.
Posted by at 07:13
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2 comments:

  1. top_cat_james17 December 2018 at 14:31

    I love that white outline on Santa and his reindeer in the medium shot. Pretty snazzy, especially for Van Buren.

    Of course, the true visual splendor in this cartoon is provided by Beverly Swills, the porcine D-cup diva.

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  2. Schmoopie17 December 2018 at 18:20

    Animated by Jim Tyer...?

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