Ginsboig, You Say?

“Ginsberg’s house is burning down,” sing the cats that fill an apartment building in the Terrytoons cartoon Hook and Ladder Number One (1932).

“Ginsberg” is the cue for some Jewish jokes, including a fire call-box with a ball on top that grasps its head and moans “Oy! Oy! Oy!”



With that, the Jewish part disappears.

Film Daily called the cartoon “An outstanding number in the Terry-Toon series.” That’s even though the animation is stiffer and cruder than any Fleischer cartoon of the same period. But it has plenty of mice and turns into an opera about half-way through, a format that was glommed onto Mighty Mouse by the studio some years later.