Why Play Leap Frog?

“Preparing bully-boy’s anatomy for the butcher shop costs money, too,” we’re informed by narrator Bud Hiestand in the John Sutherland industrial cartoon Why Play Leap Frog?

The bull catches on to the fact he’s going to slaughtered and runs away, leaving the painted markings hanging in mid-air.



Why Play Leap Frog? was part of the “Fun and Facts About America” series made by Sutherland at the commission of Harding College of Searcy, Arkansas. Harding’s leadership was unapologetically pro-capitalist, anti-Communist and thoroughly against any government interference in letting business do business, a philosophy shared by John Sutherland himself. The two got together and this cartoon series was the result.

This was the fourth Sutherland cartoon made for the series. It stars average American worker Joe, the star of the first short Meet King Joe. That cartoon was followed by Make Mine Freedom, which won the Freedom Foundation’s award in 1949, Albert in Blunderland, which won the award in 1950. This cartoon won the award in 1951.

Daily Variety reported on February 28, 1952 that final editing was being done on What Makes Us Tick for the New York Stock Exchange, and Sutherland was putting into production Dear Uncle and The Devil and John Q as well as preparing an animation/live action 30-minute film for Kaiser Aluminum on industrial public relations.

MGM agreed to give the Sutherland films a theatre release; it had eliminated its Lah/Blair unit and acquiring the rights to screen cartoons was no doubt less expensive than making them. Metro didn’t release them in order. Leap Frog was the second Sutherland cartoon on its schedule. It was in theatres in Los Angeles by February 1, 1950 (see ad on the right), though Boxoffice magazine put its official release date at the time of February 4th. Despite the America-is-Number-One patriotism in the shorts, they appeared in theatres in Canada.

How did these shorts end up at MGM? W.R. Wilkinson, the publisher of the Hollywood Reporter, explained in his column of February 23, 1951:

WE SAW a couple of shorts the other day that gave us the greatest kick we have ever had out of a short. We saw great entertainment in these couple of two-reel subjects, with a background of FACTS of our great American scene. Each told a story in extremely humorous cartoon form about important conditions in our country—a type of story telling and buildup of America that’s never before been approached in this business. Each one of the subjects should be a MUST on every exhibitor’s playbill.

The pictures were so novel and so GOOD we dug into their making, and found the ideas for both were conceived by George Stuart Benson, president of Hardin[g] College, an institution for boys obligated to work their way through college. His conception of the approach arose out of a desire to illustrate his lectures in a manner that his students would have the least trouble understanding.

John Sutherland Productions got wind of this manner of Benson’s teaching, then animated the subjects, showed them to Nick Schenck and they were referred favorably to Fred Quimby of the MGM shorts department, and they are now in release. Their titles are “Meet King Joe”—he’s the labor wage earner in our nation—and “Why Play Leapfrog,” a subject proving that Labor and Management CAN work together.

Fred Quimby tells us that never before in the history of MGM’s shorts department have so many letters been directed to his desk praising an effort. The letters are not only from a very pleased public, but actual raves from almost every exhibitor who has played the shows, pleading for more of their type, and promising not only more playing time but more important billing because, as one exhibitor put it, “I have never had such audience enthusiasm for a short reel picture.”

What makes those little pictures good is (1) the story idea back of them, explaining conditions important to every ticket buyer, and (2) the explanation done on an extremely amusing background that takes all thoughts of preachment away from the subjects.

MGM continued to release the Sutherland films until a short called Fresh Laid Plans laid an egg, despite being submitted for Oscar consideration (Hollywood Reporter, Jan. 23, 1952). It was accused of being propaganda against the Truman administration’s agriculture policies. We outlined that story in this post. Sutherland then signed a distribution contract with United Artists (Hollywood Reporter, May 20, 1953) for six or more shorts a year but it’s unclear how many made it into theatres. The Living Circle was one.

There are no credits on this short other than John Sutherland’s name. Former MGM animators George Gordon and Carl Urbano were both at the Sutherland studio around this time. Besides Hiestand, Frank Nelson provides a couple of voices, though I do not know who is voicing Joe. Setting aside any politics, the cartoons are enjoyable to look at, and a further examination of John Sutherland Productions by animation historians is overdue.