Crying at the Coo Coo Nut Grove

Friz Freleng pans up in The Coo Coo Nut Grove (1936) and it turns out we’re seeing Helen Morgan crying while singing Warren/Dubin’s “The Little Things You Used To Do.”



The gag topper is the nightclub is so deep in tears, celebrities are on top of tables that float away. (Freleng liked post-scripts in gags. In this one, after the tables have floated out of the scene, a George Arliss turtle rows from left to right while on the back of his shell.



What’s a little odd in this cartoon is some of the celebrities are human, others are animalised versions. (Foreground: Laurel and Hardy, Wallace Beery. Background: Katharine Hepburn and W.C. Fields, Groucho in drag and Harpo).

Sandy Walker and Bob McKimson are the credited animators. The celebrities were designed by Thornton Hee just before he got a job with Walt Disney.