Friday 16 April 2021

Today's 1939 Radio Reference

A couple of related radio references highlight the ho-hum Hardaway/Dalton effort Hobo Gadget Band, released by Warner Bros. in1939.

Hobos are kicked off a train and slide down an embankment. Note the old-style radio station transmitter in the background of the frame below.



Here’s a take. I’ve left out the in-between drawing; this is just the extreme.



The sign is a parody of the thrice-weekly Uncle Ezra’s Radio Station, broadcast from “the powerful little five-watter down in Rosedale.” The NBC Red show was sponsored by Alka Selzer. Earlier in the cartoon, a hobo takes some “soda fizz” and says “just listen to it fizz,” which was the Alka Selzer radio slogan at the time.



Pinto Colvig supplies some voices here; he was writing for Warners in between gigs at Disney and Fleischer. Dick Bickenbach is the credited animator, while Jack Miller was given the story credit. Herman Cohen , Rod Scribner and Gil Turner were in the unit at the time.

1 comment:

  1. Love the classic transmitter look. The type WBZ out of Boston used and many others. I remember Lou Costello climbing a tower with that look while running from Don Porter in the climax of " Who Done It ".

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