Hidden Reference, Sutherland Style

There are a couple of inside jokes in What Makes Us Tick, a 1952 John Sutherland cartoon produced for the New York Stock Exchange.

As the camera slides down a piece of machinery, little tags appear. Some are gag tags but two are named for people involved with the cartoon. Earl Jonas was the studio's production manager; he later served the same capacity for Chuck Jones at MGM. Ed Starr was the background artist for this short. Starr has been at Disney and, according to his nephew quoted on puertovallarta.net, marched into Disney’s office and quit, then smashed and buried every piece of Disney artwork he had at his home. He spent some time at Columbia, painting backgrounds for the inexplicable Kongo-Roo and other cartoons before the studio closed in 1946.



“Hawky” refers to Emery Hawkins, who animated part of this cartoon. While the studio had a “Higgy” (Bill Higgins) animating on this short, I don’t think it had anyone with the name “Smoe.”

George Gordon, Carl Urbano, Gerry Nevius and Arnold Gillespie are also credited on this short, with the music by Gene Poddany. Bud Hiestand is the narrator, with typical John Q. Public and a newsboy played by Herb Vigran.