Stairway to the Skeleton

They sure loved those circular stone stairways in Van Beuren cartoons. The Little King had one. Cubby Bear and Tom and Jerry cartoons had them. And Don and Waffles escape on one inside a pyramid in Gypped in Egypt (1930).



It looks like the stairs are animated turning while Don and Waffles are animated in a cycle, appearing to climb them. This particular staircase has an end. When Don and Waffles reach the top, the staircase slides into itself and disappears.



Skeletons figure prominently in this cartoon, and there’s a skeleton elevator operator, wearing a little cap. Unlike your usual skeleton, he has whites in his eyes.



He slides the gate closed and up an obelisk they go. Animation of the elevator fades in. The skeleton is smoking a cigarette.



Van Beuren cartoons aren’t finely crafted, and they’re not really funny, but the best of them have random weirdness that makes them likable. This cartoon has a camel that gets murdered, an attempt at piano playing with fingering that’s pretty legitimate, a sphinx that zoom up to our heroes, and something with twirling eyes that chases them at the end. I’ll take this over fuzzy-wuzzy squirrels and happy chirping birds at Disney any day.