Musical Miniatures

The Walter Lantz studio may have reached its peak in the late ‘40s. The irony is the peak suddenly ended with the studio being closed for more than a year.

The Lantz team had developed Woody Woodpecker into a popular character. The studio had a roster of good artists—Pat Matthews, Ed Love, Fred Moore, Ken O’Brien, Grim Natwick. Over the decade, Darrell Calker came up with some great boogie-woogie scores and won praise when he turned to classical music. The studio won the best film music award (shorts category) for 1945 by the Musical Courier for Chopin’s Musical Moments, which was nominated for an Oscar and lost to MGM’s classical counterpart The Cat Concerto.

The Musical Miniature series was heavily publicised in the trade press. And it was profiled in part of an article in the May 1946 edition of “Film and Radio Guide” out of Newark. It would appear Lantz considered non-theatrical releases of the Musical Miniatures much like other cartoons he made for educational/industrial use.

Forthcoming Walter Lantz Cartoons of Educational Interest
Walter Lantz, head of the Walter Lantz Cartune Studio, and creator of such animated cartoon characters as Woody Woodpecker, Andy Panda, and Wally Walrus, is producing a new series, titled “Musical Miniatures.” These shorts will present well-known classical music played “straight” rather than as an adjunct to the gags and comedy situations of cartoon subjects.
Already completed is Poet and Peasant. In production are Chopin’s Musical Moments and Overture to William Tell. The Chopin film will feature two well-known pianists, Ted Saidenberg and Ed Rebner; the other two films will furnish music with a full orchestra. The studio will produce four of these pictures each year.
Heretofore, in cartoon musicals, the stories have been written first, and the music made to fit the action of the picture. But in this new Lantz series the music is first recorded, and then the story department goes to work fitting the script to the music.
In these pictures, a movie-goer can close his eyes (if he chooses), and just listen! There will be no discordant sounds to jar him. Thus if the music-lover wishes to hear one of his favorite selections played without the distraction of the cartoon comedy that accompanies it, he may do so.
Producer Lantz believes that many people, children particularly, do not like “good” music because they have never been exposed to it. It is his conviction that music served up with popular cartoon stars will make these selections from the classics palatable to audiences that, up to now, have been interested only in boogie-woogie and juke-box numbers.



"Reddy-Made Magic"
The Lantz studio has also just completed a twelve-minute Technicolor and sound cartoon, which portrays episodes in the history of electricity and dramatizes present-day electric service. The film is available through local power companies.
Prepared in both 16mm and 35mm, the film is non-commercial and suitable for use in churches, schools, and clubs, as well as theatres.
The film introduces a new cartoon character, “Reddy Kilowatt.” Walter Tetley, the “LeRoy” of the Great Gildersleeve radio show, is Reddy’s voice.
The picture outlines the history of electricity from the year 600 B.C., when Thales, the Greek philosopher, first discovered magnetism in a piece of amber. The spirit of electricity is personified by Reddy Kilowatt. The trials that he has endured up to the present time are portrayed. After Thales’ experiments, which he recorded but abandoned because of public ridicule, Reddy lies dormant for 2000 years until an English scientist, Dr. William Gilbert, revives Thales’ theory and proves that it is correct.
From Gilbert, the cartoon follows Reddy’s career through the invention in 1660 of Otto Von Guericke’s friction machine, which produced sparks, to Stephen Grey’s experiments in 1729, which proved that some materials are conductors and some non-conductors of electricity. Next Reddy went to Leyden, Holland, in 1755 and let Professor Musschenbroek prove a further enlightening theory about his power by storing him up in what came to be known as “Leyden Jars.”
Reddy’s big chance came in 1752 when Benjamin Franklin, with his well-known kite-and-key experiment, announced that electricity and lightning were one and the same. On that day Reddy shook hands with Franklin and made an announcement himself: “Now I’m getting some place!”
Following Franklin were Michael Faraday, who in 1831 produced continuous electric currents, Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone in 1876, and Edison’s incandescent light bulb in 1879. Reddy really went into action when Edison started the first power plant, and electric power was given to the world.
In addition to presenting side-lights of the epic of electricity, the film illustrates the modern system of distribution from generating station through transmission lines to sub-station, and into the “Reddybox” where the user can always plug in and find Reddy ready. The film concludes with a brief description of Reddy’s many services in the home.



Lantz told the trades in 1946 there would be four Miniatures:

The Poet and Peasant, released March 18, 1946
Musical Moments from Chopin, released February 24, 1947
The Overture to William Tell, released June 16, 1947
The Bandmaster, released December 22, 1947.

The last one, featuring the overture to Zampa, was intended for Universal release. But Lantz jumped to United Artists when Universal demanded licensing rights to his characters. Unfortunately, the U-A deal wasn’t as lucrative to Lantz as he anticipated, so he decided to close his studio and re-release old cartoons to bring in income for minimal expenses.

The other United Artists Miniatures were:

Kiddie Concert, released April 21, 1948
Pixie Picnic, released May 28, 1948.

All six are among the highlights of the shorts released by the studio. When it re-opened, the animators, save La Verne Harding, were gone; researcher Devon Baxter discovered Les Kline was packing tomatoes. Woody Woodpecker didn’t talk, the characters had a thicker ink-line with less interesting animation, and no more Miniatures. The closest the studio got was A Convict Concerto (1955), a good cartoon but without the subtlety of Darrell Calker’s classical shorts.