Piano Slang

The guy at the piano played by ear.

Yes, this is yet one of I-don't-know-how-many visual puns in Tex Avery's Symphony in Slang (released in 1951). In this scene, only the ear and the piano keys are animated. The piano player remains on one cel.

Boxoffice magazine of May 26, 1951 gave it a good rating and reviewed it thusly: "A hep-cat goes to Heaven and tells about his life in every-day slang. Webster is called from his dictionary editing to interpret, but he doesn't seem to grasp what the man is driving at. A more advanced type of drawing adds to the humor of this clever short."

Fans know this was Tom Oreb's great moment at MGM after being punted from Disney, providing designs. There's plenty of non-animation in this short, an interesting experiment by Avery, who seems to have loved showing off puns on the screen.

Rich Hogan is the credited writer. John Brown is uncredited as providing the voices.