The drum was put into storage for a while when Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising parted ways with Leon Schlesinger in 1933. The ending now featured a stage curtain with musical notes, and a character in the cartoon standing and making the final pronouncement (Buddy in the Looney Toons).
It would appear when the Merrie Melodies went completely to colour in 1935 with The Country Boy, the ending featured a jester on stage, waving a marotte and exclaiming “That’s all, folks” (his voice varied with each cartoon). I always liked the jester when I was a kid. It never dawned on me he never starred in any cartoons.
Perhaps the creepiest looking and sounding spokes-character was the cat at the end of Sittin’ on a Back Yard Fence (1933), apparently animated by Don Williams. It shouts “So long, folks!” in a raspy falsetto. Get a load of the teeth.
The jester et al were retired in 1936. The familiar concentric circles were seen on the Merrie Melodies for the first time in the Friz Freleng-directed I Wanna Play House. The Looney Tunes had the zooming Warner Bros. shield and the “our gang” animals, with the “That’s all, Folks!” script at the end. Porky knocked Beans, Little Kitty and Oliver Owl out of the opening starting with Little Beau Porky later that year.
The bass drum apparently returned, with Porky bursting through it, when “The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down” took over as the Looney Toons theme. Since the Porky 101 disc set has such mangled openings and closings, I’ve had to rely on cue sheets supplied by Daniel Goldmark, which say the first short was Rover’s Rival (1937) from the Bob Clampett unit.
For this post, that’s all, folks.
The earliest ending I remember seeing a lot in the sixties, was the Jester ". I may have seen the Cat and Bosko, but I don't remember. Yowp, wasn't the voice of Porky on these early endings done by the actor they had on staff prior to Mel?. But, I do love these early endings.
ReplyDeleteNo, Errol, because in those cartoons it was just a title card with the words forming. No vocal.
DeleteI remember the first time I ever saw the jester at the end of a cartoon on TV (circa 1981/82 or so) and it absolutely scared the hell out of me.
ReplyDeleteBest is "I've Got to Sing a Torch Song" (1933); Garbo says "That's all, folks."
ReplyDelete