Give the Gift of Wolf-Pelt

Tex Avery had Christmas scenes in several of his cartoons (A Gander at Mother Goose, Holiday Highlights), and an appearance by Santa Claus in another (Who Killed Who?), but he really only made one Christmas cartoon—One Ham’s Family at MGM (1943).

Being a Christmas cartoon, it was naturally released on August 14 (though it played starting August 12 at Loew’s Harrisburg).

The end gag is familiar animated cartoon material with Avery’s little stamp. The mean widdle pig has had an off-screen fight with the wolf that wants to eat him. In the wind-up, the kid hands his mom a Christmas present. A fur!



A turn reveals the source of the fur—the wolf.



“Why, this coat is just what I need,” says mama pig. The wolf reaches into the scene. “You and me, both, sister!”



The wolf gallops away, the cartoon ending with a typical Avery sign.



I prefer the version in Swing Shift Cinderella (1945) when the stalk of corn pops up.

Rich Hogan is Avery’s gag man here, with animation credited to Preston Blair, Ray Abrams and Ed Love.

The star of the cartoon is Kent Rogers, doing Red Skelton’s jerk kid character, the Gildersleeve wolf (no, Wikipedia, that’s not his name) and the narrator, with Sara Berner as mama pig and Pinto Colvig sounding closer to Andy Devine than Disney’s Practical Pig in this one.