In this scene on the roof of family home, Andy almost has him until the woodpecker unexpectedly swirls around with a convenient, filled stein.
Evidently there are people who put salt in beer. Whether they blow the subsequently-created foam at someone, I doubt. Unless they are a woodpecker.
Cut to the next scene where Woody drinks the beer, shows some effect (they loved cross-eyed characters at Lantz back then), then tosses the empty stein away.
Woody jumps out of the scene with his usual laugh, though his mouth doesn’t open.
You likely know this was Woody’s debut and the woodpecker was played by Mel Blanc, who voiced everyone in this cartoon except Andy (who is Sara Berner).
Alex Lovy and his brother-in-law Frank Tipper are the credited “artists” with the story credit going to Bugs Hardaway and Lowell Elliot. An uncredited Edgar Kiechle is responsible for the great background paintings. Frank Marsales scored “How Dry I Am” behind the beer-drinking scene.
Of course some people put salt in their beer; it's not an uncommon practice. It makes the beer less bitter, and it also releases carbon dioxide so you don't get as gassy.
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather once told me that when he was a young man in Germany, it was considered manly to put a raw egg in one's beer. Then there's the Arkansas Martini, which is a beer with an olive in it. At first the olive sinks to the bottom, where bubbles form on it until it's sufficiently buoyant to rise to the surface, where the bubbles burst and it sinks to the bottom again. If you're in the right frame of mind, you can have a lot of fun watching the olive go up and down in your glass.
This short was also the final Lantz cartoon to be scored by Frank Marsales. I always liked his work both at H-I/Schlesinger and at Lantz.
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