The Worm Family

Mickey Mouse led a band. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit led a band. But the oddest of the other 1930s “band” cartoons may be The Bandmaster starring Krazy Kat, a 1930 offering from the Ben Harrison-Manny Gould unit of the Winkler (Charles Mintz) studio.

There’s a great gag about a prisoner escaping from INSIDE an elephant cop. And I like this Fleischer-type bit. Squirrels are trying to crack an acorn to the beat of Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever. We’ll let the gag tell itself.



There’s lots of early ‘30s imagination going on in this quirky short, with the story attributed to Ben Harrison and the animation to Manny Gould. Musical director Joe De Nat gets away from Sousa and into some jazz for the last 40% of the cartoon. Mickey Mouse got the highest profile (and space) in trade ads for Columbia cartoon releases of 1930, but I’ll take this one over Disney.