The Ice Truck Cometh

You’ll see several ice cream truck gags (“Good Rumor” trucks, mainly) in Tex Avery cartoons, but he pulls an ice truck gag in One Cab’s Family.

The truck driver is motoring along blithely, then sees Junior the hot rod coming at him.



Avery indulges in a transformation gag. The collision sends the ice hauler out of the frame, and turns the truck into something related when it lands.



The short was released May 15, 1952. Avery tried the same kind of cartoon a year later with Little Johnny Jet. We’ve mentioned before the story has similarities to Friz Freleng’s Streamlined Greta Green, released by Warner Bros. in 1937 when he and Avery were working for Leon Schlesinger. More on that tomorrow.

Rich Hogan and Roy Williams are the credited story people, with animation by Mike Lah, Grant Simmons and Walt Clinton, and voices by the wonderful Daws Butler and June Foray.