Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera show their Honeymooners fetish here. The bear is wearing an Ed Norton outfit, and when he dances into the cartoon, he’s moving his arms up and down the same way Jackie Gleason did before he said “And away we go!”
Hmmm. I think Bill and Joe gave that hat to another one of their bears. What was his name again?
Variety of June 22, 1955 reports that “Charles Lunard and Helen Lewis, nitery dance team, set by Metro to ‘choreograph’ new Tom and Jerry cartoon, ‘Down Beat Bear.’ ” The dancing animation is fluid but, as you can see above, there isn’t a lot of wildness to the animation. Imagine if Tom’s head had turned into a clarinet, sax, or trombone heard on Scott Bradley’s score.
Lew Marshall had replaced Ray Patterson in the Hanna-Barbera unit by now, with Ken Muse, Irv Spence and Ed Barge the other credited animators (above, Yogi is by Ray’s brother Don). Dick Bickenbach laid out the cartoon and the backgrounds were by Bob Gentle. Paul Frees (newscaster) and Daws Butler (all-night disc jockey) supply the voices.
The cartoon was copyrighted on Sept. 12, 1956 but released Oct. 12. Motion Picture Exhibitor rated it “Good,” but gave the Wags to Riches remake Millionaire Droopy an “Excellent” rating in the same issue.
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