Hmm...Could Be

Artie Auerbach died in 1957, but his catchphrase lives on.

Auerbach was a newspaper photographer who met a man in Bronx. When Auerbach became a radio actor, he created a Jewish character based on the man, and called the character “Kitzel.”

On the air with Jack Haley, then Al Pearce, he was given several recurring lines, including “Mmm...could be!”

Yes, cartoon fans, that’s where the line you’ve heard for years comes from.

Tex Avery was particularly fond of it. Bugs Bunny said it in a A Wild Hare (1940). You can hear it Screwball Football (1939), Holiday Highlights and Ceiling Hero (both 1940).

It also turns up at the end of The Peachy Cobbler (released by MGM in 1950), with the story by ex-Warners writer Rich Hogan. A sick, destitute cobbler gives his last crust of bread (“whole wheat”) to poor, hungry snowbirds, who turn out to be happy, little shoemaker elves who surreptitiously make shoes and boots for the man to sell.

The shoemaker (played by Daws Butler) wakes up and jitterbugs happily with his wife (to the sped-up strains of “Running Wild”). They stop. “Mama,” he says to his wife, “I wonder if them little birds had something to do with this.” Cut to the birds, putting on their shoemaker hats, giving a stereotypical palms-out shrug and say the Kitzel catchphrase.

Avery used Kitzel’s other phrase of the period—“Hmm...it’s a possibility!”—to end Blitz Wolf (MGM, 1942).

Other directors used “Could be” as well. Bob Clampett ended Slap Happy Pappy (1940) with it, and so did Bob McKimson in Rebel Rabbit (1949). I suspect both cartoons were written by Warren Foster.

Incidentally, when Auerbach brought Mr. Kitzel to the Jack Benny show in 1946, the writers decided to develop their own catchphrases, so “Could be” was abandoned. Auerbach continued to appear on the Benny show, radio and television, until his death.

Normally, I don’t like lists on this blog, but if anyone reading can add another cartoon to the list, especially from a studio like Lantz or Screen Gems, or the Snafu shorts, please leave a note in the comments.