Steamboat Toby

Down South, starring Toby the pup, is kind of a cross between a Disney and a Fleischer cartoon. The whole steamboat and rescue-the-girl-friend aspects remind me of a certain Mickey Mouse short. The rest is kind of Bimbo Light.

There’s a series of gags about captain Toby welcoming passengers onto his riverboat. There one where some kind of bird in a top hat lays an egg. A more amusing one is where Toby shakes hands with a kangaroo. A joey pops up out of its pouch. Then a second one. Then the kangaroo turns around and there’s a pouch in the back with another little kangaroo.



The soundtrack includes “Steamboat Bill,” “Old Folks at Home,” and a version of “Mississippi Mud” sung in Minnie/Honey style. Joe De Nat provided the musical score.

Dick Huemor [sic] and Sid Marcus get screen credits. R-K-O released the cartoon, made by the folks at the Charles Mintz studio, April 15, 1931. Art Davis worked on them as well. In 1977, he recalled to historian Milt Grey:

The three of us actually had a piece of it. Each one of us had a contract that, on top of our salary, we were going to get 13 and 1/3 percent of the profits, above a specified amount. But we never got a nickel out of it.

A few Tobys survive for your viewing pleasure. 12 were released, all in the 1930-31 season, though we’ve found ads from 1932 where theatres were still showing them; the ad to the right is from May 14, where it was playing in Kalispell, Montana. The one I’d like to see is Toby in the Brown Derby.