Old Dutch Cleanser doesn't just "chase dirt." It appears in a Bosko cartoon as well.
Bosko goes cleaning crazy in Bosko's Store (1932). He dusts off some eggs (which hatch) and then turns his attention to a cut-out, stand-up ad for an obvious-but-unnamed cleanser. The maid comes to life and gives out with a squealing giggle.
Evidently, she's fickle. She turns around and bops Bosko.
Bosko staggers back from the blow. But, no matter. He resumes his dancing and dusting like nothing happened.
There's another pop culture reference. On the phone, Bosko yells "Okay, Chicago!" It comes from Walter Winchell on the Lucky Strike radio show. On November 3, 1931, Winchell and his magic carpet appeared on the Red network (WJZ) for the first time, and switched to different dance bands around the world with an "Okay... (name of city)." That was the cue for the engineer to switch lines. It was parodied in a syndicated newspaper cartoon of the day.
There's a crotch/pain gag and a piano, something not uncommon in cartoons made on the West Coast in the early 1930s.
Friz Freleng and Bob McKimson receive the animation credits. Bosko sings "There's A Rainbow On The River" by Dave Oppenheim and Sam H. Stept (copyright Jan. 25, 1932) before giving us his version of "Turkey in the Straw."
I've never heard of Old Dutch Cleanser, but like Dutch Boy Paint, the brand name alludes to the stereotypical Dutch obsession with tidiness. Hence the expression, "Neat as a Dutchman." Though my wife, who used to work for a Dutch boss, insists that the expression is "Cheap as a Dutchman."
ReplyDeleteThis is carried to an extreme in the Fleischer Color Classic "The Little Dutch Mill." When the townspeople catch the nasty miser who has abducted and is about to mutilate two little children, what do they do? They clean his house... and give him a bath!
I didn't know they don't make it any more. I buy the generic stuff.
DeleteThe Dutch maid shows up again three years later in Billboard Frolics (as "Old Maid Cleanser").
ReplyDelete