Selling Krazy Kat

We’ve posted some reviews of cartoons from the second half of 1928 from The Film Daily. Charlie Mintz had been pushing his Oswald cartoons in box ads in the trade paper but he also took out space to let everyone know about his studio’s Krazy Kat cartoons, more than once a week. Here are the first eight from July 1st onward.










Interestingly, all the ads mention the names of the animators as well as Mintz’s. Not seen anywhere is George Herriman, the creator of the character. Nor is his drawing style.

Ban Gaslight!

The film industry has always had a boogie man, living in fear over something it feels will kill it or, at the very least, take away potential profits. At one time, it was television. Studios even banned their stars under contract from the small screen (which delayed Red Skelton’s move from radio to TV). Finally, they realised how short-sighted this was and how there was money and publicity to be made from television. In between those years, Jack Benny got caught in the stupidity.

Before it became, more or less, a sitcom in the late ‘40s, the Benny radio show used to parody movies. One of them was “Gaslight,” the 1944 Ingrid Bergman thriller. Bergman re-enacted her role in Benny’s send-up a year later. When television rolled around, Benny’s writers handily lifted material from old radio scripts and re-worked it for the small screen. And that’s where Jack ran into trouble because of paranoia coupled with legal opinion.

Here’s a column from the National Enterprise Association dated December 27, 1958 about how a Benny TV broadcast was delayed almost six years. Can you picture such a thing happening today?

Jack Benny Finally Ready for TV Satire on ‘Gaslight’
By ERSKINE JOHNSON
HOLLYWOOD — TV comedians have taken their problems to psychiatrists, sponsors, network bosses, censors, joke writers, sympathetic wives and, on occasion, to bill and tax collectors.
But Jack Benny is the only comedian who can say he has had a problem presented to the United States Supreme Court. And, reflecting TV’s own confusion these days, the Supreme Court couldn’t even solve the problem.
There was a 4-4 split decision when only eight of the nine justices voted on the matter. But no one really cared any more.
Big Cause Celebre
So the Jack Benny CBS-TV program Jan. 11 should be viewed as television's first big cause celebre as well as a very funny, but very dead, corpus delicti, filmed in 1953.
After six years of standing by with a typical “Well —,” Expression on his face, Jack will unreel his controversial 15-minute satire of MGM’s 1944 movie “Gaslight.” Jack is the husband and Barbara Stanwyck is the wife he’s driving to insanity. Bob Crosby plays the Scotland Yard inspector. Just about everyone, I guess, knows the plot.
Issue Clarified
And just about everyone believes, wrongly, that the long battle between the MGM film studio and CBS-TV over Jack’s film was based on the right of a TV comedian to satirize a motion picture.
Well, it wasn’t.
The legal battle was over the invincibility of Hollywood and its film against TV competition. Hollywood was putting up quite a fight in 1953, you may remember, and caught in the middle was Jack Benny.
MGM really wasn’t concerned about Jack’s spoof of the movie. In 1952, Jack presented a “Gaslight” satire on his live show.
Before that, on his radio show, there was a Benny “Gaslight” satire. Grateful for the publicity
MGM even loaned Jack a print of the picture so his radio writers could study the scenes and the dialogue.
What MGM suddenly worried about in 1953 was something cherished passionately by Hollywood, motion picture studios and — MOVIE FILM.
Legally Important
So for reasons legally important to Hollywood in 1953 it became a big life or death struggle. Spoofing “Gaslight” on radio, even on live TV, was just dandy with MGM. But when Jack put it on film—WOW! Leo the MGM Lion, roared.
Film WAS Hollywood. Film WAS the movie theaters of the world. MGM film—all of Hollywood’s film — had been copyrighted long ago by a task force of lawyers who spent months on the project, leaving no loopholes, they thought. But then Benny filmed 15 minutes of “Gaslight” satire.
Critical Situation
It was the loophole MGM’s lawyers didn't think about in the TV-less long ago. Left unchallenged, it could set a precedent.
Left unchallenged by MGM, the studio’s customers, the theatre men, would have a nice “you done us wrong” argument about aiding the TV “enemy.”
The Hollywood winds were blowing in a different direction in 1953 and Jack and his film were caught in the legal gust.
So a lawsuit put Jack’s satire on the shelf. Privately, Jack was told by an MGM executive
—“No matter what the decision may be. Jack, you can show the film on TV. Just ONCE, you understand, and only because of our friendship with you.”
To Prove Point
Hollywood wanted to prove a point in 1953.
No MGM movie in ANY FORM ever would be shown on TV, said the studio.
So with MGM winning all the way, and with CBS appealing all the way, the case went to the highest court in the land.
But when the court’s split decision came down, MGM films, leased to TV, were making millions; MGM was in TV production, MGM’s customers, the theatre owners, no longer had exclusive right to showing film. It was a whole new world. So the Hollywood cause celebre of ‘53 didn't mean a thing in ‘58.
After Jack unreels the “Gaslight” satire on Jan. 11, I’m sure people will be asking:
“What was all the fuss about?”
Well, now you know.

The show was broadcast January 11, 1959. William Ewald of the Associated Press reviewed it the next day and said it had several very funny moments, but much of the parody was lost because the movie was so old.

And, as it turned out, the delay was all for nothing.

He Helped Make Tom Scream

Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera liked to tell the story about how all the main people involved with them in making cartoons at MGM merrily joined them at their new TV animation studio. Well, not everyone tagged along with them in 1957. Animators Jim Escalante and Ken Southworth did not and neither did the unneeded assistant animators. Of course, musician Scott Bradley didn’t for obvious reasons. And another one who didn’t was Lovell Norman.

Norman spent a good 20-plus years in the animation business but his credits are few. That’s because he was in the sound department and the sound guys never did get credit at MGM. It’s a shame because Fred MacAlpin, who started the department in 1937, Jim Faris, Greg Watson (who did go to Hanna-Barbera) and Norman were the ones who built the studio’s sound effects library, some of which found its way into the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons. He’s credited on an occasional Chuck Jones-produced Tom and Jerry (on compilation shorts using old MGM footage) and on the seemingly-immortal “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

The Kingman Daily Miner in Arizona published a feature story on Lovell and his wife Estelle on September 2, 1992. It’s a shame you can’t see the early ‘50s-era Tom and Jerry model sheets being held up in the photo accompanying the story.

Couple built career on cartoons
By K.M. Hall
Miner Staff Writer
Kingman residents Lovell and Estelle Norman get a Christmas card every year from Bill Hanna from Hanna and Barbera cartoon fame.
No, they aren’t relatives of the Tom and Jerry creator, but they did work for him for years in Hollywood.
As a matter of fact, Lovell put in almost 40 years working for such companies as Columbia and MGM, doing a variety of jobs, including drawing, photographing and editing cartoons and creating sound effects.
When he worked with Hanna, Hanna and Barbera worked under the auspices of MGM, Lovell, 79, said.
“When they closed the cartoon department at MGM, Hanna and Barbera started on their own and I got an offer to work for them. I got a job in sound effects on the main lot at MGM instead,” Lovell said.
Lovell’s whole odyssey in the business began in 1934 when his good friend and animator Emery Hawkins got him started in cartooning.
According to Lovell, Hawkins was one of the best animators in the business and his work is still looked up to.
Coincidentally, famous movie actor and Kingman resident Andy Devine used to baby sit Hawkins when Devine lived here, Estelle, 74, said.
Lovell got Estelle a job painting the cartoons onto transparent cells after she graduated from high school. It was a career she kept for at least eight years, including years spent working for Hanna-Barbera and MGM.
Some of the cartoons the Normans worked on together included Tom and Jerry, Droopy and Barney Bear. Estelle also worked for the company that created Woody Woodpecker.
Surprisingly enough, the career Lovell enjoyed the most was not the cartooning, but doing sound effects.
“It was the most fun and the most challenging because we had a very efficient crew and our services were sought out,” Lovell said. “I don’t know anything about sound, though. I just know how to make it.”
A lot of times his services were sought by other film companies to make noises many thought impossible to make.
In Rod Taylor’s movie “The Time Machine” Lovell helped design the sounds of the creatures. The sounds are actually the squealing of pigs slowed down and put into a reverb chamber.
The Normans had a great deal of fun when they worked at the studios.
The Normans have souvenirs of their Hollywood years, including sheets of Tom and Jerry Cartoons, but they also have two Oscar-type awards for best sound editing that Lowell helped win for his work in two classic motion pictures—“Ben Hur” in 1959 and “Mutiny on the Bounty” in 1962.

Lovell Burch Norman was born in Oklahoma in November 12, 1912 to Lester Claude and Margaret March (Mallet) Norman. By 1920, the family was living in Spokane and seven years later, they were in Los Angeles where his dad was a mailman. After retiring, Lovell and Estelle apparently had a place in Florida. He died in Lincolnville, Maine on August 5, 2000.

The Oyl Neighbourhood

The background art in the old Fleischer cartoons is a real treat. Let’s look at a few of them from the start of the Popeye “The Man on the Flying Trapeze” (1934). Everything in an early Popeye is warped and bent, of course, including the streets.

By the way, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility to have a ramshackle house on a lot with a picket fence in a downtown core. I’ve seen pictures of downtowns with tall buildings, car dealerships, and so on, that have expanded and taken over what were residential areas. But not all the homes have been pushed out and a few still sit on what has become prime commercial real estate.






My favourite part of this operetta is the neighbourhood kids and cat, all doing kind of a clog dance in unison and singing. The cat is as human as the kids, and it sings and dances.



It’s not a great Popeye. The conflict is contrived. The bad guy is mute and it’s not his fault Olive’s being a won’t-go-all-the-way tramp again and dumps Popeye to run after him. There’s a nice cycle animation of a rolling ship to open the cartoon and, of course, the singing, dancing neighbourhood cat.

Willard Bowsky and Dave Tendlar get the animation credits.

Bashing Baby Droopy

There’s a conflict of design going on in “Homesteader Droopy” (1954). The opening is almost three dimensional, with overlays of rocks with the cartoon’s credits on them. The fenced-in, anxious cow is a typical late-1940s design. But the bad guy wolf and the Droopy clan are all flat, angular UPA-esque characters by Ed Benedict. Ignore that, and you have another fine western cartoon.

The big climax scene has the wolf (voiced by Avery) inflating a confused-looking cow like a balloon as it supplies milk to little Droopy. The kid’s not happy. He beats the crap out of the wolf. The kid’s fist gets huge before impact; I don’t know if Avery tried that before at MGM.







And the kid punches the wolf against the wall in some cycle animation.

The conjoined eyes and little off-centre mouth on the wolf remind me of Mike Lah’s work. Lah, Walt Clinton, Grant Simmons and Bob Bentley get animation credits here. The cartoon was released after the Avery unit was disbanded and Avery moved on to the Lantz studio.

Fred Allen Still Sees Oblivion

When last we left unhappy radio satirist Fred Allen on this blog, he was being interviewed in December 1949 by Herald Tribune columnist John Crosby in New York, giving a State of the Allen address on radio and TV. Five weeks later, he was on the West Coast, doing the same thing to the Associated Press’ movie columnist. And he’s added his thoughts on the film business.

This was published January 13, 1950, when Allen was still on his doctor-ordered sabbatical from his radio show. He never went back to it.

Hollywood, Radio Hit by Fred Allen
By BOB THOMAS
HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 13.— (AP)—Fred Allen, a man with high blood pressure and a low regard for Hollywood, arrived here in a rainstorm.
His comment:
“I thought God was weeping over the state of the movie business.”
The Boston wit added that the rain looked good after coming from drought-ridden New York.
“The water shortage is really serious,” he remarked. “When you take a room in a hotel they don't give you a towel. You get a rubber eraser.”
Allen is here briefly to guest on some radio shows. There is no chance that he will settle in Hollywood, however.
“This is no place for an actor to live,” he said. “They come and go too fast. The first time I was out here, Laura La Plante was the rage. The next time it was Harry Langdon, and so on.
“Everybody lives in somebody else’s house. James Mason is living in the house that once belonged to Buster Keaton. Somebody else is living in Marguerite Clark’s old house.”
TIMES HAVE CHANGED
Allen cited his receptions to illustrate the fickle nature of Hollywood:
“When I came out here to do a picture a few years ago, my hotel room looked like a funeral parlor with all the flowers. When I came out last fall there were several bouquets.”
He then pointed at his current gifts: two small clumps of flowers and two baskets of fruit.
“Next time I’ll get one tangerine,” he predicted.
The comedian is off the air this season on doctor’s orders. He feels that radio is dead, anyway.
“It was doomed from the start,” he said. "The networks cared only about selling their time, the advertising agencies about getting their 15 per cent commission and the sponsors about selling their product. Nobody cared about entertainment.”
New Yorkers talk only about television now, he told me.
“Everything is Hopalong Cassidy,” he said. “"Kids run around in cowboy suits. Even women in the drug stores ride the stools sidesaddle.”
HE LOOKS INTO FUTURE
Allen himself will plunge into TV next fall. NBC has given him free rein for whatever he wants in the new medium. But don’t get the idea that he predicts a rosy future for TV.
“People sit in one room all evening and peer at a little screen!” he commented. “It won’t be long before the art of conversation is dead.”
The trouble with TV entertainment, he added, is that “programs are designed in terms of vaudeville, not video. People like Milton Berle play to a bunch of indigent morons who attend free television shows, not to viewers in the homes.”
Allen’s pessimism extends beyond TV.
“I predict,” he said with a long sigh, “that the morons of this country will eventually take over intelligent people and establish some kind of Cretin civilization as their pie in the sky.”

Considering Allen’s comment about the art of conversation, we can only imagine how he would have viewed today’s common sight of a group of people at a table, all texting someone else.

Tangled Travels

There was never a more misnamed cartoon studio than Screen Gems. It rarely put any gems on the screen. The biggest laugh Columbia’s studio of the ‘40s can muster is over the audaciousness in which it ripped off Warner Bros. cartoons, right down to cat and duck character designs.

But Columbia never had any idea what made the Warners cartoons funny. A really good example is the wretched travelogue “Tangled Travels” (1944). When Tex Avery made travelogues at Warners, he was making fun of travelogues and corny gags. When Al Geiss made a travelogue at Columbia, he treated the corny gags like they were really funny. And “Tangled Travels” has the added bonus of narration in an annoying and inappropriate George Givot-like Greek dialect by Dave Barry, who is ususlly very good.

Highlights are few. The studio gets points for using photos for backgrounds. There’s a nice bit of perspective animation of a horse going over a waterfall (there’s actually some pretty good animation in the later Columbias). But the best part comes when the cartoon’s over—in more ways than one.

The narrator delivers the travelogue we’ve been watching to the Surprise Pictures studio. Cut to a scene of a silhouette of a yokel-looking narrator and a chubby film studio boss (voiced by John McLeish). It turns out we haven’t really been watching a travelogue. We’ve been watching a travelogue being screened for the film studio guy. The camera pans over to a screen with a shot matching the one we’ve just been watching. The narrator asks how the film boss likes it (his lips don’t even move during the dialogue) and gets shot, with the smoke from the gun forming the words THE END.







The credited animators are Volus Jones, formerly with Disney, and George Grandpré, formerly with Lantz. I believe this was Grandpré’s last cartoon at Columbia before moving on to John Sutherland and then to Warners.

Columbia knew it was making unfunny cartoons. A deal in February 1944 to bring in Bob Clampett to oversee the creative end of the studio fell through (the studio had fired Dave Fleischer and replaced him with musician Paul Worth, who had no experience in making films). So management went with Plan B: to hire Webb Smith, ex-Disney and MGM (Avery unit), as a story writer because its directors didn’t understand “true comedy gags” as one member of the executive clan put it, and then hope for the best. Clampett, by the way, ended up at Columbia a couple of years later in an uncredited story capacity after yet another management change. (My thanks to Thad Komorowski for background on this).

And, no, I can’t find a movie named “The Devil’s Doorway” that was released around the time this cartoon came out.

Porky Jumps Out of His Skin

A unique take from “Bye Bye Bluebeard.” The drawings are on twos.









And down he goes.







This was the Art Davis’ unit last cartoon. Animation credited to Bill Melendez, Basil Davidovich, Emery Hawkins and Don Williams.

Cartoons of 1928

1928 was the start of a transitional period for animated cartoons. The year began with Paul Terry (Aesop’s Fables), Charlie Mintz (Krazy Kat), Winkler (Oswald, made by Walt Disney), Fleischer (Out of the Inkwell) and Pat Sullivan (Felix the Cat) making silent shorts. The year ended with the introduction of sound, a new studio (Disney) and a cartoon character about to eclipse anything seen on the screen before (Mickey Mouse). Thanks to Mickey, everyone started clamouring for sound cartoons and new studios popped up with their own Mickey knock-offs.

Mention’s been made on animation blogs that this is Mickey’s birthday. At least, in public. “Steamboat Willie” debuted at New York’s Colony Theatre on this date in 1928. And that makes it as good a time as any to post some cartoon news and reviews from The Film Daily from July to December of that year.

“Steamboat Willie” garnered attention in the trade press but not because it was any of kind of “first.” Of more interest to the industry than a Terryesque-looking mouse playing a cat like a musical instrument was the method of sound being used. There were a variety of sound recording/playback systems jockeying for business from the newly-wired theatres. Pat Powers used “Steamboat Willie” to push his Cinephone system and, more importantly, its compatibility. Articles in The Film Daily pointed out Cinephone was compatible with the Western Electric system.

The newspaper had not one, but two reviews of “Dinner Time,” the Terry short that’s become barely a footnote in sound cartoon history. Walt Disney, of course, surpassed it a couple of months later with “Steamboat Willie.” You can see “Dinner Time” for yourself below, including a commentary by Jerry Beck and Mark Kausler, who provides an added bonus by singing. Thanks to Cartoon Brew for allowing me to pilfer it without asking.

I admit the reviews make for encyclopaedic and dull reading if you’ve never seen the shorts. But posting them makes them a little more accessible on the internet. The Fleischer cartoons are conspicuous by their absence.

One extra note: Sid Glenar, mentioned below, ended up at the Mintz studio in the ‘30s. Read about him on the Scrappy site.


July 8
"Outdoor Indore"—Pat Sullivan
Educational
Animal Fun
Type of production..1 reel animated
Felix finds himself suddenly in India, where he starts to play around with the wild animals. He does some highly original antics with the wild beasts, such as taking the stripes from the tiger, building himself a ladder with them, and scouting the country for an elephant. After a long walk he succeeds in corralling his elephant, and after some amusing adventures lands it at the custom house in New York. Cleverly done, and carries the animal pranks which are bound to please the youngsters.

July 15
"The Baby Show"
Aesop—Pathe
Animal Antics
Type of production. . .1 reel animated
The animals run a baby show, and Al Falfa and his cat Henry dress up Milton Mouse against his will and enter him as their contestant. A lot of clever burlesquing is done on the baby show idea with the various animals and their fond parents. The judge picks Milton as the prize baby, but just as he awards the prize Milton's family of kids arrive and call him "Papa." Then the animals rise up in wrath at the deception and chase Al, Henry and Milton over the countryside. Carries the usual comedy kick of this series.

"The Early Bird"
Aesop—Pathe
Amusing
Type of production..1 reel animated
The adventures of Willie Bird are set forth amusingly. He starts out early in the morning to snare a worm, but it is too wise for him. Finally Willie hits on the idea of a disguise, and succeeds in trapping the morsel. He sells the worm to a fisherman, deposits the dime in the bank, and then proposes to his sweetie. Then the villain Henry Cat comes along, kidnaps sweetie, and after a chase the big finish fight is staged just like in the regular mellers. Good burlesque, and clever cartoon work.

July 23
Fleischer on Air
Beginning Aug. 3 and every week thereafter. Max Fleischer, producer of Out-of-the-Inkwell cartoons, will deliver a talk on motion pictures over Station WLTH, Brooklyn.

July 29
"Futuritzy"—Pat Sullivan
Educational
Fortune Telling
Type of production...1 reel animated
Felix has his fortune read by a gypsy, and she sees nothing but grief in the cat's palm, and tells him so. Felix gives her the laugh, and visits an astrologer who reads his fortune by the stars. Then you see unfolded all the good fortune that the soothsayer predicts for Felix. The cat starts out to collect his good fortune, and as soon as he steps outside the door all sorts of tough things happen to him. Disgusted and sore, Felix visits the astrologist and vents his anger upon him. Verv quaintly cartooned, and done with a lot of class that carries nice comedy.

"Hot Dog"—Oswald
Universal
Circus Fun
Type of production....1 reel cartoon
The circus comes to town, and Oswald the rabbit tries all sorts of schemes to get into the big top without paying. He experiences a series of exciting adventures as the cop chases him. He takes refuge in the lion's cage without realizing what he has done, but when the lion sees his membership card in the Lion's Club he treats him like an honored guest. Finallv as the cop chases him he gets a hitch on a wagon—but it turns out to be the patrol wagon, and poor Oswald is pinched anyway. The kids will like this one.

August 5
"Outnumbered"—Fables
Pathe
Cartoonatics
Type of production..1 reel animated
Old Al does a dizzy reel with the most of his Cartoonatics, they being in this instance a swarm of mice who rise hob and come near destroying old boy's peace of mind for good. His pal Henry Cat tries to subdue the mice. but they run him around in circles until he is dizzy. It winds up with Old Al getting real mad and chasing the gang clear over the hill and out into the open spaces.

"Skyscrapers"
Winkler—Universal
Clever
Type of production..1 reel animated
Oswald gets a chance to show his skill as a construction hand on a new building. Walt Disney has worked up some exceptionally clever cartoon material with a steam shovel and a donkey engine that are almost man. In fact they look like live creatures, and their expressions and actions are highly amusing. This Oswald cartoon is a good number featuring some fine cartoon ingenuity.

August 10, 1928
Pathe Offering First Cartoon in Sound
Pathe pioneers in the offering of the animated cartoons in sound through completion of the RCA Photophone recording of "Dinner Time," one of Aesop's Film Fables, as announced by Amedee J. Van Beuren, of the Van Beuren Enterprises, producers of this Paul Terry pen creation.

August 12
"Astronomeows"
Felix, the Cat—Educational
Amusing Cartoonantics
Type of production . . 1 reel cartoon
Felix, the Cat, in another pleasant number. The cartoon work is very good and the gags, as usual, clever. Felix, as keynoter at a national convention of "dem-o-cats" swings the crowd to a decision to live on Mars because cats lead "a dog's life" on earth. So Felix makes a tour of inspection first before bringing the crowd up to join him. His adventures are funny. This number will click—no doubt of it.

"A Cross-Country Run"
Aesop Fables—Pathe
Black and White Fun
Type of production . . 1 reel novelty
The menagerie cuts loose for a cross-country race in this number. There are plenty of illegitimate methods indulged in by the funny-looking contestants. Old Al, the farmer, comes through the winner when an ungentlemanly mule kicks him for several cartoon miles. The picture contains a few new touches and ought to please fans who like this type of material.
August 19, 1928
MINTZ PREPARING TO USE SOUND IN CARTOON SERIES
George Winkler, supervisor of Winkler cartoons arrives in New York today from the coast to confer with Charles B. Mintz on plans for the use of sound in Winkler cartoons.
The Mintz organization plans a series of one reel novelties in sound, using what Mintz described yesterday as a brand new character in motion pictures.

August 19
"Sunny Italy"
Aesop Fables—Pathe
Amusing Cartoon
Type of production...1 reel novelty
This offers the much-cartooned business of the kidnapping with Maria Mouse as the sweet young thing who is abducted while out in a gondola with her boy friend, Antonio. Our hero pursues the villain to his lair. The heavy flees with the maiden, and our hero, on board of a seahorse, overtakes them and effects the rescue. This Aesop Fable subject is cleverly done.

August 22, 1928
First Cartoon in Sound
Playing at Mark Strand "Dinner Time," the Pathe Aesop Film Fable which claims the distinction of being the world's first animated cartoon subject in sound, is currently being seen and heard at the Mark Strand, New York. The cartoon was made with the Photophone process, and is being shown at the Mark Strand on Western Electric equipment.

August 23, 1928
Paul Whiteman and his band have made a Columbia record of "Felix the Cat," the song and instrumental number which was inspired by the Felix the Cat animated cartoon comedies released by Educational.

August 25
"DINNER TIME"
Pathe—Photophone
Paul Terry—Aesop Fable in Sound
This first sound animated cartoon which has found so much favor with fans throughout the world in silent form will add even more adherents with whistles, screeches, howles, voices, bells and comedy effects synchronized perfectly.
This picture is a distinct laugh-hit with the audience all the way through and there are many new and distinct gags. Exhibitors cannot go wrong on this one and any more like it.

August 26
"Mississippi Mud"
Oswald—Universal
Clever
Type of production. . . .1 reel cartoon
Oswald is deck steward on a Mississippi river boat, and when the villain kidnaps the beautiful heroine and takes her away on the boat, then the fun begins for all hands. The cartoonist has evolved some very clever cartoon gags and sketches for showing the antics of the animated rabbit, and of course it winds up with the hero rescuing the girl and proving his right to her love. Well up to the high standard of this series.

"In the Bag"
Fables—Pathe
Peppy
Type of production..1 reel animated More country fun, with old Al taking his gang to the Farm Hands picnic. Al tries his hand at all the games, and generally comes off second best in his experience with the roller coaster, the chutes, the greased pig and the sack race. The cartoon is lively, and has all the animal antics that appeal to the kids.

September 2
"Dinner Time"
Aesop's Fables—Pathe
Clicks
Type of Production...Sound Cartoon
Here it is, the first cartoon in sound. All of the well known Fables characters including Billy-Bird, Waffles, Pat, Danny, Al Falfa and others appear in it with sound effects to enhance the entertainment values of what is ordinarily a right diverting reel. The sound effects were concocted by Max H. Manne, the incidental music conducted by Josiah Zuro and the RCA Photophone system used. A good job was done by all.

September 9
"Panicky Pancakes"—Oswald Winkler
Universal
Lively
Type of production. . .1 reel animated
Oswald is running a concession at the county fair, when various animals start to interfere with his business. First the elephant drains his lemonade bowl through his trunk, and then a pup steals his pancakes as he flips them in the air. Finally the bandit mice steal his cash register and Oswald has some exciting time before he recovers it. Good gags put over at a lively pace. Hamilton and Palmer are now handling the work on this cartoon series.

September 17, 1928
Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit, has made a departure in his amusement program. Heretofore there has been nothing topical in the cartoons in which Oswald is depicted. But the imagination of Oswald's creator, the Winkler Company, was so fired by Commander Byrd's determination to reach the South Pole, that they have made and will release in a very short time a picture entitled "The South Pole Flight."

September 23
"Jungle Bungles"—Bijou
Educational
Good Cartoon
Type of production..1 reel animated
Felix, the Cat, gets an idea to shoot motion pictures of the animals in the jungle wilds, and sets forth alone on his adventure. This results in some of the cleverest cartoon work that this series has recently produced. One stunt in particular is worthy of special mention. Felix is pursued by savages. He develops his film, and projects it against a large rock, showing the wild animals coming rushing toward the savages, who flee in terror, leaving Felix safe.

"Fiery Firemen"—Winkler
Universal
Clever
Type of production..1 reel animated (silent)
Oswald, the funny rabbit, turns fireman, and proves himself a hero when he tries to save Miss Hippo, but she falls on him and flattens him out. Some tricky stuff is worked in by having the firemen sleep or mechanical beds that are almost human and answer the fire alarm and do almost everything that the fire-men do.

Glenar Going to Coast
Sid Glenar, who has been working on trick photography on "Out of the Inkwell" cartoons, has resigned to leave Oct, 1 for the Coast.

September 30
"Bull-Oney"—Winkler
Universal
Animal Fun
Type of production..1 reel animated
This time Oswald, the rabbit finds himself a trainer for the bull that is picked to do his stuff in the bull ring. Before Oswald realizes what has happened, the bull has him in the center of the ring, and a real scrap is staged that the crowd didn't expect. Oswald finally escaped by a narrow margin. The audience consists of all the various animals, who arrive for the fight by transportation methods and vehicles that are laughable and original. Cleverly animated, and with lots of comedy action.

October 2, 1928
Disney Makes Sound Cartoon
Walt Disney, who animated many of the Alice cartoons for Winkler Pictures, has completed a cartoon subject in sound. Peerless Exchange will distribute.

October 7
"Felix in the Last Life"
Bijou Films
Educational
Snappy
Tvpe of production..1 reel animated
This is the last of the Pat Sullivan cartoons to be handled by Educational. Felix the Cat takes up aviation when his girl turns up her nose at the old-fashioned way of traveling in auto. The reel deals with the adventures of Felix as he tries to learn how to master the new device. Fortunately he had his life insured before he started, and when he gets through collecting insurance, he has collected for eight of his nine lives. Then he wisely decides to quit aviation, and marry and settle down with his last life still intact.

October 14
"Panicky Pancakes"—Oswald
Universal
Funny Cartoonantics Type of production cartoon
A diverting bit of nonsense involving pancakes, bandits and a lively chase over pen and ink mountain peaks in an effort to secure Oswald's stolen cash register. The cartoon work is excellent and the gags through the animal characters cavort are amusing.

"Rocks and Socks"—Winkler
Universal
Peppy
Type of production..1 reel animated
Oswald, the rabbit starts out for a day's shooting. He tackles a little tiger, and is lambasting it when the mother comes along and makes things hot for Oswald. Escaping finally from the tiger, he encounters other strange monsters of the jungle, and is glad to call it a day. The cartoon work is very unique and some clever technique is employed. It carries the laughs also.

October 21
"Sidewalks of New York"
Paramount Inkwell
Very Amusing
Type of production. . . .Sound cartoon
A clever and amusing cartoon, made by the drawing and animated via the apt pen of Max Fleischer and nicely synchronized with sound. The cartoon work is marked by an originality typical of this series. The added musical score helps it considerably. As a whole: a pleasing and diverting release. Time, about 5 mins.

"Gridiron Demons"—Fables
Pathe
Good Kidding
Type of production . . 1 reel animated
Here is given an animated cartoon conception of an Army-Navy football ball game. The mice represent the Navy team while Alfalfa and his friends line up for the Armv. They start practice by using Al for a dummy. Then the game itself is staged with the Goat scoring the only touchdown with his well known butting tactics. Done in the usual sprightly and original Aesop manner.

October 24
Scott Reports on "Fables"
Harry Scott, short subject sales manager of Pathe, back from a sales trip that took him to seven cities, reports considerable interest in the first syncronized Aesop Sound Fable, "Dinner Time," which is to have early first run showings in Detroit, Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Cleveland. Other cities visited by Scott were Dallas, Chicago, St. Louis and Cincinnati.

October 28
"The Laundry Man"—Fables
Pathe
Average
Type of production..1 reel animated
In this one Alfalfa decides to be a laundry man and has a gala opening with all hands celebrating. But when he starts out with his first delivery his troubles begin. The cats and dogs start to muss things up and chuck all the laundry out of the wagon. The usual mixup with the old farmer and his animal friends and enemies, that will measure up to the average of this cartoon series.

"The South Pole Flight"
Winkler Cartoon—Universal
Type of production. . 1 reel cartoon
Comedy
These lucky Oswald rabbit cartoons provide a real kick for any kind of audiences. They are exceedingly clever, and some of their exaggerated silliness is good for real guffaws. This one shows Oswald making a dirigible flight to the South Pole, and the difficulties he encounters, only to land at the desired spot, to place an American flag at the Pole.

November 13, 1928
First Four Cinephone Cartoons Under Way
Four of a series of 26 new all sound animated cartoons to be made by Walter Disney, creator of the Oswald cartoons are now in work at the new Powers Cinephone studio in New York. The new series is tentatively titled "Micky Mouse." The first subject has been completed and three others will be ready for screening within the next week or ten days.
Each of the 26 subjects will have a distinguishing title. The first will be known as "Steamboat Willie" to be followed by "The Barn Dance, The Galloping Gaucho" and "Plain Crazy."

November 18
"Nicked Nags"
Krazy Kat—Paramount
Diverting
Type of production. .. 1 reel cartoon
Krazy Kat and his cartoon antics are always amusing. These animated bits of nonsense have a happy faculty of inducing chuckles so cleverly done are they. This release was caught at the Rivoli, New York, at the tail end of the bill. The hour was quite late, but a very good percentage of the crowded house waited to see Krazy and his latest crazy stunts. Which speaks much for the series and their drawing power.

EXHIBITORS DAILY REVIEW
November 19, 1928
"U" TO SYNCHRONIZE
'OSWALD' RABBIT COMICS
Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit of the Universal cartoon comedies, is to be synchronized or whatever they do to rabbits to make them talk and make funny noises. The cartoon comedies henceforth will appear with full Movietone sound and music effects.
The first Oswald with sound will be called "Oswald's Ragtime Band." It will be made as both a silent and a sound picture, since thousands of theatres are running the Oswald cartoons which do not have sound picture apparatus and who probably will not get it during the next year or longer.
"Oswalds" are made for Universal by the Winkler productions, Inc., headed by Charles Mintz.

EXHIBITORS DAILY REVIEW
November 19, 1928
"Cinephone" Precedent Set by Colony Show
A precedent in the question of "interchangeability", exactly the opposite of the Hagerstown case, is set this week at The Colony Theatre on Broadway, New York, where the Walter Disney animated sound cartoon, "Steamboat Willie" with sound recording by Powers Cinephone, is being presented and reproduced on a Western Electric device.
The Colony Theatre is equipped with Western Electric sound on film and disc reproducers. The Powers Cinephone recording is on the film and its reproduction at The Colony is on the same machine used for Movietone.
The Colony showing of the Disney cartoon also marks the first public presentation of the Powers Cinephone system. Film tests of the Powers Cinephone leading to the perfection of the machine have been going on during the past three years but they have all been shown privately.
The presentation of the Disney cartoon is also the premiere of a new series and a new comic character. It is also the first animated cartoon made especially for sound production, and as such it illustrates the perfection of synchronization that is possible when pictures are constructed especially for sound accompaniment.

November 21, 1928
The Third Day
Rounding out its 15th exhibition, "Steamboat Willie," a sound cartoon recorded via Powers' Cinephone yesterday played its third day at the Colony, New York over W. E. equipment without interruption, thus demonstrating complete interchangeability between these systems.

November 22, 1928
The Fourth Day
Powers' Cinephone subjects demonstrated interchangeability with Western Electric reproducing equipment for the fourth successive day when a cartoon subject on the bill of the Colony, New York last night rounded out its 20th performance. The picture, "Steamboat Willie," will be held over for a second week.

November 25
"Steamboat Billie"
Walt Disney Cartoon
Real Entertainment Type of production Cartoon in sound
This is what "Steamboat Willie" has: First, a clever and amusing treatment; secondly, music and sound effects added via the Cinephone method. The result is a real tidbit of diversion. The maximum has been gotten from the sound effects. Worthy of bookings in any house wired to reproduce sound-on-film. Incidentally, this is the first Cinephone-recorded subject to get public exhibition and at the Colony, New York, is being shown over Western Electric equipment. Distribution has not been set.

December 2
"Farmyard Follies"—Oswald Cartoon
Universal
Original
lype of production. .1 reel animated
Artists Hamilton and Lantz put a lot of clever animation into this one. They show in their work that they are striking out along new lines, and the hue of gags they develop for the bunny rabbit Oswald are amusing. Oswald attempts to take charge of things on the farm. He washes the lone pig, and tries to milk the cow, but with poor success. His chief trouble is with a sassy young chicken that insists on mixing things up generally till Oswald applies the ax to her neck. A very enjoyable cartoon comic for old and young.

"The Fishing Fool"—Fables
Pathe
Okay
Type of production. . 1 reel animated
All about a fishing trip indulged in by Waffles the cat and Al Falfa. As usual, the cat has all the luck while Al finds nothing but trouble on the end of his line. He goes through a series of remarkable adventures with a turtle, a mermaid and a walrus. Finally he is pursued by a monster fish which catches Al violating the fishing rules by angling with a mouse trap on his hook. Up to the Fables standard.

"The Yankee Clipper"—Oswald
Universal
Clever Type of production. . 1 reel comedy
Oswald, the funny rabbit goes through his cartoonatics in great form. This time he is a barber with a very up-to-date establishment. The animated barber pole picks up pedestrians ofif the street and shoots them into the barber chair. This helps trade a lot. The climax shows Oswald made up as a manicurist in order to please the villain wolf whom he has kept waiting. Wolf takes him for a necking party in his car, and when he discovers that Oswald ain't that kind of a gal, he throws him out with a pair of roller skates.

Exhibitors Daily Review
December 6, 1928
Harry Bailey, long with Aesop Fables and one of the pioneer animated cartoonists in the business is handing cigars around this week because of the arrival in his family of Miss Phyllis Anne Bailey . . Show some animation, Harry.

December 16
SOUND
"Stage Struck"—Aesop Fable—Pathe
RCA Photophone
Peppy
Type of production.. 2 reel cartoon comedy
Farmer Al Falfa at last finds a voice, and so do most of the animals who accompany him on his adventure. The old farmer insists on taking part in an amateur theatrical that is given down on the farm. He comes out on the stage for his various acts, but some hard luck always interposes to earn him a razzing from the animal audience. The sound effects are good comedy effects, and make the popular cartoon subject more entertaining than ever. Here is one place sound belongs without any arguments. No matter how poor the effects may be, the kids will always interpret it as part of the comedy and kidding. But in this case, the RCA outfit have done a fine job which should add new friends to the large following this subject enjoys.

December 19, 1928
Stanley Gets Cinephone Series
Pre-release contract for the new series of Walt Disney Cinephone sound cartoons, "Mickey Mouse," has been closed today with the Stanley Company of America by Charles Giegerich, eastern business manager for Disney.

EXHIBITORS DAILY REVIEW
DISNEY CARTOONS TO PLAY STANLEY
Charles J. Geigerich, business manager for Walter Disney, animated cartoon producer, yesterday closed a deal for the new series of 12 sound cartoons for the entire Stanley chain of theatres. The cartoons are being synchronized by Powers Cinephone.
The first booking on this deal will open at the Strand Theatre in New York week of January 1st.

39 Again?

When Jack Benny died in 1974, newspapers quietly joked in their obituaries that he was 39. It seems that Benny was always 39 but despite an Associated Press story in 1950 that it had been a joke of his for years, it wasn’t. Benny didn’t turn 39 on the radio until 1948. And he decided 39 was a funny number—and the vanity of it fit his character—that he stayed there. He played it up. Other radio shows played it up. As you can see, the AP even did a straight news story about it (newspapers ran it on their front page, too).

Pretty soon, the newspaper columnists realised a Jack Benny “39” birthday feature story was an easy one to do every February. Let’s give you a few. The first ones appeared in 1954, and this is one of them that year.

Jack Benny Still Calls It ‘Only 40’ But He’s Actually 60 Valentine Day
By JAMES BACON
ASSOCIATED PRESS STAFF WRITER
HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 13. — Tomorrow is not only Valentine’s Day, It is a notable milestone for Jack Benny. He will be 60 years old.
This man, who’s been 39 long enough for a whole generation of babies to grow old enough to vote, occupies a special, sort of niche. In years in show business, he has made few enemies. May be none.
This week Benny announces be will now be 40.
Hollywood is a place where a nasty story flies faster than jet ace Chuck Yeager. But you don’t hear any about Benny.
There may be a reason. Benny rarely kids anyone else; he’s too busy kidding himself. He’s made a fortune out of being the butt of his own jokes. That makes it hard for anyone else to get mad at him.
The Benny fountain of youth is just one of many myths that the wag of Waukegan likes to perpetuate about himself. Take his reputation for stinginess.
ANYONE WHO KNOWS will tell you that Benny is one of the most generous men in town. He is a perpetual gift giver, widely known for his charitable work. Yet, while many a star sends along press agents with each contribution, Benny prefers secrecy.
Eddie Cantor tells of the time he invited Jack to his home for dinner. During the course of the dinner, Cantor, an active worker for the cause, told Jack of a bonds for Israel drive.
“I could see Jack was interested,” Cantor recalls, “but he floored me when he wrote out check for $25,000.”
Cantor adds:
“The only reference I ever heard him make about it was once when he told a mutual friend: ‘Don’t ever eat at Cantor’s house. He serves the most expensive meals in town’.”
ANOTHER BENNY myth is his lack of violin skill.
To this day, the fiddle is his great love, except for his wife and daughter. Successful as he is as a comic, he occasionally broods over what might have happened had he practiced the violin more as a child. At the turn of the century, Waukegan, Ill., knew Benny as a child prodigy. Even in grammar school, he was good enough to play in the pit orchestra of the local vaudeville house.
Some weeks ago, he convulsed a swank filmland gathering as master of ceremonies.
After the banquet, most of the big shot guests left. Those who stayed for the dancing got a real treat. They saw happy Benny playing a jazzy violin in the orchestra.
ANOTHER FAVORITE Benny myth is his constant reference to his toupee — always good for a laugh. Jack has a good head of hair and needs a toupee like Liberace.
Benny made one of the great movie stinkers of all time a few years back, "The Horn Blows at Midnight.” He says frankly “It just plain stunk.” But he’s made it a sure-fire, laugh-getting gag for years. Recently, with a rewritten script, he played the role on TV in Ominbus, and it came off well.
Benny admits that offstage he is the most unfunny of top comedians. Laughmaking to him is a serious business. But other comics love him, because when he laughs it’s because something is funny. George Burns is probably his favorite. He has called Burns “the comedian's comedian.”
Once Burns called Jack in London. The call from Beverly Hills came through clear as a bell.
“I just called to say hello, Jack,” said George. “So hello.” Bang went the receiver.
BENNY TALKED about this gag for a year. Then Burns and Allen played the Palladium in London. Benny flew all the way to London. George and Gracie were attending a party. Benny got on a phone in the next room.
He had Jane Wyman imitate an English operator saying “Beverly Hills calling Mr. Burns.”
Jack, on the other end, said: “Hello, George, sorry I can’t be there” and slammed down the receiver. Burns thought the gag was terrific. Then Benny slipped into the room to make it even funnier.
One running gag on the Benny show concerns Mary Livingstone’s job behind the hosiery counter at the May Company. That's no myth. She actually was working there when she and Jack started getting serious about each other.
They have been married 27 years and she has been an important part of the act almost that long. A job with Benny amounts to a lifetime career. Don Wilson has been with him 20 years, Eddie (Rochester) Anderson 17 and Dennis Day better than 15.
OF KENNY BAKER, once the radio show’s top singer, Benny says: “I guess he got a few laughs and thought he could do better on his own. I didn’t know he wanted to leave until he left. He could be working for me today.” Today Benny says he doesn’t know where Baker is now.
Even his writers have been with him 11 years. That probably qualifies as a Hollywood record for the most expendable of local careers.
Benny was one of the first comedians to play straight for the other people in the cast. It has been said that Benny can get more laughs out of a simple “Hmmmmm” than most comics get from a sock joke.
“Yes,” agrees Benny, “but don’t forget that a lot went before that ‘Hmmmm’ to make it sound funny at that time.”

Now from February 14, 1955.

Jack Benny, 39, Promises He’ll Be 40 Next Year
BY ALINE MOSBY
HOLLYWOOD — (U.P.) — Jack Benny celebrated another 39th birthday today but next year, he promised, he’ll be 40.
For 11 years, Benny has been 39 on his radio and TV shows, a running gag that has turned the veteran comedian’s age into a national institution.
Actually, Benny is 61 on this Valentine’s day. In 1956 he will reluctantly add another year to the only age he’ll admit on his programs.
“I considered becoming 40 this year but my birthday was too far away from my show. Next year it will be closer so we can make a national event out of it,” said Benny, a smart showman even when it comes to birthdays.
“By the time I’m 43 on my show I won’t be able to work,” he smiled.
Believable Age Gag
Benny was sitting in Romanoff’s, an upholstered eatery where you often can see celebrities plowing into $6 lunches. But even in Hollywood the fancy restaurants have home town touches. Between courses Benny exchanged notes, dispatched by a patient headwaiter, with a diner on the other side of the room, Humphrey Bogart.
I thought Bogie’s notes were funnier. But, then Benny is the first to admit he surrounds himself with the best of TV-radio writers.
“People say I could just stand on the stage and be funny,” said Benny. “I’ve been in the business a long time. I know better. You have to have material. And it must have a fairly believable premise.”
Introduced Gag In ‘41
The age gag, believable because Benny doesn’t look his years, was introduced into his show in 1943. Benny then was supposed to be 36. The following year he became 37 but five years ago stopped at 39, and has vigorously resisted turning 40 ever since.
The joke is so well known now that when Arthur Godfrey recently asked a TV contestant his age, the audience howled when the man answered, “39.” Even Benny’s show business colleagues are mesmerized by the gag.
“You should see some of the movie scripts I get,” said Benny, “I’d have to be 39 to play them. Recently I was offered the role of a baseball pitcher! And they wanted me to do ‘Seven Year Itch’ on the stage. They don’t think I get any older.
Formula for Youth
“This may be because radio and TV are like a comic strip. You hear the same voice, see the same face. Entertainers don’t grow or sound older to people.”
Benny has a simple formula for keeping his youthful looks: Diet and stay in show business.
“In this business you keep looking young,” said Benny, who has the relaxed, healthy air of a big success (he is No. 1 on radio and in TV’s top 10).
“You work all the time and are always around young people. Why, when I walk on the stage I feel as I did when I walked on 30 years ago,” he said, and sauntered off to go to a golf course.

Ms. Mosby took a couple of birthdays off. Here’s her last one from February 13, 1957. Mosby left United Press to do public relations and freelance reporting from The Brussells Exhibition, then returned to the wire service to report from Moscow.

Actor Jack Benny, 63, Is 39 Again Thursday—Keeping Legend Straight
By ALINE MOSBY
* * *
HOLLYWOOD (UP) — Jack Benny celebrates his 39th birthday again Thursday — because staying 39, he said today, “keeps me young.”
The comedian who has won more continued success on radio and TV than any other entertainer actually will be 63 on Valentine’s Day. But to his millions of fans, and Benny himself, he’s still 39—a happy legend he began on his radio show back in 1945.
“People should forget birthdays and their age,” reflected Benny as he sat in his Beverly Hills office on the eve of the occasion.
“If it weren’t for observing birthdays, you couldn’t keep track of your age. It would be wonderful if a person couldn't. Some people feel old just because of those numbers that are pinned to him.
He Feels 39
“You don’t look older to people who see you all the time. I really feel 39—just as I forgot my right name as soon as I changed it to Jack Benny. I do the 39 gag so much on my show that I don’t picture myself as much older.”
Benny first used the age gag in 1945 on radio when he announced he was 36. He was 37 for a couple of years and finally moved to 39 where he stayed. Since then the age joke—along with gags about his Maxwell car and his gold-filled vault—has become a national legend. Once a Texas newspaper headlined, “Temperature Hits Jack Benny Age—39.”
The gentle, amiable comedian realized the importance of his 39 pose two years ago when he planned to turn 40 on his CBS-TV show. It was to be a national event, an hour program bringing together all the entertainers who have worked with him, from Frank Parker to Phil Harris.
But a Boston newspaper talked Jack out of it.
Gag Helps Others
“Someone sent me an editorial they printed," said Jack, parking his feet on top of his desk. “It begged me not to grow older.
"Their reasoning was that it has been a great help to a lot of people who now can figure that when they get to be 39 they won’t get any older, either. And so they don’t get older.
"I usually don't heed critics.
This was the first time I ever listened to a newspaper. We cancelled the show and I’m still 39.”
Each year Jack receives thousands of birthday cards, many marked 39. Fans also send gifts, such as a model of an old Max well that sits on his desk. He also is proud of such presents as a 1955 Pennsylvania license plate, “JB 39,” and old hub caps from Maxwells.
This year Jack will be given his biggest birthday party in his life. He’ll be feted by the top stars of show business Thursday night at a $100-a-plate dinner with proceeds going to the American Heart Fund.

Finally, Jack gave some tips in the February 19, 1954 edition of Collier’s on how to avoid becoming 40. He got a promo piece from the United Press. There’s no byline on this one.

Jack Benny 39?
NEW YORK, Feb 4. (UP)—Jack Benny made an announcement today. He’s going to be “40.”
The comedian, who has been 85 —or younger — since your old crystal set, told how he discovered and got used to the difficult idea in an article for a popular magazine.
“Today I face the future fearlessly,” Benny wrote, “convinced that, after 39 years of the best fruits of life, my next 39 years will be just as fruitful—and will last just as long.”
In passing, Benny passed on some hints for avoiding 40.
Benny listed them this way:
“1. Before your 40th birthday keep circulating the story that you’re 39. If people hear it often enough they'll believe it for years.
“2. When in the company of younger people, ask their advice on everything. Pretty soon they’ll begin to believe they’re older than you are.
“3. Stay slim, thin people always look younger. Connie Mack is 92, but he's so slender nobody figures him to be more than 88.
“4. If you have to spend any money, do it grudgingly. People will think you’re saving up for your old age instead of entering it. This rule won't cost you anything except a few friends, but you’ll have so much money you’d be ducking them anyway.
“5. Avoid reminiscing about the past. If the name Lincoln should come up in your conversation, be sure that it's the car you’re talking about and not the President.”
P.S. Who’s Who says Benny was born Feb. 14, 1894, in Waukegan, Ill.

We don’t have “a million of ‘em” as the great Jimmy Durante once said, but we do have a few more birthday columns from the 1950s that we’ll post some other time.