Alice Pearce

When Frank Sinatra called columnist Dorothy Kilgallen “the Chinless Wonder,” he wasn’t being complementary. But there was an actress who seems to have given it to herself and relished the title.

Anyone who watched sitcoms in the ‘60s—or reruns of them years later—will recognise the shrill cry “Abner! Abner!!!” Gladys Kravitz shouted it at her uninterested husband (who was usually reading a newspaper at the time) as she witnessed something unexplainable going on next door at Darren and Samatha Stephens’ home on “Bewitched.” The nosy neighbour role was originated by Alice Pearce, who credited her lack of chin with giving her plenty of work as a character actress. Considering she was dying of cancer at the time “Bewitched” debuted in 1964, her chin was the least of her worries.

Pearce hadn’t achieved notoriety as Mrs. Kravitz when Parade magazine profiled her in its issue of October 11, 1964; she had only appeared on two episodes at that point. But the article captures her positive attitude toward life.

Alice Pearce the Chinless Wonder
HER FADEAWAY CHIN BRINGS HER TOP ROLES EVERYWHERE IN SHOW BUSINESS
by LLOYD SHEARER
HOLLYWOOD.
Most people who are born with or acquire a handicap let it get them down.
They waste years of their lives getting pickled in the vinegar of their own depression. They develop an introverted and sour personality. Disgruntled, irascible, disappointed, they become envious and irritable, constantly bemoan the unkind fate which made them too tall, too short, not pretty or handsome or rich enough.
There are some persons, however, who not only conquer their handicaps but turn them into assets.
Take the case of Alice Pearce, 46, formerly of New York City and now of Los Angeles. A receding chin has led Alice to Broadway, TV and film success as the bird-brain of all time. Thanks to her fadeaway chin, Alice earns from $20,000 to $30,000 a year playing lame-brain and idiot parts.
She has just finished working in five major films, the latest opposite Jimmy Stewart in Dear Brigitte, and has more TV character offers than she can handle. “Women with fadeaway chins who look weak and silly,” Alice says, “are apparently hard to come by.”
Alice Pearce was not born with the runaway chin-line which is today her stock in trade. She was born in New York City of a firm-chinned, wealthy and intelligent family. Her father was a foreign banking specialist, and when Alice was a child she was taken to Brussels, Belgium, where her dad represented the Chase National Bank.
“One afternoon when I was 9,” the actress recalls, “I was playing in a park in Brussels. 1 was showing off on a swing. I think I was trying to impress some boys. I went way up, lost my grip and slipped out of the swing.”
Alice landed on her chin with such impact that its growth was permanently retarded. All the dentists and bone specialists of Europe could do nothing for the girl. From that point on she was destined to go through life with an underdeveloped chin.
“Every girl wants to be beautiful," Alice Pearce declares, “especially in our society where we put such a tremendous emphasis on physical beauty. In our culture, according to the advertisements, to be beautiful is to be automatically happy.
Supposedly doors open for you everywhere, men swoon, beauty is the key to success.
“None of this is true, but like every other young girl, I was brainwashed by this concept, which, of course, made me unhappy. As a teenager I was sent off to boarding school, the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. At first I was self-conscious about my chin. Youngsters can be cruel, and I was afraid my classmates would make fun of me. They didn’t. They were very kind.
“As a result I didn’t develop any trauma. I was unhappy for a while, but I refused to let my chin or lack of one bring on an inferiority complex.
“When I got to Sarah Lawrence College, I looked in the mirror one day. I took inventory of myself. The most unusual thing about me was my chin. I decided to take advantage of it and become a comedienne, so I studied dramatics.
“While I was in college, I dated boys. Some of them actually phoned for a second or third date, and that was very reassuring to my ego. It proved that the boys were interested in me as a person, in me as a character, not because I had a pretty face.”
After graduation, Alice Pearce prepared herself for a theatrical career by a season of summer stock in Maine. Leonard Sillman, the producer, watched her work, and because comediennes are the rarest of breeds, signed her for her Broadway debut in New Faces of 1943.
“Luckily for me,” says Alice, “my weak chin caught on promptly, and I was signed for one bird-brain role after another.”
Alke was brought to Hollywood for a feature role opposite Fred Astaire in On the Town. After that she worked in Look, Ma, I'm Dancing, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Small Wonder, a flock of other Broadway and Hollywood hits. Returning to New York, she put together a one-gal night club comedy act. It played the Blue Angel in New York for 67 consecutive weeks.
Alice’s private life was equally fruitful. In 1948 she married John Rox, the composer (It’s a Big, Wide Wonderful World), and the marriage was a happy one, dissolved only when Rox died of a sudden heart attack in 1957.
Last month Alice Pearce got married again, this time to Paul Davis, a former Broadway director who now runs one of the leading art galleries in Los Angeles.
“I've never had any trouble with either men or women,” she says. “And frankly I think it's because of my chin. Everyone likes me to begin with because they feel sorry for me. When eventually they get to know me, they enjoy me for whatever good qualities I may have. I think this is particularly true of men. They say I’m fun to be with, that I'm not vain or self-centered. More important, I’m not competing against them.
“As for women, no woman has ever been jealous of me—not with my chin. Matter of fact, a physical handicap like mine makes me very, very popular with the girls. They take one look at me and say to themselves, ‘She’s no competition.’
“People with handicaps have an advantage in a competitive society. Unless they’re truculent or arrogant or just plain ornery, the first impression they make is a very sympathetic one. They arouse kindness and understanding and generosity. People want to lend them a helping hand.
“Look at me. As a chinless wonder, I've done very well. If I’d sustained no accident as a kid, if I had developed an ordinary chin, today I’d probably be just another starving, middle-aged character actress.
FEAR OF GROWING OLD
“Even if I had developed into a beauty—and I might have, because my mother was a beautiful woman—I’d be haunted by the fear of growing old. That’s the trouble with all beautiful actresses. Time eventually robs them of their beauty. They see it going, and they become desperate. They go in for plastic surgery, face-lifting, wrinkle-removing. How to stay young becomes their prime obsession.
"If a woman has never known great exterior beauty, she doesn't have to worry about its disappearance.
“Young girls won't believe this, hut many an intelligent man would rather marry a girl of charm, wit, character and achievement than a beauty contest winner who has none of these. Beauty is transient. Character is not. People who surmount handicaps generally develop character.
“If you were born with one, you should be grateful, not sorry. Take it from a chinless wonder who knows.”

Pearce died in 1966 and her part was taken by radio veteran Sandra Gould, who played the character a little more snarky than Pearce. In a way, there was a third Gladys Kravitz. In one episode, Endora (deliciously played by Agnes Moorehead) changes Gladys’ voice briefly to a little girl’s. That voice belongs to another wonderful actress named June Foray.

Pearce was voted a Best Supporting Actress Emmy posthumously for her work on “Bewitched.” Had she been around to accept it herself, she might have said she won it by a chin.

Cat and Mouse Flip Out

It seems everyone is blushing at one point or another in “The Office Boy,” a 1932 Flip the Frog cartoon. And with good reason. There’s plenty of bathroom and sexual humour to go around.

It’s really hard to pick the most outrageous scene but I stopped halfway through and declared a winner when a mouse and then a cat go up the secretary’s crotch during a chase.



Earlier, the office manager closely stares at a “Private” sign attached to the secretary’s butt. Later, she gets her butt slapped by the boss. That’s after she loses her dress altogether when it gets caught in the roller of a spirit duplicating machine. It’s all about as subtle as a moving van through a plate-glass window.

There are some cute gags with inanimate things coming to life, such as a letter and a face Flip has drawn on a window he’s cleaning. And, later in the cartoon, a fan shaves all the fur off the cat only to put it back on when the cat chased the mouse in the reverse direction, though the way it happens really doesn’t make any sense.

The credits say “Drawn by Ub Iwerks” but more than one person had to work on this because the animation is inconsistent. I suspect Grim Natwick deserves some credit; Natwick created the big-eyed, gartered Betty Boop and arrived at Iwerks’ studio in 1932.

What a Hole

Variations on the same gags can be found over and over in Tex Avery cartoon. There’s one in several cartoons where a character has a hole blasted through his body (or a part of it). Here are some examples.


Señor Droopy (1947)


Ventriloquist Cat (1950)


The Cuckoo Clock (1950)


Garden Gopher (1950)


The Chump Champ (1950)


Daredevil Droopy (1951)

All these shorts were written by Rich Hogan, who had been one of Avery’s writers at Warner Bros. He came over to MGM in 1941, and returned to the studio after the war.

1930 Cartoons on Parade

A week ago, we posted some snippets from The Film Daily about developments in the animated cartoon world for the first half of 1930. This post features the second half. And I’ll give you advance notice there’s not much of historical value. All the big changes in the industry happened in the first half of the year.

Perhaps the most interesting item in the trade paper was a report by a committee of the Society of Motion Pictures Engineers which outlined the changing state of the movie industry. The lengthy report read, in part:

Sound motion pictures have introduced certain fundamental changes in the previous order of motion picture programs. Overtures played by an orchestra have largely been eliminated, the value of the newsreel enhanced, the value of comedies lessened, but greater importance has been given to cartoons. The general length of program remains one of approximately two hours duration.

In other words, the two-reel comedy was already dying but cartoons were more popular than ever. And while it gives credit to sound, it would seem the real credit should go to Walt Disney for finding an imaginative way to use sound and creating a viable sound character the audience could identify with. Then other studios made the own carbon-copy versions of falsetto-voice animal singer/dancers.

Still, there are some interesting obscurities and reports of things-that-might-have-been. There’s an ad for animators and in-betweeners for a studio that had been set up in the Hardy Building in Hollywood. The studio’s listed in the 1931 Film Daily Directory, but who was behind it isn’t mentioned. The studio proposed to make something called “Scoop Scandals.” I can’t find out a thing about them. The office building once housed Rodney Gilliam’s Kinex Studios, which made stop motion pictures.

The star of the silent age, Felix the Cat, was having sound added to some of his silent pictures but, oddly, creator Pat Sullivan opted to try to make films with a new character, Hypo the Monk. Two drawings of the monkey were copyrighted on May 17 but I’ve seen nothing to suggest the cartoons were made. Sullivan died in 1933.

Maybe the most interesting snippet is the revelation that the Van Beuren Studio hired a gag man; so little is known about cartoon writers of the era (Disney possibly being an exception). Puzant K. Thomajan didn’t stay in the animation business long, it appears. The 1940 census (Van Beuren closed in 1936) lists him as a proof-reader at a book publisher. He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on June 29, 1902 and died on March 21, 1990 in Carlstadt, New Jersey. And several of his homilies are on the internet, such as “A hearty laugh gives one a dry cleaning, while a good cry is a wet wash.”

With that bit of trivia, let’s get into the snippets. Below them, I’ve posted the cartoon reviews found in the various issues. Yes, they wrote two different reviews for Van Beuren’s “Laundry Blues.” One contains a term for the Chinese not used in polite circles. Some of these cartoons are posted on on-line video sites, no doubt versions that were restored by Steve Stanchfield of Thunderbean Animation, who deserves tremendous credit for rescuing these obscure cartoons and putting them in a viewable condition that people can see, and maybe even enjoy, today. A few of the titles contain links to reviews at Andrea’s fine blog “Classic Cartoons.”

July 7, 1930
Getting Noise-Makers in the Cartoons
GETTING just the right sound to heighten the comedy effect of an Aesop Sound Fable scene or incident is an art that has been developed to a high degree by John Foster and his staff of humorists who prepare these Pathe reels. In putting over a sound effect it is seldom done with the instrument that you would expect to give forth the noise you hear. A large whistle blown by a bassoon player may provide that seriocomic squeal for little Milton Mouse and the spilling of a glass of water may sound like the Niagara Falls. The Aesop Fable sound department of the Van Beuren Corp. has accumulated 137 different sound devices. These devices are the queerest looking collection of what-nots imaginable, made out of every conceivable material, including cowhide, tin, horn, steel, brass and horsehair. Even the hollowed skull of an ox was utilized to provide comedy sound effects In "Swinging Saps." In this collection are 23 varieties of wooden instruments, 14 of which are used in one scene of "Sky Scrapers," which is in the making.
—New York "Telegram"

July 21, 1930
Mintz Speeding Up "Toby" Productions
Charlie Mintz, producer of the "Toby, the Pup" cartoon series for Radio Pictures, is back from the East and will speed up production and pass on new material prepared by Arthur Davis, Sid Marcus and Dick Huemer, major artists, and Joe De Mat [sic], musical director.
Animation for "The Milkman," third of the "Toby, the Pup" cartoons, has been completed, according to the report from Mintz. It is now in the recording room. "The Prospector" is the title of the fourth "Toby," on which animation has just started at the Mintz studio.

August 24, 1930
German Cartoon at 8th St.
A German sound song cartoon, the first produced by Paramount will be shown beginning today at the 8th St. Playhouse in conjunction with "Melodie des Herzens," first Ufa talker. The first Ufa sound shorts also will be on this program.

September 21, 1930
NEW SULLIVAN CARTOONS WILL MAKE BOW IN SPRING
A new series of synchronized cartoons, known as "Hypo the Monk," by Pal Sullivan, creator of "Felix," will be introduced next spring by Copley Pictures, it is announced by Jacques Kopfstein.

Chas. Mintz Finishes Four in "Toby the Pup" Series
West Coast Bureau, THE FILM DAILY
Hollywood—Four of the 12 one-reel cartoons, "Toby the Pup," being produced by Charles Mintz for RKO, have been finished.

2,000 Mouse Clubs

Circuits are getting such good results with Mickey Mouse Clubs, kid stunt on the Disney-Columbia cartoons, that there will be about 2,000 of the clubs in a year, sez Edward J. Vaughn, representative of Walt Disney and organizer of the groups.

10 Years for Terry
Paul Terry lays claim to being the only cartoonist with 10 successful years in creating animated screen drawings.

NINE "FELIX" COMPLETED BY COPLEY
Nine of the dozen synchronized "Felix" cartoons planned for the present season have been completed by Copley Pictures. The series is based on the cat character created by Pat Sullivan and syndicated in more than 300 daily papers.
Titles of the finished subjects are: "False Vases," "One Good Turn," "Oceantics," "Teetime," "April Maze," "Romeo," "Woos Whoopee," 'Forty Winks' and "Sculls and Skulls."
Work is practically concluded on the tenth of the series and the remaining subjects goes into production shortly.

PLAN NATIONAL PRIZE DRAWING CONTEST
Plans for local drawing contests, with prizes contributed by local shops or by the theater, have been worked out by the Van Beuren Corp. in connection with "Aesop's Fables." Similar stunts have been employed before with success, and interest has been revived through the recent publication of the story, "How Aesop's Sound Fables Are Made," in a national magazine. Van Beuren announces that, in addition to supplying exhibitors with details of how to conduct contests, if enough interest is aroused it will offer a special prize for the best drawing submitted by all theaters.

October 16, 1930
Frank Marsales, who is scoring music for "Looney Tunes," the animated cartoons being produced by the Harman-Ising studios, was formerly musical arranger for Paul Whiteman and Paul Ash. He also made a world's tour with the "Ingenues," who were featured in the Ziegfeld "Follies."

December 21, 1930
Organ Background For Cartoon
The first Aesop Fable cartoon synchronized with organ music has been made at the Ideal Studios in New Jersey under the direction of Gene Rodermich [sic], musical director for van Beuren. The organ was played by Emil Velazco.

December 24, 1930
Fleischer Employes Get $10,000 Bonuses, Raises
Max Fleischer is distributing $10,000 in Christmas bonuses to 100 employes of his cartooning organization. Half of the amount is being handed out now and the other half will be in salary increases over the year.

December 30, 1930
Puzant Thomajan, former gag man with Harold Lloyd, has been engaged by Van Beuren Corp. to originate gags for the Aesop's Fable cartoons.

REVIEWS

July 6, 1930
"Hungarian Goulash"
Educational Time, 5 mins.
Clever Cartoon
A cleverly contrived number, with he classic music of Franz Lizst made to provide harmonious accompaniment for the lively antics of the Terry-Toon creations. Anybody who enjoys cartoon comedies will jet a great deal of hearty satisfaction out of this one. In addition, because of its music, even the high-brows should find it hard to resist the affair.

Toby the Pup in "The Museum"
RKO Time, 7 mins.
Peppy Cartoon
A few new wrinkles, as well as a good round of merriment of the usual sort, are provided in this new cartoon creation produced by Charles Mintz. Toby is ordered by a rough-looking individual to polish up the exhibits in a museum. He goes at his work to the tune of some jazzy music which results in the various statues, skeletons mummies and other dead numbers being brought to life and cavorting all around the place. An ingenious and neatly executed short of this type. Ought to please very nicely.

July 13, 1930
Krazy Kat in "Alaskan Knights"
Columbia Time, 11 mins.
Fine Cartoon
Krazy Kat in his best form. Disporting in the Alaskan locale, among snow, dogsleds and saloons full of grizzly miners, Krazy has plenty of leeway for his comical antics and he delivers the laughs in regular style.

"Cannibal Capers"
Columbia Time, 6 mins.
Corking Cartoon
One of Walt Disney's best "Silly Symphonies" to date. After the little band of cannibals have disported awhile in highly amusing fashion, a ferocious lion turns up and the whole gang takes to its heels. The cannibals' intended victim, however, jumps out of the boiling pot and gives the lion the run-around, winding up by getting hold of the lion's false teeth and using them to scare the jungle beast out of his skin.

"Bully Beef"
Educational Time, 9 mins.
Usual Cartoon
One of the Paul Terry-Toons, being a parody on the front-line trench stuff, with the animals dodging the heavy artillery and carrying on in approved cartoon style. The gags are cleverly handled, and the incidental music by Philip Scheib adds considerably to the entertainment value. It will please the kids.

July 20, 1930
"Jungle Jazz"
Pathe Time, 8 mins.
Usual Cartoon
Another in the Van Beuren cartoon series, showing Waffles Cat and his pal, Don Dog, facing adventures in the wilds of Africa. Thrilling experiences with gorillas, apes and a python are recorded. Finally the cannibals get the adventurers and are stewing them in the pot when Don Dog pulls a fast one and saves their lives. The incidental music emphasizes the funny situations. The usual line of cartoon comics made for the delight of the kids.

August 3, 1930
"Snow Time"
Pathe Time, 8 mins.
Fair Cartoon
One of the Aesop Sound Fables, with the dogs, cats, birds and hippos having a big lark skating and singing till a little pup is overcome by the cold and falls exhausted in the snow. The St. Bernard is brought up with his barrel filled with Scotch, which the frozen pup empties. Then they all want to horn in on the liquor, but it is too late. Just a lot of clever foolishness done in the typical Aesop manner that will get the snickers. The sound effects are ludicrous and add to the merriment.

"Barnacle Bill"
Max Fleischer Time, 12 mins.
Good Cartoon
One of those silly but funny animal animateds, with Barnacle Bill, the tough sailor, calling on his girl and making violent love to her. All the neighborhood tries to horn in, and meanwhile the musical accompaniments and funny cartoon effects make this one extremely laughable. Winds up with the girl's old man coming back and bouncing Bill out on his ear. It will please the grown ups as well as the kids, for it is very cleverly handled.

August 24, 1930
"Laundry Blues"
Pathe Time, 9 mins.
Chinese Aesop Fable
A hodgepodge of animated cartoon events in Chinatown. Opens with a quartette of laundrymen who sing and dance as they work. A Jewish customer comes in and tries to get his shirts on a kosher ticket. The chinaman refuses but agrees to wash and iron the man's beard. Another chinaman starts a riot by hitting sour notes on a saxophone while trying to play. After the riot is over the quartette emerges from the ruins to go on with its singing. Okeh.

"Monkey Meat"
A Paul Terry-Toon
Educational Time, 6 mins.
Ordinary Cartoon Stuff
Monkeys have their play in this brief cartoon specialty. There is nothing of a story in evidence, so it's just a matter of showing the monkeys playing various instruments to the tune of "I Am Always Blowing Bubbles." In one scene there is a Rhino sitting on a bubble and enjoying himself until it breaks, and that is about the most amusing item. Just an ordinary synchronized cartoon that will go as a filler.

Oswald, the Rabbit, in "Cold Feet"
Universal Time, 7 mins.
Snappy Cartoon
In this clever number, Oswald and his friends take to the Swiss mountains and have a fine time playing various musical instruments and cutting many capers. It's a snappy cartoon with good musical accompaniment.

August 31, 1930
"Laundry Blues"
Pathe Time, 9 mins.
Clever Cartoon
A very clever Aesop Fable, with the cartoon animals down in Chinatown. A quartette of harmonious laundrymen is featured, and their funny antics as they do their work to the accompaniment of weird Chink music and singing is among the best bits seen anywhere in the modern sound cartoon. Winds up in a general riot when one Chink tries to do a Rudy Vallee on the saxophone. Very clever, and also very funny.

September 7, 1930
Krazy Kat in "Honolulu Wiles"
Columbia Time, 7 mins.
Ace Cartoon
Here's a darb in the Krazy Kat series. It shows the clever cartoon character disporting among the Hawaiian sunshine and other native attractions. Everything, from the palm trees and sea waves to the dusky grass-skirted hula maidens and the very islands themselves, fall a-swaying to the tune of a rollicking assortment of Hawaiian music. A topnotch number of its kind that will tickle the folks by and large.

September 14, 1930
Mickey Mouse in "The Shindig"
Columbia Time, 7 mins.
Okay
A barnyard setting supplies the locale for this Mickey Mouse performance, which consists of the animals conducting a hoofing spree, with Minnie Mouse doing honors at the piano. Right up to the usual standard of the Mickey Mouse cartoon series.

September 21, 1930
"Fried Chicken"
Educational Time, 6 mins
Very Good
With various animals aiding in the entertaining, this Paul Terry-Toon offers a good assortment of new tricks in cartoons and also plenty of comedy. The number is built around the song "Swanee River" and every movement of the birds, chickens, cows, et al, is synchronized with the music. The funniest sequence is where the steamboat in order to pass a bridge submerges in the water and comes out again after the distance is covered. Another particularly funny scene is where one of the animals milks a cow, which is being carried by an albatross, in the air.

"Arctic Antics"
Columbia Time, 9 mins.
Ace Cartoon
Swell cartoon entertainment is this Walt Disney subject, one of the Silly Symphony series. Delightfully goofy stuff. Against an Arctic background cartooned native animals go through the gestures of singing and dancing. The characters move in synchronism with the music. It's packed with laughs for everybody from six to sixty, and then some.

"Farm Foolery"
Pathe Time, 9 mins.
Neat Cartoon
The latest of the Aesop Fables shows the animals down on the farm disporting themselves to the tune of jazzy music and goofy songs. There is featured throughout a quartette of barnyard animals, and other cartoonic comics are the dancing chickens, the waddling ducks, and funny dogs and cows. The sentimental motif is introduced with a dog making love to an enormous pig. Clever foolishment pepped up with appropriate harmonies.

"The Glow Worm"
Paramount Time, 5 mins.
English-German Song Cartoon
A novelty among song cartoons in that it is bi-lingual, opening in German and closing in English. Subject matter concerns glow worms, caterpillars and such, cavorting in harmony with off-stage singing, with a change of characterizations for the English and the German. Each version is preceded by an announcement in German telling what is about to take place. Then the words are flashed on the screen in both German and English. Rates fair and probably more suitable for the foreign country than here.

"Frozen Frolics"
Pathe Time, 7 mins.
Clever Aesop Fable
Aesop Fable wherein Don Dog and Waffles take a trip to the North Pole, to the accompaniment of a lot of goofy musical effects and funny animal antics. In their travels they meet up with a Teddy bear ballet, a family of funny dancing penguins, singing walruses, and syncopating bears with an audience of applauding seals. Arrived at the Pole, they find a barber in possession, who leaves them in possession of the prize. But a tough looking bear appears, which Don finally licks, and returns inside its skin to scare the life out of cat Waffles. Clever cartoon work jazzed up with the incidental music and funny animal sounds.

"Frolicking Fish"
Columbia Time, 6 mins.
Excellent Cartoon
An undersea exhibition that keeps the patrons chuckling all the way. All sorts of fantastic fish are put through a dizzy series of dances, drills and whatnot, in tune to some unusually fitting music. The chief amusement is provided by a villainous octopus chasing a fish, but the wicked one is given the k.o. in the end when the smart little fish drops an anchor on him from a sunken vessel. One of the best of the Silly Symphonies series.

October 5, 1930

"The Booze Hangs High"
(Looney Tunes No. 4)
Vitaphone 4268 Time, 6 mins.
Comical Cartoon
Another of the cartoon creations that clicks as usual with its nutty comicalities performed to the tune of rhythmic musical accompaniment and some synchronized vocal efforts. The idea is taken from "The Goose Hangs High" and the adaptation of the lyrics from this piece to the purposes of the cartoon is quite entertaining. Activity in this instance is provided by the fantastic animals, including "Looney," engaging in the usual dancing and musical-instrument burlesquing.

"Henpecked"
(Oswald Cartoon)
Universal Time, 7 mins.
Up to Standard
Oswald continues to hold his own among the cartoon stars in this latest of his escapades wherein he makes so much noise on a piano that a one-legged bear is roused to retaliation. After Oswald has calmed down, a flock of his relatives drop in on him and raise some more whoopee to the discomfort of the old bruin. Has the usual number of clever quirks in both idea and drawing, and is highly entertaining all the way.

"Swing, You Sinners"
(Talkartoon)
Paramount Time, 8 mins.
Clever Cartoon
Something out of the ordinary in cartoon subjects. With "Sing, You Sinners" for its musical background, the caricatures carry out the idea of a ghostly nightmare haunting a would-be chicken thief. The idea in its entirety, from adapted lyrics to cartoon work, is clever and ought to be a treat for audiences anywhere.

October 12, 1930
"The Detective"
Universal Time, 7 mins.
Good Cartoon
Oswald the funny rabbit gets himself pinched when Cock Robin is found murdered, although our hero is innocent. The audience is let in on the mystery, for they see the robin shot by Mr. Worm, after the villain had tried to kidnap little Worm. So things look bad for Oswald at the trial, till he hits on the idea of playing harmonies on his bow and arrow. This puts the judge and jury into a series of jazz steps, and they bring in a verdict of not guilty. Clever cartoon work with a nice comedy slant.

"Circus Capers"
Pathe Time, 9 mins.
Good Aesop Fable
An Aesop Fable, showing the funny cartoon animals rushing into the tent show after the street parade ballyhoo. They go through the usual routine of the circus, showing all the bare back riders, trained animals and other thrilling numbers, all done with the comedy touch. A story thread is worked in with the love of the clown for the bareback rider, he being crashed from a cannon and landing through the net to find his gal in the arms of his rival. An unusual novelty is introduced here by someone with a fine voice singing "Laugh, Clown, Laugh," as the clown goes through the dramatic stuff with funny facial contortions. The combination gets the laughs.

October 19, 1930
"Midnight"
Pathe Time, 7 mins.
Peppy Cartoon
This Aesop opens with a quartet of cats serenading the heroine while she does a silhouette dance behind a drawn curtain to their music. Finally old Alfalfa gets annoyed and calls on a bunch of canines, who engage the felines in combat. The dogs in a warbling number do the "Sextette from Lucia." Clever number, with the synchronized sound effects pepping it up with a lot of comedy touches.

"French Fried"

(Terry-Toon)
Educational Time, 6 mins.
Swell
A farmer chap similar to the Aesop Fable gent is the leading actor in this cartoon number. The action takes him by airplane to France, where he sports around the town and winds up in a Parisian haunt. As he is putting on a neat Apache dance, some native roughnecks kidnap him, but the farmer is saved by the timely arrival of his faithful dog. Appropriate music and effects help the neat idea along nicely.

October 25, 1930
"Monkey Melodies"
(Silly Symphony)
Columbia Time, 7 mins.
Good Cartoon
A little love episode in the jungle, with two simians as the sweethearts and an alligator as the menacing villain, provides the framework for this cartoon comedy. Entirely well done both in action and in synchronized score.

"Jumping Beans"
Educational Time, 9 mins.
Neat Cartoon
A Paul Terry-Toon exploiting a cowboy hero who feeds the villain jellybeans with disastrous but hilarious consequences. The incidental music by Philip Scheib is real harmony, and enhances the funny cartoon antics and increases the laugh voltage. Clever animation, up to the standard of this series.

November 2, 1930
"Fowl Ball"
Universal Time, 6 mins.
Nice Cartoon
A typical Oswald cartoon, with the hero leading a band of bullfrogs in some very good syncopation. The harmony is interrupted as a pelican swallows the various members of the band, and finally Oswald. Then interior views of the pelican show the orchestra undismayed, and assembling under the leader's direction for another concert. Good cartoon work, and funny antics.

November 9, 1930
"The Big Cheese"
Pathe Time, 7 mins.
Pip Cartoon
One of the best of the Aesop Fables, and incidentally one of the best cartoonatics seen this season. The animators put some real thought into this one, and came up with a gag ending that is a wow. All about a tough dog in training at the Canine Athletic Club. The champ fighter goes into the ring battle with everybody fully expecting a murder, but the champ goes into a syncopated dance that will get the laughs. Cleverly gagged, and the incidental music fits in perfectly.

November 16, 1930
"A Jolt for Gen. Germ"
Paramount Time, 6 mins.
Commercial Cartoon
This is a Max Fleischer cartoon designed to advertise Lysol and it entertains very satisfactorily while it advertises. A story is in back of the cartoon work, the plot dealing with an army of germs descending upon the country, with old Gen. Germ also acting the villain after the heroine, whereupon a courier is dispatched to- a drug store for a bottle of Lysol and a sprinkling of this liquid immediately wipes out the germ army, general included. Sound effects are employed to enhance the action. The cartoon work is excellent.

November 30, 1930
"Gypped in Egypt"
Pathe Time, 8 mins.
Good Aesop Fable
This Aesop Fable has the cartoon cat and dog on an adventure in Egypt. They fall into an ancient town, and find themselves surrounded by mummies and skeletons that come to life. There is a funny fire sequence, with all the skeleton riding pell-mell to the fire in chariots. It finishes with a wild ride in an elevator to the top of an obelisk, where they step off the platform into space. A nightmare of goofy antics cleverly worked out for the laughs.

"Office Boy"
Pathe Time, 7 mins.
Burlesque Cartoon
An Aesop cartoon which is a sort of burlesque on the office wife idea. Milton Mouse is in love with the stenog, but the boss is playing up the cutie, so Milton has to take a back seat. But the boss' wife comes in and catches her hubby in a dance with the girl, so this leaves the road clear for Milton and the heroine to elope. The fade-out is a cute idea, with the two on a train singing "Fascinating Baby."

"The Navy"
Universal Time, 6 mins.
Neat Cartoon
This Oswald cartoon has the animated hero as a gob calling on the girl whom the captain is also courting. Oswald pulls some funny stunts in the course of his serenading, till the captain chases him on board the boat. A swift kick from the captain lands him back on the clothes line outside the window of his love, where he resumes his courting and everything is jake. Oswald is as funny as ever, and the cartoon ideas are cleverly executed.

December 7, 1930
Mickey Mouse in "The Picnic"
Columbia Time, 7 mins.
Pip Cartoon
There seems to be no end to the original antics and laugh-producing stunts emanating from the Walt Disney workshops and performed by the sprightly Mickey Mouse and his chief co-worker, Minnie Mouse. This latest number is in the pip class and not only stirs up loud merriment but even elicits a healthy round of applause, which is some tribute considering that the public has been regaled with a considerable quantity of cartoon comedies in the past year or so. In the present subject Mickey takes his Minnie for a picnic in the woods, where they disport themselves while the animals of the forest raid their lunch, until a rainstorm chases all of them to cover.

December 21, 1930
“Alaska”
Universal Time, 7 mins.
Neat Cartoon
A clever burlesque on the old-time Klondike saloon. Oswald, the funny rabbit, is a tenderfoot, and has a tough time trying to hold up his end with the hardboiled guests in Dirty Dalton’s Saloon. The synchronized musical effects are especially well handled, the big kick coming on a song “Pop Goes the Weasel,: which is put over by some comic variations by the different musicians. Walter Lantz and Bill Nolan, the cartoonists, did a good job.

December 28, 1930
“Winter”
Columbia Time, 6 mins.
Fair Cartoon
This Disney Silly Symphony doesn’t stand up with previous releases. The synchrony is well done and the animation up to the average but it lacks gags for laughs. Much show, skating and slidin, with the usual animal antics for nothing particularly clever.

“Pigskin Capers”
Educational Time, 7 mins.
Nice Cartoon
A Paul Terry-Toon with the animals in a football scrimmage and doing a good parody on the regular football procedure at the college games. The synchronized music and funny sound effects are good, and put this over with pep and a nice quota of laughs.

Benny and the Brits

If you wanted to get an old-timer in show business to light up, all you had to do was say the word “vaudeville.” All of them seem to have been nostalgic for it, despite the endless travel, low pay and unresponsive audiences that they endured. Maybe because it was a simpler time, one without an entourage who used them for a livelihood or the daily disruptions in life that fame brings. Maybe it was being part of a supportive group (of outcasts, in some cases) all trying to make it big. Fred Allen wrote a whole book about his struggles in vaudeville (the delightful Much Ado About Me), but left you with the impression he’d go back to it in a second. And Jack Benny loved it, too, despite the fact he struggled along with everyone else at one point. Unlike Allen, Jack didn’t just recall it. He tried to live it one last time. Again and again.

World War Two took Jack Benny around the world but post-war, his destination of choice was London. The New York Times wrote on July 21, 1948:

British theatre critics were almost as enthusiastic today as the fans of Jack Benny who filled the Palladium last night to welcome him in person. The audience obviously knew every aspect of the comedian’s material by heart and revelled in its translation from air to stage by Phil Harris, Mary Livingstone and Marilyn Maxwell.

About the same show, a headline in the Boston Globe read: “Jack Benny Given 10-Minute Ovation by London Audience.” Is it any wonder he went back? In June, 1950, Benny, Harris, Rochester and a cast of 40 took their tour to London, where he gave a command performance for the royal family. In 1957, he performed with the London Symphony and appeared on the BBC. Two years later, London was among the overseas destinations where Jack had filmed part of his TV show. In 1961, he gave a command performance for the Queen Mother—as Gracie Allen, with George Burns. Four years later, he was before the Queen himself. And as himself.

Here’s a United Press column from 1948 where Jack talks about England—and vaudeville.

Jack Benny Finds Londoners Are Going Big For Vaudeville
By VIRGINIA MacPHERSON
HOLLYWOOD, Oct. 1.—(UP)—Jack Benny came up today with the answer to the old wheeze: “Whatever happened to vaudeville?" It went to England, he says, where they think the “two-a-day” is a bit of all right.
“They’ve got everything over there,” he says. “Jugglers, trained seals, even old gals who sing squeaky songs and double on a fiddle.”
Also Hollywood’s best movie stars.
The dyed-in-the wool greasepaint hams who started in vaudeville and never got it out of their systems are trekking to London at the drop of a contract.
They get out there on the stage and whoop it up till the customers can’t sit still any longer. They don’t even mind following those seals.
That includes Benny, Hollywood’s frustrated fiddler, who started as a doorman in Waukegan, Ill., and talked his way up from there, was one of the first on the boat.
“Everybody’s been over there,” Benny said. “Danny Kaye, Carmen Miranda, Dinah Shore, Betty Hutton . . . everybody. They broke all records and they ate it up.”
The Londoners will hawk everything but ration points to see a Hollywood star in the flesh. But that does not mean they let their own performers play to empty seats.
“It’s part of the British tradition,” Benny explained. “Once an entertainer hits the top, he stays there—just because the English do not like to change things.”
“There could be the worst paper shortage in history and they would still have that big, floppy paper money. Same way with their vaudeville stars. An old guy may have to hobble out on a cane, but they’re loyal to him. Once a headliner always a headliner with the British.
And you can forget all you ever heard about the English sense of humor being slow, Benny added.
“They’re great. Got every joke I told,” he said. “And I use some pretty sophisticated stuff on the stage. They didn’t wait till the next morning to hawhaw, either.
Made him feel kind of lonesome for the old days, it did.
He said wistfully:
“There’s nothing like vaudeville. Too bad it’s so far away.”

Tat

The Depression wouldn’t seem like a good time to open a cartoon studio, unless you had a tie-in with one of the major studios so your shorts could be block-booked with features. But several independents gave it a go anyway—with predictable results. They went nowhere.



We documented a bit of information about Mayfair Productions, which was all set to make “Skippy” cartoons for United Artists before a halt was put to the idea after a pilot cartoon was made. At least it had a deal with a bigger studio. That’s more than Tat’s Tales Productions could post.

Here we have the Film Daily Yearbook for 1937. A couple of studios are a mystery here but we’re focusing on Tat’s. Who’s Tat and what are his tales? I cobbled together a bit of information only to discover someone else had asked himself the same question and had decided to research for himself.

Daniel Francis Tattenham was born in Galveston, Texas on April 8, 1896 to Daniel F. and Dorothy (Meyer) Tattenham. By 1905, newspaper reports show the family was in San Francisco where his father was a deputy sheriff and active for many years in the Barber’s Union. He was working at the Chicago Tribune in 1919 because the paper ran a classified ad in June for an experienced air brush and layout man, with Tat as the contact. In 1928, he copyrighted something to do with colour motion pictures and submitted three reels to the U.S. Copyright Office. The following year, he had a private disc cut at Brunswick records for reasons unknown. He also belonged to the Photographers Union (through the January 1932 issue of International Photographer, the Chicago local bluntly announced he was no longer a member).

But then he ended up working for Walt Disney. The Dispatch-Democrat of Ukiah, California, dated July 17, 1931, has a note about Tat’s wife:

It will interest friends here who knew her as Dora Hoxie to learn that her husband is head cartoonist for “Mickey Mouse,” and that the Tattenhams have recently transferred their home from Chicago to Los Angeles in order to be nearer the studios for convenience in producing the famous talkies which are favorites with children of all ages.

“Head cartoonist” would seem to be a stretch.

But then Tat decided to strike out on his own. He apparently had his own studio by 1934 because Frank Tashlin’s biography written by Roger Garcia (1994) states that Tashlin worked there then. The book says, and refers to animation historian Mike Barrier:

The studio supposedly made a couple of fairy-tale cartoons but closed when they could not be sold. Apparently these films no longer exist. [Barrier has an undated group photo of the company's staff - including, in addition to Tashlin, Isadore Ellis, who in the mid-1940s would serve as an animator with Tashlin's unit at Warner Bros.]

The book calls Tat as “an advertising executive from San Francisco.” The studio is listed in the City Directory for 1936 and in the Film Daily directories for 1936 and 1937. But it seems probable the listings were already outdated. The studio was at 5515 Melrose Avenue. In the early ‘20s, it was the home of Rothacker-Allen, a film lab company. But on December 7, 1935 it formally became the new home of NBC in Hollywood, with an inaugural broadcast that date. Broadcasting magazine mentions nothing about Tat’s studio in its article on the grand opening published December 15th and considering the extensive renovations and space required by the network, it’s inconceivable the studio was still there at the time or had been for months. The Los Angeles Times reported on July 3rd that construction of the new NBC studios had begun the day before. It called the address the “site formerly occupied by Consolidated Film Industries,” and stated the building had “idle since the fire of 1929,” making no mention of Tat or a cartoon company (the fire on October 24, 1929, incidentally, killed one person and injured six. Insurance claims were not settled until 1935).

Census records in 1940 show Tat living in Oakland and running his own printing and advertising business, but his draft card signed in 1942 gives a Los Angeles address and shows him working for a company that made advertising signs. Tat died in Placerville, California on September 7, 1966.

Alas, our trail runs cold. There appears to be little concrete information about his colour photography discovery, his hiring by Walt Disney, his studio or his Tales. It would seem his career in animation was brief. Daniel Tattenham would appear to be just another footnote in the story of the Golden Age of Theatrical Cartoons.

Not Just Spooks

Recognise this silent film star?



A little over 20 years later, he’d be on TV, bald (what hair he had was grey) and interacting with a cartoon woodpecker. Yes, it’s Walter Lantz. And in the 1920s, to show you what’s old is new again, he was interacting with cartoon characters in silent film shorts for the Bray studio. He and Gerry Geronimi (later of Disney) came up with the Dinky Doodle series, where Dinky and his dog (and other drawn characters) would appear in Walter’s real life world.

The shot above is from “Just Spooks” (1925). I digress for a moment to mention an attempt is being made to preserve this old cartoon. Check HERE.

The old-fashioned combined animation/live action in this short is still effective and it’s pretty funny in spots. The story starts out with the premise that Walter is painting a picture of a meadow. Except he’s not. He has no paint on his brush and there’s no canvas in the frame he’s supposedly painting on. Dinky, his dog and a cow watch. The cow’s great. Its head and body stretch. Its tail stretches to gives a thumbs up.



It mimicks Lantz’s expressions.



Lantz shakes his first at the animal. It responds with horns that form fists.



It gives Lantz the bird.



And it licks the eyes off its head. The eyes roll stretch, then roll back up the enlongated tongue onto the head.



It editorialises about Lantz.



And it gallops off into the distance (one drawing is out of sequence).



The cartoon is supposed to be “just spooks,” but we get a cow for the first couple of minutes and then a mosquito before the ghosts show up.

The series lasted a couple of years. You can read about it on Tom Stathes’ site. Lantz was soon off to Hollywood and, eventually, gained a studio but lost his hair. What would the cow think about that?

Wartime Bull

“The Chow Hound” (1944) is an unusual Snafu cartoon because Snafu isn’t punished or learns from a mistake. In fact, no one does (unless any beef cattle saw the cartoon and learned they shouldn’t go to the slaughterhouse). Nonetheless, it provided a message for the audience of soldiers watching it in World War Two—don’t pig out because rations are valuable (and to people in the mess tent to not over-serve soldiers).

According to the Snafu DVD release, this short was directed by Frank Tashlin and, for him, it’s pretty tame. No outrageous camera angles or cinematic effects that one comes to expect from him (the reason is explained in the comments). There’s terrific animation of a struggling camel (played by Mel Blanc) in one scene. And there are some attractive drawings at the start where a steer gets a look at a cow and falls in love. Here are five consecutive drawings on twos.



Yeah, the take last only two frames. It’s followed with kind of a throbbing-eye effect, where the eyes bulge and unbulge for two frames apiece. You can imagine what Tex Avery or Bob Clampett would do with the same scene.

There’s a cut to what the steer was looking at. The cow coquettishly blinks. A very nice drawing.



You’ll notice the cow has an udder. I understand udders were banned from theatrical cartoons by the Hays office which, of course, had no jurisdiction over military cartoons.

I couldn’t tell you who animated on this but someone in the comment section can. Frank Graham provides the voice of the bull narrator.

Radio’s Battle of the Books

Is there much doubt that Mark Goodson and Bill Todman were the class act of the game show business?

They were the producers whose panellists on television wore evening clothes, who made sure someone with charm and grace (Kitty Carlisle, Arlene Francis, Joan Alexander) regularly filled one of seats every week (conversely, Hal Block was let go from “What’s My Line” because he was deemed too boorish). And they began in the radio business when game shows were taking a beating for being loud and shallow. In fact, one of the shows they produced was Louis G. Cowan’s “Stop the Music” which is credited with lighting a fuse of anger that got give-away shows banned by the FCC in 1949 (something immediately challenged in court by Radio Features, Inc., known more for churning out soap operas). It’s no wonder they decided to put a high-class sheen on their TV shows, especially at night.

So in light of the outrage over the loud, low-brow giveways, it’s perhaps not surprising that Goodson and Todman came up with something other than filthy lucre as the prize for one of its radio shows. Books. Syndicated New York Herald-Tribune columnist John Crosby aimed his cynical eye at that one in print. This appeared in newspapers on December 21, 1948.

Radio Risks Disaster in Book Gifts
By JOHN CROSBY
NEW YORK, Dec. 22—The introduction of $1000 worth of books as part of the $27,000 prize for “Hit the Jackpot” is possibly the most significant development in recent give-away history, easily surpassing the gift of Adolph Menjou to a Mrs. Claire Stark on the “Whiz Quiz” program.
Menjou, as a matter of fact, was only loaned to Mrs. Stark for the evening; she had to return him the same night in good condition. The books, on the other hand, are a permanent gift and could easily be a prelude to disaster for the giveaways or even for radio. The supposition that give-away contestants can read is perhaps unwarranted, but they can learn, can't they?
The printed page is a competitive medium, and, while it has been consistently losing ground to the blandishments of radio, it still seems to be a risky proposition to expose a radio listener to $1000 worth of books, the sheer bulk of which is sufficient to keep him entertained for a couple of years without any assistance from the radio.
INTENDED TO ADD TONE
The idea of giving away books was that of Bill Todman and Mark Goodson, producers of “Hit the Jackpot.” Todman in particular has become increasingly sensitive to the charge flung by irresponsible columns, this one included, that give-aways — he doesn’t like that word either— are a form of lunacy for which give-away producers will be held accountable on the day of judgment, The addition of books to the grand prize is intended to add tone to the give-away industry, putting if in the same class as the Rockefeller Foundation. I expect the press releases will be designating Todman and Goodson as philanthropists as soon as the CBS publicity staff learns how to spell it.
A thousand bucks worth of books is a lot of books, 331 by my count. Rinehart and Co. were needled into donating the books, which was no easy job. It took virtually the publisher’s entire active list to make up $1000 worth, and consequently there will be some strange and highly specialized titles in the lucky winner’s library.
Along with “The Lost Weekend” and “Short Novels of the Masters,” the winner will find 10 manuals on applied electricity (“Industrial Electric Heating,” “Primary Storage Batteries”). His mental health will be almost too adequately cared for (“Mental Defect,” “The Substance of Mental Health” and “Psychiatry for the Curious”). His sexual knowledge will be suitably enlarged (“Sex in Our Changing World”). And his nerves will be soothed by "Calm Your Nerves.”
MIND IMPROVERS
If the winner really wants to buckle down and improve his mind, he’ll find “Einstein’s Theory of Relativity,” “The Citizen and the Law,” and the entire “Rivers of America” series (37 volumes). There are also about 25 pounds of mysteries.
Oh, yes. “The Hucksters” is on the list too, a case of radio biting the hand that feeds it. But the two volumes I consider most appropriate to a give-away award winner are “Living Abundantly” and “Living Prayerfully.”
While making this genuflection to culture, Messrs. Todman and Goodson are by no means depending on it entirely, since a grand prize composed only of books would attract about as many customers as a concert in Cleveland. Along with the books go a new De Soto, a plot of land near Palm Beach, a two-bedroom house ready for construction, and a lot of other things more familiar and infinitely more precious to give-away winners.
Incidentally, the hook gift idea has spread to another CBS show—“Winner Take All” which is offering about 100 books also from the Rinehart stable. If strong steps aren’t taken soon, this reading will take root in the homes of the multitude, and, once rooted, will be as difficult to get rid of as the give-aways are.

“What’s My Line?” “I’ve Got a Secret.” “To Tell the Truth.” “The Match Game.” “Password.” “The Price is Right.” “Family Feud.” Huge television hits, all. Other producers could only envy a string of hits like that. When it comes to game show success, you might say Goodson and Todman (get ready to groan) wrote the book on it.

A Colour Goes to War

I suspect the bulk of the readers of this blog weren’t alive during World War Two, and therefore have to learn cultural references to the war in old cartoons just like I did: by being told. Here’s one at the beginning of “The Screwy Truant,” a Tex Avery cartoon released at the start of 1945.

It opens with Disney-style little animals—skunks, rabbits and squirrels—heading to school, with Scott Bradley’s light arrangement of “The Alphabet Song” in the background. You’ll notice an outhouse gag in Johnny Johnsen’s backdrop.



The idea of a little red schoolhouse belongs in the distant past so the blue colour of the school may not stand out as unusual. For the people of 1945 that noticed, the scene fades into an explanation.



And there’s our war-time reference. It’s a parody on the slogan “Lucky Strike Green Has Gone to War.” The slogan was already obsolete by the time the cartoon was released but was, no doubt, still remembered as part of recent pop culture.

In fact, Billboard magazine, in its issue of February 23, 1943, headlined the climax of the controversy over the phrase with “The Best Quiz of All Moves Over to Heinz, Whose Green Pickles Have Gone to War.”

Here’s what happened. The American Tobacco Company sponsored the erudite question-and-answer show Information Please. A sponsor controlled just about everything about a programme it bankrolled and American Tobacco foisted two slogans on Information Please and its other sponsored shows. The first one was heard on ads for the first time in November 1942. It was “Lucky Strike green has gone to war.” The second one was “The best tunes of all go to Carnegie Hall.” Information Please producer Dan Golenpaul was like many listeners—he hated them. And he did something no one else ever dare tried with a sponsor. Billboard of February 6, 1943 reported:

Dan Golenpaul, originator and producer of Information Please, was in and out of court, and on his first try last week obtained a “show cause” order from Supreme Court Justice Walter a few hours before the program went on the air last Friday, announced Milton Cross and Basil Ruysdale being served with summonses. Golenpaul tried to prevent Luckys from using the slogan “The best tunes of all go to Carnegie Hall,” to plug the sponsor’s new All-Time Hit Parade, The line was employed 10 times in the half-hour quiz. Trouble started a few weeks ago when Golenpaul objected to “Lucky Strike Green Has Gone to War” announcements. He lost his injunction plea Thursday before Justice Bernard Shientag, who said he could not agree with the plaintiff that the “best tunes” plug was “low, vulgar and offensive.” However, the judge opined that its use might be irritating to listeners, but on the basis of law had to dismiss the complaint. Reaction would be against the sponsor, Judge Schientag held, a tip-off that similar slogans will not be employed in radio. It was observed in last Friday’s Info that Clifton Fadiman, interrogator-moderator-cueman, did not cotton to “best tunes,” but the average listener probably didn’t detect the held [?] in his voice, as Fadiman is usually sharp anyway.

By then, Golenpaul had lined up a new sponsor, H.J. Heinz Company, the pickle and ketchup maker. But American Tobacco may not have been too worried about the fuss. It claimed in a 1954 book plugging the company’s 50th anniversary that sales of Luckies rose 38% in six weeks after the slogan was first heard.

And what’s the deal with the green? Billboard, on November 28, 1942, reported Lucky Strike switched to a white package “because of the impossibility of importing from the Phillipines the chrome” needed to make the green colour. What? Does that even make sense? It doesn’t and didn’t then. David Sloan of the National Association of Printing Ink Makers told Advertising Age magazine at the time: “There always has been, and there still is, enough of the green in the bins of printing ink manufacturers, and enough raw material to manufacture it, to supply the deep green formerly used on the Lucky Strike package.” That’s because it was all a ruse. The head of American Tobacco, who loved overly-repetitive slogans on his radio ads, wanted to change the package, The war was a convenient excuse to do it and look patriotic at the same time. If you want to read more, do what I couldn’t do when I first watched war reference-laden cartoons in the 1960s—look it up on the internet. Here’s a good site.

Who said cartoons weren’t educational?