Cartoons of 1931, Part Two

Colour cartoons? 3-D cartoons? In 1931? Well, they were on the drawing board in the second half of the year, but animation studios came out with more of the same old stuff—lots of music, animals frolicking, stars being heroic in the scintillating climax.

Let’s continue our series of cartoon reviews and news from the pages of The Film Daily, a New York-based trade magazine. There isn’t much when it comes to news; Leon Schlesinger got ink mainly because he announced a series of live-action one-reelers (in “multicolor” called “Odds and Ends” and an expansion of his movie trailer business (neither of which is included in the news items below). Sadly, there’s no mention of Ted Eshbaugh and his West Coast studio.

Perhaps the most interesting thing revealed in the publication’s pagers is the difference in attitudes between the Walt Disney and Van Beuren studios. Disney looked ahead, speculating about colour cartoons. The studio was a year away from “Flowers and Trees,” the first commercially-released film in three-strip Technicolor. But the people at Van Beuren, all of whom had been around while in the silent film era, wrote it off as impractical. Disney is still around today. Van Beuren died in 1936 when RKO decided it would rather release cartoons—by Walt Disney.

One review that’s puzzling is for something called “Betty Boop and Bimbo.” I have no idea which cartoon it may have been. Note that “Boop-Oop-a-Doop” is reviewed; the short is generally thought to have been released in 1932.



July 3, 1931
Ralph Wilk column
Walt Disney, who has just completed a new studio and office building on Hyperion Ave., for the production of his Mickey Mouse cartoon subjects, has installed RCA Photophone sound reproducing equipment in the projection rooms that are used to review the daily “rushes” and the completed product.

July 5, 1931
British Cartoon Series
London—First of a series of fairy tale cartoons have just been trade shown by British Lion, entitled “Dinkie Doodle” cartoons, they are stories of an ingenious youngster in the form of an enterprising comedy cartoon kid. The cartoons strike a new angle, and are built up with new ideas, new treatment and original trick photography. They are in combination of cartoon work with straight photography.

July 12, 1931
Cleve. Exchange Merger Leaves Only 3 Indies
Cleveland — Closing of the deal whereby Selected Pictures takes over the physical distribution of all product handled by Independent Pictures brings the number of local independent distributors down to three. Nate Schultz and Arthur Simon, heads of Selected, will hereafter handle the Syndicate westerns, the Chesterfields and the Alice cartoons in Northern Ohio.

Coming and Going
CHARLES B. MINTZ, producer of the Krazy Kat and Scrappy cartoons released by Columbia, returns to New York today from Hollywood after an absence of eight weeks.

July 27, 1931
Cartoon Animating Costs Reduced by New Method
Present cost of animating pictures promise to be greatly reduced under a new method patented by F. Lyle Goldman of the Audio Cinema studios. The system consists of a combined printing and double exposure process. Full rights have been transferred to Audio Cinema.

July 29, 1931
Ralph Wilk column
Roy C. Disney, general manager for Walt Disney, is back from an extended eastern trip and will spend the summer at the Hyperion Ave. studios where the "Mickey Mouse" and "Silly Symphony" cartoons are made.

August 5, 1931
"Five Year Plan” at Cameo
Amkino's "Five Year Plan," which played a run at the Central, returns to the Times Square district on Friday for a pop engagement at the RKO Cameo. On the same program will be "Mail," first Russian sound cartoon with music.

Largest Animated Cartoon Staff
Van Beuren Corp. has added 20 artists and assistants to its staff and now claims the world's largest animated cartoon staff, having 131 artist-animators and assistants. Floor space at the Van Beuren studio has been almost doubled.

August 7, 1931
Van Beuren Corp. Sees Color Cartoons Ahead
Although it does not consider the industry ready for color cartoons at this time, the Van Beuren Corp. is conducting laboratory experiments so that it will be ready to offer Aesop Fables in color when the time is ripe. Meanwhile the Fables studios are being enlarged for experimentation in developing novel ideas for new RKO Pathe cartoon camera effects.

August 30, 1931
Chicago—Walt Disney's Mickie Mouse Clubs have now been organized in all of the Publix-Great States houses in the Illinois-Indiana-Ohio-Kentucky division and are proving excellent business stimulators, according to Madeline Wood publicity chief.

September 3, 1931
Phil M. Daly’s column
DID YOU know that Dick HUEMOR is chief artist on Charlie Mintz's "Scrappy" Cartoons . . . much as we deprecate this abhorrent practice of punning, we cannot refrain from calling your attention to the fact . . . that Dick's huemor is mintzing matters for ya.

September 6, 1931
9 Series of 13 Reels Each on Columbia Program
Diversified Subjects on Company's 1931-32 Schedule
Columbia is offering for 1931-32, nine series of 13 reels each including four cartoon series and a diversified number of other releases. The four animated cartoon series will be "Mickey Mouse," "Krazy Kat," "Disney Silly Symphonies," and "Scrappy" ... "Scrappy" is the first animated cartoon to feature a human character. It is the product of Charles Mintz, who also makes "Krazy Kat." The first two "Scrappy's" ready for release are "Yelp Wanted" and "The Little Pest." Krazy Kats will continue to be released alternately with "Scrappy."
Walt Disney is considering the advisability of bringing "Mickey Mouse" to the screen in colors. His latest release is "Blue Rhythm" a travesty on jazz orchestras.

"Mickey Mouse" Parade
In conjunction with a Fanchon and Marco presentation of a "Mickey Mouse Idea," Bill Thomas, publicity director of the Pantages, Hollywood, organized a parade of the female "Mice" through the main streets of the film city. Certain tie-ups were effected, such as a stop at a well-known restaurant for a huge ration of cheese for the "Mice" and a peek at the inside of a nationally advertised electric refrigerator. Transportation was taken care of by a local auto dealer.

8,000 Terry-Tooners
With an enrolled membership of 8,000 boys and girls and new units being formed in key points throughout the country, The Terry-Tooners Music and Fun Club, sponsored by Educational, has won the support of leading executives of the industry's major circuits.

Betty Boops to Stardom

"Betty Boop," the pouting, baby-talking, animated vamp in Paramount's "Talkartoons," has been elevated to stardom by Max Fleischer. In the future the cartoons will be built around Betty with the other characters "also in the cast."

Ideal Producing 42 Shorts For American-Foreign Sale
With 42 one-reelers on its 1931-32 schedule. Ideal Pictures Corp., will re-make the descriptive talk of all subjects over into three languages for foreign distribution.
The Ideal line-up includes ... 6 "Film Fan Biographs," a new series of surprise cartoons drawn and animated by Eddie White.

September 8, 1931
Plan Milt Gross One-Reelers
Milt Gross, cartoonist and humourist of the Hearst papers, has been signed by M. J. Kandel, of Ideal Pictures, for a series of 12 one-reelers to be known as "Gross Exaggerations." Tom Johnston, formerly cartoon and "strip" editor of the "N. Y. World," will write the gags and stories for the series and the dialogue will be composed by Frank Dollan who was recently connected with the "Movie Memories" shorts released by Paramount. Gross will collaborate with Johnston in "gagging" the reels and will add sequences of animated cartooning to each. The shorts will burlesque various subjects, the first being a satire on travel films. It will be ready next week and titled "The Isle of Jazz."

September 16, 1931
Ralph Wilk column
Harman-Ising Studios, which produces "The Merry Melodies" series, in association with Leon Schlesinger, has completed "Red-Headed Baby." Harman-Ising and Schlesinger also sponsor the "Looney Tunes" series, of which "Bosco, the Doughboy" is the newest subject. Frank Marsales, musical director for the producers, agrees with Sherman that "war is hell," as "Bosco" is the noisiest subject he has handled.

September 23, 1931
Krazy Kat Cartoon Picked for Television
One of Columbia's Krazy Kat cartoons, "The Stork Market", made by Charles Mintz, has been picked for television broadcast in the Sanabria demonstration at the Radio-Electric Fair in Madison Square Garden.

October 11, 1931
Harry N. Blair column
Harriet Lee, chosen as Radio Queen of 1931-32, is featured in a cartoon comedy titled "You're Driving Me Crazy," soon to be released by Paramount. Olive Shea, previous Radio Queen, has also appeared in Paramount shorts and features.

October 20, 1931
Ralph Wilk column
In five leading Los Angeles theaters, Walt Disney's sound cartoons will be featured simultaneously this week through the selection of "The Spider and the Fly." the latest "Silly Symphony." to be screened with "Consolation Marriage" at the Carthay Circle. Of the five Disney cartoons, four are screened in long run playhouses.

October 23, 1931
Two New Cartoon Series Planned by Fleischer
Two more series of cartoons are being planned by Max Fleischer for Paramount release. They will be ready for next season's program and will supplement his two groups now being handled by Paramount.
Cartoon grosses generally are making a better showing under present business conditions than other pictures, declared Fleischer yesterday. This type of picture is only off between five and six per cent as compared with greater drops suffered by other kinds of screen entertainment receipts, he said. His organization is concentrating its publicity effort on Betty Boop, Talkartoon star, who rose from minor parts to a stellar position in his productions.

October 26, 1931
Pun
When Frank Marsales, musical director for Harman-lsing Studios, which produces "Looney Tunes" and 'Merry Melodies," declared he was too busy to go to football games and did all his playing in his studio, Robert Edmunds, the cartoonist, was an interested listener. "However, Frank does a lot of scoring in a day," Frank [sic] commented.

October 29, 1931
Jack Alicote column
We Visit Mr. M. Mouse
Regardless of how frivolous this Mickey Mouse Mugg may be on the screen, he sure is serious when at home. It was with due politeness and extreme consideration that he conducted us through his compact, attractive and modern studio which was built by his guardian and severest critic, Walt Disney. In order to get caught up with our Mousie home work, we learned that it takes from six to eight weeks to complete a Mickey Mouse cartoon, that between 75 and 80 people work on it, that 8,000 to 12,000 drawings go into each subject and that this Mickey Mouse guy has some 8,000 customers in these United States. Next year's schedule from the Disney studio will consist of 18 Mickeys and eight Silly Symphonies.

Third Edition of Fable Books
Two 75,000 printings of the Aesop's Fable Book, published by the Sonnett Publishing Co. and prepared under the supervision of the Van Beuren Corp., producers of the RKO Pathe Aesop's Fables Cartoons, have been exhausted and a third edition of 100,000 is now on the presses to fill the holiday demand for this popular juvenile novelty. The Fable Books are on sale at all leading chain and department stores.

November 1, 1931
Sound Doubles Work
Although the number of pictures being produced this season by Van Beuren for RKO Pathe release is not as large as the number made in silent days, the greater amount of detail incident to making sound pictures far overbalances any production this company has attempted heretofore. This holds true particularly in the Cartoon Department. Fifty-two silent Aesop's Fables were produced each season, a staff of approximately 25 animators and tracers maintaining this schedule nicely. Now with 39 cartoons to the season (26 Fables and 13 Tom and Jerry) the staff has been more than tripled not counting the extra help needed to handle the preparation of music, etc.. and still this department is forced to work at top speed. The same holds true with the Grantland Rice Sportlight, 52 silent issues formerly being made each season. With the coming of sound the Sportlight manpower was more than doubled and the number of releases cut in half in order to maintain the entertainment standard of this release.

November 8, 1931
Walt Disney Increasing "Mickey Mouse" Program
Walt Disney will increase his "Mickey Mouse" series from 13 to 18 single reels and reduce his Silly Symphonies from 13 to eight on his 1932-33 program, which goes to United Artists in April under a distribution contract signed some months ago.
J. W. MacFarland, Eastern representative for Disney, and Hank Peters, studio representative with headquarters in Chicago, expect that there will be 1,500 Mickey Mouse clubs functioning by February. Total of 750 are organized at present. Four representatives have been engaged to carry on the organizing work afield. They are: H. E. Nichols, with headquarters in Dallas and working in Southern states; Eddie Vaughn, Chicago, handling Middle West; George Giroux, Chicago, working on territory east of that city, and Edward Whaley, in either Philadelphia or Atlanta, handling Atlantic seaboard territory.

Harry N. Blair column
Van Beuren studios are so busy turning out the RKO Pathe Aesop's Fables that it was necessary to have some extensive alterations made at night. Improvements include a new battery of cameras especially designed for cartoon work.

November 10, 1931
Mickey Mouse Stage Show for Roxy
Tying in with Walt Disney's cartoon star, the Roxy will put on a Mickey Mouse stage show within six or eight weeks. Characters will double for those who appear in the short.
Fanchon & Marco has successfully tried out a Mickey Mouse unit, which is termed one of the biggest draws these producers have ever put out. They are planning to make a second Mickey Mouse unit for the road.

November 27, 1931
Introducing New Dubbing Process
International Projector Corp. is negotiating licenses with several major producers for use of its new dubbing process, The device, which simplifies dubbing foreign languages to American pictures, eliminates costly screening and rehearsals, according to Herbert Griffin, in charge. Griffin also claims equal success with the synchronizing of cartoons, music and effects.

November 29, 1931
New Ideas Injected in Paramount Shorts
Big Names and Novelties Bring Favorable Reactions
Adoption of several new ideas in the making of Paramount shorts this season has resulted in the company's one and two-reeler meeting with a more favorable reaction than any other short subject program ever produced by the company. . . .
Another stunt which bids fair to make the Talkartoon one of the outstanding Paramount comedy series was the elevation to stardom of young Betty Boop, the damsel who sings, dances and foils the villain in those Fleischer cartoons. Betty has even broken into the fan magazines and been interviewed over the radio since receiving her new honor. . . .
The fifth innovation was the introduction of well-known personalities as master of ceremonies for the monthly "Screen Songs" produced by Max Fleischer's studio for Paramount release. The original Mr. Shean of "Gallagher and Shean" fame, Cab Calloway of the Cotton Club and Rudy Vallee are among those who have appeared in these one reelers. So successful was Rudy in inducing audiences to follow the Bouncing Ball and sing with the characters on the screen that he has been signed to do a series of his favorite numbers for "Screen Songs."

Aesop's Fables Dolls Popular Store Tie-Up
Attractive window displays are being featured by leading theaters throughout the West in connection with special showings at which the Aesop's Fables dolls, replicas of the famous cartoon characters, are given away free to holders of lucky numbers.
These contests are arranged by the W. R. Woodard Co. of Los Angeles, manufacturers of the dolls under special license granted by the Van Beuren Corp. There are six dolls in all, "The Countess," "Waffles Cat," "Don Dog," "Mike Monk," "Al Fox" and "Puffie Bear."
The large doll, an exact replica of "The Countess," measures more than four feet in height, is prepared specially for lobby and window exploitation only and is not included in the contest. The smaller dolls form an extremely attractive and colorful gift and are proving efficient crowd getters wherever the idea has been used.

7,000 Drawings in a Fleischer Cartoon
In the production of a screen cartoon, 100 artists and technicians produce 15,000 hand-made drawings of which 7,000 are used and approximately seven or eight thousand discarded, according to Max Fleischer, originator of Paramount's "Screen Songs" and "Talkartoons." "From eight to nine weeks are required to complete a cartoon and the whole thing is run off in the theater in less than seven minutes," Fleischer declares.
"Although seven minutes may seem to be too short a space of time to warrant so much thought and labor," the cartoonist continues, "it is In reality considered a long period in the amusement field. To convince yourself of this, assume that you are about to entertain an audience for seven minutes and that each minute you stand before your audience you are to be as entertaining and as amusing as possible. Take out your watch and put on your act. Before seven minutes have passed you will find you have plenty of time to hem and haw, blush, choke up and probably run out of ideas."

December 2, 1931
Mickey Mouse's Xmas Special
For holiday programs, Walt Disney has produced a special Mickey Mouse cartoon entitled "Mickey's Orphans." It tells a Yuletide story, with appropriate musical accompaniment.

December 11, 1931
Phil M. Daly column
Incidentally, the Mickey Mouse comic strip goes into every Hearst paper starting next month under a deal just closed.

December 15, 1931
Powers Making Third-Dimension Cartoons
A series of 13 third-dimension cartoon shorts are being produced by P. A. Powers in his Seventh Avenue Cinephone studios. The cartoons are being made under the supervision of Emil Velazco, who Is also handling the organ synchronization and effects. The first release will be completed next week.

December 28, 1931
Cartoon Comedies Gaining New Importance, Says Terry
Commenting on the result of the annual exhibitor questionnaire conducted by Harold Heffernan, motion picture editor of the Detroit News, which brought out the consensus that "cartoon comedies are the most important short subject," Paul Terry, who with Frank Moser, producers the popular "Terrytoons" for Educational release, declares that animated cartoons are fast coming into a new position of importance. Far from being merely a diverting spectacle designed for juvenile minds, animated cartoons combine all the various arts such as music, drawing, acting and writing, besides the rhythmic flow which is the basis of all dance movements.
Few people, Terry claims, realize the amount of research which enters into the preparation of Terrytoons. In the matter of costumes, backgrounds and dances, everything must be authentic, down to the last detail. In addition to this, all music is especially composed by Philip Schieb, Terrytoon's staff composer and musical director. "Terrytoons" have had much influence in educating people to enjoy musical films by giving them the highest type of music against the element of the cartoon, thus affording the two extremes which are bound to please everyone, Terry believes.
"Peg Leg Pete," just completed, has specially composed music which is decidedly in the Gilbert and Sullivan manner, even a trifle heavier, perhaps. Another, "The Black Spider," incorporates modern music of the most advanced type to express its eerie theme. In preparing "Terrytoons," an effort is always made to confine the humor to the action which, Terry feels, should be of sufficient worth to carry itself, irrespective of music.



July 5, 1931
"Pale Face Pup"
RKO Pathe .. Time, 8 mins.
Fair Cartoon
The Aesop Fable hero appears as a Pale Face with his girl in the wild Indian country. They are captured, and he gets himself in wrong with the Indian chief. The hero escapes, and calls on his pals, the Northwest Mounted, to help him. Finally, with the help of his trusty mount, he succeeds in destroying the redskins with their own arrows.

"That Old Gang of Mine"
Paramount .. Time, 7 mins.
Singing Cartoon
A Max Fleischer singing cartoon telling the animated story of the cat who mourned for her old pals. It goes into the song number with the dancing white ball skipping over the lines of the old song, "That Old Gang of Mine." They have a very fine quartette singing this, which makes it an entertaining number.

"North Woods"
Universal .. Time, 16 mins. [sic]
Good Cartoon
Burlesquing the Northwest Mounted, Oswald has a tough time trying to capture the bandit, who finally escapes after he has been handcuffed. Several cartoon devices are employed to work up chases and counter-chases, with Oswald's horse playing a prominent part. This is well up to standard for this type, moves fast, and has a good sprinkling of comedy gags.

July 12, 1931
"Making 'em Move"
(Aesop Fable)
RKO Pathe .. Time, 7 mins.
Neat Cartoon Novelty
The system and tricks employed in producing animated cartoons are more or less divulged in this novelty. It has the animals themselves in the roles of cartoonists, models, musicians, cameramen, etc., and the action is well sprinkled with gags to maintain the comedy vein. It is not exactly an expose of the secrets of the cartoon comedy art, hut it shows enough to interest as well as amuse the fans. A neat little number for any program.

July 19, 1931
"The Busy Beaver"
(Silly Symphony)
Columbia .. Time, 8 mins.
Great Cartoon
Walt Disney made a "knock-out" when he produced this Silly Symphony. Gags that are really new, animation that is smooth and clever and synchrony that never misses a beat. Disney has taken a theme which shows beavers building a dam as only cartooned beavers can do it. It finishes with a flood and one lone beaver attempting to save the dam from destruction. The reel is fast, funny and fine.

July 26, 1931
"The Stone Age"
Universal .. Time, 7 mins.
Action Cartoon
This is a strange mixture of the Stone Age with modern Austins and circus side shows. Oswald, the hero, goes calling on his girl in her cave but the villain, Pegleg, comes along and in true Stone Age fashion, wins the lady with a swat over the head with his club. So Oswald learns the right technique with the ladies, and starts out to be a devil with women via the big club method. There is plenty of action in this cartoon.

"Her First Egg"
Educational .. Time, 7 mins.
Lively Cartoon
A Paul Terry-Toon cartoon, being a barnyard fable of the hen who hatched her first egg, and then all the barnyard folks held a festival in her honor. But a flock of hawks swoop down and steal the chicken, and then the hero gets into action with his airplane and defeats the marauders single handed. Lively cartoon gags with good incidental music.

August 9, 1931
"Put on the Spot"
Warner Bros. .. Time, 5 mins.
Sponsored Cartoon
Fantastic cartoon in undersea locale, with the entire fish family beating it for cover when the warning is sounded that a dangerous insect is approaching. The intruder gives the whale a merry chase, until the cue, "Quick, Jonah, the Flit," is given by a human voice, whereupon the insect is sprinkled and squelched—and those of the audience who didn't know it before are put hep to the fact that they've had a piece of advertising inflicted upon them. No matter how good the short is, this closing revelation puts a curse on it.

"Smile, Darn Ya, Smile"
Vitaphone 4825 .. Time, 6 mins.
Fine Song Cartoon
An excellent example of the song cartoon, with a good idea and synchronization. It's one of the Merrie Melodies series featuring Foxy and Honey. Foxy is the pilot on trolley car that travels a fantastic track system and does the usual tricks. After a comic experience with a hippo passenger, he takes Honey aboard and rides her through tunnels and up and down hills in roller coaster fashion to the smash finish. Abe Lyman's band supplies the music, which is excellent.

"Fun on the Ice"
(Aesop Fable)
RKO Pathe .. Time, 8 mins.
Just Fair
There is little in this cartoon comedy to lift it out of the ordinary class. Not one new gag is chalked up. It is all about the Fables animals making whoopee on the ice, skating, playing hockey and breaking through the ice. The musical score and synchronization are well done, as is the animation, but those three requisites are not sufficient to put the picture over as a laugh number.

August 16, 1931
"Mail"
Amkino .. Time, 20 mins.
Novel Russian Cartoon
First animated cartoon from Soviet studios to be shown here is a curiously interesting product, with novel technique as its main asset. The drawing, instead of being in lines, is of the poster and light-and-shadow variety, with music being an especially vital part of the picture. Movement of the characters is in staccato fashion, and the story is not easy to grasp unless one understands the accompanying Russian dialogue. The system, however, seems to have possibilities.

"Radio Rhythm"
Universal .. Time, 6 mins.
Flat
An Oswald cartoon, that goes over all the old stuff, and falls pretty flat. The musical stuff is worked to death at the expense of action and story values. It also falls flat on comedy, for the same reason. The theme centers around a broadcasting program, with Oswald as the announcer, and the animals listening in.

August 30, 1931
"One More Time"
Vitaphone 5602 .. Time, 9 mins.
Cartoon Cutups
Foxy and Honey, new entrants in the field of animated characters, are featured in the third of a series of "Merrie Melodies," music for which is supplied by Abe Lyman and his band. The characters sing "One More Time" and an underworld plot has been given the action. It's entertaining stuff, aided by some new pen and ink gags.

September 6, 1931
"Love In a Pond"
RKO Pathe .. Time, 8 mins.
Average Cartoon
An Aesop Fable, overemphasizing the musical angle at the expense of story interest. But this has become such a common fault with all the cartoons, that it must be accepted as a matter of course. The theme is that of a frog pursuing his courtship and marriage, with all the other inhabitants of the pond joining in the festivities.

September 13, 1931
"Mother Goose Melodies"
(Silly Symphony)
Columbia .. Time, 8 mins.
Great
Walt Disney and his assistants have turned out a synchronized cartoon comedy that will be hard to beat. It has all the Mother Goose rhymes worked into the story and the transposition from one to the other is accomplished by turning the pages of a huge story book. Drawings on the pages come to life and perform real laugh-making antics. Gags are new and plentiful. This one will make audiences laugh plenty.

September 20, 1931
"Screen Biographs No. 1"
Ideal .. Time, 8 mins.
Clever Novelty
Maurice Chevalier, Norma Shearer and Ernst Lubitsch are drawn in succession by Eddie White, cartoonist. In each case White endeavors to withhold the identity of the subject until the finish of the drawing. White's work is neat and results in excellent likenesses of the subjects. Only White's arm and hand with the pencil, are shown but a descriptive chatter, breezily delivered by Ray Vox, holds attention and creates several laughs. It's a good short.

September 27, 1931
"Kentucky Belle"
(Oswald Cartoon)
Universal .. Time, 6 mins.
Good Gags
It all takes place at the race course and the popular and pretty local belle promises a kiss to the winner. Oswald on his trusty steed is out to win but discovers that it is more of an obstacle race. He wins, however, and both he and the horse receive the prize. Animation and synchronization are fine and the gags have been cleverly arranged and planted. A good filler.

"Betty, Boop and Bimbo" [sic]
Paramount .. Time, 6 mins.
Good Cartoon
Measures well up to the best in the animated cartoon line. Many of the antics are new ideas and the comedy, as well as the art work and musical accompaniment, are of fine quality.

"Fly Hi"
(Aesop's Fable Cartoon)
RKO Pathe .. Time, 8 mins.
Mild
There is an abundance of clever animation and careful synchronization and too little comedy in this cartoon. It is practically devoid of gags. The picture starts out with a pup playing on the piano and singing to his sweetie over the telephone. She replies in song. Then there are more songs and finally a long piano solo played by a bad spider. Fingering on the piano keys closely matches the notes sung and played, but fun and gags have been sacrificed for technique.

"Hot Feet"
(Oswald Cartoon)
Universal .. Time, 6 mins.
Just Fair
Oswald opens this release as a lemonade vendor and sings a number reminiscent of the "Peanut Vendor." The pup meets up with some racketeers. Finally at the "headman's" house Oswald rescues a beautiful girl from the clutches of the gangster. The cartoon runs along smoothly but is short on really funny gags.

"Little Annie Rooney"
(Fleischer Song Cartoon)
Paramount .. Time, 6 mins.
Neat
Among the best of the Fleischer song novelties based on popular old tunes, with the audiences invited to join in the choruses. Good art work and synchronization, along with the comedy, make it a neat filler.

October 4, 1931
Mickey Mouse in "Blue Rhythm"
Columbia .. Time, 5 mins.
Good Cartoon
Neatly executed and thoroughly entertaining cartoon comedy. Mickey Mouse is seen at the opening as a pianist pounding away on the theme of "St. Louis Blues." Minnie Mouse enters and indulges in some animated vocalizing, after which there are musical bits by an animal orchestra with plenty of comedy as well as melody.

October 11, 1931
"Trouble"
(Tom and Jerry Cartoon)
Radio Pictures .. 8 mins.
Fair
Fairly amusing animated cartoon. Tom and Jerry, the "human" characters, are not specially funny in appearance nor is there much humor in what they say or how they say it, but one gag, where a fellow tries to anchor a dirigible to the top of the Empire State building, rouses quite a few laughs.

"The Family Shoe"
Good Cartoon
RKO Pathe .. 7 mins.
A neat Aesop Fable cartoon, with a combination of the fairy tales of the Old Woman in the Shoe and Jack in the Beanstalk. Hero Jack starts out to help his poor old mother living in the shoe, climbs the beanstalk to the clouds, and steals the goose that lays the golden eggs from the Giant. It is a fine mixture of fantasy and cartoon comics, and is above the average animated.

October 18, 1931
"The Hunter"
Universal .. 7 mins.
A Repeater
An Oswald cartoon, with the hero rabbit out fox hunting to secure his sweetie a nice winter fur. It follows the routine formula, with the bear appearing to scare both Oswald and the fox, with the rabbit the eventual victor over both. Just another cartoon from the formula files.

"You're Driving Me Crazy"
Paramount .. 6 mins.
Good Song Cartoon
Fastest moving Fleischer song cartoon. Main background is a jungle, with the animals scurrying around for cover from a rainstorm. For the singing portion, there is a non-cartoon sequence in which a feminine vocalist appears and calls upon the audience to join in. Plenty of action and comedy.

October 25, 1931
"Fairyland Follies"
(Aesop's Fables)
RKO Pathe .. 8 mins.
A Dandy
Animators John Foster and Harry Bailey have turned out a snappy, peppy and interesting cartoon. It all has to do with Mother Goose, who, as teacher of all the characters in her rhymes, manages to hold them in order until they strike up a jazzy air with a host of instruments. Then Mother Goose turns modern and shows the children and animals how to "step on it." The kids will like this one and so will the grown-ups.

"The Black Spider"
Educational .. 7 mins.
Class Cartoon
At last they have made a cartoon in this Paul Terry-Toon that gets away from the routine of the musical stereotyped stuff that has been dished up so monotonously for months. Here there is a clever idea worked out with a lot of animated technique that in spots is beautiful and artistic. The Spider is a terrifying creature who invades the castle, imprisons the king, and disguises himself in his clothes so he can pursue his designs upon the king's fair daughter. The cartoon conceit is handled with fine imagination and ranks 'way above the average current cartoon.

November 1, 1931
"Bosko the Doughboy"
Vitaphone 5402 .. 7 mins.
Average Cartoon
Vitaphone's new animated cartoon character, Bosko, here disports himself in the role of a doughboy. Nothing specially new or novel about the affair, but it is sufficiently diverting to serve its purpose as a short fill-in.

"Jailbirds"
(Flip the Frog)
M-G-M .. 9 mins.
Dandy
This amusing cartoon will garner plenty of laughter. Flip, as a jail guard, has his troubles with a giant who escapes from the prison. The animators have turned out clever drawings and some new and humorous gags. Scenes of convicts at the stone pile, of the jail break and the resulting chase, work up to a snappy climax. Synchronizing is well done.

"In Wonderland"
Universal .. 7 mins.
Old Stuff
An Oswald cartoon that is a dead ringer for another just released in a competitive series. It employs the same idea of the hero mixed up in the two fairy tales of Jack in the Beanstalk and the Old Woman in the Shoe. Oswald climbs the beanstalk to the castle in the clouds, steals the goose that lays the golden eggs from the Giant, and brings it back to the old lady in the shoe. It's a fair cartoon, if you haven't run the other one first. Then it's just a repeat.

"China"
Educational .. 7 mins.
Average Cartoon
A fanciful adventure in the land of the pigtails by Hero Mouse, in which they drag in all the well known legends associated with the country. The cartoon work is up to average, but like all the current crop of animateds, there is a sameness about the technical treatment. Some day one of these cartoon artists is going to hit on a new idea, and it will be possible for us reviewers to tell you something definite about them.

November 8, 1931
"Jack and the Beanstalk"
Paramount .. 6 mins.
Fair Cartoon
Nothing specially out of the ordinary in this animated. The title just about explains what it's about, the hero of the action utilizing the beanstalk to ascend up into the clouds and rescue the girl from the menacing clutches of the giant. Art work and score are okay.

Krazy Kat in "Bars and Stripes"

Columbia .. 6 mins.
Fair
A fairly amusing animated based on a combination musical and military idea. First Krazy trots out a company of musical instruments, which go on parade, and then the tooting horns begin to spout cannonballs at a supposed enemy. The music is lively.

"Ya Don't Know What You're Doin"
Vitaphone 5603 .. 7 mins.
Poor
Just an ordinary animated song cartoon in the "Merrie Melodies" series. Has nothing about it to lift it out of the commonplace rating.

November 15, 1931
"Stormy Seas"
(Flip the Frog Cartoon)
M-G-M .. 8 mins.
Usual Stuff
Flip the Frog goes through the usual animated cartoon antics on a ship at sea. A storm comes up and he saves a girl on another boat which is sinking.

November 22, 1931
"Bosko's Soda Fountain"
Vitaphone 5403 .. 7 mins.
Good Cartoon
A better than average musical cartoon. Bosko is depicted as a soda fountain clerk who can mix drinks in many novel and acrobatic ways. The action is lively and the musical accompaniment is good.

"The Lorelei"
Educational .. 7 mins.
Good Cartoon
A Paul Terry-Toon, with the animated hero doing a burlesque of the famous "Lorelei," being vamped by the beautiful sea siren, and going through some hectic adventures in a terrific storm. A German quartet singing the "Lorelei" adds musical atmosphere. Good animated technique.

Krazy Kat in "Hash House Blues"
Columbia .. 6 mins.
Good Cartoon
In the role of a dancing waiter in a restaurant, Krazy Kat hands out another batch of his amusing antics in this animated subject. It is well up to the average of such shorts and will serve its purpose as a filler very nicely.

November 29, 1931
"Bosko's Fox Hunt"
Vitaphone .. 6 mins.
Fair Cartoon
A Looney Tune that follows the familiar routine and is just mildly entertaining. Bosko and his gang go fox hunting and there is a lot of chasing through the woods, across ponds, around trees, etc., with the fox coming out best.

"Cowboy Cabaret"
RKO Pathe .. 7 min
Lively Cartoon
An Aesop Fable, proving a good burlesque on the old frontier days out West. The hero finds himself in a saloon where various entertainers sing the old ballads, moving the hardboiled cowpunchers and miners to tears or else to throwing beer glasses. The finale has the tough outlaw coming in for a holdup, but the gang is too smart for him. Good animation, with lots of tricky cartoon work.

Flip the Frog
"The Village Specialist"
M-G-M .. 8 mins.
Fair Cartoon
Flip takes the part of a plumber and sees to it that a leaky pipe is repaired in his own original way. Before Flip is through, the whole locality is inundated and the house down to the skies atop a geyser, Flip's friend the cat also has some trouble with a goldfish, resulting in the fish eating the cat and meowing. Good gags and a fair number of laughs.

December 6, 1931
"Kitty from Kansas City"
Paramount .. 8 mins.
Novelty Cartoon
A Max Fleischer cartoon with Rudy Vallee doing a song as part of the animated plot. It is a clever combination of the cartoon characters, with Rudy worked into the developments as he waits for the animated heroine at the railroad station. His song is all about the dumb sweetie from Kansas City, and Rudy appears disguised as an old timer with a mustache and brown derby.

"Hare Mail"
(Oswald Comedy)
Universal .. 6 mins.
Good Carton
Oswald plays the part of a real hero in this comedy. While selling papers he hears screams from a nearby house. Investigating, he finds the villian threatening a golden-haired beauty. A battle ensues. The girl is captured by the robber. The old saw mill stunt is pulled to advantage. As the girl nears the revolving saw, Oswald goes for help. The reel ends with an airplane chase. Gags are good and laughs aplenty.

"Hitting the Trail for Hallelujah Land"
Vitaphone 5604 .. 7 mins.
Neat Cartoon
A better "Merrie Melodie" than the average animated cartoon that has been coming along lately. It has an amusing little plot yarn, involving some heavy melodrama on a river boat, with the villain being sent up against the circular saw for the climax, and both the drawing and the synchronized sound are up to snuff.

December 20, 1931
"Mickey's Orphans"
Columbia .. 7 mins.
Swell Holiday Cartoon
A Walt Disney Mickey Mouse production designed as a Christmas short and one that fills the bill. It will delight all children and get many a laugh from their elders. It is Christmas Eve and Mickey is decorating the Christmas tree, while Minnie Mouse plays "Silent Night, Holy Night" on the organ. Outside, in the raging blizzard, a lone, slouching figure approaches the house, leaves a basket on the steps and rings the doorbell. Pluto, the dog, brings in the basket which is found to contain twenty or more orphan kittens who swarm all over the house. Mickey and Minnie decide to give the orphans a Christmas party. Mickey, dressed as Santa Claus, comes in on an improvised sleigh drawn by Pluto, disguised as a reindeer. The kittens help themselves to the toys and begin to play. The house is soon a complete wreck, including the Christmas tree. A Mickey Mouse short that is filled with many hilarious moments for children, and fun for adults who have ever staged a Christmas party for the youngsters.

"The Spider and the Fly"
(Silly Symphony)
Columbia .. 7 mins.
A Knockout
This Disney cartoon is one of the best to come along in moons. For basic idea, ingenious workmanship and effective sound and musical accompaniment it is hard to beat. It shows a flock of flies, and a couple of loverbird flies in particular, disporting themselves in a kitchen. A villainous spider lures a lady fly to his net, whereupon her hero rushes to the rescue, finally calling in the assistance of the entire fly army, which vanquishes the spider. Can't miss with any audience.

"Africa Squeaks"
M-G-M .. 8 mins
Neat Cartoon
A Flip the Frog cartoon, covering the adventures of the cartoon character in the wilds of Africa, where he gets in the clutches of the cannibals and is put in the pot to boil for the evening meal. Flip performs magic stunt with the flames transforming them into little demons who pursue the cannibals, and all the deserted wives make Flip their new king. Cleverly executed, and with good comedy slants.

"The Fisherman"
Universal .. 7 mins.
Fair Cartoon
An Oswald cartoon, with the rabbit and his sweetie in an adventure on a pirate isle. It goes through the usual routine of the heroine in distress, with Oswald finally saving her by a clever ruse, and winning a diamond necklace from the pirate loot.

December 27, 1931
The Street Singer in "Russian Lullaby"
(Screen Song)
Paramount .. 8 mins.
Very Good
A very amusing Max Fleischer song cartoon, with added entertainment values by reason of the inclusion of the Street Singer (Arthur Treacy) [sic], popular radio singer, as vocalist. Part of the reel is devoted to cartoon work, and the other portion shows the Street Singer delivering the well-known lullaby, with the words and dancing ball double-exposed at the lower part of the screen. The cartoon bits are clever, while the singing by Treacy is of the best. A fine subject of its kind.

"Boop-OOP-A-Doop"
Paramount .. 6 mins.
Snappy Cartoon
A Max Fleischer Talkatoon cleverly executed with some novelty animated tricks that are new and amusing. The Boop-OOP-A-Doop heroine leads the hero into some dizzy adventures, but he comes through in great style and qualifies easily as her Hero. It will please the youngsters, and likewise their elders.

Dog Bites Buzzard

Buzz Buzzard turns into shapes aplenty (jagged and otherwise) when he pockets an angry French poodle in “Belle Boys.” Here are some of the drawings.



Don Patterson directed this Walter Lantz cartoon with animation credited to La Verne Harding, Ray Abrams and Ken Southworth.

Just Givin' My Bosses a Plug

“I’ve got an option comin’ up!”

Virgil Ross gets the animation credit on “Daffy Duck in Hollywood,” one of Tex Avery’s great Warners cartoons.

Let us give a plug for a terrific blog. Frank Young is very ably writing about each of Tex Avery’s cartoons, in chronological order, made for the Leon Schlesinger studio, analysing Avery’s development and evolution as a filmmaker and humourist. Avery came to full flower during the war years after he was hired at MGM, so his Warners cartoons tend to be comparatively neglected. But considering Avery’s importance and influence in the field of animated comedy, his Warners cartoons deserve a critical examination and breakdown. Frank is more than up to the task. I strongly urge you—though if you’re a Tex Avery fan, you need no urging from me—to click on each of Frank’s new posts and read what he has to say. His posts can be found in the sidebar or by going HERE.

Spike and Mike

You really don’t get the full effect of animated cartoons unless you see them on the screen at a theatre. I love Tex Avery’s “Magical Maestro” but you honestly don’t appreciate the full scope of how Avery handles his gags unless you watch it in the visual perspective it was meant to be seen.

Unfortunately, big screen showings of cartoons don’t appear to be terribly common. They certainly aren’t where I live; I saw the Avery showing I mentioned close to 30 years ago. Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation used to come through every couple of years and play one of the art houses. I haven’t heard much about it lately, but I got a note from Spike. I don’t know him, I’ve never seen their animation showings, and I have no intention of plugging every fund-raising campaign that comes into my inbox, but I pass this one for those of you who appreciate the work they’ve done over the years. And they are offering balloons.

This is Spike from Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation & Spike and Mike's Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation. We are running a Kick-Starter campaign for bringing back our famous Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted show. It is our 20th anniversary this year, we want to feature part all time classic sick & twisted favorite films (Early entries include films by Tim Burton & 'Lupo the Butcher' by the creator of Ed, Ed & Eddie) & part BRAND NEW Sick & Twisted films, celebrity guests, balloons, music, food, drinks and a whole lot more!

It means a lot for us this year to make the show happen and celebrate with our fans. We always YOWP, it has high credibility, great contents and cater a lot of cool animation fans out there, so we will be extremely grateful if you can post an article about our project and spread the word for us! 100% of the money raised will be used for the show and merchandises.

Here is the link for our Kick-Starter project:

Bluto Answered an Ad

No one ever compared Jackson Beck to Victor Mature. But, on radio, looks don’t count, and as far as some radio listeners during World War Two were concerned, Beck and Mature were one and the same. A Girl Scout troop in Brooklyn chose the short, roundish Beck as their Pin-Up Boy for July 1943.

We know Beck today for his role as Bluto in the Popeye cartoons produced by Famous/Paramount studio and his narration on “The Adventures of Superman” radio serial. But the Girl Scouts picked him because of his manly portrayal of the romantic Cisco Kid.

Beck had been around radio for awhile at that point; he started in the business in 1932. How it happened was chronicled by Harriet Van Horne of the New York World-Telegram in 1943. She was eight years younger than Beck, by the way.

As an aside, I bashed Van Horne in an earlier post on this blog. She didn’t seem to like, let alone respect, the broadcast media she was covering. However, in this profile of Beck, which appeared in syndicated form on August 29, 1943, she stuck to the facts and left out her opinions.

Jackson Beck Answered Ad And Now He’s A Radio Star
‘Cisco Kid’ Comes by His Acting Naturally, For His Dad Was a Profession on the Stage
By HARRIET VAN HORNE
I’ve yet to meet a successful writer who got that way answering one of those ads—“How do you KNOW you can’t write?”
But the other day I met a successful actor who broke into radio by the simple expedient of answering an ad that asked, “Do YOU want to get into radio?”
That was 11 years ago, and round-faced Jackson Beck has been living by the mike ever since. He works 10 hours a day, appears on some 20 shows a week and earns considerably more than $10,000 a year.
“And when I answered that foolish ad,” he says frankly, “I was living on animal crackers and water.”
Not that a chance newspaper item immediately turned the animal crackers to guinea hen under glass. There was, it developed, a catch to the ad—something thousands of hopefuls found out in 1932.
Here the gimmick was a solemn audition behind a curtain. Aspiring radio artists were given a speech out an ante-bellum elocution book. Jackson recalls that his ran something like: “Ah, here comes the Prince! But little does he dream that I am the true love of his lady fair.” No matter how you read it, the result is the same. You had an excellent chance of breaking into radio, the advertiser explained, IF you took his course in radio dramatics. Jackson put up an argument, complaining the ad was misleading. “Result was that I wound up as an instructor,” he chuckles.
Glutted with radio school tricks, most of which turned out to be more hindrance than help, Jackson made his bow in a series of dramatized love stories on a now defunct station. It was the only English program on the station, and did little to adjust foreign-born listeners to their new land and its quaint customs. “The show didn’t run very long,” said Jackson. “It was directed by a guy with a glass eye and inhibitions.”
During the next five years Jackson says he worked for all the 26 stations that have, at one time or another, flashed their signal from New York. He was actor, announcer, director, producer. He also sold time, swept out and answered the phone. “I did everything but sing,” he says ruefully. “That’s an ambition I have yet to realize.”
Today Beck’s radio roles include everything but vocalizing. They range from Louie the Lug on the Archie Andrews series for kids, to the tensely dramatic Man Behind the Fun. He plays The Skull in another juvenile thriller, The Black Hood. And, as almost everyone knows by now, Jackson is the Cisco Kid. This role, a romantic vagabond who halts injustice, solves crimes, aids the poor and sweeps young senoritas off their balconies, fetches in a bale of fan mail. Most of it is from little girls.
On the program, Eye Witness News, Jackson is the “voice” of some famous bylines, including Drew Middleton and Clark Lee. He is also the narrator of the new Coast Guard Technicolor film, Task Force, soon to be released.
Jackson’s father is an actor. His mother reads romantic novels. The senior Beck was last seen on Broadway in the play, The More the Merrier, no relation to the recent movie. “He was the one who drew mustaches on corpses,” Jackson explains.
One thing above all else is Jackson Beck grateful for. Some kind soul dissuaded his mother from naming him St. Elmo after the novel she was reading in 1912.

When network radio dried up in the early ‘50s, Beck found lucrative employment in the world of commercial voice-over work. Here’s just one of his many national spots. Alas, Beck’s familiar hard-sell pitch couldn’t save the Studebaker.

Fake Mickey Sighting

A Mickey Mouse skeleton gag? Not at all.



This is one of the ersatz New York City studio Mickeys, in this case from the Bimbo cartoon “The Bum Bandit” (1931), with the animation credits going to Willard Bowsky and Al Eugster. Eugster later wound up at the Disney studio.

As usual with an early Fleischer sound cartoon, there are lots of fun little bits, including talking guns, a complaining bird and cow and a dog-eared Betty Boop walking on people’s heads.

Alley in Manhattan

“Mouse in Manhattan” (1945) is a charming solo cartoon for Jerry Mouse (Tom appears only at the beginning and end), who braves the skyscrapers and the gutters of New York City.

One scene features Jerry in a dimly-lit alley that echoes with his sneeze. Suddenly, eyes start appearing, beginning in the distance and moving toward the foreground.



Jerry steps toward the left of the scene. A vicious cat creeps out of a garbage can.



And Jerry is scared back to the rural outer environs and home with Tom.

The usual crew of Ken Muse, Ray Patterson, Ed Barge and Irv Spence are the credited animators but Thad Komorowski tells me that Pete Burness animated this scene. Louis Alter’s “Manhattan Serenade” gets a lot of play in Scott Bradley’s enjoyable score.

Mr. Harris, Your Contract is Up

Would you accept a $50,000-a-year contract for ten years? And then barely have to work during that time?

That’s what Phil Harris did. At least, that was the sum being bandied about by columnists.

NBC decided to sew up its remaining big comedy talent in 1949 when Bill Paley opened his Jack Benny-sized vault and attracted Benny and other stars over to CBS. Harris and wife Alice Faye inked a new NBC contract (the New York Times reported on December 25, 1948 a deal with CBS had fallen through). And then a couple of years later he signed a long-term deal, with the network no doubt thinking it could transfer his radio show to television. But it never happened, despite continued rumblings. Harris told United Press in 1953 that Faye would rather stay home with the kids and TV was too hectic. Philsie seemed to agree after a bit and spent more of his time golfing, fishing and relaxing in Palm Springs than anywhere near a TV studio.

Slowly but surely, his nice little contract ran out. And that brings us to this story from UPI that appeared in newspapers around August 25, 1962. The columnist didn’t even broach the subject of an eventual weekly series featuring Phil and Alice, let alone bringing back their old sitcom. Or maybe he did and Phil’s answer wasn’t printable. But it’s more than likely that idea was in their distant past, much like radio itself was considered something of an era long departed.

NBC CONTRACT RUNS OUT
Phil Harris Is Free To Work With Pals
By JOSEPH FINNIGAN
HOLLYWOOD (UPI)—Phil Harris, a comedian who sings at racehorse speed about things like blackeyed peas and fried chicken, is available for work with such old pals as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Jack Benny and Red Skelton.
That wasn’t always so. For the past 10 years, NBC-TV has had a contract with Harris which restricted the personable star to the network’s shows.
On NBC, Harris worked mostly with Bob Hope and Perry Como, but the opportunity to appear with other performers of such stature was rare. Many of them were on CBS or ABC.
However, Harris’ NBC pact is running out and the taboo against other webs bidding for his services will also end.
Harris’ first non-NBC appearance will be with Red Skelton, a long time CBS favorite.
Harris, Skelton Rehearse
The two funnymen swapped jokes in a rehearsal hall at that network’s television city in Hollywood when they got together for their first show.
During a rehearsal break, Harris said: “I’m getting a kick out of this. Red and I have been friends for years and never worked together before.
“I have always been a great admirer of Red. We were born within 30 miles of each other. He was born in Vincennes, Indiana, and I was born in Linton. There were about 4,000 people there when the Ringling Bros. Circus came to town.”
Harris recalled that an uncle occasionally look him to Skelton's home town “to get a catfish sandwich.”
Harris, who worked for 16 years with Jack Benny, has been with NBC 32 years on radio and television. The only time he performed on another network was when NBC allowed him to be a guest at Benny’s CBS birthday party.
NBC Restricts Comedian
“Under my contract with NBC, I was to do five guest appearances a year during the first five years,” Harris said. “In the second five years I was to do two appearances a year. And I couldn’t do anything on television or radio other than NBC.
“It was a wonderful contract and I’m very grateful for it. I’m not complaining, but it kept me from working with Bing on ABC, Benny and several of my other friends who are top notch performers. They all wanted me but couldn’t get me.
“I’d give anything in the world to work with Bing. I’ve never been on a radio or television show with Bing or Sinatra.”
Harris, married to actress Alice Faye, didn’t waste time lining up television appearances with other networks once he became his own boss. He’s set for another Skelton program, this time with Miss Faye, and a Pat Boone show.

The story isn’t altogether correct. Harris appeared on a CBS TV special with Jackie Gleason called “The Big Sell Revue” in 1960. Judging by at least one review, it was likely best forgotten, though I suspect anyone remotely familiar with either gentleman can picture the booze jokes that were likely in the script.

It’s not a surprise Harris didn’t guest star with several big names back in the radio days. For one thing, he was still pretty much considered an adjunct of the Benny show until he and Faye got their own starring programme. For another, he was still leading a band at the Wiltshire Bowl for a period of time which precluded extra-curricular radio activity. And Sinatra pretty much stuck to himself on his 15-minute shows. Harris did drop in to visit Eddie Cantor, Dinah Shore, Fred Allen and Al Jolson over the years on radio, and he and Alice starred in an episode of “Suspense” in 1951 (produced by Elliott Lewis, who appeared on his show as Frank Remley).

The end of his NBC contact did allow him to make a few appearances he might not have otherwise—a 1964 guest host role on “The Hollywood Palace” for one. But it likely didn’t make much of a difference. It doesn’t seem Phil Harris needed the money, and television with its commuting and rehearsals took away time from his real interests, like swinging a 9-iron or hooking a trout. Not a bad life. Even if you’re not getting $50,000 a year for it.

Gee, Her Old LaSalle Ran Great

For a few years, “All in the Family” was the most brilliant show on television. Anyone who thought it was about racial/ethnic insults and tasteless toilet flushing was watching superficially. It was pure political satire of The America of The Day, taking shots at the left and right (and displeasing radicals on both sides of the debate who only wanted the other side skewered). Its characters were far from one-dimensional and became more and more fleshed out with time, making television history in the process.

The writing was a key, of course, but so was the acting. It’s impossible to think anyone other than Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton could have been any better as Archie and Edith Bunker. The characters and tone of the show evolved over time. Not all the decisions pleased me as a viewer, but one of the good ones was making Edith a far more meatier character than the somewhat cuckolded housewife she was in the beginning. And Stapleton was an actress more than up to the challenge of expanding her character’s traits.

As is usual with monster television hits, one’s previous roles—especially ones that don’t involve stardom—are suppressed in the collective memory of the audience and a person becomes known for only one character. So was the fate of Jean Stapleton. She told one Hollywood wire service reporter soon after “All in the Family” became a hit she got a kick out of being stopped on the street by fans. But then the novelty wears off and the actor feels trapped in, and by, their role. Stapleton finally bade farewell to Edith and left the show, but she never did in the minds of fans. That’s why Jean Stapleton’s death is being mourned today. She used her incredible talent to bring to life someone who is beloved even 40-plus years later and broke ground in television in the process. It’s quite a legacy for any actor; one accomplished by few.

Here are two feature stories by New York Tribune Syndicate writer Marilyn Beck, interviewing Stapleton about her famous character. The first is dated September 6, 1974 and the second is from September 17, 1979, close to five years later. It’s a little disheartening reading the second column, where Stapleton makes it appear she was merely going through the motions, even as whole stories were focusing on her character. But if you read between the lines of the first column, you’ll see Stapleton’s continued presence on “All in the Family” was not because she loved the role, though she likely did. It was contractual.

Jean Stapleton: Her Own Women
By MARILYN BECK
“Me leave All In The Family?” That’s funny,” laughed Jean Stapleton. It was the tone of voice Edith Bunker might employ responding to a statement by her husband—which even she found too outlandish to buy.
The situation wasn’t all that funny, considering Carroll O’Connor’s suit against his All in the Family bosses. Considering the admission of supporting player Michael Evans that he would like to leave the show. Considering that it took a $10 million lawsuit slapped by Tandem against Redd Foxx to get that wayward actor back to his Sanford and Son post.
“Why so funny?” Disastisfaction with series seemed to be a common denominator among her fellow Tandem Production performers.
“I consider a contract as meaning something,” Jean said. Her facial expressions were still much like Edith, the long-suffering All in the Family wife. But her words contained none of the Edith Bunker whine. Jean Stapleton was obviously was woman with savvy things on her mind, and the ability to express them well.
“There are many things I’d like to do in the future,” she said. “Eventually I’d like to leave the series, and concentrate on theatre again, to move seriously into musical comedy. But, well, I still have three more years to go on my Tandem Productions contract. I can’t consider anything else until that has run its course.”
Her difference from her colleagues in such attitudes is obvious the moment one meets Jean Stapleton. Particularly if that meeting takes place in the CBS dressing room which bears her name. About the size of an oversized closet—it doesn’t contain any closet space, much less a window. To other Tandem Production stars it would represent an excuse to stage a walkout from work. To Jean the quarters provides “Really all I need—a nice, cozy little spot to rest.”
She is by no means a woman who doesn’t make demands. However, the demands she makes appear to be upon herself.
“I was raised that way,” she said. “I was taught by example that one must grow and learn to do for oneself. My mother was a concert and opera singer, and thus there was never the message implanted with me that a woman’s role is simply to find a man and marry.”
She was born in New York City, a product of a family whose fortunes were never recouped after the depression of the ‘30s. She went to work right out of high school and supported herself with clerical employment while she secured on-the-job dramatic training in off-Broadway theatre and the American Theatre Wing.
She dug her heels so totally into the demands of career that it wasn’t until her early 30’s when, as she puts it, “I looked around and began to be aware of the void in my personal life. And then along came marriage.”
Marriage came to producer William H. Putch in 1957, after much soul-searching on Jean’s part.
“I thought about it carefully,” she said. “Many young adults today don’t regard marriage as a necessary step. Well, I don’t either. But companionship is something we all long for, and marriage seemed to be the right solution for Bill and myself.”
Jean’s career had, by that time, reached a point where, “My drive had lessened a bit and I could willingly give up some of my time and independence.”
She would remain at heart an independent, liberated woman, because she was blessed by marriage to a liberated man. “That’s the key to women’s lib,” she laughed.
Motherhood, she told me candidly during a taping break of All In The Family, was something she didn’t plan and didn’t want. “I’m glad I have my son and daughter. Pam is 15 now, John is 13, and they’re beautiful and wonderful—and have certainly expanded me a lot as a woman. But at the time I married, I simply had never been acquainted with that many children and could never picture myself in the role of a mother.”
She has, over the years, been able to divide her times effectively into many roles.
In the early period of their marriage, the Putch’s remained New York City residents, where Jean did early-day live television and appeared in numerous Broadway productions. Then, 13 years ago, they moved to the foothills of the Alleghenies near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where Bill became owner-producer-director of The Totem Pole Playhouse, and Jean became the resident leading lady.
When All in the Family stardom beckoned, it meant a change in lifestyles for the family; half of the year spent in Los Angeles, the remainder of the time devoted to involvement in the Totem Pole Playhouse, where Jean still manages to perform in several productions a season.
“I wouldn’t have taken the part in the series if Bill hadn’t wanted me to,” she made it clear. “No, it wouldn’t have been a sacrifice. A sacrifice is only something one only does against her will.”
She brushed aside talk of the terrible time six years ago when her husband learned he had cancer of the lymph system and said simply, “Bill’s fine now, really. Medication and treatment cured him.”
It was apparent she would prefer talking about more upbeat subjects—like her future, like her plans to play Eleanor Roosevelt for the screen.
The project will be filmed during an All in the Family hiatus, and for months Jean has been reading research books that can provide added insight into the life of the late First Lady, whose qualities she so admires.
“Her metamorphosis from a shy, introverted woman, self-conscious about her plainness into a brilliant public speaker and humanitarian fascinates me,” said the outgoing, articulate Jean Stapleton.
We chatted for a moment about reports that knowledge of F.D.R.’s extramarital affair had served as a catalyst to make Eleanor Roosevelt decide she must become her own person, and Jean commented. “What a marvelous focal point that would be for the film. How women of today would relate to that, now with all the growing realization that women need more than to be in the shadows of a man.”

Jean Stapleton Leaves Edith Bunker Behind
By MARILYN BECK
If you happen to pass Jean Stapleton on the street, don’t hail her as “Edith.” Not unless you want her to stop and remind you she’s divorced herself from Archie Bunker—and that she has never been anyone but an actress playing a role.
“I’ve made it my mission to educate people about the difference between me and my character ever since All in the Family began in 1971,” she explains with a smile.
“When someone stops me in a store, for instance, and addresses me as ‘Edith,’ I’ll very politely correct them—and try to explain that it is an actress’ function to play many roles, and that Edith Bunker was just one of many roles I intend to play.”
A desire to move on to new roles what what led to Jean’s resignation from All in the Family this season—and the retitling of the show to Archie’s Place.
Outlining the reasons for her action, she says, “The way I’m constituted, I just can’t invest my life on one portrayal. I need more variety. The last few seasons, I began to feel like a pit musician in a long-running Broadway show, who works on a crossword puzzle between cues, then picks up his instrument and plays the same notes he played the night before. It becomes less than a stimulating experience.”
Jean did consent to return to Archie’s side this summer long enough to tape an All in the Family Thanksgiving reunion special (which will also feature now long-departed Family members Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers), plus three segments of Archie’s Place which will explain her future absence by having her going to work—in a mental institution.
And after that? Well, Jean will be busy establishing an Edith-less image. And she’s already taken some impressive strides in that direction.
She’ll be seen this fall as “Aunt Mary”—based on the true story of a Baltimore woman who ignored several physical handicaps to become a sandlot baseball coach—which will be aired on CBS as a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation.
She’s heavy into rehearsals for Daisy Mayme, a stage comedy about an extroverted, independent woman, which her husband, Bill Putch, will direct and which both will tour with from October through February.
And she’s scheduled to star as Eleanor Roosevelt in a two-part TV presentation being produced by Norman Lear.
Sandwiched between all this will be ongoing activities for the ERA, a movement which Jean has been a leader in recent years—and which has helped her make subtle, yet positive changes in the personality of Edith Bunker. “For two or three years, I was pressing to have things on the show that would dramatize the issue of equal rights,” she reveals. “And then in 1976, I served on the National Committee for the Observance of International Women’s Year—and I was able to provide our writers with research material that enabled them to write scripts along that level.”
One segment she’s particularly proud of dealt with credit discrimination toward Edith when that long-suffering heroine attempted to cash a cheque.
“We got a lot of mail response to that one,” she reports with a smile that grows broader when she adds, “a mostly positive response, I’m happy to say.”
It also seems ironic, after all these seasons in which Jean Stapleton has has docily sat back while Carroll O’Connor has made his periodic threats to leave, that it should be she who has found the courage to free herself from series security. Leaving Carroll in a house in which the other Family members have already left.
Thinking back to those earlier times—and to one particular time when Carroll was engaging in a lengthy walkout from the show, and CBS and Tandem Productions were considering revamping the series so it would revolve around a widowed Edith—she smiles softly and says, “It just proves nothing in life is ever fixed, ever definite.”
The only definite with Jean Stapleton now, is that she feels no regret or insecurity about having left Archie—and Edith.

“All in the Family” is the kind of programme that probably should be on the air today but would probably never get made as noisy claques are noisier than they were in 1971. (Can you picture a comedy built around a Tea Partying, NRA-supporting, “entitlement”-hating bigot? I would like to.) And producers would have to find the actors that could pull off the roles. Would any of them have been better as an awakened “dingbat” than Jean Stapleton? Probably not.

Here’s one of my favourite Edith moments. Like all of Edith’s stories or explanations, they’re perfectly logical. But there’s something odd as they unfold.

I'm Winfield the Sailor Man

There was a time only someone paying really close attention to cartoon credits would have known who Jack Mercer was. And they still, at least in the 1960s, wouldn’t have known he was the voice of Popeye.

The folks at the Fleischer studio saw no need to credit any voice actors on its shorts. Neither did their successors when the Fleischer brothers were unceremoniously tossed out in 1942. So, for years, kids watched Popeye in the theatres and then on TV not having any idea who voiced the sailor man. And for most of his career, it was former assistant animator Mercer, who was moved into the story department and got his screen credit there.

Mercer became more than Popeye. He provided all kinds of incidental voices in various series produced by Fleischer and Famous (later Paramount) cartoon studios and was the entire voice cast for the Trans-Lux “bag of tricks” TV version of Felix the Cat. But his pre-Popeye career is blown off in a few sentences if you go hunting for information. If you believe some places on the internet, he was born Jack Mercer in New York City—neither of which is true. You’ll read of vaudevillian parents but they are not identified. So let’s dig through some official records and newspaper clippings and find out a few things.

Our starting point is Mercer’s marriage license given to him before he tied the knot with Margie Hines. Margie replaced Mae Questel as the voice of Olive Oyl when Mercer and the Fleischer studio packed up for Miami, leaving Questel to continue her acting career in New York. It reveals Mercer’s actual given name, though his WW2 enlistment papers have his name as “Jack.”



Knowing his name was really “Winfield” made it much easier to find him in census records and they show he was not born in New York at all but in Indiana. The 1910 Census has him, age two months, living with grandmother Maggie and a number of adult Mercers, including a Kilburn B. [sic] and Nola Mercer in Worthington. In 1920, he was with another grandmother, Bertha Allen, in Trenton, New Jersey. The only other Mercer in the census is named Bennett and we also find a Nola St. Claire and her younger sister Winifred. It turns out Bennett Kelburn Mercer and Nola St. Claire were Jack’s parents. And the story is true. For a time, they were in vaudeville together. In fact, his parents were married on stage, as the July 30, 1908 edition of the Decatur, Indiana newspaper reveals; they were in a company run by Bennett’s younger brother Charles. Bennett gave up show business by World War One—his enlistment papers reveal he was a mechanic at a Nash dealership—but Nola went to appear on Broadway and on the prestigious Keith circuit. She and Bennett divorced in 1922. He moved back to Indiana, remarried, and worked as a janitor. She and her mother packed up young Winfield and were living in Manhattan in 1930, with Bertha running a boarding house.

We’ll let Mercer himself pick up the story. The revelation of Mercer as the voice of Popeye made print on rare occasion during the theatrical days—mainly when he married “Olive Oyl”—but that changed when Hanna-Barbera decided to make new, toned down Popeye cartoons in 1978. As incredible as it may seem, the studio actually had Mercer audition for the role he began playing in 1934. Word that the long-time voice of Popeye would be returning potentially made good copy, especially since he played a character long used by you-must-think-as-we-do groups to pressure networks to emasculate Saturday morning cartoons.

Here are two of the wire service stories, the first by the National Enterprise Association that appeared in papers around August 13, 1978 and the other from United Press International.

Jack Mercer Resurrects ‘Popeye’ Cartoon Voice
By DICK KLEINER
HOLLYWOOD—After 44 years and more than 700 shorts, the voice of Popeye and Betty Boop and dozens of other cartoon characters is finally working in Hollywood.
His name is Jack Mercer and he is a shy, retiring and very modest man who just happens to have a tremendous range of voices at his beck and sound.
Now he’s working here, at the Hanna-Barbera Studio, where they have resurrected Popeye for a new series of Saturday morning cartoon shows. CBS will begin telecasting the new ones this coming fall.
It has been 18 years since any new “Popeye” shows were made, Mercer says. But he still can talk like the old sailor man that millions of us have heard.
It all began, for Jack Mercer, in New York in the early ‘30s. He has been born in Indiana to a family that had a traveling repertory company, the Winifred St. Clair Company. Miss St. Clair was an aunt.
The whole family was involved with the company. As a small boy, he went on whenever there was a play that called for a small boy. “Despite that,” he says, “my folks didn’t want me to go into show business. I did, but I had to get in through a back door because of my parents’ disapproval. I was good at art, so that was my entry into show biz.”
He went to New York and got a job in the Max Fleischer Studio as an “opaquer,” a lowly person who does some of the backgrounds on animated cartoons. He worked his way up to “inker,” then “in-betweener,” both somewhat higher up the animation ladder.
At the time he started with Fleischer, the “Betty Boop” cartoons were the studio’s big thing. Then they added “Popeye,” and the first voice of the sailor man belonged to a singer named Red Pepper Sam Costello. He made the first six or so.
Jack Mercer, who always had a gift for mimicry, began imitating Red Pepper Sam’s Popeye voice. When the studio, for reasons Mercer never did know, decided to switch to a new voice, they heard Mercer and had him do it.

‘Popeye’ comeback slated with new cartoons next fall
By VERNON SCOTT
HOLLYWOOD, June 19 (UPI) — Popeye, the runty, one-eyed sailorman, is making a comeback next television season with 48 new cartoons for Saturday morning viewing.
The spinach-gobbling old tar will be less violent than in the old days, but he will look and sound the same as he did in 454 previous cartoons.
Popeye’s voice for the past 44 years has been Jack Mercer, a meek, mild-mannered New Yorker who would seem to have more in common with J. Wellington Wimpy than the scrappy little sailor. Mercer, in fact, also provided Wimpy’s voice in the old TV and movie cartoons.
AS CLOSELY associated with Popeye as he is, Mercer was not the original voice of the sailorman. In the beginning the raspy vocalizations were done by an odd-ball singer named “Red Pepper Sam” Costello.
Actually, Popeye’s voice was a switchover from Costello’s voice for Gus Gorilla on the “Betty Boop” radio show.
Costello passed up the Popeye vocals in 1933 due to a conflict in schedules and Mercer took over.
IN THE EARLY 1930s Mercer was a cartoonist working for the Max Fleisher Studio in New York, which was later bought out by Paramount. He was assigned to coloring and drawing Popeye panels for the movie cartoons.
“I began mimicking Popeye’s voice when I was in the inking department just to amuse my fellow cartoonists and to break up the monotony,” Mercer recalled.
“When Costello quit, the producers grabbed me and I’ve been doing Popeye ever since. But I also did the voice for 240 ‘Felix The Cat’ cartoons. I did the two other major characters in Felix films, too — the Professor and Rock Bottom, the villain.”
THE LAST Popeye cartoon was done 16 years ago, but Mercer kept his voice limber and his pocketbook heavy by doing Popeye’s voice for television commercials and on records.
When Hanna-Barbera, the world’s largest cartoon producers, bought rights to Popeye, auditions were held for the voices of Popeye, Olive Oyl, Wimpy and the others. Mercer came to Hollywood for the first time in his life earlier this year to give it a try.
“I’M THE ONLY returning voice,” he said, grinning. “Marilyn Schreffler will do Olive and Allen Melvin is doing the voice of Bluto, who used to be called Brutus. Daws Butler will provide a new voice and character for Wimpy.
“Alice the Goon, the Jeep, Sweetpea and the other characters will all be back for the new shows.”
In addition to 48 6½ minute shows, Hanna-Barbera will produce 16 11-minute cartoons for CBS-TV Saturday morning programming.
“MY VOICE work for the new cartoons is more or less a sideline right now,” Mercer said. “My main job is writing the scripts and doing the story boards for the shows.
“The difficulty is cutting down on the violence. Popeye never did hurt anyone unless it was absolutely necessary. But the silly part of it is, the old violent shows are still being seen on TV all over the country and nobody objects. It doesn’t make sense to impose different rules on the new ones.
“I’ve re-recorded the opening song for the new shows. And instead of using the old boat whistle to punctuate ‘I’m Popeye The Sailorman Toot-Toot’ I do the whistle myself.
“THE CARTOONS are more difficult to do these days for the people providing the voices. In the old days we were given the drawings first and then recorded our voices for the sound track.
“These days we record the dialogue first. It’s harder to do the ad libs and make the funny little asides and mumblings that are so very much a part of the Popeye character before you saw in the pictures.
“We don’t have as much time to rehearse as we used to. There’s less time to familiarize yourself with the script and to work out something appropriate and funny for the ad libs.”
MERCER IS convinced Popeye is a universal hero, the underdog who finally tires of being pushed around and asserts himself. With the help of a can of spinach, of course.
"Popeye is a basic American character,” said Mercer. “He has high moral standards. He tries to talk the villain out of his evil ways before belting him out. And he is forever defending Olive Oyl’s virtue.
“The popularity of Popeye reruns over the years is responsible for all the new shows. Both the movie cartoons and the cartoons made for television are still being shown on the tube.
“THERE WERE 234 theatrical segments made for theaters and 220 episodes made for television by King Features. As I recall, the first ones done in color were in 1936.
“I’m sure millions of dollars will be made on merchandising deals that will go along with the new cartoons. I’m not a big collector of Popeye memorabilia, but I do have some Popeye greeting cards, posters and dolls back in my New York home. I imagine I’ll be adding to my collection in the next few years.”

Mercer wasn’t the only voice of Popeye after he took over from Costello. He enlisted in the military on July 13, 1943 (stating he had completed two years of high school) and spent two years overseas. Naturally, he couldn’t exactly fly back to New York for voice sessions so Harry Welch performed Popeye’s role (Mae Questel claimed she had as well). But there was someone else. Ferman Wilson’s column in the Miami News of June 11, 1939 quoted Pinto Colvig, then a writer and actor at Fleischer’s:

“By the way,” he added, “did Hamp Howard tell you how they got him to talk for Popeye in the last release, as a sub for Jack Mercer? Did a good job, too, but he hasn’t paid me my 10 per cent commission yet.” It was Hamp’s first effort as a star.

Hampton W. Howard and his wife Edna were both in public relations and had an apartment at 277 Park Avenue in Manhattan in 1940. How long he was in Florida is unknown but he had spent some of his teenaged years in Georgia. The reference to him voicing Popeye is puzzling in that the “last release” was “Wotta Nitemare” (in theatres by May 19, 1939) and it sounds like Mercer in the role. But as Mercer and Hines were married the previous March 3rd, he may have been occupied with something other than studio business for a bit.

Mercer and Hines divorced (they were still married in March 1944 as a newspaper story refers to Mrs. Mercer working on the Grumman assembly line) and Margie disappeared from the animation scene. Thanks mainly to his work at Hanna-Barbera years later, Mercer enjoyed the spotlight until his death at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York on December 4, 1984 at age 74.

Incidentally, our Winfield B. Mercer doesn’t appear to be related to former major league pitcher Winfield B. Mercer who killed himself in a San Francisco hotel in 1903, leaving behind a note warning his friends to “Beware of women and a game of chance.” In fact, his name wasn’t Winfield Mercer at all; he was born George Barclay Mercer but went by “Win.” It seems Jack né Win balanced the scales a bit.