Lively Cake

Betty Boop gets a birthday cake delivered to her in “Betty Boop’s Birthday Party” (1933). Being a Fleischer cartoon, it’s only natural the candles come to life and wish Betty a happy birthday. And they develop little rumps in the process before returning to being to inanimate objects.



Seymour Kneitel and Myron Waldman get the on-screen animation credits. Mae Questel doesn’t voice Betty in this one.

On All Day Are Bob and Ray

Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding filled the airwaves in the 1950s with some pretty funny (and biting) parodies and satires. The question isn’t “how did they do it?” but “how did they not collapse from exhaustion?”

The NBC network plucked them from a radio station in Boston and, pretty soon, they were all over the schedule, kind of like Arthur Godfrey at CBS. The difference was Godfrey had oodles of sponsors. Bob and Ray didn’t—even though Elliott did a funnier Godfrey than Godfrey did.

By the time they landed on TV on November 26, 1951 (replacing half of “Kukla, Fran and Ollie” from 7:15 to 7:30 p.m. on weekdays), they were already filling NBC’s and WNBC’s radio schedule in mornings and early evenings. Perhaps it got to be too much. By early January, NBC announced “The Goldbergs” would take over the Monday-Wednesday-Friday slots. By May 6th, a sitcom called “Those Endearing Young Charms” took over Tuesdays and Thursdays. No matter. The TV network moved them into a Tuesday night, 10:30 to 10:45 p.m. show for Embassy cigarettes called “Club Embassy.” It debuted October 7, 1952. By November, Billboard reported the sponsor wanted to dump them. Then the sponsor changed its mind. Then the sponsor changed its mind again. The show became a musical revue with Mindy Carson as of December 30th (Carson was gone the following May 19th).

The critics all seemed to love Bob and Ray. Here’s a story from the Amsterdam Evening Recorder of February 23, 1952 which sums up their show, if you haven’t heard or seen it.

Lights of New York
By L. L. STEVENSON
Only a little while ago the names Bob and Ray meant nothing to radio listeners and television -viewers unless they happened to be the monickers of friends or relatives. Within the short-space of seven months, Bob and Ray have become familiar from coast to coast. They are a couple of uninhibited zanies who are on radio and television something like 18 hours a week. Incidentally, so far as can be ascertained, they are the only air comics who have received a “cease and desist” request from the staid and dignified Smithsonian Institution. There is no "Mr. Inbetween" so far as Bob and Ray are concerned. Fans either dislike their programs violently or like them just as violently. That the latter are far in the majority is indicated by their air hours. The National Broadcasting Co. has efficient ways of ascertaining public opinion.
● ● ●
Their full names are Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding. Bob is 28 and Ray, 29. Both are married. Ray has three children. Bob none. Bob was born in Boston and Ray in Lowell, not so far away. The team was formed by accident—and by grace of favorable audience reaction. Earlier in 1946, while both were staff at WHDH, Boston. Ray read the newscasts on Bob's morning disc jockey show. They became friends and Ray would remain at the studio after his newscasts to indulge in on-the-air pleasantries and gags, with Bob. They soon realized they worked well together and began to work in routines. Their humor caught on. The station gave them a daily, half-hour program. By that time, they had developed numerous fictional characters for their satirical sketches. They now use eight of these characters, all voiced by Bob and Ray and when necessity demands, they invent another.
● ● ●
Last July, Bob and Ray moved on to New York to do a 15-minute network show five days a week and 30 minutes Saturday night. In no time at all, they were on their way. At the end of 13 weeks, the network picked up their option. Now in addition to their six network shows they also have a two-and-a-half-hour local show which starts at 6 A. M. and runs five mornings a week. The first of the year, they made their television bow and now have five 15-minute shows each week. The morning show is strictly ad lib. For their other shows they wrote their own material until they went into television. Now they have writers but the main burden is still on them. To air time must be added rehearsal time. Their rehearsals for their daily TV show start at 3 P. M. They are really busy young men.
● ● ●
Masters of satire, ingenious mimics and skilled deflaters of pomposity, Bob and Ray travel their own peculiar way. The first of their characters was Mary McGoon. Tex, representing all cowboy singers, Webley Webster, who conducts the forums. Uncle Eugene, a typical stuffed shirt who knows all the answers, and Arthur Sturdley, "Just a jerk," are among the familiars. They kid commercials by offering skits of various kinds. In fact, they kid anything and everything that comes into their versatile minds. They even needle their boss since they introduce their programs with the announcement, “Bob and Ray take great pleasure in presenting the National Broadcasting Co.”
● ● ●

Despite the fact that the kits they offer listeners are farcial in the extreme, they bring a heavy mail. There were even listeners who sent to “Thieves, NBC,” for a "get-away kit" which included a high - powered black limousine, usually driven by a confederate, stolen license plates and an "automatic summons rejector." The "House Dismantling Kit" was the one that brought the protest from the Smithsonian Institution. It was for those who buy new houses which they want to look like old Colonial homes. So there were termites and even a "condemned" sign. Though they called it the "Smithsonian Institute" so many letters reached the Washington Institution that they were asked to stop making that particular offer.
● ● ●
Being funny 18 hours a week is rather a strain, Bob and Ray admitted as we lunched at Café Louis XIV. They made that statement seriously. As a matter of fact, off the air they are rather serious young men. As we talked, they seemed more or less, detached. There was reason for that—they were soon due at a rehearsal. Asked for what they were ultimately heading, they replied in unison, “Ulcers.”

Bob and Ray continued to bounce around on the NBC schedule, then jumped to 485 Madison Avenue where their characters enlivened the airwaves on CBS. They were still on the air in the ‘70s at the former New York hub of the Mutual network, and later on NPR. Their routines perhaps evoked more nostalgia than anything else, but their humour still stands up. You don’t need to have listened to “Linda’s First Love” as you hear the banal dialogue of Bob and Ray’s soap “The Life and Loves of Linda Lovely.” And there’s still a nugget of reality stretched to the Nth degree of ridiculousness in the phoney products the pair would hawk on the air. And who can’t appreciate the know-it-all, all-American kid Jack Headstrong getting his comeuppance from his buddy Billy, even if one isn’t familiar with “Jack Armstrong” (and its breathless, condescending offers paid out of parents’ wallets)?

There was plenty of parody and self-parody on radio, but only a handful of great radio satirists. Bob and Ray were among the best.

You Know What Elmer's Saying

If you can’t quote Elmer Fudd from this frame in “A Wild Hare” (1940), you’re on the wrong blog.

This may not have the manic energy of Tex Avery’s MGM cartoons but it’s still one of his—and animation’s—all-time greats.

Grin and Share It Backgrounds

If it weren’t for the bright colours, and the jeep in front, this might look like a background from an early Hanna-Barbera cartoon.



There’d be a reason for that. This opening shot from MGM’s “Grin and Share It” was designed by Ed Benedict and drawn and painted by Fernando Montealegre, who both went on to work on “Huckleberry Hound,” “The Flintstones” and the other earliest Hanna-Barbera cartoons. This Droopy cartoon was released not too many months before H-B Enterprises was incorporated in 1957. The director of this cartoon, Mike Lah, worked at H-B for about its first year of operation.

Here are a couple more, including a snipped-together background that’s panned at the start of the cartoon.



And to add to the similarity with Hanna-Barbera, Scott Bradley’s orchestra plays Huckleberry Hound’s “My Darling Clementine” to open the cartoon.

Bosko's Here

Here’s an ad from Variety announcing the start of the Looney Tunes series in 1930. Great layout. Sorry for the low resolution.



The trade ads for the Harman-Ising cartoons released by Schlesinger must have been done at the studio as the characters are dead-on perfect. It’s more than I can say for the one-sheets of Warners cartoons through the ‘40s.

Jack Benny, 73 Years Ago Today

Jack Benny found comedy in his own show. Some nights, he’d refer to screw-ups on the previous Sunday’s programme. And on others, he’d do a routine that included how the popular press viewed how he was doing.

A good example of the latter is on the show of October 12, 1941. The gang picked through reviews of the season opener a week earlier, 73 years ago today.

Jack: Well, Don, I thought the press was exceptionally nice this year. For instance, PM gave us a lovely notice. In fact, you could almost call it “a rave.”
Mary: [unintelligible over static]
Jack: Yup. PM said our opening programme really was “a humdinger.” Very nice, don’t you think?
Don: Oh, wonderful.

Well, PM did review the season opener. It didn’t use the word “humdinger,” but the article was complementary. It was unbylined and published on Monday, October 6th.

King Benny Rides Again
VENDOR: Hot dogs, hot dogs. . . .
Get your red hot dogs here. . . Hot dog, old timer?
MR. BENNY: Yes. . . . Give me two. . . .
VENDOR: Yes sir. . . . D'ya want the reg'lar, or the king size?
Thus, in his typical topical vein, the nation's favorite mummer of Americana, Jack Benny, returned to his 30,000,000 weekly listeners last night (WEAF 7), with a surfire [sic] skit that might have been entitled Mr. Benny at the Ball Game, or Down In Front.

Except for a characteristic opening-night nervousness, from which Jack genuinely suffers after nearly a quarter century in show business, the Benny show last night was just what the 30,000,000 want: a spate of discomforture for Jack, the penny-pincher; acid comments by Mary Livingston; a few well timed phone calls from Rochester, the oppressed but irrepressible valet; a song, a dance, and a hearty sales approach from 200-pound Don Wilson, the Jello announcer. You might say that Jack Benny, in his 11th radio year, and starting his eighth season for Jello, was in mid-season form.
Some listeners may have noted, however, that last night's Jello program lacked the intimacy that is its hallmark. That was because last night's broadcast came from the full-sized, 800-seat Ritz Theater in Manhattan (it will next week, too). whereas the Benny programs originate ordinarily in a 300 seat NBC studio in Hollywood. There, the studio audience usually finds itself part of the show; in Manhattan. Benny the Phenomenon has to strut the stage.
The reason NBC sets Benny up in a big studio whenever he can be lured to Manhattan is the unprecedented demand for broadcast tickets. This year's requests haven't been counted up yet. but last year. for his broadcast from Manhattan in the spring, there were 50,000 requests tor the Ritz Theater's 800 seats.
Jack is notoriously the most fretful and nervous of all the big-timers, and he was even "nervouser and nervouser" last night. After the last rehearsal, which ended about 6, he paced up and down back as though ducking a hot-foot. He lighted cigars that were already lit; his eyes had a faraway look; he sat down, then got up.
When he finally went on the air, this nervousness continued for a while. He perspired; his hands and his script trembled as though he were an amateur; he lip-read all the others' lines and nodded with the punch lines. After the first 10 minutes of the show, this stopped. The laughs relaxed him. At the sign off, he even said good night to his daughter Joan, out in Hollywood.
Although the standard radio contract runs in multiples of 13 weeks, and the usual radio season is for 39 weeks. Benny this year is doing only 35 broadcasts He can, if he wants, take off two weeks later in the season. He has also eliminated the repeat broadcast for the west coast, thus ending a long-standing radio custom traceable to the differences in east coast and west coast times. Instead of repeating, in person, the Benny program is now rebroadcast by transcription.
Jack, who is paid $18,500 a week (out of which he pays all hands on the program, including the band and maestro Phil Harris), is the only performer in radio who has the foregoing privileges. He won them last year after a long battle with General Foods, makers of Jello.
The fight got so far advanced that when it looked as though lack and Jello wouldn't get together, NBC did an unheard-of thing, they gave Jack, the comic, the option on the NBC-Red (WEAF) 7 p.m. Sunday time segment. This was the first time in radio history that a performer, and not a sponsor, got an option on broadcast time.
What prompted NBC to this unprecedented action was its desire to continue its hold on the 30,000,000 listeners who tune Jack in Sunday nights. Furthermore, Jack still has that same time option; it means he is still the boss. As one General Foods reprepresentative [sic] observed wryly.
"Jack can fire us almost any time he wants to."

As a side note, this show is an example of why doing your own research and not trusting every on-line source is necessary. Various places on the internet insist the October 5th Benny broadcast was done on location at Ebbets’ Field. That’s obviously not the case from the story you’ve just read. And anyone should be able to tell listening to the actual programme. Nowhere on the show does anyone say they’re at a ball park. The acoustics are wrong for it, for one thing. For another, Ebbets’ Field was the site of the World Series; there’s no way the field condition would be risked by placing a full broadcast stage on it. For another, Jack’s script refers to him being in Brooklyn in the past tense. And for yet another, Dennis Day gets booed when he mentions the Dodgers. Dem Bums had such a rabid fan base, surely there would have been cheers in the home of Dodgerville. The show has a sketch set at Ebbets’ Field, nothing more, nothing less.

Cartoons of 1948, Part 2

You’ve been able to drop by our blog to read the highlights of the theatrical animation industry from just before the dawn of sound to the age of television as captured in the pages of The Film Daily. But to quote the mouse in Tex Avery’s ‘King Sized Canary’—“we just ran outta the stuff.” No editions of the New York-based trade paper are available on line past September 1948, so this post covering the last half of that year will be our final one. To flesh out things a bit, we’ve added what stories we could find from Daily Variety.

By 1948, cartoon shorts were not beloved by theatre owners, who made no extra money by running them with features. So they weren’t beloved by the trade press. Therefore, there just aren’t a lot of stories about them. And studios were moving away from them. Disney had been emphasizing cartoon features and then moved more and more into live action. John Sutherland tried live action, too. He made one non-animated feature for Eagle-Lion then scuttled plans for another titled “Confessions of an American Communist” because of a lack of interest. Instead, he stuck with animated commercials and corporate propaganda films, some of which were released theatrically by MGM. George Pal planned features. Warners used animated inserts in a couple of features. UPA had acquired a theatrical release from Columbia but was animating commercials, too. One contract was for Southern Select Beer to air on a TV station in Texas. Impossible Pictures’ cheap-o “Jerky Journies” series lasted four cartoons. There was no clamour for them.

Television was exploding in late 1948 and looking at animation, too. But it could never afford full, theatrical-style cartoons, so it tried short-cuts. One example can be found below in Variety. As it turned out, TV was the future home of animation, first with releases of old theatricals, and then the stripped-down kind made especially for the medium, led by the attractively designed cartoon shows created by Hanna-Barbera in the late ‘50s. But ten years earlier, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera were at MGM, coming up with new characters to freshen the Tom and Jerry series. Which characters? At the time, Metro’s publicity machine wasn’t all that concerned with veracity, just that the studio’s name made the trades, so its P.R. people invented characters and cartoons. Was Tex Avery really working on a mystery cartoon, like the studio told Variety? Perhaps. Perhaps not. We’ll never know unless someone ploughs through what has been preserved of the studio archives.

The Walter Lantz studio’s situation is confusing if you go by Variety. A story said it had completed two seasons of 12 cartoons for United Artists but that wasn’t true. It delivered only a dozen shorts and that turned out to be it. A Variety report at the end of January 1949 gave the correct numbers (one season, 12 cartoons) and said that Lantz and his writers already finished working scripts on seven others. A week later, he was off on a junket that took him to Hawaii, Europe and South America, then to New York, where he signed a deal with Universal to re-release another 13 of his shorts, before moving on to Canada in the fall. Evidently his studio was closed the whole time. Lantz eventually gave up on U-A and re-signed with Universal releasing (perhaps not coincidentally) seven cartoons in 1951.

So with that introduction, let’s look at some stories and reviews. Stories are from Film Daily unless otherwise noted.

July 1, 1948
Daily Variety
Lollypop Lane Television Productions, Inc., headed by Marsha Drake and Jacquelyn Ross will film a 13 week series of children's video reels. Series will be a combined animation-live action.

30 CARTOONS GOING SET METRO RECORD
Daily Variety
With 30 cartoons in work, Metro cartoon department currently is at the highest production level in five years. Ten of the animateds are in the Tom and Jerry series in Technicolor. Others include five in the Droopy series and 15 novelties. Fred Quimby, studio cartoon head, reported the last previous high was in 1943 when 22 cartoons—including four under government contract—were in work.

July 6, 1948
48 Metro Short Subjects Scheduled for 1948-49
... Program includes ... the following one-reel-ers: 16 Technicolor Cartoons (including the Tom and Jerry Series); four Gold Medal Reprint Cartoons in Technicolor ...

July 8, 1948
Disney Works At All-Time High
PICTURES GOING WONT BE FINISHED UNTIL 1950
Daily Variety
Walt Disney's studio has reached an all-time high in both personnel and pictures with enough films already underway to keep that lot operating at full blast well into 1950 if no more pictures are started. All of Disney's pre-war executive staff has been returned to the payroll with new employes being added. Currently in production at the plant are three full-length features with three additional features undergoing pre-production work. Approximately 20 short cartoons featuring Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Pluto and Goofey are in works. In addition, Disney has six 30-minute color subjects working under the title of True Adventure series.
MY HEART SCORING
"So Dear to My Heart," full-lengther featuring Burl Ives, Beulah Bondi, Bobby Driscoll and Luana Patton, is on the scoring stage. Negative will be turned over to Technicolor on August 28 in anticipation of a release before the holidays. Pic features six new tunes by eight top song writers and four old folk songs. Second picture on slate is "Fabulous Characters" feature, starring the four Crosby kiddies with Bing himself narrating and singing. Crosby boys will be only live actors in the film. Scenes featuring the children will be shot following their current vacation. Negative goes to Technicolor by April 1 of next year.
MYSTERY FILM
Third feature in production, which is more or less of a mystery in that only those high up in the "know" are familiar with what the story is about, has been inked for 14 months. This feature has been in animation for 60 days and has a minimum budget of $2,000,000. Three features in pre-production stages include "Three Wishes," "Alice in Wonderland" and "Hiawatha." "Three Wishes" feature, being made with cartoon and live action, is already in final detail stages.

July 9, 1948
Daily Variety
Frank Nelson will gab "Bungle in the Jungle," cartoon now being made by Impossible Pictures for Republic.

July 15, 1948
Daily Variety
Shamus and Maxine Culhane signed by Bonded Television to do all studio's animation work.

METRO CARTOONERY CLOSES FOR VACASH
Daily Variety
Metro cartoon department shutters tomorrow night as employes trek off for annual vacation. Idea launched by producer Fred C. Quimby ten years ago, permits department to function at peak economy since vital teamwork needed for the shorts would be impaired by staggered vacation sked. Vacation period this year comes at a time when the cartoon studio is at its highest production peak in five years with 30 pix in various stages of filming.

July 22, 1948
That Song Boosts Bookings of Woody
West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY

Hollywood — With the "Woody Woodpecker Song" topping the Hit Parade, Universal-International, it is learned, will reissue more than 20 Woody Woodpecker films on hand, while Producer Walter Lantz will deliver nine Woody cartoons of the 12 pix to be turned over to United Artists this year. As the first animated cartoon star ever to make the Hit Parade, Woody right now is the hottest star in the field of animated cartoons, and a leader among juke-box selections, with disc jockeys and in sheet and record sales, Lantz reported.
Exhibitors, Lantz said, have made an increased demand for the Woodys, reporting that the requests for the films have hit an all-time high. They, incidentally, have been playing the Woody Woodpecker song during intermissions, giving the cartoon character an added boost.
As a result of the tremendous popularity of the song, which was first played on the air by Kay Kayser [sic] on May 27, to become an overnight hit, Lantz claims that he has been deluged with Woody Woodpecker business. Requests for new licensee tieups have been numerous, with one new item—the Woody Woodpecker balloon ready to go on the market this week—and several dozen others in various stages of completion.
Woody's scope is widening even more, for now Chicagoan Don McNeill, originator of the Breakfast Club on radio, has chosen the Woodpecker as his official mascot in his "McNeill for President' campaign, which is slated for a big buildup over ABC stations. One million Woody Woodpecker stickers and buttons are being sent out by McNeill to 267 ABC stations, and Woody gets daily mention on the program. Lantz has been invited to make a guest appearance on the show, and plans to do so if at all possible.
Song has been recorded by Columbia, Capitol, Decca, Mercury, M-G-M, and Varsity. Sheet music sales are over 5,000 per month—tops in novelty type songs.

July 27, 1948
New Tele Outfit Will Do Reels a la Carte
Daily Variety
New video firm, "Television Clearing House," has been formed by Dave Fleischer, Lou Notarius and Walter Bowman. Firm will make animated telepix, the first of which will be "This Amazing World." Fleischer asserted that company will make TV reels on order only.

August 2, 1948
Cartoons as Title Cards for 'Happy'
Daily Variety
William Dozier has set Walter Lantz to produce a special animated cartoon strip to be used for main title cards for "You Gotta Stay Happy." Cartoon will feature a jet propelled plane and will be in keeping with the mood of the Joan Fontaine-James Stewart comedy.

August 3, 1948
Hold Powers Rites Today in Buffalo
Buffalo—Private funeral rites will be held here today for Patrick A. Powers, pioneer film producer and executive, who died Friday in New York following a brief illness. Services will be conducted from St. Mary's Cathedral in Buffalo with interment in Holy Cross Cemetery, Limestone, N. Y. Powers died in Doctors Hospital, N. Y. He was 78.
Born in Ireland, P. A. Powers started his business career in Buffalo as representative of the Edison Phonograph Co. and Victor Talking Machine Co. He was credited with promoting the "His Master's Voice" slogan.
In 1912, Powers organized Universal Pictures Corp. which comprised eight independent production units. Later he started Film Booking Offices of America which eventually merged with RKO. He introduced "Mickey Mouse" and "Silly Symphony" cartoons and developed the Powers Cinephone recording systems. He produced two series of cartoons for M-G-M release and another known as Powers Comi-Color, which were released via Celebrity. He headed Celebrity since 1930. He was connected with the latter company until a year ago.
In recent years his interest was taken up with the operation of the Long Shore Beach and Country Club in Westport. He is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Roscoe N. George; a sister, Mary E. Powers, a nephew and three nieces.

August 16, 1948
LANTZ IS EYEING CARTOON FEATURE
Daily Variety
Walter Lantz, who has deal with United Artists to turn out 12 cartoons annually, is looking into possibilities of cartoon feature production. Producer already has scanned folklore for subject matter, and has made extensive study of costs. He now is exploring for original story idea on which to build his first feature, on theory that any cartoon feature which carries a good story will be acceptable to market.

August 19, 1948
Pal to Gird Globe
Daily Variety
George Pal yesterday announced that "The Adventures of Tom Thumb," will get full global treatment in a saturation servicing in both 16m and standard prints. Live action-animation fantasy will be issued in 14 languages.

August 25, 1948
Cox Ankles Disney's, Joins Sutherland
Daily Variety
Rex Cox has ankled his post as story man in Walt Disney's commercial setup to assume vee-pee job with John Sutherland Productions. He'll take charge of Sutherland's animated and live action commercial and tele-pix.

September 7, 1948
"Three Little Pigs" To Replay Music Hall
Marking the first time the big house has booked a reissue, Radio City Music Hall will replay Walt Disney's "Three Little Pigs" during the run of Leo McCarey's "Good Sam." RKO also has set 250 day and date openings for the cartoon classic, for which some 20,000 bookings in the U. S, and Canada are anticipated.

September 16, 1948
SUTHERLAND SHORTS WILL BE FUSED INTO MEX FEATURE
Daily Variety
John Sutherland returned yesterday from Mexico City confab with number of Mexican industry uppers on a musical comedy to be filmed there in Spanish. Project would combine four cartoons which Sutherland previously filmed out for United Artists with live-action. Cartoons, in Technicolor, never released in Latin America, run 10 minutes, to which will he added 50 minutes of live-action. UA already has granted Sutherland rights to Latin American distribution of cartoons which include "The Cross-Eyed Bull," "The Lady Said No," "Choo Choo Amigo" "Perito Serenade."
Shorts were screened for Mexicans by producer, and were favorably received, Sutherland declared, by both producers, writers and musicians. Sutherland will submit story pattern and act as associate producer, but otherwise entire enterprise will be Mexican.
Sutherland will return to Mexico City in about two weeks for further negotiations with group.

September 21, 1948

Metro Cartoons Mixing Action and Animation
Daily Variety
Metro is getting into the field of combination live action and animation cartoons. First two cartoons in the combined medium will be "Senor Droopy," with Lina Romay and "House of Tomorrow," with Joy Lansing. Tex Avery will direct both shorts for producer Fred Quimby.

September 22, 1948
Pals Puppets Sought For Sherman's Oater
Daily Variety
George Pal and Harry Sherman are talking a deal under which Pal would revive Jasper and other puppet characters from his Puppetoons for a special animation sequence of 1500 feet in Sherman's projected production, "Carmen of the West." Joel McCrea and Peter Thompson have been set for top roles in Sherman's sagebrush version of the opera.

October 5, 1948
Daily Variety
LEO THE LION may find someone growling back at him any day. Now Metro's famous trademark is leaving himself wide open—he's stepping down from his perch to act. He'll debut with cartoon stars Tom and Jerry in "Jerry and the Lion" which William Hanna and Joseph Barbera co-direct for producer Fred Quimby. If the film works out well, Leo will be starred in his own cartoon series. If not—well, what film critic is going to take a poke at a lion?

October 6, 1948
BURKE MORRISON
Daily Variety
Burke Morrison, 35, cartoon cameraman at Walt Disney Studio, died Oct. 3 after a three-month illness of encephalitis. Morrison, a member of Studio Cameramen's Local 659, was a veteran of World War II, having served extensively with the Navy.

Dick Haymes Gets 'Tom Thumb' Offer
Daily Variety
Negotiations are underway on a deal between George Pal and Dick Haymes whereby latter will play the romantic lead in Pal's forth coming live action-animation Technicolor feature for UA, "The Adventures of Tom Thumb."

October 6, 1948
'Pickwick' Cartoon
Daily Variety
Elsa Manchester [sic] yesterday closed deal with United Productions for animated cartoon version of "Pickwick Papers," which she adapted from the Dickens' classic and will narrate.

October 11, 1948
Daily Variety
WALT DISNEY has hired vet song-plugger, Dave Kent, to do nothing but get disc jockey spins and radio and band renditions of title tune from upcoming "So Dear To My Heart" film. Although other songs are sifted into pic, Kent concentrates only on the title tune. Thus Disney is off on something of a new tangent in touting a film. He hopes repetition of the title, dinned musically into public's cars, will reap a big response when the combination cartoon-live action film is released in December.

October 13, 1948
Now Has a Mouse Playmate
Daily Variety
Preview reaction to Metro's Tom and Jerry cartoon, "The Little Orphan," resulted in the birth of a new star—Nibbles, the mouse with the ravenous appetite. As a result, there'll be a new series at Metro—the Nibbles series with William Hanna and Joseph Barbara co-directing.

October 15, 1948
CARTOON SEQUENCES EMERGING INTO MAJOR FEATURES
Daily Variety
Majors are happening to go in for cartoon sequences in their features. Wave started recently with Warners' "Two Guys From Texas" and William Dozier incorporated animation for main title and credits in his "You Gotta Stay Happy" for Universal-International release. Latter was done by Walter Lantz. Lantz currently is doing cartoon sequences for pair of other films, which are slated to be surprise incorporations in these productions. Several other majors, too, have been talking deals with cartoon producer for similar sequences.

Daily Variety
Right on the heels of the features, Fred Quimby is preparing a series of "Tom and Jerry" cartoons for Metro featuring foreign locales. They are "Cheese Heaven," located in Holland; "Mouse in Mexico" and "Cat in Calcutta."

October 25, 1948
Fairy Tale for Pal
Daily Variety
George Pal has set machinery in motion for development of a live action-animation version of "Rumpelstiltskin." Latter yarn about the famous fairy tale tailor probably will follow "Tom Thumb."

October 26, 1948
MGM 'Question Mark" Proves Apt Title
Daily Variety
Mystery shrouds Fred Quimby's cartoon "Operation Question Mark" at Metro. Production gets under way today and Quimby has decreed no visitors within department until production is finished. Shorts department topper reports only that the cartoon, directed by Tex Avery, is a completely different animated production.

October 27, 1948
Brushoff to Documentary Pix, Army Censorship Scored by Lorentz
Daily Variety
Documentary films have been given such a complete triple brushoff by the Government, private industry and Hollywood since the war's end ... according to Pare Lorentz, producer of "The River"...
In an address Saturday before the N. Y. Herald Tribune forum ... Lorentz charged U. S. Army officials with suppressing the United Automobile Workers' one-reel tolerance cartoon, "Brotherhood of Man," in Germany out of fear of rubbing some Southern congressmen the wrong way.

October 28, 1948
RKO TO RELEASE 85 SHORTS; 24 BY DISNEY
Daily Variety
New York, Oct. 27.-Eighteen Disney Technicolor cartoons and six Disney reissues will be among the 1948-49 shorts program announced here for RKO.

October 29, 1948
Meet 'Droopy,' 'Spike'
Daily Variety
Metro yesterday put the finishing touches on "Wags to Riches," cartoon featuring two new characters, "Droopy" and "Spike." Canines were dreamed up by Fred Quimby and his assistants. They'll be used in a series of the shorts.

December 2, 1948
Daily Variety
Warners yesterday laid off 28 members of its cartoon department. Group included assistants and in-between artists.

December 3, 1948
3 Tom and Jerry Cartoons Crayoned
Daily Variety
Trio of Tom and Jerry cartoons have just come off drawing boards at Metro. Subjects are "Hatch Up Your Troubles," "The Little Orphan," and "Heavenly Puss." William Hanna and Joseph Barbera co-direct the cartoons, which Fred Quimby produces.

December 13, 1948
ABC DEVELOPS CHEAPER FORM OF TELE ANIMATION
Daily Variety
ABC will unveil something new in television next Friday via a NY press preview of animatic, combo live action-film gimmick. The "something new" is actually a revival of a childhood toy via which animation was achieved by flicking cards. Figures appeared to move by changing their position on succeeding pasteboards. The animatic effects animation, and also cuts costs, via only two frames of film, changing at the rate of 200ths of a second. First of the films, with which local announcers and studio audiences appear on tele-receivers, are "Guess Again," quiz show; "Artist In Crime," cartoon mystery, and "Pot Luck," cartoon cookery item. Scripts for presentation of the shows by local station emcees accompany the films. Carroll Dunning of Dunning-color invented the machine. Harry McMahan of Five Star Productions supervised filming of features used on it.

December 21, 1948
Lantz Winds Program Of 12 Shorts for UA
Daily Variety
Walter Lantz yesterday completed his second annual program of 12 cartoons for United Artists release, with one year still to go on three-year pact. Producer in past has included four Woody Woodpeckers on his annual schedule, but due to popularity of "Woodpecker" number, has boosted this figure to nine of current year's schedule.

December 23, 1948
DISNEY WILL MAKE 3 FEATURES FOR RKO NEXT YEAR
Daily Variety
Walt Disney's feature output will be upped 50 percent next year. RKO's releasing schedule calls for three from the producer, compared with two this year. "So Dear to My Heart" goes into national release first of the year following its Jan. 19 premiere in Indianapolis with 150-day-and-date midwest bookings. "Two Fabulous Characters," now on its way through the camera department, will go out in August. "Cinderella" will have a Christmas release. Disney's cartoon short program will remain the same but a new series of half-hour "short features" titled "True Life Adventures" will be added. Latter also be available for television. First is "Seal Island," in Technicolor, short in Alaska's Probilof islands. Second in the series is "Adventure With Nature," now shooting in Idaho. Producer also has close to 400 cartoon shorts that may be dug up out of the vaults and made available for tele.

December 28, 1948
Daily Variety
"Fine Feathered Friend," revival of MGM cartoon yesterday, was announced for release next month. Fred Quimby produced the animated.

REVIEWS

July 7, 1948

"Little Tinker"
M-G-M (Technicolor) 8 Mins. Tops
Concerns Mr. Skunk's unfortunate plight as a social outcast in an endeavour to be a lover, with, alas, a happy ending when he meets up with one of the weaker sex of his own breed. Adults as well as kiddies will go for this one.

"Hounding the Hares"
20th-Fox 7 Mins. Diversion
The hunter, his dog and a zany crew of rabbits run a wild gamut of animated resourcefulness in this Terry cartoon which finally results in the utter demoralization of the man with the gun. It is amusing stuff for the most part.

"The Bear and the Hare"
M-G-M (Technicolor) 7 Mins. Very Good
A hare gets under Barney's skin when the latter goes a rabbit-hunting. His attempts are frustrated when the whimsical rabbit refuses to be caught.

July 14, 1948

"Bugs Bunny Rides Again"
Warners (Technicolor) 7 Mins. Tops
When it comes to a challenge Bugs Bunny is right there to accept it. Rip-roaring Yosemite Sam tries to put Bugs to shame. Our hero, in his typical style, beats the arrogant bad man in suffering defeat.

"Mighty Mouse and the Magician"
20th-Fox 7 Mins. Okay
With a couple of original touches in the animation department, this Paul Terry job in Technicolor soon becomes the standard cat and mouse diversion in which the felines come out behind the well known black sphere marked eight.

July 15, 1948
"Bone Sweet Bone" (Cinecolor Cartoon)
Warners 7 Mins. Will Do
After an exhaustive endeavor to retrieve the sole bone missing from the dinosaur's skeleton and blamed for the disappearance, Shep, the professor's dog, finally brings it back only to find out his master had it all the time.

September 16, 1948
"Rebel Rabbit"
WB. 7 Minutes One of the Best
Chagrined at the picayune bounty offered for rabbits, Bugs Bunny goes on a rampage to prove that rabbits can be as annoying as foxes and bears. Hilarious sequence of the U. S. Army pursuing Bugs marks this short as one of the best about the WB rabbit.

"The Truce Hurts"
M-G-M 7 minutes Okay
Tom, the cat, and Jerry, the mouse, have been at each other long enough. So this time they decide to call off their usual roughhouse antics and bury the hatchet. They don't bury it too deep, however, and after finding the olive branch too heavy and troublesome to maintain, they are at it again. In Technicolor.

"The Shell-Shocked Egg"
WB 7 Mins. Mild
Adventures of a partly hatched turtle are told with mild humor. As the turtle wanders blindly from one hazard into another, one is reminded of the old hair-breadth experiences of Harold Lloyd in the 20's.

"Up-Standing Sitter"
WB 7 Mins. Fairly Amusing
Daffy Duck gets daffier as he tries to mind Mrs. Hen's latest offspring. Tiny chick enlists the aid of a ferocious bulldog to thwart Daffy's solicitude. Slapstick sequences are mildly diverting.

"Hen House Henery"
WB 7 Minutes Topnotch
This Merrie Melody Cartoon is a sure candidate for the Academy Award. The antics of Henery Hawk and a rooster ten times his size will keep audiences laughing from opening shot to the last sequence. The little chicken hawk after several false starts finally tricks the rooster.

September 23, 1948
"Gandy Goose and the Chipper Chipmunk"
20th-Fox 7 Mins. Kid Stuff
Gandy Goose and his pal, the Cat, are making like a picnic but soon a voracious chipmunk starts after their food and via one turn of events and another all the vittles finally wind up underground. It is rather primitively handled.

"Pluto's Purchase"
RKO-Disney 7 Mins. Good
Pluto, sent to the butcher for a salami, thinks it's for him but learns, after a trying session with Butch, the bulldog, that it was intended as a birthday present by Mickey for—you guessed it—Butch. It shapes up effectively.

"The Witch's Cat"
20th-Fox 7 Mins. Fair
The mice world is celebrating Halloween when a witch and her cat come into the scene for some dirty business. They try to join in the festivities but are discovered. A chase ensues. Many rodents are captured some, however, escape and signal Mighty Mouse. He comes. Enuff said.

"Magpie Madness"
20th-Fox 7 Mins. Fair
Heckle and Jeckle have a session with a stupid dog. They swipe his bone and lead him a merry, screwball chase all for the hell of it. Actually, they are all palsy walsy but it was a dull day and they had to do something to liven things up. They did.

"A Sleepless Night"
20th-Fox 7 Mins. Average
The Talking Magpies en route South are stranded when their transportation disintegrates. They invade the domicile of a hibernating bear, and in short order give him another version of their well known "works." Their shenannigans backfire at the conclusion.

"Love's Labor Won"
20th-Fox 7 Mins. Fair
Mighty Mouse applies himself to one of those treatments wherein the villain pursued her and she was rescued by the undaunted hero. The animated action takes place on a train, mostly, and generates the sort of wild spectacle that grips juvenile imagination, no doubt.

"The Pest That Came to Dinner"
Warners 7 Mins. Good
Porky Pig has a French termite on his premises that is eating everything made of wood, but voraciously. Finally he engages an exterminator whose advice results disastrously. Pig finally turns the tables and in cahoots with Pierre gives the exterminator what for, sets up an antique furniture biz. Lot of good fun. Technicolor.

"Dough Ray Me—Ow"
Warners 7 Mins. Plenty Laffs
Louie, the parrot, on learning that Heathcliff, the cat, stands to inherit a million bucks, promptly embark on a program of murderous mayhem which will make him the next beneficiary. It's rip snortin' stuff ingeniously developed. Heathcliff sounds like "Lennie" in "Of Mice and Men." Cinecolor.

September 24, 1948
"You Were Never Duckier"
Warners 7 Mins. Very Good
Daffy Duck is attracted by a $5,000 prize for the best rooster at a poultry show and dons a couple of props that almost disguise him as a barnyard sultan. He tangles with young Henery Hawk, chickenhawk, that is, and who wins ? Papa Hawk takes the five gees, Henery the duck prize. Daffy gets nothing. Well developed humor in this one. Technicolor.

September 28, 1948

"Cat Nap Pluto"
RKO-Disney 6 Mins. Fair
After a hectic night out Pluto comes home to be tormented at an ungodly hour in the morning by a cat that wants to play frisky. It's torment upon torment with Pluto having a hard time of it as a sandman keeps appearing and tossing the sleep stuff into his eyes. Doings conclude with both animals given quietus.

"Hot Cross Bunny"
Warners 7 Mins. Top Fun
Plucked from the lap of luxury, Bugs Bunny, medical researchers think, will be the subject of an experiment wherein he takes on the characteristics of a chicken. Nothin' doin' doc! After a high old runaround session the doc winds up making with the cackles and Bugs is his wacky old self. "Foul play, doc," he says at the fadeout.

Plasma! Dog Plasma!

Some of Tex Avery’s later cartoons at MGM (“Farm of Tomorrow” was one) included a character who had a quick, low stomping walk cycle. Tex’s first cartoon for Walter Lantz has the same kind of thing, except the character is stationary.

It’s during the famous shout of “Plasma! Dog Plasma!” by the cross-eyed ambulance attendant in “Crazy Mixed Up Pup” (released in 1955). The cycle is four drawings, one frame each. Here’s a version slightly slower than what you’d see watching the cartoon. Don Patterson, Ray Abrams and La Verne Harding are the credited animators in the short.

Goathenpig

The difference between Fleischer and Disney cartoons? When Fleischer animals form into weird shapes, it’s usually the product of a nightmare. When Disney animals do it, it’s comic, not scary.

Here are some frames from “The Plowboy,” a dull 1929 Mickey Mouse offering. A goat, chicken and pig are running away from a berserk plough horse. They’re not paying attention to where they’re going and race right into a tree—and each other.



Ub Iwerks is the credited animator but Devon Baxter points out Hans Perk’s site shows that Jack King drew this scene.

Parky

Eddie Cantor had not one but two dialect comedians on his show in the mid-1930s. Barney Gorodetsky was better known as Bert Gordon, who was better known as The Mad Russian. Harry Einstein was better known as Parkyakarkus.

Gordon may have been the more famous of the two. His Russian had a couple of catchphrases. Einstein’s Parky didn’t have any. He wasn’t even the only Greek dialectician around; George Givot (the Greek Ambassador of Goodwill) and Bill Thompson (as Nick Depopoulous) both appeared on radio. But Parkyakarkus got his own radio show that ran from 1945-48, one of a number of comedies that didn’t make the transition to television (the radio show, “Meet Me at Parky’s,” was replaced on Mutual with Bible readings). There was talk as early as 1938 of a starring radio vehicle for Parky.

Here’s a syndicated news story from August 3, 1937 when Einstein was working with Al Jolson. He had joined the Lifebuoy show in March after being released from his contract with Cantor. Evidently there were no hard feelings; Parky returned to work with Banjo Eyes on the air the following May. This story favours “as” at the end of his character’s name when Einstein spelled it with a “us.”

Noted “Greek” Comedian Finds Clowning Is Very Serious Affair
Parkyakarkas’ Correct Name Is Harry Einstein
By DOROTHY DUCAS
International Illustrated News Writer

New York, Aug. 3—The newlyweds greeted me without a flicker of embarassment when I said, “How do you do, Mr. and Mrs. Parkyakarkas.” It just isn't a funny name to them. But you try saying it, in all seriousness, at the doorway of a swanky hotel suite some time: “Park your carcase.” Whew!
The famous Greek comedian and his dark-haired bride just aren't funny, off stage. In fact, Harry says—his real name is Harry Einstein and he used to be a Boston advertising man—that being funny is a serious job. And she says—she's Thelma Leeds, screen newcomer with a great big voice—that being married is a serious job. Altogether, the comic note is very much lacking.
Clowning Serious Business
The two young people were in the midst of packing to return to Hollywood, with their third attempt to sail to Europe for a honeymoon thwarted by a new picture for Parkyakarkas. They were sorry, of course, but not so sorry that they stopped casting ecstatic glances at each other in between serious remarks about their careers. You could see it didn't matter an awful lot if they had a vacation or went on working. They were “that way” about their lives.
Married ten months, Harry and Thelma have already bought five acres of land in the San Fernando valley, where they plan to build a house with a swimming pool and everything.
The moving picture business is no different from the glove business, to this serious young business man who is coining money by being funny during business hours. And his wife shares his opinions, even to the point of being willing to give up her own business some day if it interfered with his.
“It wouldn't be a sacrifice,” said the pretty brunette, who has only made two pictures so far, “New Faces of 1937” and “Toast of New York,” but whom critics have acknowledged as a young woman of great promise. “Harry is worth more to me than anything else. The most a girl can expect is success till she is about 35, and then she has to have another interest anyway. We hope to have a family, and that would take up my time.”
Can't Even Speak Greek
Mrs. Parkyakarkas, do you speak Greek? (Sounded so silly).
“Oh no,” said Thelma, with a swish of her green taffeta negligee. “I don't even know a Greek.”
“And I can't speak Greek, either,” said Harry.
He adopted Greek ancestry in 1923, when he did some after-dinner speaking and amateur radio work. His father, an importer of Greek foodstuffs, was well acquainted with Greek customs. Harry met many of his father's customers, learned to mimic them. He was called the unofficial Greek consul of Boston, and decided—just for fun—to register the name Parkyakarkas as a trademark.
Then, one day, he went on Eddie Cantor's radio hour as a guest speaker—and the rest is history.
All his brothers and sister are just as good at Greek dialogue as he is. One of his brothers writes a great many of his gags. Only, not being comedians, they are—not such serious people as Mr. and Mrs. Parkyakarkas.

As it turned out, the Einsteins did start a family. Two of their sons are known to comedy fans as Albert Brooks and Bob Einstein, better known as Super Dave Osborne.

Einstein was one of a number of show folk who died immediately after a performance. You can read about it HERE.