Schicklgruber Plugged In

Ah, there’s nothing like trying to electrocute Hitler to make a wartime audience cheer in their seats. That’s what we get in a wild, effects-filled scene in Bob Clampett’s Russian Rhapsody (1944). Gremlins plug der Fuehrer’s nose into a light socket. Result? Neon dictator. Here are some drawings repeated during the scene.



And some Nazi gag poses.



There’s also a cameo appearance by the gremlin from the Bugs Bunny cartoon Falling Hare in the bottom left corner.



Rod Scribner receives the animation credit. Bob and Tom McKimson and Manny Gould would have been animating for Clampett around this time.

Tex Avery Nails It

“I do stuff to him like this all through the picture,” was the Tex Avery credo at Warner Bros. but he carried the same attitude into the MGM cartoons practically to the end, even though the characters never had to express it in words any more.

That’s what happens throughout Deputy Droopy. Two safe robbers try to stay quiet so they don’t wake the sleeping sheriff, but Droopy goes to every bizarre length to make sure they make noise.

Actually, the first gag is more along the lines of a Wile E. Coyote plan that comes crashing down due to some unforeseen karmic circumstance. The crooks take off their boots so their footsteps won’t wake the sheriff. But they don’t anticipate (or see) nails bent upward from the wooden floor.



Any Avery fan knows what happens next. Selected frames.



Heck Allen helped with the story, but Avery and most of his unit were let go while this cartoon was in production in 1953 (it was released in 1955). Animator Mike Lah took over direction (he was working on other projects at MGM) and the Hanna-Barbera unit of Ray Patterson, Ed Barge, Ken Muse, Irv Spence and newly-promoted animator Lew Marshall joined Avery’s one other holdover, Walt Clinton. Patterson and Grant Simmons soon went to work for Walter Lantz before opening their own company the following year, Clinton went to work for Five Star Productions by year’s end.

Johnny Carson Becomes a Habit

Johnny Carson became a television institution. The reasons why may have been apparent even when he began his 30-year run on the Tonight Show in 1962.

Tonight had been based in New York since its inception in 1954. People tuned in Steve Allen to see what crazy things he might try. When he left, people tuned in Jack Paar to see if he’d implode on camera. Carson promised something tamer than both but his version of late-night entertainment quickly became more popular than what preceded him. Carson analysed the show in an interview during his show’s first sojourn to California less than a year after he took over—a place that would become his permanent base for 20 years starting in 1972. This appeared in papers starting May 20, 1963.

Carson Takes TV Show
On Visit to West Coast
By VERNON SCOTT
HOLLYWOOD (UPI)— Johnny Carson, the nice guy who replaced Jack (The Weeper) Paar on the "Tonight" show, has brought his troupe to movietown for a few weeks to give and take with the stars.
Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Kirk Douglas, Edie Adams and Marlon Brando are among his scheduled guests.
Carson himself had a long fling at Hollywood with little success before flying off to New York and stardom. This is perhaps the only thing he has in common with his two predecessors on the show, Paar and Steve Allen.
They, too, bombed in tinsel town before hitting it large in big town on the Hudson.
But that is where most similarities end. Carson's ego is miniscule compared with Paar's and his intellect and proclivity for causes falls somewhat short of Allen's.
Higher Ratings
Still, Johnny has racked up higher ratings than either.
After eight months of his late night show Carson has not fallen victim to the jitters that finally caused both Allen and Paar to flee the man-killing show. "I enjoy the program," Johnny said over a platter of bacon and eggs. "I try not to let the pressure build up by taking a week off every two or three months. "If you have a bad night on the air you just have to forget about it because you can't go back and do anything to improve it.
'The law of averages is what saves you. Some of the shows are good and some are bad. You just hope for the best and take each day as it comes."
Some days are worse than others. For instance, Johnny recently arranged to have Zsa Zsa Gabor and Ida Lupino on the same show, only to discover the girls weren't on speaking terms. He had to separate their appearances to eliminate the possibility of a chance meeting backstage as well as on camera.
Last Outpost
Johnny is convinced his NBC show is the last outpost of "real" television.
"I hate to see TV become a projector for movies," he said.
"Our show is sort of like a peeping Tom who eaves drops on his neighbors. We're just people sitting around with a spontaneous gabfest on our hands.
"I think the show is a success because of the time slot it becomes a habit."

Carson’s success was no surprise to syndicated columnist Earl Wilson, who was a huge backer before Johnny even took over the Tonight Show. Here’s what he had to say in the July 1962 edition of TV Radio Mirror:

Begging Jack's Paar-don. . . . But Johnny Carson will successfully succeed him. That's my prophecy about how Carson'll make out, taking over the "Tonight" show this fall. Johnny's a funnier guy, strictly as a comedian; he could be a new Will Rogers. Johnny's "weakness" is that he's not hot-tempered and given to making violent attacks on people. The frequently-uttered comment around Madison Avenue among those who don’t expect him to be a satisfactory successor to Jack Paar is: "He's too nice a guy . . . he'd be better if he were more of a heel."

First, to set the record straight, Paar has never been against Carson taking over for him. Paar was for Carson.
A year ago there was a rumor that Paar wouldn't use Carson on the Paar show because he thought Carson overshadowed him.
"That can't be true," Johnny told me. "Because he has used me and I have subbed for him. Furthermore, Paar told me that he thought I was the one who should replace him when he leaves!"
So Paar was in Johnny's camp ahead of nearly everybody.
Grinning, easygoing, relaxed, accustomed to sitting around Sardi's having a drink, not above
having a date with a young beauty (his marriage is broken up), Carson's no controversialist. People will not be watching him hoping to see somebody get massacred.
The fact that he couldn't immediately take over for Paar is in his favor. Paar will have been off the "Tonight" show long enough that Carson'll escape some of the comparison that—regardless of his show—would have gone against him just because people generally want the old, established product.
Being "Mr. Nice Guy" worked pretty well for Perry Como. I say something approaching that will also work for Carson.
There's a magic to that "Tonight" show—due to the hour and the regularity.
Don't forget that Steve Allen was gigantic when he was doing it. It was he who "changed the sleeping habits of the nation." It was Allen who "kept more people awake than coffee." Look at the stars Steve Allen made on his show: Steve Lawrence, Eydie Gorme and Tom Poston, for example. And before Allen, there was Jerry Lester with the old "Broadway Open House." That program made Dagmar famous.
It was only when they left that show that they had trouble. Not that I think Jack Paar will have trouble. He's going to be ingenious enough to keep the excitement, the battling, the blood-letting raging, even though on the air only once a week. That talent—for excitement—is the one that Jack possesses probably in greater abundance than anybody on the TV scene . . . and the one that Johnny Carson lacks.

Carson succeeded because he was a regular guy, one who was amusing, funny, self-effacing, occasionally corny, a satirical commentator (in monologues) and the engine of what he called a “spontaneous gabfest.” The Carson Tonight Show wasn’t a commercial for a movie. It was a conversation (although Carson was briefed on some feed lines to play straight man). The show didn’t exist to make another TV show or movie look good. It existed to make the guest look good. And Carson looked good in the process until the lights were turned off for a final time.

Looking For Jerry

Tom digs a hole in the beach, looking for Jerry after thinking he captured him in a bucket on the sand. But it’s Jerry who covers him and then waits for him to dig himself out so he can be clobbered with a shovel.

Plenty of multiples and smears in the usual MGM fashion.



Mike Lah, Ed Barge and Ken Muse get the animation credits in Salt Water Tabby (1947). I suspect at least one animator is uncredited.

Death of the Pincushion Man

Ub Iwerks’ cartoons could be really imaginative at times and one of them is that favourite of public domain cartoon DVDs—Balloon Land (1935). The concept of a land of living balloons in the sky is a good one.



This is not a cartoon comedy. There isn’t much humour in it, other than the opening balloon caricatures of Laurel and Hardy and Chaplin and the comic relief character with the gooney toothy face seen in a few other Iwerks cartoons. But the design of the villain, the Pincushion Man, is terrific, the backgrounds are imaginative and there’s a great climax where the balloon army fires the rubber that makes the balloons and sends him plunging to his death. So instead of the Pincushion Man killing the balloons, the balloons kill him. The sequence is heightened by a great dramatic score by Carl Stalling. I wonder if the background cue is by J.S. Zamecnik; his music is found in Stalling’s early cartoons at Warner Bros. just a year later.



The Pincushion Man, perfectly voiced by Billy Bletcher, tries grasping at the balloon flowers (which pop in his grip) and then at the edge of the balloon world to stop from falling. One last blast of rubber does him in. I love the change in perspective before the death drop scene.



It’s a shame the artists were never credited on this cartoon. We do know what the tune is over the opening scenes. It’s Buffoon, written by Zez Confrey (copyright Jan. 23 and 30, 1932). You can hear his version of it below.

Sorry for the oversaturated colours on the frame grabs. They’re the best I can find.

Tralfaz Sunday Theatre – The Romance of Transportation in Canada

Welcome to Tralfaz Sunday Theatre. This new programme on the Tralfaz blog will feature various short films from around the internet that may be fun, interesting or odd.

I’ve avoided doing this for the longest time because a) video links tend to die and I don’t want to deal with dead links and b) I really don’t have the time to hunt down material to maintain this feature indefinitely. But I have a few posts banked so it’ll continue for several weeks, which is longer than “Turn On” lasted on ABC.

Our premiere episode features an animated short from the National Film Board of Canada. Back when I was in elementary school, we’d periodically have stuff from the NFB screened in class. I don’t recall whether I saw this film way back then, but I wouldn’t be surprised. The NFB web site describes “The Romance of Transportation in Canada” thusly:

A light-hearted animated short about how Canada's vast distances and great obstacles were overcome by settlers. The story is told with a tongue-in-cheek seriousness and takes us from the intrepid trailblazers of long ago to the aircraft of today and tomorrow. A 1953 Cartoon Short Subject Oscar-nominee.

Because we’re into the ‘50s and because the NFB basically let creative people be creative, you won’t mistake this for a Disney cartoon. Robert Verrall’s designs are enjoyable. Eldon Rathburn’s jazzy score is a bonus, though it sounds like the mikes were placed in the back of the room at times.

The NFB site will let you view this in high-definition. You can choose the 1080p setting below.

Isaac Stern One-Liner Tops Jack Benny

If there was anything that delighted Jack Benny more than making people laugh, it was making them enjoy his gift of music.

There are varying reports about how good a violinist Benny really was. For the untrained, and even average, ear, he was likely more than good enough.

Benny loved playing the violin in concert with professional orchestras. Perhaps there was some psychological thing going on about compensating for disappointing his parents as a child by not becoming a classical musician. Whatever the reason, Benny did a tremendous amount of good for the music arts with his charity violin concerts, raising millions to keep orchestras and old concert halls/theatres in existence.

Just as he had played the pinnacle of the vaudeville venues, the Palace, in the 1920s and ‘30s, he appeared in the mecca of serious music—Carnegie Hall. The concert with Isaac Stern and others was taped and broadcast twice on CBS.

Here’s a short story from the Associated Press from April 4, 1961. I pass it on mainly because of the punch line at the end, which was cut by some papers for space. There’s no byline on this but I suspect it’s by Robert Holton, who wrote another story for the AP on the event with the same date and includes some of the same quotes. The photo is the best version I can find that accompanied the story. The cute headline comes from the Norwalk Hour version.

39-year-old Violinist Stars at Carnegie Hall
NEW YORK—(AP)-Jack Benny of the receding hairline and screeching fiddle plays a pretty good long-hair violin.
That's the opinion a Carnegie Hall audience of 2.700 expressed via applause last night after the comedian paused between witticisms and performed a duet with violinist Isaac Stern.
When the last strains of the first movement of Bach's Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins died away, the audience signaled its appreciation and Eugene Ormandy, conductor of the Philadelphia Symphony, shook Benny's hand.
To Benny, who has appeared in the tradition-steeped hall before, it was a special night.

The program, a fund-raiser-for Carnegie Hall Inc., was titled, "Carnegie Hall Salutes Jack Benny."
He was honored for his efforts in raising funds to support, symphony orchestras throughout the country and was described by Stern as "a man who has done much . . . in the cause of good music."
"This is the finest compliment I believe I have ever received in my life," Benny replied.
Benny's concerts in 18 cities have raised more than $2,000,000, with music and musicians the principal beneficiaries
. The performance last night, in which Roberta Peters, Van Cliburn, and Benny Goodman and his sextet also appeared, was video-taped for public viewing Sept. 27 over the CBS television network.
At a rehearsal earlier in the day, Benny and Stern engaged often in tongue-in-cheek palaver.
During a break in the music, Stern said to Benny: "I wish you'd play C-sharp."
"Where?" Benny asked, deadpan.
"Where it's written," Stern advised.