I Like Him. He's Screwy.

There’s an old saying about not counting chickens before they’re hatched. How many people actually count chickens these days, I’m not sure, but that’s beside the point.

To the right, you see a chicken. One chicken. We can count it because it’s hatched.

To the left, you see a washed out frame from the cartoon Uncle Tom’s Cabaña (1947). It’s not any cartoon. It’s a cartoon that carries some racial baggage, but that’s also beside the point.

It’s not just any cartoon. It’s a Tex Avery cartoon. Fans of his work at MGM have been hoping—I don’t know for how long—for some kind of release of all his Metro cartoons by the current rights holders, Warner Bros. I’m among them. I love an awful lot of Tex’s cartoons. I even like Screwy Squirrel, though Tex insisted he did not. You may have noticed I post frames from a Tex Avery cartoon once a week here.

Well, it appears something is happening, judging by this purposely-vague video.

pic.twitter.com/APnr1oa06B— Warner Archive (@WarnerArchive) January 17, 2020

So is this a full Avery set? (It looks like only one disc). Is it just the old Droopy set un-DNVR’d for Blu-Ray, or will we get great shorts like Bad Luck Blackie and Magical Maestro? Will scenes be cut (or, in the case of Uncle Tom’s Cabaña or Half-Pint Pygmy, whole cartoons omitted)? I’d rather not speculate.

We will get the answers next Tuesday. I’ve waited all this time. I can wait some more. At this point, Jerry Beck has confirmed the disc you see in the video is a first volume. I can do no better than to suggest you keep an eye on his Animation Scoop site for accurate and timely information. For now, we’ll avoid chicken-counting.

Acorn In Disguise

Poor squirrel. He can’t shake an acorn from a branch. Oh, wait. It falls on him.



Cut to the next scene. The acorn sprouts legs and dances; after all, this is a musical cartoon. The squirrel smashes the acorn only to find a caterpillar in it. The annoyed insect smacks the squirrel in the snoot with part of its body, which bounces back into place, and the caterpillar dances off scene.



This is from a typical 1930 Silly Symphony, Autumn, which has animals gathering food for storage to Carl Stalling’s classical beat. Ub Iwerks gets the only animation credit. This is a seasonal followup to Springtime (1929) and Summer (1930); Winter was released the following October.

The Hunt For the Elusive Quarter

Great poses highlight Walter Lantz’s last cartoon for United Artists, Drooler's Delight. By the time this cartoon was released in 1949, Lantz had his studio on a hiatus and did some world touring. Profits from overseas theatres were still tied up in post-war money restrictions and Lantz discovered his U-A release contract wasn’t as financially beneficial to him as when he was working with Universal-International.

It would appear Ed Love was the last animator kept on staff. Several more cartoons were in the pipeline and had been written by Heck Allen and timed by Dick Lundy but sat unmade until the studio reopened over a year later. Love was the sole animator of this cartoon, though I imagine he must have had an assistant. Woody is extremely well animated, with little dances and lots of subtle changes in expression. Most of the frames below are extremes as Woody searches for 25 cents to buy a drooler’s delight like the one he heard advertised on the radio.



Love was never rehired when the studio reopened. He freelanced in commercials and then landed regular work at Hanna-Barbera when it was putting Quick Draw McGraw on the air in 1959.

The cartoon benefits from Lionel Stander, whose wonderful growly, gangster-type voice suits Buzz Buzzard perfectly. Bugs Hardaway is Woody; Dal McKennon might play the radio announcer.

She and the Chimps

Quick—name Peggy Cass’ TV series! No, I don’t mean To Tell the Truth.

There may be some old sitcom die-hard fans who can name the show. It never (to the best of my knowledge) appeared in reruns because it only lasted one season. On paper it must have looked like a winner.

The monkeyshines of J. Fred Muggs turned into moneyshines for NBC’s Today, as some credit the chimp with boosting the show’s ratings. Then the Marquis Chimps scored hits whenever they appeared on TV, including a memorable appearance with Jack Benny. Someone watching at Screen Gems must have thought, “Hey, let’s give these monkeys their own show.”

They did. ABC picked it up. And they put it down again after 26 episodes.

Cass and Jack Weston were signed to co-star. But despite the work of some top former radio comedy writers, assisted by a ubiquitous laugh track, there was really only one joke—chimps were treated like human kids. Cass, who proved in the movie Auntie Mame that she really was funny, soldiered through as best she could.

Here’s a piece from King Features’ TV Keynotes column dated September 23, 1961.

Chimps Steal Scenes
By STEVEN H. SCHEUER
HOLLYWOOD — It's a good thing Peggy Cass has a lot of confidence in herself because she's going to need it in her new TV series, "The Hathaways," to be seen on Friday nights this fall with Jack Weston and the three Marquis chimps. The chimps, Enoch, Charlie and baby Candy get bored routine four times for jelly beans or ice and then they quit.
The other day on the Columbia stage, Weston and Cass fumbled their lines or missed cues. Peggy stumbled over her line for the fourth time and Charlie the chimp walked off the stage in disgust.
"I was so embarrassed," said Peggy.
Miss Cass can really take care with stunts. They will do the same of herself, but she isn't going to attempt to swipe scenes from the chimps.
Enoch's Scorn
"If I get a laugh on the set," said Peggy, "Enoch turns his head to a camera and he seems to say, 'Tell the big, shiny lady to shut up.' "
The chimps can't talk, but they can make sounds to fit a vocabulary of 100 words—"not all the best ones, either," says Miss Cass.
Hearing that pilots never sell, Peggy decided to take the plunge last winter for money and work with animals. The day she signed the papers she appeared on her favorite Jack Paar Show and there was a chimp.
"It was an omen," said Peggy.
Sure Laugh Getters

Chimps, sure laugh getters, are going to be in a lot of shows this season. Joey Bishop, among others, will have a monkey guest for insurance.
Learning this, Miss Cass' Irish dander rose. "Listen, there's going to be a bed check on my chimps," she said with snap. "I'll have you know, my chimps are the originals."
She thought a moment. "We have the world's best, so why worry. Let the others try and imitate Enoch, Charlie and Candy."
Miss Cass expects to be known on TV as The Monkey Lady and according to the storyline she and Jack Weston have merely adopted the three monkeys.
Train Wreck Survivors
Peggy says the producer still hasn't told her how she obtained her three "babies". "No one told me about their background so I've made it up. I say there was a train wreck outside of town and some of the cars were carrying circus animals. Jack and I go down to the accident and rescue the three chimps. Now they're our family."
As Mom, Peggy has scenes putting curlers on baby Candy's head with lines like, "Oh, I wish my hair were as thick as yours." She plays croquet with the chimps and she thinks this could be dangerous. "They're stronger than I am and they were using real mallets. One bang on the head and I'm through." A true Mamma, Peggy has fallen in love with her "children."
"The chimps pay little attention to you if you don't work with them," she says. "They're particular. You ought to see them greet their trainer Gene Detroy. They fly into his arms in the morning."
Night Club Act
Peggy would like to do a nightclub act with the chimps. "I'd crack the jokes and they'd clap," she said. "I'd call it 'Peggy's Revenge.' "
While Peggy dreams, her mother brings her back to reality. She saw her daughter's pilot and came out nodding. "Well, Peggy, the kids will love it, but don't let them photograph you from the side. You have some beak for a nose, my dear."
Peggy is watching for this and at the same time she keeps an eye on the three scene stealers.
She also hopes to cut down on the one line gags she's been receiving. "I'm not that kind," she says. "I need image humor, you know.
"I don't worry about the chimps, just me. But they are dear. And looking at 'em, you just have to believe Darwin. I see my friends and my rel—— ." She broke off. "Well, it's true!"

Since most of you reading have little interest in an obscure sitcom bomb, here’s another story about Cass from the Schenectady Gazette of August 29, 1963. There’s a reference to Pauline Frederick. My recollection is she anchored some of those minute-or-so updates on NBC during the daytime but she was also a regular reporter from the U.N. for quite a while. In those days, women had to be pretty feisty to get a piece of the on-air action in network television news. In a way, I get the impression that description could be applied to Peggy Cass. I can’t see her taking crap from anyone.

Now Sojourning in 'Sandwich Land'—Witty Peggy Cass Likes Talking
By PEG CHURCHILL
Gazette Reporter
A warm and wildly witty woman from the Land of the Bean and the Cod, comedienne Peggy Cass is sojourning in another country now . . . Sandwich Land.
* * *
"I CALL THIS 'Sandwich Land'," she explained yesterday over a corned beef-on-rye at the Thruway Motel in Albany, "because I haven't had anything to eat but sandwiches since I arrived here Tuesday."
"This may turn out to be the Kosher week of my life," she quipped, surveying her luncheon fare. "I've had more corned beef here than I ever have in New York." "You're from Schenectady. What kind of a name is that?," she asked, and quickly added, "Boy, any kid has to learn how to spell to live in that town."
Told that Schenectady is the home plant of General Electric Co., her blue eyes widened in familiar Cass-fashion as she remembered: "When I was in Syracuse I had the General Electric suite of the motel where I was staying. When I walked in five of the lamps didn't work. I thought the last man to check in must have been Mr. Westinghouse."
* * *
LUNCH WITH Peggy Cass is a zany occasion. She may not try to be funny, but it's a habit which has stayed with her since she "had them in stitches down at the Gulf gas station when I was five years old." That was in Cambridge, Mass., outside Boston.
"And, I like baked beans and cod fish, especially sprinkled with pork scraps. I just got a new New England cook book. I'm going to get busy with it in the fall and ruin a lot of Friday evenings."
"I'm a talker," admitted Peggy in what might have been the understatement of the hour-long conversation. "I just can't stop. My mother always told me to shut up 'cauz talking could get me into a lot of trouble. Boy, was she wrong."
* * *

TALKING brought Peggy Cass to the attention of millions who saw. her guest appearances on the old Jack Paar Tonight show. She became a regular guest on the late-evening television show after scoring a Broadway success as Agnes Gootch in "Auntie Mame" in 1956.
The auburn haired actress enjoyed her guest spots with Paar, but she was "terrified" by them as well. "It was like going to the block every time, you went on. You had to have all your own material. If you weren't funny, what then?"
Miss Cass shivered as she thought of the trip she made with Paar to the Berlin wall, a trip which caused considerable furor.
"I WENT ALONG as the pauper's Pauline Frederick," she remarked. "I was just plain people. When Jack told me there was going to be a senate investigation, I broke out in goosepimples. I just wanted to be the nice girl next door again, the one the women will invite over for coffee."
The wife of Carl Fisher, business manager of current Broadway hits "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and "She Loves Me," Peggy is the "girl next door" to her neighbors on Manhattan's fashionable east side.
THE FISHER family also includes Peggy's stepdaughter, a Radcliffe College student now traveling in Japan, and the comedienne's two black poodles — Schroeder (named after the character in the Peanuts comic strip) and Freddie "it's as good a name as Charlie, isn't it?").
Schroeder and Freddie, constant traveling companions, are with Miss Cass now while she appears at Colonie Summer Theater in "She Didn't Say Yes." Actress Joan Caulfield also stars in the comedy being given a pre-Broadway trial on the summer stock circuit.
THIS IS THE ninth and final week of the tour. Next week, Miss Cass will leave for Ireland where she has relatives . . . "and how." She said she's going to Europe to think about whether she will be in "She Didn't Say Yes" when (and if) it has its scheduled November opening on Broadway.
"I have my choice of this show or a serious part in another dramatic show. There wouldn't be too many laughs in the dramatic part and a lot of crying. It appeals to me: After all, I don't want to be a female Jackie Leonard."
Peggy Cass is outspoken in a fresh and funny way about everything from the lack of ice machines in a motel ("it's a disgrace") to Richard Burton ("If he gets married again, there's sure going to be a line of applicants").
* * *
SHE THINKS of her humor as "a way of looking at the world." Sometime, she notes, "I say something and people fall down laughing and I don't even think it's funny."
If she's going to be funny, Peggy likes best of all to be funny on the New York stage.
"I'm happy when I'm on stage," she confessed. "I love it." Without trying, and perhaps without even knowing it, the down-to-earth Miss Cass is "on stage" all the time.
Despite her mother's prediction, all Peggy has to do is talk.

Cass continued to do a lot of stage work and, since she was in New York, she was in the home of the Goodson-Todman game show empire. In 1960, besides appearing with some regularity on Jack Paar’s Tonight show, Cass was filling in for both Polly Bergen and Kitty Carlisle on To Tell the Truth. Bergen left for other show biz ventures and Cass eventually became a regular into the 1980s. Also appearing on the Broadway stage and on Goodson-Todman panels was Anita Gillette. She, too, detoured to California’s TV-ville to co-star on a sitcom bomb called Me and the Chimp.

We can imagine what they said if they compared notes.

Tarrying Terry Hare

There’s no animation credit on A Hare-Breadth Finish, a 1957 Terrytoon, but let’s see if you can guess who animated these two scenes below.

Stretchy, elastic, super-thin rabbit.



Smash! Two drawing vibration.



Shrink and stretch take.



The tortoise slowly walks over him, scrunching down on various body parts. The hare comes to and looks at the theatre audience.



There are some bits that are clearly inspired by Tex Avery and Warner Bros. cartoons (especially the ending) but there’s only one Jim Tyer.

The Old Log Gag

Tex Avery and Bob Clampett used the old hollow log/cliff routine. Hanna-Barbera borrowed it for the first TV cartoon starring Yowp (Foxy Hound-Dog with Yogi Bear, 1958). But Art Davis used it, too, in Nothing But the Tooth, as gag writer Dave Monahan extends it as far as he can.

The cartoon centres around a stupid Indian wanting to scalp bald Porky Pig. Porky runs through the hollow log and then chops a section off it.

We know what the gag is going to be; the Indian’s going to come through the log and drop. We just don’t know how Davis and Monahan are going to pull it off.



Nope. Doesn’t happen here. The Mohican sticks his head out of the log. “Thought I was going to a fall, didn’t you?” he says to the audience.



The Indian continues his journey. Surprise! Now we all discover Porky chopped out a second portion. Down goes the Mohican.



The satisfied Porky strolls off, only to meet up with his injured adversary, and zooms back through the log. Yes, you can guess what will happen.



Porky lifts himself out of the log and continues his stroll. Oh, oh. He forgot about the second cut.



In a lovely bit of timing, we hear Treg Brown’s drop-whistle sound for about three seconds, then a thunk. There’s a quick pan down to the gag topper. It turns out the log isn’t over a cliff like it is in other cartoons. Porky’s not impressed.



Some of the cartoons that Davis directed have an odd feel and pace to them but this one moves along like your average Warners cartoon.

Monahan did a handful of cartoons at Warners after he returned from the war. He also wrote for Columbia/Screen Gems. By the time this cartoon was released, Columbia had closed its cartoon department and the Davis unit had disbanded. Monahan went into live action, mainly doing commercials (including some for the Warners commercial television division) before moving to MGM-TV.

Bill Melendez, Don Williams, John Carey and Basil Davidovich receive the animation credits on this short.

She Couldn't Stand Jack Benny

One of the great gimmicks of radio comedy—and surely it paid off with increased ratings—was the “I Can’t Stand Jack Benny contest.” It started December 2, 1945 and ended on January 27, 1946, with Ronald Colman reading the winning entry by Carroll P. Craig Sr. the following week.

The various poems and statements sent in became the property of Benny so, naturally, newspapers were loath to publish anything but the winning verse announced on the radio. However, we do know a bit about one of the other entrants, thanks to dusty old newspapers.

The Detroit Free Press reported on January 28, 1946:

Detroit Girl Wins $1000 for Radio Gag
Miss Joyce O'Hara, of 1014 Dragoon, a semi-invalid poetess whose contributions have appeared occasionally in Malcolm Bingay's "Good Morning" column, Sunday night was named winner of $1,000 in War Bonds in the "Why I Can't Stand Jack Benny" radio contest.
MISS O'HARA'S reasons were adjudged third best among 277,000 entries. Miss Wanda Morley, of 1518 Pennsylvania, was one of 51 winners of $100.
The contest started Dec. 2 on the Jack Benny broadcast over a national network. Judges were Fred Allen, Goodman (Easy) Ace and Peter Lorre.

No, the Free Press didn’t publish what she wrote; it would have needed permission from Benny’s people. We therefore can’t tell you what she penned. However, we can tell you Miss O’Hara was a serial contest entrant and had some experience on the radio.

She was born Joyce Elizabeth Campbell in Michigan on April 14, 1907. At the age of 11, she was run over by a car after running into the street, and the driver couldn’t stop in time. Nonetheless, that didn’t stop her from taking up highland dancing when she attended Northern High School. In 1926, the Free Press published her picture with the caption about she was working hard to win a round-trip to Europe offered by the local Shrine temple.

Campbell graduated in 1927 and left Detroit to begin studies in music at Lake Forest, Illinois. She returned to Detroit because we find her in 1930 appearing on the Disabled American Veterans show with Helen Lewis and her Merrymakers over WMBC. In 1933, she had her own 15 minute show on WEXL. Then tragedy struck again. From the Free Press of June 21st that year:

Miss Campbell, twenty-two-year-old torch singer whose professional name is Joyce O'Hara, suffered head and spine injuries in an automobile accident as she was returning from a Royal Oak broadcasting studio Tuesday afternoon. When the car in which she was riding, driven by Andrew McDonald, 1014 Dragoon Ave., was struck in the rear by the automobile of S. V. Rose, 2967 Boston Blvd., she was hurled against the windshield. Treated by a private physician, she was taken to her home, also at 1014 Dragoon Ave.

Joyce was now spending her time entering contests and writing poetry. She won $5 for answering a Free Press poll about what picture she liked best in 1936. In 1938, she was one of the first 50 winners of a Detrola Pee-Wee radio in a contest sponsored by Fleet-Wing Gasoline. And in 1951, she picked up $5 from the paper in “type trick contest” for “The Night Before Christmas.” It appears to have been a typewriter version of ASCII art. In between, she entered the Benny contest and who knows how many others.

She later moved to Los Angeles where she died on February 12, 1979.

As mentioned above some of her other poetry was published in the Free Press and picked up by newspapers across the U.S. Allow me to reprint one from December 21, 1934. We can imagine this might have been the style she used in her entry to the Benny show.

"The Ladies."
Who are their best friends
The fair sex wonder
As cosmetic jars
They daily plunder.
They powder their noses
And tint their nails,
Platinum their hair,
To be elegant frails.
They bathe and diet,
They fuss and fume;
Just one wrinkle
Would prove their doom.
But what do they do
For their very best friends
Who keep on the run
Till the long day ends?
Always so faithful,
Never asking dues,
Wearing short stockings
And too tight shoes.
Who takes them out,
Willing and spry,
And when they are ready
Brings them home on high?
Whence comes their help
When morals slide?
It's their trusty feet
That walk home from a ride.
Never faltering
Through mud, rain or sleet
A woman's best friends
Are her two little feet!
Joyce O'Hara