Cat's Nightmare Out

A cat put out in the yard has a nightmare involving a bird it attacked in Cat’s Out, a 1931 Walt Disney cartoon.

The bird grows into a gigantic size. The cat attacks it but it turns into multiple birds who stretch the cat with their beaks.



Skeletons are missing in this one, but there are bats that fly at the camera, large spiders, ghost cats and other spooky things. There are no animation credits.

The Pointing Pooch

Some stretch in-betweens of Charlie Dog from Awful Orphan (1949).



Ken Harris, Phil Monroe, Ben Washam and Lloyd Vaughan are the credited animators.

Manager Mary

By all accounts, Mary Livingstone didn’t want to be on the air and never considered herself a performer.

But she was a performer. And Mary Livingstone was a darn good performer. She got more than a good share of laughs on the Jack Benny radio show. She was a key part of the programme.

But Mary, far more times than anyone else I can think of on radio, didn’t show up because of “the flu” or “laryngitis” or some similar excuse. And when television rolled around, she pretty much refused to go on the tube, and then was coerced to continue on radio only because she recorded her lines at home.

Finally, she officially retired in 1958, though she did show up on television on rare occasion. It was a shame because she was so enjoyable for many years.

Here’s a feature story in the Binghamton Press of August 12, 1958 where she talks about her career. This story appeared earlier in other papers.

Mary Livingstone's Career Helped 'Role' of Mrs. Benny
By MARCY ELIAS
Women's News Service
HOLLYWOOD — Most successful show business marriages function on a one-career system. Poppa entertains and momma stays out of the limelight, giving up her career to keep house and hubby.
One of the entertainment world's happiest marriages, however, owes its longevity to the little woman's getting into the act.
When Jack Benny married Mary Livingstone he put her to work as a comedienne. It was all his idea—Mary confesses she never really enjoyed performing. Yet by taking to the boards, at a time and in a situation when most wives think of retiring, Mary saved her marriage.
● ● ●
"THERE WERE TIMES in the beginning when our marriage could have gone wrong if it weren't for Jack's marvelous insight," she recalled in a recent interview. "The smartest thing he ever did was to insist that I go into show business with him."

"I felt left out of his world in those days, and I was a little bit jealous of all the beautiful girls who surrounded him. But Jack worked it out by making me a part of his world so that I could understand what his life was like."
Sitting comfortably tucked into a deep armchair in the living-room of her 15-room mansion in Beverly Hills, the petite and pretty distaff side of the Jack Benny household talked about her second, and least publicized, occupation for the first time.
"I always hated the acting part of the business," Mary confessed, her normal speaking voice a far cry from the glass-on-tin-grate sound familiar to radio and TV audiences for over 20 years.
"I'm really the business head in this family," she announced proudly. "Jack has never been interested in business and he shouldn't be, because he's an actor."
"I'm different," she explained. "I like the world behind the scenes in show business. I like sitting in on contract negotiations, working on ideas for new shows and figuring, out production problems."
● ● ●
DRESSED in black velvet toreador pants and filmy white blouse, the lithe and graceful Mrs. Benny chuckled at the mental picture of herself slaving over hot business problems in the Benny office in Beverly Hills.
Actually she doesn't report to the office, but very little goes on at the Benny organization, J and M Productions, that she doesn't know about. The company produces the regular Jack Benny TV shows and packages programs for other stars.
"I wield a kind of quiet influence," Mary explains. "I suggest script revisions when problems arise and Jack consults me on casting and getting guest stars for the show."
Mary modestly omitted mentioning one department that is her special bailiwick. According to the company president, Irving Fein, everyone defers to Mary's judgment in matters concerning wardrobe.
"Jack has always said that if Mary hadn't become a comedienne, her impeccable taste in clothes would have made her one of the leading business executives in women's fashions," Fein said. "She's a brilliant businesswoman."
Despite the fact that Mary insists she would be happy if she never saw the working end of a TV camera again, and now appears only in the filmed Benny shows—live TV makes her too nervous—she still insists that show business saved her marriage to the great comedian.
In a sense, Mary has defied the oracles on the subject of successful show business marriages. She's had her career, she's had her share of the limelight, and most important, she's loved every minute of her very happy life as Mrs. Jack Benny.

Whatever Happened To Dave Fleischer

What does Betty Boop have to do with Tasty Taco?

They’re both in cartoons involving Dave Fleischer.

Tasty Taco came around long after the Fleischer studio in Miami financially collapsed and Fleischer headed to the West Coast. And despite newspaper stories stating Tasty Taco would be appearing in theatres, there’s nothing I can find to show the films were ever screened.

When I came across the Fleischer story involving the Li’l Pedro/Tasty Taco cartoons, I decided to plunge through various trade papers and elsewhere to find out exactly what Fleischer did when he was no longer running the Screen Gems studio for Columbia. Fleischer’s departure was awfully quiet and the only indications I’ve found in the trade press that he was no longer there was when he turned up elsewhere. (Li’l Pedro was strip cartoon in newspapers drawn by William de la Torre, who died in 1955 at the age of 40).

Like huge numbers of stillborn projects, a number of Fleischer’s announced intentions never got off the ground. Companies formed and dissolved. Fleischer never did make the feature films he planned. He did, however, find employment with Universal where, among other things, he oversaw animated inserts for sing-along shorts. He also worked for the Filmack Corporation of Chicago, best known for the “Let’s All Go To the Lobby” cartoon played at theatres, where animated food enticed you to buy overpriced eats during intermission. And his kid records did come to fruition for a brief time.

When the old Fleischer studios shorts started making huge amounts for syndicators and TV stations, Fleischer decided to sue. It came way too late.

This isn’t a complete biography of Fleischer. These are merely squibs in the trades. His departure from Columbia more or less ended his career as a player in the cartoon world. However, we can still watch and laugh at those great cartoons he “directed” at the Fleischer New York studio and be reminded of the large role he played in animation.

November 23, 1943, The Film Daily
At Republic: “Trocadero,” musical, with Rosemary Lane and Bob Rochester and his orchestra, Eddie LeBaron, Gus Arnheim and Matty Malneck and their Orchestras, columnist Erskine Johnson playing himself, Cliff Nazarro, in a comedy part, and cartoonist Dave Fleischer will have a trick role in the film.

December 17, 1943, Hollywood Reporter
“Animations, Inc.,” new corporation to make animated and trick inserts for live action feature films, has been founded with Dave Fleischer as president and Walter Colmes as vice-president. Company will operate at PRC studios.

April 26, 1944, Variety

Fleischer plays himself in the Republic musical “Trocadero,” starring Rosemary Lane and Johnny Downs, with Sheldon Leonard. Fleischer does some drawing. Walter Colmes production.

May 4, 1944, Hollywood Reporter
Dave Fleischer, for many years a producer of Paramount cartoons with Max Fleischer, and who has been at Columbia in charge of its cartoon output since completion of “Mr. Bug Goes to Town,” was signed to a ticket yesterday by Walter Colmes, under which he will function as associate producer on the features Colmes is making for his Republic release.

May 11, 1944, Miami Herald
Alleging that Dave Fleischer, movie producer and head of the former Fleischer Animated Cartoon studios, is $6,600 in arrears in separate maintenance payments his wife, Mrs. Ida Fleischer, 4459 Sheridan ave., Miami Beach, filed a motion for contempt of circuit court Wednesday. She says that a court decree of Dec. 29, 1939 for $250 a week was reduced to $100 a week when Fleischer represented considerable shrinkage of his former $50,000 annual income and that up to April 14 when he sent $100 he was behind $6,200. Since that date $400 more became due, according to the motion. They were married 21 years.

June 1, 1944, Hollywood Reporter
Dave Fleischer is drawing a special cartoon character known as “Baby” for the Walter Colmes production, “Anything for a Laugh,” which will be released by Republic. The character is part of the basis of the story. Fleischer is associate producer of the picture.

[The feature was released later in the year as “That’s My Baby” starring Richard Arlen and Ellen Drew. Variety, Oct. 25: “Dave Fleischer, vet of the animated cartoon field, worked on this pic, and it is his cartoon handiwork which is a key to the yarn.” It ran only 68 minutes.]

July 14, 1944, Hollywood Reporter
Dave Fleischer will start producing early this Fall a cartoon feature based on Greek mythology, depicting the adventures of Ulysses from the classical Odyssey. It will be in color. Walter Colmes will be associated with Fleischer.

October 2, 1944, Hollywood Reporter
Walter Colmes is organizing Film Education, Inc., as a post-war activity for the purpose of making educational films in 16 mm. The company will function with an advisory board of heads of departments of various universities who will set the program of subjects to be taught and plan general treatment.
Cartoon technique, under Dave Fleischer, will be used extensively.

March 3, 1945, Louella Parsons column
Well, flip my lid, as the jive kids say, they are going to swing a $500,000 technicolor version of “Cinderella,” and by “they” I mean Lou Levy, manager of the Andrews sisters, the gals themselves, and Dave Fleischer, who made “Gulliver’s Travels” for Paramount. Not only will the Andrews jive the vocals but Count Basie will furnish the boogie-woogie for the big ball scene when Cinderella meets the Prince.

March 23, 1945
Los Angeles, March 22 (AP)—Dave Fleischer, 49, producer of animated cartoons, and his secretary, Mae Miriam Schwartz, 32, obtained a marriage license today. It is Fleischer’s second marriage and Miss Schwartz’s first.

June 14, 1945, Hollywood Reporter
Dave Fleischer has purchased a financial interest in the recently formed Sebastian Productions, Inc., it was announced yesterday by Dave Sebastian, head of the new company.
Details of the transaction were handled by attorney Nathan L. Freedman, who is also negotiating a release for the proposed “Simon Lash” pictures.
Exact amount of Fleischer’s interest was not disclosed. It is believed he will not take an active part in the organization.

August 30, 1945, Hollywood Reporter
Financed by Harold A. Baker, of Chicago, Peter Tinturin, song writer, and Dave Fleischer have merged their film companies into one organization, Advanced Pictures, Inc., to produce two musical films. Fleischer is the cartoon producer whose Popeye and Superman shorts and the feature-length “Gulliver’s Travels,” have been released by Paramount.
The Tinturin-Fleischer product will start with the film of two musicals, one of which is “Heaven Only Knows,” recently purchased from David Boehm for $60,000.
The second Tinturin-Fleischer production will be based on the life of Paganini.

December 17, 1945, Variety
DEVICE to be known as the Fleischergraph has been patented in Washington by Dave Fleischer, who, with Peter Tinturin, will produce “Heaven Only Knows” for Advanced Pictures. It is described as a scientific story plan in chart form. Basis of plan is a large graph, divided into 85 minutes of running time and broken down into fractions of seconds, designed to take guesswork out of producing motion pictures Fleischer, who has already invented and patented number of mediums for accelerating efficiency in making pictures, originated graph from a study of hundreds of best pictures used as samples of motion picture art, and is a means whereby it is possible to tell if screenplay has any empty spots. “Heaven Only Knows” will be first picture on which Fleischergraph will be tried.

December 26, 1945, Variety
Hollywood Dec. 25.
Peter Tinturin and Dave Fleischer plan a music publishing firm with eight songs from the score of “Heaven Only Knows.” Tinturin wrote the score and will co-produce the film with Fleischer. Harold A. Baker, who is backing the film, will also put up the coin for the music house.

Jan. 3, 1946 Hollywood Reporter says director Lewis Milestone signs three picture deal with Universal. Requested release from “Heaven Only Knows.”

July 9, 1946, Hollywood Reporter

Dave Fleischer, the former Paramount cartoon maker, and Dave Victor have set up Cartoon Records as a corporation to put out disks for small children. The recordings will retail at $2.50 per set and will combine education with entertainment. They will be marketed through department stores.
Fleischer recently was associated with Peter Tinturin in the ill-fated Advanced Pictures Corp.

Dec. 5, 1946, Hollywood Reporter
Jack Schwarz will produce “Jack and the Beanstalk,” color feature based upon the famous children’s story, in association with Dave Fleischer, cartoonist. The picture will combine “live action” with cartoon.

Feb 1, 1947, Billboard
Burke Meyer & Associates, Inc., has purchased masters for six kiddie albums from Cartoon Records. The Dave Fleischer wax production will be released retaining the Cartoon label.

February 7, 1947, Variety
Dave Fleischer reviving “bouncing ball” musical film shorts.

August 4, 1948, Hollywood Reporter
Dave Fleischer, who for many years did the “Bouncing Ball” shorts at Paramount, has been commissioned by Universal-International to do the cartoon sequences for a series of eight “Sing and Be Happy” community-sing short subjects. The group, all to be made here under U-I’s new shorts program, will be produced-directed by Will Cowan.
Formerly made by U-I’s Eastern office, it was announced recently that production of the series had been transferred to Hollywood, along with the production of Cowan’s regular two-reel musical western miniatures. Another single-reel series titled “It’s Your Life,” featuring astrology, is also on Cowan’s plate. Fleischer’s first chore at U-I, under his new deal there, is “Choo Choo Swing,” which has just been completed.

August 4, 1948, Variety
Hollywood, Aug. 3.
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,” and will employ the old motion picture bouncing ball in filming commercials. Fleischer asserted that company will make TV reels on order only.

Jan. 14, 1950, Boxoffice
NEW YORK—Universal International has introduced something new into a trailer—a cartoon character called Preview Pete. The animated figure will be used in the “Francis” trailer for the first time and will be introduced into trailers for future features.
Arthur Lubin, director of “Francis,” directed the trailer sequence, in which Don Wilson and a cast of 28 appear. Voices of two announcers, Art Gilmore and Frank Graham, are heard.
Dave Fleischer created the cartoon character and the animated cartoon sequence.
U-I used animated cartoon teaser trailers for “The Egg and I” and “Family Honeymoon” and decided they were successful, but this will be the first use of an animated sequence along with live talent.

August 18, 1950, Hollywood Reporter
Preview Pete, cartoon character employed with good results in the trailer on Universal-International’s “Francis” and “Louisa,” appears again in the animated cartoon sequence made by Dave Fleischer for the trailer on “The Milkman.” Other promotional uses of the Fleischer character are now being planned.

September 8, 1951, Boxoffice

CHICAGO—A new one-minute cartoon film, publicizing Fire Prevention week, is now available from Filmack Trailers. The trailer, produced for the National Board of Fire Underwriters by Dave Fleischer studios in Hollywood, points at all of the fire hazards in the home and how to correct them.

February 17, 1951, Boxoffice
HOLLYWOOD—Dave Fleischer, who formerly produced cartoons for Paramount release, has been booked to supervise the art work and animation on a new series of eight one-reel “Cartoon Melody” shorts being produced by U-I.

November 15, 1952, Boxoffice
Toasts of Song
Univ.-Int’l (Carto[o]n Melody) 10 Mins.
Good. This is the last in the series offering popular oldtime songs for audience participation. The selections are “After the Ball,” “My Gal Sal” and “Little Annie Rooney.” The Kings Men are again featured. Will Cowan directed and the humorous animation was supervised by Dave Fleischer. The distributing company did not know if the series will be resumed.

October 17, 1957, Hollywood Reporter
New York.—Paramount and others are named as defendants in a suit for an injunction filed in Federal Court yesterday by Dave Fleischer, individually and as co-trustee of the Fleischer Studios of Florida, a dissolved corporation, to restrain selling, leasing or booking the new “Popeye” and “Superman” series to TV. Other defendants are AAP, PRM Productions, UM&M TV, WPIX, Flamingo Films, DuMont Broadcasting, Fleischer Studios of New York, and Max Fleischer, individually and as trustee of the dissolved corporation.

December 25, 1957,
Variety quotes Don Hillary of Local 839, Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists, IATSE, as signing with “new Dave Fleischer tele-blurbery, engaged in making Chevy commercials.”

May 9, 1958, Hollywood Reporter
Lil' Pedro, newspaper cartoon character, will be heard for the first time in a promotional short for the Mental Health Month campaign which is being chaired locally by Jack M. Warner. Animated cartoon subject in the new three-D process of Stereo Toons will be available for both theatrical and TV distribution. Muzzy Marcellino will be musical director and do the Pedro voice on the soundtrack. Partners Don Hillary, Dave Fleisher and Jack Parr of Stereo Toons are readying TV and theatrical shorts and a cartoon feature as initial ventures of the new company.

June 2, 1958, Broadcasting
Stereotoons, a new company specializing in the production of three-dimensional animated motion pictures for tv and theatres, has been formed by Don Hillary, retiring business agent for Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists, IATSE Local 839, Hollywood. Stereotoons is at 1546 No. Highland Ave., Hollywood; telephone: Hollywoood 3-2326.
Associated with Mr. Hillary in the new company are Dave Fleischer, veteran producer-director of such animated films as the Betty Boop and Popeye series, and Jack Paar [Parr], a Disney animator for 19 years.
The company’s first production, a 20-second public service tv film, is now being distributed to tv stations by mental health groups across the country. A theatrical short film, “Li’l Pedro and Tasty Taco,” will be premiered in June in 36 Arizona theatres.



November 20, 1959
The Hollywood Reporter revealed Fleischer was the technical supervisor of “The Snow Queen,” a Russian film dubbed into English and released by Universal-International.

June 3, 1960, Hollywood Reporter
Dave Fleischer, who supervised the synchronization of the English dialogue to the lip movements of the animated characters in U-I’s “Snow Queen,” leaves this weekend for a two-week Pacific Northwest tour to take part on local level campaigns for the picture.

June 19, 1960, from Sacramento Bee article
Dave Fleischer’s eyes really light up when he talks about an idea he has for a new cartoon character. His name will be Mr Hugger-Mugger and he will represent sort of the general public. When he faces a tough situation he’ll press a button on his head. There’s an IBM machine inside that solves everything.

December 16, 1960, Variety
New York, Dec. 15. — N.Y. Supreme Court Justice Harold Baer yesterday reserved decision following two-week trial on two separate suits brought by film pioneer Dave Fleischer. He seeks to test whether tv stations have the right to use his name for advertising purposes. One action names WPIX, Inc., while defendant in the other case is NTA Pictures, Inc.
Both suits were consolidated for purposes trial. Fleischer wants injunction to restrain WPIX from using his name as director “Out of the Inkwell,” “Popeye,” “Betty Boop” and other animated cartoons. He contends use of his name for ad purposes violates his civil rights. Stations throughout the country, all sponsors, according complaint, liable for damages.
Fleischer’s suit against NTA also asks damages on similar basis. Involved in this case is cartoon tagged “Hoppity Goes To Town.” Paramount formed Rainbow Productions to sell cartoon to tv, but later sold firm to NTA, which dissolved Rainbow, but absorbed its assets.
In reserving decision, Justice Baer directed attorneys of both sides to submit additional briefs by Dec. 19. Meantime, Fleischer has similar suits pending Federal Court here. His State Supreme Court actions filed about four years ago.

July 8, 1963, Boxoffice
ENCHANTED WORLD OF MOTHER GOOSE. A full animation feature-length color cartoon will be produced by Dave Fleischer, famous pioneer cartoonist of “Out of the Inkwell” and “Betty Boop” fame. R.T.G. Burdge, Trend International, wrote the story with Fleischer.

October 13, 1964, Variety
Dave Fleischer vs. AAP Inc., Associated Artists Productions and Others. — Fleischer, trustee and receiver of the dissolved Fleischer Studios Inc., which once filmed cartoons, was seeking review of a lower court decision dismissing his anti-trust charges against Paramount Pictures.
Though the ruling by the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals was pegged to Florida laws on dissolved corporations, Fleischer wanted a review of his charges that Paramount kept his cartoons, such as Popeye and Superman, off the tv market from 1941 to 1956.

August 24, 1964, Los Angeles Times, Philip K. Scheuer
Remember the bouncing-ball, sing-along cartoons? Remember Pop-eye, Betty Boop and Superman? Remember “Gulliver’s Travels”? Dave Fleischer was the creator of them all—and the bouncing ball dates back as far as 1920. What is amazing is that Dave Fleischer is still at it. He is producing cartoon features in color for General Animation, which is a division of Trend International and is located at 6618 Sunset Blvd.
First Fleischer spectacular is “Enchanted World of Mother Goose.” The second, “Buzzard’s Bait and Blithe Spirits,” will be “deliberately aimed at the grownups,” though “kids will like it, too.” Trend International is also going ahead immediately on a series of two-reel comedies—these in live action.

August 22, 1965, Los Angeles Times
Utilizing controlled data processing, the Apartment Information Bureau is helping valley residents by the thousands to scientifically locate the apartment which best fits their needs.
Dan Diana, director of the bureau, announced that more than 10,000 [V]alley families have used this new method in the last 12 months.
The idea for a data processing method for finding apartments originated with Dave Fleischer, nationally known cartoonist, film producer and real estate executive. Fleischer, whose film credits include such outstanding accomplishments as “Gulliver’s Travels,” “Popeye,” and scores of others, explained that the Apartment Information Bureau was developed to save tired shoppers from six to seven weeks of unnecessary looking.

May 24, 1967
Fleischer attends luncheon marking Walter Lantz’s 50th anniversary in the cartoon business.

August 13, 1967
Homage to Dave and Max Fleischer at Montreal International Film Festival at Expo ’67.

June 24-24, 1972
First Zagreb International Animation Film Fest. Dave Fleischer accepts invitation to attend.

November 30, 1972
First Annie Award given to Dave and the late Max Fleischer.

July 14, 1975, Boxoffice
Animation pioneer Dave Fleischer has begun preparation of a new musical film, “Pandora’s Odyssey,” in association with Jerry Merton. The film will combine live characters with animated cartoon figures.

June 27, 1979, Variety
Funeral services will be held this morning at 11 a.m. at the Mount Sinai Mortuary in Hollywood for animation pioneer Dave Fleischer, who died of a stroke Monday at the Motion Picture and Television Country Hospital in Woodland Hills. He was 84.
Fleischer had a history of circulatory problems and had been admitted to the hospital on Saturday. He died at about 1 p.m., after having slipped into a coma.
Fleischer and his late brother Max were for many years considered the chief competition for Disney in the field of Hollywood animation, and there are many viewers who rate the Fleischers first for their constantly witty, imaginative and at times surreal work on the “Betty Boop” and “Popeye” cartoons.
Fleischer was born on July 14, 1894, on the site where Radio City Music Hall now stands in Manhattan. Five years younger than Max, the brothers began in the Industry at the Bray Studios in 1920. Their first cartoon was “Out Of The Inkwell,” which featured their creation KoKo the Clown, who appeared in many subsequent shorts.
In Hollywood [sic], the brothers opened their own studio and, in association with Paramount, produced a remarkable body of work, which not only encompassed “Betty Boop” and “Popeye” but the “Bouncing Ball,” “Bimbo” and the features, “Gulliver's Travels” and “Mr. Bug Goes To Town.” They also did the original “Superman” cartoons for King Features.
In 1942 Dave Fleischer took charge of the cartoon production unit at Columbia and supervised the series “Color Rhapsodies” and “Phantasies.”
In later years, Fleischer did a number of animated tv commercials and motion picture trailers and also worked on the animation sequences of Alfred Hitchcock's “The Birds.”
In 1969 Fleischer traveled to Israel to teach and help launch an animation industry in that country. At the first awards presentation of the Animation Society of America in 1972, he was honored with an “Annie.” He was twice nominated for an Academy Award.
He is survived by his widow, Mae; a brother, Lou; two daughters from a previous marriage; five grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, a niece and a nephew, Richard Fleischer, the film director.

Mop Head

In Counterfeit Cat, a cat wears a floppy dog-ear disguise to fool a bulldog to get into a home where a yummy canary lives.

In one scene, the bird steals the disguise. The cat “finds” it—but it turns out to be an old mop instead.

Cut to the dog offering to shake hands (paws). But it realises something is wrong. Then the cat realises something is wrong and tries to rectify the situation.



Director Tex Avery and writers Rich Hogan and Jack Cosgriff aren’t finished with the gag.



The cat sends the dog running out of the scene with one of those obsession gags he uses (the dog buries any bone he sees) and it’s on to the next scene.

Cactus Rhumba

All kinds of thing spring to life in the Zowie Café in the mind of drunken Muzie Mouse, the star of Juke Box Jamboree, released in 1942 by Walter Lantz.

One of them is a cactus in a pot, which rhumbas with Muzie—a little too close at one point as the mouse leaps off a table and into a new scene.



Muzie isn’t identified by name in the cartoon, but the moniker is mentioned in reviews in at least three trade papers. He has one of those Alex Lovy “one-tooth-split-down-the-middle” designs like Andy Panda. Lovy directed this short, which was nominated for an Oscar. Bugs Hardaway and Chuck Couch wrote the story and La Verne Harding was given the animation credit. Mel Blanc provides the mousey hiccups. Unfortunately, none of the singers were identified, including the woman doing the Carmen Miranda impression, though internet chatter says it is Zedra Conde.

Sin-Sational

There was once a much more innocent time when double-entendres passed for naughtiness and bawdiness. And one person who took advantage of that was Rusty Warren.

A whole industry sprouted up in the 1950s around “blue” comedy records. They were made by nightclub performers whose material didn’t consist of jokes about a-dime-for-a-cup-of-coffee and Bing Crosby’s horse. Their subjects included s-e-x. You’d never hear them on the radio.

Warren was the queen of these kinds of acts, as far as I’m concerned. I saw her perform almost four decades ago in a small lounge. Considering how acts fill the air today with four-letter words and crudeness, her suggestive humour seems pretty tame and hokey now. But she was clearly enjoying herself on stage and audiences were laughing just like they did in the ‘50s because she was saying stuff you clearly don’t discuss in polite society.

Despite being in the underbrush of popular culture, Rusty made the entertainment pages every once in a while. Let’s dig out a couple. First, a feature story from September 1, 1961. The comedy album industry was still a busy one at the time.

Singer Rusty Warren Has No Fear About Making Big Time
By DICK KLEINER
Rusty Warren has a hunch she'll never be one of the biggest stars in the entertainment world but she doesn’t care. She has her apartment houses, supermarkets and assorted investments to keep her warm.
Miss Warren's chosen field is risque comedy. Obviously, doing her songs and comedy material on TV is out. And, equally obviously, a gal can’t become one of the great stars without TV.
But she is a highly successful night club performer. And her Jubilee albums sell in the millions. She also has something which she cherishes — reasonable anonymity.
All this makes her a happy girl — a career she enjoys, so much money that she doesn’t even know what investments her business manager has made for her and the privilege of walking around the streets without being mobbed.
Rusty sort of drifted into her particular area of entertainment. She’s a Massachusetts girl who started out to be a pianist but she wasn't dedicated enough to pursue the classics beyond one appearance with Arthur Fiedler in Boston. So she made for the cocktail lounges, where she played tinkly music and bantered with the customers. The banter gradually grew into an act.
Her material isn’t really blue—you might call it baby blue—and she’s proud of the fact that it isn't abnormal or sick. She thinks it’s all very healthy, and her opinion is shared by many. Among them, she says, are "famous names that would surprise you.”
She explains the current success of risque records as a byproduct of the move to suburbia.
"I just say what everybody thinks,” she says. "In today’s suburban living, a couple moves into a new house and they buy a bed, a stove and a hi-fi in that order. To break the ice with their new neighbors, they play party records. It starts conversations.”
Miss Warren, a tall, beautiful girl with the red hair you would expect from her nickname, has no great ambitions, beyond doing what she’s doing better.
"I don’t want to act,” she says, although Rusty Warren really is a part I’m playing. That’s the only acting ambition I have—to play Rusty Warren well.”

The world changed over the ‘60s. Young people rejected the sexual hang-ups of their parents that had been fuelled by media censorship. “Free love!” was the cry. The Gay Liberation movement burst out, demanded to be treated seriously. Simple plays-on-words about someone’s naughty parts became quaint and a little old-fashioned. But it didn’t appear to hurt Rusty Warren. Young people didn’t reject her. In a way, she was on their side. She punctured their parents’ taboos by having fun with them.

Here’s an article from August 28, 1975.

Blue Songs But No Blues
By Joe Pollack
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff
Perhaps it was a giant step when Eileen Goldman, piano student at the New England Conservatory of Music, became Rusty Warren, brassy piano player and singer of so-called suggestive songs, but it's going to be a real leap for Rusty Warren to become Mama Red, stand-up comic on current topics at rock clubs.
"The kids call me that," she said exuberantly of her new appellation, "and I love it. The rock club scene, the kids scene, is a whole new trip for me as a performer. Even though I'm a lot older than they are, we really seem to come through on the same wave length. They're exciting, and they're with it."
Miss Warren smiled softly and ran a hand through her close-cropped hair. It's more tawny, more blonde than rusty, and she has blue-green eyes that sparkle with a touch of mischief. She wore a denim suit over a T-shirt that advertised her most famous record, and she glowered only half in jest at the Playboy Club bunnies who served her lunch. She'll be appearing at the club through Saturday.
"Yes," she said, "and being jealous of these well-stacked girls.
"It's funny," she went on, musingly, "I was the far-out one, the sexually liberated one, to their parents. Now it's come full circle, and they're talking about things that make me realize I'm more inhibited than they are.
"Not much," she continued with a laugh, "but some."
There are many situations these days when a mention of Rusty Warren's name brings a reaction of "Is she still alive?" followed by, "Gee, I used to have some of her records. I wonder what ever happened to them?"
What probably happened is that the kids found them, played them and realized that dear old Dad and good old Mom had known about sex, and had told jokes about it and listened to other people tell jokes about it.

Deep in the recesses of my own collection is a copy of "Knockers Up," the 1961 album that made her famous. It was right next to a couple of albums by Ruth Wallis, who had preceded and influenced Miss Warren in the piano-bar genre of off-color songs.
Playing them, and listening to them, makes one realize exactly how much change there has been in American society and thinking in the last generation. Both Miss Wallis and Miss Warren deal with sex, but the allusions are so masked, so cloaked in double-entendre, that only a true Puritan could look so deeply as to see "sex" or "smut." Of course, a wise man once said that only the true Puritan can really enjoy the fall from grace, so perhaps that's what made Miss Warren's albums popular enough to sell some seven million copies, and for her night club work to provide her with the wherewithal for homes in Michigan, Arizona and California.
She's 45 years old, into astrology, vegetarianism and tennis, as well as sex and entertaining, and comes on very strong. There's a softness beneath the veneer, but it doesn't peep through very often. Mostly it's the tough-talking, very aware, very "with-it" woman who is on stage almost all the time, and obviously would rather keep the private Rusty Warren separated from the public one.
There are traces of her background that do show up from time to time. Her "Yeah," is a perfect New York, and she travels in the same type of "cah" that Bostonians use all the time.
"I was born in New York, but I didn't live there very long," she said. "I was adopted by a couple from Boston when I was just a baby, and I really grew up there."
The fact that the orphanage did not record the time of day on which she was born is a bother to her in terms of getting a reliable astrological chart, but "it said I was Jewish, legitimate and from parents with a musical background."
Even allowing for all these things, how did Eileen Goldman become Rusty Warren?
"Well, there was this guy," she said, and she broke into a wide smile at the repetition of a line that has become a cliche, "and he didn't want to marry me. This being a long time ago, he didn't want to go to bed with me, either. He kept talking about ‘respect’ and things like that.
"So I went out and got a job. I played a lot of piano at hotels and clubs in Boston, and one of the early ones was just off Warren Street, so I took ‘Warren,’ and my hair was a deeper red then than it is now, so ‘Rusty’ kind of followed along.
"As time went by, I added some vocals to the straight playing, and then I began to improvise a little. I'd heard Ruth Wallis with some of her songs— they called 'em 'risque' in those days— like ‘The Cutest Little Dinghy in the Navy,’ and I'd watched her perform and made some notes. I made so many notes that her husband came up to me one day and said, ‘I don't mind you stealing Ruth's material, but the least you can do is give her credit.’ "
In addition to Miss Wallis, the comedienne also pays tribute to singers like Nellie Lutcher and Sophie Tucker, whose style and presentation "really showed me how to put a song across."
Miss Warren's act evolved, as most acts do, from cross-pollination of ideas from an audience, from current events and topical humor.
"I felt sex didn't belong in the closet," she said, "and I still don't. When I work to kids, I deal with them on their level, in their language, and even though I try to do it in a funny way, I get very heavy with them in terms of venereal disease. ‘Learn about health,’ I tell them, and I blame young girls a lot for the almost epidemic proportions the disease now has. They can be the carriers, without even knowing about it."
In recent years, Miss Warren has abandoned the piano for a more stand-up, or sit-down-on-a-bar-stool style, and her current routine includes a three-man band behind her. She works from a stool with a couple of overhead spots and a follow spot, and works closely with her audience. Her performing style these days is similar to comedians like Mort Sahl and Lenny Bruce, who dealt with contemporary problems, each in his own way.
"I think I'm the only woman who performs in this manner," she said, "but I began to find the piano too limiting. I was always getting up from the piano bench to get closer to the audience, to get some feedback and to deal directly with the people. Finally, I decided to just give it up and let somebody else play it."
Miss Warren's Playboy Club routine, and she plays a number of the clubs around the country, obviously has changed from what she did a generation ago, and also is different from what she does when she plays the rock clubs, with their primarily younger audience.
"I tell the kids that the only way people over 30 are admitted is if they (the kids) bring their parents," she said, "and they love it. I love it, too, if a family is together enough so that two generations can enjoy me.
"My material still is made up of truisms, though. I talk and sing about sex and the sex habits of every day people. You could say that I hold up a mirror for people to look at themselves as they are. Those who laugh the loudest are usually happily married couples or well-adjusted people. Those who grumble, I guess, seem somewhat frustrated."
Whether it comes by deep allusion, or in explicit terms, there's no question but that sex is the subject of the show, proving only that Eileen Goldman, Rusty Warren and Mama Red all have learned one important thing. Sex sells!

Rusty turns 90 this year. She’s still around. She has a web site, and she’s still selling her brand of (can I say it?) s-e-x.

I'll be Skiin' You

Olive Oyl needs rescuing (is that really a surprise?) in I-Ski Love-Ski You-Ski, a 1936 cartoon which opens with 3-D backgrounds and a song.

There’s perspective as Olive is sliding down a mountain and then into mid-air. The camera comes closer on her screaming so it looks like the mountain is directly underneath her.



Popeye catches her (in a manner of speaking). He sings, toot-toot, we’ve seen it all before.



Yes, Popeye mutters “I’ll be skiin’ you” in this cartoon.

Willard Bowsky and George Germanetti are the credited animators with Jack Mercer, Gus Wicke and Mae Questel providing voices.

Now I've Seen Everything

A ship carrying Horton the elephant braves the briny, choppy, ocean blue.



Appearing in the water....



... a Peter Lorre fish.



“Well,” Lorre Fish tells the audience, “now I’ve seen everything.” It’s a Warner Bros. cartoon so you know what’ll happen next.



Bob Clampett directed, Mike Maltese and Dick Hogan adapted Dr. Seuss’ story, with layouts by Nic Gibson. Horton Hatches the Egg was released in 1942.

It's Not Easy Being Funny

Radio’s earliest stars didn’t just walk into a radio studio and suddenly become stars, though the nation-wide exposure on a weekly basis certainly brought them larger fame. Almost all had been around for some time, playing vaudeville theatres across North America, appearing on the New York stage, or both.

When Canada Dry signed Benny for its radio show in 1932, he had already been on the stage for more than two decades, though his popularity rose as the ‘20s waned. Here’s a story in the Buffalo Evening News of May 26, 1933, talking about his career to date, which was still minus Jell-O, Sunday nights and Don Wilson. The source of the quotes in the column is unclear. Some of this showed up later in the year in a Sandusky, Ohio newspaper article we transcribed on the blog last year.

Anyone used to the later radio years, and certainly when Jack was on TV, may not be aware of Mary Livingstone’s huge popularity at the outset. I can’t help but wonder, as people mistake celebrity impersonators’ quotes for the real thing, if Mary wasn’t the one who first said “Come up and see me some time.”

Navy Showed Jack Benny
How to Make His Talk Pay
Radio Gagster Began as Violinist, But Put It Aside When He Found Words Were More Profitable Than Music.
By JOE HAEFFNER
Jack Benny is radio's glibbest son of the great god Gag. But it took a World war to start him talking.
Now nobody on his Friday night program can stop him. Frank Black may start his music, Howard Claney may announce a blurb, James Melton may do a solo and Mary Livingstone may interrupt him-—but Jack is undaunted. The suave, silken, sly Mr. Benny, goes on talking.
Listeners like to hear his gabbing and gagging. That's why you'll find plenty of folks gathered round their sets at 10 P. M. Friday to hear him over WBEN-WEAF. To get back to the war. Before joining the Navy he played a violin in vaudeville and said nothing. After an attempt to raise funds with a musical appeal at a seamen's benefit, Jack dropped the violin and started talking.
Talked Through Several Revues.
Since then he has talked his way through several Shubert musical revues, two editions of Earl Carroll's Vanities, half a dozen feature motion pictures—and into radio as one of its most popular masters of ceremonies.
Jack's family lived in Waukegan, Ill., but Jack was born in Chicago. They then carried him back to Waukegan and he stayed there for 17 years.
"My father gave me a violin and a monkey wrench," Jack told an NBC reporter, who passed along the information to us. "He told me not to take chances. Plumbing isn't a bad business, he said."
From all appearances Jack and the monkey wrench didn't get along so well, but he was practicing on the violin before he was 6 years old. At 16 he started playing in a Waukegan orchestra. A year later he and a piano-playing pal formed a vaudeville act.
Started Talking In Navy.

For six years Jack toured the country—and said nothing. Then came the war and Jack joined the Navy. At a benefit fund performance his violin playing brought applause—but no contributions.
Mr. Benny thought it over. If you want money you have to work for it—and ask for it. He put down the instrument and broke a six-year silence. He got contributions—and laughs. He repeated the trick. When the war was over he changed from gobbing to gagging. He returned to vaudeville—as a monologist.
His post-war vaudeville tour brought him to the Orpheum theater, Los Angeles. He stayed there eight straight weeks, broke a house record—and was headed for the talkies.
The glib Mr. Benny might have been in Hollywood yet had it not been for a Los Angeles girl. We think the girl must have said, "Hello, dark and handsome. Why dontcha come up sometime?" Anyway, Jack met her and continued to talk. The young lady, according to reports, just nodded her head—and suggested an eastern honeymoon.
Lives In New York.
You're right. The girl was Mary Livingstone, whose Mae West line about "coming up" is panicking millions weekly. Mary manages to sing a chorus, too, on these Friday WBEN programs. Jimmy Melton is her singing tutor.
The Bennys arrived in New York just as Earl Carroll was casting his annual edition of the Vanities. At Carroll's request, Benny dropped in to witness a rehearsal. When the curtain went up on the opening night, Benny was still there—in the show.
The Bennys live in New York. Jack doesn't understand why some actors balk at radio.
"I've got ham in me. What actor hasn't?" he told Whitney Bolton, a friend of his. "I've got enough ham in me to like facing an audience and feel it responding to my work. But on the air you reach a million or so.
Likes the Letters.
"And the letters you get take more time and thought than mere handclapping in a theater and they mean so much more."
It's not easy to be a funny man, says Jack, who takes his clowning seriously, like most comics. He's very businesslike offstage. When he's working up a "situation" gag, he prowls up and down his apartment, his brows wrinkled.
Jack Benny is this department's favorite comedian. He's the glibbest of the gagsters. He's certainly one of the most original comics.
He writes all of his stage monologues himself, most of his radio programs. Often he makes himself the butt of the jokes—and you know how people like to see the head man on the spot!
It may be inconsequential, but Jack broadcasts with his hat on. One of his hardest jobs is convincing people that Jack Benny is his real name. It is.