Eyes of a Dog

With the sound of Raymond Scott’s “Powerhouse” in the background, Wellington the cat stamps dog paw prints all over the room, as he tries to have Roscoe the hound tossed out by the mistress of the house (played by Bea Benaderet).



Observe, Roscoe.



Roscoe tries to scrub away the prints before the mistress gets downstairs. The two things I noticed about this scene: one is Wellington rushes back and forth across the room, but leaves trails of multiple eyes behind him. Don Williams used to do this but I don’t know if Williams had a short stop at Warners in 1943 when this cartoon was made (he went from MGM to Columbia that year).



The other thing is an interesting directorial choice by Friz Freleng: the camera pans back and forth across the room, but can’t keep up with Roscoe.



Since this cartoon, Hiss and Make Up became a Blue Ribbon re-issue in 1950 and had all its credits removed, we can only guess that Manny Perez, Gerry Chiniquy, Dick Bickenbach and Jack Bradbury were among the animators.

And is it my imagination, or did another Warners cartoon feature a cat stamping paw prints to the strains of “Powerhouse”?

It's Up and Down the Dial

Ask anyone who has been in radio any length of time, especially before two or three ice-cold and antiseptic corporations took over the industry, and they will likely tell you they worked with some of the characters on WKRP in Cincinnati.

This would make sense because the series was based, in part, on creator Hugh Wilson’s experiences in the business.

Even radio people in Cincinnati admitted that, yes, there is some truth in the series. Let’s hear from some of them in this wire service story from November 28, 1979.

‘WKRP’ Comedy Isn’t All Fiction For Cincinnati
By RICHARD H. GROWALD
United Press International
CINCINNATI — In the WNOP studios floating on the Ohio River disc jockey Leo Underhill wobbled out of his glass cage.
“Oh, my God, I need another Alka-Seltzer,” he said. “It’ll be my fourth this morning.”
He held his head as if in pain, and maybe he was, and subsided like a rumpled Teddy bear into a chair in Program Director Ray Scott’s office in the three red water-tank cylinders that float on the river and serve as the home of the radio station.
The office wobbled like a ship at sea. Scott suggested perhaps Underhill was seasick.
“It’s not that ‘avast ye matey and all that bad stuff this time. I got a hangover,” Underhill said. “Where’s that Alka-Seltzer?”
“See?” said Scott. “We are not WKRP. The television program station plays rock. WNOP plays jazz.”
THE CBS television show “WKRP in Cincinnati” is as popular here as in the rest of the country and Cincinnati’s actual AM radio stations take the televised comedy as flattery, maybe.
“Take the television show character, Herb Tarlek, WKRP’s advertising salesman. That is accuracy. White shoes and white belts, all radio ad salesmen wear ’em,” Underhill said.
Ashore in the studios of WCKY, whose midtown offices have the indirect lighting and soft carpeting of corporate success, News Director Mark Neeley said, “We have seven account executives. We don’t call them salesmen. And we have no disc jockeys, we have radio personalities or hosts.”
Afloat in WNOP, Underhill took his hands away from his head, looked at them and seem delighted and surprised they were clean of blood. “Of course, there is no such thing as a radio account executive. They are salesmen, as I said. And let me tell you salesmen are very busy people.
“They attend all the cocktail parties.”
SCOTT SUGGESTED that Underhill did some drinking, too. “Yes, yes,” said Underhill. “I drink pretty good.”
Scott: “Drinking is a way of life on this station.”
Underhill: “Well, we had this preacher working as a disc jockey. He did drink."
Scott: “Preacher man tried to keep up with me and you, Leo.”
Underhill: “And he died of it.”
Scott: "But give him credit. He held on as long as he could.” Underhill: “I knew the end was coming for him when he started substituting bourbon for sacramental wine.”
Scott: “When the WKRP show was in the making, their producer or someone came and looked us over. He went away rather hurriedly. It shows. The characters on the show don’t drink too much.”
Underhill: “And they never did have Miss Nude Universe at WKRP. We did. She came in one day while I was on the air. First thing she did in the studio was rip off the top part of her costume.
“I ASKED IF that was all Miss Nude Universe did. It didn't seem enough for her image. Well, she then ripped off the bottom part. I was reporting this to the folks out in radioland and one of our disc jockeys, Gary Stephenson, was at home and heard and jumped in his car to come down and see for himself.
“The cops arrested Gary for speeding. He missed Miss Nude Universe. I didn’t.”
Scott: "Leo, you’re just a radio personality.”
Underhill: “No, I’m a disc jockey.”
In Cincinnati’s Hyde Park Square area station WEBN was broadcasting its top 40 formula. “We are nothing at all like WKRP,” said Program Director Denton Marr, wearing dark glasses in his unsunlit room.
“In WKRP the station is owned by the general manager’s mother.
“Here at WEBN the station is owned by the general manager’s father.”
HE LAUGHED. “WKRP’s disc jockey Johnny Fever is a tame version of me. Here we think of ourselves less as a radio station and more of a stage. Like our Fool’s Day Parades.”
He described how each year WEBN staged the annual parade, using crowd sound effects and disc jockeys describing the parade moving through Hyde Park Square out-front.
"Yes,” said WEBN news reporter Rick Bird. “I can hear it now. Ladies and gentlemen, here comes now the Our Lady of Perpetual Motion Marching Band. Sound effects of roaring crowds.
“And now here comes the Greater Cincinnati Cocaine Dealers Association snowmobile! Sounds of wild crowd noises.”
Director Marr said, “You know those broadcasts actually brought people from all around to Hyde Park Square to see the Fool’s Day Parade. There was nothing to see, of course. Eat your heart out, WKRP.”
MARR SAID WEBN has had one bit of woe however. It concerns the station's promotion of its mythical symbol, mascot and hero, the WEBN Frog. The disc jockeys each election ask voters to write in the Frog.
“We really don't know how many votes Frog got for president in Cincinnati in the 1976 election,” Marr said. “The board of election won’t tell us. All we know was that Frog got enough write-ins so the board had to delay its 1976 tally for 12 hours to hand-count all the ballots.”
At the more ordered WCKY, radio personality Wirt Cain acknowledged he and his station colleagues run more to neckties than the disc jockeys of WNOP and WEBN. “And WKRP is a slight overstatement of a sampling of many radio stations. No one station could succeed with all those characters.”
“And WCKY has no turntables in its studio. We use tape,” Neeley said.
And in the WCKY lobby there was no sign of the doubly breasted Jennifer Malone, the WKRP receptionist played by Loni Anderson. In the WCKY lobby sits the very married Allene Marrs.
“The account executives do not chase me,” she said. “They better not. I’m three times a grandmother.”

Mr. Neeley’s station probably doesn’t use tape these days. Fewer and fewer disc jockeys have ever edited audio tape or a cued up a 45 or patched in a remote. Even fewer have picked their own music for their shows. I must admit, I did all those things during my career when WKRP was still in first run. Then there was the time in 1976 the farm director was late so we called him at home, woke him up, told him he was on the air and he ad-libbed a three minute report, half-asleep. He should have won a Silver Sow for that. I even reported live on a shopping centre fire from a phone booth across the street. No turkeys dropped, though. That couldn’t have happened in real life.

Or could it?

Accidents Don't Happen

Ambulance chasers Tom and Jerry think they have an accident victim they can sell insurance to in Trouble, but when he floats harmlessly to the ground from the top of a skyscraper, it turns out he was never in any danger. He’s a stunt guy.

When Tom and Jerry read his business card, they faint. Their eyes turn to crosses like in those newspaper cartoons of 100 years ago.



In a nicely timed bit, the ambulance rolls them up to take them to hospital but when it drives away, Tom and Jerry are left on the ground. They sit up dizzily as the cartoon irises out.



John Foster and George Stallings get the “by” credit. Tom and Jerry sing an accident song about “broken legs, broken ribs.” Whether it’s a Gene Rodemich original, I don’t know, but I hope whenever this gets a good restoration we can hear the lyrics a little better.

This cartoon was released October 10, 1931.

Brrrr

The Warner Bros. brought the world the feature film Dames (1934), with Guy Kibbee, Zasu Pitts, Hugh (Woo-Hoo) Herbert and the songs “I Only Have Eyes For You,” “The Girl at the Ironing Board,” “Try to See It My Way,” “When You Were a Smile on Your Mother’s Lips,” and the title tune (Dick Powell and Joan Blondell sang it).

The first two were made into cartoons for Warners by Leon Schlesinger Productions and the first was put into the hands of Tex Avery, who gave it the touches we expect from him. There’s a Kate Hepburn imitation (by Elvia Allman). There’s a tongue-tied iceman (played by Joe Twerp) who drives away, only to quickly drive back to say something to the audience, then drive away for good. There’s a radio catchphrase (“Hello, Strangzer!” by Professor Mockingbird is from Schlepperman on the Jack Benny show).

My favourite moment in the cartoon is when the professor plays Cyrano de Bergerac for the iceman, singing for him to impress Katie Canary. But the professor is hiding in the back of the ice wagon and freezing, which doesn’t exactly make him sound like Bing Crosby or Rudy Vallee. The chilled professor stops singing, turns to the audience and says in a regular voice “Boy, it’s bloody cold in here.”

Avery and his writing unit came up with a nice little ending. The iceman doesn’t win Katie’s love. She goes off with the professor, warming him up as, in the background, a crooner-broadcasting radio is replaced with a refrigerator. The iceman resigns himself to being stuck with an old crone (also played by Elvia Allman) he didn’t want. “Well, anyhow, she can cook,” he spits out as the iris closes to end the cartoon.

I originally wrote the iceman is an impression of spoonerist Roy Atwell, and he uses Atwell's "Let it go, let it go" catchphrase from the Fred Allen show. But there was more than one spoonerist on the radio back then, and Twerp worked on a syndicated show at this time with the team of Oscar and Elmer, the latter played by Lou Fulton. Twerp appears to have appropriated Fulton's act. Fulton, by the way, played the stuttering contestant in I Love to Singa (1936). You can hear them both below on a show called The Last Nighter, which aired on KFWB, right next to the Schlesinger cartoon studio. The male chorus on the show sounds familiar, too.



Billy Bletcher can be heard on the cartoon as well.

Martha Goldman inked parts of this cartoon and she swears the title was I Only Have Ice For You, which is an improvement.

Anyone Can Be 39

Why did Jack Benny lie about his age?

He did it for you.

Well, he did it to help others have fun and get laughs by pretending to be 39. It must have worked. Years after Jack’s death in 1974, newspapers reported on people joking about being “Jack Benny’s age.” It happens occasionally today, among the older generation, granted, but the joke is still alive.

Here’s Jack talking with the New York Herald Tribune News Service about it in 1961, two days after his actual birthday (Valentine’s Day).

Jack Benny, 39 More Years
By Joe Hyams
New York Herald Tribune Special Dispatch.
HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 16—Tuesday was a big day for Jack Benny. He celebrated his thirty-ninth birthday for the twenty-seventh time.
"I'm 67 years old," he said. "That's my real age. In three more years I’ll be 70 and how old can you get? But I feel I can’t complain.

Benny said he doesn’t plan to ever turn 40 publicly even when he reaches seventy. “If I actually looked my right then doing the 39 gag wouldn’t be funny,” he said, “but just the fact that everybody says I don’t look 67 gives me the license to cheat. A woman cheats on her age a little bit and it’s okay. Instead of cheating a little I cheat a lot.
“I THINK THE gag started when I was about 40 and said I was 36. I stayed 36 a few years, 37 a few years and 38 and 39 for a few. Then one year I turned 40. You’d be amazed at the newspaper editorials and letters I got complaining about it.
“Everyone said it was a mistake for me to turn 40. That as long as I called myself 39 a lot of other people were calling themselves 39 too, and having fun at it. Thirty-nine is a funny age—like you don’t want to get over the hump. A lot of kids think you’re old at 40 so the next year I went back being 39 and that’s the age I’ll keep.
MAYBE BEING 39 perpetually has helped keep me young. I remember years ago George Washington Hill used to say if you plug anything long pretty soon you begin to believe it. I guess I’ve been taken in by my own gag. To some extent I think young and I still work hard.
Benny’s plans for the future and his enthusiasm for the present are undimmed by the passage of time. He plans to continue doing a weekly CBS-TV show and spending his spare time raising money at benefit violin concerts. Since 1956 he’s given 22 concerts, “saved” half a dozen symphony orchestras by money he’s raised to wipe out their deficits and has been responsible for contributions of more than two and a half million dollars to musicians’ funds.
“THIS LAST SEASON on television (1960-61) was probably the best I ever had,” Benny said. “I’ve never done so many shows where everybody said the last show was the best. As long as it’s this much fun I’ll never quit. We already have titles for our next season shows. We know next season will be better but while we never try to have a great show, we try not to have a lousy one. This thinking works all the time.
As a parting question I asked Benny how he’d suggest other people be like him—a perpetual 39.
“Stop counting,” he said.

MGM Odds and Ends Part 4

Some time in December 1956, the top people at MGM decided to close their cartoon studio.

You won’t find the news in the Hollywood Reporter.

Daily Variety ran an article on December 13, 1956, but the only reference to the closure in the Reporter was in an editorial about three weeks afterward saying MGM “will probably reactivate the cartoon department” to attract TV commercial work (it never did).

The last five years of the MGM cartoon studio were ones of ups and downs. The studio still won Oscars. It provided segments for the features “Dangerous When Wet” and “Invitation to the Dance.”

But it dumped Tex Avery’s unit in March 1953 in what the Reporter indicated was a studio shutdown, though it seems the Hanna-Barbera unit continued working. The studio kept publicising it was creating one or two new units and would be making Barney Bear cartoons again. Barney never did come back and only one unit started. Several of Avery’s cartoons were remade by Mike Lah in CinemaScope, with the bottom part of the animation chopped off and new backgrounds by Don Driscoll.

Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera were made producers in 1955, but the Reporter doesn’t mention that their predecessor, Fred Quimby, was shoved out the door. Readers were told he went on an extended vacation instead.

Here’s the Reporter’s coverage of the studio from 1953 to the end. Quimby is still announcing imaginary cartoons. A few others had their names changed, and you’ll probably recognise which ones. School Daze, for example, became Blackboard Jumble. One wonders if the Church Mouse cartoon turned into Good Will To Men. Oh, and there's something really familiar-looking about the meece in the publicity art for that short.

I don’t know where Hanna and Barbera got the idea Blue Cat Blues was the first MGM cartoon with a narrator. Had they forgotten their own Oscar-winning Johann Mouse?

The "Mr. Q" character voiced by Daws Butler looks a lot like TV host Robert Q. Lewis.

January 15, 1953
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, has signed Tex Ritter to do the narration for “First Texas Bad Man.”

January 30, 1953
Alex Romero, MGM choreographer, supplies the dance routines done by Jerry Mouse in the Tom and Jerry cartoon, “Johann Mouse.”

February 10, 1953
Academy Award nominations
Cartoons, Short Subject
“Johann Mouse,” MGM: Fred Quimby, producer.
“Little Johnny Jet,” MGM: Fred Quimby, producer.
“Madeline,” United Productions of America-Columbia: Stephen Bosustow, producer.
“Pink and Blue Blues,” United Productions of America-Columbia: Stephen Bosustow, producer.
“Romance of Transportation,” National Film Board of Canada (Canadian): Tom Daly, producer.

February 17, 1953
Fred Quimby has put “Tail of the Vienna Woods” into production at MGM as a follow-up to “Johann Mouse,” cartoon tribute to the Waltz King.

March 5, 1953
MGM has started an immediate shutdown of all short subjects production, at least until June, and possibly longer. The studio has a year’s backlog of product, including shorts completed by Fred Quimby, Pete Smith and James FitzPatrick.
There will only be a slight reduction of personnel, who will devote all their time to ideas and new developments of production.

March 20, 1953
Academy Award Winners
Cartoon: “Johann Mouse,” MGM; Fred Quimby, producer.

March 24, 1953
Fred Quimby has started a sequel to MGM’s Academy Award cartoon winner, “Johann Mouse,” titled “Tail of the Vienna Woods.”

May 29, 1953
MGM is going wide-screen in its short subjects, too. Fred Quimby, head of the shorts department, said that all shorts production will be converted to accommodate wide-screen showings. The pictures which were photographed conventionally are being recut and reframed, and all new product will be shot with wide-angle lenses.
The shorts, which also will be suitable for standard screens, include the cartoons, Pete Smith Specialties and FitzPatrick Travel Talks.

June 24, 1953
MGM will release only one-reel subjects in its shorts program for the year beginning Sept. 1, 1953, according to an announcement by Fred Quimby, MGM shorts head. There will be four different series of subjects, in addition to 104 issues of News of the Day.
In the lineup will be 38 releases, 28 of which will be in Technicolor. The remaining 10 will be the one-reel Pete Smith Specialties. Technicolor subjects include 16 MGM cartoons, four FitzPatrick TravelTalks and eight Gold Medal reprint cartoons.

July 1, 1953
Producer Arthur Freed has set the first week in August for the start of “Sinbad the Sailor,” final sequence of “Invitation to the Dance,” teaming Gene Kelly and Fred Quimby’s MGM cartoon characters.

July 14, 1953
MGM cartoon head Fred C. Quimby to Honolulu on vacation, with department starting mass vacation Saturday [18].

July 16, 1953
Red Coffey, nightclub and TV personality, was signed yesterday by MGM shorts producer Fred Quimby to be the voice of the little duckling featured in Tom and Jerry cartoons.

August 13, 1953
Gene Kelly will start work today on the “Sinbad the Sailor” cartoon-and-live action number for “Invitation to the Dance,” following a selection of material prepared by the MGM cartoon department under Fred Quimby. In the number, Kelly will enact the role of Sinbad.

MGM shorts head Fred Quimby, back from Hawaiian vacation, put “Romance of the Islands” on the drawing boards and started preparing “Puppy Tails” and “Design for Living.”

October 16, 1953
Gene Kelly yesterday completed filming of his “Sinbad the Sailor” cartoon and live action sequences, final musical story in MGM’s “Invitation to the Dance.” Previous sequences of the Technicolor picture in which there was no dialogue, were filmed in England.

October 22, 1953
Fred Quimby has signed a choir of 40 to sing “Rock of Ages” and “I Have to Tell the Story” for MGM’s new Tom and Jerry subject, “The Church Mouse.”

October 26, 1953
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon head, has signed guitarist Shug Fisher to lead a hillbilly group providing music for a new Tom and Jerry Western, “Pecos Pest.”

November 4, 1953
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, has started “Ski Kids” in the Tom and Jerry series.

November 6, 1953
Dell Publishing Co. is adding the big and little bulldog characters, Spike and Tyke, to its Tom and Jerry Comic Book, published by arrangement with Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer.

December 1, 1953
MGM cartoon producer Fred Quimby has concluded an agreement with Robert S. Callender, v.-p. of Western Printing & Lithograph Co., extending the contract for publishing and distributing the Tom & Jerry comic books, as well as for other coloring books. Quimby has also re-signed Red Coffee to do the Lucky Ducky voice in the new Tom & Jerry short, “Down Hearted Duckling.”

December 2, 1953
Shug Fisher and his Hillbillies have been signed by MGM cartoon producer Fred Quimby for “Pecos Pest.”

December 3, 1953
Fred Quimby has started production on two new Tom and Jerry cartoons, “Ivan Whoa Whoa” and “Robin Hoodwink,” the first MGM cartoons to be designed from the start for wide-screen technique.

December 10, 1953
Producer Fred Quimby has rushed MGM’s “TV of Tomorrow” into immediate release to cash in on the current interest in TV and color. Subject covers, humorously, the coming of color TV, plus a few extra cartoon guesses as to the TV set of the more distant future.

December 16, 1953
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, has set the Tom and Jerry project, “Posse Cat,” to accompany the Christmas release of “Kiss Me Kate” at Loew’s State Theatre.

December 18, 1953
Fred Quimby has put “South Bound Duckling” on the MGM Cartoon drawing boards.

Richard Charlton has optioned Joseph Barbera’s science-fiction comedy, “The Maid and the Martian,” for his American Productions. A revised version of the play, which was staged for 10 weeks at the Gallery Stage here, may get a break-in at Charlton’s and Ann Lee’s Sombrero Playhouse, Phoenix, during the “winter strawhat” season there.
Barbera, with Bill Hanna, writes and directs the Tom & Jerry MGM cartoon series.

December 21, 1953
MGM installed CinemaScope lenses in its cartoon department over the weekend, and the studio’s cartoon producer Fred Quimby has scheduled three animated subjects to be made three ways—in C-Scope, normal and MGM wide-screen.
Subjects are “Touche Pussy Cat,” “South Sound Duckling” [sic] and “Brave Little Mouseketeer.”

December 23, 1953
Walter Lantz has signed Tex Avery, long time cartoon producer at MGM, to a 20-year contract as executive producer on all of his productions. Avery, veteran in the cartoon field, made the “Droopy” series at the Culver City plant.
In addition to producing all the Woody Woodpecker and Chilly Willy Cartunes for Lantz, Avery also will supervise all animation as well as the creation of new characters for the Lantz organization. Avery’s first association with Lantz began in 1929 and lasted until 1935.
The 20-year pact, as prepared by the law firm of Wright & Garrett, as a gag calls for a daily option clause.

January 6, 1954
“When Mousehood Was in Flower,” to be made in both normal and wide-screen, is a new Tom and Jerry MGM cartoon just put into work by cartoon producer Fred Quimby.

February 2, 1954
A new Tom and Jerry cartoon, “That’s My Mommy,” has been put on the MGM drawing boards by Fred Quimby. Little Duck again is co-starred, with radio’s Red Coffey providing the voice of the duck.

February 3, 1954
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, has put on the drawing boards the fourth cartoon for CinemaScope, the Tom-and-Jerry “The Solid Brass Band.”

February 9, 1954
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, has assigned every animator not immediately required for Tom and Jerry cartoons to work on the one-reel cartoon sequence for the feature musical, “Invitation to the Dance.”

March 12, 1954
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, has set June 15 as the finishing date for the cartoon sequence of “Invitation to the Dance,” with Gene Kelly as director and star.

March 25, 1954
New York.—Panavision, Inc., is conducting experiments with both MGM and Columbia on a new anamorphotic taking lens and already has told Columbia an optical printing lens for anamophotic developing, it was disclosed here yesterday by Robert Gottschalk, president, as Panavision’s Super Panatar variable anamophotic lens was demonstrators for exhibitors here at RKO’s 86th St. Theatre with “very good” results....
The Gottschalk lens showed up very well stretching a 1.33 to 1 “Tom and Jerry” to CinemaScope size.

April 28, 1954
“MGM’s Kartoon Karnival,” a 150-foot trailer designed for promotion of cartoon matinees, is being made available to exhibitors by MGM. Also in production is a special title to precede the cartoons comprising the “Karnival.”

May 19, 1954
New York.—MGM’s short subject release schedule for the year starting Sept. 1 includes 45 one-reelers, in addition to 104 issues of News of the Day, according to William B. Zoellner, in charge of short subject and newsreel sales.
The slate is to be headed by 16 Technicolor cartoons produced by Fred Quimby. Four of this group will be available in CinemaScope....
There also will be eight Gold Medal Reprint Cartoons.

June 1, 1954
MGM’s cartoon studio today will complete the conversion of its standard cameras to CinemaScope, according to producer Fred Quimby. Four painted and inked subjects are awaiting the CinemaScope camera treatment—“Touche, Pussy Cat,” “Southbound Duckling,” “Brave Little Mouseketeer” and “Pet Peeve.”

Producer Fred Quimby has put the 25th “Droopy” cartoon on the MGM drawing boards. It is titled “Deputy Droopy,” for 1955 release.

June 15, 1954
New York.—A cartoon carnival, made up of various cartoon series distributed by MGM, is being made available for general showing, according to William B. Zoellner, sales head for short subjects and newsreels. Exhibitors can made their own selections from various MGM series to package the special shows.

July 8, 1954
Perspecta Sound will be used for 18 regular MGM cartoon releases during the 1954-55 season, according to producer Fred Quimby. Of this group, 11 will star Tom and Jerry.

July 15, 1954
Because of the increasing demand for CinemaScope short subjects, MGM will add two units to the cartoon production staff following the annual vacation, Aug. 27-Sept. 20, according to Fred Quimby, cartoon producer.
The cartoon studios now have four CinemaScope subjects in work—“Touche Pussy Cat,” “Brave Little Mouseketeer,” “Pet Peeve” and “Southland Duckling” [sic].
The new units will resume production of the “Droopy” and “Barney Bear” series, both of which were held in abeyance during the filming of the “Sinbad the Sailor” cartoon sequence for “Invitation to the Dance,” starring Gene Kelly. This will be completed before the vacation.
The group making the future sequence is the regular “Tom and Jerry” unit, which will start an eight-subject program for the 1954-55 season when work is resumed in September.
Entire MGM slate again will comprise 16 releases.

July 29, 1954
Members of the Cartoon Producers Assn. and the IASTE Cartoonists Local 839 have reached agreement on a new four-year contract calling for a 5 percent general salary increase, an additional 2 percent upward adjustment in the lower pay brackets, and a pension plan following the industry.
Wage hikes are retroactive to March 15, and in two years the pact may be reopened on wages, hours and working conditions. Signatories are MGM, Warners, Walter Lantz, Walt Disney and United Productions of America.

August 2, 1954
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, has signed Paul Freese [sic] for the “voice” of “Cellbound.” Sandra Descher has recorded narration for “The Little Church Mouse” with vocal score by Robert Mitchell Boys Choir.

August 4, 1954
Fred Quimby, head of MGM short subject production and cartoon producer, has been signed to a new long-term contract on the occasion of his 30th year with the company.

August 25, 1954
MGM cartoon producer Fred Quimby and his entire staff start their annual vacation this weekend, returning Sept. 20.
Mr. and Mrs. Quimby leave tonight aboard the Lurline for Hawaii. Before the vacation starts the cartoon studio will have completed the cartoon sequence of the Gene Kelly-starring vehicle, “Invitation to the Dance,” produced by Arthur Freed. Also finished will be several standard cartoon subjects, in addition to “Pet Peeve” and “Southbound Duckling,” second and third of MGM’s CinemaScope cartoons for next season.

October 6, 1954
Arrangements have been completed by MGM cartoon producer Fred Quimby for use of cartoon characters, in addition to Tom and Jerry, for special platters for children by MGM Records.

October 11, 1954
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, will put on the drawing boards this week “Tom and Cherie,” starring Tom and Jerry, latest in the series using the French accent of child actress Marie Francois.

October 22, 1954
New national short subject release dates for MGM include five cartoons produced by Fred Quimby, “The Flea Circus,” Nov. 6; “Downhearted Duckling,” Nov. 13; “Pet Peeve” (CinemaScope), Nov. 20; Dixieland Droopy,” Dec. 4, and “Touche Pussy Cat (CinemaScope), Dec. 18.

November 29, 1954
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, puts “Tom and Cherie” on the boards today, with 10-year-old Marie Francois as the voice of the little French mouse.

January 7, 1955
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, with Christmas barely out of the way, has started his animators on a special project for next Christmas. Subject is “Peace on Earth.”

February 4, 1955
For the first time since the Tom and Jerry cartoon series was launched, producer Fred Quimby will use a human narrator as the voice of Jerry in “Blue Cat Blues” soon to go into production.

March 16, 1955
In collaboration with star-director Gene Kelly and producer Arthur Freed, cartoon producer Fred Quimby is preparing six traveling exhibits to be used in promotion of MGM’s “Invitation to the Dance.”

April 12, 1955
Charles Reagan, MGM sales manager, and Fred Quimby, short subjects head, have set national short subject releases as follows:
MGM CinemaScope cartoons, “Pet Peeve,” April 23; “Pup on a Picnic,” April 30; “Touche Pussy Cat,” May 21.

May 2, 1955
MGM cartoon producer Fred Quimby has engaged radio and TV star Paul Frees to do a “Strange Interlude” voice sequence for the new Tom and Jerry Cartoon, “Blue Cat Blues.”

May 16, 1955
New York.—Six CinemaScope cartoons in Technicolor, six other cartoons in Technicolor, 14 Gold Medal Reprints in the same color...will be released by MGM in the new season starting in September.

May 31, 1955
MGM is doubling the output and personnel of its cartoon department, with Hal Elias promoted to manager of the department and the writing-directing team of Joseph Barbera and William Hanna upped to full producer status. The promotions were made by E.J. Mannix, studio general manager, and Fred Quimby, head of shorts production and producer of the company’s cartoons, on the eve of the latter’s leaving on his first extended vacation in 30 years at MGM.
All 18 cartoons on the increased schedule will be in CinemaScope and Technicolor.

June 9, 1955
Scott Bradley has completed a special Christmas score for “Peace on Earth,” MGM cartoon which producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera are rushing to completion for release Thansgiving Day. The Robert Mitchell Boy’s Choir were signed to sing familiar music.

June 14, 1955
Dawes Butler [sic] of TV’s “Time for Beany” has been signed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, MGM cartoon producers, to represent the grave-voiced bulldog “Spike” in a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

June 15, 1955
Charles Lunard and Helen Lewis, night club dance team, have been signed by producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera to create the choreography for “Down Beat Bear,” a Tom and Jerry cartoon at MGM.

June 22, 1955
The MGM cartoon studio closes Friday for its annual vacation, reopening July 12. Producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera will complete three cartoons before the closing this week.

August 1, 1955
Producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera have put two new productions on the MGM cartoon drawing boards, “Barbecue Brawl” and “Timid Tabby.”

August 10, 1955
Venice.—Committee running the Venice Film Festival, opening Aug. 18, has asked MGM to enter “Blackboard Jungle.”...
In the shorts division MGM, under the America quota, has nominated its cartoon “Field and Scream.”

September 8, 1955
“Good Will to Men,” MGM’s most ambitious cartoon effort of the year, has been set for Dec. 23 release.

September 15, 1955
Two John Nesbitt “Passing Parades” and two Robert Benchley one-reelers will be reissued by MGM...
New standard width MGM cartoons set for release are “The First Bad Man,” Sept. 30; “Smarty Cat,” Oct. 14; “Deputy Droopy,” Oct. 28; “Pecos Pest,” Nov. 11 and “Cellbound,” Nov. 25.
Cartoons in Cinemascope are “Tom and Cherie,” released this week, and “Good Will to Men,” Dec. 23.

September 22, 1955
Howard W. Hanson, MGM animation supervisor, was married yesterday at Ensenada to Vera Ohman, former background artist at the studio.

September 23, 1955
William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, MGM cartoon producers, have launched a new series which will elevate the father-and-son bulldog team, Spike and Tyke, to stardom in their own right.

September 27, 1955
A second cartoon unit has been organized by MGM to increase output of animated shorts from nine to 18 annually.
Cartoon producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera continue making the “Tom and Jerry” and “Spike and Tyke” series, and the studio has signed Michael Lah to direct the additional nine subjects starring “Droopy” and “Barney Bear.”

October 7, 1955
With the starting of a second unit which will double MGM’s cartoon output, producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera have launched a program to develop new technicians in all branches of the cartoon business.
They will audition all artists, trained or untrained in cartoon techniques.

October 13, 1955
MGM cartoon producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera are following up the current craze for “blues” music with a new Tom and Jerry cartoon, just put on the drawing boards, titled “Blue Cat Blues.”

October 14, 1955
Red Coffey, night club comedian, planed in yesterday from an engagement in Montana to again to the voice of the “Duckling” in the MGM Tom and Jerry cartoon, “The Egg and Jerry.”

October 28, 1955
MGM Records have scheduled an extensive list of Christmas records for immediate release...A new record will be marketed in the children’s series featuring Tom and Jerry of the MGM cartoons. It is “Tom and Jerry Meet Santa Claus,” with “Tom and Jerry in Nursery Rhyme Land” on the reverse side.

October 31, 1955
William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, producers of the MGM cartoons, have signed Bill Thompson of the “Fibber McGee and Molly” shows to do the voice of Tom’s fearful cousin in a new “Tom and Jerry,” “Timid Tabby.”

November 3, 1955
Manuel Paris and Pilar Arcos, Spanish-speaking stars, have been signed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, MGM cartoon co-producers, to narrate the dialogue for “Mucho Mouse,” being made at the request of Loew’s International as the first film to be made here originally for the Spanish-speaking market, with domestic distribution to follow.

November 11, 1955
The MGM cartoon department has reached its highest level of activity since 1952, with producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera having 12 subkects in various producing stages.
By September, 1956, Hanna and Barbera expect to achieve their goal of 18 cartoons under the new expansion plan which went into effect Nov. 1. This will double MGM’s 1954 release of nine. Hanna and Barbera will produce and direct all cartoons starring Tom and Jerry and Spike and Tyke. They also will produce the Barney Bear and Droopy subjects to be directed by Michael Lah.

November 16, 1955
MGM cartoon co-producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera have signed Alvaro F. Mollner, chancellor of the Spanish consulate in Los Angeles, to act as technical adviser for the cartoon “Micho Mouse,” first Hollywood picture, short or feature, to be made for special release in Spanish-speaking countries.

November 21, 1955
Homer Brightman has been signed to a new contract by producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera to continue writing stories for MGM cartoons.

November 22, 1955

MGM cartoon producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera have engaged Julie Bennett and Daws Butler to be the voices of “Mr. and Mrs. Q” in their new Tom and Jerry subject, “Tom’s Photo Finish.”

November 25, 1955
New York.—The Radio City Music Hall has broken a long standing precedent by booking MGM’s Tom and Jerry cartoon, “The Flying Sorceress,” with that studio’s musical, “Kismet.” Due to the length of the theatre’s stage shows, cartoon shorts have not been included in its bills.

MGM cartoon music head Scott Bradley today conducts the MGM orchestra for the score of “Muscle Beach Tom.”

December 14, 1955
New York.—The Protestant Motion Picture Council, largest single film reviewing organization, which normally confines its coverage to feature pictures, breaks precedent with unqualified indorsement of the MGM cartoon, “Good Will to Men.”
Subject, co-produced by Fred Quimby, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, is set for Dec. 23 release.

December 22, 1955
MGM cartoon department composer Scott Bradley has completed the score for “Down Beat Bear,” Tom and Jerry subject.

December 29, 1955
Daws Butler yesterday completed his assignment as the voice of Droopy in the new MGM cartoon “School Daze,” produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.

February 2, 1955
MGM yesterday engaged Homer Brightman to prepare a cartoon story board for a new Droopy cartoon, “Sheep-Wrecked.”

February 20, 1956
Academy Award Nominations
Cartoons (1000 Feet or Less)
“Good Will to Men,” MGM; Fred Quimby, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, producers.
“The Legend of Rock-a-Bye Point,” Walter Lantz Production, U-I; Walter Lantz, producer.
“No Hunting,” Walt Disney Productions, RKO Radio; Walt Disney, producer.
“Speedy Gonzales,” Warner Bros. Pictures, Cartoon Division, Warner Bros.; Edward Selzer, producer.

February 23, 1956
Second unit of the MGM cartoon department, installed last October, now is in full swing, according to producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Director Michael Lah is working on “Grin and Share It,” “Sheepwrecked,” “Sir Droopy Knight” and “Blackboard Jumble,” all starring the hound dog Droopy.

March 8, 1956

MGM sales manager Charles Reagan yesterday announced the following national release dates for MGM short product:
CinemaScope cartoons, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, producers-directors, “The Egg and Jerry,” March 23; “Busy Buddies,” March 24...Gold Medal cartoons, “House of Tomorrow,” March 16; “Doggone Tired,” April 6; “Counterfeit Cat,” April 27.

April 20, 1956
Ed Barge, animator on Oscar-winning MGM cartoons, and two former MGM artists, Morrie Zukor and Ron Maidenburg, have been added to the staff of Animation, Inc., it is announced by president Earl Klein. Barge will be a director.

July 3, 1956
“The Battle of Gettysburg,” special three-reel featurette, produced by Dore Schary and directed by Herman Hoffman, will highlight MGM’s short subject releases for 1956-1957, starting in September. New “junior feature” setup also will include 12 Tom and Jerry, Droopey [sic] and Barney Bear cartoons in CinemaScope and Technicolor, produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera; 18 Gold Medal reprint cartoons in Technicolor, and 104 issues of News of the Day.

July 12, 1956
MGM’s cartoon department will take its annual mass vacation from Aug. 3 to Aug. 20, following a policy in force many years.
Only a few technicians will stay on the job to supervise improvements in facilities of the department headed by producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and business manager Hal Elias.

August 6, 1956
The 75 employes of the MGM cartoon studio, headed by producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and business manager Hal Elias, began their 18th annual mass vacation over the weekend. Department will reopen Aug. 20.

August 16, 1956
Production resumes Monday on eight CinemaScope and Technicolor cartoons when the MGM cartoon department, headed by producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and business manager Hal Elias, return from their annual mass vacation. Cartoons are the Tom and Jerry subjects, “Mucho Mouse,” “Tom’s Photo Finish,” “Scat Cats,” “Royal Catnap” and “The Vanishing Duck”; Spike and Type [sic] in “Give and Tyke” and Droopy in “One Droopy Knight” and “Grin and Share It.”

August 17, 1956
New York.—“The MGM Cartoon Carnival,” a program of 11 famous cartoons and short subjects, has been booked for a three-week engagement at the Plaza Theatre starting Aug. 28. On Sept. 17 “Lust for Life” premieres at the house.
Program includes seven “Tom and Jerry” cartoons, two Robert Benchley shorts and two of the “Passing Parade” series.

August 27, 1956
Julie Bennett of the Sid Caeser TV show is here to do a voice job for MGM cartoons.

September 19, 1956

Beverly Hills Police Department yesterday refused MGM a permit to put up bleachers for the “Lust for Life” premiere at the Fox Beverly Theatre on Friday night. So the “bleacherites” will have to be standees.
Studio revealed yesterday that it will run its Technicolor CinemaScope cartoon, “Millionaire Droopy,” at the premiere and also for the regular run of the picture. In addition, “Droopy” will be billed with “Lust” at the Fine Arts.

September 25, 1956
Plans for a busy schedule of cartoon-making at MGM, with seven new ones for the 1956-57 season and 12 more for the 1957-58 semester, are in the works, according to department head Hal Elias. The figure will be supplemented by 18 reprints for release by next spring, with a staff of about 70 working on the assignments.
William Hanna and Joseph Barbera will continue to produce and direct the 14 “Tom and Jerry” shorts this year and next, while Michael Lah will work on the new “Droopy” series, along with a couple of others.

October 3, 1956
“Much[o] Mouse,” MGM cartoon starring Tom and Jerry now being completed by producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, will have its first showings in Latin countries shortly after Jan. 1, with domestic release not scheduled before July.

October 26, 1956
Cockney accent specialist Lucille Bliss was tabbed yesterday by MGM shorts producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for their CinemaScope-Technicolor cartoon, “Robin Hood-winked.”

November 14, 1956
“Cartoonia Suite,” an orchestral composition by Scott Bardley [sic], will have its premiere Friday night at Barnum Auditorium, Santa Monica, with Arthur Lange conducting the Santa Monica Orchestra. Bradley has composed all musical scores for MGM cartoons since 1938. He also prepared scores for many features.

January 24, 1957
New York.—Loew’s Inc. has sold a five-year lease on domestic TV rights to over 900 MGM shorts to Lou Chesler and Eliot Hyman’s Associated Artists Productions for $4,500,000, it was reported here yesterday. No official confirmation was available at either Loew’s or AAP, indicating announcement still awaits formal signing of contracts.
Deal is said to include all MGM shorts with exception of the “Tom and Jerry” Cartoons. There are about 1000 such shorts but it is believed some negatives may be unusable and others may be tied up by contingent claims.
Loew’s Inc. was asking $6,000,000 for the shorts, including the “Tom and Jerry” cartoons. MGM expects to realize between $300,000 and $400,000 theatrical film rental from the “Tom and Jerry” festival reissue program and currently playing theatres.

February 18, 1957
Release schedule for nine MGM cartoon shorts has been set by general sales manager Charles M. Reagan as follows:
MGM CinemaScope cartoons—“Top With Pops,” Feb. 22; “Give and Tyke,” March 29; “Timid Tabby,” April 19.
Gold Medal cartoons—“Tennis Chumps,” “The Bear and the Hare,” Feb. 15; “Saturday Evening Puss,” March 8; “Garden Gopher,” March 22; “Little Quacker,” April 5; “The Chump Champ,” April 26.

April 3, 1957
In addition to its regular theatrical program, the MGM cartoon department has set up a division to work on TV commercial spots. William Hanna and Joseph Barbera are co-producers on the projects.

May 17, 1957

MGM cartoon department this week completes three CinemaScope and Technicolor subjects, “One Droopy Knight” and “Sheepwrecked,” starring Droopy, and “Happy Go Ducky,” a Tom and Jerry, for release after Jan. 1.

May 23, 1957
Scott Bradley, music composer for MGM cartoon department, is scoring two Technicolor and CinemaScope cartoons for 1958 release, “Droopy Leprechaun” and “Tot Watchers.”

May 24, 1957
New York.—MGM, which is discontinuing production of “Tom and Jerry” cartoons, will reissue a number of these shorts with every program. The company has found the reissues gross as much as 85 percent of the new productions. MGM may use Tom and Jerry for a feature in future and for industrial purposes.

June 26, 1957
Scott Bradley, musical composer for MGM Technicolor and CinemaScope cartoons, completes scoring this week for “Droopy Leprechaun” and “Tot Watchers.” Bradley and his wife leave early in July for a trip around the world.

July 8, 1957
H. B. Enterprises, Inc., with George Sidney as president and William Hanna and Joe Barbera as vice-presidents, has been organized with offices at Kling Studios to produce cartoon films for theatre, TV and industry....
Hanna and Barbara [sic] just wound up a 20-year association at MGM where they created, wrote and directed all the “Tom and Jerry” cartoon, seven of which won Academy Awards. The team recently entered the TV commercial field. New company plans eventual production of feature-length animated films along with the shorter theatrical and TV product.

A number of cartoons were in the planning stages when the studio was told to shut down. New cartoons that had been assigned production numbers were Lost and Hound and Pick Up Pups (Droopy), Lionhearted Mouse, Cowboy Cat and Bird Mouse (Tom and Jerry). A couple of CinemaScope remakes were also cancelled. Bird Mouse may have become the basis for the Pixie and Dixie cartoon Little Bird Mouse at the Hanna-Barbera studio.

Suffice it to say, Tot Watchers was the last new cartoon released by Metro. Almost a year before then, Bill and Joe, their four animators, three background artists, two layout people and others who had been at MGM picked up and left, then made TV cartoon history.

Three Cheers For the Sextopus

A squid decides to surface under Farmer Al Falfa’s raft in Robinson Crusoe (1933).



There’s a butt tickling gag. Every animation studio seemed to love butt gags.



Farmer Al Falfa decides to hoist the squid aloft on a pole. He shakes the sea creature, which turns into a quasi-American flag. It’s good enough for patriotic Al, who gives it three cheers.



Now Al turns the squid into a rotor and takes off into the sky, only to crash-land on an island. The dizzy squid runs into the background, jumps into the ocean, and leaves our cartoon.



Your guess is as good as anyone’s as to whom animated these scenes.

Dat's My Boithday Who Said Dat

Over the course of time, Jimmy Durante went from enthusiastic hokum in the 1920s with songs like “If Washington Needs Me, I’ll Answer the Call” to sentimental schmaltzy hokum in the 1960s with songs like “Smile” and “September Song.” I love the former and will forgive the latter simply because it’s Jimmy Durante.

Adjectives like “beloved” fell on him. And deservedly so. Few bad words were ever spoken about him and he always seems to have really loved being in front of an audience.

It’s Schnozzola’s birthday today, so let’s pass along a couple of birthday stories from the major wire services. The first is from 1963, the second saw print seven years later.

Durante Marks 70th Birthday
By GENE PLOWDEN
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP)—Jimmy (the Schnozz) Durante admitted today he had a birthday—his 70th—"but I don't want every body to know about it."
The veteran entertainer, interviewed at a hotel where he Is appearing, described it this way:
"Thank God I had another birthday. Da party? Sure. It was after da show an’ they asked me if I didn’t want to come in and have some tea. It was a big surprise to me. We had a wonderful time.
"Mrs. Morris Lansburgh (whose husband owns the hotel) gave it. He's in Las Vegas. A few of my friends was there—George Raft, Eleanor Holm, Rocky Marciano, Little Jack Carter, Gene Bayless, Peter Lawford and a lot of others.
"I wanted to go four rounds wit’ Rocky, but he wouldn't take me on. Everybody had a lot of fun."
Durante does an hour and 15-minute show and keeps going night after night.
"No other entertainers—just us," he said.
Between shows Monday night he entertained the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association at their annual banquet.
The record says Durante was born in Brooklyn in 1893 and that he started in show business at 17, which means he’s starting his 54th year on the stage.
"Who th’ hell knows?” he snorted. “In my day, we didn't have no doctors. Everybody had midwives. Maybe I picked da date at random. Nobody had birth certificates in them days.
"I could'a said 1910 or somein'. Maybe I should'a picked a date like that. I had a lot of trouble gettin’ to Europe In 1936, ’cause I never had no birth certificate. I never did find one.
"But it’s been a lot of fun, and I’ll go on as long as I can—as long as they come to see me and I can make ’em happy.”

'The Nose' Marks 78th Year
By VERNON SCOTT
UPI Hollywood Correspondent
HOLLYWOOD (UPI) - “Da nose may be 78 years old but not da man what owns it," quoth Jimmy Durante on his birthday.
Jimmy stroked his proboscis with affection. “Doesn't look a day older, does it?"
The beloved comedian moved with energy, his legs spry, his eyes atwinkle. He is astonishingly agile for a man of his years which he explains is due to his never having drunk alcohol.
“Thank God the birthdays keep coming around," the great Durante rasped. “I certainly wouldn’t want to miss one."
Recently Returned Home
Durante returned recently from Las Vegas where he starred in his own revue at one of the hotels on the desert town's famed Strip. He still sings the same songs, throws his hat at his drummer, wrecks the piano and straightens his tie while ogling girls.
The spotlight narrows on Jimmy as he sings “September Song" in a memorable rendition which brings audiences to their feet, as he did this week at a testimonial dinner to producer Stanley Kramer. Durante, married to his wife Margie for 11 years, works only about half the year. The rest of the time he spends at home in Beverly Hills or in Del Mar, Calif.
His 9-year-old daughter, Cecille, keeps him young.
“She’s a wonderful little girl and I spend all the time I can with her,” the entertainer said.
“So I'm on the threshold of middle age. That’s fine with me. I expect to go another 70 years. From here I go to Chicago and then to Philadelphia. By June I’ll be back playing at one of Mr. Howard Hughes' establishments in Vegas.”
How will the Great Schnozz celebrate his birthday?
“I’d like to let it slip by nice and quiet. Me and Marge and a few friends will go out to dinner. Then I’ll go home and go to bed early—which is what I always do when I’m not working."
And what would Jimmy like to have for a birthday present?
“Another good year," he replied. “And a few more winners at the race track. That would be the cream on the boithday cake!”

Unfortunately, he didn’t have “another good year.” In September, he checked into hospital in Santa Monica for exhaustion and then had a stroke in November. He cancelled a TV appearance with Julie Andrews planned for that month and when AP writer Bob Thomas caught up with him in 1975, he was in a wheelchair and speaking slowly during a phone interview. He was gone just after the start of 1980.

To paraphrase some hokum, Happy birthday, Mr. Durante, wherever you are.

Spinning Wolf

Some intelligent animation fan once postulated that MGM’s Tex Avery wasn’t really making fun of Walt Disney with his Disney-esque cartoon openings (such as in Red Hot Riding Hood), he was making fun of MGM’s Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising.

That may be right.

Mind you, Hugh and Rudy had one goal—to make Disney-type cartoons. Lots of cute animals, scenes full of them, with one hopelessly helpless child or child-like character that gets rescued dramatically. Lots of animation on ones; let those lesser studios animate on twos (the same drawing is photographed for two frames of film). Lots of titles with “little” in them—Two Little Pups, The Little Mole, The Little Bantamweight, and Little Gravel Voice.

You or I could write the plot for Little Gravel Voice (released in 1942). A little donkey is rejected by all the other animals in the forest because of his noisy braying. Boo hoo hoo, he cries. But then a hungry wolf shows up. In Disneyland Harman-Ising-Land, wolves eat donkeys. This one can’t because he can’t handle the sound of the donkey.

Ah, what about all the other animals in the forest? I don’t need to tell you. You already know. No spoiler alerts are necessary here. The wolf goes for a little chipmunk cowering in a hole. But the altruistic donkey rushes to the rescue. Just as the wolf is about to grab the little creature, he senses the donkey, who now realises his gravelly braying will stop and completely unhinge the wolf.

Here are some of the drawings of the wolf, spinning, flipping and twirling because of the hee-hawing. The animation is top notch.



The wolf bashes his head against a rock. That makes him insane, so insane he jumps off a cliff to his death.



The animals the donkey has saved reject him—but only temporarily. They all feel sorry for the blubbering donkey, and surround him. He looks astonished. Then delighted. He brays. Now the comedy. The animals tie his ears into his mouth so he can’t make any noise. The little chipmunk kisses his nose and rests peacefully on his head as the iris closes. Aww.



Oh, yes, a war is on, so Buy Bonds!

By this time, even sleepy Fred Quimby figured that cutsy-wootsy was out, and harder humour was in. Rudy Ising turned away from kiddie creatures of the woodlands and created Barney Bear. But MGM’s stars were now a cat and mouse. Even Walt Disney had trouble toppling them for an Oscar for a while.