I hope you are ready for more 1930s Columbia cartoons today.
Not much of an intro today. Business as usual at Columbia. A few titles on the cutesie side. A few standout Krazy and Scrappy episodes. And more contributions by Iwerks. Musical content includes a pop or two, some classical moments, and several De Nat originals.
Bluebird’s Baby (1/21/38) – A flock of bluebirds try to tend to the needs of a baby (a junior version of “Sparky”) who has wound up in their midst. Eventually, the baby is returned to its parents, flimsy basket and all. Songs: A number by the bluebirds to Sparky, extremely indistinct on the soundtrack, which I’ll call by one of its only understandable lines: “We Will Entertain You”. Also, a return for “Emmett’s Lullaby”.
Scrappy’s Trip To Mars (2/4/38) – Why shouldn’t Scrappy want to go to Mars? After all, Flash Gordon had just gone there and back in the movie serials. Scrappy travels there in a rickety rocket with Yippee (who for once is back to his original oversized-head design), and finds the place not all that warlike. Instead, it seems to be centered around a night club. Scrappy takes up with an attractive Martianette at the club, while a Martian band entertains on futuristic instruments, including a 360-degree round piano – but remembers that he has to get back before his mother wakes up – and makes it, merging with his real-life sleeping self as he awakens from his boyhood dream. Songs: “How Do You Do, Scrappy”, sung by a two-Martian welcoming committee, an unnamed art song sung by a coloratura at the club (both of these origials), and IMDB also lists a number allegedly incorporated into the score titled “Make It Snappy”, written by Floyd J. St. Clair, which I am unable to pick out myself, and know of no recordings made of same.
The Auto Clinic (3/4/38) – Krazy Kat runs a modernistic service station, where cars can get any service they need, from robots who sing jingles about the gasoline they sell, to a car wash where cars jump off of a diving board into the water. There’s a car who is moaning and groaning in pain. Krazy notices a defective spark plug, and performs a dental extraction. Enter a tough mugg, trying to commit a robbery of the day’s proceeds. Krazy gives him the works, running the bandit through many of the same processes intended for the automobiles, and ending the robber up floundering around in the pool. Here’s the cartoon. Song: “Waitin’ At the Gate For Katie”, a 1934 pop song, recorded by Anson Weeks with vocal by Bob Crosby for Brunswick. Columbia issued a royal blue pressing of Earl Burtnett and His Drake Hotel Orchestra (having relocated to Chicago) with his Biltmore Trio. Paul Small was credited as if a leader on Melotone, Perfect, et al, while Adrian Rollini got it on Vocalion, assisted by Bunny Berigan and Benny Goodman. A Sterno version was issued in England by The Masterkeys. Luke Simmons and the Blue Mountain Boys issued a 1950’s country version for an unknown label.
Scrappy’s Playmates (3/27/38) – Scrappy brings home a dog (Bruno), larger than he is. Once he gets it home, he insists it make friends with his parrot, Petey. Petey and Bruno make a mess of the house with their fighting. Eventually, a sort of peace is wirked out between them. Song: “Polly Wolly Doodle” with special lyrics (not those used by Shirley Temple in her recent performance in The Littlest Rebel). Vernon Dalgart waxed an early version for an Edison cylinder circa 1923, and an electrical version for Victor circa 1929. Harry C. Browne issued a Columbia acoustic. Gid Tanner and his Skillet Likkers performed an electrical Columbia as “Polly Wolly Doo”. Bud and Joe Billings also got a Victor version. Red Norvo issued a jazz combo version on Decca. Joe Haynes covered it for Melotone in 1935 (below). The Pied Pipers, still an eight-voice group, performed a Victor vocal in 1939. Burl Ives would issue a later album performance for Decca. Late LP versions would appear by Mitch Miller on Columbia, and The George Mitchell Minstrels on HMV.
Snowtime (4/14/38) – A visit to the land of ice and snow, where we see Iwerks’ idea of how Winter is created. Featuring a mechanical assembly line with snowmen running it, and sprites representing the four winds. Songs: an exposition number, title unknown, and a harmony number for “The Four Winds”, both originals.
The Little Buckaroo (4/11/38) – Though credited as a Krazy Kat, this almost seems like a Scrappy-entourage crossover. Petey Parrot takes the role of Snake-Eyes Pete. Krazy plays the cowboy gunslinger bent on bringing Pete to jail, which he eventually does after Petey tries to kidnap an Indian princess, for reasons that are never made clear. Song: “Whoops, I’m an Indian” (possibly an original, not to be confused with the Fannie Bruce song performed in Betty Boop’s “Stopping the Show”).
The Big Birdcast (5/13/38) – A relentless collection of avian caricatures of well-known radio and motion picture celebrities, done up as a broadcast from the Birdland Broadcasting System. Name-dropping includes Wendell Hall (who had done the radio shoe “Community Sing” about two years earlier, as parodied In the Warner short “The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos”, making this appearance somewhat out of date), Bing Crosby, Andy Devine, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Rudy Vallee, John J. Anthony, Ed Wynn, Graham McNamee, Walter Winchell, Tommy Mack (also from “Community Sing”), and Ben Bernie, among others. Songs: “The Bee” (op. 13, No. 9) by Schubert. Very few commercial recordings seem to exist, excepting a Capitol children’s issue entitled “Jack Benny Plays ‘The Bee’, ably assisted by Isaac Stern”. The number had formed the origin of the Benny/Fred Allen radio feud, on a program where Allen hosted a wunderkind who played the piece, giving Allen opportunity to make a few sarcastic jokes about Benny trying to play it – and the retaliations went on from there. Also included in the film is heavy reuse of the number, “Sing, Baby, Sing.”
Window Shopping (6/3/38) – Mostly devoted to a collection of mice frolicking in a Department store – just an ordinary party, not a wedding fiesta as in “Merry Mannequins”. Gags not especially memorable. Song: “(Let’s Go) Window Shopping”, an original, not to be confused with a pop song of the same title from 1934.
NEXT TIME: We continue our journey in two weeks.