003 Scrappy's Added Attraction

(there isn't a regular title card; the title appears in the cartoon; see the first screencap below)

Title: Scrappy's Added Attraction
Studio: Columbia
Date: 1/13/39
Credits:
Story
Art Davis
Music
Joe De Nat
Animation
Sid Marcus
Series: Scrappy (does that count?)
Running time (of viewed version): 6:27

Synopsis: In a movie theater (admission: 15¢), people watch a long trailer for an action movie, after refusing to sit where the usher takes them.















Comments: The third cartoon of the year, the third self consciously framed with show business (which, incidentally, is also how the Jack Benny show is framed in general). This is actually the most satisfying of the cartoons so far. It doesn't look as good as Lone Stranger, but it is cohesive. It succeeds in what it is trying to appear as; a movie trailer (it might be just that I'm more familiar with the form than I am with what the previous two cartoons were trying to ape, so I can accept this particular form). There's no motivation, just puffery and action sequences; Scrappy is trying to rescue the girl, but that's pretty much as deep as it gets. But in the format of a trailer, it works really well. It even makes the references to Barrymore and Garbo more palatteable. Far better than the other two cartoons so far, which just feel slap dash story-wise, in spite of the fact that they have much more story and explanation of those stories than this short has. The use of a live action western (with Columbia end titles) on the movie screen before the trailer feels natural enough, but the use of a photographic hand a couple of times in the midst of the cartoon is somewhat... disturbing. I can only imagine it is more horrifying on a giant screen. Did the Fleischer's shave off their body hair for Out of the Inkwell? I think it's the hirsuteness that is the unsettling part. The theater has a number of tricks to get people in; it's "Bank Night", they're giving away 8 cars, and you can play keno. Boxoffice would be proud... Lots of text graphics probably saved on animation.
The lion stupidly going "Tiiiiip" "Thaaaaank" is zombie funny.
Anyone know if the inexplicable minstrel dance opening the trailer references anything specific?

002 Soup To Mutts

Title: Soup to Mutts
Studio: Lantz
Date: 01/09/39
Credits:
Director:
Lester Kline
Story - Vin McLeod
Music - Frank Marsales
Animators
Geo. Nicholes - Dick Marion
Series: A Walter Lantz "Cartune"
Running time (of viewed version): 7:12

Synopsis: A monkey is throwing a dog show. Things intended to be funny happen (including Wrinklepuss(?) getting mad enough at a bee to walk a tightrope). A cat sneaks in wearing a costume. The cat is exposed and chaos ensues.


















Comments: There is a lack of focus to this cartoon. Several threads, nothing coming together. The pretension of being a whole story, of not clearly being a blackout cartoon, is a hindrance. The monkey (one of the Eenie etc. monkeys?). Parade of dogs, including what looks like Elmer from the Oswald cartoons. There is bald repetition of the animation for the cat getting thrown out, immediately following itself, right where you're sure to notice it. There is significant reuse of the stage background, and it is often a short repeat, not an especially long pan. The montage of closeups of the 7 shocked and enraged dogs is quite good tho.

Jack Benny, January 8

Here we have the Jack Benny program (technically the Jell-O Program), parodying a hit 1938 film in their production of Snow White and the Seven Gangsters. They did it in April 1938 as well, but they're doing it again, with Andy Devine as Prince Charming (it was Mr Kitsel(sp), or his predecessor played by the same actor whose name I forgot at the moment, in the 1938 version), and claiming Walt Disney is in the audience, but he doesn't appear in the episode (I know I've heard Walt on an episode tho, so it is possible he was actually there; there's an ep where they promote a Silly Symphony, so maybe it's that one where he speaks). Which is a testament to the staying power of the movie, as it was unusual (unprecedented?) to re-enact a play based on a movie on the show (tho many of the jokes differ).

The show includes song parodies of Heigh Ho (including one of the in show plugs for the sponsor, Jell-O), Someday My Prince Will Come (which is lyrically straight, letting the laughs come from the messed up vocals of Andy Devine), Whistle While You Work, and the final version of Someday (which I think they intended straight but it didn't quite work out that way). After the regular end, there's also a bit of I'm Wishing, playing off Andy's voice again. Kenny Baker sings One Song from the movie in the regular tenor song slot, straight as you'd expect.

The show has a Lone Ranger reference, as did the first cartoon of the year, which had premiered the previous day. Of course, the April '38 version also contains the same reference (tho the joke differs between the two episodes based on the identity of the Prince Charming actor).

You can find the show in various formats at:

http://www.archive.org/details/JackBenny1939and1940

The MP3 specifically is at:

http://www.archive.org/download/JackBenny1939and1940/JB_390108_Snow_White_and_the_Seven_Gangsters_64kb.mp3

Here's the 1938 version:
http://www.archive.org/download/JackBenny1937and1938/JB_380424_Snow_White_Seven_Gangsters.mp3

Boxoffice, January 7

Boxoffice was a trade magazine for the movie theater industry. It's chock full of things like giant PR stories for theater seats. I came across it searching for information on the Terrytoon short The Old Fire Horse (which I have yet to find a copy of), which appears later in 1939 in the listings of shorts which appear in the back of the magazine.

My review of these issues is limited to animation stories I actually see. There may be industry stories with minor mentions that I'm likely to miss. One might suspect I will miss more as the year drags on if I sicken of the magazine (tho I've already gone through the December 9 issue, so even if I stop looking at it entirely, there'll be a Gulliverful Boxoffice post near the end). And, while it's a weekly (published every Saturday), it appears the issues online are not all there (12/9 is the last issue for the year; it could be a holiday break, I suppose). But we'll see what we can see.


Boxoffice 1/7/39

In this issue, we have a taste of things to come almost a year away, and a good deal about what's gone on the previous year.

http://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/boxoffice_010739

---
p23:
" 'Gulliver' Expected By Next Xmas
New York - Paramount expects to have "Gulliver's Travels," its first feature-length cartoon, ready for release next Christmas. Max Fleischer and 400 artists and musicians are toiling away on the picture in Fleischer's Miami Beach "fairy-land."

The facts and the imagery come from Lou Diamond, head of Paramount's short subject department, who has returned from a visit Fleischer's Florida plant.

Diamond is enthusiastic about Fleischer's patented third dimension treatment of a travesty on war. He also promises certain unusual "entertainment" angles that he declines to reveal.

Although the company does not begin to formulate its short subject schedule for the new season until February of each year, Paramount undoubtedly will have the same numerical lineup as the current program, according to Diamond. He said he has settled on but one phase of the 1939-40 schedule, this being 30 one-reel cartoons from Fleischer, 24 of which will be black and white with six in color. "

---

The magazine also has a few mentions of Snow White as best film of 1938, Ferdinand the Bull as best two reeler, the item that Snow White was in its 3rd week at the United Artists theater in Detroit, and so on if you search for them.

---
p72
"A Feature Calibre Play For A Short Subject
Sioux Falls, S.D. - Manager Joe Floyd of the Granada covered nearly all the angles for the RKO-Disney short, "Ferdinand the Bull." The subject rated a holdover.
A 14-foot cutout of Ferdinand, used in the lobby, was illuminated with two Klieg lights. Another large cutout was anchored atop a sound truck which blasted announcements and played the show's records. Four illuminated billboards were used with two-thirds of the space given over to the Disney picture. Window displays were especially made by Floyd and there were 12 in choice locations.
A feature of the advertising was a teaser campaign; newspaper space in the editorial columns was large throughout the run.
There were extra announcements on the radio and records of "Ferdinand the Bull" were broadcast several times through Station KELO, which reaches about 150,000 persons."
---
On p86, there is an announcement that "Donald's Lucky Day, a Walt Disney short, will be released by RKO on Friday, January 13"

On p88, we are informed that the French like Disney's Silly Symphonies, and are sick of Mickey Mouse.

Note the list of shorts on around the 4th page from the end of the magazine.

001 The Lone Stranger and Porky

Title: The Lone Stranger and Porky
Studio: Warner Brothers (that's right, I'm taking the oversimplified way out)
Date: 01/07/39
Credits:
Supervision
Robert Clampett
Animation
I. Ellis Robert Cannon
Musical Direction
Carl W. Stalling
Series: Looney Tunes
Running time (of viewed version): 7:24

Synopsis: Mustachioed man robs stage coach driving pig in the old west. Man in veil finds this to be wrong. Their horses get engaged and have kids. Veil imprisons mustache and uses knife to free pig instead of turning him into bacon. Evil remains free in the person of a mustachioed foal.

















Comments: After the Lone Stranger (who looks like crap with a black washcloth over his face) gallops under the title, the cartoon opens with a long pan (about 36 seconds long). This includes wanted posters of Cob Blampett and Ray Katz (who I think is the villain in the cartoon, but I'm not really sure). There's a hole in the jail wall which looks like it is supposed to be shaped like something, but I'm blanking on what it might be at the moment. The narrator's voice is strangely pitched for my concept of how voices should sound in a Looney Tunes. I wonder if it imitates someone specific. I also wonder if the silhouette of porky was designed to save work, or if it was meant to be atmospheric. It doesn't read terribly well, at least not on a tv screen. Pronto uses a television broadcaster; it often surprises me the extent tv was referenced leading up to WWII. The Snow White magic mirror reference is less surprising. The old chestnut of leaving the house so fast it turns inside out is also not surprising. I dislike how the outlaw's hat quickly jumps back onto his head.

The cartoon isn't bad, but it feels a bit empty. There is no lead character in it. Porky's role could be played by any character. The Lone Stranger is completely hollow. Even the villain is mostly empty. The villain's horse is as close to a character as there is in the short. It is full of action and has some nice visuals, but it's a shame they don't have anything to back them up. Maybe people were just excited to see character parodies...

Film Daily 1939 Paul Terry article

There are several undated (except for 1939) Film Daily articles on animation appearing at oldmagazinearticles.com. One of them, found at
http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/pdf/Paul_Terry_Profile-1939.pdf
is below.

Film Daily is sparse with the praise in this, as seen in the headline...
Is the animated history of WWI by Terry known?
Roland Jones's writing style is... somewhat unusual.
How has history judged the final quote?

"Paul Terry
For Twenty-five Years One of
the Industry's Better
Known Animators
By Roland Jones

From coast to coast is an ordinary phrase, but unusual in the instance of Paul H. Terry's career, for he reversed the process of the industry's eastern-born. Whereas they, in many cases, sought cinematic fame and fortune by journeying to the Pacific's strands, Terry, who was born in San Mateo, California, is sitting pretty right up in New ROchelle, N.Y., where are conceived and produced those world-famed Terry-Toons.
This objective was arrived at, to be sure, in a roundabout way, the first phase having been Terry's newspaper cartooning and illustrating on the Call, Examiner and Bulletin in San Francisco.
Supplementing this wielding of the pen for readers residing in and about the Golden Gate, the Terry trek got under way with a stopover in Montana where he worked for the Anaconda Standard in the same capacity as for his Frisco bosses, and landed in New York in 1911 and rolled up his artistic sleeves in the interests of the New York Press and King Features, drawing for the latter a popular comic strip of that day.
The theatrical cartoon was something of a springboard via which he leaped, but carefully, into the realm of animation. The first real results from an industry standpoint are recorded in the archives as having come about when he gave motion to drawings at the old Thanhouser studio. It was a 400-ft. subject entitled "Little Herman," and is declared by contemporaries to have been a right mirthful subject.
Then was created "Farmer Alfalfa" which was so successfully received by the public that Terry uses the character every now and then in his present-day footage.
Came America's entry into the World War, and went Terry. Uncle Sam evidently held the pen mightier than the sword, for his new recruit didn't get a gun but a crowquill, drafted into drafting, as it were. In the picture department he worked along in triumphant and effective fashion, incidentally being commissioned to make an animated history of the conflict.
Advent of peace found Terry enlisting in the forces of Paramount Pictures which had set up an animation department. During this aspect of his business saga, the determination seized him to set up his own studio which he did, and out of which issued the famous "Aesop's Fables" which he released through Pathe.
Where there's progress, there's change, so it's said. He inaugurated a Long Island City studio, then moved up to the Edison Studio in the Bronx, and began releasing via Educational.
Today, the fountain of Terry-Toons is a thoroughly modern studio in New Rochelle, employing some 130 hands, all skilled in the imparting of life, motion and voice-expression to the characters created on the drawing boards.
When Educational and 20th-Fox parted, Terry stayed on with the latter through a distribution arrangement, and joined MPPDA in mid-June of 1938.
During Paul Terry's notable career in the film industry, he has produced more than 1,000 pictures. In the October of the current year he celebrates 25 years of continuos work in the cartoon field, which he helped to pioneer. He asserts that he intends "to keep on doing tomorrow what he is doing today, and what he did yesterday." "

Opening Remarks

There are some issues with having an objective view of all cartoons from 1939. Primary among these is exposure. Various sets of cartoons have had differing levels of exposure through the years, and there may be a tendency to overvalue (or possibly undervalue) familiar cartoons compared to new to the viewer cartoons. I was born n the mid-'70s, and grew up mostly in the Detroit television market. Consequently, I have no recollection of ever seeing a Columbia Screen Gems cartoon as a kid. I remember seeing Terrytoons, but I'm not sure I saw any from 1939; Gandy Goose and Sourpuss were not very familiar to me from my childhood, and the bias against black and white cartoons was apparently common for programmers at the time (tho I remember black and white Disney, WB, and especially Fleischer cartoons). I'll see if any Terrytoons feel familiar in the viewing. Fleischer, WB, Disney and Lantz all had a good deal of exposure for me in my youth, although Lantz may suffer for most of the year as they made a full switch to color late in the year, and the anti-black and white bias was in effect for those programmers as well.

An objective view won't alter things like synopses or data, but it may impact my perceptions and thus my comments. There's a larger issue of the era being less familiar to me than cartoons from just a few years later, as well, but that should at least affect the studios more across the board. By the end of the year, these issues of general familiarity will hopefully be long gone. And with a little luck, this blog will help increase familiarity with 1939 cartoons among a wider audience than simply myself.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Thad Komorowski for helping me gain access to many of the cartoons I'll be looking at in this blog. Visit his site at http://thadkomorowski.com .