Some Cartoons for Saturday Morning #243

 Hello my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again it is time for some classic cartoons. 

Today's cartoon selection begins with a real classic, Gold Diggers of '49 (1935). This short film was directed by the one and only Tex Avery. It was the first film, he directed for Warner Brothers and much of his famous style is already here. This cartoon does not feel like the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts that came before it. Instead, this cartoon has a faster pace and wackier sense of humor. While there is no doubt that Tex would have timed some of these gags even faster later in his career, you can clearly see the inklings of what would become his signature style. This is also the first black and white Looney Tune to feature Porky Pig (though the character had appeared in a color Merrie Melody beforehand). This is important as Porky would soon become the main star of the black and white Looney Tunes series. Yet in this film he is a supporting character. The real star is Beans the Cat. Both of these characters had made their debut in the color Merrie Melodies short, I Haven't Got a Hat (1935). Beans would remain the star of the Looney Tunes series for short while until Porky took over the series. 




Next we joy our good friend Gandy Goose in It Must Be Love (1940). This short film has Gandy competing with a rooster over a beautiful duck.  





The following is from an issue of Paramount Around the World (dated April 1938), "BETTY BOOP IS DEAD! SALLY SWING IS SUCCESSOR!! It is with a sense of deep regret that we record the passing of Miss Betty Boop, the amiable, pulchritudinous, neckless young lady who has served Paramount so loyally for so many years. Miss Boop passed on suddenly but not before she was able to name her successor. Miss Sally Swing is the new Paramount cartoon eyeful. We present her above - front, side and reverse, as well as in the purely geometrical form that she is known to animators. Sally is presumed to be about 16 years of age. She is the epitome of modern youth, full of life, pep and the magic something which so sustains young people in the face of fearful odds. She is devoted to swing, is lithe and lissome, and, in parlance of Hollywood's scriptures is the ideal jitterbug. Her first cartoon appearance is scheduled for approximately two months from now." The following is from a 1938 issue of Motion Picture Daily, "Betty Boop, the Max Fleischer cartoon character which attained great popularity in its eight years of existence, will be missing from the Paramount short subject list next season. In Betty's place there will be a new cartoon character, Sally Swing, who is designed to be a modernized, stream-lined version of her predecessor, Paramount will distribute 12 of the cartoons featuring the new character."  This not true as Sally's cartoon career would end as soon as it began, and she would never have her own series. However, Betty's career was soon to end. 1939 would mark her last theatrical cartoon short. So here is Sally's attempt to break into the movies, Sally Swing (1938). 



Next Donald Duck goes up against his nephews in Fire Chief (1940). This film was directed by Jack King, who directed many wonderful Donald cartoons around this era. This short film made its TV debut on an episode of the Disneyland TV show entitled A Day in the Life of Donald Duck (1956). 





Now it is time for a commercial break. 







The most famous film animator/comic strip artist Winsor McCay made is easily Gertie the Dinosaur (1914).  This film was actually a vaudeville act before it was in theaters. The act consisted of Winsor McCay talking to his animated dinosaur Gertie. He would tell her what to do and Gertie would do it (most of the time). This was translated to theaters by having an off-screen narrator, who speaks through intertitles (since this was a silent film). This film has often times wrongly been called the first cartoon ever made. While this is not true (It isn't even McCay's first cartoon, it is his third), its place in animation history is still extremely important. The reason for this is Gertie, herself. She is one of the first animated characters that the audience was allowed to see think. Unlike most of the earlier silent cartoon characters, Gertie does not seem like she is just moving drawings projected on a screen, but instead like a real character that we know and relate to over the course of the film. This was the beginning of character animation, and one of the first successful attempts at it. Like McCay's earlier short Little Nemo (1911) this film begins in live action. Winsor McCay bets his fellow cartoonists that he can make a dinosaur come to life and boy does he. This cartoon still holds up incredibly well today and received the number 6 spot in Jerry Beck's book, The 50 Greatest Cartoons. 




Now for some Saturday Morning Minions. 






Next we join Flip the Frog in Flying Fists (1930). Ub Iwerks is a legend of animation if there ever was one. His work with Walt Disney (the two co-created Mickey Mouse) in the 1920's remain some of the highlights of Disney history and it is hard to imagine where Disney would be without Ub. However, thoughts on the cartoons he himself heading after leaving Walt prove not to be as popular with cartoon fans. While I do agree that none of this work reaches the height of the best of his Disney work, I personally feel there is a lot to enjoy about these cartoons and that includes his Flip the Frog cartoons. 



Today's cartoon selection ends with Felix the Cat in The Termites of 1960 (1960). Righty-O. 



Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for more animated treasures. Until then may all your tunes be looney and your melodies merry. 


Resouces Used

Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin

The 50 Greatest Cartoons edited by Jerry Beck

https://mediahistoryproject.org/

https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/The_Disney_Wiki