One of the rotating topics of this blog, along with animation, film noir, music and comedy, has been silent movies - and, lo and behold, it's National Silent Movie Day.
That Silent Movie Day Livestream whetted this film buff's appetite for more silent era animation, so the credo of today's post is, not surprisingly, let's bring on the silents, especially cartoons and short subjects, and lots of 'em, starting with Felix the Cat!
Otto Messmer actually made a series of Charlie Chaplin cartoons back in the teens, so it's fitting that we follow Felix with Chaplin's A DAY'S PLEASURE.
Continuing this annual celebration of silent films, courtesy of the heroes at EYE Film Museum, are classic comedies starring Marcel Perez a.k.a. "the international mirth maker." These are prime examples of the Robinet series produced by Ambrosio in 1911-1914. Many Robinet comedies co-star the excellent actress and comedienne Nilde Baracchi as Robinette.
Perez, who starred in and directed movies in both Europe and America under more names than those of a fiction author who creates a gazillion novels using more than one nom-de-plume - Marcel Fabre, Michel Fabre, Fernandea Perez and Manuel Fernández Pérez, for starters - is quite brilliant.
From the YouTube channel of the fabulous EYE Film Museum are superb Perez comedies.
Whether starring as Robinet, Tweedy, Tweedledum or Twede-Dan, Marcel Perez successfully blended the European and American approaches to slapstick. There is also a futuristic fantasy element which sets him apart from other comedians.
Have devoted posts on this very blog to the comedic and cinematic exploits of Marcel Perez, who moved around like an MLB relief pitcher who gets traded or signs with a new team as a free agent every year! Strongly recommend following this by checking out Andy Galaxy's Marcel Perez playlist.
That National Silent Movie Day livestream sent this blogger, uncharacteristically powered with turbo jets, both to Mark's superlative blog and, of course, MORE silent Fleischer classics.
A motherlode of silent era cartoons can be found on the Craig's Cartoon Capers YouTube channel: LOTS of excellent, pretty good and just plain bizarre cartoons from the silent era! KO-KO'S BIG SALE must be seen to be believed. Notably, there are playlists for both the Fleischer Studio's Out Of The Inkwell series and the subsequent Inkwell Imps.
Those Ko-Ko cartoons, for some reason, bring to mind the way-out and ingenious stop-motion animation of the great Charley Bowers.
On the topic of early cartoons, for National Silent Movie Day, must go back to the sources, the guys who started it all, Émile Cohl and Winsor McCay!
Won't be getting into silent features in today's post (THE GENERAL, SUNRISE and THE LAST COMMAND are three great ones), as there are scribes - just two are Fritzi Kramer at Movies Silently and Lea Stans at Silent-ology, currently doing a blogathon for the 2022 National Silent Movie Day - who write much more eloquently about them than the gang here does, but am posting a bunch of favorite short subjects.
Buster Keaton in COPS is the movie that made me a silent film fan for life.
Since all amazing silent comedies invariably lead to more amazing silent comedies, here's Buster Keaton in ONE WEEK.
When asked to identify the single silent 2-reeler that makes me laugh the most, I may not be able to answer the question, and shall struggle to get the list of the funniest silent comedy short subjects down to less than five or six films, but certainly one of them would be Laurel & Hardy in PUTTING PANTS ON PHILIP (1927).
With the possible exception of Laurel & Hardy, none of the silent film comedians gets bigger, louder and more frequent belly laughs from this writer and comedy fan than Charley Chase. Here is a hilarious bit from ACCIDENTAL ACCIDENTS.
From Dave Glass, who has posted an outstanding silent comedy playlist on his YouTube channel and, with Dave Wyatt, produced excellent classic comedy DVDS and Blu-rays, here's a very funny clip from Charley in NEVER THE DAMES SHALL MEET.
No matter how many times the gang here sees WHAT PRICE GOOFY, MIGHTY LIKE A MOOSE and HIS WOODEN WEDDING, never fail to end up ROFL. These are up there with the silent Laurel & Hardies (many also directed by Leo McCarey) among the funniest films ever made.
There's good news for screenings of silent movies at long last.
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival will be doing its winter events on December 3.
The KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival, which periodically incorporates silent films into the extremely and wildly varied celluloid mix, shall return, after a three year hiatus caused by COVID, to Foothill College in Los Altos, CA for its 30th anniversary shindig on December 10.
Totally stumped for a topic today, but always Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, we're sticking with the animation theme of recent posts.
This weekend's cartoons were released to movie theatres on September 23-25. First, here's a clip from Friz Freleng's Bunker Hill Bunny, which hit the Bijous, Roxies and Radio City Music Halls on September 23, 1950.
The following transfer of Bunker Hill Bunny from DailyMotion is not nearly as sharp as the clip but will do in a pinch. Freleng's unerring comic timing is in top form throughout the cartoon.
What would life be without a travelog parody spot gag cartoon? Noting that it would be life without a travelog parody spot gag cartoon, here's a signature travelog parody spot gag cartoon The Land Of The Midnight Fun, directed By Tex Avery and released to theatres on September 23, 1939.
Now we transition to the black & white Looney Tunes series.
Also released theatrically 83 years ago today, Jeepers Creepers, one of the many black & white Looney Tunes directed by Bob Clampett.
Unfortunately, did not turn up a single Daffy Duck opus (in Cinecolor or Technicolor) that was released to theatres on September 23-25.
However, did find, of all things, an Elmer Fudd starring vehicle. That would be Each Dawn I Crow, directed by Friz Freleng, released theatrically on September 24th, 1949. It is in a sub-genre, along with fellow WB cartoons Tom Turk & Daffy and Holiday For Drumsticks, featuring a storyline involving poultry finding a way to not end up as tonight's entree. Most notable: a marvelously grotesque gag with a rooster chain-smoking cigarettes.
Also a September 24 theatrical release, A Feud There Was (1938), directed by Tex Avery and starring "Elmer Fudd, Peacemaker" (who still looks like Egghead). It tops Clampett's Looney Tune Naughty Neighbors as the last word in gags about "Hatfields-McCoys" feuds and bearded hillbillies.
Hare Splitter, a Friz Freleng classic that strikes this viewer as a rather twisted Valentine's Day cartoon, hit movie theatres on September 25, 1948.
One imagines there were cartoons from Tex Avery's stretch directing Merrie Melodies in the latter 1930's he would prefer to forget. This, in movie theatres on September 25, 1937, was very likely one of them. Still, Tex managed to get a couple of signature "breaking the fourth wall" bits and a joke about a rum-soaked alcoholic sailor parrot voiced by Billy Bletcher (see 1:39) into the mix.
We know this is just a small sample of animated cartoons that debuted on September 23-25 and that today's post invariably involves omissions.
Today is the natal anniversary of voice artist extraordinaire June Foray, born on September 18 in 1917, the same year that brought John F. Kennedy and Dizzy Gillespie into the world.
Before her plum role as the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel, June had a myriad of credits. Here she is on The Johnny Carson Show.
Of course, thinking of June Foray gets us thinking of cartoons by Jay Ward Productions, especially Rocky and Bullwinkle!
Am mystified as to why the previous graphic does not include one of June Foray's funniest characters, Nell Fenwick from Dudley Do Right!
June is all over the Jay Ward cartoons, playing numerous and varied roles, especially in the Fractured Fairy Tales.
Her "Marjorie Main" voice is particularly hilarious.
Being, as always, Way Too Damn Lazy To Write a Blog, today we'll post clips, beginning with June's appearance with Darrell Van Citters, author of The Art Of Jay Ward.
June is in a tie with Friz Freleng for the longest career in animation and was still working into her nineties.
The sheer number of credits across genres - radio (The Stan Freberg Show!), feature films, television, animation, recordings - is stunning, akin to opening a Wiki entry for Allan Dwan.
Many of us first became familar with June Foray's ability to ace any role with her contributions to Warner Bros. cartoons.
Check put the bravura performance in Tugboat Granny.
June was extremely active in ASIFA-Hollywood, the society devoted to promoting and encouraging animation and in establishing the Annie Awards, as well as the creation of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2001.
Recall reading that filmmaker Gavin Frietas was producing a documentary about June a few years ago. Don't know if this film is commercially available for viewing on Blu-ray or DVD. Here is a clip from it which was posted on Gavin's YouTube page.
For today's posting, we pay tribute to the classic commercials of yesteryear, beginning with Jim Henson's hilarious Wilkins Coffee ads.
The "I Want My Maypo" commercials by John Hubley's studio no doubt sold tons of cereal.
We at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog have a sneaking suspicion that, from his extremely hyper, overenthusiastic and frequently unhinged behavior, Sonny the Cocoa Puffs bird was actually cuckoo for COCA PUFFS.
Mr. Magoo was cuckoo for STAG BEER!
Those of us in a certain age group don't remember friends, lovers, places we lived and six month sections of our own lives but have perfect recall of the Choo Choo Charlie theme from Good & Plenty commercials.
What could be considered the worst, most noxious ear-worm EVER, even more than 1960's bubblegum teenybopper records by the Ohio Express and The 1910 Fruitgum Company? That would be the equally uber-catchy (and equally uber-annoying) ditty from the Oscar Meyer commercials.
Never could come close to falling in love with Oscar Meyer Wieners or Oscar Mayer Bologna ("my bologna has a first name"), but certainly tried.
UPA produced a series of very cool "cartoon modern" spots for Oldsmobile.
And, speaking of very cool ads, here's one for American Oil animated by the one, the only Rod Scribner. Thanks for posting, Mike Kazaleh!
Among the ubiquitous characters in animated ads from the early years of television were the Ajax Elves, produced by Shamus Culhane's studio.
Another sponsor with animated ads (IIRC, also created by Shamus Culhane Productions) was HALO SHAMPOO! If you, dear reader, are among the classic comedy geeks who have binge-watched episodes of the The Colgate Comedy Hour starring Martin & Lewis (and hope a kinescope of the February 22, 1953 Colgate Comedy Hour starring The Ritz Brothers turns up), you've seen lots of Halo Shampoo commercials!
It would be an understatement to suggest that classic cartoon characters pitched products, especially cereals, all the time.
Yogi Bear not only starred in his own commercials, but had his own cereal. I remember OKS and they weren't half bad!
Since Quaker Oats had to compete with Kellogg's, Cap'n Crunch, which stays crunchy, even in milk, was invented.
Quaker Oats execs were golf pals with Jay Ward, so the studio that made Rocky & His Friends, Hoppity Hooper and George Of The Jungle went on to produce numerous Cap'n Crunch commercials, prominently featuring such ace voice artists as June Foray and Daws Butler.
After the success of Cap'n Crunch, Quaker Oats tried out LOTS of cereals. Two were Quisp & Quake. The question remains, how could Quisp cereal not sell, with Daws Butler enthusiastically claiming "it's from outer space!"
Another short-lived cereal: Quangaroos
Who could forget King Vitaman! Actually, I did, but the commercials are great.
The ultimate in cartoon commercials would be the Linus The Lionhearted TV show by Ed Graham Jr. Productions. The stars were characters from Post cereal boxes (Alpha-Bits, Sugar Crisp, Rice Krinkles, Crispy Critters).
Linus The Lionhearted was a clever and enjoyable series with an original and distinctive sense of humor.
Film historian, Joe Penner fan and ace animator Mark Kausler wrote a Cartoon Research article about Linus The Lionhearted that is an excellent read.
The show had its charms and featured voice characterizations by Sheldon Leonard, Carl Reiner, Ruth Buzzi, Jesse White, Paul Frees and more.
Instead of binge-watching classic movies, taking an ambitious trip or throwing a massive BBQ party to celebrate Labor Day Weekend, this writer finds himself seeking. . . singing avocados. Little did we know, a supermarket chain rampant in the northeastern United States has 'em!
Indeed, animatronic grocery shopping is the order of the day at the Stew Leonard's supermarket and dairy store.
Cheese sticks and butter entertain the unsuspecting shopper!
Behold: the Farm Fresh Five!
Giant cows? Yep. Singin' celery? Absolutely.
A parrot who sings? Yes!
Love how the Holstein Family Singer is playing a vintage Fender Telecaster.
Particularly enjoyed the Chiquita Banana!
The animatronic version's song sounds very familiar.
This was inspired by the animated Chiquita Banana commercial produced back in 1947.
Changing focus from 1930's and 1940's cartoons to more recent entertainment, we raise a toast to Jack Black, who is celebrating his 53rd birthday today (and shares the August 28 natal anniversary with Jack Kirby).
Thinking of Jack Black's movies, TV shows and records will bring the music-obsessed gang here much-needed cheer, as we are sad about the recent passing of jazz great Joey DeFrancesco. An excellent way to start cheering up is by watching Jack's impassioned performance from the grand finale of the Late Night With Conan O'Brien show.
After listening to Tenacious D's comedic and wonderfully goofy Beatles Tribute, feel a bit less heartbroken about the loss of the Hammond B-3 wizard.
The 2003 movie School of Rock lifts the spirits as well. As an actor, musician, writer and animation voice artist, Jack Black possesses that rare ability to be endearing, enthusiastic and simultaneously likable and cartoonlike.
The Kung Fu Panda franchise is, paws-down, our favorite of all the 21st century animated features to emerge from Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks.
Have read that a Kung Fu Panda 4 is in the works and slated for theatrical release in March 2024. Don't know if this is fact, rumor or marketing.
First recall seeing Jack in the 1990's as one of the many talented comedians on Mr. Show, which is still hilarious and NSFW.
In 1997, the Tenacious D HBO series debuted and got Jack and bandmate Kyle Gass on the map.
Not surprisingly, the epic story of Tenacious D would be the cornerstone of a feature film.
Jack, quite literally the son of rocket scientists, is among the many overnight sensations who had years of ups and downs auditioning for sporadic parts in TV shows and movies before hitting the big time.
As noted in the previous interview, here's Jack, playing a juvenile delinquent in the Lee Majors TV series The Fall Guy.
And also playing a role in the tremendously treacly Touched By An Angel TV series.
Closing today's post with Tenacious D clips and Cee-Lo Green's rousing rendition of that incredibly catchy Carl Douglas hit Kung Fu Fighting - the theme song from our favorite Jack Black film, Kung Fu Panda.
Pondering the links between animated cartoons and the Golden Age of Radio today.
Radio was a cornerstone of numerous cartoons, especially those of the B-studios. Terrytoons' The Nutty Network stars a simian-staffed equivalent of NBC, ABC and CBS, along with the studio's Bert Lahr lion, in a spoof of Orson Welles' War Of The Worlds broadcast.
It would be an understatement to note that the cartoons of the Charles Mintz Studio frequently featured caricatures of stars from movies and radio. This was the Columbia cartoon studio's stock in trade. Included in the 1938 Color Rhapsody THE BIG BIRDCAST: Rudy Vallee, Jack Benny, Walter Winchell, Eddie Cantor, Joe Penner and Ben Bernie.
Joe Penner in particular is caricatured in numerous 1930's cartoons and would be the prototype for bumbling Merrie Melodies star Egghead.
The Fleischer Studio featured radio and movie stars in the Screen Song series.
These included such early 1930's radio regulars as Arthur Tracy a.k.a. The Street Singer.
Spiders, ghosts, ghouls and skeletons run their own radio station in the Fleischer Studio's Halloween-themed BOO BOO THEME SONG.
None of this is surprising, as the Fleischer Studio got into the broadcasting ring early, notably with the 1929 Talkartoon RADIO RIOT.
The first cartoon about radio this blogger recalls seeing on TV (with the "Wheeler & Woolsey in the soup pot" bit excised for obvious reasons) was the 1933 Merrie Melodie, I've Got To Sing A Torch Song.
Among the celebrities caricatured in the first post-Harman and Ising Merrie Melodie cartoon were radio sensation and soon-to-be Hollywood movie star Bing Crosby.
Even us boomers who know our Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Bob Hope, Burns & Allen and Bob & Ray - and have actually tried to find episodes of Joe Penner's Baker's Broadcast shows - can be periodically stumped by the radio star caricatures in animated cartoons. This writer knew who Ed Wynn was before starting kindergarten because of repeated viewings of I've Got To Sing A Torch Song!
Did not know the extent to which I've Got To Sing A Torch Song was infamous in the history of Warner Brothers animation until decades later. It was at first deemed too terrible to release and eventually remade and re-tooled extensively by Friz Freleng after Leon Schlesinger fired director Tom Palmer.
This wasn't even the first WB cartoon to feature radio as a main character. Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising produced Crosby, Columbo & Vallee, in which braves are horrified by the extreme popularity of radios and crooners with squaws on the reservation. As is the case with many entries from the first season of Merrie Melodies cartoons, it is mostly an excuse for the ever-peppy protagonists to bounce around to the jaunty Frank Marsales score.
Don't know how star of vaudeville, the Ziegfeld Follies, movies and radio Will Rogers, arguably the best known 1930's Hollywood luminary who was a Native American, regarded cartoons along these lines. An excellent caricature of Rogers was featured, following radio star Eddie Cantor and preceding Ed Wynn, in Harman and Ising's 1933 Merrie Melodie, I Like Mountain Music, the first in the "book and magazine covers come to life" genre seen in WB cartoons directed by the likes of Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Frank Tashlin and Friz Freleng.
Harman and Ising would go to this well frequently, combining it with a radio theme in the 1934 MGM Happy Harmonies cartoon Toyland Broadcast. The incredibly bad taste moment at 6:20 ended its inclusion in TV broadcasts, along with such fellow and jaw-dropping MGM Happy Harmonies as The Old Plantation (1935).
And, as is also the case Tashlin's wonderful 1938 Merrie Melodie Have You Got Any Castles? it's difficult not to love a cartoon featuring a caricature of Alexander Woolcott.
An intrepid expert on radio and classic movies posting under the name radiobov has painstakingly gone through the entire cartoon, start to finish, annotating every movie and radio star appearance, in many cases with their star turns in other movies. This is fantastic work, and the gang here encourages the poster named radiobov to upload more.
Any look at the relationship between animation and radio brings to mind George Pal's puppetoons.
George Pal's career in animation began with a series of theatrical commercial films selling Philips radios.
George Pal's 1934 film The Ship Of The Ether is innovative - and all about selling those radios.
The Ship Of The Ether was just one of a series of elaborate mini-musicals George Pal's studio produced for Philips.
Several of the George Pal Philips films are included in Arnold Leibovit's two Puppetoon Movie Blu-ray sets.
Although Bob & Ray’s very funny and most original radio show, filled with spoofs of other radio shows, was never re-imagined as a cartoon, the droll duo starred in a series of terrific animated beer commercials as Bert & Harry Piels.
Prepared for this post by visiting Radiomuseum and listening to Jack Benny and Fred Allen master radio comedy. They played this genre as expertly as Jack's hero, Isaac Stern, worked that Stradivarius.
The only way Jack's hilarious radio show or these cartoons about radio can conceivably be topped is with the absurdist feature film, IT'S IN THE BAG (1945). Fred Allen, Jack Benny and a slew of very funny character actors star - and are incredibly funny, even by jaded and oh-so-hip 2022 standards.
Today is the natal anniversary of Warner Bros. cartoons storyman and voice artist Tedd Pierce (August 12, 1906 – February 19, 1972), seen in the following photo with fellow Termite Terrace story ace Mike Maltese on the left and producer Henry Binder on the right.
The thoroughly mind-rotted gang of magnificent but also mediocre, mush-mouthed and meandering Merrie Melodies mavens here at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog have wondered if anyone has posted about Tedd Pierce. The answer is, for the most part no, although Mr. Pierce is among those noted in Jerry Beck's fascinating and informative Cartoon Research post about the animation studio's internal gazette, the Warner Club News.
Tedd Pierce's voice work and writing for the Fleischer Studio, in between two stints at Warner Brothers, presents another topic of great interest to animation buffs. At Fleischer's, he and fellow gagman/actor Cal Howard both worked in front of and behind the cameras. Tedd Pierce plays the despicable Wazzir, uber-bad guy in the third 2-reel Popeye special, ALADDIN & HIS WONDERFUL LAMP.
He would also portray bombastic King Bombo in GULLIVER'S TRAVELS and several characters in the imaginative (yet ill-fated - released theatrically in December 1941) MR. BUGS GOES TO TOWN. Along with fellow story aces Cal Howard Carl Meyer and Jack Mercer, he would provide lively voice work for Fleischer cartoons.
Pierce also did a great job as the avaracious Edward Arnold/Lionel Barrymore style ultra-villain C. Bagley Beetle in MR. BUG GOES TO TOWN, played the crook with extra relish.
There are other Fleischer cartoons in which Pierce is given screen credit for story, such as PROBLEM PAPPY (1941), but this writer is momentarily stumped as to whether Tedd also contributed voice characterizations. No doubt such experts on voice acting as Keith Scott would know.
Back to the topic of articles which mention Tedd Pierce, who worked with Friz Freleng, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones and Robert McKimson, Don M. Yowp, on Tralfaz, wrote an excellent piece, The Cartoon That Jack Built, about a famous Warner Bros. cartoon Tedd worked on.
That would be The Mouse That Jack Built, one of two cartoons Robert McKimson made with the cast of the Jack Benny radio and TV show. I like the cartoon more than Yowp does, but will concede the difficulties in translating the verbal wit of radio, even with a cast full of comedy greats, to animation.
Devon Baxter of Peg Bar Profiles, in the Baxter's Breakdown's feature on Cartoon Research, devoted a fair amount of his post about Bob McKimson's very funny fairytale sendup, The Turn-Tale Wolf, to Tedd Pierce.
One voice Tedd Pierce was credited with on three WB cartoons was the Bud Abbott in Babbitt & Catstello.
"Give me the bird! Give me the bird! If only the Hays Office would let me, I'd give him the boyd, all right!"
In the 1940's Tedd Pierce's handiwork (story and voice characterizations) turns up in quite a few Chuck Jones cartoons.
On the sub-topic of animation directors and writers who doubled as voice artists (Pierce, Bill Scott, Ben Hardaway, Cal Howard, Jack Mercer, Tex Avery and, more recently, John Kricfalusi and the late, great Joe Ranft), the Wikipedia entry for Tedd Pierce, echoed in the Looney Tunes wiki, credits him with specific voices for a bunch of cartoons. Do not have studio records to confirm how accurate this, or the listing in Pierce's Behind The Voice Actors entry is. IMDB proves even more questionable and credits Tedd Pierce with voice work on Screen Gems cartoons. Don't know where IMDB got this information. Not under the impression that Pierce followed Henry Binder to Screen Gems (along with Dave Monahan, Cal Howard and, very briefly, Bob Clampett) during that studio's last gasp in 1945-1946. Would need experts to confirm. . .
By the 1950's, after teaming up with Mike Maltese, Tedd was the principal storyman for the Bob McKimson crew at Warner Bros. Animation.
When Warner Bros. animation closed in June 1953, Pierce would go to UPA and contribute stories to a couple of cartoons there.
As the 1960's progressed, Pierce & Danch would write WB and Walter Lantz cartoons and also be among the screenwriters who penned the George Peppard-Mary Tyler Moore romantic comedy What's So Bad About Being Good, co-starring New York City, a toucan and Dom DeLuise.
In closing, have read that Tedd actually wrote one of this blogger's all-time favorite jokes ever in a film, animation or live-action. That would be the "beavers damming the river" bit in the Chuck Jones cartoon, THE EAGER BEAVER.
