CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST - William Sharples - "To Boo Or Not To Boo" (1951)

With a little less that a week left in the Halloween Countdown, it's time to get down to the really scary stuff!

So welcome to the Dwrayger Dungeon Tunnel of Fun featuring Casper the Friendly Ghost in a 1951 cartoon with the very literary title, "To Boo Or Not To Boo!"

"To Boo Or Not To Boo" is a really good Halloween tale with witches and ghosts galore!

How can you not like Casper? He's cute and innocent and always gets himself into all kinds of trouble which is never his fault except for the fact that he's misunderstood!

And he's trying so hard to fit in!

1951 was a much more comfortable time in American history! Mom could greet the trick-or-treaters with her hair wrapped up in a towel, and her bathrobe on!

You just gotta love the eye-poppin' effects when this woman realizes Casper is a ghost, not just a kid in a costume!

Pretty much the same thing happens when the kids Casper joins up with figure out the truth!

Lost and alone, Casper stumbles on a barn dance Halloween Costume Party! Well, the sign sez "Everybody Welcome," so let's go!

Casper figures out that if he dips himself in paint that he looks more solid, and might have more than a ghost of a chance of blending in!

A cute little girl named Lou welcomes Casper to the party! Lou's voice is provided by the the Queen of female cartoon voices, the marvelous Mae Questel!

Casper gets a real kick out of playing Pin The Tail On The Donkey!

The joint really gets a jumpin'!

Everybody get yer partner for the square dance!

William Sharples wrote the music for this cartoon and 790 more, and the list obviously goes on forever. Here's just a few of the amazing array of titles and puns: SULTAN PEPPER, TOONERVILLE TROLLEY, BOLD KING COLE, WIMMIN IS A MYSKERY, THE FULLA BLUFF MAN, ELECTRIC EARTHQUAKE, THE MARRY GO-ROUND, RODEO ROMEO, ABUSEMENT PARK, MADHATTAN ISLAND, PRE-HYSTERICAL MAN etc etc etc!!!

The two animators on this short create an interesting look through a combination of their individual styles! Myron Waldman's career went all the way back to the early 1930's and Betty Boop style cartoons, and Larry Silverman's career made it into the early 1980's and stuff like 13 episodes of "Blackstar" in 1981 with titles like "Tree Of Evil" and "The Zombie Masters!" They both had stops along the way with some memorable and some not so memorable characters like Popeye, Superman, Skunky, Milton the Monster, Ebenezer The Freezer, Batfink, Clint Clobber, Hashimoto, Hector Heathcote, and Beetle Baily! What a list!

It saddens me to know that 99% of you will never have the chance to go to a barn dance, drink beer underage and promenade right and do-si-do with some sweaty gal three times your size and your age that you never met before and you will never see again! Trust me, it's a memorable experience!

Aw Crap! Why's that always gotta happen when they finally realize Casper is a real ghost!

But....This Halloween tale has a happy ending! As it turns out, Lou is a ghost too, so everything works out just fine!

As an extra added bonus, here's a short cut from the brilliant CD released last year by a guy who just happens to be having a birthday today, and the guy who inspired me to do this blog, the Reverend Tom Frost, and a frightening little ditty titled  "FRE'RE JACK!"      Happy Birthday Rev!!

If you hurry, you can probably still buy a copy right HERE before the whole bloody world goes up in flames!!