I read on IMDB that Friz Freleng was only 5'4" tall and was prone to vocal outbursts, and because of it, he was the basis for the cartoon character Yosemite Sam!
I've said it before, and I'll say it again, how come two people could accomplish something like this when today, even with computers, it takes 200 people to do a simple cartoon?
Welcome to another Weird Wednesday in The Dungeon!
I always loved these types of cartoons, where some place closes for the night, and the whole joint comes to life. This time it's the magazine rack in a drug store!
Look at some of the titles of the magazines! You've got "Hooey," and "Physical Culture," "Blah," "Ballyhoo," "Whiz Bang,"and "Prison Prattle" just for starters!
The first magazine to have it's characters come to life is "Western" and a cowboy blasts a hole in the cover to get out!
He's soon joined by his buddies and together they do a rousing version of "I Like Mountain Music," which was written by Frank Marsales.
The other magazine characters dance and applaud the song! Everybody's having a swell time!
There were always caricatures of famous people of the time in cartoons like this. This is Will Rogers who just put a 'No Sale" tag on a copy of "American Business" magazine.
It might have been 87 years ago, but the sentiment is sure the same as today!
I love the fact that there is a cute puppy on the cover of "The Literary Digest" magazine!
This title "Bigger and Better Babies" cracks me up!
This gal comes off the cover of "Dance" magazine, and..............
............Puts in an Olympic grade performance skating on this vanity mirror in a snow storm of talcum powder!
The goober looking yodeler on the cover of "Travel" magazine has got the hots for the woman on the cover of "College Rumor" magazine.
And why shouldn't he since it appears that she's wearing a completely see-through dress!
Pretty racy for a cartoon!
But if it was all fun and games, it wouldn't be interesting enough, so a criminal element is introduced from the pages of "Crime Stories!"
This shady character is joined by his two henchmen!
Pretty ingenious! Fill up a seltzer bottle full of lighter fluid, light it and use it as a torch!
What these guys think they're going to do with all that money, I have no idea!
Another famous caricature, Edward G. Robinson, walks out of "Movie" magazine!
"Radio" magazine does the calling all cops routine, and out they come from the "Police Gazette!"
The crook thinks he's going to be able to hide out in an issue of "Screen Play," which turns out to be a very bad idea!
He takes off running as soon as he realizes the mistake he's made!
The wide-open mouth effect was usually reserved for comedian Joe E. Brown who was known for having his mouth agape, but in this case it works for giant ape Ping Pong too!
Oh, man! I also was always a Big Fan of those cartoons -- particularly from the Thirties & Forties -- that recognized & satirized the current pop-icons of their times, whether it was movie stars, or in this case, the magazine racks. What a time that was, when the pulp press was so scandalous, full of crime and decadence, and cartoons (which were obstensibly for children, but always were winking at the adults in the audience) dealt with that stuff.
ReplyDeleteAnd, no doubt, the animation of that time was far superior to what came in the late '50s up through the '70s. So much movement -- and Freleng was one of the Masters of the Genre.
The little guy in the third pic from the bottom -- Screenplay May 1933 -- looks like he enjoys "motorboating." Am I wrong?
ReplyDelete--anonymoose
Yeah, you're wrong. He's just entering the magazine. Sorry!
ReplyDeleteI don't know it in a first-hand way, but I know that the magazine "Police Gazette" came to be thought of as being full of "lurid" sex and violence, and getting away with it by looking like a very serious magazine about crime. In other words, like a pulp magazine without the whole image of one.
ReplyDelete