Merchandising Mishap. Charles Schulz was involved with most of the Peanuts merchandising connected to the animated specials, but not all of it was successful. Schulz once said, “Our most disastrous item was put out with the movie “A Boy Named Charlie Brown” in which there was a scene where Snoopy played the Jew’s harp. We thought for sure kids who saw him playing it would want one. A firm put the item out but it never really did sell well at all. We couldn’t overcome the fact that people just weren’t interested in the Jew’s harp.”
Never Say Never. In a 1978 “Variety” interview, Ralph Bakshi stated, “I have no series, no pilots, nothing. I was interested in going into TV, but I want to do full animation work. I will not do the normal Saturday morning thing for TV. I love animation too much to do that. Right now, I feel ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is enough to last me for the rest of my life.” Bakshi had been working with Dick Brown on a possible Saturday morning TV series called “Hangin’ Out” for CBS.
Flintstone for President. In 1978, the Federal Trade Commission announced an international study that revealed that only one half the adults around the world could identify a picture of their national leader. However, the study also showed that 90% of the three year olds in the United States could identify a picture of Fred Flintstone.
No Difference. While plugging his book “Chuck Amuck” (1989), animation legend Chuck Jones told an interviewer, “People keep asking me why Bugs Bunny is funny to kids today, because kids today are so different than kids in the 1940s and 1950s. Kids today have cable tv and rap music and video games and are exposed to alcohol and drugs and this and that. I don’t think they’re different at all. They’re just like the kids in the 1940s and 1950s and their kids will be just like them. Kids love animals and funny stories. Always will. We just drew what we thought people would like. We made funny cartoons, and they will be funny a hundred years from now.”
Fortysomething. In the Max Flesicher cartoon “Goonland” (1938), Popeye the sailor is searching for his Pappy who left home when Popeye was born forty years earlier. That made the spinach-eating sailor actually too old for active military service once World War II started. By comparison, the Fleischer publicity department insisted Betty Boop was only sixteen years old despite her sexually seductive behavior.
Same Old Story. Warren Foster was an outstanding storyman who worked first at Warner Brothers and then later at Hanna-Barbera. One of his Warner cartoons was Windblown Hare (1949) where the Three Little Pigs pester Bugs Bunny. Almost ten years later when Foster was writing for the Yogi Bear segment of “The Huckleberry Hound Show” for Hanna-Barbera, Foster used the same story but retitled it Oinks and Boinks (1960). The Three Little Pigs were bent on escaping the Big Bad Wolf by selling their houses of straw and sticks to a sucker.
That Is Going to Hurt. In Swing Wedding (1937), an MGM cartoon by Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising, there is a scene where band instruments are being destroyed and the frogs are going crazy. There is a quick shot of a frog in a white tux jumping up and sticking a hypodermic needle in his arm at roughly the seven and a half minute spot.
Groucho’s Favorite. In 1990, Andy Marx, grandson of the famous Marx Brother Groucho, chose to reveal his grandfather’s favorite animated TV program. “Even when he was working, he found plenty of time to be a grandfather,” commented Andy. “We watched cartoons together. Crusader Rabbit was our favorite.” (The Jay Ward produced episodes.) Groucho also enjoyed watching the Bob Clampett puppet show, “Time for Beany”.
The Russians Aren’t Coming. In 1977, it was announced that Hanna-Barbera Productions were in discussion with the Soviet Union about the development of multiple co-productions of live action/animated features. Hanna-Barbera would have provided the animation and the overall production know-how while the Soviets would have provided such live action elements as the Bolshoi Ballet and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra.
Felix Lover. In the late 1980s, Federico Fellini, the famous Italian director, was honored in New York at a tribute by The Film Society of Lincoln Center. The then 68 year old director took a moment to acknowledge one of his earliest inspirations, Felix the Cat. The cartoon adventures of the silent Felix provided the first taste of American culture for Fellini when he was a small boy in Italy.
Tweety Pie the Voice Coach. In the remake of the movie “The Cat and the Canary” (1978), actress Carol Lynley played a London fashion designer and claimed she had no trouble speaking the Queen’s English. In an interview when the film was released, she said, “I used Tweety Pie as a model and 99 percent of the time I sounded right.”
Blechman vs. Stravinksy. Artist R. O. Blechman was responsible for an hour long animated version of Igor Stravinsky’s “The Soldier’s Tale” in 1984. In an interview at the time, Blechman stated, “I knew it was a good story…it was hard to adapt it for film without changing it a great deal, but I wasn’t going to let Stravinsky stand in my way of making a film.”
Smarter Than the Average Catcher. One longstanding animation legend is that the Hanna-Barbera character, Yogi Bear, took his name from popular baseball player, Yogi Berra. On ABC’s “Greatest Sports Legends” TV show in 1990, Berra was asked by an interviewer about how he felt about that fact. “I didn’t feel bad at all. In fact, I wish I had thought of it,” smiled the ballplayer.
Balloon Joke. In a 1990 Thanksgiving episode of “The Simpsons”, Homer and Bart are watching on television the famous Macy’s parade with its huge balloons. Bart doesn’t recognize the Underdog or Bullwinkle balloons and wisecracks, “It wouldn’t hurt ‘em to use some cartoons made in the last 50 years.” It just so happened that November 1990 was the first year a Bart Simpson balloon joined the parade.
Editor’s Note: Jim Korkis’ Animation Anecdotes appear here each Friday on Cartoon Research. Korkis is the author of two recently published must-have books about Disney animation: Who’s Afraid of the Song of the South and The Revised Vault of Walt. Both are highly recommended. – Jerry Beck
Jim Korkis is an internationally respected animation historian who in recent years has devoted his attention to the many worlds of Disney. He was a columnist for a variety of animation magazines. With his former writing partner, John Cawley, he authored several animation related books including The Encyclopedia of Cartoon Superstars, How to Create Animation, Cartoon Confidential and Get Animated’s Animation Art Buyer’s Guide. He taught animation classes at the Disney Institute in Florida as well as instructing classes on acting and animation history for Disney Feature Animation: Florida.
There was a comic book story where a visiting martian promises Yogi that he’ll go down in martian history for introducing them to ice cream. Yogi receives a martian history book with a big picture of himself — but he’s unhappy because they misspelled his name: Yogi Berra. Not being a sports fan as a child, it was years before I got the joke.
That Bart ballon is rather demented looking!
So, has anyone here been able to play Snoopy’s harp?
Who knows, I do see they’re still selling them, so perhaps that’s one bright spot out of all this. At least keeping that product selling at all under Snoopy’s name.
“If they start building a balloon for every flash-in-the-pan cartoon character, you’ll turn the parade into a farce.”
I actually BOUGHT a Snoopy’s Harp when I was a kid! Can’t say I sounded any good.
As usual another great column!
I always enjoy these anecdotes, Jim. Keep ’em coming!
Rabid industry hype in 1989 might have resulted in a New Kids on the Block balloon. Reality prevailed.
If another detente-era U.S./Soviet co-production, George Cukor’s disjointed-mess remake “The Blue Bird,” is any indication, maybe we dodged a bullet by not getting the H-B/USSR joint projects.
And does nobody remember the punchline of that scene in “Bart vs. Thanksgiving”? After Homer’s “turn the parade into a farce” line, as both of them are turned away from the TV, we the audience can see a Bart parade balloon go by on the screen.
VENDOR: “Mr. Schulz, we’d like to put Snoopy’s picture on…”
CHARLES SCHULZ: “Sure! Got the money? Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!”
VENDOR: “But, Mr. Schulz, don’t you even want to know what product we want to put Snoopy’s picture on?”
CHARLES SCHULZ: “Oh, Jesus, do you think I even care, anymore? Snoopy condoms are already at the drug stores and Peppermint Patty IUD’s will be out in a couple of months, we’re having story problems with our 487th Peanuts TV special, “It’s St. Swithin’s Day, Charlie Brown,” and our new CD, “Let’s Rap with the Peanuts Gang,” has tanked. Do I look like I give a crap what you’re selling?”
SCHULZ: (touches clock) “OOOOWW!”
VENDOR: “Oops! I should have warned you. That clock gets hot if you leave it plugged in”
SCHULZ: “Oh, OK. Um…. all these things are fine. (shot of faulty “Seal of Approved” merch) Now I am off to Wimbledon!”
Awful and lame, Neal. Awful and lame. Stop it..
It’s a shame I had to go along with it, but I did.
It wasn’t until reading this article did I finally learn the name of that instrument Snoopy was playing in the move!
A jew’s harp. Ya learn something new everyday!
That imfamous scene in “SWING WEDDING” has been discussed time and time again, and I think that fans really enjoy this cartoon for its adult content *AND* the terrific production numbers. Truly, the HAPPY HARMONIES should have had more of this kind of talent instead of trying so hard to copy the SILLY SYMPHONIES, especially with Busby Berkeley being such a major influence over musicals at the time. Some of that visual magic could be seen throughout the equally imfamous “BOSKO TRILOGY” in which the MGM version of the Bosko character was fit in the same universe as the jazz-crazy frogs, and how perfect that each of the TRILOGY cartoons turned out to be a dream that Bosko had on his way to Gramma’s house with that bag of cookies…Ooh, that sugar high!
Jim:
I’d support Fred if he ran for the White House! I think he’s a whole lot more believable than some of these real life candidates!
Yabba dabba doo!
I *think* I had the Snoopy Harp…saw the movie at age 9-10. I remember Mom and I deliberating over its cheapness-in-manufacture, and high price. Maybe I passed it over…the one I got broke right away (and didn’t sound good). The “semi-pro, $4 model” held up a lot better…and had a nice sound, sans Snoopy. Probably still have it! Kids with ANY of these would discover that jarring *clank* on their front teeth neither sounds nor feels good.
So that’s what Snoopy’s little instrument was called – could never for the life of me work out what it was actually meant to be, even after countless replays of “Snoopy Come Home”. Learn something new everyday 😉
The Warren Foster Anecdote wasn’t that surprising, mind, to me at least – Warren and Mike recycled loads of their WB storylines soon after making the move to Hanna-Barbera. Yowp has collected quite a list of ’em already on his own blog for curious readers.
I recall hearing of those from a few other cartoons as well as a kid (a kid plays one in the Fleischer Color Classic “The Kids in The Shoe”).
I had a Snoopy’s Harp–I didn’t like it because it hurt my teeth. I remember my father saying “When I was a kid, we called these Jews’ harps.” Even though the Snoopy’s Harp wasn’t called that, I wonder if people avoided them because they thought that there was something anti-Semitic about them?