Jack Teagarden and his Walter Lantz Cartunes
When trombonist Jack Teagarden became available to do two cartoon soundtracks, Darrell Calker and Walter Lantz leapt at the chance to get him.
When trombonist Jack Teagarden became available to do two cartoon soundtracks, Darrell Calker and Walter Lantz leapt at the chance to get him.
Paul Whiteman was such a well-known personality that cartoons – topical creatures that they were – would waste no opportunity to have a little fun with him.
Paul Whiteman conducted the biggest dance-band throughout the 1920’s, and into the 1930’s. He also appeared two cartoons with Oswald Rabbit and Walter Lantz.
One wonders if Fleischer’s Organ Grinders Swing could be interpreted as a protest against Mayor La Guardia’s then-recent decree that organ grinders be outlawed in the City of New York.
There were two singers who show up repeatedly in the “Screen Songs” cartoons. They never got any screen credit. But any record collector would recognize them immediately.
I am a little bit familiar with the career of Roy Halee. He was a rich-voiced tenor, and just the right voice for the singing of Mighty Mouse.
Here’s a cartoon perfect for Halloween Eve – and, it turns out, there’s another “needle-drop” here taking up a good part of the cartoon’s soundtrack.
Tex Avery knew the 1920s “Okeh Laughing Record” and wondered how it would work on a modern movie audience. With his last cartoon for Lantz, he got to try out his theory.
Ub Iwerks seems to have had a regular working relationship with RCA Victor. As we will see, Victor records seem to permeate Iwerks’ scoring – – at least for a while.
One type of record that companies hoped would sell were called “novelty records”, for lack of a better term. Max Fleischer used three such “novelties” in some of his 1930’s cartoons.