SUNNY SWEET’S GRAND PREMIERE
A Look at Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising’s 1951 Cartoon “Good Wrinkles”
One of the more interesting curios in the subject of sponsored animated cartoons is a 1951 film that was commissioned by Sunsweet Growers (The California Prune & Apricot Growers Association) and produced by All-Scope Pictures entitled Good Wrinkles. The twenty-two minute Technicolor cartoon, which was narrated by well known radio personality John Nesbitt, was created with the intent on educating viewers on Prunes and also introducing a mascot cartoon character for Sunsweet. Though the cartoon has been relatively forgotten by many today, it is known by a few animation historians and enthusiasts for being made by cartoonists Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising, long after their careers with both the Warner Brothers and M-G-M Cartoon studios were over. As a matter of fact it’s one of the few films produced by both Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising together following the reformation of their partnership in 1946, eight years after it’s dissolve in 1938.
“Good Wrinkles” was a follow up to an extremely successful live-action documentary film that was also commissioned by Sunsweet and made by All-Scope Pictures in 1947, entitled A Fortune In Two Old Trunks. This twenty-two minute film chronicled the history of Prune growing in California with Louis Pellier and highlighted how Sunsweet has built upon these roots and improved Prune growing into the post-World War II era. The film was only distributed non-theatrically by Modern Talking Picture Service and was exhibited at community club meetings and in schools; for school screenings, Children in attendance were issued souvenir comic book adaptions of the film. Different trade magazines spoke highly of the documentary, and it also received a number of awards from various different organizations; amongst one was being selected by the Office of Information and Cultural Exchange of the United States Department of State, in which it was translated into 26 different languages and exhibited around the world.
The onscreen logo for Harman and Ising Cartoons as seen during the credits of “Good Wrinkles”. The logo was first used on the 1934 M-G-M ‘Metrocolor Cartoon’ “The Discontented Canary”. The logo stopped being used in 1938 after Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising were hired individually by M-G-M. It was revived again in 1946 when Harman & Ising Cartoons was revived
To introduce Sunny Sweet and also educate viewers on the uniqueness of Prunes, Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising cleverly utilized the Hollywood rags to riches theme in which the life of a Prune was compared to that of a movie star. As indicated in the film ‘all Prunes are Plums but not all Plums are Prunes’, similar to the concept of how all movie stars are people but not all people are movie stars. As a result, there is a lot of Hollywood themed nostalgia throughout the film.
Sunny Sweet stops for a photo during his grand premiere at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
John Nesbitt makes a rare animated cameo appearance in “Good Wrinkles”.
Amongst some of the other Hollywood related highlights of “Good Wrinkles” consist of shots featuring cartoon renditions of filmmaking equipment, and light humored Hollywood related jokes (i.e. ‘Cecile B. De Prune’). Aside from the Hollywood related material, other notable content consist of the animated Prune production factory sequence which effectively breaks down and visualizes the production process in cartoon form.
The logo for Modern Talking Picture Service, Inc.
A Sunny Sweet Prune jar, as seen during the live action sequences in “Good Wrinkles”.
The stuffed toy, and tag, of Sunny Sweet the Prune that was created by the R. Dakin & Co. Toy Company. These two images come from the Allee Willis Museum of Kitsch.
Currently it’s not known how well the character or the film performed with audiences. Sunsweet, certainly went out of their way to market the character as can be seen with the Sunny Prune merchandise. However while going through old trade magazines, certain observations hint that the cartoon may not have been as successful as it’s live action predecessor. Perhaps the most striking observation that suggests this is by comparing Business Screen Magazine’s articles for “Good Wrinkles” and “A Fortune In Two Old Trunks” together. The original trade article and review that ran in the 1947 Vol. 8 No. 8 issue of Business Screen Magazine for “A Fortune In Two Old Trunks” was an extremely positive review that spoke highly of the production; the review itself takes up about a third of a page.
The review of the “Good Wrinkles” which appeared in the 1953 Vol. 14 No. 1 issue of Business Screen Magazine.
While it’s possible that the film did not do as well as anticipated, it’s also possible that it did go over well with audiences and just got overlooked for whatever reason. Unfortunately due to the limited amount of information available on the production itself and on All-Scope pictures, we may never know. Regardless, today “Good Wrinkles” is still a fun piece of history that offers modern day viewers a look at the Post-WWII era work of both Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising. The film is available from the Prelinger Archives for both viewing and downloading from the courtesy of Rick Prelinger.
(A special thank you to Jerry Beck, Don Yowp, Mark Kausler, and Rick Prelinger)
In addition, here is also a documentary I made on “Good Wrinkles”:
P.S. – Don’t forget:
Six or seven Prunes a day are good for you in every way! Eat Sunsweet Prunes and you’ll agree, cooked or raw they’re heavenly!
Jonathan A. Boschen is a professional videographer and video editor, who is also a film and theatre historian. His research deals with pre-1970s movie theaters in New England and also film history pertaining to the Jam Handy Organization, Frank Goldman, Ted Eshbaugh, Jerry Fairbanks, and industrial films. (He is a huge fan of industrial animated cartoons!). Currently, Boschen is working on a documentary on the iconic Jam Handy Organization.
Yeah, I can see where the “Six or seven prunes a day….” line might lose an audience full of kids at the one-minute mark of the cartoon. They might have tuned it out right there, which would explain why it wasn’t successful.
As ambitious as Hugh Harman was to keep up with Disney in the 1930s and 40s, he had to have chaffed under the cost-cutting requirements the industrial animation budgets of the 1950s required.
Capitol Hi-Q didn’t exist until 1956 so that isn’t where the background music in this two-reeler came from. Some of the arrangements remind me of Eugene Poddany’s work; the muted trumpets at the start are similar to what Jack Shaindlin arranged in his Langlois library.
Jerry-
Am enjoying these industrial film posts immensely! Think you could do this as a possible regular feature?
PS- Is Steve out once again? Usually, you put up a notice saying he’s out and about- didn’t see that at the top of the
post.
I’d love have a regular weekly column on industrial/commercial/educational animated films here. As information on them is harder to research than standard entertainment cartoons, it takes our experts a little longer to compile such posts, making them appear less frequently. Rest assured its one of the goals of this site to spotlight these neglected productions.
As for Thunderbean Thursday, Steve Stanchfield has been unexpectedly detained with a combination of work, play and personal matters over the last few weeks. Spoke with Steve last night and I quote, “TB Thursday will return with a vengeance next week”.
Thank you Evan! I do have some more pieces coming up in the near future; One of which will finally answer how one of cinema’s meanest villains ‘fit’s into God’s plan’… 😉
Great post. So, is John Nesbitt the narrator of any of the MGM cartoons, like “LITTLE CAESARIO” or “BARNEY BEAR’S VICTORY GARDEN” or even “ROOKIE BEAR”? Just wondering.
I defer to Keith Scott, but I believe that’s Gayne Whitman in the Barney Bear cartoons cited above.
There was a 16mm Technicolor print of this on eBay early this year. The listing page is still online, so here’s a link with some higher-quality frame grabs and a couple of title cards missing from the Prelinger print:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/16mm-Sound-Animated-Good-Wrinkles-800-IB-Tech-print-RARE-like-new-cond-/301482364011
I see some lucky buyer paid $125 for this. I hope whoever bought it is going to provide us with a nice new transfer someday (preferably HD).
I like to imagine that “Good Wrinkles” is what the Warner Bros. cartoons would have looked like by the 1950s had Harman and Ising never left for MGM.
Seems like the California Prune is sort of an ancestor to the California Raisins.
By the way, Sunsweet later hired Stan Freberg to do TV commercials for them.
Interesting, the animated presence of John Nesbitt – I’ve seen several of the MGM “Passing Parade” shorts when they ran as filler on TNT and TCM. One favorite is “People on Paper,” a look at comic strip artists and their famous creators.
Er, I meant “creations”.
Jerry and Kevin, no that’s not Gayne Whitman narrating those and other MGM titles, but a fine radio announcer named Franklin Bingman. He also narrated a few 1940-41 Columbias (like FARMER TOM THUMB and THE LAND OF FUN). I can certainly tell he and John Nesbitt have a similar vocal quality.
Thanks Keith!
I wonder if any of the uncredited animators on this film were Harman and Ising animators from their Warner Brothers and MGM days?
Here are some screenshots of that “Sunsweet Recipes” booklet offered in the film, published in 1950: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/qhoAAOSwyEdbsaQu/s-l1600.jpg
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/8Q8AAOSwTGVbsaQQ/s-l1600.jpg
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/mTIAAOSw7PJbsaQF/s-l1600.jpg
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/CfIAAOSwFvBbsaQ7/s-l1600.jpg