The 1939-40 season had not been especially good for the Flesichers. The Stone Age cartoons were not been particularly successful, and were not renewed for the following seasdon. So Max, Dave, and the boys submitted ideas for two new series – a Technicolor series of cartoons featuring Gabby, the town crier from Gulliver’s Travels, and the “Animated Antics”, a series of one-shot cartoons filmed in black and white (perhaps capable of being considered the predecessors to the “Noveltoons” of Famous which would follow). The latter series would also allow an excuse for attempts at launches for additional characters from Gulliver’s Travels – Sneak Snoop, and Snitch (the three spies from Blefescu), and Twinkletoes (their carrier pigeon), who would star under their own names tn several episodes.
The Dandy Lion (9/20/40) – This cartoon is set among the native Americans, its title character being a mountain lion cub, who follows a little boy home. When the boy introduces the cub to his mother, she runs away in fright, then arrows fly everywhere. Still determined to adopt the cub, the boy disguises the cat as a dog. Unfortunately, gag material is not the most memorable. Songs: “Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone”. and “Big Chief Ugh Amugh Ugh”, borrowed from the Popeye film of the same title.
Sneak, Snoop, and Snitch (10/25/40) – The three spies have gotten into the palace, and discover King Little trying to protect a small box. The spies eventually snatch the box, but have trouble in finding a key. Snitch (the little one) takes most of the brunt of his partners’ efforts, and after many misadventures, they finally are able to look inside to find what treasure awaits within – a Junior G-Man Badge. Songs: “Chopsticks”, a simple piano piece that was extremely well known even in 1940. It was the only published composition of British composer Euphemia Allen (under the pen name Arthur de Lilli)., who penned it as “The Celebrated Chop Waltz” in 1877. The best-known recording of it would come many years later, in a bravura performance with unique embellishments by Liberace on Columbia. It would also have an odd adaptation as a seasonal song with lyrics, entitled “Christmas Chopsticks”, recorded by Mel Blanc on Capitol (embed below), and by Guy Lombardo on Decca. It would also be covered by Peter Pan Records for the children’s market in this holiday form.
Mommy Loves Puppy (11/6/40) – The viewer can be excused if upon seeing this cartoon, he thinks of it as Hunky and Spunky with fur. Mommy and her child are both St. Bernards, each with their own brandy barrel. The child wants to go with Mommy on her appointed rounds, but she barks orders him to go home. The child, on his return trip, encounters a walrus who is not sleeping very well. Inebriation ensues, as the walrus learns that the brandy is pretty good stuff. Songs: “How Dry I Am”, a motif which can be traced back to a bass figure in a Beethoven Sonata.
The Wizard of Arts (8/8/41) – Considered one of the weakest of all the Fleischer shorts, its essentially a plotless spot gag cartoon about the unveiling of various paintings and statues, with “punny” titles to accompany the visuals of each creation. (“Paradise” illustrated as a pair of dice, etc.). Songs include a bunch of old favorites, including “Zampa Overture”, “thanks For the Memory”. Ten Little Indians”, “Blumenlied”, and “Home Sweet Home”.
Copy Cat (9/18/41) – A kitten is following a larger cat on a fence, trying to copy his every move, much to the annoyance of the larger cat. A tough guy mouse also taunts the small cat with a repeated six-note phrases on “Nyah nyah nyah nyah NYAAAH nyaaah”. The little cat eventually gets bopped on the nogging by a trap of the mouse, to the big cat’s appreciation. An original song using the cartoon’s title is performed by the big cat at the beginning of the picture, attempting to get the little one to leave him alone.
The Gabby series was not known for any broad degree of outside song material, mostly scored upon variations of themes from Gulliver’s Travels, including titles directly culled from such songs, like “All’s Well” and “It’s a Hap-Hap-Happy Day”. “The Constable” features a deleted instrumental theme that was intended as a number for Sneak, Snoop, and Snitch in the original feature, also previously appearing in the titles and underscore of “The Fresh Vegetable Mystery”. One episode, Fire Cheese (5/26/41), borrowed from the light classics.
Plotwise, it is a typical Gabby installment, in which he brags of his prowess in fighting fires to the local engine company, then has to prove himself when a real blaze erupts. Taking over the Chief’s position when Gabby causes his own hat to get stuck upon the Chief’s head, Gabby performs in his usual inept manner, with the fire finally going out only when it runs out of building to burn. For his “heroic” efforts, Gabby receives a drenching atop the spray of the company’s fire hoses.
The score makes heavy use of “The Merry Wives of Windsor” Overture by Nicolai. The opera was based upon the Shakespeare play, and was first performed in 1849. Arthur Pryor’s Band recorded an early 12″ version for Victor. The Victor Symphony Orchestra recorded it acoustically for Victor around 1912. Another version, shortened to only about two minutes, appeared anonymously on an acoustic “Little Marvel” record in England. The BBC Symphony Orchestra followed with an electrical version on Victor red seal. Sir Thomas Beecham and the London Philharmonic recorded it for Columbia in England, also issued on the Masterworks series here. Josef Krips and the Philharmonia Orchestra also performed it on a European Columbia. Sir Henry J. Wood and the Queen’s Hall Orchestra also performed it for British Columbia. The Boston Pops would eventually get their hands on it for Victor red seal.
One Superman cartoon, the last produced by Fleischer Studios before it was shut down, features some recognizable music, besides the Superman March penned by Sammy Timberg for the initial episode of the series. Terror of the Midway (8/30/42) finds Lois and Clark assigned to the low-profile story of the opening of the circus in town. However, the event becomes front page news when a huge gorilla escapes its cage, releases several of the big cats, and sets the big top on fire. A job for Superman indeed.
Songs: “Yip-i-Addy-i-Ay”, a number going back to approximately 1906. Recorded versions included Yolande Noble and Harry Gay on acoustic Columbia. A medley by the Victor Military Band also includes it. Collins and Harlan had a strong performance on Victor. George Grossmith Jr. performed on British Jumbo (also acoustic). Jack Kaufman recorded a version on Cameo and Romeo in 1928. It was briefly included in an all-star demonstration record, “Studio Stunts (side 2)”, on Columbia in 1926, performed by the Cavaliers and the Shannon Quartet. The Piccadilly Accordeon Band recorded it circa 1933 as a cigarette premium disc on the little-known Mayfair label in England (picked up on Decca in the USA as “Britannica Accordion Band”. Guy Lombardo cut it for Decca in the 1940’s. A swing adaptation (dropping the verse) appears on an aircheck from a Bing Crosby show, performed by Mary Martin. A few bars also sneak into the cartoon’s score from Fleischer’s old chestnut, “Sing You Sinners”, as well as use of Franz Schubert’s “Marche Militaire No. 1″ in the circus parade.
Next Time: Two reelers, and the first of Famous’s Noveltoons.
James Parten has overcome a congenital visual disability to be acknowledged as an expert on the early history of recorded sound. He has a Broadcasting Certificate (Radio Option) from Los Angeles Valley College, class of 1999. He has also been a fan of animated cartoons since childhood.
Yeesh. I had heard that the Animated Antics weren’t very good, but this is real Screen Gems-level stuff.
“Copy Cat” makes ample use of “Not Now”, from the Betty Boop cartoon of the same title.
“Zero the Hound”, an Animated Antic that you overlooked here — not that I’m blaming you — uses “I’m Daffy Over You” by Chico Marx and Sol Violinsky as a leitmotif for the duck, even though the duck isn’t particularly daffy, let alone Daffy. This begs the question that Chico famously asked Groucho in “The Cocoanuts”, namely: “Why a duck?”
“I’m Daffy Over You” accompanied a couple of Marx Brothers appearances in late Fleischer cartoons, for example the Harpo-faced sphinx in “The Wizard of Arts”, and Popeye’s Groucho impersonation in “Putting on the Act”. However, it does NOT accompany Chico’s own cameo as a piano mover in “Popeye Meets Rip Van Winkle”, or Groucho’s brief appearance in “Popeye Meets William Tell”. Shamus Culhane, the de facto director of the latter cartoon, would later marry Chico’s daughter Maxine, so presumably he was daffy over her for a while, at least until their divorce.
“Terror on the midway”, also known as “the Expressionist Superman”. To me, one of the best in the series. I didn’t know it was the last to be produced by the Fleischers…
Gabby, that is one of the classic characters that you love to hate. That is a really ANNOYING character! Nebbish nerd and he’s trying to do good but always screws things up and it reminds me of my cousin Gary he is like something out of a Woody Allen movie. They said that the Grampy character must of been created after someone the Fleschers knew but if you think about it the nebbish GABBY also must of been someone the Brothers knew in the old Brooklyn neighborhood growing up. You can take the Brothers out of Brooklyn but you couldn’t take the Brooklyn out of the Brothers. Then they tried putting themselves in Florida and that went to pot. Good thing Famous Studio didn’t make more Gabby cartoons it would have annoyed the hell out of the kids and adults in the audience.
Nowadays they will make crap out of any of the old characters——they have that Pin manufacturer in California selling all those Cartoon Pins made in China, the people’s republic of mass produced junk made with slave labor only filling up our landfills here. The Pin-Man is doing the Fleischer collectibles and will probably going to go all out with Gabby. He was sitting with Ray Pointer on the Comic Con panels when they had the Flescher presentation of the rotting Cartoon films – that weren’t rotting because they were preserved. It costs a lot of money.
I saw you linked to one of the videos posted by That Not-An-Animation Historian and he was on the panel too, didn’t say much, they told us he wasn’t really a Cartoon guy but he was trying his hand at the rotting Cartoon prints. Get-rich-quick kind of thing, people see old movies and they have dollar signs floating around their heads and the old racist cartoons are no different. Hell when we saw them on TV as kids they were just for fun and no one thought 60 years later it was gonna be a cash cow like this.
Maybe they will make Pins of the historians too, and the Pin Man – and that would be fun, make money on a pin of yourself and put it next to the Gabby pin. I will stick to just watching the cartoons thank you very much.
This blog is great thank you for posting all these memories. Really takes me back to the old days in Brooklyn with the black and white tvs and the rabbit ears. Just give me a wonder bread sandwich and some Bosco milk and we were good to go, Gabby was annoying even back then! I liked the Betty’s more. They say these guys like Ray and the Pin guy are going to restore all of them too. Thousands and thousands of dollars and a lotta elbow grease or chutzpah as my Bubbe would say. Miss the old days and simpler times with these toons. Thanks
In reference to the “rotting” cartoons, the challenge is in obtaining 35mm sources on the pre-Paramount films since the negatives have been lost to time and deterioration. In the video presentation of the Mission Statement (prepared by me) there was an example of a deteriorated 35mm print of INVISIBLE INK, which is only known to survive in 16mm Kodascope prints. Mine was scanned for inclusion in the collection, incidentally. It is to our advantage that the Paramount film elements survive and we have gained access to them.
This massive project is like the gathering a collection of library books. While the Paramount period represents the center, it’s the bookends representing 1918-1927 and 1942 to 1951 that has to be included. Surprisingly, many are not aware that Fleischer was active before the sound era and continued in the field after the loss of his studio in 1942. These are areas meriting attention beyond what has already been exposed, as more and more people are finally realizing the value of this important film heritage, which is in its 11th hour of existence.
Paul Revere and the Raiders would release their own version of Chopstics as “Beatnick Sticks” in 1960.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L8cc4RVBBs
My favorite version is the one Wakko did on Animaniacs, with lyrics.
“Chopsticks and chopsticks and chopsticks and chopsticks and chopsticks and chopsticks and chopsticks, chop chop!”
You see the Gabbys, Stone Age Cartoons, and Animated Antics and think, No wonder Paramount wanted to dump the Fleischers. (Not that what came afterward was an improvement.) Aside from Popeye–and even he was beginning to lose his moxie–and the elaborate, pricey (but still not good enough) Supermans, it’s like they gave up, throwing all the creative decisions to Pinto Colvig. “Raggedy Ann” at least showed some effort, but “The Raven” is just a slightly more ambitious Animated Antic in Technicolor. If only they’d had more character and story sense, and less mutual loathing, Max and Dave could have kept Ko-Ko and Bimbo going; they were certainly more appealing than Gabby.
Not good enough? Honestly, what more can you do with “Superman”? I’m not sure Lex Luthor was even introduced when the cartoon started production (although, he was by the time the cartoons were released).
Too bad Darkseid wasn’t created yet.
One of the weaknesses of Fleischer Studios was in the creation of original characters. This was something that executives at Paramount were acutely aware of, and commented on in internal memos when GULLVER’S TRAVELS was being considered.
Remarks such as their doubting that Fleischer had the imagination and the fact that his best successes had been “handed to him. He has not created a Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck.”
When you think about it, they were mostly all derivative. Popeye, which Fleischer Studios gave greater definition to was a licensed character. Betty Boop was a caricature of Helen Kane of sorts, mostly in the voice and the song gimmick. Even Ko-Ko the Clown had is origins in Vaudevillian, Bessie McCoy. Fleischer’s strengths were in technical areas, but weak in character creation. And with the advancing of years and technology, the films and content have to advance with them. So continuing with old established characters would not have been the way to go. Even Betty Boop had worn out her welcome by 1934. But Paramount continued to order her cartoons based on their marquee value, and Fleischer did not offer anything new. I often wondered if things could have been different had Fleischer moved to Los Angeles where they could have benefited from the influence of the creativity and talent pool there. To my eye, Screen Gems was making the type of cartoons visually that Fleischer should have and could have evolved to with their own flair added. But as we all know, the move to Miami was a terrible business action motivated by certain psychological elements and a blindness reality.
Gabby The Goat and this Gabby. Are there anymore annoying cartoon characters named Gabby?
What about Lantz’s Gabby Gator?
He was a ‘Gabby’ that wasn’t annoying.
I never saw a Woody cartoon with that Gabby. I always watched the 1940’s cartoons.
STONE AGE was among the series released in 1940 when Dave Fleischer became Head of production after his constant insistence. FILM DAILY and other Trades announced a SALLY SWING series, but Dave cancelled it in favor of this Stone Age concept. Its failure had nothing to do with the other series that followed since all of these series were committed and released in the same year. These included the anthology series ANIMATED ANTICS, and the GABBY series. Paramount normally ordered 12 entries in each series, but the GABBY cartoons were limited to eight. They were not well received with complaints coming from theater operators. One from Anamosa, Iowa wrote,” Certainly a weak sister. Why this series.”
With the eroding of the Block Booking system, cartoon series could be rented from outside of the studio product line. Paramount lost a great deal of money on these poor cartoons with Popeye having the only value. These cartoons were practically given away to accompany mediocre B pictures. And while the cartoons were originally used as a “warm-up” act, these cartoons were at times used to clear the theaters for the next crowd. Of course Fleischer Studios had a hit the following year with SUPERMAN, which was Max’ deal, but that came too late.
It is very interesting seeing the detailed discussion about the music in the 1940s Fleischer cartoons. First, the discarded song from GULLIVER’S TRAVELS that is heard in several of the cartoons including the Gabby cartoon, THE CONSTABLE and others was originaly written for the spies, called “Pussy Footin’ Around.” It was first used in THE FRESH VEGETABLE MYSTERY (1939). There was another discarded song, “Cheeri-O,” written for the two kings. It had a pleasant melody that would have been a relief to the overused “It’s A Hap-Hap-Happy Day,” which was attached to the Gabby cartoons with an ironic connotation.
One of the identifying elements that defines the Miami period is the music recordings and scores, which were obviously inferior to the New York period. The quality of musicianship was poor, and no amount of tinkering by sound engineers could improve on it. The citing of THE FIRE CHEESE and “The Merry Widow” heard during the fire sequence is a prime example of terrible performance. Several violins are out of tune, and you can hear “spital” tones on the trumpets/trombones. Some have concluded that this was the result of some “cheap” recording apparatus, This had nothing to do with the sound of this orchestra. And since Western Electric was the industry leader in sound films, its license was not “cheap,” nor was its technology. Why would a “cheap” recording method be used to fulfill Paramount’s orders of cartoons? And since sound, and the quality of the music in New York was what gave the Fleischer cartoons their atmospheric identity, this was seriously lost during this period. Many of the 1940s cartoons had great animation, but the viewing experience was ruined by horrible music. MOMMY LOVES PUPPY is one such example where I had to turn the sound off because the music was so dreadful. And this had nothing to do with print quality. As the saying goes, “garbage in, garbage out.” While Fleischer Studios returned to New York the following year to record their music, that did not make up for what happened the year before, which may also be considered as to why those cartoons lost money.
I remember watching:”The Gabby”movie cartoons on a local kids tv cartoon series”Cartoon Playtime”on WNEW TV Ch.5 in NYC..weekday afternoons..as far back as 1958..I liked the little guy..who..no matter what he tries to do..he always louses things up. But..I always felt sympathy for poor”Mr.Gabby”.