The Harman/Ising Studios Have never really gotten the credit they deserve for the evolution and improvements in character animation that they deserve. Hugh Harman’s animation hasn’t really either, compared to his contemporaries. Their work at their own studio all the way through the 30s steadily improved in design, drawing and character animation, keeping pace and sometimes outpacing their other contemporaries. Many of the artists that got their start at the studio ended up being among the most creative and productive artists in the golden age and beyond. Why is it that the studio never receives the same accolades as others?
Perhaps the cards were stacked against the studio in both of their major partnerships from the start. Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising never achieved the same public fanfare as other producers. Of course the big studios took most of the accolades for the achievements of most of the cartoon contractors, and even though Harman and Ising had their names at the front of the MGM cartoons throughout, the general public didn’t have much else to associate them with to help them stand out as the producers of actual series. Perhaps the nature of the few series they produced also lent themselves less to a better branding.
After they ended their association with MGM, there was never a time where the characters they created were marketable again.
By 1933, as the studio’s output had achieved a solidity in their slickness of production, they parted ways with Warners/ Schlesinger for a similar reason that Disney’s deal with Mintz ended- a request per film for larger and larger budgets. One wishes that the studio could have had the same ability as others to survive their attempts at further improvements.
Of course most of you folks reading this know these things and more, but I think it’s fascinating to watch some of the best of the 1933 films with knowledge of their work at Disney and their earlier pictures.
So, that said, here’s a print of I Like Mountain Music. I think it’s the first of the many ‘Magazine comes to life’ pictures through the 30s. It’s not surprising they made more films with this theme, as did Warners, who had many artists who worked on films for H-I early in their careers.
I especially like the drawing in this film- so solid and detailed – especially “Ping Pong” the gorilla near the end. While their attempts at a more realistic skater leave something to be desired, there is a great attempt to make this short the best it can be- and it shows on screen.
I’d love to hear your opinions on this one as well.
Have a good week all!
Steve Stanchfield is an animator, educator and film archivist. He runs Thunderbean Animation, an animation studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan and has compiled over a dozen archival animation DVD collections devoted to such subjects at Private Snafu, The Little King and the infamous Cubby Bear. Steve is also a professor at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.
When I watched the Harman-Ising cartoons on TV as a young boy, I always assumed that “Harman-Ising” was simply a brand name, a quirky misspelling of “harmonising”. I remember how surprised I was to learn, later on, that Harman and Ising were the actual names of the people who ran the animation studio. So that may be a factor in their comparative lack of recognition. What are the odds that two men whose surnames combined so harmoniously would go into business together? It would be like a Mr. Fried partnering with a Mr. Rice to open a Chinese restaurant.
As for the improvements in the Harman-Ising output, I don’t think those really kicked in substantively until they moved on to MGM and began to get the larger budgets that Schlesinger had denied them. The Cubby Bear cartoons that they made in 1933 do stand out from the others in the series, but only in details of style; they’re not palpably superior in quality to what Van Beuren was putting out at the same time. “I Love Mountain Music” still has a lot of the trademark Freleng bouncing and elbow-flapping that you see in the early Bosko cartoons. Still, they skillfully coordinate a very large cast of characters, some of whom are outstanding. The gorilla, as you say, really steals the show, and the animation of the criminal gang shows a lot of personality.
It’s funny that Benito Mussolini orders his Black Shirts to charge from the pages of “Correct Time” magazine, as TIME magazine’s founder and editor-in-chief, Henry Luce, was such a fervent admirer of Il Duce that around the office he was surreptitiously referred to as “Il Luce.” Gum-chewing cowboy Will Rogers, who also appears in this cartoon, was another fan of Mussolini, whom he interviewed in 1926 for the Saturday Evening Post; the Post’s editor, Richard Washburn Child, translated Mussolini’s autobiography into English and ran it in the magazine as a serial. Since, in the cartoon, the Black Shirts enter the fray on the side of the “good guys,” I have to wonder whether the Italian fascist leader might have had some supporters at the Harman-Ising studio as well, or whether they were merely mocking TIME’s editorial position.
Why did Harman and Ising create cartoons for Van Beuren when he already had his own animation studio?
Van Beuren fired much of his animation staff, including his principal directors John Foster, Mannie Davis and Eddie Donnelly, for suspected union activity. Harman and Ising then made a deal with Van Beuren to produce the Cubby Bear cartoons. After completing just two of them, they left due to a contract dispute and went on to better things at MGM.
One curious note: the only publication shown under its real name if “National Geographic”….perhaps because it is and was published by a non-profit organization?
There are a fair number of magazines you see with their real names, if only in glimpses. At 0:40, in the establishing shot of the magazine rack, you can see Vanity Fair, Whiz Bang, the Literary Digest and Ladies’ Home Journal as well as “Popular Mechanic.” Whiz Bang, Asia and the Saturday Evening Post can be seen in the repeated cycle animation first used at 1.39. Physical Culture, seen at 2.13 (and faintly in the magazine rack) was a real magazine, and we also see The Literary Digest again. Liberty can be seen, semi-hidden, in the background, at 4.10 and again at 4.29, along with what’s likely Redbook and Photoplay.
Police Gazette, too.
This cartoon is included as a bonus on a recent Warner Archive release – Gay Divorcee I think – and we showed it to our Friday Night Movies gang. It was a huge hit.
Pretty alright early Harman-Ising cartoon from 1933. Pretty much a prototype for later WB shorts like Speaking of the Weather or the immortal classic, Book Revue.
The questionable Mussolini cameo during the climax kinda reminds me of Bosko’s Picture Show with the Hitler caricature chasing Jimmy Durante. I can’t speak for the opinions or feelings of these artists, but it’s pretty fascinating to witness the lax attitude towards those two before their threat to the world was inevitable
A four-year-old copy of American Business on the shelf gathering dust — No Sale! 1929 was the year of the Crash, so people were probably not interested in the American businesses that had wiped out their life savings.
How many of these “objects come alive” shorts were made? I’ve seen them with books, toys, paintings. . .this could be a subject for a column, if it hasn’t been done yet.
Off the cuff: Book Revue, Speaking of the Weather, I Like Mountain Music, You’re an Education, and Have You Got Any Castles? Goofy Groceries might well qualify, as well.
I think A Coy Decoy and Billboard Frolics can be qualified as well. And these are just for WB. After leaving for MGM, Harman and Ising continued to make cartoons with such subjects.
I have a “come to life” tag I can add to cartoons in my personal collection database. Over the years I see I’ve marked 46 titles as being either “come to life” in their entirety or that have a notable amount of it. All being my own criteria and definitions, of course. Here we go: Midnight in a Toyshop; The China Plate; The Clock Store; The Tree’s Knees; Red-Headed Baby; A Toytown Tale; A Great Big Bunch of You; Three’s a Crowd; Lullaby Land; The Night Before Christmas; Silvery Moon; We’re in the Money; The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon; Parade of the Wooden Soldiers; The China Shop; The Brave Tin Soldier; The Queen of Hearts; Beauty and the Beast; How Do I Know It’s Sunday; The Girl at the Ironing Board; The Miller’s Daughter; Broken Toys; The Good Little Monkeys; Buddy Steps Out; Little Dutch Plate; Billboard Frolics; Bottles; Toy Town Hall; Puppet Show; Merry Mannequins; Speaking of the Weather; September in the Rain; Gifts from the Air; Have You Got Any Castles?; Wholly Smoke; You’re an Education; Sniffles and the Bookworm; The Bookworm Turns; Goofy Groceries; A Coy Decoy; Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy; $21 a Day (Once a Month); Lights Fantastic; Book Revue; Toys Will Be Toys; Tarts and Flowers.
For a 1990s version of a “things come to life” cartoon, I recommend the first half of the Animaniacs episode “Video Review/When Mice Ruled the Earth.”
Harman-Ising do deserve a little more love considering they got what ultimately became the two best cartoon comedy studios into the business. But my very favorite of theirs are the first five Merrie Melodies with Foxy and Piggy. There is an energy in them that was like no other and show they could have rivaled the Fleischers for humor and marrying animation to music. The unfairly surpressed Hittin’ the Trail for Hallelujah Land is the “meta” Warner house style in a primordial form, what with Simon Legree randomly showing up in the last few seconds just to add needless conflict to the picture. (Makes me wonder if Mike Maltese remembered this one for the absurd and brilliant end of Mississippi Hare.)
There certainly are some fairly cutting edge references in the cartoon; King Kong had only been released a scant three months before the cartoon was released, inclusive of the production process. Likewise (and more in keeping with general WB practice), “42nd Street,” whistled by the lead gangster, had come out at the same time. It might be surprising to see Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in a relatively heroic role in the cartoon, but as of 1933, when he’d been in power for a decade, he was still seen as at least somewhat respectable (hard as it may be to contemplate), owing to the “making trains run on time” concept. Mussolini’s image wouldn’t start to sharply decline until the Italo-Ethiopian War a few years later. Note also the congressman (in front of Congressional Magazine) is hoisting a seidel of beer — the legalization of light wines and beer had occurred in March of 1933, with the Cullen-Harrison Act. (That, and the 42nd Street and King Kong references, make me think that this cartoon was written in March or April of 1933, in spite of the “May 1933” tags you see on a lot of the magazines.) You’ll notice “Whiz Bang” in the cycle footage has a reference “Nasty Humor.” Whiz Bang had a pungent reputation for raunchy humour, and was constantly skating at the edge of what could be allowed in the mails. The reference to “Police Gazette” is interesting, in that the magazine had suspended operations in February of 1932, to re-emerge in September, 1933.
The “May 1933″ dates on the magazines may show keen observation by the artists drawing it in March or April. The date on a magazine cover has been used as a ” best if sold before” indicator, with it being removed from the newsstand as “stale” on that date. (I tried a quick image search for one of the more remarked results of this, Christmas themes on the covers of January issues. LIFE seems to have kept that to December, but the weekly LIBERTY has Santa there on December 30, 1933.)
“I Like Mountain Music” is a pretty good cartoon. They made fun of Edward G. Robinson, Will Rogers, Benito Mussolini, and King Kong. Very good animation.
Who is the monocled guy in front of Motion Picture magazine? The pianist in the “They laughed as I sat down at the piano” ad? The violinist in Music Magazine? His pal popping out of Radio news?
The man with the monocle is George Arliss, top-billed star of several Warner features. Already a major stage star when he came to Hollywood, he played historical figures in big biopics and shrewd Foxy Grandpa types in comedy vehicles. In “Mother Goose Goes Hollywood” he appears briefly, playing a saxophone.
The violinist is Dave Rubinoff, who was a featured performer on the radio show of Eddie Cantor (“The Chase and Sanborn Hour”), who is caricatured at right, pulling off the beard. (“Jimmy” would be Jimmy Wallington, who was the announcer on Cantor’s show.). You’ll see Rubinoff and Cantor again in the ca. 1935 short “Billboard Frolics.” The monocled gentleman in the cycle-animation in front of Motion Picture magazine might well be intended to be George Arliss, the British actor who was a significant star in the early sound era for Warner Bros., and who is caricatured in a number of cartoons of the 1930s. The pianist is probably Ignacy Paderewiski, the well-known Polish pianist (and occasional politician.
Thanks! The pianist, though, isn’t Paderewski. Paderewski never grew a beard, even in his old age.
I respectfully disagree on that point; Paderewski did have a small goatee which is quite similar to the caricature you see in this cartoon (and, for that matter, in the Scrappy cartoon “The Worlds Affair,” also from 1933).
I’ll take this opportunity to say that one of my “wishlist” items is for there to be a good – maybe Warner Archives – release of at least one Blu-Ray of the best of the Happy Harmonies cartoons. Not all were great but there’s enough gems that could fill a disk if selected by people in the know.
I think the animation style of the cartoons produced by Harman-Ising was better than Disney’s; it’s a shame that both animation studios are reduced to mere imitators. I’d like to point out that Harman and Ising were set to begin production on a feature-length animated film as early as 1934—at the same time as Disney. Unfortunately, unlike Disney, Harman-Ising were unable to secure enough funding for their project, and Disney has unfairly gone down in history as the first producer of feature-length films.
“Mere imitators”? Seriously?
I saw it on the PBS show “Matinee at the Bijou,” but the print they used was re-titled “Magazine Rack.” Yeah, the fat-legged Sonia Henie caricature struck me as weird.
This was the first Harman and Ising cartoon I saw, albeit the hand colorized version. An interesting objects come to life entry in the late WB chapter of H&I’s career. A Looney Tunes genre that is largely unknown to the casual viewer.
I do agree that they are terribly underrated. (Although Harman’s work can be aimless and puzzling, beautifully illustrated as it is). I would like to see more written about them and articles about specific titles, such as this one. (Even moreso a Bluray collection of their MGM years)
The redrawn version was the first copy I saw as well, and I think it was on Cartoon Network’s Toonheads no less! I remember being surprised that those 60s redraws reached back as far as 1933 as I thought they were mainly the Porky and Daffy cartoons from the later 30s/early 40s.
Toonheads is where I saw it as well. The Harman-Ising Merrie Melodies and the Popeye colorizations were actually done by Turner in the 90s. Even though computer colorization technology was available, hand colorization was done instead because it was cheaper. I can’t picture how the former could have been computer colorized, at least the more primitive ones
When wonderfully I saw this on your fantastic You Tube channel, Steve, I thought they prolly got the idea from the 1933 Chicago Exposition (same year) that I believe had a feature “Magazines Come to Life” display with live people standing in a frame with the magazine logo replicating actual covers. For this there were the popular magazines of the day including, I recall, semi nude “art” magazines. I recall seeing pics of this display in a vintage “art” magazine, but I’ll be darned if I can find anything now on the interwebs to confirm any details. Keep up the great work!