Season’s Greetings to all of you, from the Cartoon Research crew.
What would this day be without an obscure holiday-themed Terrytoon? Our gift to you this year is: Toyland (1932). Courtesy of Milton Knight, here are some animator identifications:
Jerry Shields did most of the undernourished toy land parade; Santa & dogs sequence: Art Babbitt. Happy chimney: Frank Moser. “Puss in Boots”: Art Babbitt. Dog barks at soldiers: Art Babbitt. Kittens wake up, play with Xmas tree: Bill Tytla. Mice fighting: Bill Tytla. ‘Dancing’ portraits: Frank Moser. Santa downhill, stops at house: Frank Moser. Santa at end: Frank Moser.
While we are at it, let’s throw in this live action bonus: Howdy Doody’s Christmas (1957) featuring Dayton Allen (Heckle and Jeckle, Deputy Dawg, et al) as an escaped convict, and stock footage from Flash Gordon serials (the rocket ship). Good Clean Christmas Fun!
(Seasons Greetings!)
Jerry Beck is a writer, animation producer, college professor and author of more than 15 books on animation history. He is a former studio exec with Nickelodeon Movies and Disney, and has written for The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He has curated cartoons for DVD and Blu-ray compilations and has lent his expertise to dozens of bonus documentaries and audio commentaries on such. Beck is currently on the faculty of CalArts in Valencia, UCLA in Westwood and Woodbury University in Burbank – teaching animation history. More about Jerry Beck [
Dayton Allen was a regular on the “Howdy Doody” show. He was a puppeteer and voice actor (for Mr. Bluster, the Flub-a-Dub and Inspector John J. Fedoozle) and live characters (Lanky Lou, Pierre the Chef, Sir Archibald, Ugly Sam). In this clip, he is Ugly Sam, a wrestler (not an “escaped convict”). In the guise of Sam, he always wore an old-fashioned striped swimsuit.
I have that Howdy Doody short on several public-domain Christmas DVD collections, but those copies are all as red as Rudolph’s nose; thanks for posting this clean copy! Merry Christmas!
The film itself was technically in black & white to begin with, so perhaps that was an attempt by the video company to sepia-tone their print of the film if they did so for the release. Video companies know how to screw around.
Not bad for a Terrytoons! Of course the Howdy Doody has to be the cheapest thing I’ve seen.
The production values were up from the TV show.
They showed “Howdy Doody’s Christmas” on the former WJAN-TV 17 Canton, Ohio in the early 1970’s as a low budget filler during the holidays.
Bet their got their money’s worth there.
omg! I had NEVER seen that Terry!! That is great!!! Thank you!!!
Jerry, the correct year for HOWDY DOODY’S CHRISTMAS is 1951. At this point, Clarabell was being played by the original actor to play him (somebody named Bob Keeshan!)…and thanks, Karl, for the fill-in! YOU would know! :-)!
@ Robert Barker: If you think THIS one was cheap, the other Castle Flm they did was even cheaper! HOWDY DOODY’S FUNLAND was nothing more than a filmed brief wraparound to a European stop-motion puppet film with no dialogue in that part of it! THAT was CHEEEEAAAAPPP! :-(!
Castle Films had a lot of cheap “original” stinkers back then like this MST3K classic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URZeA6jOUdE
Of course going back to Christmas, this was there perennial favorite…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXVFhF94eUQ
1951 would make more sense of a curious piece of ‘product placement’ – when they are stumbling around Santa’s workshop (5:26) the lights come on to show a model display based on Ginger Nutt’s Christmas Circus(1949), one of David Hand’s cartoons for Rank’s Gaumont-British Animation. I’m guessing the display had been made to promote the films, and the accompanying merchandise. My first thought was that the props man had discovered it somewhere, but on a second look it appears to be a bit of found footage edited in, like the rocket and the animated sleigh.
Wouldn’t surprise me, speaking of which, I recall hearing someplace of Ginger Nutt’s Christmas Circus also having aired on Howdy Doody as well, though the cartoon was edited to not include references to Christmas since they aired it outside the holiday.
According to Scott MacGillivray, the supremo maven on Castle Films, “Toyland” served as the centerpiece for an early Castle Christmas release called simply “Christmas Cartoon,” surrounded by a live action sequence in which Dad sets up the 16mm projector and screen to show the film to his family.
Want to see what has to be the cheesiest Christmas short (and creepiest Santa Claus) ever? Try this link…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ8p5lXouzg
(PS: If anyone has a print to trade, please contact me!)