Paramount trade ad from December 25th, 1943 (click to enlarge)
October-December 1943
For the first time, a batch of these in-house promo pieces (below) without the one-eyed sailor himself! We do get a panel plugging the first color Popeye one-reeler, Her Honor the Mare, sans Popeye. For once it accurately reflects the drawing style of the picture with this recreation very much inspired by the animated cartoon’s Jim Tyer layouts.
The same can’t be said for the depiction of the “Coming Noveltoon,” The Henpecked Rooster, with its ersatz Herman the Mouse. Given this advertising goof and how wildly off-model Herman was routinely depicted in the Dell Comics drawn by Walt Kelly, it makes me wonder if there was weak interaction between the departments and licensing. Probably a combination of that and no one really caring at the time.
Throughout the ’40s issues of Paramount Sales News, I did see quite a few mentions of George Pal and his Puppetoons, but must admit I didn’t look terribly closely (I’m not a fan of stop-motion). This October 21 example caught my eye though, with the photo of Pal, the Dutch government, and some thoroughly depressed woman posing as “exotic” cheesecake.
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Lulu’s first cartoon, Eggs Don’t Bounce (above), was released on December 24th 1943. Preceding that roughly a month earlier was the first “Blackie” cartoon, the first of Noveltoon series, No Mutton Fer Nuttin’ on November 26th 1943. Here it is below. Famous Studios has now fully arrived!
THAD KOMOROWSKI is a writer, journalist, film restorationist and author of the acclaimed (and recently revised) Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story. He blogs at 
While we’re fully into the new series now (and Famous is fully on it’s way out of Miami and back to New York), the facial design for Mandy is very much a throwback to the Fleischer’s early 1930s look. They’d update that to more of a 1940s look for “:Lulu’s Indoor Outing“, though story-wise as far as how it portrayed Mandy, it was probably the most offensive of the series.
Paramount must have been fond of the Puppetoons. I’ve seen trade ads for Paramount’s short subjects in which the company gave more space to George Pal’s little one-reelers than to all their other shorts product combined.
Well, I suppose the Puppetoons carried more prestige. Seven of Pal’s shorts received Academy Awatd nominations, an honor that wasn’t bestowed on the studio’s cartoons at the time, and Pal himself won an honorary award from the Academy for the series. Critics loved them and they were popular with audiences.
It’s a shame the studio’s animated shorts never got the same TLC from Paramount.
Puppetoons scare me. Few things in life scare me, but Puppetoons do the trick every time.
Can’t wait to see them promote Casper and the ‘Screen Songs’! Those are going to be interesting……
They didn’t. That’s why this series is ending in three weeks.
Really? They didn’t even try to promote the return of the ‘Screen Song’ series or the short lived ‘Land of the Lost’ Noveltoons (or “Gabriel the Church Kitten”)?
They didn’t. That’s why this series is ending in three weeks.
That’s a shame, we were just getting so cozy too!
Though I haven’t figured out what I’ll post, I plan to continue writing about Famous Studios on Mondays – continuing on where Thad leaves off. I can’t think of a better way to begin the week.
Thanks, Jerry. I guess from then on you will cover the rest of Famous’ peak, then the long downward slide.
Here’s a better print of “Eggs Don’t Bounce”. (Though it’s missing the opening titles.) What a difference!
Little Lulu in MusicaLulu and Bout with a Trout,had dream sequences. The man in those cartoons reminds me of “Bill Bittinger”, the character played by Dabney Coleman, who was punished for being a bigot in the “Hit the Road, Newdell,” episode of Buffalo Bill (1983).
Little Lulu in MusicaLulu and Bout with a Trout,had dream sequences. The girl in those cartoons reminds me of “Bill Bittinger”, the character played by Dabney Coleman, who was punished for being a bigot in the “Hit the Road, Newdell,” episode of Buffalo Bill (1983).