Happy late July folks. It’s Thunderbean Thursday on a Friday this week, due to the loss of June Foray. I want to thank Jim Korkis for trading places with me this week – and penning that beautiful remembrance that appeared here on Cartoon Research yesterday. June was everything you heard she was – a beautiful, giving person, a pioneer in seeking recognition of animation as an important art form decades ago, when the medium was not as popular as it is today. She was a major part of the reason animation is so popular today. We have a lot to thank her for.
In the Thunderbean Dungeon:
I’ve started to think about this period as being kind of like the King, the Mouse and the Cheese or, perhaps more like this:
At Thunderbean, the finishing touches just got done today on Hollywood Rarities after adding and changing and fixing and reconsidering order on some things. Having it in the can take at least one of these off the plate, and onto the other stuff again. Things are shipping daily right now, so watch your mailboxes if you have some of the special sets ordered- and thanks much again for supporting the things!
For all of you folks in New York, if youre able to come out to Brooklyn, The Animation Block Party is this weekend! I’ll be there – so if you see me say “hi!”. On Saturday at 4:30, the festival is showing a 35mm showing of Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure. Its the films 40th Anniversary this year, so a showing in New York is very appropriate!
Animator Dan Haskett and Doug Crane will be there for a Q&A with our own Jerry Beck, and I’ll be talking a little about the films history and production as well as talking for the first time publicly about the current attempt to license and restore the film. It’s a sorted story that includes publishers, families, lost paperwork and even some international intrigue involving the CIA! While the print that showing isn’t restored per se, its a nice, rare 35mm print of the film. Let’s hope all works out and that this film finally gets an actual HD release in its original scope format.
A HUNT FOR THE ORIGINAL TITLES!
So I thought I’d take a quick diversion today and rather than talk about the stuff weve found and are working on, instead talk very specifically about what were looking for right now perhaps in the hopes that perhaps someone here actually knows where one of these things are. None of these are my Holy Grail’s really, but they are all things I do hope will show up before we finish a few particular sets. Of course I have my usual go-to folks for many things, but there are plenty more just sitting on the shelf of one collector or another too. If that collector is you, consider sharing these with the world – I would personally be forever grateful.
Here are the things that are currently at the top of the Thunderbean list to track down:
1) Original titles for Flip the Frog in “Funny Face” (1933)
This particular title sequence is out there- in fact, it showed up in a 35mm nitrate print on Ebay within the last few years with it! Sadly, I missed it as did my friends. Maybe you know who got that print..or maybe *you* got that print! Anyway, were hoping to do a scan of the opening sequence since its missing from all the materials weve seen so far.
This is NOT the original title card from “Funny Face”
2) Lost FLIP Titles: Here are the other Flip’s that we currently don’t have original title sequences for:
Pale Face, Coo Coo the Magician, Techno Cracked, Bulloney (only have German Version), A Chinaman’s Chance, Soda Squirt
3) Rainbow Parade Cartoons
Sadly, my list looking for original titles on the Rainbow Parade’s is longer- although shorter than in previous years. For you that know these things, I have the Commonwealth and/ or Gutlohn titles on pretty much all the ones they released, but have managed to find 35mm with original titles sequences except for these eight. Do you have any of these original title sequences on a film print? Please note: dont be fooled by the titles I recreated years back on the Rainbow Parade DVD on these.
Pastry Town Wedding
(we only have the 1940 reissue titles that were done for Cushmans, the Guthohn and Official films)
Parrotville Fire Department
Parrotville Old Folks
Merry Kittens
The Rag Dog
The Hunting Season
Scotty Finds a Home
Bird Scouts
Have a good week folks!
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.
Steve, I think you mean a “sordid” story, not a “sorted” one.
Sorry! Spell check strikes again!
Your New York talk sounds like it will be very interesting (not that I can afford to go there from the UK).
I’ve only been aware of the Raggedy Ann & Andy film since you linked the clip of ‘The Greedy’ recently – & what a clip!
Since then I’ve got a quite watchable copy (from a vhs originally I think) – & what a great film it is! And it really takes of from about the point where they meet the rundown hallucinating camel & is superb from then until the end, what with King Coo Coo (if that’s his name; – the King of the Loonies) & everything.
The songs are (mostly) quite good though the 2 wooden female dolls were a bit irritating.
Overall a tremendous achievement.
And quite a lot of it definitely psychedelic – I wonder if it is well known to people who are afficiondos of psychedelic films.
Thanks so much for making me aware of it Steve.
And it would be marvellous if a proper restoration is released as you mention may happen.
Oh, how disheartening to hear that “SODA SQUIRTS”, perhaps my favorite FLIP THE FROG cartoon, doesn’t have the original title sequence as of this moment. I am pulling for you finding that, and I hope it does show up on Ebay or something.
I know how it feels to lose out on offers made through Ebay. I once heard that a set of “LINUS THE LION-HEARTED” original shows, with uncut opening credits, was once being sold there, but it has since been stopped! I would have loved to have that one in my collection. Anyway, I can only offer hope that you locate all the missing materials so you can reassemble all this stuff into a fantasticly cohesive set of FLIP THE FROG shorts. To me, right now, these are indeed the Holy Grail because of all that great music.
I also look forward to someday buying a full restoration of the film, “KING OF JAZZ” with Paul Whiteman and animation by the Walter Lantz Studios. I recently found, on You Tube, a stunning recording of “Rhapsody in Blue”, as performed in 1924 by Paul Whiteman with George Gershwin on the keys. Utterly amazing, but you cannot buy it on CD…yet! Here’s to Holy Grails and may we never stop searching the stuff down. I never say “never”, even though so many people tell me that “it couldn’t be done”. Hopefully, there will always be a collector who wants to share the memories and brilliance with the rest of the world!
Good luck with the screening. My favorite scene (and song) from the film was the “Blue” sequence with the camel. Art Babbit did a great job with that scene.
Helen Reddy did a cover version of (Saggy And)Blue on her 1978 LP
WE’LL SING IN THE SUNSHINE. It’s a more uptempo version that the original
She also did on “The Muppet Show”.
Have you found “The Foxy Terrier” yet?
Best regards, Mark
There is a restored print of Raggedy Ann and Andy of you tube
It not only restores the original 20th Century Fox logo at the beginning but also restores the complete end credit
sequence which was mutilated for TV showings and VHS releases.
Here’s a link Steve.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4NP7pmvanc
Nice job. It’s a shame most of original titles for the pre-1952 MGM cartoon shorts are lost forever.
Jerry and Steve,
I’m so sorry I missed the BAM showing of “Raggedy Ann and Andy”! What a week for me to get a bad summer cold! I do hope you can get it released someday, as I’ve never seen it.
I also missed a Tommy Stathes “Cartoon Carnival” on Friday! Sorry, Tommy!