A look at a springtime cartoon soundtrack album filled with rich, creamy storylines and a sweet bunny at its center, generously coated with superb voice work.
Rankin/Bass Present
THE FIRST EASTER RABBIT
Complete Original TV Soundtrack
Rankin/Bass Promotional Album (Sunshine Biscuits) F4RM-0019 (12” 33 1/3 RPM / Mono)
Released in 1976. Producer/Directors: Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass. Teleplay: Romeo Muller. Musical Director: Maury Laws. Cover Art/Character Design: Paul Coker, Jr. Sound Effects: Tom Clack. Sound Technicians: Dave Iveland, John Curcio, Don Hahn. Running Time: 25 minutes.
Voices: Burl Ives (Narrator, G.B. Bunny); Robert Morse (Stuffy); Stan Freberg (Flops); Paul Frees (Spats, Zero, Santa Claus); Don Messick (Whiskers, Dr. Jonathan, Brrruce); Joan Gardner (Calliope, Elizabeth); Dina Lynn (Glinda); Christine Winter.
Songs: “There’s That Rabbit” by Maury Laws and Jules Bass; “Easter Parade” by Irving Berlin.
Rankin/Bass confused many a tot with three specials for three networks that told contradictory stories of the Easter Bunny’s origins: the stop-motion films Here Comes Peter Cottontail for CBS and The Easter Bunny is Comin’ to Town for ABC, and this hand-drawn half-hour for NBC.
At least one could reconcile the two stop-motion specials chronologically. Sunny Bunny develops into the iconic identity in The Easter Bunny is Comin’ to Town and Peter Cottontail simply seeks the already established position in his story.
The First Easter Rabbit completely rewrites the “origin”, borrowing a page or two from Margery Williams’ 1922 story, The Velveteen Rabbit. Little Glinda is given a plush bunny as a gift and names it Stuffy. Then she is stricken with an illness that necessitates all of her belongings to be burned, including Stuffy. But that night, a fairy named Calliope appears at random to assign Stuffy to become the Easter Bunny. He plys his trade in magical Easter Valley, but also joins a recovered Glinda in the “real world” for an Easter parade.
It sounds simple, but longtime Rankin/Bass writer Romeo Muller piled so many more situations and exposition into The First Easter Rabbit, one wonders if it was intended to fill a full hour. There are three crafty-but-lovable rabbits who hatch a plan to tunnel under the garden and grab carrots. There’s also a wizard named Zero who, with his blobby little snowball henchman Brrruce (one of R/B’s most appealing characters), steals the Easter Lily and brings winter to the valley.
Zero doesn’t get time to cause much trouble. Santa threatens to move away from their mutual North Pole hometown if Zero doesn’t return the lily (similar in tone to Santa’s threat to withhold presents from Professor Hinkle in Frosty the Snowman). Zero backs down for several reasons, chief among them the loss of Mrs. Claus’ home cooking (Frees surely ad libbed that wonderful line about missing out on “those little noodles.”)
In today’s context of fast-paced storytelling, the overlapping plotlines actually keep the special fresh. It’s got a great voice cast—including Stan Freberg in his sole Rankin/Bass role. So the best thing to do is to piggyback this show with the other two specials and play them as you fill baskets with treats and dunk hard-boiled eggs in fizzy Paas solutions, stopping every few minutes tell the little tots about the days when there were three TV networks and each wanted a Rankin/Bass special no matter how much they contradicted each other…
GIVE A LITTLE LISTEN
“Easter Parade”
This rendition of the Irving Berlin classic follows Maury Laws’ two-tier song format, in which a few lyrics are spoken sung informally in an airy free tempo, before transitioning into a more structured, but gentle rhythm. Other examples of this in Rankin/Bass specials include “Winter Wonderland” in Frosty’s Winter Wonderland and “White Christmas” in The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow.
HERE COMES PETER COTTONTAIL
Mr. Pickwick Records SPC-5145 (12” 33 1/3 RPM / Stereo & Enhanced Mono)
Available for download on iTunes and amazon [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00481WIYS/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp]
Released in 1975. Producer: “Bugs” Bower. Musical Direction: “Bugs” Bower, Maury Laws, Warren Vincent, Lew Raymond. Running Time: 34 minutes.
Performers: Ben Zeppa, Bill Marine, Betty Wells, Ron Marshall, Norman Rose, Dorothy Season, Jim Pollack, The Overtones, The Playmates, Berlin Symphony Orchestra.
Songs: “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins; “The Little White Duck”; “A Tisket, A Tasket” (Traditional); “The Bunny Hop” by Ray Anthony and Leonard Auletti; “Rubber Duckie” by Jeffrey Moss; “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” by Allie Wrubel and Ray Gilbert; “Easter Parade” by Irving Berlin; “Quacky Duck”.
Stories: “Hetty the Hen” with Music by Warren Vincent, “Peter Rabbit and the Search for Flopsy’s Tale” with Music by Maury Laws, “The Ugly Duckling” with Excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.
The reason this album is included is Maury Laws, who worked with such budget labels as Cricket, Pickwick and Peter Pan in his early days as a New York composer. Another name associated with Laws’ work is Tom Pollack, who sang on Cricket Records and later became a partner in the music production firm Forrell, Thomas and Pollack, whose projects include the excellent Firestone Christmas albums and the songs in the first Rankin/Bass special, Return to Oz, for which Laws was an orchestrator. Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass worked in advertising before their partnership and FTP must have been among their associates in the early days.
The album itself, like a lot of the “Mr. Pickwick” records of the ‘70s, is a compilation of previously released single records from the Cricket library. Reissues of Cricket and Happy Time LPs, as well as a few new titles, rounded out the Mr. Pickwick catalog. Several of these records are now available for download—good news for those who had these records as kids and would like to revisit them without all the scratches.
The most notable track on the album, from the standpoint of today’s mores and issues, is an allegorical fable about racism called “Hetty the Hen,” in which a chicken inexplicably starts laying multi-colored eggs. The other animals shun her and her fellow hens refuse to lay eggs until she is removed. “We don’t want a ‘something like that’ living near,” they say. The sound quality and arrangements place “Hetty the Hen” somewhere in the ‘60s, in the midst of the civil rights movement. Several Mr. Pickwick compilations in the ‘70s and ‘80s continued to include this track, and the message still remains relevant within the deceptively simple context of a vintage “kiddie record”.
Also of note: “Rubber Duckie” sung by Ron Marshall, who we talked about a few weeks back; likable versions of standards like “Easter Parade”, “Bunny Hop” and the title track, and “The Ugly Duckling” narrated by master voice artist Norman Rose, who among many things, was a house announcer for NBC in the sixties.
GIVE A LITTLE LISTEN
“Peter Rabbit and the Search for Flopsy’s Tail”
Even though the orchestra is small in this cutesy musical story, you can hear the trademark accents and flourishes that would later distinguish Maury Laws’ work for Rankin/Bass. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the process of a great musician setting the groundwork for what would become his signature style.
GREG EHRBAR is a freelance writer/producer for television, advertising, books, theme parks and stage. Greg has worked on content for such studios as Disney, Warner and Universal, with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. His numerous books include Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records (with Tim Hollis). Visit 
Maury Laws music was always tops and his orchestrations always complimented each Rankin Bass special to the point where you can’t think of the visual without the music!
Incidentally, Ron Marshall eventually sang on the actual “Sesame Street”. One of the songs he sang, “Doing the Penguin” (from episode 3145) ended up on one of Sesame Street cassette / CD albums (“Hot Hot Dance Songs”).
Besides telling contradictory stories, the Rankin/Bass Easter specials also had another unique factor: they relied heavily on Christmas themes for exploring Easter. By the time they started making Easter specials, the R/B folks had pretty nearly mastered the art of the Christmas special. They doubtless felt very comfortable relying on Christmas motifs.
Easter stories for children would be difficult to write, especially as Easter centers around the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. It’s much easier to write a Christmas story that refers to the Nativity, because Christmas isn’t about such heavy duty themes as Easter. If one is focusing on the more secular aspects of Easter, there is even less to work with–aside from bunnies and Easter eggs, what is left? It’s little wonder that the Rankin/Bass Easter specials focused so much on Christmas.
Many other holidays including Christmas are visited in the course of “Peter Cottontail,” and “The First Easter Rabbit” begins with a Christmas gift. Then in “Easter Bunny is Comin’ to Town,” the story is narrated by Special Delivery Kluger, the postman who was first introduced in “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town.” The entire title of “Easter Bunny” is taken directly from the “Santa Claus” title–making an even more blatant tie in–although the actual story of “Easter Bunny” is the only one that doesn’t directly tie Santa Claus into the story line.
How do you write an Easter special? Simple–you write a Christmas special and then rework it for Easter! The formula certainly worked for R/B–their Easter specials, though contradictory and though they rely heavily on Christmas, are delightful stories.
There’s also Maury Laws’ work for TIME Records to hear him before his R/B days 🙂 http://www.planetearthrecords.co.uk/ekmps/shops/planetearthrec/images/maury-laws-laws-for-dancing-lp-vinyl-record-album-33rpm-time-oriole-1962-25502-p%5Bekm%5D288x288%5Bekm%5D.jpg
So which of the three Easter specials would everyone say is the tops? I mean, if you only have time for one R/B Christmas special, you watch “Rudolph” right? So which Easter special is essential? Or, as Greg suggests, do you just run with the bunny marathon next Sunday? I haven’t seen any of them, and I’ll admit the the three different titles always confuse me.
JP,
I like all three but “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” is Rankin/Bass storytelling, design, music and voice acting at its best.
My pick would be “Easter Bunny is Comin’ to Town.” It seems to me the most fully realized of the three–although there is much to enjoy in the other two, as well. And instead of relying on other holidays, it focuses on Easter (even though the title and narrator are derived from Christmas specials). I enjoy the whole concept of “Kidville” and “Lily Longtooth” (a sly parody of Lily Langtree). I also enjoy “Someone’s Gotta Be First” which is sung when the soldiers are debating whether or not to sample the hard-boiled Easter egg. I think it’s the most satisfying of the three.
If you haven’t seen any of them–I highly recommend that you start with “The First Easter Rabbit,” then go to “Peter Cottontail” and finish off with “Easter Bunny.” It makes a nice progression, as it goes from stories that are derivative of other holidays to one that focuses on Easter.
Rankin Bass had something like a DC / Marvel universe going for a long time, what with sequels and crossovers and consistency of design and execution (Even the one about Smokey the Bear had a “told and sung by” narrator, in that case James Cagney as Smokey’s older brother).
I figured it as the end of an era when they did L. Frank Baum’s life of Santa, which jettisoned all the familiar trappings in favor of “serious” fantasy. Looking back, it was the original Dark and Gritty Reboot.
Norman Rose’s voice was heard on “Deteriorata,” the National Lampoon parody of Les Crane’s recording of “Desiderata.” He had been at NBC a while; he was narrator on “Dimension X” in the early ’50s.
Maury Laws, Romeo Muller and Paul Coker Jr. were perhaps the three that really set the style for the R-B holiday specials.
Ah, that distinctive Paul Coker Jr. hand-lettering. I’ve loved it since I was a kid.