Exit Bosko… “So Long, Folks!”
Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising were about to leave – and taking the studio’s most popular character with them. Here is Warner’s last batch of Boskos.
Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising were about to leave – and taking the studio’s most popular character with them. Here is Warner’s last batch of Boskos.
By the end of the 1932-33 movie season, the film industry was seeing light at the end of the tunnel- and the Merrie Melodies continued to plug Warner’s popular published songs.
The Bosko series of Looney Tunes was going on a pace. They have been popular with exhibitors, and they endeavored to plug songs by Warner Brothers’ publishing companies.
By 1932, the Merrie Melodies shorts were carrying their weight. But in some cases, they weren’t necessarily plugging the songs that were to be featured.
During the 1931-32 film season the Warner Brothers cartoon unit started their second series of cartoons, titled “Merrie Melodies”. Here are the songs that inspired them.
The initial 1930-31 Looney Tunes were doing respectably well in the marketplace, as they continued to plug songs from Warner Bros. various publishing companies.
A selection of in-house studio columns I have from the MGM employee publication, the Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studio Club News, 1937-1942.
One of the animated sequences in a live action film I really like is the ‘Walrus and the Carpenter’ scene from the bizarre 1933 Paramount Alice in Wonderland.
On a monthly basis, I will examine each of the notorious Warner Bros. cartoons now collectively known as the “Censored 11”.
Beyond producing cartoons starring humanoid versions of Bosko and Honey at MGM, Harman and Ising also specialized in films starring caricatures of black jazz musicians – as frogs.