Classic movie site with rare images, original ads, and behind-the-scenes photos, with informative and insightful commentary. We like to have fun with movies!
Archive and Links
grbrpix@aol.com
Search Index Here




Saturday, January 21, 2006




Cartoons, Theatres, and TV --- Part 3


With so many cartoons choking the airwaves during the 1957-58 season, it’s no wonder exhibitors saw red. As far as they were concerned, theatres had been betrayed by the very industry they’d supported for over half a century. Saturday business was virtually a write-off as far as once loyal kid audiences were concerned. TV westerns and sci-fi programs had obliterated the "B" westerns and serials, once a mainstay for weekend showmen, and comedy shorts were essentially gone. Only Columbia bothered with these, as The Three Stooges limped along toward the end of their twenty-five year run for the company. They say television didn’t really penetrate every part of the country until 1956. Sounds right enough, for 1956 was sure a year for transition. First you had the massive studio dump of theatrical features and cartoons to TV; then the serials ended with Columbia’s Blazing The Overland Trail. Universal had just let go Abbott and Costello, and wrapped up the Francis and Ma and Pa Kettles. Series features were by now too much like television shows, and TV was free besides. Here in the south, we tended to run about ten years behind the rest of the country anyway, so much of the old product hung on a lot longer for us. Greenbriar has been astonished by what occasional searches of old newspaper ads reveal about the longevity of older product in southern houses. First off, we had serials running full-tilt right through to the mid-sixties; long after the rest of the country had abandoned them. I remember seeing Panther Girl Of The Kongo at our Liberty Theatre in 1967, having already caught a few chapters of the same serial on television several years before. The "Circle K" was a kid’s service organization during the sixties (may still be), and their Greensboro, NC chapter ran The Purple Monster Strikes for meetings at the Carolina Theatre in the summer of 1966. While the rest of the country was "discovering" the old serials and celebrating their "camp" and retro-ironies, we were still using them as standard exhibition policy, and without a trace of irony!


The only immediate casualty of the television/theatre wars, for us anyway, were the cartoons. They just seemed to vanish from the program. Companies continued to make them, and re-issued the old ones as well, but I’m hanged if I can recall ever seeing more than a handful in our local theatre, let alone any good ones. A look at the ads shown here will reveal what three of the major studios were peddling for the 1957-58 season. It’s pretty depressing. Paramount’s still got Popeye, but those things were real agony to get through by that time, and Casper --- yechh! I got so sick of him on those Matty’s Funday Funnies shows (or Sunday Funnies, depending on the day). He (or perhaps she, as gender was always in doubt) always played so sweet and nice, never assertive or aggressive no matter what the provocation. A mother’s idea, perhaps, of what her children should be watching in cartoons. I never experienced Casper in the theater. Had I done so, I may well have demanded the refund of my dime (yes, we got in for 10 cents until 1961). Herman and Katnip were an ersatz Tom and Jerry, their catch-penny antics making even the diminished efforts of MGM’s cat-and-mouse team look positively lavish by comparison. And look at these Columbia things! Ham and Hattie? Who in the hell are they? I never heard of them until I ran across this trade ad. Would Jerry Beck or someone please enlighten me? (oh, and by the way, thanks for the boost on your fantastic
CARTOON BREW website, Jerry). Then there’s Mr. Magoo --- boy, if you’ve seen one of these, you’ve seen them all. As a kid, I had but to see him starting across town in that jalopy yelling Roadhog!, and it was Greetings, Gate! as Jerry Colonna used to say. Warners was at least still trying to make decent cartoons. Records show they released twenty new ones in the 57-58 group, the average expense being $25,942. On one end, you had Woe Be Gone costing $20,905, and on the high side there’s Knighty Knight Bugs at $29,740. I always wanted to see WB cartoons theatrically, but our beloved Liberty just would not play them, despite my entreaties. Did they cost too much? I wouldn’t think so, as I know MGM was getting an average of just $4.60 per booking around that time for new cartoons, and only $3.13 each for the re-issues. All we got for cartoons in the theatre, at least by the sixties when I was going strong, was The Pink Panther and those gag-inducing Woodpecker things from Universal. Was there anything so odious as a latter-day Woodpecker? I’m glad Walter Lantz lived long enough to be the elder statesman of cartoons, but we think he achieved the status less for merit, than for the fact that he just kept hanging on, waiting for all of the really great animators to die! That’s okay Walter, we liked your avuncular and reassuring presence on the Woody TV show, even though you were kinda boring there too. The Panthers always seemed like cartoons for sophisticates, the sort Bosley Crowther might tolerate while he’s waiting for The Lion In Winter to start. Down here, waiting for something like The Reluctant Astronaut to start, we found the Panthers l-o-n-g and, what’s the word, minimalist? Anyway, that term animators use when there’s absolutely nothing to look at on the screen other than that damned Panther and a lot of empty space. That’s probably what Crowther liked about them.

2 Comments:

Blogger Jerry Beck said...

First, I love your website, and your thoughts and comments on movies and cartoons - I agree with your opinions about 75% of the time and totally understand your point of view regarding the other 25% - please keep going. I love these trade ads. I'd kill for a tie like the one in the Paramount ad.

As for the HAM & HATTIE cartoons - I've no doubt you'd hate them. Each short contained two little limited animation musical skits tied together with one of these two characters assuming a role in each skit.

I think they are charming and were quite innovative considering their low low budget. One HAM & HATTIE was even nominated for an Academy Award (Trees & Jamaica Daddy, 1957). They've never been shown on TV for some unknown reason.

8:43 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This site has quickly become one of my faves; I thought I'd seen about everything, but every day has new surprises. Loved the Columbia page; still heavily promoting the Three Stooges with one hand while firing 'em with the other. *L* And how about that lineup of serial reprints?

2:20 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

grbrpix@aol.com
  • December 2005
  • January 2006
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • September 2006
  • October 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • February 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • July 2007
  • August 2007
  • September 2007
  • October 2007
  • November 2007
  • December 2007
  • January 2008
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • September 2008
  • October 2008
  • November 2008
  • December 2008
  • January 2009
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • April 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2009
  • July 2009
  • August 2009
  • September 2009
  • October 2009
  • November 2009
  • December 2009
  • January 2010
  • February 2010
  • March 2010
  • April 2010
  • May 2010
  • June 2010
  • July 2010
  • August 2010
  • September 2010
  • October 2010
  • November 2010
  • December 2010
  • January 2011
  • February 2011
  • March 2011
  • April 2011
  • May 2011
  • June 2011
  • July 2011
  • August 2011
  • September 2011
  • October 2011
  • November 2011
  • December 2011
  • January 2012
  • February 2012
  • March 2012
  • April 2012
  • May 2012
  • June 2012
  • July 2012
  • August 2012
  • September 2012
  • October 2012
  • November 2012
  • December 2012
  • January 2013
  • February 2013
  • March 2013
  • April 2013
  • May 2013
  • June 2013
  • July 2013
  • August 2013
  • September 2013
  • October 2013
  • November 2013
  • December 2013
  • January 2014
  • February 2014
  • March 2014
  • April 2014
  • May 2014
  • June 2014
  • July 2014
  • August 2014
  • September 2014
  • October 2014
  • November 2014
  • December 2014
  • January 2015
  • February 2015
  • March 2015
  • April 2015
  • May 2015
  • June 2015
  • July 2015
  • August 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2015
  • November 2015
  • December 2015
  • January 2016
  • February 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2016
  • May 2016
  • June 2016
  • July 2016
  • August 2016
  • September 2016
  • October 2016
  • November 2016
  • December 2016
  • January 2017
  • February 2017
  • March 2017
  • April 2017
  • May 2017
  • June 2017
  • July 2017
  • August 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2017
  • November 2017
  • December 2017
  • January 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2018
  • April 2018
  • May 2018
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
  • August 2018
  • September 2018
  • October 2018
  • November 2018
  • December 2018
  • January 2019
  • February 2019
  • March 2019
  • April 2019
  • May 2019
  • June 2019
  • July 2019
  • August 2019
  • September 2019
  • October 2019
  • November 2019
  • December 2019
  • January 2020
  • February 2020
  • March 2020
  • April 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2020
  • July 2020
  • August 2020
  • September 2020
  • October 2020
  • November 2020
  • December 2020
  • January 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2021
  • April 2021
  • May 2021
  • June 2021
  • July 2021
  • August 2021
  • September 2021
  • October 2021
  • November 2021
  • December 2021
  • January 2022
  • February 2022
  • March 2022
  • April 2022
  • May 2022
  • June 2022
  • July 2022
  • August 2022
  • September 2022
  • October 2022
  • November 2022
  • December 2022
  • January 2023
  • February 2023
  • March 2023
  • April 2023
  • May 2023
  • June 2023
  • July 2023
  • August 2023
  • September 2023
  • October 2023
  • November 2023
  • December 2023
  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024
  • April 2024
  • May 2024
  • June 2024
  • July 2024
  • August 2024
  • September 2024
  • October 2024