Title: Cow Cow Boogie
Studio: Walter Lantz
Date: 01/03/43 (BoxOffice may say this is actually January 4)
Credits:
Lyrics
Don Raye
Music
Gene de Paul
"Boogie Woogie" Piano ... Meade "Lux" Lewis
Directed by
Alex Lovy
Story
Ben Hardaway ... Milt Schaffer
Animation
Hal Mason
Musical Arrangement
Darrell Calker
Series: Swing Symphony
Running time (of viewed version): 6:41
Commercial DVD Availability: -
Synopsis: Cowboys like to stay at the ranch and sing Home on the Range, foreman utilizes passing piano player to round up the herd.
Comments: One of the two Lantz cartoons (out of 10 total) for the year which are not on official US DVD releases. Which is a bit odd as this was intended as a big enough short to have sheet music released for it (with Alex Lovy's name on the art; see below). Big lipped black caricature may explain the absence, or perhaps it's the scene when he's lassoed and abducted out of his clothes... Discouraging word: "itsgodagaininnit"? Udder cover that goes on the head; to avoid a bra joke? One bull shoots another in the face. The rushing cowpokes look weird and stilted; kinda floaty. Some of the cowhands retain the look of characters form '39 Lantz cartoons. And the cattle wave happily on the train to slaughter.
Meade "Lux" Lewis supposedly was the piano player in It's A Wonderful Life in Nick's Bar. The player in the short doesn't appear to be a caricature of him, as he seemed to be fat by this point, and had hair. Tho I suppose he might not be the singer... The character looks a bit like a grown up version of the form of Lil' Eightball that was still appearing in comics.
I wonder if Lantz released the sheet music for all the Swing Symphonies? The sheet music for "Abou Ben Boogie" was also released as well, with art by Pat Matthews. Though I haven't seen anything on the web for any of the other cartoons.
ReplyDeleteIt seems unlikely. While I didn't know about Abou Ben Boogie having sheet music (and it's on the Lantz Encyclopedia, so I should have), the only others I've seen from Lantz have been for the Woody examples. If they did it for all of them, I'd have expected them to come up more often, enough for the usual suspects to be aware of more them at any rate.
ReplyDelete