Thanks, ring.
And to anybody else, that is all you need to do--just share a classic cartoon. No need to get into all the detail as I do, but I do it more for the completionist within me, and just to share a good portion of history found within each feature.
As I featured Daffy previously, I suppose it is now time to showcase his one-time perennial 'bosom buddy',
Porky Pig. As I recall history and research it, the 'stars' of the
Looney Tunes features, I think, began with Porky who was at the top for a short period of time, before he was paired with Daffy, who in turn became the most popular character amongst the cartoon critters, and he, too, was eventually replaced by the now almost instantly-recognizable
Bugs Bunny as the face of the franchise. I guess this will be an homage to the influence Porky achieved before
Looney Tunes became a household name.
Porky's Playlist (Pre-1942)- The Blow Out (1936)
- Porky's Duck Hunt (1937) the 1st appearance of the character Daffy Duck
- Get Rich Quick Porky (1937) *my favorite Porky short of the bunch, also the one I thought of first to share
- You Ought to Be in Pictures (1940)
- Notes to You (1941)
The Blow Out
Directed by Tex Avery
Released on April 24, 1936
Distributed by Leon Schlesinger Studios
{I love all the annotations the author of the upload attributed to the video; it's great}
A crazed bomber is terrorizing the city. Meanwhile, a young Porky is a few cents
shy of buying an ice cream soda; he starts earning it by picking up items people
drop and handing them to him. But the bomber is not pleased to be on the receiving end of Porky's good deed...
Fun Stuff
click to show Porky's first starring role. They still hadn't settled on whether to have him portrayed as a kid or an adult, as he was in Gold Diggers of '49.
Stage actress Lucille La Verne provided the voice of "The Bomber". It was surprising for La Verne to do a cartoon since, at that time, many stage actors refused to do film, much less a cartoon. About a year later, La Verne voiced the Wicked Queen/Old Crone, in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
Thomas Pynchon refers to the cartoon involving "Porky Pig and the anarchist" several times in his novels The Crying of Lot 49 and Gravity's Rainbow.
Released on April 17, 1937
Distributed by Leon Schlesinger Studios
New duck hunter Porky is constantly taunted by a very early version of Daffy, and all the other ducks.
Fun Stuff
click to show This short, starring Porky Pig, is notable for being the first appearance of the character Daffy Duck. Also notable is that this is the first cartoon in which Mel Blanc voices both Porky and Daffy. Originally scheduled to voice the duck, Blanc won the part of Porky earlier that year. Joe Dougherty who was Porky's original voice, was fired following the cartoon Porky's Romance because he could not control his stutter.
Porky's Duck Hunt was a very popular cartoon, well-known for popular gags and the debut of Daffy Duck, and met with very positive reviews. Only a year later, this cartoon was reworked by Avery as Daffy Duck and Egghead, which was in color. In that cartoon, Porky's role was filled by another Avery-created character, Egghead (who evolved into Elmer Fudd)in the episode Elmer's Candid Camera [1940],and Daffy is given his name.
Of the many iterations that Porky posed as a hunter, I found his funniest cartoon was in The Sour Puss (1940), although the cartoon mainly featured jokes being played upon his pussycat, more so than actually starring Porky.
Released on August 28, 1937
Distributed by Leon Schlesinger Studios
Porky gets talked into investing his savings into a phony oil field by a slick con man.
Fun Stuff
click to show Months before "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" became the Looney Tunes theme song, the score for "Get Rich Quick Porky" quotes "Merry-Go-Round" the first time Gabby tries to use the jackhammer. This was the first time "Merry-Go-Round" was used in a Looney Tunes cartoon, having previously been used in Merrie Melodies' Sweet Sioux (1937).
Soundtracks featured in short:
"With Plenty of Money and You"
Music by Harry Warren
"She Was an Acrobat's Daughter"
Music by Harry Ruby
"When My Dream Boat Comes Home"
Written by Dave Franklin and Cliff Friend
"The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down"
Written by Dave Franklin and Cliff Friend
"We're in the Money"
Music by Harry Warren
"I've Been Working on the Railroad"
Traditional
Written by Jack Miller
Released on May 18, 1940
Distributed by Leon Schlesinger Studios
Daffy wants to be the top star in the studio. To this end, he persuades Porky to resign from the Schlesinger studios to pursue a career in feature films as Bette Davis' leading man. Porky goes to Leon Schlesinger and asks to have his contract torn up. Schlesinger reluctantly agrees, and wishes Porky the best of luck. Schlesinger lets Porky go, but he is confident Porky will be back.
Fun Stuff
click to show You Ought to Be in Pictures is a 1940 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes short film featuring Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. The film combined live-action and animation, and features live-action appearances by Leon Schlesinger, writer Michael Maltese, and other Schlesinger Productions staff members. In 1994 it was voted #34 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.
The title comes from the popular song "You Ought to Be in Pictures" by Dana Suesse and Edward Heyman.
In a real-life parallel of the storyline, the short was Friz Freleng's first since returning to Schlesinger after a stint as a director at MGM's cartoon division.
Written by Michael Maltese
Released on September 20, 1941
Distributed by Leon Schlesinger Studios
Porky Pig constantly tries to silence an alley cat who has been disturbing his slumber by singing loudly outside his bedroom, with little overall success. The cat in this cartoon resembles Clampett's cat from The Hep Cat.
Fun Stuff
click to show This short, done in black and white in the early 1940s, was later re-visited and another short (Back Alley Oproar, done in color), which took the same basic idea and even some of the same gags, but embellished on the concept substantially, was the result. While Back Alley Oproar is the better of the two, Notes To You is also a very good short in its own right. I will be discussing some details, so consider this a spoiler warning:
Porky Pig has gone to bed for the night when we see a cat climb up on a fence with a music stand and lots of sheet music. He uses a harmonica to get his "voice" in the correct pitch and then begins singing "Figaro". Porky takes issue with the "caterwauling", so to speak, and throws a vase at the cat and returns to bed. The cat then switches to popular tunes (perhaps under the impression that Porky merely objected to an aria) and Porky throws a book (Fu Manchu) at him. When the book comes back and hits Porky, it reads The Return of Fu Manchu.
Porky and the cat go several rounds, with the cat generally getting the better of their exchanges. Porky finally shoots the cat, which sings a farewell, "Aloha Oe/Farewell To Thee" and Porky tries to go back to bed, only to be "serenaded" by nine ghosts, who are singing more opera, thus bookending "popular music" with opera.