09 August 2010

On With the Show (Thanks, Toby)

With the dog days of summer having passed Chihuahua and moved on to Rottweiler, my work schedule is getting a little less hectic—and some comics projects due out in the winter are finally being put to bed. So who knew? I'm back to my blog after a little too long.

This wouldn't be Ramapith, of course, if I didn't get things moving with a rarity—and here's one so rare that it's only partly survived over the years. Carrying on the dog theme, it's Dick Huemer's Toby the Pup at his silliest. The Showman (1930) was originally a sound cartoon, but seems only to exist today as a silent print; quite a pity, as it's obviously a high-energy musical short about singing and dancing on stage. I've created the most appropriate replacement score possible by chaining together bits of other Joe De Nat Mintz scores—and a music hall tune, and one snippet from a non-Mintz score. Can you identify them?

(We're also missing some opening scenes of audiences arriving at the theatre, but I didn't have time to sit down at a light table and redraw those. Mea culpa.)



I may not be able to blog as often as I did last fall, but I'm hoping to be back before long with some more cool discoveries. Keep your fingers crossed for me... all four of them. Even if you're wearing thick white gloves.

11 comments:

Thad said...

That was AWESOME! The animation in these Tobys is so much better than anything in the Scrappy/Krazy Kat stuff. Thanks, mange.

"It's a bum hooch dance, keep your money in yer pants!"

Richard said...

The score of the cat deflating the hippos are actually from the 1929 Mickey Mouse short "The Opry House". That also had a scene with Mickey deflating a hippo.

P.S. When will we see more original titles?

ramapith said...

And the gent wins a see-gar! (More original titles soon.)

Steve Stanchfield said...

Amazing! I LOVE the Toby cartoons- and this is a really cute and sick one....

Thad said...

Yeah but I'm just randomly quoting KARNIVAL KID, a favorite of Djave and I.

I think I saw a picture of that mouse biting the pig's tail and spanking the horn on a list of rape suspects once.

GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. said...

Glad to see you back, sir. Rah q'on.

Kristjan said...

Nice, wish I had this on DVD. But David tell me how many 12 Toby The pups cartoons are still lost?.

ramapith said...

Five Tobys are still lost (if you don't count a complete version of THE SHOWMAN). They're THE FIDDLER, THE MINER, THE BUG HOUSE, ACES UP, and THE BULL THROWER.

Chris Barat said...

David,

Glad to see you posting again. Just read UNCLE $CROOGE #394, part one of "The Curse of Flabberge" -- great job!

Chris

Paul F. Etcheverry said...

Thanks - and I look forward to further postings. The Huemer-Marcus-Davis crew were clearly cranking out great stuff in 1930, while the guys they left behind at Fleischers made the amazing Swing You Sinners.

Eli said...

Welcome back, Mr. Gerstein.

Your blog has never failed to amaze me, and I'm glad to see it won't for some time.

By the way, where was the print found? Overseas, perhaps?