Welcome to Stick to Shorts!
Most of this first episode is introductory table-setting to give you a sense of what you’re in for and what cartoons you can expect us to talk about. You’ll hear a little bit about classic cartoon distribution, the academic response to a cartoon crisis, the history of the Looney Tunes style, and why it’s kind of impossible to make a good podcast about classic animated shorts.
All in all, you’ll learn why it’s important to talk about these cartoons as films and as historical works.
Then, this week’s trip through ToonTown takes us to the Bob Clampett masterpiece ‘Porky in Wackyland’ (1938), and Becca Petunia from ToughPigs joins the fun to talk about the appropriately wacky legacy of the Do-Do. It’s a packed show that’ll have you saying, “FOO!” Whatever that means.
Host/Producer: J.D. Hansel
Guest: Becca Petunia
Correction: I said Clampett’s inspiration for Porky in Wackyland was a newspaper article about an actual expedition to Africa to find the dodo bird. In fact, that expedition was to find a rare bird, but I don’t have any reason to believe they thought they would find the famously extinct dodo bird.
Cartoon Content Warning: racial stereotyping (brief, abstract reference to The Jazz Singer).
Podcast Content Warning: references to racism; references to Nazis.
Selected Cartoon Availability: Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Vol. 2; Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Vol. 2; Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Vol. 2; Porky Pig 101
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books:
Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age by Michael Barrier
Clarifies why Harmon and Ising left Schlesinger and went to MGM (p. 164)
Info on the “Termite Terrace” building(s) (pp. 334, 607)
History and analysis of Porky’s Duck Hunt (pp. 336-337)
General history of Looney Tunes
The 50 Greatest Cartoons edited by Jerry Beck
The removal of “Injun Joe” from Porky in Wackyland (p. 63)
Staff responses to Porky in Wackyland from Tashlin, Larson, and Maltese (p. 62)
The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons edited by Jerry Beck
Steve Schneider: “Warner Bros.’ Emancipation Proclamation…” (p. 142)
Clampett’s inspiration from reading about an African expedition (p. 142)
Ted Pierce’s voice credit (p. 142)
General history of Looney Tunes
Madness: The Invention of an Idea by Michelle Foucault
Info on the history of folly/madness
Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler
Walt Disney: “The short subject was just a filler on any program…” (p. 214)
The “stick to shorts” story (pp. 267-268)
Warren Susman: “The Disney world is a world out of order…” (p. 151-152)
General history of Mickey Mouse and 1930s Disney cartoons
Nobody’s Normal by Roy Richard Grinker
Info on the history of folly/madness
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin
Chuck Jones on Three Little Pigs: “There were three characters…” (p. 40)
MGM “New Deal” promo (p. 282)
Clampett became a director in 1937 (p. 236)
Leonard Maltin: “Clampett’s first real gem was the incredible Porky in Wackyland” (p. 237)
General history of Looney Tunes
Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation edited by Kevin S. Sandler
As I make clear in episode, I pull a lot from this book’s introductory essay, “Looney Tunes and Merrie Metonyms” by Sandler (pp. 1, 4-5, 11-12, 28)
“A Short Critical History of Warner Bros. Cartoons” by Barry Putterman helped with my general knowledge of Looney Tunes history
The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston
Frank and Ollie: “Through the years, the term ‘Stick to Shorts’…” (p. 152)
Articles:
ScreenRant: “The True Meaning Of ‘Foo'” by Ambrose Tardive
A history of “foo”
LA Times: “Why do so many Mexican Americans defend Speedy Gonzales?” by Gustavo Arellano
An interesting article on the status of Speedy Gonzales
Cartoon Research: Needle Drop Notes: “1938-39 Looney Tunes: New Patterns Emerge” by James Parten
Notes the songs in this cartoon, including “Feelin’ High and Happy”, and who else recorded them
Audiovisual Media:
Audio Commentary on Porky in Wackyland by Michael Barrier
Directed my attention to “foo” and It Can’t Happen Here
Documentary: The Boys from Termite Terrace
Bob Clampett’s claim to having come up with Daffy’s definitive exit
Documentary: King-Size Comedy: Tex Avery & the Looney Tunes Revolution
Eric Goldberg: “Tex Avery is absolutely the author of the Warner style…”
Documentary short: Behind the Tunes: ‘It Hopped One Night: The Story Behind One Froggy Evening’
Leonard Maltin quote about One Froggy Evening being a profound parable
Documentary short: Droopy and Friends: A Laugh Back
John Canemaker: “Whereas Disney wanted to draw you in…”
Documentary mini-series: American Experience: “The Presidents: FDR”
White House aid quote: “We were confronted with a choice…” plus a general history of FDR, Hoover, the Great Depression, and the New Deal.
YouTube documentary: The Merrie History of Looney Tunes: ‘The Rise of Porky, Daffy and Termite Terrace’ by KaiserBeamz
I don’t think I used this for much since I got to it surprisingly late in my research, but it may have affected how I told the story of Looney Tunes.
Podcast: Maltin on Movies by Leonard Maltin & Jessie Maltin: Jerry Beck
General information about classic cartoons