Yogi Bear — Tally Ho Ho Ho

Produced and Directed by Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.
Animation – Carlo Vinci and Mike Lah; Layout – Mike Lah; Backgrounds – Fernando Montealegre; Dialogue and Story Sketches – Charlie Shows and Dan Gordon; Titles – Art Goble; Production Supervision – Howard Hanson (no credits).
Cast: Yogi – Daws Butler, Hunter – Don Messick.
Production E-3, Huckleberry Hound Show K-007.
First aired: week of Monday, November 10, 1958.
Plot: Yogi convinces a little hunter that he’s been shot and needs care and food. A call to the game warden ends that ruse.

Parents, don’t let your children view this animated bad influence on their tender young lives! No, not because there’s a bear hiding in a closed fridge and your kid may do the same thing. No, not because there’s a hunter shooting a gun at someone and your kid may grow up to join the NRA. It’s because of the shocking, obscene nudity! If you need proof, observe Yogi’s scene where he’s fully naked:


Oh, wait a minute. I grew up watching cartoons like this and I didn’t imitate what I saw. I’m sure the holier-than-thou, would-be censors can say the same thing. But that’s a debate for another day.

Though this was the seventh Yogi cartoon released, it has the feel of the very earliest ones. There’s no Boo Boo, no ranger, no Jellystone Park (there’s not even a mention of Yogi in the title card), but it has lots of off-model, jerk-from-pose-to-pose animation and background blocks of various shades of yellow. So it’s a lot more fun than a few years later, when H-B turned a comic hero into a love-sick sap. On-line sources say Carlo Vinci animated this but it doesn’t have the tell-tale signs I associate with Carlo’s work in the 1958-59 season.

One of Fernando Montealegre’s can’t-see-the-fine-print signs opens the scene and the camera pulls back to reveal a car driving through the autumnal splendour, as we hear the theme to The Donna Reed Show. However, it is not Miss Reed in the car (she would not steal the music for about another year when her TV show first appeared). It is Professor Gizmo from the Ruff and Reddy cartoons, or at least a character with the same design and same Wallace Wimple-ish voice supplied by Don Messick (Wimple was a henpecked husband on Fibber McGee and Molly, played by Bill Thompson, the voice of Droopy). Always ready (or is that “reddy”?) to borrow from themselves, the post-Gizmo guy made an appearance in several Yogi cartoons, including the funnier Be My Guest, Pest.

The hunter stops his car, gets out his rifle and trudges past Yogi, who casually remarks “Nice day for huntin’.” When the gun is pointed at him, Yogi attempts to prove he’s not a bear by pointing out his hat and “tie, guy”. Unfortunately, he removes them (see nude picture above), thus proving he is a bear, resulting in cycle animation of the hunter firing his rifle we see throughout the cartoon.

Yogi runs into a nearby lake, where he taunts the hunter by saying “You missed me!” The animation proves otherwise, and we get a great short series of facial expressions from Yogi.




By the way, note how the trees are greener here. And look at the colour choice for the clouds.

Yogi runs past a deer, which gives him an idea for a disguise.

Hunter: “Say, haven’t I seen you some place before?”
Yogi: “I don’t know. Ever been to Pismo Beach?”
Hunter: “Heavens, no.”

Ah, but the hunter’s not fooled, and we get more great facial expressions from Yogi before he runs away.


 
The next scene was done by Mike Lah, as it has the same goofy-faced Yogi with the little eyes, big nose and mouth in mid-face that he drew in other cartoons. The bear plays hide-and-seek with the hunter, but merely puts a cork in his rifle, which predictably backfires. The best part is Yogi’s poses before he runs away. Look at the little tongue in one of them.



 
There are no in-betweens. Lah just goes from one pose to another.

Now’s a turning point in the plot. Yogi quotes from Bugs Bunny that it’s time for some “stragedy” and adds a ‘no’ to a sign which he misreads as ‘Bear Hunting Allowed’ (it just says ‘Hunting Allowed’). And like Bugs, he pretends to be shot (in considerably fewer drawings than Bob McKimson would use in a Bugs death scene) and informs the hunter he’ll be sent to prison for shooting a bear out of season. The hunter decides to take the bear home and nurse him back to health. Look at Yogi’s snout. Carlo Vinci uses odd angles on characters in a bunch of cartoons.

We cut to Yogi in bed, but he’s so discussed by the culinary offerings of the hunter (“You call that grub, bub?”), he investigates the fridge. The hunter finds him there while going to get some jam for him and orders Yogi back to bed.

Ah, but Yogi outsmarts himself by remarking “Feed a fever.” The alarmed hunter calls a doctor and learns the doctor is out bear hunting, then phones the game warden to confirm it really is bear hunting season. Gunshots chase Yogi out of the home as he Ed Norton-like remarks “Shee. What a grouch!”




I mentioned how I like the colours in the backgrounds in this cartoon. Another clever use of colour is in the hunter’s home. There’s a diagonal block of a different colour shade on the wall of the hallway and the bedroom.

The background music (including the Donna Reed theme, known as ‘Happy Days’ before Reed’s producers got ahold of it) is all from the Capitol Hi-Q library, save the ubiquitous ‘Toboggan Run’ from Langlois Filmusic.

0:00 - Yogi Bear (Hanna-Barbera-Curtin-Charlie Shows) – Main titles.
0:15 - TC-430A HAPPY DAYS (Bill Loose-John Seely) – Hunter runs into Yogi.
1:22 - L-1158 ANIMATION COMEDY (Spencer Moore) – Yogi leaks.
1:37 - ZR-47 LIGHT MOVEMENT (Geordie Hormel) – Hunter goes past Yogi as deer.
1:48 - L-1154 ANIMATION COMEDY (Moore) – Hunter shoots at Yogi.
2:05 - LAF-20-5 TOBOGGAN RUN (Jack Shaindlin) – Hunter chases Yogi to a stop.
2:20 - TC-202 ECCENTRIC COMEDY (Loose-Seely) – Yogi plugs hunter's gun.
3:41 - TC-201 PIXIE COMEDY (Loose-Seely) – Yogi changes sign; fake death scene.
4:58 - ZR-51 LIGHT ANIMATION (Hormel) – Yogi rejects hunter's food.
5:58 - TC-432 HOLLY DAY (Loose-Seely) – Hunter learns Yogi duped him.
6:47 - LAF-20-5 TOBOGGAN RUN (Shaindlin) – Yogi runs from hunter's home.
6:59 - Yogi Bear (Hanna-Barbera-Curtin-Shows) – End titles.

Yakky Doodle Still Going Strong

It’s nice to see someone associated with the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons is alive and doing well. And helping others do well at the same time.

Jimmy Weldon played my least-favourite Hanna Barbera character, Yakky Doodle. Mr. Weldon is not at fault; he did a fine job. It’s just that I always rooted for Fibber Fox to finally rid the world of any noisy, alternately hyper-and-self-pitying ducks. However, Mr. Weldon is still with us at age 85 and making public appearances. Observe a portion of a story from the Inland Daily Bulletin, dated last Monday, the 24th:

Pomona Lions program to feature cartoon voice artist Jimmy Weldon
POMONA - The Pomona Host Lions meeting has invited the public to attend a special program Sept. 3 featuring motivational speaker and TV "voice" Jimmy Weldon.

Weldon, best known for his cartoon character voices, most notably Yakky Doodle in Hanna-Barbera's "Yogi Bear" and "Webster Webfoot," has a reputation of being entertaining and inspirational.

Weldon is the last living character voice of the original "Yogi Bear" cartoon program. He has also acted in numerous television shows, such as "The Waltons," "Dallas," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Diff'rent Strokes" and "Dragnet."

His book, "Go Get `Em Tiger," has sold more than 30,000 copies.

What surprises me more than Mr. Weldon’s spunk and good cheer is the statement he is the last surviving voice from the Yogi Bear Show. That strikes me as uncertain. Yes, there’s Doug Young, who is quite alive and well in Washington State, but his work was on Huckleberry Hound (as Ding-a-ling on the Hokey Wolf segment) and Quick Draw McGraw (as Doggy Daddy). But I don’t know whether the story’s scribe, Mr. Weldon or the Pomona Lions Club is assuming or knows for certain that the voice of Cindy Bear, Julie Bennett, is no longer with us.

I’ve not been able to find anything on-line about her passing away, though I’ve discovered an incorrect date of birth. So if anyone knows one way or another about Miss Bennett (whose ursine character, unfortunately, is probably my second least-favourite), your friendly Yowp would like to know.

And I’m sure Mr. Weldon will forgive me for not asking for permission to link to his web site. It’s the least I can do for wanting Fibber Fox to make a meal of one of his most famous characters.

Huckleberry Hound — Sheriff Huckleberry

Produced and Directed by Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.
Credits: Animation – Ken Muse; Layout – Dick Bickenbach; Backgrounds – Bob Gentle; Dialogue and Story Sketches – Charlie Shows and Dan Gordon; Titles – Art Goble; Production Supervision – Howard Hanson.
Cast: Huck, Dinky Dalton – Daws Butler; Narrator – Don Messick.
Production E-31, Huckleberry Hound Show K-005.
First aired: week of Monday, October 27, 1958 (repeat, week of April 25, 1959 and December 14, 1959.
Plot: Sheriff Huck tries to arrest (not so) Dinky Dalton.

It’s rare that an early Hanna-Barbera cartoon would feature a sight gag that hadn’t been done over and over again in different variations in theatrical cartoons, but this cartoon has one. And it’s pretty imaginative.

Huck gets tired of being shot by the bad guy, so he dresses up in a protective suit of armour. Quickly, the bad guy shoves an anvil under Huck, pounds him into the shape of a toy car, inserts a wind-up key and sends the car over a cliff.



It all happens fast and out of nowhere (the gag slows down only when Huck pops up to remark something to the camera) that it works pretty well.

The rest of the cartoon has gags ranging from OK to “When’s the gag going to start?”, though the story-line’s structured pretty well.

This cartoon was the first starring Huckleberry Hound to be put into production.

The opening’s typical—camera-work over, and into, one of Bob Gentle’s backgrounds to substitute for animation while Don Messick intones about this being a story of the battle between good and evil. After 20 seconds of no work for animator Ken Muse, Messick announces “This is the lawman” and Huck walks onto the scene, giving a rendition of Clementine (whistling and singing).



Huck happens upon a sign, and Muse gets a bit of a rest for three seconds as the camera cuts to a sign we can read for ourselves, but Huck reads for us. Then he pulls out a pulls out a photo of his quarry, the Dalton Gang. Muse takes it easy for another nine seconds as Huck reads the warrant (we can also see for ourselves) for the arrest of the last of the Daltons. Then Muse puts his feet up for another 16 seconds as the camera pans across the picture (supposedly black-and-white but with a bluish tint). I really like the character designs here; I want to think Ed Benedict had something to do with them.



Muse brings us the walk cycle again as Huck reads the Burma Shave-style signs that lead to the Dalton shack. Huck tells Dinky Dalton to open up and the bad guy (we never actually learn what illegal things he did) shoots out of knothole of the door. Apparently, that’s Charlie Show’s idea of humour.



Huck throws the door open and finds Dinky isn’t so Dinky any more. He’s in such shock, apparently it turned his teeth red (see the frame below right).



Dinky’s hand is so huge, all Huck can do is handcuff his little finger. Dalton swirls him around by the chain and tosses him out the door. Huck, unharmed despite a camera-shaking crash, walks back to the shack and is greeted by a fist.



Next gag. Huck puts his pistol in the knothole, but Dinky bends the barrel. Huck counts three, fires, and apparently bullets cutting a hat in half is supposed to be funny.

Huck’s walk cycle takes him to a convenient booth to call Dinky (remarking “This fellow has a right nice voice over the telephone) and we get some typical “through the phone” gags.







The hound tells him to hold the phone and utilises the walk cycle to reach the shack’s window to try to sneak in, and proving his claim (with the help of Dinky’s gun) “A feller what takes a deputy sheriff job must have a hole in his haid.”

After failing to use a log as a battering ram (Dinky lifts the shack out of the way and Huck runs into a rock), we get the armour-anvil-car sequence mentioned above, though there’s a camera error and the “car” disappears and reappears.





Our narrator returns, informing us “All good westerns must come to an end.” And that means the inevitable showdown at five paces. Shows gives us the cliché that Dinky has one bullet left “And it has your name on it.” Indeed, it does.

That’s all Huck needs to know. The bullet can read signs and reaches its destination after 11 seconds of flying around on screen, where stock explosion animation presumably brings the plot to an end.





“And once again the law is triumphant, thanks to that bold, brave, lawman, Huckleberry Hound.” The narrator bids farewell to Huck, Huck tells us he’ll be seeing us, and continues with his walk cycle, whistling Clementine as the camera fades.

None of the music is left to run at any length, except we get Bill Loose and John Seely’s western-sounding ‘TC 205 Light Movement’ looped after Huck walks into Dinky’s cabin. L-1158 is a series of short bassoon bits by Spencer Moore used as musical punctuation. Clementine, by the way, is not found on any of the Huck cue sheets I have seen.

0:00 - Huck sub main title theme/Clementine (Hanna-Barbara-Curtin-Shows)
0:26 - TC-204A WISTFUL COMEDY (Loose-Seely) – Narrator sets scene.
0:45 - CLEMENTINE (Trad.) – Huck strolls into scene.
0:52 - L-1158 ANIMATION COMEDY (Moore) – Huck looks up at sign.
1:00 - TC-204A WISTFUL COMEDY (Loose-Seely) – Huck looks at Dalton family photo.
1:40 - CLEMENTINE (Trad.) – Huck walks.
1:42 - TC-205 LIGHT MOVEMENT (Loose-Seely) – Huck meets Dinky, tossed out.
3:03 - TC-202 ECCENTRIC COMEDY (Loose-Seely) – Huck punched; shoots self.
3:33 - TC-303 ZANY COMEDY (Loose-Seely) – Huck says “He’s a smart outlaw.”
3:41 - L-1139 ANIMATION COMEDY (Moore) – Huck calls Dinky.
4:20 - TC-202 ECCENTRIC COMEDY (Loose-Seely) – Huck says “Hold the phone”; shot through the hat.
4:53 - L-1158 ANIMATION COMEDY (Moore) – Huck lifts hat.
4:57 - ZR-48 FAST MOVEMENT (Geordie Hormel) – Huck charges at shack with log.
5:11 - LAF-20-5 TOBOGGAN RUN (Jack Shaindlin) – Huck runs into rock.
5:17 - TC-205 LIGHT MOVEMENT (Loose-Seely) – Anvil/car bit.
5:40 - LAF-20-5 TOBOGGAN RUN (Shaindlin) – Car heads toward cliff.
5:54 - L-31 SOMBER MOVEMENT (Moore) – Showdown
6:48 - CLEMENTINE (Trad.) – Huck walks away.
7:10 - Huck sub end title (Hanna-Barbera-Curtin-Shows)

Spencer Moore — Cartoon Music Mystery Man

A number of composers are listed on different albums/reels of the Capitol Hi-Q library at the time Hanna-Barbera used it, and you can find a little bit of information about most of the more common ones on-line. John Seely’s name comes to mind first because he got a credit on the six Warners cartoons that used the same library. Bill Loose’s name is connected with him.

You’ve read on this blog about Phil Green and Geordie Hormel adding to the sound of the 1950’s H-B cartoons through their cues picked up by Capitol (Green from EMI, Hormel from Zephyr). But there’s one composer who is a complete mystery. A chap named Spencer Moore.

You have to dig deep in the BMI database to find him; he’s not in the composer index. And a hunt for him on-line will find a reference to his stock music being used in the movie Night of the Living Dead (from the Hi-Q ‘D’ series). And that’s it.

So, just who was this guy? Was the name a pseudonym for some other composer?

Well, yes. And no.

Eventually on the blog, I’m going to do a piece on the Hi-Q library itself, but I want to focus on Mr. Moore. Let us go back to Geordie Hormel and the founding of Zephyr Records. Billboard Magazine reveals this in its edition of May 12, 1956:

Hormel Forms Zephyr Disks
HOLLYWOOD—Geordie Hormel, jazz pianist scion of the meat packing clan, has organized Zephyr Records, with the firm expected to get under way via its first initial release by June 1.
The disk firm will also operate Zephyr Music Library to supply music for radio, television and commercial films, and Austin Music, Inc. (BMI). Officers of the corporation, in addition to Hormel, include Roy Anderson and Marilyn Vaile, both associated with the Hormel Foundation of Austin, Minn.
Spencer Moore has been named general manager of the company, with Bill Hitchkock [sic] to helm a repertoire post.

There was a small, brief flurry of articles about Zephyr in mid to late 1956. On July 16, Billboard revealed Hormel was attending a convention “along with the firm’s comptroller-library chief, Spencer Moore.”

So it would appear that Moore was a money guy in charge of the Zephyr Music Library, which provided cues for the new Capitol Hi-Q library.

Moore didn’t stay with Zephyr very long. Variety of May 24, 1957 reports Moore had left the company amid reports Hormel was going to streamline operations (he was looking to sell the label a month later; Variety reported by November it was defunct). Moore went back to the music rep business. Variety mentions him again on October 1, 1958 in connection with a global tour for Arwin Records.

Hormel, if nothing, was ambitious. Billboard of September 29, 1956 tells that five projects were in the works, including “radio station management, artist representation, and TV film, motion picture and legit theater production.”

He actually did get a film company going. Eventually. From Boxoffice Magazine, April 26, 1965:

Geordie Hormel, record producer-arranger, is branching out into motion picture production and distribution, having formed Cinema-One, with plans for a slate of six features during the first year.

And guess who went along for the ride? This is from Boxoffice, Feb. 20, 1967:

SPCA Documentary Set
HOLLYWOOD—The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has been documented in a half-hour film produced by Pacific Newsreel, a subsidiary of Hormel Films. To be shown in 600 Human Society Branches, the film was produced by Geordie Hormel and directed by Spence Moore. Action scenes of the sheriff’s aero squadron using helicopters in a chase of a “slasher” is part of the color film.

So was Spencer Moore a money guy, composer and movie director? Well, the 1950 U.S. Census fills us in. It tells us he was a freelance writer and had moved from Westchester County, New York, to Los Angeles in 1949. He started, but never finished, grade 12. His 1949 income was only $1,000. The reason is revealed in several newspaper and trade publications of the day. Aline Mosby of the United Press wrote in her column of September 21, 1949 that Moore was going to star as himself in a semi-documentary about beating alcoholism, but not before some pretty tough times, including stretches in jail and drying out at Bellevue in New York (there’s no evidence the picture got out of the planning stage).

Moore was a graduate of St. Mary's School and Yonkers High School. At age 15, the Yonkers Herald-Statesman reported he got into a bit of trouble, discharging a .25 calibre gun into the tin roof of a house near his home, trying to hit a potato. In 1927, the local daily reported he has been hired as a clerk with the Quaker Lace Company on Fifth Avenue. He was 16. Census records in 1930 show he was in the engineering department of the city of New York, and a story in a 1936 edition of the Herald-Statesman said he had been on the paper's staff. The 1940 census records him as a helper with a moving van company, though his draft card that year lists his occupation as a freelance writer. He had sobered up by 1946, and we find him as director of publicity for the Phoenix Junior Police, organising a benefit starring Frank Sinatra; this was after a stint as editor of a Phoenix weekly. A story in the December 2, 1979 edition of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reveals he had retired from documentary filmmaking and was a community volunteer at the St. Vincent de Paul store in Rohnert Park.

A book from the U.S. Library of Congress called Performing Arts: Broadcasting has a wonderful section on stock music by the premier scholar on the subject, Paul Mandell, and contained therein is this pertinent information:

Some hotshots of Capitol were able to grab performance royalties by bankrolling music packages. George Hormel, a pianist related to the Hormel meatpacking empire, laid claim to Hi-Q music which he financed but did not write. Spencer Moore was another. Composer Nick Carras recalled the scene: “Moore made his money by bringing his investors to Capitol and putting his name on our music...”

Maybe he could write a note of music. Or three or four. But it seems pretty clear that Spencer Moore was mainly a crony of fun-loving millionaire Geordie Hormel. And because of that, his music can be heard on some of the early Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

While Moore’s name is attached to different styles of music, H-B seems to have picked those with quirky violins, bassoons and horns.

L-75 is a string-and-woodwind melody that is very reminiscent of some of Hormel cues on Hi-Q; perhaps the same writer came up with it. L-85 was heard on only one cartoon, the nascent Pixie and Dixie adventure Little Bird Mouse. L-1158 is a collection of short bassoon pieces that were snipped and used as musical effects.

If you click on the name of the cue, it should download into your computer’s audio player.

L-75 COMEDY UNDERSCORE
L-78 COMEDY UNDERSCORE
L-80 COMEDY UNDERSCORE
L-81 COMEDY UNDERSCORE
L-85 LIGHT MECHANICAL
L-992 ANIMATION CHILDREN
L-1121 ANIMATION NAUTICAL
L-1147 ANIMATION MOVEMENT
L-1139 ANIMATION COMEDY
L-1154 ANIMATION COMEDY
L-1158 ANIMATION COMEDY


He was also responsible for a version of this song heard in a Yogi Bear cartoon. It is from the Hi-Q “X” speciality reels. L-75 La MARSELLAISE

Moore is listed as the composer of L-31 SOMBER MOVEMENT, a “D” series cue that appeared in a couple of cartoons. I don’t have a copy. He is also credited with a piece of music with a double tom-tom beat in Yogi Bear’s Brave Little Brave. It’s very similar to his L-744 WESTERN MELODIC UNDERSCORE.

California state records show that Spencer Thomas Moore was born July 2, 1910 in New York and died in Sonoma, California, July 19, 1985.

Quick Draw McGraw — Double Barrel Double

Produced and Directed by Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.
Credits: Animation – Ken Muse; Layout – Dick Bickenbach; Backgrounds – Bob Gentle; Story – Mike Maltese; Story Sketches – Dan Gordon; Titles – Art Goble; Production Supervision – Howard Hanson.
Cast: Quick Draw, Baba Looey – Daws Butler, Narrator, Sheriff, Horseface Harry – Doug Young.
Released: October 31, 1959.
Plot: Baba Louie tells a narrator the story of how Quick Draw met up with look-alike bad guy Horseface Harry and brought him to justice.

Childhood memories are made of Quick Draw McGraw, say the sages, at least those inspired by TV cartoons. And who can’t forget the sight of Quick Draw being so stupid, he mixes up when he’s shooting and when he’s blowing the smoke from his gun? It was my favourite H-B cartoon joke when I was a kid. I still laugh at it.



The gag—which Mike Maltese uses at the start and end of the cartoon—is not only awash in memories, it is thoroughly appropriate, considering the whole cartoon is about mix-ups, visual and verbal. The premise is there’s a bad guy who looks just like Quick Draw and confusion reigns over who is who.

Maltese wrote all the cartoons on the Quick Draw show in 1959, Snooper and Augie included. They all have pretty much the same structure. They open with an establishing pan shot, drop catch-phrases throughout, and end with a character making an observation to the audience about the action they’ve just witnessed. And if Maltese can elicit echoes of some successful bits he used on Warners cartoons, all the better. This cartoon follows the Maltese formula.

A money-saving left-to-right pan over a background starts us off, while a narrator sets up the cartoon with language reminiscent of a big screen Western. Doug Young gives us a serious, low-key read.

Narrator: Even as the avenging eagle must return to his nest for rest, so, too, must the lawman, at times, relax his vigil.



The shot cuts to Quick Draw at his ranch putting up tin cans on a fence for some target practice, resulting in the aforementioned gun-blast in the face.

This is another Maltese work where the narrator turns into an interviewer (behaving more like Ed Murrow on Person to Person, which was popular on TV at the time) and starts asking questions of the characters on screen. The narrator asks Baba “As Quick Draw’s partner, could you tell us which western bad man gave him the most trouble?” And that brings us into our story.

“They” send Quick Draw and Baba Louie to catch Horseface Harry. Our hero spots a wanted poster of him.

Quick Draw: Look at the crin-i-mal face.That low brow! Those shifty eyes! That weak chin!
Baba: I thin’ he looks like you, Quickstraw.
Quick Draw: Look at that kind face. That nob-ell brow! That strong chin.

And—catchphrase one—Quick Draw reminds us he’ll do the thinnin’ around here. Unfortunately, the sheriff shows up. Quick Draw takes offence at begin called a “stranger” and hautily (but stupidly) remarks “Everybody knows who I am, sheriff!” Since he’s standing next to the ‘Wanted’ poster, the sheriff naturally thinks he’s Horseface Harry and pulls out a gun. Quick Draw and Baba run out of town and hide in a cabin (which we see in a stationary shot for almost five seconds)—the cabin of Horseface Harry.



Baba Looey peers out the window and invokes the spirit of Ricky Ricardo swearing at Lucy in Spanish as he spews an endless stream of what’s supposed to be Spanish (the only understandable word amongst the gibberish is ‘enchilada’) which is repeated by Quick Draw with some quick mouth and tongue movements that must have been fun for Ken Muse to try. That’s when Harry, gun drawn, makes his entrance. Maltese treats us to western-style cliché dialogue:

Quick Draw: I’m A-rresting you, Horseface. What do you say to that?
Harry: And I’m-a going to shoot you full of holes. What do you say to that?
Quick Draw: Oh, I’ll think of something. Don’t rush me.

Horseface starts firing and Quick Draw and Baba make a run for it (past the same window in the background 14 times). Quick Draw hides in a barrel, but peers out the top and remarks “I don’t see that stupid Horseface no place.” Of course, Horseface is standing next to him and, of course, there’s a knothole in the barrel, and you can guess what happens next. Maltese fits in catchphrase two—“Oooh. That smarts.”




Our heroes hide behind a couple of cactuses and Baba Looey comes up with a plan—Quick Draw will tell Horseface they’re each other and when Horseface turns him in to the sheriff, he’ll reveal who the real Quick Draw is. Maltese now tosses in his Warners inspiration, dating back to when he and Tedd Pierce wrote Duck Soup to Nuts (1944) and Daffy tried to convince Porky he was an eagle through word-play that got reversed:





Horseface: I’m Horseface Harry.
Quick Draw: Quick Draw McGraw.
Horseface: I’m Horseface.
Quick Draw: Quick Draw.
Horseface: Horseface.
Quick Draw: Quick Draw.
Horseface: Horseface.
Quick Draw: For the last time, I’m Quick Draw McGraw, and [catchphrase three] dooooon’t you forget it!

Harry asks him to prove it, and we get a reprise of the gun-fire/smoke-blowing mix-up earlier in the cartoon.

The next little scene has its inspiration from theatrical cartoons, such as Canary Row when Tweety rolled a bowling ball down a drainpipe at Sylvester on the other end. Horseface is outside one end of the cabin, Quick Draw is at the other. He shoots into the drainpipe, and the bullet comes out the other end into Horseface’s butt. This is a really clever sequence. Muse draws a little kick-back on the gun after Quick Draw fires it, just like a real gun. The sound-cutter (Greg Watson?) has a nice collection of metallic clattering sounds as the bullet travels along, with appropriate bangs at it turns corners.



The cartoon now borrows from a cartoon that borrows from live action as Quick Draw skids into the cabin and behind a dresser. Horseface does the same and stares into the dresser’s frame, wondering whether Quick Draw’s visage is his. The mirror bit was done by Bugs and Elmer in Hare Tonic (1945) but it’s a classic routine of film comedy from the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup (1932). There’s great timing here as the bit ends with Harry suddenly producing a cigar while Quick Draw lights it. The gag works well because it’s unexpected.



Harry pulls a gun. “Got you, you sickening, western good guy!” But then Baba Looey pops out of a dresser drawer and gets the drop on the “sick, sick, sick western bad guy.” And that’s the story of how Quick Draw caught Horseface Harry, as Baba tells the narrator.

Quick Draw ends the cartoon with the gun-fire/smoke-blowing mix-up earlier in the cartoon (after telling the audience he “only goofts once” then doing it anyway) and Baba anti-climactically remarking “I like that Quickstraw. He’s crazy. Don’t you thin’ so?”

Horseface Harry made return engagements in Kabong Kabong’s Kabong (March 12, 1960) and Two Too Much (Sept. 24, 1960)

Phil Green and Jack Shaindlin dominate the music track. Green wrote a main version of some of the cues in the Comedy Cartoon series of EMI Photoplay discs along with two or three short bridge versions. Thus we get the second bridge version instead of a snippet of the full Custard Pie Capers at the end.

Victor Lamont did a number of piano-roll-style solo pieces for the Sam Fox library that were picked up by Capitol Hi-Q and one of them is here. Winter Tales (aka Hearts and Flowers) was another and used in other H-B cartoons.

There is no credit title card on the version of the cartoon I have (sorry for the muddy screen caps) so the cue timing reflects this.

0:00 - Quick Draw sub main title theme (Hanna-Barbera-Curtin).
0:15 - ZR-39A WESTERN SONG (Geordie Hormel) – Quick Draw practices his quick draw.
1:06 - TC-205 LIGHT MOVEMENT (Loose-Seely) – Baba talks to narrator.
1:35 - GR-74 POPCORN (Green) – Quick Draw and Baba walk to Wanted poster.
1:48 - GR-99 THE DIDDLECOMB HUNT (Green) – Quick Draw looks at poster.
2:27 - ZR-94 CHASE (Hormel) – Sheriff shoots at Quick Draw.
2:42 - ROMANTIC JAUNT (Bluestone-Cadkin) – Quick Draw and Baba hide in cabin; Horseface shows up.
3:45 - fast chase music (Shaindlin?) – Quick Draw and Baba run from bullets.
3:59 - COMEDY SUSPENSE (Shaindlin) – Quick Draw shot in barrel.
4:13 - GR-472 HICKSVILLE (Green) – Baba tells Quick Draw to confuse Harry; dialogue mix-up.
5:42 - COMEDY SUSPENSE (Shaindlin) – Quick Draw shoot Harry through drainpipe; mirror bit.
6:33 - SF-? HOME ON THE RANGE (arr. Vic Lamont) – Quick Draw shoots himself.
7:01 - GR-79 CUSTARD PIE CAPERS SHORT BRIDGE #2 (Green) – Baba remarks “He’s crazy.”
7:09 - Quick Draw sub end title theme (Curtin).