Snooper and Blabber — Puss N’ Booty

Produced and Directed by Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna.
Credits: Animation - Lew Marshall; Layout - Walter Clinton; Backgrounds - Bob Gentle; Story - Mike Maltese; Story Sketches - Dan Gordon; Titles - Art Goble; Production Supervision - Howard Hanson.
Cast: Snooper, Crumpet - Daws Butler; Blabber, Hives - Elliot Field.
Released: September 19, 1959.
Plot: Aloysius the cat hires Snooper and Blabber to capture an imposter working with a disgruntled Butler to rip off his million-dollar inheritance.

When Hanna and Barbera were asked to create another half-hour cartoon show following the success of Huckleberry Hound, they decided to spoof the three most popular genres on TV at the time—westerns, crime shows and clueless dad/smart kid sitcoms. And that’s how Quick Draw McGraw, Snooper and Blabber and Augie Doggie came into being.

Quick Draw is my favourite of all the Hanna-Barbera half-hour packages. The parody isn’t hard-hitting, even by 1959 standards, but it’s still fun. The characters are funny-stupid, not annoying-stupid. Daws Butler’s voices are stellar and he finds wonderful ways to comically butcher words. The stories are well-constructed and Mike Maltese comes up with enough odd and silly phrases to at least create a smile.

Puss N’ Booty is the first Snooper and Blabber. Snooper’s voice is Daws Butler’s take on Archie, the bartender on Duffy’s Tavern played by the show’s creator, Ed Gardner; its previous cartoon owner was Ziggy the Crow in the Huck series. Blab’s full name is Blabber Mouse, but he doesn’t really blabber during the whole run of the show, so it must merely be a pun. His sibilant voice was provided in the first four cartoons by radio afternoon host Elliot Field before Butler took it over.

The voice isn’t the only thing different here. H-B now had two series going, so they added to their staff. That included Maltese, who came over with Warren Foster from Warners to replace Charlie Shows. Even the music was different. While the Capitol Hi-Q and Langlois Filmusic (Jack Shaindlin) libraries were still providing the background cues, the new series generally avoided the composers used in the Huck show and larded up with material by the prolific English composer Phil Green. And the sound cutter used cues from the Hi-Q “S” (for ‘short’) series, so the music changes far more often.

Not all the familiar Snooper and Blabber elements are in place in this cartoon, such as a number of catch-phrases like “Stop in the name of the Private Eye (fill in the blank)!” And Snooper plays it fairly straight. Maltese decided to open Puss N’ Booty with a Dragnet-style narration and Butler’s voice is suitably monotone. That concept lasted one cartoon.

The cartoon opens with one of those great, long, late-‘50s fin-tailed cars racing down a city street. “My name’s Snooper. I’m a private eye. Cat-eye, that is.” After the necessary introduction, Snooper begins to tell the story of how they were staked out one night by the bridge waiting for a suspect, as the camera pans to the pair reading a newspaper.



Snooper sees by the Daily Bugle that a fortune was left to pet cat Aloysius and nothing to the Butler. Suddenly, the conversation is interrupted by sound of a black, late-‘50s fin-tailed car stopping on a bridge and tossing a package into the river. The two private eyes pull the sack from the water and out pops Aloysius.



Being a parody, Maltese sticks with the format of a detective film, which dictates we now flashback as the victim relates his tale of woe, which begins at the reading of the will.


Aloyius gets 100 acres of downtown Dallas and three golf clubs. Hives gets nothing. The viewer gets reaction shots of the butler with more action than the entire Touché Turtle series a couple of years later. I like Maltese’s variation on a Tex Avery’s jaw-drop take. Instead of the jaw, the huge teeth fall out, squash and stretch, and bounce back into Hives’ mouth.



The thick plottens (oh, sorry, Snooper used that one on a later cartoon) as we flash to a week later when Aloysius comes face-to-face with a phoney version of himself. That’s when Hives stuffs him into the bag and we arrive back at the present.








Snooper suggests the services of a professional snooper (“And Blabbermouse,” helpfully adds Blab) and Aloysius offers to pay $150,000. Apparently, our heroes aren’t used to anyone paying the “usual, small, exorbitant fee” because they faint.

It doesn’t take much of a private eye (which is fortunate, because Snooper isn’t much of one), to look through the window and see that Hives has enlisted his crony Crumpet to pretend to be Aloysius to collect a $1,000,000 inheritance.



“First the Butler, then Crumpet.” That’s Snooper’s plan to capture the bad guys, using Aloysius as bait to induce them into chasing him around the mansion. But that booby Blab boobs things. First the ironing board, then the lamp.



But finally a French door and a shovel manage to stop the crooks.



Or does it? Hives disposes of the fake Aloysius with the off-screen police, but it turns out to be the real one instead. Which means the real one had been chasing the fake one, but the fake one knew Snooper’s name when he shouldn’t and the real one didn’t yell out the other was an imposter and .. oh, you’re not supposed to think about stuff like that in a cartoon.

Whether Lew Marshall really did work on this cartoon is open to debate, but I like the end with the little side-step escape move Snooper and Blabber pull before a neat silhouette running sequence, bullets whizzing by, with Bob Gentle painting some faint buildings in the background. If Warner Home Video would get off its and release these cartoons, you could see this far better than on these murky screen captures from a TV recording.



“Leave us face it, folks,” Snooper remarks, borrowing from Archie’s lexicon, “the good guys don’t always win.”

The music selection goes from great to odd in this one. Jack Shaindlin orchestrated a bunch of detective music, for some ‘B’ picture or use by a ‘B’ studio I’m guessing. It works really well. Excitement Under Dialogue is perfect for when the black Chrysler-esque four-door appears on the scene. Even Shaindlin’s circus-like music used during the running sequences somehow fits. But then it’s suddenly cut off and we hear some piece from Phil Green’s Kiddie Comedy Suite. It’s like the sound track can’t make up its mind what mood it wants to set. Jumping back and forth doesn’t work. Later cartoons used more Green than Shaindlin and sound all right, but for this cartoon a score of Shaindlin crime music (and there was lots never heard in cartoons) would have been really effective. The ersatz film noir music enhances the parody aspect.

Just a note about the Green cue names. The ‘GR’ names come from the original EMI Photoplay 45s. Capitol leased the cues for the Hi-Q library and gave them different names and ‘PG’ designations. I don’t have the EMI discs for some of the cues, so I’ve been forced to use the Hi-Q names. My thanks to Earl Kress for identifying Six Day Bicylce Race, one of a number of Shaindlin cues in this one.

0:00 - SNOOPER AND BLABBER MAIN TITLE (Hoyt Curtin)
0:25 - GR-333 BUSTLING BRIDGE (Green) - Snooper & Blabber drive.
0:49 - GR-348 EARLY MORNING (Green) - S & B read newspaper story.
1:11 - EXCITEMENT UNDER DIALOGUE (Shaindlin) - Bag retrieved from river.
1:40 - GR 81 FRED KARNO'S ARMY BRIDGE No 1 (Green) - Aloysius pops out of bag.
1:50 - GR 254 THE ARTFUL DODGER BRIDGE No 1 (Green) - Aloysius says Butler did it.
2:01 - COMEDY SUSPENSE (Shaindlin) - Will is read.
2:41 - TC-216 TENSION (Joe Cacciola) - Aloysius meets phoney; Hives puts him in bag.
3:13 - GR 93 DRESSED TO KILL (Green) - Aloysius offers $150,000.
3:38 - COMEDY SUSPENSE (Shaindlin) - Hives and Crumpet laugh, Aloysius enters.
4:30 - LFU 117-3 MAD RUSH No 3 (Shaindlin) - Aloysius runs, S & B get ironing board ready.
4:51 - SIX DAY BICYCLE RACE (Shaindlin) - Blabber hits Snooper, Aloysius yells help.
5:21 - GR 74 POPCORN (Green) - S & B plot to trip Hives and Crumpet.
5:33 - SIX DAY BICYCLE RACE (Shaindlin) - Snooper bashed with lamp.
5:47 - SIX DAY BICYCLE RACE (Shaindlin) - Door closed on Hives.
6:06 - vaudeville type cue (Shaindlin) - Fake Aloysius bashed with shovel.
6:18 - GR 87 SKELETON IN THE CUPBOARD (Green) - Hives removes fake Aloysius, discover fake one wasn't fake.
7:02 - GR 77 CUSTARD PIE CAPERS (Green) - S & B run away.
7:10 - SNOOPER AND BLABBER END TITLE (Curtin)

Money, Disney and Hokey Wolf

“When did Hokey Wolf debut?”

It’s such a simple question, you’d think there would be a simple answer. Ah, but the pesky internet gets in the way.

It seems even news agencies rush to Wikipedia for a quick-and-dirty way to get information when they need it, say when a star dies. And there’s no doubt that people who have knowledge of arcane subjects have gone there to enumerate the definitive story on them where none seems to exist elsewhere. But the problem is, of course, anyone can post anything there, with not so much as a footnote to reveal if the information came from a respected journal or as a joke developed after a night of too many Mai-Tais.

And so, let’s toddle off to Wiki-land to get an answer to our question about Phil Silvers in wolf’s clothing.

Wiki has a painstakingly-prepared episode list for the Huck and Yogi shows by someone who must have some knowledge of the subject. It starts:

Hokey Wolf is a Hanna-Barbera cartoon that appeared on The Huckleberry Hound Show in 1960, filling the slot left by Yogi Bear.

And it goes on to reveal the first Hokey episode, “Tricks and Treats,” debuted on September 11, 1960.

The source is apparently The Big Cartoon Database, which is also assembled by well-meaning and presumably well-informed fans.

There’s just one problem. Yogi Bear was still on the Huck show until he got his own show. In 1961. Hokey Wolf was still on someone’s storyboard in 1960.

This brings us to a little newspaper column from the Newspaper Enterprise Association, a venerable syndication service. If you’re not interested in Hokey Wolf, and as a character he doesn’t do a lot for me, you may be interested in reading how getting laid off at MGM was the best thing that ever happened to Joe and Bill’s accountants. This is a portion of an un-bylined article dated Jan. 31, 1961:

Hanna Tops Disney
NEW YORK (NEA) Joe Barbera, the second half of the Hanna-Barbera combine which produces the Flintstones, Quick-Draw McGraw, Huckleberry Hound, etc., has uncovered a gold mine. . .he says he and his partner will do a $7 million film business this year. . . “But that doesn't count merchandising—toys and things—and that should do better than $20 million. And that's wholesale.”
Barbera says there now are more than 87 items bearing the names of the various H-B characters. . .everything from bath salts to rugs. . . “We are now outselling Disney, is his prime, by four to one.”
And there probably will be a better year ahead. . .Barbera says they’ve decided to give Yogi Bear, one the characters on the Huckleberry Hound show, his own program. . .this will introduce new characters, so pretty soon you'll be meeting such actors as Hokey Wolf and Dingaling (two wolves), Snagglepuss (a mountain lion) and Yakky Doodle (a duck).
The thing keeps mushrooming . . .Barbera revealed plans for a Yogi Bear feature film. . . and an amusement park, a la Disneyland and Freedomland, named after Yogi's haunt, Jelleystone [sic] National Park. . .this will probably be built near Phoenix, Ariz.
The H-B studio can turn out so many products (five new half-hours a week) because “the old cartooning style is out.” . . . “It isn’t necessary to have thousands of drawings, with flowers and leaves rustling in the breeze. The story and character are the things we concentrate on.”

So let us leave Joe to count his money and Disney to create tween musical comedies and return to Mr. Wolf. If he hadn’t aired by the time this article made it into print, just when did he first appear on the screen?

Granted, dates in syndication back then might vary by a few days, but the L.A. Times of March 14, 1961 states:

Huckleberry Hound, KTTV. (11), 7 p.m.. Professor Huck is called upon by the nation’s leaders to save mankind from an Idaho potato which has not only eyes, but a brain as well. This show also brings the debut of a new personality, Hokey Wolf, and his little pal, Ding A Ling.

A very unscientific check of newspapers on the net can find Hokey was spotted on channels in several cities but none before the story mentioned above. In fact, the previous week’s Times lists Bare Face Bear with Yogi as being on the Huck show on March 7th. So, Yowp-pedia™ will bow to the Times and declare Hokey first appeared on the week starting Monday, March 13, 1961.

For the record, the Times occasionally lists plots of a few other episodes (generally, it only gave a plot for the Huck segment):

Lamb-basted Wolf, April 9, 1961
Castle Hassle, April 16, 1961
Pick a Chick, April 23, 1961
Bean Pod’ners, April 30, 1961
Booty in the Bounty, June 6, 1961
Hokey Dokey, July 9, 1961 (possibly a repeat).

Of course, judging by the NEA column, the real question should be “Where can I get some of those Hokey Wolf bath salts?”

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. 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.