Flintstones Weekend Comics, May 1964

Some nice gag set-ups highlight the world of the Flintstones in the Sunday comics (Saturday in Canada) 50 years ago this month, though one story bothers me.

In the May 17th comic (third below), Barney tricks Fred into putting himself in danger after Fred selflessly rescues him. Would Barney really do something like that?

Four of the five of the comics centre around Fred; the one published May 3rd (first below) epitomises the jerk version of Fred we all came to love in the first season of the cartoon series.

Pebbles was left out of the May 10th comic (second below). And there’s nothing like smoking volcanos (fourth below).

Click on any comic to make it larger.


May 3, 1964


May 10, 1964


May 17, 1964


May 24, 1964


May 31, 1964

Huckleberry Hound — Caveman Huck

Produced and Directed by Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna.
Credits: Animation – George Goepper, Layout – Tony Rivera, Backgrounds – Dick Thomas, Written by Warren Foster, Story Director – Paul Sommer, Titles – Art Goble, Production Supervision – Howard Hanson.
Voice Cast: Huckleberry Hound – Daws Butler; Narrator, Neighbour, Dog, Eel, Swallow – Don Messick.
Music: Hoyt Curtin.
First Aired: 1961-62 season.
Production: E-170.
Plot: Prehistoric Huck tries to capture a dinosaur.

“The Flintstones” was about life in the Stone Age, but within the context of mid-20th Century suburbia. This Hanna-Barbera cartoon doesn’t transpose modern existence (1961-style) onto cave-dwelling times so the humour is a bit different. So, no, you won’t see wooden cars with granite rollers for wheels or a mastodon’s snout spraying dishes in the kitchen sink. That’s even though the title card features a silhouette of a dinosaur that looks like Dino (little feet, three hairs on head, bent end of tail).

The cartoon really has two halves, the first with random gags built around the period and the last involving Huck’s hunt for a dinosaur. As usual, Huck makes wisecracks during the whole of the proceedings. His running commentary, combined with occasional sight gags, is what makes the cartoon amusing.


After a pan over a Dick Thomas background with dino-characters moving in the foreground, Huck opens the cartoon with a chorus of “Clementine,” with the word “brontosaurus” tossed in the lyrics. He has a nice little chat with the narrator at the outset, who describes primitive life and how only someone “strong,” “fearless,” “cunning” and “rugged”—like Huck—could survive. Huck explains how he can survive in this wild, untamed world. “Why, shuckins, Narrator, there’s nothin’ to it, I mean, if you’ve got the know-how. Well, uh, when threatened by some fearless beast, you just got to know how to run like mad.”

Cut to Huck’s dog (with sabre-teeth) burying a bone. Cut to a wide shot showing it’s a huge bone. Well, there are big dinosaurs out there, you know.



The next routine involves the daily visit from Huck’s neighbour. Huck isn’t bothered by the fact the Cro-Magnon only comes over to club him. Foster gives him a great little speech as he dodges the growling oaf’s club.

Huck: You notice how my friendly attitude pays off? I figure if you’ll be friendly with people, they’ll be friendly with you. They just cain’t help theirselves. My neighbour’s testin’ me to see if I’ll get riled up. But I won’t rile, because I believe the day is comin’ when the peoples of the world won’t fight each other no more. They’ll outlaw these terrible weapons. They’ll stop all the testin’ of spears. And the terrible bow and arrow will be controlled for peaceful use. I know that day is comin’. (Huck gets bashed on the head). But today is not the day.

It’s a great little scene because you know Huck is going to get clobbered. You just don’t know when. And Foster and George Goepper have animation of the caveman bringing down his club like a hammer with appropriate wooden sound effects. But it’s not Huck being bashed. The camera cuts back to Huck fending off the savage’s club with his own.

Huck’s sabre-tooth dog is hungry and bites Huck in the you-know-where. Huck pops him on the head. Another nice design by Tony Rivera. The dog responds by grabbing Huck’s club by the end and bashing Huck, head first, against the ground. Huck doesn’t let go of the club. “Since the dog is caveman’s best friend, you can imagine the trouble we have with the unfriendly animals around here,” he tells us.



So Huck chats away to us as he hunts for a dinosaur. Along the way, he comes into contact with a huge eel. Look at the detail of Goepper’s drawing in close-up.



Huck cracks the eel on the skull and it sinks gurgling into the water. The hunt is interrupted by a “swallow” which carries Huck away and drops him to the ground far below. Finally, he invents the first lasso, ropes the dinosaur, and is dragged by him along the ground as the beast runs away. Huck figures the creature will get tired and stop—in a few days. Then there’s a really abrupt sound edit job and Huck sings “Clementine,” er, “Dinosaur” as the Narrator ends the cartoon.



Goepper has a bunch of funny, goofy expressions in this cartoon. George Washington Goepper was born in Santa Ana, California on February 22, 1909 to Julius A. and Harriet L. (Chapman) Goepper. His father had been a cigar maker. He was supporting his widowed mother when he started at Disney on June 1, 1933 as an in-betweener. Goepper became Norm Ferguson’s assistant and later animated for Jack Hannah. He worked on the Dance of the Hours segment in “Fantasia.” In World War Two, he served in the Photographic Science Lab, Art & Animation Div., USMAS. Anacostia. He left Disney and worked at Bob Clampett’s Snowball Productions (according to the late Fred Kopietz) before going to Hanna-Barbera. After retiring in 1970, he eventually taught animation at Orange Coast College. Goepper died on January 11, 1993. You can read a bit more about George HERE and HERE.

Cartoons Live On Location

Television stations, apparently, couldn’t just rely on kids to turn on the set and watch cartoons on their own. They went out and advertised their shows.

I was leafing through 54-year-old copies of Sponsor magazine the other day (this gives you an indication of what my life is like), and found some items related to our favourite TV cartoons.

TV stars made personal appearances, so you’d find Wild Bill Hickok hired to open a supermarket or the Cisco Kid in a parade. Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear were no different, except a drawing couldn’t very well walk around in public. So people dressed as Hanna-Barbera characters were available for the asking, sometimes in conjunction with stores that sold H-B merchandise or TV stations that broadcast their cartoons. The TV stations promoted their promotions in Sponsor.

While Yogi appeared in the cartoon “Rah Rah Bear” (1959) about the Chicago Bears football team, he also had a baseball connection. And I don’t mean with the name Yogi Berra. Check out Yogi’s appearance to the right. Yogi must have inspired his fellow bruins as they beat the Nashville Vols 12-1 on a seven-hitter by left-hander Bob Allen that night (April 17, 1960). That put the team in a first-place tie in the Southern Association. Alas, the Bears ended the year in seventh place and dumped their manager along the way.

Besides special events, TV stations took out full-page ads. Here’s one that’s interesting, considering that Taft Broadcasting bought Hanna-Barbera about a dozen years later.



That one’s clearly aiming for the college group; Huck was huge on campus when he debuted in 1958. This ad is part of the large “Huckleberry Hound for President” campaign that appeared everywhere except on the TV show. But a TV station jumped on the bandwagon. It was published on October 10, 1960.



KGLO, Mason City, Iowa crowed in the September 19, 1960 edition of Sponsor that it telecast a live political convention campaigning for Huck, viewers got bumper stickers and car window signs pushing Huck and a ballot sheet of 4,000 signatures stretching 1½ city blocks was filled with presidential endorsements. You can read more about the presidential campaign in this post.

Sponsor stated in its edition of October 17, 1960 that “The Flintstones” had received a mixed reception from critics, but not with audiences. On its debut week, the prime time cartoon earned a 19.5 rating and a 37.7% share, beating all other shows in its time slot. Below, you can see what one ABC affiliate did to promote the Modern Stone Age family. Apparently the Flintmobile was out of service, so it had to settle for an antique car. It’s a good thing the cartoon was new because no one today would ever mistake these two for Fred and Wilma.



In fact, mentions of “The Flintstones” found their way into ABC-TV ad copy, pushing it as a success story (and a reason to buy the network’s time). Sponsor, in an article, partly credited the cartoon characters plugging Winstons during the show. Is it any wonder other networks jumped on the idea of prime-time cartoons the following year, one starring this man:



The ad from Sponsor shows you Stang couldn’t have been hurting too much for cash when he auditioned for the role of Top Cat the following year.

The public appearances did more than plug some TV cartoons. They were part of a multi-million-dollar business. Witness this article in Weekly Variety of December 21, 1960. The photo is yet another from Sponsor.

Estimate $ 40,000,000 Merchandise Gross on ‘Huckleberry Hound’ in ‘60
Huckleberry Hound, the realized gold fantasy of Hanna-Barbera and Screen Gems, is due to expand his personal appearances in ‘61 to include “live” tv dates. Currently being prepped are two “live” act promotions for local telecasting. Bulletin sent out to stations alerting them of the development brought 20 affirmative responses within a week.
In one of the promotions, Huck will be accompanied by Yogi Bear and his new girlfriend, Cindy Bear. In the other, he’ll be accompanied by Quick Draw McGraw and his sidekick, Baba Looie.

Ed Justin, SG merchandising manager, plans to schedule the air dates in coordination with promotional appearances at major department stores.
Those department store tie-ins are of no small consequence. It’s estimated that in ‘60 the Huck line of merchandise grosses about $ 40,000,000 on the retail level. Usual licensing arrangement calls for a 5% royalty for use of characters by the manufacturer, the 6% taken at the wholesale level. If $ 20,000,000 is estimated for the wholesale gross of the Huck line, Hanna-Barbera cartoonery and SG will share about $ 1,000,000 in royalties in ‘60.
The Cindy Bear and Baba Looie costumes, now being completed, will be new to the p. a. trail.
During ‘60, costumes for Huck, Yogi and Quick Draw made well over 150 promotional appearances at department stores and at major local events such as college football games and parades. In addition, last summer an attraction starring Huck and Yogi, with Eddie Alberian as emcee, put in appearances at fairs and amusement parks.

A hound, a bear and some prehistoric humans had turned into enormous cash cows. 54 years later, the latter two still are today.

Yogi Bear Weekend Comics, May 1964

A perhaps-familiar little friend rejoined the land of Yogi Bear 50 years ago this month in the pages of newspapers subscribing to the McNaught Syndicate’s version of cartoondom’s favourite pilfering bruin. And there’s a not-so-subtle plug for the Yogi Bear movie.


I think I’ve asked this before, but does anyone know the origin of the nuts-equals-Napoleon gag? Was it based on something that happened in real life? Winsor McCay used it in one of his intricate Sunday Rarebit newspaper cartoons before World War One. Here it is in the May 3, 1964 Yogi comic. Nice balance on the bear in the opening panel. Remarkable, isn’t it, that the tourists would know Yogi by name? Well, then again, he’d been on TV since 1958.


Whaaa? Vandalising Ranger Smith’s home? Yogi’s kind of getting destructive, isn’t he? The May 10th comic is a far cry from purloining a sandwich from a basket like on TV. You can’t see them all that well but Yogi’s got a nice ranger of expressions. My suggestion would be to check out Mark Kausler’s site for full-colour versions of the bottom two rows of this month’s comics.


Look! It’s Li’l Tom Tom! No, we don’t mean the rapper (and there must be a rapper somewhere named Li’l Tom Tom). We mean the little native American boy who appeared in the early Yogi cartoon “The Brave Little Brave” (1958). Hanna-Barbera had high hopes for him; Li’l Tom Tom dolls were even manufactured. But the mute little boy didn’t really have any personality and was soon eclipsed by other H-B characters. His swan song was in a Hokey Wolf cartoon. But here he is brought out of cartoon retirement. I don’t know who wrote the story of the May 17th comic, but I like the idea the natives aren’t speaking in “Hollywood Indian.” “Bernard” and “Hildagarde” is a real stretch for a rhyme. If this had been a 1930s cartoon, Bernie would have been a Jewish Indian. Some nice Harvey Eisenberg silhouettes here. Note the wind-up record player.



The best part of the May 24th comic may be Boo Boo’s dry sense of humour in the opening panel. It surfaced maybe a couple of times on the TV cartoons. Yet another chubby-cheeked Boy Scout. The final panel is well laid out.

Unfortunately this tabloid copy is the best version I can find. The tabloids always took out one of the small panels, and one is missing in this comic. It shows Boo Boo standing in front of a rock, looking up and saying “...There’s just one thing...” before the next panel asking about the Fan Club.


What’s that? You can hear Daws Butler’s Phil Silvers voice out of the big agent? Silvers’ Sergeant Bilko would appreciate the audacity of Hanna-Barbera giving free advertising to its feature-length movie in its own comic. This May 31st comic came just after the official preview of the movie. The folks at Weekly Variety wrote, in part, on May 27, 1964:

Columbia Pictures will explore a new location Saturday ( 30) for a press junket for one of its upcoming releases—one chosen to make the film's leading man feel at home. Taking off from here Decoration Day, a planeload of press, radio and tv reps will head for Yellowstone National Park...
The mayor of Salt Lake City will accompany the fourth estaters to the habitat of the fictional bear who is central figure of the animated feature. Agenda calls for flight to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in a chartered Martin 202, transferring to buses for Yellowstone with a lunch at Old Faithful preceding screening of the - Hanna-Barbera animated feature, plus stage show with performers enacting characters from the film. World premiere of "Hey There" is scheduled for here on June 3.

The same issue of Weekly Variety reviewed the feature, calling it a “Marketable hot weather cartoon feature for the moppet mart. Will have to buck its own freevee competition.” (On another page, the paper announced “The Jetsons” would be on CBS’ Saturday morning schedule).

Back to the comic: it’s hard to make out, but the word “Zoom!” is on the bottom of the last panel as Yogi brings out his bags and goes Hollywood.

Okay, now a little bonus. In honour of the appearance of Li’l Tom Tom, here is one of the two music cues used in “The Brave Little Brave.” I haven’t been able to locate the first one, which is maddening, but this is the one played when the panicky rabbit is talking to Yogi, and during the daring rescue of the little boy before he goes over the falls. It’s from Capitol Hi-Q reel M-13. It’s a little chewed up but listenable.


L-744 MELODIC WESTERN UNDERSCORE

What? You want more music? Okay, here’s the rest of the reel. All are by Spencer Moore. None of these cues were used in cartoons.


L-741 MELODIC WESTERN UNDERSCORE



L-734 MELODIC WESTERN UNDERSCORE



L-739 MELODIC WESTERN UNDERSCORE



L-735 MELODIC WESTERN UNDERSCORE



L-525 MELODIC WESTERN UNDERSCORE


As usual, you can click on any of the comics to make it larger.

Pixie and Dixie — Bombay Mouse

Produced and Directed by Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.
Credits: Animation – John Boersma, Layout – Tony Rivera, Backgrounds – Dick Thomas, Written by Warren Foster, Story Director – Lew Marshall, Titles – Art Goble, Production Supervision – Howard Hanson.
Voice Cast: Pixie, Tabu – Don Messick; Dixie, Mr Jinks – Daws Butler.
Music: Hoyt Curtin.
First Aired: week of Jan. 22, 1962 (rerun, week of June 18, 1962).
Plot: Tabu the Indian mouse arrives to help Pixie and Dixie deal with Mr. Jinks.

No, Hadji on “Jonny Quest” was not the first person to utter the words “(Sim) Sim Sala Bim” in a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. Tabu the Bombay Mouse did it in this cartoon. But writer Warren Foster didn’t invent the phrase. Go to to this web site to learn more.

I feel sorry for Mr. Jinks in this cartoon. All he’s doing is napping. He’s not bothering anyone. Suddenly, some mouse on a flying carpet invades his house without asking and levitates him onto a tree branch. Who’s this Tabu guy to start picking on him for no reason? And what’s with the meeces? They egg on Tabu (“He’s always imposin’ on us,” says Pixie) but then object to how he’s punishing Jinks (“Mr. Jinks is our friend,” says Dixie). Make up your minds, meeces.

Mind you, Pixie and Dixie aren’t exactly blessed with university educations in this one. When Tabu enters their mouse hole, he explains he’s an Indian mouse. “Indian mouse?!” exclaims the incredulous Pixie. “Indians have feathers and do war dances,” adds Dixie. Apparently, the turban and Don Messick’s accent didn’t clue them in that Tabu is from the real India. So Tabu does it for them. “Did you ever hear of Bombay?” asks Tabu. “Bombay?” repeats Pixie. “Oh, sure,” says Dixie. “Any friend of Bombay’s is a friend of ours’.”

Fortunately, Mr. Jinks gets snappier things to say than this. When Jinks sees the turbaned Tabu, he asks “And who is this with the headache?” Jinks is warned Tabu knows all the secrets of India. “India, huh? Well, uh, I want no meece-type United Nations started here.” And after Tabu turns him into a cow: “I have a funny feeling that,uh, I would enjoy munching on, like, grass, repulsive as it sounds. I think I will go out in the yard and, like, chew my cud. Whatever that is.”

Tony Rivera’s design for Jinks as a cow is pretty funny (note that Dick Thomas’ painting on the wall is of a desert).



John Boersma’s animation is really odd in spots. Below, you see that it looks like Tabu and his flying carpet land on Jinks’ head. But Jinks moves his head (while snoring) and the carpet stays put.



Boersma has a halting, side-step cycle for Tabu when he enters the mouse hole. Eight drawings. What makes it halting is a drawing is photographed, the background is moved slightly, the drawing is photographed again, then the background remains stationary and the next drawing is photographed. The process is repeated for each drawing.



Later in the scene, Tabu begins to put Pixie and Dixie in a trance. You’d think he’d aim his arms at them, or something. Instead he lifts them into the air like he’s pushing something skyward. The gesture doesn’t make sense. And he’s not even saying magic words. Why are the meece under a spell?

Anyway, the rest of the cartoon carries on. Jinks is levitated out the window and onto a tree branch by Tabu. A neat little Hammond organ march by Hoyt Curtin is played in the background; I don’t know how often it was used in cartoons. Boersma draws Jinks with a wide mouth but with a longer upper lip line than Carlo Vinci. Still, Jinks looks pretty attractive. Hmm. Angular tree foliage? Scratchy line for grass? Must be a Dick Thomas background.

Jinks confronts Tabu, who climbs a rope and disappears (“Anything that makes a meece disappear, I am, like, all for,” exclaims Jinks). Another example of long shots not matching medium-close shots (sorry for the non-animation terminology, you animators reading here). Here are consecutive frames.



Song references:

Pixie: “Tabu’s turnin’ on his brain power.”
Dixie: “His old black magic will have him in his spell.”

That’s when Jinks is turned into a cow. To turn him back, the meece have to say the magic words “Shaboom, shaboom.”

Tabu says “I think I go back to Bombay and forget trying to be helpful.” Hey, Tabu, I thought someone “sent” you. Aren’t they going to be annoyed that you bailed on your assignment? And when were you helpful? You showed up uninvited and performed magic on poor Jinks that nobody wanted. Good riddance, you Hadji-wannabe.

Foster has some cute dialogue in the next scene, when the meece are talking to Jinks in the yard.

Pixie: Hi, Jinksie.
Jinks: Hi, uh, fellers. Uh, y’want some grass? Be my guest, like.
Pixie: We came to help ya, Jinks.
Jinks: Help? Like, uh, who needs help?
Dixie: You do, Jinks. You’re a cow.
Jinks: I know it. But, I was tryin’ to make the best of it. I despises people who are always, like, you know, complaining.



Boersma draws a great floppy mouth on Jinks in the dialogue close-up. Jinks is changed back to a cat. To end the gag, he pulls a piece of grass out of his mouth. Not surprisingly, he chases the meece back into the hole. Inexplicably, he does it hopping like a kangaroo, complete with old MGM sound effects. Why? He’s never done it before. I guess someone thought it was funny.

Tabu left his rope behind. Jinks manages gets it to point into the air, he climbs it and then disappears. No magic words or spells. So much for Tabu’s “power.” It was all in the rope. Pixie and Dixie quickly grab the rope so they can raid the ice box. No, they don’t tie to a door handle to open it. It seems Jinksie can’t reappear unless the rope’s around. Or something. Anyway, Pixie and Dixie chow down on cheese and the invisible Jinks wails his catchphrase as the meeces laugh. Hey, meeces, I thought you told Tabu that Jinks was your “friend.” Is that how friends treat other friends? Ah, well. Cartoon’s over. I guess we’ll have to find out next week.

Hoyt Curtin’s spooky organ makes an appearance. There’s also a recorder cue that starts off with “The Streets of Cairo” (the snake-charming song) that Curtin takes off in another direction. The minor-key version of the Flintstones melody shows up when Pixie and Dixie tell Tabu that Jinks will be a problem. There’s some other Flintstones music here, like at the start of the living room scene with the three mice and Jinks.

One last note: there’s way too much writing on the title card. It takes up the entire top half. I understand H-B was showing off its new script logo (one of two Pixie and Dixie titles cards with it), but the card would look better without it and the rest of the text moved up. And you’ll notice the mouse on the card is grey when he’s brown in the cartoon.