Acme Hour - 10/20/01

[Jon Cooke]

"Blackboard Jumble" (MGM, Droopy)
"Friend or Phony" (Popeye)
"Goopy Geer" - B&W, edited
"Pigs in a Polka"
"The Prospecting Bear" (MGM, Barney Bear)
"Porky the Rain Maker" - computer colorized


-Jon

[Tintin]

Who's that the edited scene on Goopy Geer?

[alstin]

Originally posted by Martin Juneau
Who's that the edited scene on Goopy Geer?

I think Ghandi was edited, but I'm not sure.

[Thad Komorowski]

For some reason, the gorilla waiter saying "Yes sir, Yes sir, Yes sir!" to the customers was chopped out.

-Thad:D

[PorkyandDaffy]

Was it cut because he said it in a black voice?

[DR. BELCH]

The Ghandi scene was left intact...though I'll tell you, that's about the scariest-looking caricature of him I've ever seen. Why not a Hitler or a Stalin face, or at least a Grim Reaper? Or was it supposed to be irony, showing a peaceful man as being frightening?

I've noticed on this and many other early Warners shorts the name "Winston Marcelas" as musical director. Is he any relation to saxaphonist and former Leno bandman Bradford Marcelas?

[lislebartman]

Actually, the musical director during the H-I period (1930-1933) was a man named Frank Marsales, who composed some very good scores for the Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies. I wonder what became of him...

[DR. BELCH]

--That's right; Frank Marcelas. There seems to be a lot of men by that name in the music industry. Actually, to be working in the Depression era, and if related, Frank would have to be the grandfather of Bradford...and I believe his old man was Winston (I think I have the generations straight, but feel free to correct me)....

[BobChief]

I didn't assume Frank *Marsales* to be related to Wynton, Branford, and their father Ellis *Marsalis*; for that matter, I didn't even assume Frank was of color! We would probably have known if that were true...

Anyhow, Frank was out of a job when Harman and Ising moved on from Warners to MGM, who had plenty of music talent of its own. He resurfaced in '38 at Lantz, but worked on only a few 'toons there, the last on record being "Knock Knock", which introduced Woody Woodpecker.

[Dave Mackey]

Frank Marsales' career at Lantz was best described as "stopgap" when you consider his scores of the 1930's were executed mainly by Jimmie Dietrich and Frank Churchill. There's nothing particularly noteworthy (no pun intended) about Marsales' WB work, except for its workmanship. It wasn't until Carl Stalling came on board, of course, that the music in WB cartoons came to mean something.

A parallel exists at Lantz, where Darrell Calker came on board after Marsales left on '40 and had the place boogie-woogie-ing within two years. Remarkably, he even had enough left in the tank to do a few scores in 1961-1962.