Another Post-1948 Blue Ribbon question

[Vdubdavid]

I'm just wondering, has anyone seen the original title cards to the four or five post-48 cartoons that have the cards switched for the Blue Ribbons? (I'm talking Cheese Chasers, The Ducksters, etc.)

[Matthew Hunter]

There are only a few of those,there's:

"The Foghorn Leghorn"
"Scaredy Cat"
"Daffy Dilly"

The ones you mentioned, I believe, have their original cards, don't they? They have a BR followed by the original, and that practice continued for a long time, I think a number or Merrie Melodies from the 50's have this. Now, the ones you mention may be screwed up, but that's the first I'd heard of anything missing. The three above, as well as maybe a few others, (Was "Kit For Cat" this way, I think it was?) were among the few that got released to the post-1948 package with the blue ribbon card completely obscuring the titles and credits, which had been done for other re-issue toons years before. "Foghorn" and "Scaredy" are released as restored original title versions, but they are only found on the Columbia House video series.

-by the way, can anyone make a screenshot of those two cards so I can see them?

-Matthew

[Jack]

Wait, you have Daffy Dilly with the original titles????? Where I can get a copy??? What does it look like?

Cartoons like Tweety's SOS, The Ducksters, Cheese chasers, ect DO NOT have their original titles. The credits are original, but the titles were replaced when the cartoons were reissued (watch "Cheese Chasers," notice how the title is a generic blue card with the title written on it, no other embellishments, then look at the "Directed By Chuck Jones" credit. It uses somewhat different lettering, and is put over a card with Hubie and Bertie on it. Various cartoons up to 1951 were reissued in this way, probably because the old cards were organized in a such a way that parts would be missing when theaters cropped the image for fake widescreen. I guess they didn't care about the other credits being cropped off.

According to The Dave Mackey's site, the following were reissued with new non-BR title cards:
Often An Orphan
The Leghorn Blows At Midnight
The Ducksters
Cheese Chasers
Tweety's S.O.S.

There may be more, so really the pre-1951 library needs to be restored to get the original titles..


Jack:D

[Bum]

Originally posted by Jack


Cartoons like Tweety's SOS, The Ducksters, Cheese chasers, ect DO NOT have their original titles. The credits are original, but the titles were replaced when the cartoons were reissued (watch "Cheese Chasers," notice how the title is a generic blue card with the title written on it, no other embellishments, then look at the "Directed By Chuck Jones" credit. It uses somewhat different lettering, and is put over a card with Hubie and Bertie on it. Various cartoons up to 1951 were reissued in this way, probably because the old cards were organized in a such a way that parts would be missing when theaters cropped the image for fake widescreen. I guess they didn't care about the other credits being cropped off.

Jack:D


Aside from a lack of artwork, another thing that stands out about these is the way they abruply cut from the title card to the production credits [as opposed to a smooth dissolve, like from the production to the director credits].

[Matthew Hunter]

hmmm...no, as far as I know there's not a title card for "Daffy Dilly" out there...except the original negatives. I'd be interested to find out what it looks like though.
-Matthew

[Jack]

Originally posted by Matthew Hunter
hmmm...no, as far as I know there's not a title card for "Daffy Dilly" out there...except the original negatives. I'd be interested to find out what it looks like though.
-Matthew
Sorry, I had misread your original post. I thought you said you had Daffy Dilly with the original titles someplace. I still think they redid the opening cityscape scene when it was reissued, but I'm always missing it when it plays on CN, so I can't really study it yet.




Jack:D

[J Lee]

Cheese Chasers, The Ducksters, Often an Orphan, Tweety's SOS and the Bugs Bunny title card on French Raerbit are the ones I can think of off the top of my head where new titles were added on after the Blue Ribbon logo with the standard dissolve, and then there is a cut to the original title cards.

As far as the original cards, I've never seen those, but there were several of the last of the Bule Ribbon releases which WGN aired with their original non-BR titles until around 1984 -- Cat Tails for Two, From A to ZZZZ, Upswept Hare, Fox Terror, Bell Hoppy, Easy Peckins, Weasel Stop and Tobasco Road are the ones I can remember that were shown with their original MM or LT title cards, and all were part of the September 1964 synndication package, which apparently was sent out just after these cartoons had been re-released with the new titles, so that the originals were still around to be shipped out (apparently by accident) to WGN.

They were in pretty bad shape as far as breaks, scratches, etc., by 1984, when videotaped versions of the WB tunes were sent out to Chicago to replace the ones on film, and the new ones were all Blue Ribbons. (And of the post-48s that were shorn of their main credits, only "Scardey Cat" was part of the syndication package, the others were all network cartoons until the early 1990s).

[Greg Method]

I can't recall the difference, but I know I have seen both title cards for "The Leghorn Blows At Midnight." I remember it only because I remember saying "Hey, it doesn't look like that on my video." That was before I learned about the Blue Ribbons and such.

So, there was some television outlet out there airing an alternate version.

[Crazy Tom]

Originally posted by J Lee
Cheese Chasers, The Ducksters, Often an Orphan, Tweety's SOS and the Bugs Bunny title card on French Raerbit are the ones I can think of off the top of my head where new titles were added on after the Blue Ribbon logo with the standard dissolve, and then there is a cut to the original title cards.

Three others come to my mind: Mouse Wreckers, Homeless Hare, and Knights Must Fall. Do they apply to this category?

[J Lee]

Homeless Hare, Knights Must Fall and Rabbit Hood -- possibly along with Hot Cross Bunny -- had their original Bugs Bunny title cards removed, with the Blue Ribbon logo remaining until the title card for the name of the cartoon appears, so I guess they would count in their own category as "modified" openings. ("HCB," like "Bugs Bunny Rides Again" may never have had a Bugs title card)

I'm not sure about Mouse Wreckers though. IIRC, it has it's original title card after the Blue Ribbon opening, but has a sudden, clipped ending, which appears to have been done before the cartoon's original release.

[Matthew Hunter]

I think "Mouse Wreckers" is as originally released...I don't REMEMBER a Blue Ribbon card on there. (I'll check my "Porky Pig's Screwball Comedy" tape.) The ending, though, I have wondered about. I imagine it's just a fluke, that sudden cut, because there's really nothing to edit from there...That's how it should logically end. There does appear to be no iris out, maybe that's why it's sudden. Could be that there was no time to put one in when producing it, or the end cards were changed for something later and the original iris was lost. Ah, the mouse-teries of old cartoons!
-Matthew

[J Lee]

I think "Mouse Wreckers" is as originally released...I don't REMEMBER a Blue Ribbon card on there. (I'll check my "Porky Pig's Screwball Comedy" tape.) The ending, though, I have wondered about. I imagine it's just a fluke, that sudden cut, because there's really nothing to edit from there...That's how it should logically end. There
does appear to be no iris out, maybe that's why it's sudden. Could be that there was no time to put one in when producing it, or the end cards were changed for something later and the original iris was lost. Ah, the mouse-teries of old cartoons!

It was a Blue Ribbon release, only from the 1956-57 season, when Warner's didn't bother to change the end title cards, so it still has its original LT close. (WB didn't start adding the end title cards until the 1959 season of BR re-releases).

As for the ending, the only thing I can think of is when you look at the ending of that cartoon and the end of Jones' later "The Year of the Mouse" with Tom and Jerry, in the later cartoon Tom finally figures out what's going on and gets his revenge in the final scene. In "Mouse Wreckers" Jones gives us a shot, apparently from Claude's perspective while hiding in the tree, that would indicate he sees Hubie and Bertie on top of the chimney before they slide down the rope into the house.

So there may have been another end gag planned with Claude coming back to the house, that for some reason they decided didn't work and was just cut out. Whether or not it would have been similar to the one Jones used his his T&J cartoon, I have no idea about.

[Matthew Hunter]

Somebody also mentioned "The Leghorn Blows at Midnight". Here is an image of the title card that was included in the 2000 LT page calendar, and is also on the copy I taped from Cartoon Network. Is this the original, or a "fake"?
-Matthew
http://flashpages.prodigy.net/hunter21/leghornmidnight.jpg

[chuckamuck43]

It's the title card used for the cartoon in my copy of Foghorn Leghorn's Fractured Funnies, so it does look like the real thing.