Yet ANOTHER Blue Ribbon questions post

[NickM]

Okay, the moment you feared has arrived again, here is another couple of Blue Ribbon questions in my ongoing mission to unlock some sort of sequence to how they were reissued.

I know that you can tell by the color of the rings what release season that certain cartoons were reissued in.

I also noted that there are Blue Ribbon reissue numbers too (located in Dave Mackey's filmography).

But here are my questions...

1) Was there a set number of cartoons that were reissued at one time?

2) Were they reissued only once per release season? And at what point(s) of the season were they reissued?

3) Is there any place that lists all of the Blue Ribbon numbers that were assigned to the reissued cartoons?

4) Can anyone know for sure which cartoons were reissued in what years? (I know I'm getting a "no" on this before even asking).

Forgiving me for seeking verbose detail, but I'm just curious as to the history of all the WB cartoons in theatres... which leads me to my last question...

5) How long were ANY WB Cartoons (Blue Ribbon or regular issue) allowed to be ran in theatres, before being pulled out?

Thanks for any information in advance!

Nicholas J. Mooneyhan
aka NickM

[Greg Method]

<< 3) Is there any place that lists all of the Blue Ribbon numbers that were assigned to the reissued cartoons? >>

IIRC, someone actually tried to compile a list and posted it on the Warner Bros. newsgroup years ago. You may be able to do a Google search.

<< 4) Can anyone know for sure which cartoons were reissued in what years? (I know I'm getting a "no" on this before even asking). >>

No, but the colors of the rings on the Blue Ribbon openings can perhaps supply hints of when cartoons were reissued.

The last Warner Bros. cartoon to be reissued (I *think*) was "Birds Anonymous." Does anyone know when the Blue Ribbon series stopped? I can't imagine that it lasted past 1960.

[Jack]

I can't imagine that it lasted past 1960.


Actually, J. Lee once mentioned that they reissued the cartoons up until the closing of the studio.

You can tell what cartoons were reissued after the 1960-61 season because they have the later " A Vitaphone Release" label on the end credits.



Jack:D

[Matthew Hunter]

How come some LT cartoons were "A Vitaphone Release" and others a "VitaGRAPH" release" by the early 1960's? It doesn't change with every cartoon, it seems to make no difference in quality, but I wonder why they switched companies sometimes?
-Matthew

[Jack]

Only Merrie Melodies were Vitaphone Releases, while Looney Tunes were Vitagraph Releases, I think this was discussed on the old boards, but I have no clue where that thread is. There really is no difference between the two(cartoons that started as LTs, but were rereleased as MMs would have gone from Vitagraph to Vitaphone).



Jack:D

[Dave Mackey]

I am gonna try to answer these questions in some logical order.

Vitaphone and Vitagraph

The Vitaphone Release end title was only for Merrie Melodies, and the Vitagraph was only for Looney Tunes. This carried through to the W7 era, but the W7's only indicated Vitaphone on their end titles regardless of series.

I suppose WB did this to keep the Vitaphone and Vitagraph names in use for trademark purposes. This happened about the time the copyright changed from The Vitaphone Corp. to Warner Bros. Pictures Inc.

60's Blue Ribbon Reissues

There is a preponderance of Blue Ribbons that have no orange rings and no release number. The presence of "A Vitaphone Release" on the end titles (in many cases the original end titles were not retained) indicates they were reissued in 1960 or afterwards.

How long were WB cartoons in theatres?

I believe the formal releasing of cartoons was stopped when Kinney took over WB, but that's not to say that there weren't still hundreds of prints out there circulating among film exchanges and service bureaus. I do remember seeing some WB cartoons in theatres in the 1970's. I saw "Zoom And Bored" at the old Strand movie theatre in Ocean Grove, NJ. I also remember seeing "Dune Bug" (a 1969 DF Ant & Aardvark) at the old Lyric (or was it the Baronet?) in Asbury Park. Both sadly now torn down. Oh well.

Of course, a bunch of them were reissued again by WB in 1990 for Bugs' 50th anniv. and shown exclusively at the AMC Theatres chain.

Is there a canonical list of Blue Ribbons with release numbers?

For my website, I am working on a canonical list of production numbers. These will include the Blue Ribbons released from 1948 to 1958 that included production numbers. There is a plea on my website for people holding artwork or pieces of tape or anything that might have production numbers on it to send me the info so we can track down some of the original numbers for those cartoons that were reissued.