I'm tempted to offer this...

[BobChief]

...PD tape I bought at a permanent flea market in our area last week, in trade for whatever you're willing to offer.

I got rid of the box, as I didn't want to let on to the folks that I had it. If it was major bad, I was going to hold on to it as a potential spare tape, howbeit that it was half or thereabouts the length of a commercial blank tape.

The box advertised it as "Herman and Catnip (sic)" with a cover drawing that looked closer to Tom & Jerry (mouse throws tiny firecracker into cat's mouth as he attacks), tho Paramount didn't really start that pairing until 1950. Two of the three toons (only 20 minutes or so on essentially a 1-hour tape :p ) feature Herman...more on him later.

The highlight of the tape IMHO is the last toon, the Max Fleischer Color Classic "Kids in the Shoe" from 1935. It's not under-lit like some previous MFCC's I've seen elsewhere. The climactic scene features a COOL JAZZ band backing an inventive performance by the kids. Maltin in OM&M liked to paint the MFCC's with a broad brush as being too D~sn~y-like, but I found this highly entertaining! It has NTA opening and closing titles, BTW...

Also on the tape are two Famous Noveltoons with Herman: Naughty but Mice from 1947 with a forerunner of Katnip (he has only one or two lines, in a similar style), and Scrappily Married from 1945 {I had to go back and find where I had written all this ---- down}, in which he teams up with henpecked Henry to battle both a cat (looking less like Katnip than the first toon) and Henry's nagging wife, who (of course) can't stand mice. Not the slugfests the later H&K's were, but...there are no Paramount emblems on either, while the script Paramount and the copyright line appear on Naughty, not on Scrappily.

If anyone's interested, let me know...I wonder, would I need some kind of box to put this in before going to FedEx, UPS, or whoever?

[J Lee]

I've got a six-hour tape with a beautiful version of "Naughty But Mice," complete with Paramount logo, plus the NTA faded version of "Scrappily Married," which was a semi-remake of the 1943 cartoon "The Henpecked Rooster." Fortunately for Famous, they still had the ability in 1945 to remake and improve on their earlier efforts, though doing almost the exact same cartoon just two years later (albeit with a better ending) does show a certain lack of inventiveness.

[Bobby B]

Originally posted by J Lee
I've got a six-hour tape with a beautiful version of "Naughty But Mice," complete with Paramount logo, plus the NTA faded version of "Scrappily Married," which was a semi-remake of the 1943 cartoon "The Henpecked Rooster)


I think I have the same tape. Does your "Naughty But Mice" look like it was edited where Herman starts drawing a coffin around the cat's picture? And do all the Popeye cartoons have substituted music instead of "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man"?

[J Lee]

Yes, and some of the Famous cartoons also have added sound effects and a Burbank Video 1989 copyright, which I suppose justify the new sounds.

"The Stupidsticious Cat" print is also in excellent condition and with Paramount logos, and someone tried to restore the Paramount logos to a couple of other cartoons -- "Bargain Counter Attack," "Goofy, Goofy Gander" and "There's Good Boos Tonight."

[BobChief]

Bobby B wrote, in part:
I think I have the same tape. Does your "Naughty But Mice" look like it was edited where Herman starts drawing a coffin around the cat's picture?

Oh yeah, forgot all about that! Yes!!