Sogturtle
05-08-2001, 10:45 AM
Fellas~
Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh... Ya do know that this whole "Bosko's Picture Show" dirty word question (see Brian's "Updates to LT & MM: The Early Years" discussion below) has been discussed (okay, argued) in depth at least twice before on the old TT message board. It finally gets down to a sort-of "Clampett vs. Jones" kind of argument... (i.e. you end up believing what you want to believe).
However just to briefly recap, in a secondary go-round on it I'd maintained no American cartoons (even Fleischer) had any cursing (similar to features). Jon Cooke wisely pointed out that the early Iwerks "Flip the Frog" toons had featured an occasional "mild" cuss word (h---), something which I'd forgotten till then (OOPS!!). The Hays Office came down hard on both features (poor Mae West) and shorts (Betty Boop) just at the time of this particular Bosko cartoon (La Boop could just as well have been drowned in her ink-bottle!!! :p). One message board response (can't remember from who, sorry) pointed out that this sounded like a warp in the optical soundtrack, which is possible... but ifffff so then it occurs at the crucial moment of all time). The possibility that the word in question was originally "fox", is debatable in light of the context of this toon's making...
The REAL crux of the issue is what was happening as "BOSKO'S PICTURE SHOW" was made... And this was the incredibly acrimonious break over filthy lucre between Hugh Harman and Leon Schlesinger (Rudy Ising was more laid back). Allegedly the break was SOOOO severe that forever afterwards the mere mention of Harman's name provoked a string of obscene profanities from Leon's lisping lips... (This whole mess would prefigure Harman's monetary monumental bad-relations with MGM). Anyway, NOW here's where it gets interesting... "BOSKO'S PICTURE SHOW" was the very last Bosko Looney Tune made!!! (No matter what the copyright or release dates show, and different dates have been published). The last Harman-Ising's were copyrighted almost simultaneously, but "BOSKO'S PICTURE SHOW" was denoted in the copyright catalog as "Looney Tunes #13" (Bosko's Mechanical Man" is LT #11, and "Bosko The Musketeer" is LT #12"). These designations refer to the cartoons in the "Third series" of Looney Tunes (1932-1933). Sooooo by the time this cartoon was underway, the break between Schlesinger and Harman-Ising was deeply sand-blasted into granite, with enraged feelings riding at their highest on both sides. (Must digress one second here... Friz Freleng clearly denoted in his official filmography back in the Seventies that he and Hugh Harman CO-DIRECTED "Bosko's Picture Show", as such Friz LIKELY helped write it...). It is quite probable that as a "get-back" that Hugh Harman (and Friz) sent a booby trapped version of the film (with the dreaded "f-word") to Schlesinger and Warner Bros. hoping to sabotage Schlesinger. Releasing the toon with the "f-word" intact would have brought an immense public outcry and untold damage on Schlesinger and even Warner Bros. Here's where it gets REALLY tricky... I've read through every Variety of the day, and as many Motion Picture Heralds and Daily Variety's as I can get my hands on... and guess what??? There's no mention whatsoever of any irregularity with THIS CARTOON!!! Annnnnnd likewise there no word of any humongous public-outcry, protests or even a small-town theater being burned down... What does this mean??? Apparently NOBODY heard it as the dreaded "f-word" in 1933!!!! Soooooo this makes one very suspicious that Schlesinger and Warners had wisely previewed the toon, caught the vicious jab at Leon and made a revised version which was then actually released, with the "f-word" version left lurking around to create confusion much later. Whether the version that the public (and critics) saw had the word as "fox" or "cur" (maybe even as "the Fox And Cur" ;)) can be argued till the Second Coming... And it should be mentioned that Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald pointed out this cuss-word in the first version of their book, then made not a mention of it in the 1989 revision, apparently having been convinced that it wasn't in the released film...
Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh... Ya do know that this whole "Bosko's Picture Show" dirty word question (see Brian's "Updates to LT & MM: The Early Years" discussion below) has been discussed (okay, argued) in depth at least twice before on the old TT message board. It finally gets down to a sort-of "Clampett vs. Jones" kind of argument... (i.e. you end up believing what you want to believe).
However just to briefly recap, in a secondary go-round on it I'd maintained no American cartoons (even Fleischer) had any cursing (similar to features). Jon Cooke wisely pointed out that the early Iwerks "Flip the Frog" toons had featured an occasional "mild" cuss word (h---), something which I'd forgotten till then (OOPS!!). The Hays Office came down hard on both features (poor Mae West) and shorts (Betty Boop) just at the time of this particular Bosko cartoon (La Boop could just as well have been drowned in her ink-bottle!!! :p). One message board response (can't remember from who, sorry) pointed out that this sounded like a warp in the optical soundtrack, which is possible... but ifffff so then it occurs at the crucial moment of all time). The possibility that the word in question was originally "fox", is debatable in light of the context of this toon's making...
The REAL crux of the issue is what was happening as "BOSKO'S PICTURE SHOW" was made... And this was the incredibly acrimonious break over filthy lucre between Hugh Harman and Leon Schlesinger (Rudy Ising was more laid back). Allegedly the break was SOOOO severe that forever afterwards the mere mention of Harman's name provoked a string of obscene profanities from Leon's lisping lips... (This whole mess would prefigure Harman's monetary monumental bad-relations with MGM). Anyway, NOW here's where it gets interesting... "BOSKO'S PICTURE SHOW" was the very last Bosko Looney Tune made!!! (No matter what the copyright or release dates show, and different dates have been published). The last Harman-Ising's were copyrighted almost simultaneously, but "BOSKO'S PICTURE SHOW" was denoted in the copyright catalog as "Looney Tunes #13" (Bosko's Mechanical Man" is LT #11, and "Bosko The Musketeer" is LT #12"). These designations refer to the cartoons in the "Third series" of Looney Tunes (1932-1933). Sooooo by the time this cartoon was underway, the break between Schlesinger and Harman-Ising was deeply sand-blasted into granite, with enraged feelings riding at their highest on both sides. (Must digress one second here... Friz Freleng clearly denoted in his official filmography back in the Seventies that he and Hugh Harman CO-DIRECTED "Bosko's Picture Show", as such Friz LIKELY helped write it...). It is quite probable that as a "get-back" that Hugh Harman (and Friz) sent a booby trapped version of the film (with the dreaded "f-word") to Schlesinger and Warner Bros. hoping to sabotage Schlesinger. Releasing the toon with the "f-word" intact would have brought an immense public outcry and untold damage on Schlesinger and even Warner Bros. Here's where it gets REALLY tricky... I've read through every Variety of the day, and as many Motion Picture Heralds and Daily Variety's as I can get my hands on... and guess what??? There's no mention whatsoever of any irregularity with THIS CARTOON!!! Annnnnnd likewise there no word of any humongous public-outcry, protests or even a small-town theater being burned down... What does this mean??? Apparently NOBODY heard it as the dreaded "f-word" in 1933!!!! Soooooo this makes one very suspicious that Schlesinger and Warners had wisely previewed the toon, caught the vicious jab at Leon and made a revised version which was then actually released, with the "f-word" version left lurking around to create confusion much later. Whether the version that the public (and critics) saw had the word as "fox" or "cur" (maybe even as "the Fox And Cur" ;)) can be argued till the Second Coming... And it should be mentioned that Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald pointed out this cuss-word in the first version of their book, then made not a mention of it in the 1989 revision, apparently having been convinced that it wasn't in the released film...