orignal Termite Terrace "Newsreel"?

[cabe624]

On Bosko Video's "Inside Termite Terrace, Vol. 1", there are brief segments in between the cartoons that feature original footage of the Termite Terrace crew. I have no idea why this footage was even filmed, but it has title cards explaining the subject of each short feature. In the beginning, the "short" is called "The March of Time" which has caricatures of Leon Schlesinger, Henry Binder and others in the background, while we listen to Mel Blanc's dubbed in sound effects. Throughout the "short", Mel narrates, and in some cases provides voices, for people that are featured, except for some scenes with Binder, who probably dubbed in his own voice. There’s also footage of a stripper auditioning for Binder that was possibly rotoscoped for the stripping lizard in "Cross Country Detours". Anyways, I was wondering if you guys could help me out with some history or explanation to what this footage is all about or why it was made. I was going to e-mail Mr. Beck, but since he posts on here sometimes, I thought it would be better to get everyone’s opinion.

Thanks guys

[Jack]

I always thought that it was made for fun. They would show these films at staff parties around Christmas and other holidays. Bob Clampett apparently shot a lot of non-comedy home movies there too.


Jack:bosko:

[cabe624]

That would probably be my guess too, because they did goof around a lot

[absolutpaul]

There's a clip of this Christmas party movie in the documentary Tex Avery: King of Cartoons. A title card tells us - "Exclusive! A shot of Mr. Tex Avery at today's party!" - followed by a shot of Tex passed out under the table singing, "How Dry I Am!"