Tuesday, December 23, 2014

George Herriman Christmas Card for Hal Roach

George Herriman was a well-known cartoonist who drew the comic strip KRAZY KAT. He knew Hal Roach, and was known to frequent the Hal Roach studio. Here is a Christmas card he drew for Hal Roach and his family.

The card depicts Hal Roach and his family standing in the spotlight on a stage.

"Two Margarets and two Hals" refers to the names of the parents and the offspring being the same.

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Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Columbia Short Subjects Ads

Columbia's Krazy Kat was promoted above Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, which was also being distributed by Columbia at this time.

At this point Krazy Kat was made to resemble Felix the Cat, a character that went into a decline after the coming of sound.

SCREEN SNAPSHOTS was popular at the time.

The Three Stooges had the longest-running comedy film series in history.

Elsie Ames, shown with Buster Keaton at the bottom, costarred with Buster Keaton and Harry Langdon and is given equal billing with them in this ad.

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Wednesday, July 4, 2012

SEEING STARS ( KRAZY KAT )

Krazy Krazy Kat Kartoon with many movie star guest stars, many of whom also appeared in Disney's MICKEY'S GALA PREMEIRE.

Seeing Stars (cartoon)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seeing Stars
Krazy Kat series
Directed by	Ben Harrison Manny Gould
Produced by	Charles Mintz
Story by	Ben Harrison
Music by	Joe DeNat
Animation by	Allen Rose Harry Love
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	September 12, 1932
Color process	Black and white
Running time	7:19
Language	English
Preceded by	Lighthouse Keeping
Followed by	Prosperity Blues

Seeing Stars is a short animated film distributed by Columbia Pictures, and features Krazy Kat. Different from most shorts of the series, the cartoon features celebrities in their animated forms.

Plot

At a music hall, a trio of singers performed by their microphones while an orchestra behind them plays. Enjoying their act are guests who dance on a square similar to a boxing ring. When the musicians stop to play another song, the square carrying some of the guests gets moved out and replaced by another one.

In a few moments, the stuttering announcer, (Roscoe Ates), introduces the special guest of the event. The special guest is none other than Krazy Kat. To entertain the crowd in attendance, Krazy plays some short tunes in a piano. As he continues playing, the Marx Brothers popped out of the piano and shook hands with him before leaving in a very long bicycle.

When Krazy was about to continue playing his instrument, he was interrupted by a noise coming from one of the tables. By that table, Laurel and Hardy were eating peas and roast chicken. While Hardy was eating with ease, the other guy appears to be having difficulty. Everytime Laurel scoops up peas with a spoon, they would often fall off and make a sound that's quite loud to some. Bothered by this, Hardy provided assistance. Krazy then came to their table and asks them to be quiet as possible.

Thinking about having a little meal, Krazy saw a cross-eyed man (Ben Turpin) eating spaghetti. Krazy came to the man's table and decided to have a share of the food. While they eat, a waiter (Jimmy Durante) carrying fruits in a bowl was passing by, and nearby attendants started grabbing anything they can get. Krazy also tries to pick a fruit but mistakenly grabs the waiter's long nose instead, much to the latter's annoyance. In reply, the waiter mumbles a few words and splats the platter of spaghetti right on top Krazy. Krazy, however, gets cleaned up by someone from another table who uses a water-spraying bottle.

Still wondering the music hall, Krazy notices the orchestra was fast asleep. He then wakes them up and tells them to continue playing. When music was played again, Krazy started dancing at the center floor, and all those whom he came across with started joining him there. Watching from the tables, the attendants enjoyed the celebration.

External links

Seeing Stars at the Big Cartoon Database

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Krazy Kat in the animated cartoons of this period resembled Felix the Cat more closely than the original Krazy Kat of the comic strip.

He also resembled Mickey Mouse, and had a lookalike girlfriend like Mickey Mouse or Felix the Cat..

This cartoon starts out with a bunch of funny animal characters and these are later joined by some human beings, most of whom seem to be movie stars. The stars depicted include Roscoe Ates, The Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, Ben Turpin, Jimmy Durante, Buster Keaton, Joe E. Brown, Marie Dressler, Harold Lloyd, and Maurice Chevalier. One of the comments at youtube said that they thought one of the characters at the end was Zasu Pitts, but that one was shown from behind and it wasn't clear who it was.

The Harpo Marx character starts out chasing funny animal girls and then chases some girl girls. Actually they're Betty Boop girls. You would see Betty Boop girls in different cartoons, or sometimes girls who had the same voice even if they looked different.

Betty Boop was designed by Grim Natwick, who worked on Krazy Kat cartoons at one time. But he doesn't seem to have worked on this one. The period when he worked on Krazy Kat was back in the silent era.