''Granite Hotel'' is a 1940 American animated short film directed by

Dave Fleischer Dave Fleischer (; July 14, 1894 – June 25, 1979) was an American film director and producer, best known as a co-owner of Fleischer Studios with his older brother Max Fleischer. He was a native of New York City. Biography Fleischer was the y ...

. Released in April of that year, it was the fourth in the ''

Stone Age Cartoons ''Stone Age Cartoons'' is a 1940 American series of twelve animated short films from Fleischer Studios. The films are set in the stone-age era, much like the 1960s series ''The Flintstones''. When they did not get the anticipated reception, Fleis ...

'' series. The film is now in

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

Plot summary

Set in a modern stone-age time, the viewer is presented to a gallery of characters like a telephone operator, the

ventriloquist Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered prop known as a "dummy". The act of ventriloquism is v ...

"Edgar Burgundy" and his doll "Charlie Bacardi" (a play on

Edgar Bergen Edgar John Bergen (born Edgar John Berggren; February 16, 1903 – September 30, 1978) was an American ventriloquist, actor, comedian, vaudevillian and radio performer, best known for his proficiency in ventriloquism and his characters Ch ...

and

Charlie McCarthy Charlie McCarthy is Edgar Bergen's famed ventriloquist dummy partner. Charlie was part of Bergen's act as early as high school, and by 1930, was attired in his famous top hat, tuxedo, and monocle. The character was so well-known that his populari ...

) and a

barber A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave men's and boys' hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a "barbershop" or a "barber's". Barbershops are also places of social interaction and publi ...

. A guest in need of a

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

player calls the fire department who arrives riding a

sauropod Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their bo ...

.José Luis Sanz. ''Starring T. rex!: Dinosaur Mythology and Popular Culture'', p31. , . Indiana University Press, 2002.

Cast

Jack Mercer Winfield B. Mercer (January 31, 1910 – December 7, 1984), professionally known as Jack Mercer, was a prolific American voice actor, animator and TV screenwriter. He is best known as the voice of cartoon characters Popeye the Sailor Man and ...

Characters

*Newsboy *Hotel Clerk *Charlie Bacardi *Monkey's Uncle *Bejeweled Guest *Barbered Guest *Cold Guest *Checker Player *Bathing Guest *Telephone Operator

References

External links

* * 1940s English-language films 1940 animated films 1940 short films 1940s American animated films 1940s animated short films 1940 comedy films American animated comedy films American animated short films Fleischer Studios short films American comedy short films Paramount Pictures short films Short films directed by Dave Fleischer Animated films set in prehistory Animated films about dinosaurs American black-and-white films {{short-animation-film-stub