''Lady, Play Your Mandolin!'' is the first ''

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animated comedy short film series distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was part of the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise and featured many of the same characters. Originally running from August 2, 1931, to Septem ...

'' cartoon, and stars Foxy, a character who appeared in three 1931 shorts. It was released as early as June 13, 1931. It is directed by

Rudolf Ising Rudolf Carl "Rudy" Ising ( ; August 7, 1903 – July 18, 1992) was an American animator best known for collaborating with Hugh Harman to establish the Warner Bros. and MGM Cartoon studios during the early years of the golden age of American a ...

of Harman and Ising.

Overview

The cartoon features Foxy as a

gaucho A gaucho () or gaúcho () is a skilled horseman, reputed to be brave and unruly. The figure of the gaucho is a folk symbol of Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, the southern part of Bolivia, and the south of Chilean Patago ...

. He visits a local saloon which is disguised as a café, reflecting that when this cartoon was made,

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

was law of the land in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Also, as a reflection of Prohibition, liquor bottles have skull and crossbones labels. His

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...

soon finds himself drunk and begins to hallucinate wildly. Similarly to Foxy, the cartoon features a female fox character that is very reminiscent of

Minnie Mouse Minerva "Minnie" Mouse is an American cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. The longtime sweetheart of Mickey Mouse, she is an anthropomorphic mouse with white gloves, a red or pink bow, blue (or pink or red) polka-dotted dress, w ...

Production

As was typically the case with the early entries in the ''Merrie Melodies'' series, one purpose of the cartoon was to promote a Warner-owned popular song. The title theme, written by

Oscar Levant Oscar Levant (December 27, 1906August 14, 1972) was an American concert pianist, composer, conductor (music), conductor, author, radio game show panelist, television talk show host, comedian, and actor. He had roles in the films ''Rhapsody in Bl ...

with lyrics by Irving Caesar, was a 1930 #5 pop hit sung by

Nick Lucas Dominic Antonio Nicholas Lucanese (August 22, 1897 – July 28, 1982), better known by his stage name Nick Lucas, was an American jazz singer and guitarist. He was the first jazz guitarist to record as a soloist. His popularity during his life ...

and released by

Brunswick Records Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916. History 1916–1929 Records under the Brunswick label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, a company based in Dubuque, Iowa which had been manufacturing ...

, which had been purchased by Warner Bros. the previous year (Another recording, by the Havana Novelty Orchestra was released the same year on RCA's Victor Records). In the short, it is sung by a female fox character who would later become Foxy's girlfriend, Roxy. The credited animators were Rollin "Ham" Hamilton and Norm Blackburn (plus uncredited animation by Isadore Freleng,

Robert Clampett Robert Emerson Clampett Sr. (May 8, 1913 – May 2, 1984) was an American animator, film director, director, film producer, producer and puppeteer best known for his work on the ''Looney Tunes'' animated series from Warner Bros. as well as the te ...

(his first cartoon at WB according to some sources) and Carman Maxwell) with a musical score and direction of the Abe Lyman (Brunswick Recording) Orchestra by Frank Marsales. Rudolf Ising provides the voice of Foxy, while

Harman-Ising Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising were an American animation team and company known for founding the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation studios. In 1929, the studio was founded under the name Harman-Ising Productions, producing ''Looney T ...

regular Rochelle Hudson as well as Abe Lyman (and probably members of his band) provide the other voices.

Home media

The cartoon is available as an extra on the '' Little Caesar'' DVD and Blu-ray. It is also available on the DVD 'Attack of the '30's Characters', albeit in an unrestored form.

References

Notes

External links

*
''Lady, Play Your Mandolin!''
at the

Big Cartoon Database The Big Cartoon DataBase (or BCDB for short) was an online database of information about animated cartoons, animated feature films, animated television shows, and cartoon shorts. The BCDB project began in 1997 as a list of Disney animated f ...

''Lady, Play Your Mandolin!'' Sheet Music
at the Mississippi State University Digital Library * 1931 films 1931 Western (genre) films Merrie Melodies short films Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short films Films scored by Frank Marsales Films directed by Rudolf Ising Foxy (Merrie Melodies) films Animated films set in Mexico American Western (genre) films 1930s Warner Bros. animated short films 1930s English-language films English-language Western (genre) short films American animated black-and-white films 1931 animated short films {{MerrieMelodies-stub