Summary: In this prototypical version of Toy Story, a baby doll (the titular “Red Headed Baby,” though, since it’s in black and white, how could anyone tell, besides using their imagination?) falls for a toy soldier, but a villainous spider has his many eyes on her first.
The Channel(s): TBS (in the days before Cartoon Network was created to air all the cartoons in the Turner Network library, so, before 1992)
Part(s) Edited: The ending celebration musical number (of which most of these musical cartoons have) was cut to remove all scenes with the Red Headed Baby doll singing the title song with two stereotypically black girl dolls (called “golliwogs” or “pickaninnies” in their day, though due to who’s directing this, they can easily be doll versions of Bosko’s love interest, Honey). This only applies to the redrawn, colorized version. I’m so sure the black and white version has never aired on television. If it has, then probably only once, either with or without the same cuts described here.
There's also a strange edit in the scene of Napoleon the toy soldier sword fighting the spider and getting conked on the head with a wooden building block. The scene goes from Napoleon getting hit with the block to him passed out on the ground with a pile of what I assume is wood next to him as the Red Headed Baby sobs for him to wake up. Was there supposed to be more to that scene? Was it cut because of the Hays Code (which was in force back then, but we're in pre-Code territory, so a lot of films, both popular and obscure, treated the Code as a light suggestion and got away with a lot before mid-1934, when things really started to crack down and would stay that way until the late 1960s, though the mid-to-late 1950s was when the Code's power started to weaken)? Was it cut because of time or pacing or a need to rush the short out as quickly as possible without consideration for quality? We may never know.
How It Plays With the Edit: Since I can’t find an actual edited copy of the short, nor can I find a colorized version to recreate, I’m just going to go by how I think it would go. It would be very choppy, getting rid of all shots of the Red Headed Baby and the black doll back-up singers. I can’t imagine any of the audio being saved and alternate footage being used to bandage up the cuts done, so you’re left with jump cuts and missing music snippets. As for the possible edit, I think I just described how it plays.
Availability Uncut: It’s another public domain short (been there since 1959), so the original uncut and black and white version shouldn’t be hard to find. There is also a redrawn version available, but it’s not the colorized edited version. That version is available on the 2006 DVD release of the movie Cimarron. The 2023 Blu-ray release is remastered, uncut, and in its original black and white format. If you’re looking for a copy of it on a Warner Bros compilation home media set, the most recent release of that is on the 1992 Golden Age of Looney Tunes laserdisc (volume three, side one, dedicated to Harman and Ising shorts).
Here's the full (probably?) version for all to see:
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