I Like Mountain Music (Lip Service, or Three Sides to Every Story)

 

Director: Rudolf Ising

Summary: In a follow-up to “Three’s a Crowd,” characters from books and magazines of the early 1930s come to life in a drugstore at midnight. It’s not the first to have this (since “Three’s a Crowd” also had book characters coming to life and other shorts, like “Red-Headed Baby” and “It’s Got Me Again” were also cartoons where animals, inanimate objects, and fictional characters also partied once the clock struck midnight), but it is the first to establish this formula, which would last until the directors decided to make cartoons with actual plots and characters, culminating to Bob Clampett creating the ultimate “book characters partying after midnight” short, “Book Revue.” (I know an episode of the 1990s Animaniacs did something like this in a video store, but, like “Book Revue,” that was a spoof of a bygone subgenre).

The Channel: Cartoon Network (on an episode of Late Night Black and White and on the “Midnight at the Bookstore” episode of ToonHeads); Radio & Television Managers redrawn version.

Part(s) Edited:

• A short scene of African natives (standing in front of a magazine called Asia magazine, which makes me wonder if they’re actually African natives or are supposed to be South Asian [as in “from India”]) flapping their oversized lips to the music as Sonja Henie (a well-known figure skater back in the 1930s) skates on a mirror with baby powder to simulate snow was cut when Cartoon Network aired the short on Late Night Black and White. It was also cut when it was shown as a redrawn-colorized version on the ToonHeads episode, “Midnight in the Bookstore,” which, coincidentally, wasn’t part of the original episode. The original “Midnight in the Bookstore” episode (first aired on December 18, 1998) had the cartoons “Speaking of the Weather,” “You’re An Education,” and “Book Revue.” Apparently, “You’re An Education” was so filled with outdated racial and ethnic stereotypes that it was pulled and replaced with “I Like Mountain Music” (which also had outdated racial and ethnic stereotypes, but was easier to have those scenes removed) in reruns.
• The Radio & Television Managers redrawn version (retitled “Magazine Rack”) left in the African/South Indian natives and their oversized lips, but altered the magazine publishing dates to 1970 rather than some time in the early 1930s and cut the performance of “Sweet Adeline” because it had racially insensitive caricatures of Pacific Islanders (which are really just the hula girl and the native guitar players from “Pagan Moon”)

How It Plays Edited/Video Comparison: Since I recently stumbled upon a video that shows a three-way comparison between the original uncut black and white version versus the Radio & Television Managers redrawn version versus the Turner Entertainment version, I’m just going to show that instead of tell you (the reader) for the billionth time that the edits didn’t affect the story because this is one of those musical cartoons that doesn’t have much in the way of plot. Yeah, there’s a sequence where the other book characters try to stop criminals from a crime thriller pulp magazine, but those are a dime a dozen in shorts like this. If, for any reason, this gets pulled from YouTube for copyright reasons, I’ll edit the post to reflect the change:

Availability Uncut: Despite both the uncut and edited redrawn versions being available on YouTube, it is under copyright (though something tells me it’ll be in the public domain in a few short years). It has been officially released on the fifth volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Age laserdisc set (it’s on side one, which is dedicated to black and white cartoons), the final volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD set (on the third disc dedicated to the early black and white cartoons. It’s on the bonus cartoon list, alongside “I Love a Parade,” “Sittin’ on a Backyard Fence,” and “How Do I Know It’s Sunday?” It’s not remastered, if you care about that sort of thing, but it is uncut and uncensored), and is a bonus feature on the Public Enemies: The Golden Age of Gangster Films DVD (released in 2010), on the Blu-ray version of the film Ladies They Talk About starring Barbara Stanwyck, and on the Blu-ray version of the 1933 adaptation of Little Women starring Katharine Hepburn. Both Blu-ray movies have the cartoon uncut, uncensored, restored, and remastered for high-definition. It was available on HBO Max (now called “Max”) when the streaming service was first released in 2020, but it was removed as quickly as it premiered due to (say it with me now): scenes of outdated racial and ethnic stereotypes.

The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives (A Recycled Mess, or I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas)

 

Director: Rudolf Ising

Summary: On a cold and snowy Christmas Eve during the Great Depression, an orphan boy is visited by Santa Claus and joins him on his sleigh ride back to the North Pole, where the boy gets to play with all the toys Santa has in his workshop.

The Channel: Cartoon Network (on Late Night Black and White)

Part(s) Edited: If you think a wholesome cartoon like this couldn’t possibly have problematic content in it, then this must be your first time here. The second half of the cartoon does have some outdated depictions of African-Americans (like most cartoons of the time) and Cartoon Network cut the following that they felt was offensive:

• The orphan boy winding up the Sambo Jazz Band toy (“sambo” being an offensive term for a black person, though it’s more for someone from South India, not an African-American, as there’s a children’s book called Little Black Sambo and it’s supposed to be about a South Indian, not an African-American. It was probably used as a slur for both either way). The Sambo Jazz Band toy was also seen (and edited on Cartoon Network) on the MGM cartoon, “Toyland Broadcast” (which I had on a video featuring Christmas-themed MGM cartoons and loved as a kid, despite the outdated racial and ethnic stereotypes).
• A white baby doll falling into a coal bucket and coming out in blackface, doing the Al Jolson “Mammy!” schtick, with an actual mammy doll responding, “Sonny boy!”
• The title character and her black back-up singers from “Red-Headed Baby” appearing again to sing “The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives.”

How It Plays Edited: The Looney Tunes wiki and the old Censored Cartoons Page have described the edited version as “severe.” While the edits do make some of the scenes feel disjointed, it pales in comparison to the actual severe edits seen on “September in the Rain,” “Bacall to Arms”, and most of the post-1948 Warner Bros shorts aired on free TV (particularly on ABC and CBS, though NBC’s take on “The Turn-Tale Wolf” and The WB’s hatchet job editing to “A Star is Bored” qualify).

Video Comparison: 

Uncut version:

Edited Version:

Availability Uncut: This is a public domain cartoon (has been since 1962), so it’s not too hard to find on YouTube or whatever YouTube substitute you prefer. If you’re a physical media fan, then you can find it on either the Golden Age of Looney Tunes laserdisc (volume 3, side one, dedicated to Harman-Ising cartoons), as a special feature on the DVD version of the 1933 film Lady Killer starring James Cagney, or as a special feature volume three of The Warner Gangsters Collection. It's also been mocked on Rifftrax, the modern, YouTube generation version of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

It should also be of note that this is the last Harman-Ising short that’s in the public domain in the United States (for now, at least) and the only public domain short in 1933, which means that the rest of the censored cartoons I go through are still under copyright (unless otherwise noted, as there are some 1930s and 1940s cartoons that have fallen into the public domain and a few were made as educational/propaganda material for the U.S. government, so they never had copyrights to begin with) and I’ll have to change how I do the video comparisons to reflect that.

I Love a Parade (Wild Man Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure)

Director: Rudolf Ising

Summary: Despite the song being about a parade, the whole short is a collection of gags involving a day at the circus, from an animal parade and an unlucky DSC cleaner following them to mice who use an ostrich and a slingshot to get into the circus for free to a tattooed freak (back when they were circus sideshow acts instead of part of the general population) showing off the swishy male face on top of his bald head, to conjoined twin (called “Siamese twin,” since this was before political correctness was invented) pigs smoking a cigar to a hula-dancing hippo accusing said tattooed freak of sexual harassment thanks to a mouse with a party favor horn to Mahatma Ghandi as a goat charmer, and ending on a lion with fleas.

The Channel: Cartoon Network (on an episode of Late Night Black and White).

Part(s) Edited: Despite the questionable gags involving a DSC clerk cleaning animal poop (which was cut from “Drip Along Daffy” on Cartoon Network, but the ulterior motive isn’t what you think), homosexuality, tobacco use, outdated terms for conjoined twins, and sexual harassment mentioned above, Cartoon Network found the scenes with Jo Jo the Wild Man (a stereotypical African native locked in a cage for the audience’s amusement) objectionable and had them cut. This wouldn’t be a problem, except for the fact that they left in the scenes with the Indian Rubber Man, who would also be considered an outdated racial caricature (though he looks more like Bosko) and Mahatma Ghandi as the Thin Indian Man who uses his pungi to charm a goat instead of a snake. Maybe I’m wrong and those were edited (since I got this information from the Looney Tunes wiki and haven’t seen the edited Cartoon Network version, because, by the time the cable company in my area released Cartoon Network as a basic cable channel, the channel’s library of classic cartoons probably changed considerably to get rid of shorts that were shown edited to get rid of outdated racial and ethnic stereotypes), but this is what I discovered. Anyone reading this can and should comment or email me with additions and corrections, so I can go back and change any entry that has incomplete or false information.

How It Plays Edited: Not bad, but, as you’ll see, selective censorship (where one scene gets cut for problematic content while others are left intact, often in the same short) will be a common occurrence throughout this blog journey, not just on Cartoon Network, but on most other American TV channels.

Video Comparison:

Uncut version: 

Edited clip:

Availability Uncut: We have another Golden Age of Looney Tunes laserdisc member (volume four, side ten), another public domain short that’s been there since 1961, and a cartoon available on the last volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection (it’s an unrestored bonus cartoon, joining “I Like Mountain Music,” “Sitting on a Backyard Fence,” and “How Do I Know It’s Sunday?”). No word on whether or not a restored version exists as of this writing, but I’m sure, one day, it will surface.

The Queen Was in Her Parlor (Yas Ka-Veen, or Knight In Kosher Armor)

 

Director: Rudolf Ising

Summary: A pig king returning to his castle discovers that the queen (a hippopotamus) is in her parlor (title drop!) and isn’t interested in seeing anyone, least of all her husband. Goopy Geer the court jester tries to cheer up the king, and ends up saving the queen from the advances of a black knight (“black,” as in “evil,” not “having dark skin.”).

The Channel: Cartoon Network (on an episode of Late Night Black and White).

Part(s) Edited: Like “Goopy Geer,” Cartoon Network cut a small part near the beginning to remove a character now seen as an outdated racial stereotype. LIke “Freddy the Freshman,” the outdated racial stereotype is Jewish. The scene in particular is the pig king asks a line of knights where the queen is cuts off before the sixth knight asks the seventh knight (the Jewish caricature one) about the queen (or “ka-veen,” as the seventh knight pronounces it).

How It Plays Edited: Does nothing to the story continuity, but does look obvious. If there’s a seamless way to do it, then I haven’t heard of it. My video version isn’t representative of how Cartoon Network cut it. For all I know, Cartoon Network probably left in a brief shot of the Jewish knight, but cut off before he could say anything (that’s how comically inept Cartoon Network’s editing can be at times, though they have nothing on how MeTV edited “Bugs’ Bonnets,” “Hop and Go,” or any of the “Now I’ve seen everything!” suicide scenes from “Tortoise Wins By a Hare,” “Horton Hatches the Egg,” and “Cross Country Detours”).

Video Comparison:

Uncut version:

Edited clip (approximation as re-created by me):

Availability Uncut: Like “You Don’t Know What You’re Doin’!” and “Goopy Geer”, this short is available on the Golden Age of Looney Tunes laserdisc (this one is on side ten of the fourth volume) and is freely available on online video sites because it’s a public domain cartoon (has been there since 1961). Surprisingly, “The Queen Was in Her Parlor” is also available for streaming on (HBO) Max (has been uploaded since 2020) and is a special feature on the Blu-Ray version of the pre-code film, The Mask of Fu Manchu (released in 2024).

Update: “The Queen Was in Her Parlor” has, as of 2025 been taken down from HBO Max (a.k.a Max) and is now on Tubi.