Sunday Funnies: Censored Eleven

Hittin’ the Trail to Hallelujah Land is the only black-and-white short on the list, and the only cartoon to star Piggy. The short’s use of the racial epithet “Uncle Tom” prompted United Artists to withhold it from syndication in 1968, making it one of the Censored Eleven.

Comparison of steamboat piloting scenes in Steamboat Willie (top) and Hittin’ the Trail for Hallelujah Land.

Friz Freleng directed the largest number of cartoons on the list with four. Because of the racial stereotypes of black people throughout this short, it is withheld from circulation, one of the “Censored Eleven” shorts.

Schlesinger and Warner Bros. had problems with Clean Pastures from the start. Hollywood censors alleged that the film ran afoul of the Hays Production Code because it burlesqued religion. Later commentators surmise that the censors also objected to the portrayal of a Heaven run by African Americans.

Probably the most controversial short on the list, the wiki article on it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Pastures is pretty interesting.

The cartoon plays off Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel in that it portrays Uncle Tom as an old man, and wooden shacks and cotton fields pervade the scenery. Director Tex Avery adds his own sense of humor and “trickster” animation, giving the classic theme a modern, humorous twist.

On June 1, 1937, Selected Motion Pictures called the film “an interesting travesty in Technicolor of the well-known story.” The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures called it “highly amusing.”

The Film Daily said on January 31, 1938, “Producer Leon Schlesinger goes to darkest Africa in this one with a highly amusing set of characters… There are some very funny sequences and gags, with the characterizations very amusing.”

National Exhibitor agreed on February 1: “It sounds forced to say that this is better than the best so far, but that is what one must say about a series that improves continually. This is full of cute little touches that will be best appreciated by a class audience, but will still have the masses chuckling.”

The Isle of Pingo Pongo is also the only Elmer Fudd cartoon on the list.

Motion Picture Herald printed a letter from an exhibitor in their “What the Picture Did For Me” section: “These Merrie Melodies are as good as the Walt Disney stuff.”

All This and Rabbit Stew is the only Bugs Bunny cartoon on the list and is the final Avery-directed Bugs Bunny short to be released. Although it was produced before The Heckling Hare (after the production of which Avery was suspended from the Schlesinger studio and defected to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

In January 1943, the film press greeted the cartoon with glowing reviews, and no mention of stereotype or offense. Motion Picture Exhibitor said, “A satire on Snow White done in blackface, set in modern swing, this is the best in a long time. It’s very funny.” The Film Daily agreed, saying, “Set this one down as a rather amusing satire on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. All the characters in the latter are replaced by darkies… The dwarfs come to the rescue in a way that makes for numerous laughs.”

In April 1943, the NAACP protested the caricatures which appeared in Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs, and called on Warner to withdraw it.

Author and music critic Will Friedwald writes, “Tin Pan Alley Cats is an animated equivalent to the live-action features Stormy Weather (1943) and Cabin in the Sky (1943), which represented both the climax and the conclusion of the all-black Hollywood musical spectacular… The only thing that’s the matter is that Tin Pan Alley Cats represents a near last stand for both black characters and extended musical numbers in the Hollywood cartoon.”

Angel Puss is the only cartoon directed by Jones on the list, as well as the only Looney Tunes cartoon on the list.

On October 7, 1944, Herman Hill wrote an editorial for the African-American weekly The Pittsburgh Courier titled Angel Puss vs. Americans for All. Hill wrote, “Basis for the spontaneous protest by the long and patient suffering Negro theater-going public were the many forth-right expressions of condemnation regarding Warner Brothers’ animated cartoon Angel Puss. Almost in direct irony was the picture’s showing in Los Angeles, in that it was sandwiched between the main feature and March of Time’s Americans for All, which theme is directly aimed at the lessening of racisms.

Goldilocks and the Jivin’ Bears is the only cartoon on this list not to be produced by Leon Schlesinger.

Motion Picture Exhibitor (Sept 6, 1944): “This hilarious burlesque on fairy tales has the three Jivin’ Black Bears going to town with some red hot music… With rhyme, colored dialect, swell music accompaniment, this is tops. Excellent.”

That’s all folks!

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