Swing Symphony

Swing Symphony
Swing Symphony
	The title card used from 1942 to 1945.
Produced by	Walter Lantz
Music by	Darrell Calker
Color process	Technicolor
Production; companies	Walter Lantz Productions; Universal Studios
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	1941–1945
Running time	7 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Swing Symphony is an American animated musical short film series produced by Walter Lantz Productions from 1941 to 1945. The shorts were a more contemporary pastiche on Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies,^[1] and often featured top boogie-woogie musicians of the era.^[2]

The series mainly features a variety of different characters created exclusively for these shorts, although cameos by Woody Woodpecker and Andy Panda do appear in the first cartoon. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit also made an appearance in one short as well.

Background

Walter Lantz Productions first developed the format with the cartoon Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat, released on March 28, 1941. The short is considered a precursor as it contains many elements seen in the series, such as utilizing a popular swing song at the time. Lantz also produced Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company 'B' later in September which followed the same formula and would be nominated for an Academy Award. The first cartoon that would go under Swing Symphony wouldn't be released until December of that year.

One of the main writers that worked on the series was Ben Hardaway, who left Warner Bros. in 1940 and was hired by Walter Lantz to work on the storyboards for Universal Studios' cartoons. From 1938 to 1940, Hardaway was notably one of the last holdouts to co-direct several Merrie Melodies cartoons that featured lengthy musical sequences. He also supplied his voice for Woody Woodpecker in 1944 until 1949.^[3] Darrell Calker, who was involved in jazz circles, composed the music and brought in famous musicians like Nat King Cole, Meade Lux Lewis and Jack Teagarden to play them.^[4] Pianist Bob Zurke did a recording for the cartoon Jungle Jive before he died aged 32.

In 1942, Juke Box Jamboree was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film but lost to Disney's Der Fuehrer's Face.^[5] Few of Lantz's cartoons were highlighted for stereotyping and racism, but were said by Joe Adamson as not intended to be offensive.^[6]

The series was discontinued in 1945 due to swing music fading in popularity following the end of World War II. Dick Lundy, who directed the last Swing Symphony cartoon, later developed Musical Miniatures, a musical series focusing on classical music. Four cartoons were produced in 1947–1948.^[7]

Filmography

Title	Drawn by (animator)	Written by	Directed by	Characters	Release date	Availability
$21 a Day (Once a Month)	Alex Lovy Frank Tipper	Lowell Elliot Ben Hardaway	Walter Lantz	Woody Woodpecker Andy Panda	December 1, 1941	DVD - The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection
The Hams That Couldn't Be Cured	Alex Lovy R. Somerville	Lowell Elliot Ben Hardaway	Walter Lantz	Algernon Wolf Three Little Pigs	March 4, 1942	DVD - The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection: Volume 2
Juke Box Jamboree	Verne Harding	Ben Hardaway Chuck Couch	Alex Lovy		July 27, 1942	DVD - The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection: Volume 2
Yankee Doodle Swing Shift	Harold Mason	Ben Hardaway Milt Schaffer			September 21, 1942
Boogie Woogie Sioux	Robert Bentley				November 30, 1942	DVD - Woody Woodpecker and Friends: Volume 5
Cow-Cow Boogie	Harold Mason				January 3, 1943^[8]
The Egg Cracker Suite	Les Kline	Milt Schaffer	Emery Hawkins Ben Hardaway	Oswald the Lucky Rabbit	March 22, 1943	DVD - Woody Woodpecker and Friends: Volume 3
Swing Your Partner	Paul Smith	Ben Hardaway Milt Schaffer	Alex Lovy	Homer Pigeon	April 26, 1943^[9]	DVD - Woody Woodpecker and Friends: Volume 4
Pass The Biscuits Mirandy!	Paul Smith		James Culhane	Mirandy The Foy's and Barton's^[10]	August 23, 1943^[11]	DVD - The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection
Boogie Woogie Man Will Get You If You Don't Watch Out	Laverne Harding Les Kline			Boogie Woogie	September 27, 1943	DVD - The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection: Volume 2
The Greatest Man In Siam	Pat Matthews Emery Hawkins			Miss X	March 27, 1944	DVD - The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection
Jungle Jive	Paul J. Smith Emery Hawkins				May 15, 1944	DVD - Woody Woodpecker and Friends: Volume 6
Abou Ben Boogie	Paul J. Smith Pat Matthews			Miss X^[12]	September 18, 1944	DVD - The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection
The Pied Piper Of Basin Street	Laverne Harding Pat Matthews			The Pied Piper	January 15, 1945	DVD - The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection
Sliphorn King Of Polaroo	Pat Matthews		Dick Lundy	Jackson	March 19, 1945	DVD - Woody Woodpecker and Friends: Volume 4

References

^ "Abou Ben Boogie - Cartoon Research". Jerry Beck. March 25, 2015. Retrieved July 4, 2018.
^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 140. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
^ Lenburg, Jeff (2006). Who's Who in Animated Cartoons. Applause Theater & Cinema Books. p. 127. ISBN 9781557836717.
^ Goldmark, Daniel; Taylor, Yuval (2002). The Cartoon Music Book. A Capella Books. p. 10. ISBN 9781556524738.
^ "The 15th Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 2015. Retrieved July 4, 2018.
^ Cohen, Karl F. (2006). Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America. McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 50. ISBN 9781476607252.
^ "Dick Lundy's "Kiddie Concert" (1948) |". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved 2021-11-17.
^ Shull, Michael S.; Wilt, David E. (23 May 2014). Doing Their Bit: Wartime American Animated Short Films, 1939–1945. McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 132. ISBN 9780786481699.
^ "Swing Your Partner (1943) - The Internet Animation Database". www.intanibase.com. Retrieved 2022-03-29.
^ "'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy". www.tvworthwatching.com. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
^ Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series. The Library of Congress. 1970. p. 124.
^ ""Abou Ben Boogie" (1944) |". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved 2021-11-20.

External links

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[1] "Abou Ben Boogie - Cartoon Research". Jerry Beck. March 25, 2015. Retrieved July 4, 2018.

[2] Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 140. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.

[3] Lenburg, Jeff (2006). Who's Who in Animated Cartoons. Applause Theater & Cinema Books. p. 127. ISBN 9781557836717.

[4] Goldmark, Daniel; Taylor, Yuval (2002). The Cartoon Music Book. A Capella Books. p. 10. ISBN 9781556524738.

[5] "The 15th Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 2015. Retrieved July 4, 2018.

[6] Cohen, Karl F. (2006). Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America. McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 50. ISBN 9781476607252.

[7] "Dick Lundy's "Kiddie Concert" (1948) |". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved 2021-11-17.

[8] Shull, Michael S.; Wilt, David E. (23 May 2014). Doing Their Bit: Wartime American Animated Short Films, 1939–1945. McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 132. ISBN 9780786481699.

[9] "Swing Your Partner (1943) - The Internet Animation Database". www.intanibase.com. Retrieved 2022-03-29.

[10] "'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy". www.tvworthwatching.com. Retrieved 2021-11-19.

[11] Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series. The Library of Congress. 1970. p. 124.

[12] ""Abou Ben Boogie" (1944) |". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved 2021-11-20.

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Swing Symphony

Contents

Background

Filmography

See also

References

External links