Page Miss Glory (1936 film)

Page Miss Glory
Title card
Directed byFred Avery
Produced byLeon Schlesinger
StarringThe Varsity Three
Bernice Hansen
Jackie Morrow
Fred Avery[1]
Edited byTreg Brown
Music byHarry Warren
Al Dubin
Layouts byLeadora Congdon
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date
  • March 7, 1936 (1936-03-07)
Running time
7:42
LanguageEnglish

Page Miss Glory (sometimes called Miss Glory to prevent confusion with the 1935 film of the same name) is a 1936 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Tex Avery.[2] The short was released on March 7, 1936.[3] The film uses Art Deco backgrounds and character designs.[4]

Plot

In a small town called Hicksville, excitement brews as locals prepare to welcome Miss Glory. Teenage bellhop Abner, who first yelled "Call for Miss Glory" in a very similar manner as the "Call for Philip Morris" cigarette advertisements, accompanied by a very similar advertisement on the wall, eager for her arrival, falls asleep on the job and dreams of working in an upscale city hotel. Mistaken identities and mishaps abound as Abner navigates his dream world, culminating in a humorous encounter with a glamorous Miss Glory. However, reality intrudes when Abner wakes up to find the real Miss Glory is a young girl. The cartoon humorously highlights Abner's fantasies versus reality in a charming and comedic way.

Reception

Will Friedwald writes, "Page Miss Glory marks a rare instance when the two meanings of the word 'cartoon' come into conflict — as audiences understood it in 1935-36, the term could mean an animated one-reeler screened at the movie house or the non-animated but nevertheless lively cartoons found in magazines like Esquire and The New Yorker. Miss Glory looks like the drawings of legendary 1930s New Yorker cartoonists Peter Arno or John Held Jr. come to life... Miss Glory boasts several animated dance sequences that could be described as out-Buzz-ing Berkeley; the key sequences look like someone took the sketches from the fashion designer of one of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers classics and animated them."[5]

Credits

Produced by Leon Schlesinger. Words and music by Warren and Dubin. Moderne Art conceived and designed by Leadora Congdon.

Notes

  • Based on Page Miss Glory by Warner Bros. Pictures
  • Page Miss Glory is the only Warner Bros. cartoon with all of its crew uncredited. However, rural caricatures of some of them, including Avery, Jones, Clampett and writer Melvin 'Tubby' Millar, can be seen outside the hotel at the end of the cartoon.
  • The "moderne art" sequence has been much imitated in later years, for example in the title sequence for the 1990s Jeeves and Wooster television series.
  • The cartoon was used as the music video for "You Don't Have To Go" by The Chi-Lites 40 years later.

Home media

References

  1. ^ Scott, Keith (2022). Cartoon Voices from the Golden Age, 1930-70. BearManor Media. p. 18. ISBN 979-8-88771-010-5.
  2. ^ Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 42. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
  3. ^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 104–106. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  4. ^ Schneider, Steve (1988). That's All, Folks! : The Art of Warner Bros. Animation. Henry Holt and Co. p. 46. ISBN 0-8050-0889-6.
  5. ^ Beck, Jerry, ed. (2020). The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons. Insight Editions. pp. 132–133. ISBN 978-1-64722-137-9.