1938 Silly Symphony cartoon
Mother Goose Goes Hollywood
is a 1938 animated short film produced by
Walt Disney Productions
and distributed by
RKO Radio Pictures
.
[1]
The short was released on December 23, 1938.
[2]
The film parodies several
Mother Goose
nursery rhymes using caricatures of popular Hollywood film stars of the 1930s. The film was directed by
Wilfred Jackson
and was the third-to-last
Silly Symphony
produced.
Plot
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]
This cartoon short depicts a series of sketches showing popular Hollywood stars of the day acting out traditional nursery rhymes.
Old King Cole
is
Hugh Herbert
, his jester is
Ned Sparks
and his three fiddlers are
The Marx Brothers
.
Joe Penner
brings in a bowl containing special guest
Donald Duck
.
Rub-a-dub-dub
is portrayed with
Charles Laughton
,
Spencer Tracy
and
Freddie Bartholomew
.
W. C. Fields
plays
Humpty Dumpty
with special guest
Charlie McCarthy
.
Stan Laurel
and
Oliver Hardy
play
Simple Simon
and the pieman.
See Saw Margery Daw
is performed by
Edward G. Robinson
and
Greta Garbo
on a
seesaw
.
Eddie Cantor
is
Little Jack Horner
in a big musical sequence featuring
Cab Calloway
,
Fats Waller
, and
Stepin Fetchit
. Others who appear are
Wallace Beery
,
Clark Gable
,
George Arliss
,
Martha Raye
,
Fred Astaire
,
Joe E. Brown
,
Edna May Oliver
,
Mae West
and
ZaSu Pitts
.
In a running gag,
Katharine Hepburn
appears at various points as
Little Bo Peep
.
Reception
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]
On July 2, 1938,
Variety
said: "
Mother Goose Goes Hollywood
. Also haywire. She thinks she is Leo the Lion and opens the picture with that
Metro
college yell, three leonine rahs. So in angles Katharine Hepburn Bo Peep with a Back Bay accent. She has lost her sheep on account of she looks hungry enough to eat a flock of mutton. While she is paging her sheep, up pops Hugh Herbert who looks more like a roast beef. He is dressed up like Old King Cole and calls for fiddlers three but all he gets is the Ritz Brothers... This is a preview of
Mother Goose Goes Hollywood
at the
Pantages
last night, and if you think the previewer is crazy, go and look at it yourself. A Walt Disney production for RKO-Radio release. Running time not long enough."
[3]
Since the 1960s,
Mother Goose Goes Hollywood
has been broadcast infrequently on television, due to the stereotypical depictions of black people in some scenes. It has occasionally been seen with the African Americans edited out, but as animation critic Charles Solomon noted in his book,
Enchanted Drawings: History of Animation
, that the caricatures of Fats Waller and Cab Calloway do not poke fun at their race, and are spoofed like the other caricatured celebrities seen in this cartoon.
[4]
Voice cast
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- The Blackbirds: Cab Calloway
- Dave Weber
: Eddie Cantor, Charlie McCarthy, Joe Penner, Edward G. Robinson
- Clarence Nash
: Donald Duck
- Thelma Boardman
: Freddie Bartholemew
- Ann Lee: Martha Raye
- Sara Berner
: Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn
- Al Bernie: Charles Laughton, W.C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy
[1]
Home media
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]
The short was released on December 19, 2006 on
Walt Disney Treasures: More Silly Symphonies, Volume Two
.
[1]
See also
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References
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External links
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