. . . during this 1943 Looney Tune, TIN PAN ALLEY CATS. Though it comments some on current events (depicting Stalin kicking Hitler's butt in the World War Two battle for Stalingrad, Russia), the final portion of CATS consists of a Private Message from Warner to Emmett's mom Mamie (these names are validated on Wikipedia and elsewhere) warning her NEVER to bring her then-toddler son anywhere near Ted Turner's Racist "Jim Crow" South. Warner populates this final portion of CATS with dozens of symbolic warning devices, including the lips of a grieving Till Family Member (Emmett's Dad?) plodding along post-lynching, lamenting "Mamie, Mamie, Mamie." Warner's cartooning scribes frequently found their colored pencils being directed by a Ouija Board-like impulse from Beyond, usually portending some sort of American death or disaster. No doubt this warning was meant to keep young Emmett away from that serial attendee of MGM's racist offerings, GONE WITH THE WIND FAN J.W. Milam. However, Mamie somehow missed Warner's warning and took Emmett to Money, MS, where J.W. slew him Aug. 28, 1955. That bastion of American Racism, Atlanta "Braves" owner and televised "Tomahawk Chopper" Ted Turner soon added CATS to his infamous cover-up scheme called "The Censored Eleven."

Merrie Melodies short, directed by Bob Clampett, notable today for being one of the Censored Eleven. For those who don't know, the Censored Eleven are cartoons that were withheld from syndication because they were considered to be too offensive due to their use of racial stereotypes and imagery. This one bears some similarities to two of Clampett's other shorts, Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (also on the Censored Eleven list) and Porky in Wackyland. The plot, such as there is one, is about a black cat going to a night club where the music works him into such a frenzy he has surreal hallucinations. Look, the stereotypical way black people in this are drawn and speak is gross. I don't think anyone will reasonably deny that. But there is some value in this cartoon that's missing from some of the other Eleven. For one thing, the music is terrific. For another, the animation is really nice (offensive parts aside). The trippy hallucination scene is right up Clampett's alley. No one did these types of scenes better than him at that time. So see it if you're a fan of Clampett's and if you don't have a delicate stomach with regard to the offensive elements.

Having just watched his Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs, I was in for a nice surprise when I watched on Thad's Animation Blog, Bob Clampett's next cartoon that was on the "Censored 11" list: Tin Pan Alley Cats. The leading character is a black-face feline inspired by Fats Waller who chooses "wine, women, and song" over a Salvation Army-type band. From there we see lots of jazz-inspired images of various entertainers before we go to a dream sequence taken directly from Clampett's own Porky in Wackyland with some hilariously wacky additions like the "rubber band" (which would appear in the color remake Dough for the Do-Do) and caricatures of Tojo, Hitler, and a Russian leader kicking the latter (the Soviet Union being our allies at the time)! In other words, Clampett has done it again making a kaleidoscope of images that only he can conjure up! The fact that many of the scenes were reused animation didn't bother me in the least. So on that note, I highly recommend Tin Pan Alley Cats.

...that some of the cleverest cartoons were also some of the most racially offensive? Among the examples are Bob Clampett's "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs" and "Tin Pan Alley Cats". This one portrays a Fats Walker-resembling feline who gets blasted outta this world into a setting lifted out of Clampett's earlier "Porky in Wackyland".Yes, it seems like every time that they came up with a particularly novel idea, it came out like this. Well, maybe not every time. I would advise not watching this for straight-forward entertainment, but rather as a look at Hollywood's portrayal of African-Americans over the years. Available on YouTube.