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Clean Pastures

Directed By:		I. Freleng
Produced By:		Leon Schlesinger
Released:		May 22, 1937
Series:		Merrie Melodies
Story:		Sid Marcus (uncredited)
Animation:		Paul Smith Phil Monroe
Layouts:
Backgrounds:
Film Editor:		Treg Brown
Voiced By:		Mel Blanc Danny Webb The Four Blackbirds The Sportsmen Quartet The Basin Street Boys
Music:		Carl W. Stalling
Starring:		Fats Waller Cab Calloway Louis Armstrong St. Peter Stepin Fetchit The Heaven All-Stars Satan Bill "Bojangles" Robinson Al Jolson The Mills Brothers
Preceded By:		Porky and Gabby
Succeeded By:		Uncle Tom's Bungalow

Clean Pastures is a 1937 Merrie Melodies directed by Friz Freleng.

Plot

The Lord sees that the stock value of "Pair-o-dice" is dropping on the exchange so he dispatches a slow-witted and slow-talking angel to sinful Harlem to recruit new customers. When this fails, God finds success sending a group of musical angels with a little more swing in their style, so much so that even the Devil wants to join up!

Home Video

None, but bootleg VHS and DVD sets have this cartoon, obviously unrestored and in low pitch, as no such restored print has ever been released on home video.

Notes

The cartoon is a parody of Warner Bros.' 1936 film, The Green Pastures.
Schlesinger and Warner Bros. had problems with the cartoon 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. As such, the short's stereotypical portrayal of black characters prompted United Artists to withhold it from United States television in 1968, adding it to a collection known as the infamous Censored Eleven.
Modern critics have been no kinder to the short and cite its portrayal of black characters as offensive and reliant on negative stereotypes.

Musicologist Daniel Goldmark interprets the film as a send-up of black religion and culture and the increasing identification of 1930s white audiences of jazz music with black culture.^{[citation needed] (December 2017)}
Religion scholar Judith Weisenfeld sees "Clean Pastures" as a metaphor for the replacement of rural, minstrel show stereotypes of blacks for modern, urban ones.^{[citation needed] (December 2017)}

This cartoon and "Uncle Tom's Bungalow" were released before and after each other, respectively.
Scenes from this short were reused for the Frank Tashlin cartoon "Have You Got Any Castles?" Despite airing the reissue version with all of Alex Woolcott's appearances removed, Cartoon Network and Boomerang have aired this with the "Swing for Sale" part uncut, making this the closest that a Censored Eleven cartoon has ever aired on an American TV channel.
Waller's line, "That's all, that's all," would be reused in "September in the Rain" and later in "Tin Pan Alley Cats".

Caricatures

Oscar Polk
Louis Armstrong
Cab Calloway
Fats Waller
Stepin Fetchit
Jimmie Lunceford

External links

Clean Pastures at the Internet_Movie_Database
Clean Pastures at the Big Cartoon DataBase

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 [[File:Cleanpasturesposter.png|thumb|300px|right|Lobby Card]]
+'''Clean Pastures''' is a [[1937]] ''[[Merrie Melodies]]'' directed by [[Friz Freleng]].
-'''Clean Pastures''' is a [[Merrie Melodies]] animated cartoon directed by [[Friz Freleng|Isadore "Friz" Freleng]], produced by [[Leon Schlesinger]], and released to theatres on May 22, 1937 by [[Warner Bros.]] and [[Vitaphone]]. The cartoon is a parody of Warner Bros.' 1936 film, ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Pastures The Green Pastures]''. It tells of an ersatz Heaven called "Pair-O-Dice" and its angels' efforts to win souls from "Hades Inc." A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepin_Fetchit Stepin Fetchit] caricature fails to recruit any souls in Harlem, New York City. However, jazz-singing angels incorporate "rhythm" into the pitch, and Harlem's African Americans follow them as they dance their way to Heaven.
-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. In 1968, the short's stereotypical portrayal of black characters prompted [[United Artists]] to withhold it from distribution as one of the infamous [[Censored Eleven]].
-Modern critics have been no kinder to the film and cite its portrayal of black characters as offensive and reliant on negative stereotypes. Musicologist Daniel Goldmark interprets the film as a send-up of black religion and culture and the increasing identification of 1930s white audiences of jazz music with black culture. Religion scholar Judith Weisenfeld sees ''Clean Pastures'' as a metaphor for the replacement of rural, minstrel show stereotypes of blacks for modern, urban ones.
 ==Plot==
 The Lord sees that the stock value of "Pair-o-dice" is dropping on the exchange so he dispatches a slow-witted and slow-talking angel to sinful Harlem to recruit new customers. When this fails, God finds success sending a group of musical angels with a little more swing in their style, so much so that even the Devil wants to join up!
+== Home Video ==
+None, but bootleg VHS and DVD sets have this cartoon, obviously unrestored and in low pitch, as no such restored print has ever been released on home video.
 ==Notes==
+*The cartoon is a parody of Warner Bros.' 1936 film, ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Pastures The Green Pastures]''.
-* This and [[Uncle Tom's Bungalow]] were released before and after each other, respectively.
+*Schlesinger and Warner Bros. had problems with the cartoon 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. As such, the short's stereotypical portrayal of black characters prompted [[United Artists]] to withhold it from United States television in 1968, adding it to a collection known as the infamous [[Censored Eleven]].
-* The Censored 11 DVD has yet come to fruition. Transfers are done, but has yet to have a release date.
+*Modern critics have been no kinder to the short and cite its portrayal of black characters as offensive and reliant on negative stereotypes.
+:*Musicologist Daniel Goldmark interprets the film as a send-up of black religion and culture and the increasing identification of 1930s white audiences of jazz music with black culture.{{citation needed|date=December 2017}}
+:*Religion scholar Judith Weisenfeld sees "Clean Pastures" as a metaphor for the replacement of rural, minstrel show stereotypes of blacks for modern, urban ones.{{citation needed|date=December 2017}}
+*This cartoon and "[[Uncle Tom's Bungalow]]" were released before and after each other, respectively.
+*Scenes from this short were reused for the Frank Tashlin cartoon "[[Have You Got Any Castles?]]" Despite airing the reissue version with all of Alex Woolcott's appearances removed, Cartoon Network and Boomerang have aired this with the "Swing for Sale" part uncut, making this the closest that a Censored Eleven cartoon has ever aired on an American TV channel.
+*Waller's line, "That's all, that's all," would be reused in "[[September in the Rain]]" and later in "[[Tin Pan Alley Cats]]".
 ==Caricatures==
@@ Line 37: / Line 42: @@
 * Cab Calloway
 * Fats Waller
+* Stepin Fetchit
 * Jimmie Lunceford
@@ Line 42: / Line 48: @@
 * [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028724/ ''Clean Pastures''] at the Internet_Movie_Database
 * ''[http://www.bcdb.com/bcdb/cartoon.cgi?film=3729/ Clean Pastures]'' at the Big Cartoon DataBase
 [[Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts]]
 [[Category:1937]]
@@ Line 49: / Line 53: @@
 [[Category:Shorts]]
 [[Category:Cartoons directed by Friz Freleng]]
-[[Category:Cartoons animated by Paul Smith]]
-[[Category:Cartoons animated by Phil Monroe]]
 [[Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling]]
 [[Category:Plagiarized Pages]]
@@ Line 59: / Line 61: @@
 [[Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc]]
 [[Category:Caricatures of real people]]
+[[Category:Cartoons in a.a.p. package]]

Changes: Clean Pastures