Katnip Kollege

← Previous	Next →
Porky the Fireman	Porky's Party

Blue Ribbon
Original

Airdate:	Runtime:
11 June 1938 Blue Ribbon reissue: 4 May 1946	7 min. 25 sec. (reissue)

Series:

Merrie Melodies

MPAA Number:	Production Number:
4206	MM-16-7

Copyright Renewed:

27 September 1965^[1]

Starring:

Johnny Cat
Kitty Bright

Crew

Voice Characterizations:

Mel Blanc
Johnnie Davis
George MacFarland
Fred Waring Gee Club
Mabel Todd^[2]

Katnip Kollege is a 1938 Merrie Melodies short directed by Cal Howard and Cal Dalton.

Plot[]

In the "Swingology" classroom at Katnip Kollege, the cats are learning about jazz and how to swing. The cats sing a good morning to the professor cat who rises up out of the floor with his desk while producing musical instrument jazz with his vocal ability solely. The professor first calls on Mr Jones to recite his history lesson. Mr Jones sings about Columbus discovering America. Next, the professor calls on Downtown Miss Kitty Bright who sings her homework about Napoleon. Next to be called on is Johnny, who doesn't know how to swing. The professor calls his attempt "corny" and, to make matters worse, gives him a ten-hour sentence to the corner to sit on a stool and wear a dunce cap. All the cats are dismissed, with the exception of Johnny (because he won't go anywhere due to his punishment), at which the other students tease him for not knowing how to swing. Kitty returns his fraternity pin to him as she leaves, and tells him to call her when he learns how to swing.

Later that night, as all the other cats jam at an outdoor caterwaul, Johnny is suddenly inspired by the rhythm of a cuckoo clock. He runs to join the group and shocks everyone with a flawlessly jazzy rendition of "Easy as Rollin' off a Log" sung (and trumpeted) to Kitty. At the end of the song they fall into each other's arms, "rolling" off the log they were using as their stage. Kitty covers his face in kisses as the action ends.

Availability[]

Notes[]

The music in the short is pieced together from a number of contemporary Warner Bros. features. The main song "Easy as Rollin' off a Log" by M. K. Jerome and Jack Scholl, is sung by Johnnie "Scat" Davis and Mabel Todd in the film Over the Goal. Other songs used include "You're an Education" by Al Dubin and Harry Warren which was written for, but never used in Warner Brothers' 1938 feature film Gold Diggers in Paris and the Richard A. Whiting/Johnny Mercer song "We're Working Our Way Thru College" from Warner Bros.' 1937 feature Varsity Show.^{[citation needed] (November 2018)}
The statue of Prof. Dalton is a nod to director Cal Dalton.
Cal Howard's direction lasted only three cartoons before Howard left to work for Max Fleischer's studio in Miami merging Dalton with Ben Hardaway until 1940.
The Golden Collection print retains the cue mark at the iris out and the ending titles when given to Associated Artists Productions in 1956 upon its copyright being sold. This restoration likely used the cartoon's interpositive for the Golden Collection. However, the cue mark is absent on the Platinum Collection, despite being the same master.
A cel of the original title surfaces, courtesy of Mike Glad.^[3] However, because it was trimmed it wasn't transfered, thus the Blue Ribbon print was restored instead.
The working title was "As Easy as Rolling Off a Log".
Vitaphone release number: 8487