Holiday for Drumsticks

Holiday for Drumsticks
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Airdate:	22 January 1949
Series:	Merrie Melodies
MPAA Number:	12268
Production Number:	1098
Vitaphone Number:	1764
Runtime:	7 minutes
Copyright Renewed:	12 January 1976
Starring:	Daffy Duck Tom Turk
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc
Director:	Arthur Davis
Written By:	Lloyd Turner William Scott
Producer:	Eddie Selzer (uncredited)
Animated By:	Emery Hawkins Basil Davidovich J.C. Melendez Don Williams Herman Cohen (uncredited) Arthur Davis (uncredited)
Layout Artist:	Don Smith
Background Artist:	Philip DeGuard
Film Editor:	Treg Brown (uncredited)
Musician:	Carl Stalling

Holiday for Drumsticks is a 1949 Merrie Melodies short directed by Arthur Davis.

Title

The title is a play on the song "Holiday for Strings", and is not the first Warner Bros. short to reference the song in its title, as Holiday for Shoestrings did three years earlier.

Plot

A hillbilly husband brings home a turkey. After shooting back at their feuding neighbor, the wife prepares some food to fatten up the turkey for Thanksgiving. The turkey is thrown into the animal pen. Daffy Duck, who happens to be one of the farm animals, is jealous of all of the food that the turkey is receiving. Once he sees a feast for the turkey, Daffy rushes to the turkey and tells him to stop eating. Daffy explains that the hillbillies want to fatten up the turkey and then eat him, so Daffy says that the turkey should reduce his weight so the hillbillies won't eat the skinny turkey.

In a montage, the turkey exercises day by day, while Daffy eats up the entire feast that was supposed to be for the turkey. On Thanksgiving Day, the turkey is now extremely slim, while Daffy is fat. Pa finds the turkey and states that it's too bony for him to eat. However, the tables turn when Daffy brags that he is a healthy duck himself and that the hillbillies can't eat duck for Thanksgiving. Pa finds Daffy a suitable alternative and attempts to axe and shoot him. Daffy frantically tries to lose his weight, but he nearly gets shot in all attempts. Daffy begs the turkey to save him, and the turkey hides him in various areas before admitting that Daffy can't be saved aside from moving to a country that doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving. The turkey tells Daffy to take a boat to Rio de Janeiro, which is a trick to get Daffy into the oven. However, the hillbillies are unable to cook Daffy, as Daffy keeps blowing the matches out.

Music Cues

• "All The Time" (by Sunny Skylar)
  • Plays during the opening credits.
• "Arkansas Traveler" (by Sandford C. Faulkner)
  • Plays throughout the short.
• "Home, Sweet Home" (by Henry Bishop and John Howard Payne)
  • Plays when Daffy Duck sees Tom Turk at the pen.
• "I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover" (by Harry M. Woods and Mort Dixon)
  • Plays when Daffy eats up the food while Tom Turk exercises.
• "Freddy the Freshman" (by Cliff Friend and Dave Oppenheim)
  • Plays during the montage.
• "A Cup of Coffee, a Sandwich and You" (by Joseph Meyer, Al Dubin, and Billy Rose)
  • Plays when Daffy Duck brags that he is healthy.
• "A Rainy Night in Rio" (by Arthur Schwartz and Leo Robin)
  • Plays when Tom Turk tells Daffy Duck to leave the country.
• "Aloha 'Oe" (by Lili'uokalani)
  • Plays when Daffy Duck is about to enter the potbelly stove.

Availability

(1996) VHS
Stars of Space Jam: Daffy Duck

(1996) VHS
Special Bumper Collection (Vol. 6)

(1997) LaserDisc
Japanese Looney Tunes LaserDiscs Daffy Duck

(2024) Blu-ray
Looney Tunes Collector's Choice: Volume 4 (restored)

Streaming

Boomerang App (2018 -)

Censorship

• On ABC's The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show, two scenes involving gun use were cut:
  • Ma and Pa's neighbor firing a rifle at them (with Ma using the bullets to pour the coffee, Pa using the bullets to light the match for his pipe, the bullets hitting Pa's hat when he hangs it up, and Pa firing back at their neighbor, followed by his agonized scream).
  • Daffy trying to lose weight by sweating it off in a sauna machine, only for Pa to shoot the sauna machine and cause it to shrink tightly around Daffy's neck.

Notes

• MeTV aired this short on 24 November 2021 on Toon In With Me; however, this airing is unrestored.
• The mountain dwelling couple are likely modeled after Ma and Pa Kettle, who starred in the film of the same name that was released the same year.
• This cartoon is a semi-remake of Tom Turk and Daffy.
• This short is one of three non-Bugs Bunny cartoons from 1949 not to get a Blue Ribbon reissue. The others were "Porky Chops" and "Curtain Razor".

Gallery

Credits

Director credit

Lobby card

Lobby card (preliminary sketch)

Lobby card (preliminary sketch)

Original closing title (restored on Blu-Ray)