I've Got to Sing a Torch Song is a 1933 Merrie Melodies short planned by Tom Palmer and finished by Friz Freleng.
Title[]
"I've Got to Sing a Torch Song" is a song written by Harry Warren and Al Dubin for the 1933 Warner Bros. musical Gold Diggers of 1933.
Plot[]
Several people turn on the radio, set at an exercising program as many people performs their daily activities to its rhythm. At the Early Bird Hour at the radio station, a man resembling Ed Wynn starts the radio show for 8:00.
Old Maestro begins the main performance, done by a phonograph. Throughout the world, various different cultures and regions are tuned into the station. The titular song is then sung, with various caricatures joining in on the process. At the end of the performance, Ed Wynn attempts to launch a firework cannon, but only succeeds in launching himself out of the radio station and into a house with several children and their mother all resembling Wynn himself.
Caricatures[]
- Benito Mussolini
- George Bernard Shaw
- Ed Wynn - as his Fire Chief character.
- Bing Crosby - as Cros Binsby.
- Joan Blondell
- James Cagney
- Ben Bernie
- Bert Wheeler
- Robert Woolsey
- Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll - on radio as the title characters from Amos 'n' Andy.
- The Boswell Sisters
- Greta Garbo
- ZaSu Pitts
- Mae West
- Jimmy Durante - the Statue of Liberty does an impression of him.
Television[]
- Sunset Productions (1955–1968)
- Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite (1988 - 1992, specifically aired on 4 August 1991)
Availability[]
Gold Diggers of 1933
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5, Disc 4 (restored)
Gold Diggers of 1933 (HD; restored)
Censorship[]
When this cartoon aired in Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon during the late 1980s (when it was on Nickelodeon's Nick at Nite block, which featured family-friendly sitcoms and shows meant for general audiences, as opposed to Nickelodeon's more kid-friendly fare that came on in the daytime), the following scenes were cut/altered:
- The scene of Cros Bingsby crooning, "Why Can't This Night Go On Forever?" cut the brief shot of college coeds (some of which are shown in skimpy lingerie) listening to the broadcast.
- The sequence of the radio show reaching international audiences cut the part where Chinese police officers on a rickshaw are sleeping and tie up the police radio transmitter so they won't be bothered by their boss and the part after where an African cannibal switches over to a cooking program and adds mustard and salt to his stew of explorers (shown as caricatures of 1930s vaudeville and film comedians Bert Wheeler and Robert Woosley) before stirring them. The scene after that, featuring an Inuit (Eskimo) fishing and being eaten by a whale was left in.
- The scene of an Arab sheik shooing away his belly-dancing concubine and switching over to a broadcast of Amos 'n Andy had the Amos 'n Andy broadcast redubbed with music from the beginning of the short.
This cartoon has since seldom aired on American television after Nickelodeon stopped airing the Looney Tunes cartoons due to heavy ethnic stereotyping that would be deemed offensive to modern audiences.
Notes[]
- As was the case with "Buddy's Day Out", Tom Palmer's initial cut was rejected for poor quality, so Friz Freleng had to be brought in to rework it.
- This is the first Merrie Melodies short to feature "I Think You're Ducky" as the opening theme song; a special longer version of the theme was used only on this short.
- It is also the first short of the series to sign off with "That's all Folks!". It would not be permanently implemented into the series until "Why Do I Dream Those Dreams" the following year.
- This short was shown in theaters with I Loved a Woman during its original release.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Catalog of Copyright Entries
- ↑ (3 October 2022) Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2 (in en). BearManor Media, page 31.