More Bosco! --uh... Bosco??

 

Yes, this guy. Bosko of the Looney Tunes fame. (don't ask me why the promoters misspelled the name).

Resuming the -relatively small- series of articles about Bosko, here is that review of Congo Jazz from Les Spectacles d'Alger (Alger was part of the French colonial empire back then), published in Nov. 19, 1930 -- probably a good three months after its initial American release. With the sophisticated prose seen very often in newspapers of the time.

Note how the author -apparently- gave this cartoon a running time of 20 minutes (!). The role of the musical score is emphasized.
"There's novelty, verve,  jeunesse, and genius". Thus were the critic's words. You be the judge:

And back we go to Europe in Dec. 19, 1930, this time to read the review of Contre-enquête (one of several local adaptations of Warner's Those Who Dance ) as seen in Les Spectacles (once again!). Two cartoons are mentioned in the ending of the article:

Bosco en voyage suggest something along the lines of "Bosko goes on a trip" etc., likely Box Car Blues.

Bosco policier casts Bosko as a policeman... we'll associate this title with Big Man from the North.

But here we are, confronted to an issue: how is it that the French audience got to see the latter of the two  in December of 1930 while the cartoon is given a later release date in American screens -usually Jan or Feb of 1931-? It is possible that Big Man from the North was initially shown earlier than most sources state - pinning down the exact release date is made mind-numbingly difficult by the lack of copyright notices.

Unfortunately, good things must come to an end, and to paraphrase an infamous Nickelodeon promo, "No more Bosko. Sorry, Bosko!"

Scavenging From (Digitized) Moist Paper

I've had lots of fun searching through vintage newspapers...

Where do you find details of events from the past you may have never heard of before?

Where do you find critical information about a seemingly mysterious event from the past?

If you guessed correctly, you'll be rewarded a double vanilla-chocolate ice cream with whipped cream and almonds. Basically, they are snapshots of social life at a given date.

 And because I love cartoons - heck, who doesn't?, I, for this time, will share vintage news articles relating to cartoons.

OK, who here can tell what we're seeing? (I somehow have the feeling that I'll have to keep my ice cream for myself) This is an article from a french-language weekly entertainment trade magazine christened Les Spectacles - and run by the Syndicate of Film Renters from Lille, dated May 23rd, 1930, reporting Warner and Vitaphone's announcement of a series of 12 Looney Tunes (check out the ridiculously corny translation: "Folles Rengaines"!), in which would star Bosco and his petite amie. There's a mention of the first one already out in American screens. Then followeth a statement on how the musical score make the cartoons "international" and give the audience's interest a boost, and how, to put it in modern language, "this is gonna be a success".

Michael Barrier mentions a three-year contract signed by Harman and Ising with Schlesinger on January 28th, 1930 resulting in the making of Looney Tunes. 

More to come on next posts!