It's a Very Special Cel Bloc Xmas: The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives (1933)

The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives (Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies, 1933)
Dir: Rudolf Ising
Animation: Norm Blackburn and Rollin Hamilton
Music: Frank Marsales
Cel Bloc Rating: 5/9

Christmas has come to mean so little to me over the last few years. I loved it as a kid, maintained that fire through the teenage years (though naturally I rebelled against it a small bit, though presents have a way of snuffing out rebel passion), and then built my Xmas love higher and higher into a true bonfire that raged throughout my twenties and thirties, when I was engaged in a non-stop parade of Christmas delights spearheaded by my large group of theatrically focused friends. Tree decorating, candle-lighting ceremonies, caroling through the neighborhood, putting on Christmas-themed shows for kids, going to other Christmas shows, annual Christmas parties, late night get-togethers on Christmas Eve (at times), meeting back up with everyone for a Christmas night movie, and then continuing that festive mood straight through the week until our annual New Year's Eve party. My closest friends -- a mix of several religions (and then my complete lack of it) -- know how to do things right by the holiday, and practically exhaust themselves in trying to make everyone have as good a time as they are. Though I was often left breathless myself, I always enjoyed being a part of their holiday plans.

Since leaving Alaska and the snow and the cold in December for Southern California, no holidays have been the same for me, but especially Christmas. My love for the holiday has always been purely secular, but I am open to the whole experience. As an atheist, I don't get into that pagan garbage either (it is equally as tied to ancient belief as Christianity), but at Christmas time (or Xmas or whatever you want to call it), all bets are off for the season. I sing along with Silent Night or Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer equally. I like hearing people read the story of the Nativity, even if I don't believe four-fifths of the story or especially think it bears any true significance. Even though I own the specials on DVD now, I like watching A Charlie Brown Christmas and Frosty the Snowman on TV for the 1,438th time each. I enjoy believing, if only for a fortnight or two, that a world that otherwise insists on fat-shaming, "three strikes" policies, and practically wrapping their precious offspring in bubble wrap to protect them from boo-boos is just fine with an obese guy in a red suit breaking into their homes in the middle of the night to leave presents for their children. Sure, I can play make-believe the way everyone else does the rest of the year.

But Southern California has eaten me up and spit me out. So Cal has left me so low, and has devoured much of the joy I had left in me. Even in my current situation, where we have moved into a much larger house that we are sharing with Jen's family, my situation is no better. I am having a hard time finding a decent job, and though I have a massive amount of time to write, I am going stir crazy in the place. I miss my friends and family, and while I love my wife deeply, each Christmas season has brought with it a little bit more erosion in my regards for the holiday. And the world in general does not help with that mood. 

I get enraged when people start decorating for Christmas or playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving has even happened. Black Friday depresses me immensely, mostly by seeing exactly what idiots our culture of greed has spawned. I had the same feelings about Cyber Monday (though I will admit to taking advantage of great DVD pricing now and then), but hearing the phrase "Cyber Week" this morning nearly made me throw up my breakfast. And any time that I hear the phrase "War on Christmas," I want to kick a FOX News anchor right in the crotch. (Rest assured, I want to kick a Fox News anchor in the crotch each time any of them say nearly anything.) If there is anything that is truly hurting Christmas, it is because we have, in that way that Americans do everything, made the actual spirit of Christmas recede because we have made too much of the holiday commercially. We have grown fat on false joys, and not on true understanding, tolerance, and fellowship with our neighbors.

It's the stuff of many of a Christmas special: finding our way back to the innocence of Christmas in our childhood. And it is clearly something that I desire, especially now that the fun I once found in the holiday (and much of life) has largely evaporated. The question was in how to go about using my current situation and resources to revamp my interest in Christmas. Since I am writing about animation and cinema in general once again, and since much of my childhood was dedicated to pouring over old films and cartoons in formulating my personality, it seems a natural to use the reviewing of old Christmas-related cartoons to help me in this process.

Unfortunately, cartoons like The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives are not going to help my mood very much. Produced in late 1932, it was released post-Christmas for some reason in January 1933 by Warner Bros. as part of their Merrie Melodies line. Directed by veteran Rudolf Ising (he of the Harman-Ising team; "harmonizing," get it?), Shanty was Warners' second true foray into the Christmas genre, following 1931's Red-Headed Baby, and its opening scenes reflect the desperation of the Great Depression era in which it was made.

Following the then-traditional playing of Get Happy over the Warner Bros. logo and Merrie Melodies production credits, we hear an organ playing Silent Night over the title and credits card, with a very large Santa Claus figure standing to the left. The first shot in the cartoon is of tolling church bells, while Silent Night continues to play. In the snow outside of a well-lit church we see a small boy trudging through the snow. He is wearing an oversized cap and a long coat. When he stops to look at the church, a choir continues to sing, and the boy sniffles his nose. He starts to walk through the snow again, sniffling his nose over and over. 

The boy is surprised by a sight in a nearby home and runs to the window to look inside. Several children are inside, holding hands while running around a Christmas tree to the tune of Jingle Bells, while a warm fireplace crackles in the background. The boy is saddened that he can't join them, but a brisk wind picks him up and throws him against a nearby shed, where snow falls off the roof and piles on top of the already freezing little fellow. He crawls out sadly, sniffles his nose again, and continues to pace through the snow.

We see through the window of a shanty house the boy come over a hill. He enters the mostly barren shack, where the only two items we see are a makeshift chair and a single stocking hanging down from the empty fireplace. When the boy enters the shanty, he runs excitedly to the stocking and peers inside, but his frown returns when he sees that Santa has not been here. He drapes himself against the chair and weeps.

Suddenly, sleigh bells are heard, and we see the familiar image of reindeer and someone on a sleigh slide past the window. The boy's excitement returns and he runs to look outside through the glass. "Santy Clause!" he squeaks, and sure enough, good ol' Santa Claus steps through the front door singing the song that gives the cartoon its title.

"They're making toys for little girls and boys 
in the shanty where Santy Claus lives!
They're taking tears and turning them to joys
in the shanty where Santy Claus lives!"

The boy joins in on the song: "Oh, boy! I'd like to go with you!" And Santa replies: "You've been so good, you’ll see that wish come true." While I would think that the kid would be more concerned about food, he keeps his sights squarely on kid-oriented goals: "Perhaps there'll be a bunch of toys for me..." And Santa finishes with "...in the shanty where Santy Claus lives."

The boy is absolutely fired up and yells, "C'mon, let's go!" He runs to the sleigh and hops onto the curl on the back. Santa waddles to the vehicle and climbs in, his weight pressing the floor to the ground before it bounces back up. He asks the boy, "Ready?" and then tells the reindeer, "Get up!" and cracks the reigns. When the sleigh lurches forward, the boy is somersaulted off the back of the sleigh into the snow. "Hey!" he yells and runs frantically after the sleigh, where Santa rescues him and sets him down securely in front of him. To the strains of Jingle Bells, the reindeer take to the sky, and they fly to the North Pole, where they land in front of another house with a sign reading "Santa Claus Shoppe."

When they enter Santa Claus' "shanty," they are greeted with cheers by a large council of dolls and toys in the form of babies, ducks, monkeys, cats, clowns, and other creatures. The boy says gleefully, "Oh, boy! Oh, boy! Oh, boy!" and runs to play with them. On the counter is a kangaroo that is controlled by a rubber bulb. The boy squeezes a couple of times, and each time the kangaroo hops upward and a small joey pops out of the kangaroo's pouch and barks, throwing out its arms.

But, let's be serious. This is a Warner Bros. cartoon in 1933, so they couldn't wait to get to the nonchalant racism of the day. Next to the kangaroo is a music box with four musicians on it. The box reads "Sambo Jazz Band" and when the boy winds it up, the four minstrel show-looking musicians start to play a lively tune. This makes the other toys start to play musically. A toy soldier under a Christmas tree starts hitting a large drum and some ornaments, and then taps a small baby doll in the stomach. The baby doll sits up and says, "Ma-ma! Ma-ma!" but then it falls off the table and lands in a bucket full of fireplace ashes.

If you don't know where this is going, then I envy you your innocence. When the baby doll pops up out of the ashes, he is completely black except for his eyeballs and his mouth. (He sort of looks like Bosko, which would not be surprising since Harman-Ising were the team responsible for that character, both at Warner Bros. and MGM.) The now-black baby doll yells out, "Mammy!" and the camera shifts to the right to reveal a traditional mammy character who responds, "Sonny boy!" and happily collects her offspring.

We next see three baby dolls in a line. The one in the middle is an exact copy of the doll that starred in Red Headed Baby, while the other two dolls are black, and have kinky hair protruding from the tops of their heads (and who also appear in the other film). In comparing this scene to the one in Red Headed Baby, it is most likely that Ising reused animation from the earlier one, and just changed songs. The baby dolls sing in unison: 

“We are the toys for little girls and boys
in the shanty where Santy Claus lives.
We're taking tears and turning them to joys
in the shanty where Santy Claus lives.
We give the world [?**] just like we used to do.
You'll make a wish and have that wish come true.
Perhaps there’ll be a sweetheart there for me
in the shanty where Santy Claus lives.”

While they sing, we see the full room of toys cheering and dancing. We get a solo performance by a toy figure composed of balls on a series of strings, who stretches his body and legs out in time with the song, and then snaps them back causing the balls to cascade back into their places. At the end of the song, much confetti is throw and the toys cheer wildly.

The red-headed baby doll picks up a pair of maracas, and the two black dolls do a dance of their own, stepping in time to a conga beat. On top of a small toy cash register that bears the words "Baby Bank," the toy soldier steps on a button that causes the cash drawer to open. Five baby dolls sit up and cry, providing a chorus to the song. 

Another small doll blows up a balloon, but when the balloon reaches its maximum capacity, the air is sucked back into the doll's tiny body and fills her up until she looks like a zaftig caricature of the famous radio star and singer Kate Smith. Like Smith, the doll introduces herself to the audience by saying, ""He-llllllo, ev-er-y-body!" She launches into Shine On, Harvest Moon, and two Scottish Terrier dogs sitting nearby say look into the camera and say in tandem, "Are you listening?" before turning their ears back to Kate.

The song switches back to The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives. A teddy bear on a stool plays a wild trombone solo, and when a Jack in the Box pops up to meet the bear's height, the bear hits it several times in the head while he plays his solo.  

On the big Christmas tree in the room, the toy soldier bounces up and down to the music. Unfortunately, a lit candle set upon the tree's branch (yes, I know it precedes Christmas lights, but whoever though that was a good idea?) falls down and sets the entire tree on fire! The solider yells for help, and a toy fire truck rushes towards the tree. Other toys try to help. Another small doll jumps up and down on a perfume bottle bulb to spray the tree. One of the firemen slides up and down a tall ramp with a weighted pulley system to throw buckets of water at the tree.

But the fire is out of control. The small boy, who has disappeared largely from the picture since he wound up the jazz band, is shown watching the chaos as he stands next to both a sink and a very convenient garden hose (inside the house). On the floor on front of him is a bagpipe (I guess because Scottish kids get presents too, though I think it would be the parents who are being punished.) After a couple of shots where he just watches in astonishment, the boy finally realizes what he needs to do. He hooks the hose to the bagpipe, and then turns the water on at the sink. 

He runs to the tree and squeezes the bag. We hear bagpipe music on the soundtrack as he squeezes water over and over onto the tree, ultimately putting the fire out. The toys run into frame and cheer their hero and the boy looks back at them and then at the camera in amazement. Iris out.

One thing that I really love about the Warner cartoons of the early 1930s is their forward thrust. It doesn't matter who the characters are or what the premise is, as long as there is a jazzy rhythm and everything bounces along to the film's conclusion. Shanty is no different; after initially establishing the Christmas setting, the film turns into any other film with toys coming to life (there are many of them). In fact, after Santa brings the boy to his shop, the right jolly old elf is not seen at all anymore for the duration of the film, not even to congratulate the boy for his heroics at the end. If the fire were not occurring on a Christmas tree, the holiday itself would have likely been forgotten as well.

Despite the jaunty movement and its forward drive, Shanty is just too pedestrian overall for me to give any real love to it. None of the toys do anything truly memorable (apart from setting up the series of jokes based on race), and the music itself, while cute, is not all that remarkable either. If Santa were involved more in the second half, it is possible it could have made the film stick a bit more in one's memory. As part of a program featuring other Christmas cartoons of its period, Shanty might stand out (at least for the opening sequences), but left on its own, it is just another production off the line.

And so I will have to leave it to other cartoons to help me in recapturing the Christmas spirit this year. I have several more lined up to write about through the month of December, and I hope you will join me here on the Cinema 4: Cel Bloc on this quest.

And in case you haven't seen it:

Honeymoon Hotel (1934)

Honeymoon Hotel (Warner Bros., 1934) 
Dir: Earl Duvall
Cel Bloc Rating: 6/9

Mr. Bug looks like he's finally going to get some from his ladybug love in Honeymoon Hotel, the first of the Merrie Melodies series from Warner Bros. to be released in some rudimentary form of color processing. 

The process in this case was called CineColor, and it didn't last that long, as Warners only used it until early 1936, by which time the three-strip Technicolor process was no longer contracted only to the Walt Disney studio. As such, with only the red and green bars of the color spectrum available for use for CineColor (known as two-strip), it is not nearly as dynamic as Warner's could have wished. But one did what they could with what they had, and within the next two years, the Merrie Melodies would go to all color cartoons. (Looney Tunes would remain in black-and-white through 1943.)

In Honeymoon Hotel, Mr. and Mrs. Bug don't notice that they are in a minor league version of a color film; they are far too much in love, and on their way to the hotel in the title so that Mr. Bug can give the Mrs. a good shellacking. They only just met and fell in love in the Bugville park, where a single kiss on a ride in a peapod canoe leads them straight to the altar, and then onward to their consummation destination.

All of the story up through the hotel's introduction is told through song, in an elaborate and immensely cute staging of the sights and life in Bugville. A trio of sign painters pull themselves up to the top of a sign that reads at the top, "Visit Bugtown," and they sing along with lyrics that one of the painters splashes onto the sign as they pulley themselves back down...

"We are here to say
what we have to say
in the proper way to you!
Our job is just to advertise
to put you wise.

So we're gonna say
all we have to say,
you are not so far away.
So why not come on up sometime
to Bugtown's buggy clime?"

The scene switches to an overview of the town itself, with cute little insects running to and fro making their busy way. The trio continues singing over the action...

"Come along and take a trip to Bugtown.
We will try to give you something new.
We will show you insects that are living
just the same as me and you."

The scene switches again, this time to a four way traffic stop, where a police bug is blowing his whistle frantically at bug cars from all directions. In the middle of the verse, the scene will jump to a human lunch box which is being used as a diner by several bugs...

"Here you find a very busy corner;
traffic here is handled very well.
Here you find a buggy little lunchroom
where they say the food is swell."

We see a tea kettle with a hole smashed in the side that business bugs are using as a doorway to their Chamber of Commerce, and then a trolley line that has been constructed from various human objects such as matches and combs...

"Goodbye to depression,
business here is fine!
Perfect transportation
on Bugville's trolley line! [Note: I guess they forgot it was called Bugtown.]

A discarded human mailbox is naturally used for a post office, and an old rat trap or cage (not sure which) is being used to incarcerate a single felon...

"And here's an anxious crowd of buggy people,
who have come to town to get their mail.
Here's a little alimony dodger
in the Bugtown County Jail!"

Then we get to the good stuff. We enter a park area where there are several pairs of bugs pitching woo and playing. And we are finally introduced to the bug couple that I mentioned above, as the boy bug plucks a pea pod from a plant, pulls out the peas, and then turns the pod into a makeshift canoe and rows his ladybug love down a stream...

"And Bugville even has a park
for bugs to have a lark!
Now you've seen this buggy town,
how'd you like to stick around,
long enough to catch a glance
of a budding bug romance?
A ladybug who likes to hug
has fallen for a tumblebug!"

After a quick smooch in the canoe, wedding bells are heard, and the now married pair leave a church and climb into their rambler. And thus we finally get to the Honeymoon Hotel, where the bugs are going to get it on but good. The problem for the bug couple is this: everyone is far too interested in what is bound to go on in their room, and the newlyweds can't get any peace. Even their rambler has a red face with the thought of these two on their honeymoon night, and when they run into the hotel, the car stands up and whistles them back. He says in a very embarrassed way, "Goodnighhhhht!" and then sighs, holding his hands together wistfully.

As they walk in, the caterpillar bellboy, who stands tall and is laden with numerous suitcases and boxes, sings...

"I'm the guy who carries all the luggage,
I work in the Honeymoon Hotel!
I see all the kissage and the huggage,
many other things as well!"

The desk clerk is there to greet them, and he sings too...

"I'm the guy to see for reservations!
You'll find our hotel very neat!"

The groom sings a line to the desk clerk, and then the bride tells where they would like to stay...

Groom: "That's [indecipherable] combination."
Bride: "Yes, we want the bridal suite!"

Mr. Bug rubber-stamps the type "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" below all of the other entries saying the same in the register. Once they make it to their room, and after paying the bellboy with several coins that catches, each one with a separate hand, the couple slam the door to get going. The hotel detective is suspicious (or simply a major Peeping Tom) and tries to look through their keyhole, but they move the doorknob up too high for him to look in. (Other doorknobs spit in his eye, give him a raspberry, and make a fist and sock him in the face.) 

Room service boy bugs and maid service girl bugs barge into their room, offering, in song, all manner of drinks and clean bedding...

"How about a little glass of something?
Just a special brand we know is swell?
This will [indecipherable] you get good service
at the Honeymoon Hotel!

Pardon us, but here's some extra bedding!
Might be chilly, one can never tell.
We are here to see that you are comfy
in the Honeymoon Hotel!"

Mr. Bug, who just wants to spend some uninterrupted time with his ladybug, tells off the lot of them (though always with a smile on his face)...

"This is quite disturbing!
Why don't you say 'Good night'?"

And Mrs. Bug adds, though much more sweetly and clasping her hands...

"If you'd only leave us,
I'm sure we'd be alright!"

The room and maid service bugs respond...

Maids: "Very good, we'll see you in the morning!"
Room service: "Pleasant dreams and hope that you sleep well!"
All: "Guests don't go to sleep 'til dawning
in the Honeymoon Hotel!"

When they leave, the hotel service gang crowd around the doorknob and some climb up to peer through the transom, and one even produces a telescope, to watch the lovemaking of the two bugs. The Man in the Moon outside their window says "Ahhhh!" and Mr. Bug closes the blind. But it springs open again, and the Man in the Moon sings to the bugs his intention of spying on them...

"Ah! The moon is here!
You're in love, I fear!
I can see everything that you do!"

Mr. Bug turns out the light to darken the room and the bugs kiss, but the Man in the Moon turns a brilliant shade of vermillion, and says ashamedly, "Is my face red!" The bugs kiss again, and the thermometer on the wall shoots mercury to a heart at its base that pulsates and then shoots up the top of the thermometer, past a marking that reads "danger," and then the thermometer bursts and punches a fire alarm above it on the wall!

The Bugville Fire Department is called to put out the blaze engulfing the entire Honeymoon Hotel due to Mr. and Mrs. Bug's passion! The water truck carries a seltzer bottle along with a couple of hoses, and the hook and ladder is a caterpillar laden with a couple of combs. Another firetruck built out of a cheese grater and an alarm clock rings loudly on its way to the inferno. Residents jump out of the windows of the Honeymoon Hotel onto water bottles as the firefighters work to put out the blaze.

The bug couple are trapped in their room, but climb into the Murphy bed together and close it into the wall. The entire hotel is taken except for about half of their room, including the walls into which the bed is built, and where the front door was set. Mr. Bug crawls out of the bed and hangs a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door, and then shuts it. He and Mrs. Bug wink at the camera and then close the Murphy bed back into the wall. There is a calendar saying "February" on the underside of the bed, with a picture of a baby bug, who also winks at the camera. Iris out.

It's historical significance as the first CineColor Merrie Melodie noted, this is a cutesy and fairly innocuous entry in the Warner Bros. pantheon, there being numerous films already in existence of its ilk, if not general quality. While there are a number of clever moments and the lyrics of the song are fun, its chief interest for me is in its already mentioned inclusion of several mild innuendo.

And remember what Groucho Marx said:

"Love flies out the door when money comes innuendo."

RTJ

*****

And in case you haven't seen it...

[This article was revised and updated with new photos on 1/9/16.]