Threaded Thursday: A Different Kind of Minnie

We spent yesterday with Minnie the Moocher, following her from the Cotton Club to the cartoon world and finally to her big wedding day. 

That got me thinking: Minnie… cartoon… wedding… 1930s… Wasn’t there a song from the early 1930s about a certain other cartoon star marrying a different Minnie? Indeed there was! 

Let’s talk about the 1933 British hit, The Wedding of Mr. Mickey Mouse.

The British Connection

Despite Mickey and Minnie’s massive popularity in the States, this tune was strictly a British affair. It was recorded by quite a few artists in England, but I don’t think there was ever a proper American version.

Let’s listen to this representative version by Henry Hall and the BBC Orchestra on the British Columbia label:

Pretty fun, right? A couple of things of interest here: The song mentions the BBC, which certainly marks its territory, so it’s only fitting that the BBC Orchestra recorded it!

The Horace Horsecollar Snub

The lyrics name-drop Pegleg Pete, Pluto, and Clarabelle Cow, but they curiously omit Horace Horsecollar—even though he’s right there on the cover of the sheet music! (See the image at the top of the page). Personally, Horace gets my vote for the most underrated Disney character of all time.

The Mystery Instrumental

On just about every British record, the song is presented as a comedic skit rather than a straight musical number. However, I found this fascinating version on the French Pathé label:

It’s entirely instrumental! I don’t know exactly who the Novelty Dance Orchestra was or where they were based, but it’s a high-energy take that lets the melody shine without the slapstick.

So there you have it: Two Minnies and two weddings!

Casey Bats Again!

Just a mention that the "Casey at the Bat" segment of Disney's "Make Mine Music" feature was so popular, it inspired a sequel in the form of 1954's "Casey Bats Again" short!

It picks up immediately from where "Casey at the Bat" ends, but actually seems to span a number of years. No spoilers from me, though!

"Casey Bats Again" doesn't feature a personality narrator in the manner of Jerry Colonna, but goes with an uncredited, generic 1950s-ish narrator. 

Still fun, though!

Bonus 78 - "Casey (The Pride of Them All)" (1946)

I feel like we need another baseball song as well as more Jerry Colonna, so from the Two Birds Department, here's Jerry's 1946 recording of "Casey (The Pride of Them All)" on Capitol Records:

They get a lot onto that record!

Solid backing from Frank De Vol, as always!

Producer Walt Disney (left) gets an earful from Jerry Colonna!

That song part of a segment from the Walt Disney compilation movie "Make Mine Music," which has several fun segments featuring recording stars (you can see Dinah Shore and Andy Russell with Jerry on the sheet music at the top), some of which, including "Casey," were later released as separate shorts:

Good fun!

The story is (of course) a takeoff on Ernest Thayer's famous poem "Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic, Sung in the Year 1888" (although the cartoon is apparently set in 1902).

Pretty neat that the baseball action could still happen in a similar manner 134 years later!

"Jingle Bells" - Part 75 - Mouse Party!

Sticking with kiddie offerings, we come across a version of "Jingle Bells" included on "Mickey Mouse's Christmas Party," an early 1950s release on Golden Records:

That is a lot of fun with "Jingle Bells" featuring Mickey's and Donald's voices as provided by their official theatrical portrayers, Jimmy MacDonald and Clarence Nash, respectively!

And throw in a little bit of a story and a cameo from Cinderella!

But wait... there's more!

Although those two sides were released as a stand-alone single, they were also part of a larger four-record set issued by Golden Records that expands the story to include additional characters and songs:

That's really a lot of sun and you can see 1950s kids having a blast with their little record players!

I like the meta moment of Goofy telling us to flip the record over as well as us listening to a record of Donald and the gang listening to a record!

The set also had a couple of fold-out pages that show even more characters:

The first page challenges us to name all the characters and I do spot Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket, Figaro, Gus Goose, Li'l Bad Wolf, Dumbo, Timothy Q. Mouse, and Bongo who are from stories not mentioned on the record.

The mashup of characters from different stories gets especially interesting with the inclusion of the mice from Cinderella tagging along. Mickey and Minnie are mice, of course, but not at all similar to Jaq and Gus!

As I frequently mention, the kiddie record labels often repackaged and reissued their recordings and the single and multi-record versions were reissued in 1955 with the imprint of the "Mickey Mouse Club" TV show.

Here are the sleeve and labels for the single:

And the sleeve for the set:

I think I have all of that straight!

Adding to the intrigue, there was also a single release of "Santa's Toy Shop Song" and "Santa's Toy Shop" on Golden Records in 1950, billed as a Disney item, but not including the famous characters:

That's a fun little record on its own. Maybe predates the Mickey material?

It also had a tie-in Little Golden Book:

Now, of course, I do need to talk about the two "pop" songs that were included in the set!

The song "Jing-a-Ling, Jing-a-Ling" actually has a Disney pedigree, as it's based on a melody from the 1950 Oscar-winning True-Life Adventure "Beaver Valley." It's especially noticeable when a bunch of otters are frolicking around!

However it wound up being adapted into a seasonal tune, there were a bunch of recordings of the song in 1950, including this RCA Victor release teaming the Fontane Sisters with accordionist Dick Contino and backed by Hugo Winterhalter:

And I know "The Christmas Symphony" from Perry Como's 1950 recording on RCA Victor:

Perry gets a chance to sing the song at a much slower tempo, as he had the whole ten inches to work with, but Mickey and the gang only had six!

A lot of fun with lots of characters and songs, with Mitch Miller on hand to wrap it all up in a great package!

"Jingle Bells" - Part 45 - Disney Novelties!

Hanging around the late 1950s with "Jingle Bells," we come across a couple of novelty versions issued by the relatively new Disneyland Records.

First up is this 1957 recording by the All Mouse Symphony and Chorus as conducted by Ludwig Mousensky:

That's cute with some good effects, and it precedes David Seville and the Chipmunks by a year, but didn't have a tremendous impact on the marketplace.

The 45 EP "Walt Disney's Christmas Concert" also features the All Mouse Symphony with a knockout instrumental version of "Winter Wonderland":

Ludwig Mousensky was fortunate to have the extremely talented arranger Tutti Camarata in his corner!

Camarata and the gang had an even wackier "Jingle Bells" takeoff the following year with this cut by the Witches Three from the "A Christmas Adventure in Disneyland" album:

That is fascinating, isn't it!

That particular recording features the multi-talented vocalist Gloria Wood, who did a lot of work for Disney as well as dubbing for movies and singing commercial jingles and everything else!

To show her vocal versatility, here's a record she cut for Capitol  Records in 1953 with trumpet star Pete Candoli:

That's an odd one to be sure, but fun! The bellboy in question is probably not Walter Tetley!

I associate Gloria Wood mostly with her stint with the Kay Kyser band in the late 1940s, with vocals on such records as "Managua Nicaragua" and "Woody Woodpecker" and this big hit:

She was very talented!

No surprise that Disneyland Records had some imaginative stuff!

"Jingle Bells" - Part 21 - Plus Two!

We're still in 1950 with "Jingle Bells," but as Artie Shaw was experimenting with newish music, the Firehouse Five Plus Two was doing decidedly the opposite!

Here they are with their take on "Jingle Bells":

One thing I will say, their record label being named Good Time Jazz is truth in advertising!

The group was made up of members of Walt Disney's animation department who used to play Dixieland music as a hobby, then realized they were pretty good and turned professional!

Here's s fun clip of them performing "Jingle Bells" while ostensibly at work:

Walt actually approved of the band, but insisted they never quit their day jobs, as they were invaluable to the studio.

Ward Kimball at work!

Leader/trombonist and pianist Frank Thomas in particular were brilliant animators, part of Disney's "Nine Old Men" who anchored the animation staff for years.

I really enjoy their records, as I dig intentionally corny music and they sound like they're having a blast!

This was the first record I had by them, way back in the day:

I think that's just awesome with the siren and all!

The flipside is "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" as an instrumental, but Gene Lockhart would still have gotten royalties:

The banjo that opens the record really puts me in mind of the Les Paul and Mary Ford recording from a year later. Was Les possibly influenced by the Firehouse Five Plus Two?

Christmas 1945 - Part 5 - Disney!

As we stay in the 1945 holiday season for a bit longer, we check out a couple of Disney comic books:

Imagine if someone got you a subscription to "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories" as a Christmas present and you got this awesome certificate:

How cool is that?

Walt Disney's big release of the year was "The Three Caballeros," inspiring this card:

Always fun stuff from Disney!

Christmas 1936 - Part 5 - Disney!

                              

While still hanging around Christmas of 1936, let's see what Walt Disney and his gang had going!

At the top is the studio's Christmas card for 1936!

Here's a cool book:

And a sample page:

A couple of newspaper inserts:

And these awesome string lights:

Fun stuff!