Swooner Crooner

Production drops at Porky's wartime Flockheed Eggcraft Factory when the hens leave their posts to hear Frankie, a crooning rooster, sing. Porky stages a contest to find a singer to encourage production. This ends with a singing duel between a Bing Crosby-styled rooster and Frankie that produces mountains of eggs.

Porky Pig, Frankie Rooster, Bing Crosby Rooster, Rudy, Al, Jimmy, Cab, Hens

Other poultry caricatures include Nelson Eddy, Al Jolson, Cab Calloway, Rudy Vallee and Jimmy Durante.

Frank Tashlin did not receive screen credit as the supervisor of this cartoon. While directing the movie "Say One for Me," starring Bing Crosby, Crosby told Tashlin that he hated the caricature of himself in "Swooner Crooner," and Tashlin told him that he had directed that, too.

King's Men baritone Rad Robinson has been rumored to be the voice of the Frankie Rooster, but this has not been confirmed. Richard Bickenback, the voice of the Bing Crosby Rooster, was better-known as animator Dick Bickenbach. The supplier of the voices of the other caricatures remains unknown.

In September of 1943, beginning with A Feud There Was, Warner Bros. began re-releasing select color cartoons in their Blue Ribbon program. Typically the Blue Ribbon reissues received new opening sequences with Blue Ribbon title cards and standardized music. Cartoon production credits were also removed. Between ten and fifteen cartoons were released in any given year, with cartoons coming from as far back as 1935. The reissues continued until the close of the studio in the 1960's.

All Blue Ribbon cartoons were released as "Merrie Melodie" cartoons regardless of the original series. The first "Looney Tunes" short to be included in the Blue Ribbon series was The Hep Cat, which was added in 1949. The only current prints of many of these cartoons are the Blue Ribbon releases, although restoration of these cartoons with original elements and titles is always ongoing.

Songs include: "It Can't be Wrong" (Max Steiner-Kim Gannon), Frankie; "Power House" (Raymond Scott); "Chicken Reel" (Unknown-arr. Carl Stalling); "Absentees" (Carl Stalling); "As Time Goes By" (Herman Hupfeld), Frankie; "Listening In" (Carl Stalling); "Shortenin' Bread" (Unknown-arr. Carl Stalling), Rudy; "September in the Rain" (Al Dubin-Harry Warren), Al; "Lullaby of Broadway" (Al Dubin-Harry Warren), Jimmy; "Blues in the Night" (Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer), Cab; "Admirers" (Carl Stalling); "When My Dreamboat Comes Home" (Cliff Friend-Dave Franklin), Bing; "I'll Pray For You" (Arthur Altman-Kim Gannon), Frankie; "Trade Winds" (Cliff Friend-Dave Franklin), Bing; "Always in My Heart" (Ernesto Lecuona-Kim Gannon), Frankie; "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" (Harry Warren, Johnny Mercer), Bing; "Swooner Crooners" (Carl Stalling), Bing and Frankie.

Academy Award Nominee, Best Short Subject (Cartoon), 1945