Swing Wedding
- Studio
- Harman-Ising Productions
- Distributor
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Synopsis
This politically incorrect cartoon is very reminiscent of "Cabin In The Sky," in that a very sexy Ethel Waters (as Minnie the Moocher) is about to be married to Stepin Fetchit (as Smoky Joe), but Stepin isn't in any hurry to get hitched. Cab Calloway comes along to woo Ethel with his smooth jive. Lots of jazz and Calloway music done by frogs right out of MGM's Bosko cartoons.
Characters
Frogs
Credits
Directing
- Director
- Hugh Harman
Producing
- Producer
- Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising
Writing
- Writer
- William Hanna
Animation
- Animator
- Larry Martin, Thomas McKimson (as Tom McKimson)
Music
- Music
- Jack Caldwell
Production notes
Fats Waller, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Cab Calloway, Ethel Waters, Louis Armstrong, Stepin Fetchit and the Mills Brothers are impersonated.
This is the second of two cartoons featuring 1930's African-American celebrities caricatured as frogs (unless you count their appearances in a handful of MGM Bosko cartoons). The other one was the 1936 Oscar-nominated "The Old Mill Pond".
Unlike its predecessor, this short actually has a story to go along with all the musical numbers. The celebrities caricatured throughout this cartoon include Cab Calloway, Ethel Waters, Stepin Fetchit, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Bill Robinson and the Boswell Sisters.
A few words of caution, some might find the content of this cartoon to be racially offensive. But, in defense of the people who originally worked on this cartoon, no harm was intended. In fact, the characterizations in this cartoon are very tame compared to what you'd see in several other cartoons of the 1930's. To some, it might not be so noticeable since the celebrities are all portrayed here as cartoon frogs.
While this cartoon is politically incorrect by today's standards, it actually aired quite a few times on TCM several years ago when TCM would show cartoons to fill time between movies.
This is the second of two cartoons featuring 1930's African-American celebrities caricatured as frogs (unless you count their appearances in a handful of MGM Bosko cartoons). The other one was the 1936 Oscar-nominated "The Old Mill Pond".
Unlike its predecessor, this short actually has a story to go along with all the musical numbers. The celebrities caricatured throughout this cartoon include Cab Calloway, Ethel Waters, Stepin Fetchit, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Bill Robinson and the Boswell Sisters.
A few words of caution, some might find the content of this cartoon to be racially offensive. But, in defense of the people who originally worked on this cartoon, no harm was intended. In fact, the characterizations in this cartoon are very tame compared to what you'd see in several other cartoons of the 1930's. To some, it might not be so noticeable since the celebrities are all portrayed here as cartoon frogs.
While this cartoon is politically incorrect by today's standards, it actually aired quite a few times on TCM several years ago when TCM would show cartoons to fill time between movies.
Pictures
Reviews
Swing Wedding
(Quoting from a review I did for "The Old Mill Pond", a companion film to "Swing Wedding")
In my research for classic "lost", banned and censored studio cartoons of the Golden Age, I ran across references of "Jazz Frog" cartoons depicting characatures of popular Black jazz/swing performers popular in the 1930's. I recently obtained private copies of "The Old Mill Pond" and "Swing Wedding" and found them both offensive AND entertaining at the same time, rather like classic Warner's shorts such as "Coal Black and de Sebbin Dwarfs"
There are no credits here for voices--no way to be sure if Harman and Ising actually used the voices of such legends as Ethel Waters, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Stepin' Fetchit. It is known that at least Calloway proudly performed vocals and rotoscoped choreography for the Fleicher studios and that he arranged for those 'toons to play in certain cites a week or two prior to his own performance dates.
I have used cartoons like these in my classes on animation history as a reflection of the attitudes of the times--and as such they should absolutely NOT be lost or buried in some dusty film vault. Racist? Yes...and America was in those days, still is in some places. Ethinic humor was not considered out of place in the 30's, when the Klan was in vogue.
Still, there seems to be a lot of affection towards the creativity and talent of the parodied performers--Stepin' Fetchit being the noted exception. Definitely worth a view or two--and if you see "Swing Wedding", watch carefully for the frog trumpeter in the "Runnin' Wild" number who uses one of his valves as a hypodermic syringe, injects himself gleefully in the arm and then dives through a bass drum!