Busy Bakers

Swenson, the town baker, is on the verge of going out of business. He has no customers or ingredients, but he is kind to a mysterious blind beggar who asks for a few crumbs of bread. The baker offers him his last doughnut. The beggar says that the baker will be rewarded for his kindness. In a thought-provoking (and humorous) "twist," the blind man gathers a group of little baker men to help the baker out. He returns during the night with the bakers, who make all kinds of goods in a series of Rube Goldberg-style gimmicky-slapstick assembly-line gags. The bakery is swamped with hungry customers who buy out the store, bringing solvency to the old Swedish baker.

Swenson the Town Baker, Blind Beggar, Little Baker Men

Jerry Colonna and the Marx Brothers are caricatured.

Songs include: "The Jolly Bakers" (Pinto Colvig), Performed by Chorus.

This cartoon is included as an extra on the DVD of "Brother Orchid" (1940).

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.