Author Topic: "When Funnies Were Funny" unknown tracks  (Read 493 times)

apmnut

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"When Funnies Were Funny" unknown tracks
« on: November 21, 2024, 12:44:58 AM »
drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xtiBnJqAtOhmk1ImI0eEPZbmHAXCIzZ6?usp=sharing

The identified tracks from this series can be found here: productionmusic.fandom.com/wiki/When_Funnies_Were_Funny

"When Funnies Were Funny" was a package syndicated sometime around 1975 by entrepreneur Fred Ladd and Radio and Television Packagers, who had previously supervised dubbing for "Astroboy" for NBC and the retracing of several Porky Pig/black and white Warner Bros. cartoons for television syndication in 1968. The package consisted of various short cartoons (mostly public domain subjects like Felix the Cat and Mutt and Jeff, although several copyrighted shorts slipped through the cracks as well, including a Mickey Mouse short!) sourced from a variety of different prints (but mostly a bootleg cartoon package called "Whimseyland Cartoons") and crudely retraced and colorized in Korea.

Depending on the prints used, many cartoons retained the original audio track if they had them, but more often than not, due to several of these prints either being silent or having a more "old fashioned" stock music track added (although such tracks were left alone occasionally, like in "The Invisible Revenge", where it clashes HARD with the more modern sound effects added), a fresh new music and effects track was prepared. I've always been fascinated by these particular prints for as long as I've been an animation nut. The trace jobs and colorizations might've been crude and amateurish, and it's obviously better to just watch the original shorts in glorious black and white, but the use of the contemporary stock music throughout these prints makes them rather charmingly kitschy, and I'll sometimes watch these JUST for the wonderful production cues they used.

As such, I've devoted a lot of my time to identifying and tracking down whatever I can production music-wise that was used in these cartoons, and thankfully the majority of these cues have been easy to pin down. However, there are a few that have eluded my grasp for a while, and so I turn to you good folk at LMT to see if you recognize any of the cues in the folder linked at the top of this post. My good friend "badgertapes" made a thread inquiring about these cues some years ago, but as it was a casuality of the site purge a few years ago, I decided to make a fresh new topic on the subject.

Any help regarding these is appreciated, even if it's just a lead or "I remember hearing this somewhere else". It may be valuable info as to the whereabouts of these tracks.

A few points:
R&TVP used Emil Ascher's various libraries for the majority of their cues (KPM, Conroy, JW, Themes, Amphonic), plus Southern and Selected Sound, and it's likely some of these are hiding on there, plus any of Ring Musik's albums, Standard or Studio G, which Ascher was also distributing at the same time these were made.

"Misses His Swiss" and "Tuning In 2" are variants on the same theme. Ditto with several of the "On Duty" cues.

The "Steadfast Tin Soldier" and "Art for Art's Sake" orchestra cues are likely from the same source. Possibly Harry Lubin's Harrose library, as "Steadfast 3" sounds very much like a Lubin cue.

Several of these cues might actually be multiple smooshed into one. For these, it was difficult to figure out where one cue stops and one begins, so I've done the best I could into constructing what the full cue might be.


« Last Edit: November 21, 2024, 01:33:24 AM by apmnut »

WSBG Returns Yet Again!

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Re: "When Funnies Were Funny" unknown tracks
« Reply #1 on: November 21, 2024, 02:42:24 AM »
The unknown cue in "Accidents Won't Happen" is a Southern LP cue named "Four Jokers Suite Part 4" by Bruce Campbell from MQ/LP 31. I don't know the other cues, unfortunately.
Peace, Love, and Library Music!

apmnut

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Re: "When Funnies Were Funny" unknown tracks
« Reply #2 on: November 21, 2024, 03:59:29 PM »
Even if it's just one track, I'm glad to tick that one off the list! Thanks!

apmnut

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Re: "When Funnies Were Funny" unknown tracks
« Reply #3 on: November 23, 2024, 05:48:30 PM »
Just ID'd "The Under Dog" in the latest batch of 78s provided by Greta and Trkibrzki - it's "Opa's Charleston" by Rex Connor, from the Audio label.