"Sinkin' In The Bathtub" (1930), Bosko Debuts In The First-Ever Looney Tunes and First Theatrical Animated Release

[The Hersch]

This has lost none of its production value over time, and is fresh as a daisy.

"Little Red Riding Rabbit"

Thank you for posting that. I never saw that cartoon before, and it made me supernaturally happy to watch it. I don't think I've grinned so much since 2012. To return the favor, here's what is probably my favorite animated cartoon of all time, "Sinkin' in the Bathtub", released as a Looney Tune in 1930, when they were making it up as they went along.

[DonRocks]

Some observations (and internet pulls) about "Sinkin' In The Bathtub":

* "Sinkin' In The Bathtub" was the very first Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon short, and the very first production in the Looney Tunes series - these two things alone have history written all over them.

* This is the debut of "Bosko, 'The Talk-Ink Kid'." He is, alas, a blackface character. (The Wikipedia links (above) to Warner Bros., Looney Tunes, and Bosko have all the information and links you could possibly want.)

* Like "Little Red Riding Rabbit," it was produced by Leon Schlesinger, who was one of the most historically important people in the history of animation.

* There are many familiar tunes being played, among which are: "There'll Be A Hot Town In The Old Town Tonight" (1896), "Singin' In The Bathtub" (1929!), "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" (1929!), and an unknown but very familiar lullaby, among a few others which I didn't quite recognize. Note that two of these would have currently been very popular with the younger generation.

* If you didn't know what "anthropomorphism" meant, now you do. In "Sinkin' In The Bathtub," the bathtub itself stands on its hind legs and dances, and the car is in the outhouse using the bathroom (really),

* 0:00-0:15 The picture in the opening credits shows Bosko along with a bird, a dog, and a goat along with their various corresponding onomatopoeia.

* 0:22-0:37 What resourcefulness making string and idiophonic instruments out of seemingly nothing during the opening bathtub scene. At this moment, I'd like to point out that I've already used the terms "anthropomorphism," "onomatopoeia," and "idiophonic" - you may wish to back out now.

* 0:38-1:00 The bathtub dance with shots of toilet paper pre-dates the Hays Code Of 1930; otherwise, you wouldn't be seeing the toilet paper.

* 1:00-1:15 Bosko has done well in MacGyvering the shower head and water stream, and his ingenuity has both cleansed him, played a mean tune, and carried him to the garage.

* 1:15-1:28 The car here brings new meaning to "Little *Deuce* Coupe."

* 1:28-1:32 You've just learned Newton's Third Law Of Motion.

* 1:48-1:58 The car is literally tiptoeing through the tulips, two years before Tiny Tim was even born.

* 1:58-2:03 The car horn doubles as a flower vase.

* 2:05-2:13 "Honey" (Bosko's sweetie) is shown showering in front of an open window, with two birds popping out of her knickers (hanging out to dry!) and harmonizing with her singing - this is pretty racy stuff.

* 2:15-2:27 Honey realizes she's being watched, and draws the shade, reels in her clothing (presumably with the birds still in it), and makes herself presentable, both for Bosko, and the censor board.

* 2:28-2:42 The innocent courtship scene, with Honey flirtatiously batting her eyes, and Bosko "honking" the tulips out of the horn. Then, the goat appears.

* 2:43-2:55 The voracious goat wraps his enormously long tongue around the flowers and devours Bosko's courtship offering (the goat has an abundance of flowers on the ground to eat, so this was a particularly dastardly act).

* 2:56-3:06 Bosko sheds (and plucks) his tears to a melancholy tune, thinking he has lost his chance at courting honey.

* 3:07-3:19 The unselfish Honey saw what happened, and comforts him from the balcony, saying, "Don't cry, Bosko - I still love you!" Bosko puffs out his chest and happiness returns.

* 3:20-3:30 The malevolent goat gives Bosko a raspberry (the stick-out-your-tongue kind), and Bosko proceeds to kick his ass - literally - causing a Cirque de Soleil-like contortion, and for the goat to slink away, defeated, much to Bosko's amusement.

* 3:31-3:42 Bosko then struts over to his car, opens his hood, pulls out a segment of radiator pipe, rips off his car horn (the one he used for the flower vase), and assembles a makeshift saxophone in order to serenade Honey.

* 3:43-3:52 Having run up to Honey's doorstep, he begins serenading her with "Singing In The Bathtub," much to her dislike. After some clear gestures indicating her displeasure, she runs in the house, and returns holding a full tub of soapy water.

* 3:53-4:32 Honey pours the soapy water into the horn of the saxophone, causing Bosko to play a dreamier-sounding, slower, I suppose more-romantic song which is much more to Honey's liking. She does a dance on the rising bubbles coming up from the instrument, and floats her way downward to the walkway where Bosko is standing.

* 4:33-4:45 Bosko, now happy, runs up and down the wooden-planked walkway, using it as a xylophone with his steps. Making his way to the car, he jumps in, and motions for Honey to follow his lead. She does the same xylophone walk, then jumps into his waiting arms inside his car.

* 4:45-4:55 The two take off in the car, and at give each other a three smooches on the lips, each more love-inducing than the last, until at 4:55, Bosko regains his senses and sees an old cow, wearing glasses and cowbell, in the middle of the road.

* 4:55-5:15 Bosko honks his useful horn, and the defiant cow continues to stand there, casually chewing on grass, until he finally spits on the car, hitting Bosko (and indirectly, Honey) in the process. Bosko does not take kindly to this.

* 5:15-5:36 This may be hard to visualize, but an angry Bosko pushes downward on the cow's torso so that it drops downward to the street (as if the legs were sliding through four holes in the torso). Bosko then simply drives over the cow, who proudly and defiantly slinks away, undaunted. with its head held high.

* 5:37-5:44 Looking back while driving, laughing at and taunting the proud cow, the car hits a large boulder, inexplicably sitting in the middle of the road. The car continues, but Bosko and Honey are thrust upward (it's a convertible). Honey lands back in the car seat, but Bosko has been divided into eight mini-Boskos, all eight pursuing the car on foot.

* 5:45-5:55 Bosko magically becomes whole again (I guess there's a time limit for how long you can be divided into eight miniatures), pursues, and then ends up pushing the car up a very steep hill before the car gives out.

* 5:56-6:07 The car shamefully slinks away, at times like an inchworm, then finally reaches the top of the hill, and begins to plummet downward, holding a screaming Honey while Bosko stands at the crest.

* 6:08-6:54 Honey is now a damsel in distress, with Bosko pursuing the car, having to endure all sorts of whacks to the genitalia. After a time, another bump is hit, sending Bosko in the air, landing in front of the car, so the hunter now becomes the hunted, with a runaway vehicle (replete with a screaming Honey) pursues Bosko.

* 6:55-7:17 The car then goes through a tiny house (also sitting in the middle of the road, and emerges as a bathtub with wheels), so now we have the exact same situation with a bathtub instead of a car. And of course, the road ends, becoming a precipitous cliff which then turns into a corkscrew-like tree-sort-of structure which all three (Bosko, Honey, and car) wind their way down, bouncing along, and changing places as we go. They reach bottom, hit a straightaway, and again, Bosko runs out ahead only to find a steep cliff in the road. (Safety standards have definitely become more stringent as the decades have passed)

* 7:19-7:44 All three (Bosko, Honey, and the workhorse bathtub - now eligible for social security), plummet off the cliff. Bosko gets caught on a tree limb just a few feet above a pond, Honey and the bathtub both get dowsed, creating a giant "hand of water" which pulls Bosko in with Honey, and the two of them are now sitting in the bathtub, amongst the water lillies. As the tub begins to drift, Bosko pulls out a couple of cattails (the flowers), and beging using lilly pads as a xylophone, playing, what else? Singin' In The Bathtub, accompanied by three ducks who appear, both Bosko and Honey going forward, happily ever after.

* 7:45-7:52 The Loony Tunes sign appears as a wooden billboard, Bosko appears from behind and says, "That's All, Folks!" accompanied by a cute little barking puppy.

[The Hersch]

Gee, Don, thanks for the (how shall I say?) explication de texte. I had forgotten that "Sinkin' in the Bathtub" was the very first Looney Tune.

an unknown but very familiar lullaby

3:53-4:32 Honey pours the soapy water into the horn of the saxophone, causing Bosko to play a dreamier-sounding, slower, I suppose more-romantic song which is much more to Honey's liking.

Are you referring to the same tune in these two remarks? If not, I don't know what lullaby you're referring to. The dreamy song that Bosko plays on his improvised saxophone is "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles".

He is, alas, a blackface character.

While there is an unquestionably complacent racist element in the characters of Bosko and Honey, they don't seem to be in blackface. Their bodies are black, but their faces are more or less white, with black noses. They seem to be a sort of cross between African Americans and monkeys, which is, as I say, racist, but not exactly blackface. As historical artifact, I think this can be forgiven, but I probably don't get a vote.

2:15-2:27 Honey realizes she's being watched, and draws the shade, reels in her clothing (presumably with the birds still in it), and makes herself presentable, both for Bosko, and the censor board.

Note that the clothing she reels in includes knickers and brassiere, which would certainly have run afoul of the Production Code.

5:15-5:36 This may be hard to visualize

Happily, one need not do so. Watch the video.

I first saw this animated cartoon in about 1981, when I was in New York to attend a remarkable anarchist gathering. Favorite memory: One very obviously straight male punk with a mohawk-style hairdo telling another straight male punk with an even more astonishing multi-colored mohawk-style hairdo "Love your do!" A friend and I went to a weird little bar with TV monitors (in the Village, I think), and they showed this cartoon, which I was so delighted by that I spent the next 20 years reminiscing about it. Then along comes YouTube, and I can actually see it again.

[DonRocks]

Are you referring to the same tune in these two remarks? If not, I don't know what lullaby you're referring to. The dreamy song that Bosko plays on his improvised saxophone is "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles".

I'm referring to the theme at the 0:45 second mark (during the dancing bathtub scene). It's a very familiar melody, and might be from a classical piece - I sent this email to a musician friend, but haven't heard back yet. Note: It's actually played in F major, a fourth interval above the middle C octave; I just wrote what I wrote (at the bottom) for ease of explanation.

---

Need Lullaby Help

This is entirely in the octave above middle C (C4), C5 is the C above that. commas represent one beat rests, and hyphenated notes are eighth notes, the first of each four coming in just before the beat. 4/4 time. see if you can hum this to yourself and figure out what it's to. it's a very famous lullaby, written pre-1930 and maybe a lot earlier than that. Bold text and commas both come on the beat.

 

(The note before the commas/rests is actually sustained, but it's not that important in terms of the melody)

 

The one note below the octave is the B towards the end, which is just below middle C.

 

This is easy, and hopefully you'll get it instantly. There are no weird beats here. I'm desperately trying to figure out what the name of this is. It's very very famous, and you hear it when someone gets hit over the head in a cartoon just before they "fall asleep."

 

Parentheses represent groups of 4 8th-notes. Double bars represent measure divides. ||

 

Help!

 

E , , (F-F#-G-||C5) G F E || C# , , D || A , , F || D , , (C#-D-D#-||E) G F E || D C B C || E , D , ||

 

 

 

[The Hersch]

Oh, that, while the bathtub is dancing and scattering toilet paper (how great is that phrase?). That's so quickly over that I hardly noticed it until I was listening for it just now. Agree, totally familiar and in just the context you mention, and I can't think what it is either.

[porcupine]

I'm referring to the theme at the 0:45 second mark (during the dancing bathtub scene). It's a very familiar melody, and might be from a classical piece

I'm always afraid to poke in when you two have a conversation, but do you know what struck me about this piece?  It has a strong 2-4 back beat, which I don't believe was common in 1930, and if I'm not mistaken was one of the defining features of R&B as it morphed into rock and roll, decades later.  Sorry, Rocks, I can't name the melody.

[DonRocks]

I'm always afraid to poke in when you two have a conversation, but do you know what struck me about this piece?  It has a strong 2-4 back beat, which I don't believe was common in 1930, and if I'm not mistaken was one of the defining features of R&B as it morphed into rock and roll, decades later.  Sorry, Rocks, I can't name the melody.

Why?! Please don't be!

They might have taken a classical melody and inserted the back beat (which you're right about) for this cartoon. I've heard this melody a hundred times in my life, and just can't place it.

[Al Dente]

Isn't it Strauss?

[DonRocks]

Isn't it Strauss?

 

I think it might be (Johann; not Richard), but I can't find it.