Today and tomorrow, we feature a two-part video link that will detail the amazing displacement of Little Lulu with Little Audrey. I know most of you have been wondering about this since you were small toddlers and we're delighted to give you the answer. In Part One, we feature a Little Lulu cartoon entitled Bout With a Trout, which I only saw on TV about eight thousand times when my age was in the single digits. This cartoon came out on October 10, 1947 and the main non-singing voice work was reportedly done by Cecil Roy, about whom I know nothing.
Little Lulu was created by cartoonist Marjorie Henderson Buell, aka "Marge," and first appeared in a single panel cartoon in The Saturday Evening Post on February 23, 1935. A series of cartoons followed and Lulu also began appearing in advertising cartoons for Pepsi-Cola and Kleenex paper products. For a long time, she was in all the ads for Q-Tips and numerous promotional items that you could get by mail if you sent in the coupons from a couple of boxes of those cotton swabs. In 1943, looking to replicate the success of its Popeye cartoon series, Paramount Pictures obtained the rights and had its cartoon division, Famous Studios, produce a string of Little Lulu shorts like the one we feature today.
The cartoon features the song, "Swinging on a Star," which was written by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen for the 1944 Paramount movie, Going My Way, where it was sung by Bing Crosby. As was not uncommon back then, the song came out as a record well before the film…in this case, in February of 1944. By the time the movie was released, which was in December Correction: May], Crosby's recording was a big, familiar hit. The tune later won the Academy Award for Best Song of its year. Paramount kept flogging it in other films and on the radio shows it controlled and in '47, they had it used in this Little Lulu cartoon. You may note that one of the singers is trying to sound a little like Mr. Crosby.
This was one of the last Little Lulu cartoons made by Famous Studios. The films were successful but when the contract expired, Paramount decided not to offer Marge more money to continue them. I'll tell you all about that tomorrow, plus I'll explain why the title cards on this print are so bland and don't mention Paramount Pictures. For now, here's the Little Lulu cartoon, starting with her theme song, which I always liked…
