In the Tom and Jerry cartoons, "Mouse Trouble" and "The Missing Mouse", after Tom gets pummeled really badly he sticks his head out and says "Don't you believe it".
Where does that quote come from? Is it from some MGM movie, a radio program, or just something Hanna and Barbera came up with?
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yeah, probably something from a popular radio show of the day. could be a reference to a politician, tho i doubt it. sounds pretty much like a contemporary commercial, kinda like "where's the beef?" in the 80's.
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The Missing Mouse was on Boomerang recently and I was wondering if any has discovered the origin of the quote "Don't you believe it" since bigTnJfan post almost two years ago.
Another phrase that popped up in a couple of Looney Toons was "Ah! something new has been added!" I have read someplace that this line is from Jerry Colonna. Does anyone know the context?
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Another phrase that popped up in a couple of Looney Toons was "Ah! something new has been added!" I have read someplace that this line is from Jerry Colonna. Does anyone know the context?
Yes! In the 1940s, this was an advertising slogan for Old Gold Cigarettes.
"Something new has been added!" is also the final gag line in Little Brown Jug(Screen Songs; Famous Studios, 1948).
The premise in the spot-gag cartoon is that kegs at a cider mill burst open, spilling the cider into a nearby stream. Various animals drink from the stream and get drunk. A nursing piglet drinks some of the booze (via mama pig) second-hand, so to speak, and drunkenly exclaims the catchphrase at the end of the cartoon. Pretty funny when you think about it.
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"Oh boy." -- Allan Sherman
(This post was edited by eminovitz on Jun 9, 2005, 3:54 PM)
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Not any more, but they were once, as they were syndicated by NTA in the 1950s/1960s.
Various Screen Songs do show up on public-domain compilations on DVD and VHS. Just for once, I'd like someone to release the entire collection of Famous Studios Screen Songs on video.
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I'm a bit disappointed that no-one has yet nailed the "DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT!" quote. Some of you Yanks must have aged relatives you can pester about this! It was big enough at the time for it to be topical in 1944, 1951, and 1953. The hollow, echo-y delivery was part of what made it memorable... is it from a radio show? a radio ad? a movie or movie series? a movie ad? a tv show or ad? did it start in one medium then get taken up by another?
The only lead I've come across so far (and I think it's probably a false one) is that in 1943 John Nesbitt made a short (in his series Passing Parade) called "DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT!" about various urban myths - if he delivered the words in that sonorous fashion this could be a contender, the timing is right - but I've heard extracts from his radio show along the same lines and his delivery wasn't that melodramatic.
And I remember a Bowery Boys short where one of them says "Hey, lookit me! I'm dancin', I'm dancin'!" Was he quoting Jerry in "Anchors Aweigh" or were they both quoting something earlier?
On the wider theme of references that are disappearing off the popular map it would be a great idea for the BCDB to have a page devoted to them - separately tagged so that a "references" button on the individual cartoon pages could take you to appropriate explanation.
Er.. that is when you've nothing better to do with your life, Dave...
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Back by popular demand - "La-la-La-la.. I can't hear you!"
The recognizeability of these old cartoon quotes, obviously derived from another source, is amusing, especially when you think that we never hear Bugs say "Well, . . . . tomorrow is another day" or Porky stammer out "T-t-t-t-toto, t-t-t-too?" but we do have this "Don't You Believe It" (which I always took to be from something Ripley-related) and "Look, I'm Dancing, I'm Dancing" (which is in an earlier Tom and Jerry cartoon, the one with Tom as the little girl's baby and he must wear a diaper and a bonnet and three other cats enter and make fun of him) and other more obscure so-called quotes.
I doubt we will find a cartoon on Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon where a character goes "The tribe has spoken" or "youre fired" and it will successfully pass through time. Heck, the original shows these quotes come from will fade into very-quick obscurity.
When I first heard the "something new has been added" line, I thought it was from Terry-Thomas. there is also "Well, . . . I can DREAM cant I?"
Quote from 2 Tom and Jerry cartoons
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