The Coo-Coo Nut Grove
The CooCoo Nut Grove is a 1936 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies short animated film, set in the famed Cocoanut Grove of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The cartoon was directed by Friz Freleng, with animation by Robert McKimson and Sandy Walker and musical score by Carl Stalling.[1] The short was released on November 28, 1936.[2]
| The CooCoo Nut Grove | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | I. Freleng |
| Produced by | Leon Schlesinger |
| Story by | Bob Clampett |
| Starring | Bernice Hansen Tedd Pierce The Rhymettes Verna Deane Danny Webb Peter Lind Hayes |
| Music by | Carl W. Stalling |
| Edited by | Treg Brown |
| Animation by | Bob McKimson Sandy Walker Ben Clopton Rod Scribner T. Hee |
| Layouts by | Zack Schwartz |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 6:43 |
| Language | English |
Plot
Master of ceremonies Ben Birdie (bandleader Ben Bernie, voiced by Tedd Pierce) is accosted in the opening scene by Walter Windpipe (Walter Winchell, voiced by Danny Webb). The short then proceeds to showcase many Hollywood stars in the form of caricatures, including Katharine Hepburn (as a horse named Miss Heartburn), Jean Harlow, Bette Davis, Ned Sparks (voiced by Peter Lind Hayes), Hugh Herbert, W. C. Fields (voiced by Tedd Pierce), Clark Gable, Groucho and Harpo Marx, Johnny Weissmuller (in character as Tarzan) and Lupe Vélez, Mae West (voiced by Verna Deane), Wallace Beery, John Barrymore, Laurel and Hardy, Edward G. Robinson, Fred Astaire, and George Raft. Musical entertainments are provided by Dame Edna May Oliver as "The Lady in Red", the Dionne quintuplets (who were in reality only two years old at the time, all voiced by Bernice Hansen) and Helen Morgan (voiced by Verna Deane), sitting on the piano, turning on the tears with a torch song causing most of the guests to cry (except Ben Birdie and a few of the guests) and flooding the Grove in the process. Whereas other cartoons have caricatured celebrities as either humans or animals, oddly, this short does both—half are seen as human, half as animal versions of the stars.
Production notes
- The title is sometimes mislabeled as The Coo-Coo Nut Groove. This cartoon was followed by The Woods Are Full Of Cuckoos (1937) and Have You Got Any Castles? (1938), both parodying Hollywood personalities.
Home media
References
- Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 51. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
- Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 104–106. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.