“Salt Water Tabby” Draft, Pt. One
Hello Readers, I apologize for the long gaps between posts lately. I’m getting some nice mail regarding Little Grey from old friends like Bill Warren and David Gerstein. Milt Gray gave me a hopeful message verbally: “Someday another kitty may come along.” A cat that needs you is the best kind of cat to have, and that’s certainly what Little Grey was.
Here is part one of my draft to “Salt Water Tabby”, I’m pretty sure about the scene IDs in the first part, in the second there are a few gaps. We’ll get around to that next time:
Salt Water Tabby–Barge, Lah, Muse credited
Tom comes out of Beach Club House in red suit, closes door pinching suit, runs out–Lah
Tom tries to dive into ocean, suit stretches, pulled back to Club House–Lah
Tom crashes into Club House, making hole in the door, runs out again on long pan, dives onto dry beach as tide goes out, swims in junk lying on beach, tries to get water out of his ear, runs out, junk dripping from inside his suit–Lah
Tom jogs past “Toodles”, girl cat, falls into trash container–Muse
Tom slides into shot with grapefruit on his head, tips it to Toodles like a hat–Muse
MCU Tom sips Toodles’s soda, grabs her hot dog–Muse
CU Tom eats hot dog with typewriter sound efx.–Muse
MCU Tom antics., lies in Toodles’s lap, hit by tomato, banana, looks left, pan over to basket, Tom into shot with shovel–Muse
CU Jerry eats bologna from sandwiches, grabs hard boiled egg–Muse
CU Jerry throws eggs and olives at Tom, forming an extra set of “eyes”–Muse
CU Jerry chews celery in Tom’s hand,.taking bites out of his finger, Tom yells–Muse
Jerry runs on pan, hides in rocks, Tom in, reaches into rocks–Muse
CU Tom grabs crab, crab nips his whiskers off–Barge
Tom tries to run away, crab pinches his tail–Barge
CU Tom up in pain, exits fast–Barge
Tom runs behind rock, looks at tail, it’s cut like paper dolls–Barge
Jerry runs up beach umbrella handle, steps on catch–Barge
Umbrella closes on Tom–Barge
Jerry exits Tom’s pants, runs on pan to crab, crab tries to pinch him, both run out left–Barge
Jerry pursued by crab, in cycle–Barge
Jerry holds up Tom’s trunk leg, crab runs up his trunks, snaps him four times in the rear–Barge
Tom and umbrella flie up in the air, come down on tip–Barge
CU crab opens rear of Tom’s trunks like beer can with claw, crab hops out of shot–Barge
Jerry out of basket with soda pop, runs into Tom, Tom pops off bottle cap, puts it on Jerry’s head–Ray Patterson
Jerry feels his way with cap over his eyes–Muse
Jerry trips over crab’s claw, uses it to get bottle cap off his head, crab almost snaps him, exit–Muse
Jerry runs behind picnic basket, looks screen right–Lah
Tom takes sandwich from Toodles–Muse
Jerry runs in with clam, puts it in the sandwich–Muse
CU Tom bites sandwich with clam in it, teeth break off–Muse
Tom giggles to Toodles, tries to nonchalantly swallow the sandwich with effort–Muse
CU Tom with broken teeth–Muse
Jerry runs over with bucket of sand, no suit on–Muse
Tom spoons sugar into coffee cup, truck into sugar bowl-Muse
Jerry with suit on, subs sand for sugar, puts extra shovel of sand in coffee-Muse
CU Tom drinks sandy coffee, spits it out–Muse
Jerry scoops salt water in bucket from ocean, runs on pan–Muse
Tom choking, Jerry in with bucket, Tom grabs bucket, drinks, spits it out in Toodles’s face–Muse
The Jim Tyer text illo is from LAFFY-DAFFY COMICS #1. None other than Art Spiegelman has borrowed my copy to scan for an upcoming book called “RAW: Junior”, I assume it’s a collection of comics originally aimed at children. Watch for it.
In comic strips this week we have MARVELOUS MIKE from 3/4 to 3/9/1957. Cliff has a conflict of interest as a working judge and employee of Mr. Kimball. It seems a pal of Kimball’s needs a ticket fixed, but Cliff is too ethical to do it and seems doomed to lose his position with Kimball and Co. In the meantime, Cliff narrowly manages to rescue Mike and Merrie from being run-down by Mr. Kimball’s car! In Krazy Kat this week from 7/24 to 7/29/1939, we have two days of Krazy’s grief over the lack of a “love brick” from Ignatz, the balance of the week Garge does mostly food gags, with watermelons and ice cream bricks.
Don’t forget our cels for sale on this site, www.itsthecat.com. I have had some so-so reports from customers on the viability of the www.mytoons.com site. It seems that it is quite complicated to download the “It’s ‘The Cat'” movie. I tried it, and the site requires you to 1. Register to get a user name and password. 2. Go to my window in the My Toons store and click on the “buy” or “add to my cart” link. 3. Pay the $1.99 with a credit card or Paypal link. 4. The “file” goes into a “digital safe”, which you have to re-enter your user name and password to get in to. 5. Click on the icon in your “digital safe” to download the movie file to your computer. 6. Save the file in a favorite spot on your hard-drive; I use “My Music”. 7. Open the file and choose a player. Not all of the players work, I can’t seem to play it in Winamp, but Quick Time played the movie without a hitch. Some of the customers can’t get it to play at all. I’ve taken this up with My Toons, as way too complicated for the average customer. This after all, is an impulse buy. Once the “nickel” is dropped, the customer should be able to see the cartoon IMMEDIATELY, preferably in a POP-UP WINDOW. Do any of you computer jockeys out there know if this is technically feasible? Write and let me know. I hope to hear from you.
Thad says:
I think the MGM cartoons are fascinating for how long they were held up before being run in theaters alone. I’ve seen a press book from 1945 promising “upcoming Technicolor releases” that span all over the place, from ’46 to ’47.
I’m interested in hearing more from you about “Salt Water Tabby”. For me personally, this is the one that was most useful in learning how to draw Tom and Jerry because it has plenty of close-ups and full body shots of both characters.
David Nethery says:
It seems that MyToons abruptly shut down this week.
I hope they didn’t owe you money.
“It’s the Cat” is a great modern cartoon with the heaart and soul of a classic cartoon. I hope you can find a new home online for it.
David Nethery says:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/29/not-funny-mytoons-implodes-amidst-serious-drama/
Mark says:
Hi David,
I was going to post about the demise of My Toons, but you kinda beat me to it. They sent me an e-mail claiming that they would send me a check. I wish I had known about the troubles they have been having as far back as January, when they laid off about 20 employees with two days notice! Greg Ford made an investment in the digital master he supplied to My Toons for the “It’s ‘The Cat'” downloads. I feel awful that I talked Greg into doing this, I really didn’t know the company was in trouble. There are some other sites that do paid downloads as well, but after contributing to two failed pay-to-view sites, with little to show for it, it’s time to re-think the business model. As I said in this post, the technology really has to be streamlined to make the pay-to-view system instantly rewarding for those who buy the product. Both Cartoon Brew Films and MyToons used a cumbersome system to deliver the downloads to the customers. Until it’s possible to watch a paid-for cartoon in a pop-up window instantly, the “store” concept is never going to work, practically or economically.
Thanks again, David for giving me the news and your encouraging comments.