| Mother Goose Goes Hollywood | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Wilfred Jackson |
| Produced by | Walt Disney |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Edward H. Plumb |
| Animation by |
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| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 7 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Mother Goose Goes Hollywood is a 1938Silly Symphoniesanimatedshort film produced byWalt Disney Productions and distributed byRKO Radio Pictures.[1] The short was released on December 23, 1938.[2] The film parodies severalMother Goose nursery rhymes using caricatures of popular Hollywood film stars of the 1930s. The film was directed byWilfred Jackson and was the third-to-lastSilly Symphony produced.
This short depicts a series of sketches showing popular Hollywood stars of the day acting out traditional nursery rhymes.
Old King Cole isHugh Herbert, his jester isNed Sparks and his three fiddlers areThe Marx Brothers.Joe Penner brings in a bowl containing special guestDonald Duck.
Rub-a-dub-dub is portrayed withCharles Laughton,Spencer Tracy andFreddie Bartholomew.
W. C. Fields playsHumpty Dumpty with special guestCharlie McCarthy.
Stan Laurel andOliver Hardy playSimple Simon and the pieman.
See Saw Margery Daw is performed byEdward G. Robinson andGreta Garbo on aseesaw.
Eddie Cantor isLittle Jack Horner in a big musical sequence featuringCab Calloway,Fats Waller, andStepin Fetchit. Others who appear areWallace Beery,Clark Gable,George Arliss,Martha Raye,Fred Astaire,Joe E. Brown,Edna May Oliver,Mae West andZaSu Pitts.
In a running gag,Katharine Hepburn appears at various points asLittle Bo Peep.
On July 2, 1938,Variety said: "Mother Goose Goes Hollywood. Also haywire. She thinks she is Leo the Lion and opens the picture with thatMetro college yell, three leonine rahs. So in angles Katharine Hepburn Bo Peep with a Back Bay accent. She has lost her sheep on account of she looks hungry enough to eat a flock of mutton. While she is paging her sheep, up pops Hugh Herbert who looks more like a roast beef. He is dressed up like Old King Cole and calls for fiddlers three but all he gets is the Ritz Brothers... This is a preview ofMother Goose Goes Hollywood at thePantages last night, and if you think the previewer is crazy, go and look at it yourself. A Walt Disney production for RKO-Radio release. Running time not long enough."[3]
Since the 1960s,Mother Goose Goes Hollywood has been broadcast infrequently on television, due to the stereotypical depictions of black people in some scenes. It has occasionally been seen with the African Americans edited out, but as animation critic Charles Solomon noted in his book,Enchanted Drawings: History of Animation, that the caricatures of Fats Waller and Cab Calloway do not poke fun at their race, and are spoofed like the other caricatured celebrities seen in this cartoon.[4]
The short was released on December 19, 2006 onWalt Disney Treasures: More Silly Symphonies, Volume Two.[1]
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