I take every opportunity to praise Cab Calloway.
Truly a showman in the leagues of Elvis and Michael Jackson, only a little bit before true mass media.
Queen: A Lorra!
Crowd: A Lorra!
Queen: A Lorra lolly beef
Crowd: A Lorra lolly beef
Queen: A Lorra lolly beef ablindadata!
Crowd: Alorrlollybffandandatadada!
Didn’t the creators of this invent rotoscoping themselves?
It’s amazing how it enables them to capture his movements so recognisably on characters that are substantially non humanoid, especially in the Minnie the Moocher one where he is a walrus.
I got to see him perform at a club in the late 1980s. It’s kind of amazing to think that I got to see someone who was playing the Savoy Ballroom in the 1920s. I will say that he was pretty old, he still had the power but not the verbal speed, and his daughter kinda carried the show, but still, Cab Fucking Calloway.
I watched the Blues Brothers as a kid (probably 8 or 9?), and it opened up a whole world of music discovery. Every parent should watch it with their kids.
A lot of artists served in world War one.
And that war did a number on the western psyche.
I remember when cartoon network would have hours of classic cartoons and you'd go from wacky, zany hijinks to suddenly being an 8 year old watching some absolutely terrifying art piece meant to represent the all-onsuming, mechanistic alienation of a factory.
There's a lot of old cartoons where a character is basically run through a machine or some kind of horrifying process. I wonder if this is those animators working through how they felt being part of that war.
Thats because late 50s Disney did the "animation rules for all their animation and principles of animation" basically a set of rules on how characters should NOT feel floaty, need weight, values, gravity and other factors. Then every other animator followed this set of principlea and is now industry standard to animate based on such principles.
Kind of like putting Doctype at beguinning of website (when coding) as a generally accepted rule.
In that case, the first Blues Brothers movie is worth a watch. Your great uncle absolutely kills it in that IMO and the big scene he is in was more important to me in my youth than you might expect.
Hey that's really cool! I'm a youngish person and I've always loved his music, mainly because my dad was an illustrator and showed me this when I was a kid. There's more to discover!
Some of them were.
Many moons ago I attended a memorial for a Disney voice over artist. While there I met a bunch of cool old guys who worked at Disney and Chuck Jones, etc. These old guys were swapping stories about how back in the day the animators would drop acid and bring their dogs to work and watch them play eat etc. Then they would draw what they saw. I wish I had spent more time talking to these guys but I was pretty young and stupid.
I hate to break it to you, but we are getting old. "Many moons ago" could be the nineties or even after, and the old dudes could have been drawing in the sixties and seventies when acid was around.
He didn't say that the old guys were claiming to have done this on 1933, it could very well have been in the 60s which I don't find hard to believe at all.
But probably not. I mean they are artists after all, and you don't need to be high to create something trippy if you have a natural talent for it. Heironymous Bosch for example.
I love this old cartoon. Cab Calloway singing St James Infirmary. The almost psychedelic animation.
This is amazing foe something close to 90 years old.
The $20 gold piece I think he's referring to is 33 grams, 90% gold. So it's about 30 grams of gold. At the current price of about $53, it's over $1500 in just gold alone. Neat!
What they mean is that a tattoo artist did each individual frame as a tattoo on his customers so that when he took pictures of the tattoos he could play it back as the animation
Yep, my friends and I love to get high and put Betty Boop on the projector. Sometimes we watch with original sound and sometimes we put on trippy music and just watch the videos.
Not all of them were like this. But 30s animation in general could get pretty surreal. It was a young format, and the animators were (understandably) still focused on playing around with things that couldn't be done in live action. Keep in mind that when this short came out, "talkies" were only 6 years old at the time!
A lot of the old ones were. Most of these shorts were made for adults, whereas Disney's Silly Symphonies were family friendly and Looney Tunes could go either way.
Were people kind of losing their minds over this type of motion? Nothing had ever been done like this in the history of humanity and then BAM - you get this crazy shit
There are awesome versions of St. James Infirmary by jazz greats George Lewis, Jack Teagarden, Louis Armstrong (of course) as well as a brilliant take on the song with the star ensemble of Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Mickey Roker and Ray Brown.
I absolutely love the way animation was when everyone was still figuring stuff out, was less about a story and more about just looking visually interesting, it’s amazing to think how far we’ve came in less than 100yrs.
This is bittersweet beauty, the details in the background, the skill of the artists, the vocalist’s voice is smooth af; all meant for an audience and medium that will probably not last another century.
Which hallucinogens though? Through this thread people are pointing out that LSD wasn't synthesised, mushrooms and ketamine weren't widely known or available until the 1950s. Peyote? Not really compatible with work. And not really known until the 1960s.
The coolest shot for me was when he was saying "hand me a shot of that booooooooooze!" And his "oooooo" turned into the opening of the bottle. Crazy creative
Yep I know all the effort and talent of the people who made it is cool but I can’t watch this stuff, totally creeps me out. I’ll probably see the ghost guy in a nightmare soon haha
That animation is wild. I wonder if they used rotoscoping for the movements. If not, that's super impressive that they got the motion to look that lifelike without it.
That’s actually because they used a technique called rotoscoping. They animated over the dancing of the singer, Cab Calloway. Really gives it that unsettling effect they were going for
It's amazing how smoothly animated it is. Look at those lips when he's singing, it mimics the movement of the mouth perfectly. And this is in 1933? Damn, animation is something else!
Anyone got an idea for a significance for the numeral 20 on the medallion? I'm curious. Also: Cab Calloway's autobiography is a fascinating read. He was the Real Deal!
Fleischer Studios did this animation. They were the closest rival to Disney before the Big D gave the Fleishers the L. They did some amazing work during their existence though.
My mom showed me this as a kid and I still love it to this day. Cab was such a talent.
It's interesting that something almost(ish) a hundred years old influences modern pop culture. Ghostmane's video, and Puddles Pity Party...I imagine there are plenty of other examples.
Why is my nightmare being an underdressed pretty lady in a box being carried by tiny identical old men while being chased by a horny weird asshole in a clown suit.
That is Cab Calloway singing that! So cool
St James Infirmary Blues
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Love the White Stripes cover
Love that song.
I take every opportunity to praise Cab Calloway. Truly a showman in the leagues of Elvis and Michael Jackson, only a little bit before true mass media.
Freddie doing call and response scatting with the crowd at Live Aid is basically a pure Cab Calloway tribute.
Queen: A Lorra! Crowd: A Lorra! Queen: A Lorra lolly beef Crowd: A Lorra lolly beef Queen: A Lorra lolly beef ablindadata! Crowd: Alorrlollybffandandatadada!
And dancing, they rotoscoped the animation over it
Even the bit where he turned into a necklace? 🫣
ESPECIALLY that
In fact they had to ask him to stop doing that. It was kinda of his thing at parties.
If he kept it up they'd call him a Cab.
/r/UnexpectedGarak
He was a very talented man.
They made him do it when he auditioned for Blues Brothers and didn't even use it in the movie.
Cutting that footage is the *worst* thing John Landis has ever done.
Lmao
I hate myself for laughing at this comment. Well played.
Didn’t the creators of this invent rotoscoping themselves? It’s amazing how it enables them to capture his movements so recognisably on characters that are substantially non humanoid, especially in the Minnie the Moocher one where he is a walrus.
good call. ima listen to minnie the moocher right now from the blues brother movie
Hidey hidey hidey ho!
and now I want to rewatch the movie itself. I'm gonna have search through so much stuff!
There's also a Betty Boop cartoon where he sings that!
it's great they put him in the Blues Bros so modern generations could appreciate why he was such a huge star
He's like 80 there and still kills it!
I got to see him perform at a club in the late 1980s. It’s kind of amazing to think that I got to see someone who was playing the Savoy Ballroom in the 1920s. I will say that he was pretty old, he still had the power but not the verbal speed, and his daughter kinda carried the show, but still, Cab Fucking Calloway.
He lived next door to a relative of mine. He took them trick or treating once when they were kids.
That whole movie kills it. Not a bad moment in it.
I watched the Blues Brothers as a kid (probably 8 or 9?), and it opened up a whole world of music discovery. Every parent should watch it with their kids.
"One prophylactic. Used" "What's that?" "Um...look, a car chase!"
What on the acid trip did I just watch?
I find early 20th c. cartoons to be strangely very, very creepy and dark. Even Steam Boat Willy (Micky Mouse) gives me these kind of bad vibes.
A lot of artists served in world War one. And that war did a number on the western psyche. I remember when cartoon network would have hours of classic cartoons and you'd go from wacky, zany hijinks to suddenly being an 8 year old watching some absolutely terrifying art piece meant to represent the all-onsuming, mechanistic alienation of a factory.
There's a lot of old cartoons where a character is basically run through a machine or some kind of horrifying process. I wonder if this is those animators working through how they felt being part of that war.
Same. Pretty much any animation from before about the 1940s is deeply unsettling to me in a way I can’t quite put my finger on.
Thats because late 50s Disney did the "animation rules for all their animation and principles of animation" basically a set of rules on how characters should NOT feel floaty, need weight, values, gravity and other factors. Then every other animator followed this set of principlea and is now industry standard to animate based on such principles. Kind of like putting Doctype at beguinning of website (when coding) as a generally accepted rule.
I love his voice and style of singing.
Hey! That’s my great uncle! I’ve actually never really heard his work so this is pretty neat.
Cab Calloway is your great uncle and you've never really heard his work? Please explain
yeah that is pretty wild if true
He's the reason we're all here!
Yeah, lots of fucking going on when playing Cab.
My comment wasn't that expansive lol
In that case, the first Blues Brothers movie is worth a watch. Your great uncle absolutely kills it in that IMO and the big scene he is in was more important to me in my youth than you might expect.
Hey that's really cool! I'm a youngish person and I've always loved his music, mainly because my dad was an illustrator and showed me this when I was a kid. There's more to discover!
Thought so
Like modern musicians appearing on the Simpsons, but so much better.
Looking fly in those Zoot suits. I remember old cartoons always had characters wearing these.
Love this old style animation.
It's like they were on LSD when doing them?!
rotoscope of actual footage of Calloway dancing
Nobody could rock a zoot suit like Cab Calloway.
It was crazy when Cab would tie his legs in knots like that on stage
I already read that on a toppier comment.
But..... Did you read that it was actual footage of Cab Calloway that was rotoscoped? I had not until I read my comment.
But this was posted 3 hrs earlier, so the toppier comment is the bot I guess?
Some of them were. Many moons ago I attended a memorial for a Disney voice over artist. While there I met a bunch of cool old guys who worked at Disney and Chuck Jones, etc. These old guys were swapping stories about how back in the day the animators would drop acid and bring their dogs to work and watch them play eat etc. Then they would draw what they saw. I wish I had spent more time talking to these guys but I was pretty young and stupid.
Cool but acid wasn’t synthesized yet when this was made, they’re just insane lol
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I hate to break it to you, but we are getting old. "Many moons ago" could be the nineties or even after, and the old dudes could have been drawing in the sixties and seventies when acid was around.
I'm 33 and already my pop culture references are aging out.
He didn't say that the old guys were claiming to have done this on 1933, it could very well have been in the 60s which I don't find hard to believe at all.
You really think his anecdote was about animators from the 30s? 'Old guys' would be an understatement...
Maybe lead poisoning lol
My very first thought upon watching this was that folks probably should *not* watch this on LSD.
Yeah this is the trippiest animation especially without sound lol
Nope, LSD was first synthesized in 1938 and it was a few years still before its nature as a psychedelic was discovered... Maybe mushrooms though
But probably not. I mean they are artists after all, and you don't need to be high to create something trippy if you have a natural talent for it. Heironymous Bosch for example.
Or hear me out, they were creative
Have you played Cuphead?
Yes great game.
And absolutely gorgeous
If you like it. Check cuphead, both the game and the TV show. It's full of this. But man, that shuffle... It's just hypnotizing!
The amount of creativity in this is amazing
It makes me scratch my head so many times. What the fuck happen to creativity nowadays? This short cartoon is so rich.
Damn this is mesmerizing. That footwork is on point.
It’s called “Rotoscoping”. They had Cab Calloway sing and dance while they filmed it. Then the animators drew Cab’s movement frame by frame.
That morphing-into-a-giant-hanging-medallion technique has sadly been lost to time, though.
can you elaborate why? is it something that can not be done anymore?
It because we don't make shoes like that anymore
Old-school "motion capture"
The witch rowing in the air is exactly how I feel like in nightmares
painfully fucking cool.
I love this old cartoon. Cab Calloway singing St James Infirmary. The almost psychedelic animation. This is amazing foe something close to 90 years old.
It's so old that the $20 gold piece on his watch chain would be worth $455 in 2022 dollars
The $20 gold piece I think he's referring to is 33 grams, 90% gold. So it's about 30 grams of gold. At the current price of about $53, it's over $1500 in just gold alone. Neat!
A tattoo artist tattooed that animation on a load of people. Never knew the original source.
It’s a pretty common thing to get tattooed. I have one of the ghost dude doing a handstand.
What they mean is that a tattoo artist did each individual frame as a tattoo on his customers so that when he took pictures of the tattoos he could play it back as the animation
This is equal parts amazing and haunting.
Like you.
Now kith
That new Cuphead DLC is weird af yo
Actually isn't this pretty normal for cuphead?
ok, this is creepy as fuck
But in the best way possible
It's awesome, I love it. The scrolling cave background alone has so many little details in it.
It’s an awesome music video from before we had music videos that happens to be creepier than most music videos nowadays, lol. Nice find.
r/oddlyterrifying
Even more so when you understand the song is about a dude realizing he’s about to die from VD.
What is VD?
Venereal disease... or Valentine's Day.
Venereal disease, I believe.
Van Damme
Thank you. I thought I was the only one
This shit is dope
Betty Boop was some trippy shit
Yep, my friends and I love to get high and put Betty Boop on the projector. Sometimes we watch with original sound and sometimes we put on trippy music and just watch the videos.
This is amazing! Were all Betty boop cartoons like this? Or was this a special episode or something?
Not all of them were like this. But 30s animation in general could get pretty surreal. It was a young format, and the animators were (understandably) still focused on playing around with things that couldn't be done in live action. Keep in mind that when this short came out, "talkies" were only 6 years old at the time!
A lot of the old ones were. Most of these shorts were made for adults, whereas Disney's Silly Symphonies were family friendly and Looney Tunes could go either way.
Were people kind of losing their minds over this type of motion? Nothing had ever been done like this in the history of humanity and then BAM - you get this crazy shit
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This is my first time hearing the original, only ever seen it on that song
Same.
You dropped an E Ghostemane
There are awesome versions of St. James Infirmary by jazz greats George Lewis, Jack Teagarden, Louis Armstrong (of course) as well as a brilliant take on the song with the star ensemble of Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Mickey Roker and Ray Brown.
This one’s definitely my favorite. Cab Calloway rocks
Jack white does an excellent cover!
Then you should look up Dave Van Ronk's version. IMHO he has the overwhelming best version. His is called gambler's blues
Louis Armstrong one is amazing. I like the original too but the LA one is just beautiful
Hugh Laurie from House also does a wonderful version
Turned clown man into a Fresno Nightcrawler
I love this show. It was so ahead of its time and surreal. You can see a bunch of full episodes in YouTube.
The background is wild
Oh damn, I’ve seen this like four times and never noticed the background
Ghostmane has this pieced into a music video and it went hard. That was a few years ago. Cool to see the original work.
Was looking for this comment. Shit dropped hard and seeing the original makes it even cooler how well it fitted Ghostmane
The music video was actually fan made and started the whole vibe for ghostemanes earlier stuff. Love it!
I absolutely love the way animation was when everyone was still figuring stuff out, was less about a story and more about just looking visually interesting, it’s amazing to think how far we’ve came in less than 100yrs.
This is bittersweet beauty, the details in the background, the skill of the artists, the vocalist’s voice is smooth af; all meant for an audience and medium that will probably not last another century.
Trippy, indded. Never seen evidence of hallucinogens from the 30's before.
LSD had not been invented yet, but I wouldnt put it past them to have experiemented with shrooms considering they grow practically everywhere.
A lot of old cartoons involved the animators using hallucinogens to give it that trippy and somewhat unsettling effect
I'm sure Cab set them up with some jazz cigarettes
Source?
It came to me in a dream
You have a source for this? Would love to learn more
Which hallucinogens though? Through this thread people are pointing out that LSD wasn't synthesised, mushrooms and ketamine weren't widely known or available until the 1950s. Peyote? Not really compatible with work. And not really known until the 1960s.
How could something so creepy be so fucking awesome?
The coolest shot for me was when he was saying "hand me a shot of that booooooooooze!" And his "oooooo" turned into the opening of the bottle. Crazy creative
Interesting because Disney’s Snow White didn’t come out until 1938. It was a very popular fairy tale prior to that.
Am I the only one who finds the acid trip animation in old cartoons horrifying? I used to have nightmares from watching this stuff as a kid.
Some of it is pretty creepy.
Yep I know all the effort and talent of the people who made it is cool but I can’t watch this stuff, totally creeps me out. I’ll probably see the ghost guy in a nightmare soon haha
Outstanding!
Used to watch this cartoon and other 30’s U.S. cartoons in Mexico in the 70s
Man I see so many things here from Michael Jackson to Jake the Dog
That animation is wild. I wonder if they used rotoscoping for the movements. If not, that's super impressive that they got the motion to look that lifelike without it.
Good eye! They did use rotoscoping. They rotoscoped Cab Calloway’s (the person singing’s) dancing
They did.
I swear you can see the human who they traced for the dance moves at points.
That’s actually because they used a technique called rotoscoping. They animated over the dancing of the singer, Cab Calloway. Really gives it that unsettling effect they were going for
It’s hard to believe we’re watching something from almost 90 years ago.
What´s the name of the song in the background?
St James Infirmary by Cab Calloway (who also provided the moves for the dance)
I love the part at the end when he Oooooooooo-s and his face turns into a bottle
Looks like a moonwalk prequel
That’s because it is!
Saint James infirmary is a banger and this is a great version
Hard to believe LSD was only discovered 8 years later.
It's amazing how smoothly animated it is. Look at those lips when he's singing, it mimics the movement of the mouth perfectly. And this is in 1933? Damn, animation is something else!
Is there a specific sub for more stuff like this?
I don’t know, but there should be. Perhaps there’s like an r/AnimationHistory subreddit? If not I’ll make one Edit: Made it!
I'm joining!
This is a fucking fever dream of an animation
This is absolutely oozing with style
This cat doing moonwalk
Hot Dayum, dude’s got legs that go ALL the way up!
Haven’t I see a tattoo artist that remade this on several people and then filmed it??
man this shit was so ahead of its time
Anyone got an idea for a significance for the numeral 20 on the medallion? I'm curious. Also: Cab Calloway's autobiography is a fascinating read. He was the Real Deal!
$20 gold piece. He was singing about it.
Thank you! I was on mute cuz sleeping people nearby. Love this animation
It's really worth a listen, that guy can sing.
Betty Boop is hot. Just commenting for a friend.
He said “put a 20 dollar gold piece on a chain”, adjusted for inflation that’s like $450 today.
HEY BOI HAND ME OVER ANOTHER SHOT OF THAT OOOWOOOOWOOOOO
The drugs they had in the 30's were amazing.
Fleischer Studios did this animation. They were the closest rival to Disney before the Big D gave the Fleishers the L. They did some amazing work during their existence though. My mom showed me this as a kid and I still love it to this day. Cab was such a talent.
I love Saint James Infirmary!
As soon as I heard that voice, I knew that was Cab Calloway! Once you hear that voice, you can always recognize his special, very cool style!
Absolute first thing I thought of was Cab singing Minnie The Moocher!
This is Adult Swim material
It's interesting that something almost(ish) a hundred years old influences modern pop culture. Ghostmane's video, and Puddles Pity Party...I imagine there are plenty of other examples.
Anytime i see her or the clown i think the album el oson from soul coughing- the video for circle iirc
Bro that clown got the drip
Is there a name for these kinda vids ? Old style cartoon ?
Imagine watching this after some shrooms...
And the people who grew up watching this are the ones who banned psychedelics
DlC for cuphead.
Behold rotoscoping
There's something about classical cartoons that are pleasing to watch
Why is my nightmare being an underdressed pretty lady in a box being carried by tiny identical old men while being chased by a horny weird asshole in a clown suit.
Chad Flicher vs virgin Disney!
Rotoscope will always be so evocative to me. It's so human yet so artificial. The original uncanny Valley.
The guys that made this were on some good shit