Bars and Stripes Forever (1939)

[Timber Wolf]

I have seen this 1939 Merrie Melodie. When I saw it, it had the WB shield removed!!! :eek: :eek: :eek: Does this cartoon exist with the shield zoom or is the full opening sequence lost?

[RetroMan]

Just a note... isn't it Stars and Stripes Forever??

[babybuggybunny]

He ment to the merrie melodies cartoon called that name
and I got this cartoon with the zooming shield
but the problem is that it is in hebrew dubbing

[Daff Doc]

Just a note... isn't it Stars and Stripes Forever??

:foggy: That's the joke son! Went clean right over your head! Sit down son. I keep a'pitchin' and you keep a'missin'! Look at me when I'm skawkin' at you boy. That's the gag son!

[RetroMan]

Whoops! sorry about the nitpick... i thought the cartoon had "stars" in the title as well... my apologies sir.
(Haven't seen the cartoon)

[The G Man]

Where'd you see it? A public domain tape?

[cbrubaker]

It's common for WB cartoons to have its shields removed in PD tapes. I used to have a Bugs Bunny video from Good Times and they removed the shield in a lot of cartoons.

Not only that, they split "A Corny Concerto" into two, one for "A Tale of the Vienna Woods" and other for "Blue Danube".

[J Lee]

"Bars and Stripes Forever" was one of three WB cartoons in the original AAP package that had their opening titles hacked off -- "Hamateur Night" and "Conrad the Sailor" were the others. "Bars" and "Hamatuer" had their titles restored on prints struck sometime in the 1970s, though in the case of the former, it still had the 1941 WB opening music at the start of the titles for the AAP opening, which changed back to the correct 1939 Stalling score at the point where the cut was in the original AAP print.

When the Turner folks went back in and struck another print for their dubbed versions in 1995, "Bars and Stripes Forever" was finally given its correct opening, and "Conrad the Sailor" also got its opening title back.

There was also a cut of the opening title in the Blue Ribbon print of "The Bear's Tail", but strangely, that one didn't appear until the Turner people struck their prints for the 1985 video transfers, which replaced the 16 mm prints sent out to TV stations in the syndication package. The original AAP print of that cartoon had the full BR opening title.

(As to why they did it on three cartoons, and no others, someone with AAP may have mistakenly thought the Warner's syndication deal was the same as the one the company struck with Paramount for the Popeye series, in that all traces of the studio logo had to be removed. But Paramount sold their cartoons at the same time they decided to discontinue the Popeye theatricals, and was one of the last studios to get into TV production. When Warners sold their pre-48 shorts, they were in the process of becoming the first big studio to jump into TV production, while at the same time were continuing to make cartoons for theatrical release. So WB had no reason to want their name removed from the cartoons or feature films, and in the end, they weren't.)

[oldgreypole]

What about the 1934 cartoon, "Pop Goes Your Heart"? When TNT showed this cartoon, the film went directly from the "a.a.p." lettering to the "Merrie Melodies" lettering, skipping the Warners and Vitaphone Presents and date title card. In the "Golden Age of Looney Tunes" laser disc collection, the cartoon seemed to have had this title card restored.

[frizfrelengfan]

Did the original TV package remove the WB shield from "Porky in Wackyland"? That would have been a trick, since the shield plays an important part in a scene in the middle of the cartoon.

[Leviathan]

Did the original TV package remove the WB shield from "Porky in Wackyland"? That would have been a trick, since the shield plays an important part in a scene in the middle of the cartoon.


"Wackyland" was distributed by Guild Films (not a.a.p.), and Yes, The WB Shield was removed from the Cartoon (I'm assuming that Guild prepped their package of WB shorts sometime around 1954/1955, when Warner's policy about it's logo on Television was indeed similar to Paramount's

[J Lee]

What about the 1934 cartoon, "Pop Goes Your Heart"? When TNT showed this cartoon, the film went directly from the "a.a.p." lettering to the "Merrie Melodies" lettering, skipping the Warners and Vitaphone Presents and date title card. In the "Golden Age of Looney Tunes" laser disc collection, the cartoon seemed to have had this title card restored.

The original AAP print to that cartoon had the Warner/Vitaphone opening.

[mmtper]

Did the original TV package remove the WB shield from "Porky in Wackyland"? That would have been a trick, since the shield plays an important part in a scene in the middle of the cartoon.

When I first saw this cartoon years ago (it may have been one of the cheap-o colorized versions) they simply spliced the WB shield out from the middle of the cartoon, leaving an awkward, unexplained jump in the action. Terrible! But maybe they thought it wouldn't matter because, hey, "it can happen here!"