1936(?) - 1941 WB Shorts Question

[Marty26]

I've noticed that in a lot of WB shorts from around 1936 through 1941, the people wear patched/worn-out clothes, live in very rundown houses (or reside in rundown buildings such as the theater Porky shows his film at in Porky's Preview) with things like cracked walls, etc. I'm guessing this is probably a reflection of living conditions for the common man at the time (either to comfort or make fun of him/her). But are there any other underlying factors?

[Geezil]

I've noticed that in a lot of WB shorts from around 1936 through 1941, the people wear patched/worn-out clothes, live in very rundown houses (or reside in rundown buildings such as the theater Porky shows his film at in Porky's Preview) with things like cracked walls, etc. I'm guessing this is probably a reflection of living conditions for the common man at the time (either to comfort or make fun of him/her). But are there any other underlying factors?

Possibly also, sometimes, a sugar-coated wake-up call for more social consciousness by the haves toward the have-nots. (And that might not be such a huge stretch these days, either.)

[JDWeil]

The 1930's were Depression years so it was not uncommon for people to be dressed like that. The cartoons merely reflected that fact.

[Larry T]

Not only that, take a look at many of the Our Gang comedies from the 30s and see the living conditions and environments those kids lived in. Many of them wore rags, their parents were dressed very modestly, and their homes were shabby to say the least. Quite often those stories placed the kids in boarding and foster homes, reflecting the state of society at the time. Whenever there's a well-off child cast opposite the kids, the difference in social status is glaring.

[J Lee]

Add to that the buildings on Sunset Boulevard that the Schlesinger studio was housed in didn't exactly live up to the image of "glamorous Hollywood" that even staff members might have suspected before they hired on with Leon, along with the Disney-inspired pathos type of cartoon that even the Fleischers employed in some of their Color Classics, and the poverty settings of the cartoons come across as natural for the times.

[JDWeil]

Add to that the buildings on Sunset Boulevard that the Schlesinger studio was housed in didn't exactly live up to the image of "glamorous Hollywood" that even staff members might have suspected before they hired on with Leon, along with the Disney-inspired pathos type of cartoon that even the Fleischers employed in some of their Color Classics, and the poverty settings of the cartoons come across as natural for the times.



Friz Freleng brought out that fact in A Star Is Hatched with tour bus sequence.