Jim Crows or Jive Turkeys?

Cher said recently that when she saw the film DUMBO (1941) as a kid - and saw those singing birds, she thought to herself "I can do that" - and set her course for show biz.

The crow leader is named Jim Crow.




Jim Crow: [singing] I seen a peanut stand /And heard a rubber band /I've seen a needle that winked its eye / But I been done seen about everything / When I see an elephant fly.



Despite their jazzy pimptastic personalities and jive-talking - the crows are heroic in the film.

One blogger writes: Come on, blackbirds acting in a manner stereotypically assigned to African-Americans isn't that offensive. At least they didn't just get some white guy to do his best "black voice." Oh, really? They did?

Yes - caucasian Cliff Edwards (best known as the voice of Jiminy Cricket) voiced "Jim Crow".

Still nowhere as bad as Sunflower the pickaninny centaur in Fantasia (1940) who was edited out of the film by 1969.



Sunflower is a big Whoopsie Daisy! element- or should I say "Whoopsie Disney!"

Lili Puppets

Hi Lili Hi Lili Hi Lo

Leslie Caron was such a charmer in this small film that did BIG business for MGM. Leslie Caron also shows her leggy sexy side in a great fantasy scene dance-off with Zsa Zsa Gabor.

But back to the puppets -- this integral scene has orphan Lili jobless and broken hearted and contemplating ending it all. (How does one throw themselves from atop a matte painting of a carnival high ladder?).

Just then, a clever puppeteer who has a crush on sweet Lili gets her to rejoin life and participate in a dialogue with his puppets - and bam! a new star act is born.



This sequence also made little John Waters take notice in Baltimore - and he soon made a tidy sum giving puppet shows to the neighborhood kids. It was John's first creative outlet - well, after playing "car crash" with his toy cars - and before his Grandmother gave him a movie camera as a gift.

Stick around for the second clip - and see the puppets - alive & well after the 1970 MGM auction (they went for $ 15 a piece!!).