Hurdy Gurdy (film)

The title card of Hurdy Gurdy.

Hurdy Gurdy is a 1929[1][2] animated short film which is presented by Carl Laemmle and was produced by Walter Lantz,[1][3] who he and his wife would go on to make Woody Woodpecker.[4] The film, which is animated by R.C. Hamilton, Bill Nolan and Tom Palmer,[1] features Oswald the Lucky Rabbit,[3] who is substituted for the organ grinder's dancer,[1] after the original one is comically swallowed up by Oswald's bubblegum.[1]

The title is another name for the instrument (that instrument being a barrel organ)[1] which the street performer plays throughout the film,[1] as the informal meaning of the term 'Hurdy Gurdy' is a "barrel organ".[5]

The film is recorded on Western Electric apparatus,[1] which was an early sound-on-film recording system. This same system was also used on another Oswald short film entitled Permanent Wave,[6] which was released in the same year.[1][6]

Copyrighted on January 3, 1930,[2] but released on November 24 the year prior,[1][7] the film was released by Universal Pictures.[1][2] Thus, the film is part of the Universal series of Oswald The Lucky Rabbit films.[1][2]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lance, Walter's (February 11, 2012), Hurdy Gurdy (1929), retrieved July 10, 2018
  2. ^ a b c d Bradley, Edwin M. (April 27, 2009). The First Hollywood Sound Shorts, 1926–1931. McFarland. ISBN 9781476606842.
  3. ^ a b "Hurdy-gurdy (1930)". BFI. Retrieved July 10, 2018.[dead link]
  4. ^ FOLKART, BURT A. (March 19, 1992). "Gracie Lantz Dies; Invented Woody Woodpecker". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
  5. ^ "hurdy-gurdy | Definition of hurdy-gurdy in English by Oxford Dictionaries". Oxford Dictionaries | English. Archived from the original on July 10, 2018. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
  6. ^ a b Rockin Ed (December 28, 2009), Permanent Wave [1929] Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, retrieved July 10, 2018
  7. ^ Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1929). Motion Picture News. 1929.