Does anyone know the origin of this quote, the words “d-o-n-'t y-o-u b-e-l-i-e-v-e i-t” in a deep booming voice. Used in a few cartoons:
Mouse Trouble(1944)
Big Top Bunny (1951)
The Missing Mouse (1953)
I get the impression that it’s a reference to some movie or radio show that would be familiar to audiences in the forties and fifties. Anyone know what it is?
Probably from :
but I cannot find a sound sample.
There was a series of popular radio shorts before the newsreel.
I don’t follow what you mean. What was this series of radio shorts?
It was just like the newsreels, only made for radio. They ran on CBS - “The Columbia Broadcasting System.” I probably still have them around somewhere in .mp3 format - at least I did c. 2000.
Passing Parade had different themes from year to year – Don’t You Believe It was similar to NBC’s long-running Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! series.
So you actually have the recordings? And it contains that soundbyte?
I’d be interested to hear some of those.
I’ll see if I can dig 'em up - I have a ridiculous amount of OTR on cd-r, but it’s not obsessively catalogued or organized - just boxes of discs.
‘Don’t you believe it!’ was a radio program back in the mid to late forties. This program was run by Toby Reed. I listened to a program of it… In the beginning of the show they list off a number of trivia type things, and say if you believe so and so … Don’t you believe it! then goes on to explain what really happened in a kind of documentary style.
I myself was quite curious, knowing that Tom and Jerry and other cartoons were made during world War II at first I thought it might have been a reference to Winston Churchill telling the British not to fear and ‘don’t you believe it’ for the propaganda being sent by the German’s of that time.
So look it up , could be fun - the radio show was called ‘Don’t you believe it’ I have seen reference to programs in 1946 and 1947
On a side note their chef sponsor seems to have been Almond Roca , a confection made by Brown & Haley , actually looked this up and they are still around today , the company originated in 1912.
I love these left-field zombie answers…welcome crpetersen and please stick around!
Random episode recap from the show: