Presumably, some Warner Brothers fan remembers this one- it had that loud, obnoxious Little Red Riding Hood (“HEY GRANDMA! I GOT A LITTLE BUNNY RABBIT FOR YA- TO HAVE!”).
What I’ve never known is, was her character supposed to be a parody of some 1940s female celebrity I’m not familiar with, or did Friz Freleng & Co. just make up a goofy, loud-mouthed character on their own?
Please advise.
I’ve often wondered the same thing. My mother, who was a bobby-soxer herself, once told me the character reminded her of Betty Hutton.
Well, my ‘Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros Cartoons’ lists her just as a teenage bobby-soxer.
Heh, watching a Betty Hutton movie on TCM right now. I can see the resemblance. 
Gulo beat me to it. Ah, well.
I’ll use this space to plug a couple websites which a very helpful for this type of question, not to mention fun to read.
The Warner Bros. Cartoon Companion
http://members.aol.com/EOCostello/index.html
and
Ah haaaa!! Did ya’ ever notice…?: Hidden Gags in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Cartoons
http://gregbrian.tripod.com/hidden/hidindx.html
Good day, y’all.
-Myron
Thanks for those links!
What was the song that Red Riding Hood kept da-da-da’ing in that cartoon?
A search of Google groups turned up guesses that it was Martha Raye, Jane Withers (Josephine the plumber) or
I haven’t seen that movie recently , so I can’t tell how good this guess is.
I’m not convinced it’s Raye, but I don’t have any better ideas.
From an older thread, the song is Glenn Miller’s “Five O’Clock Whistle.”
“Hey, GRANDMA! I brought ya a RABBIT! Ta HAVE!”
Still makes me dissolve into helpless laughter.
It’s “I got a little bunny-rabbit which I’m taking to my grammaw’s, to have, see?”, and it cracks me up every time, too.
The song she sings goes: “The five-o’clock whistle’s on the blink / The whistle won’t blow, so whaddya think / My papa’s still in the factory / 'cuz he don’t know what tiiiiiiiiiiime/ it happens to be.”
One of my favourite cartoons ever. IMHO, she does resemble Martha Raye, as she appeared in Hellzapoppin, the broadway play and later movie which is the live-action source for scores of WB cartoon sight-gags and in-jokes.
“Mrs. Jones?! Mrs. Jones!”
.WAV clips from the cartoon:
This cartoon cracks me up. It’s a classic, with so many great lines that have found their way into my conversation. I mean, what better way to show someone you’re not paying attention to them anymore by muttering, “Yeah yeah yeah, big eyes, big eyes…”
I’ve been telling Sakura about this cartoon for years, and she’s never been able to see it. Are there any videos that anyone knows of on which it appears? Or where I could do a search for it? I’d love to have it in my collection.
Thanks, rowrrbazzle!
Amazon lists Bugs & Daffy: The Wartime Cartoons and The Very Best of Bugs. A google search turned up Bugs Bunny Cartoon Festival featuring “Little Red Riding Rabbit” & The Golden Age of Looney Toons Vol 6: Friz Freleng A Wartime Cartoons tape is currently listed on eBay and so is a collection containing The Very Best of Bugs
I had forgotten how funny this cartoon really is until I listened to clips linked to above.
By the way, Little Red Riding Hood here was voiced by Bea Benaderet. She is familiar as the voice of the WB Witch Hazel and Tweety’s Granny, but she is probably best known as Betty Rubble.
Duh! What am I saying? She is best known as Kate Bradley of Petticoat Junction and Cousin Pearl on The Beverly Hillbillies.
June Foray did Witch Hazel and Granny, TGWATY, as well as Rocky the Flying Squirrel and Nell Fenwick.
Bea Benaderet did other women’s voices in the WB cartoons, as well, including the woman who owns Sylvester in his debut cartoon.
I’ll concede that Bea Benaderet may have performed those voices on a couple of occasions, but June Foray’s association with them has more juice, IMHO.
I should note also (because it’s what I do) that June Foray also did the voice for another character named Witch Hazel in a Disney cartoon. See the comments for the 1952 short “Trick or Treat”.