Anyone know what the title of the piece of music you often hear in old cartoons from the '30s, '40s, and '50s when a piece of complicated (and often absurd) machinery is working (usually after one of the protaganists has fallen into it and comes out the other end looking like tin cans or other manufactured goods)?
I recall it being used in an old cartoon (Warner Bros, maybe?) in which it showed how bowling pins were made- by taking an entire log, lathing it down, and having robot hands paint the stripes on it (obviously that’s not how they really do it, of course!).
It’s been bothering me for years- anyone know the music I’m talking about?
Here’s a collection, and it looks like there is a sequel album. Maybe one of these clips sounds familiar?? And:
“Using Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody, a construction crew builds a skyscraper. Freleng often used a classical/musical background to orchestrate an action piece, seen below in several cartoons.”
It looks like the Hungarian Rhapsody was used a lot; of course I don’t know what that sounds like!
That wasn’t an old Warner Bros. cartoon- that was a Simpsons gag which was sort of a tribute, although it did use Powerhouse as the musical accompaniment.
The cartoon you mention is Friz Freling’s Rhapsody in Rivets. Freling used it a lot, most memorably in 1946’s Rhapsody Rabbit (which lost the Oscar to another cartoon with a similar plot, MGM’s The Cat Concerto starring Tom and Jerry). And of course, who can forget the duel-et between the two famous ducks- Donald and Daffy- playing this song in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
In fact, it sounds EXACTLY like that. (Heck, the first YouTube comment when I viewed that page was “It sounds like Popeye the Sailor Man”.)
So, that little ditty is called “Sailor’s Hornpipe”, then? I hope I can still remember that a year from now, when I wanna know what that tune is called again.