Bobby Bumps Gets a Substitute
About Bobby Bumps Gets a Substitute
Bobby is stuck at piano practice and wants to catch "the feller what invented music lessons." When Pa calls "Robert!", Bobby asks Fido to entertain him and puts the dog at the keyboard. Pa hears the pounding and decides the boy is improving, then that he will be a Paderewski. A warning title, "Hey, yer Dad's wise!", comes too late. The spanking starts. The last joke card is "His Master's Voice," with the dog still howling.
Cast & crew
More about Bobby Bumps Gets a Substitute
Earl Hurd made it for Bray. The Bray Animation Project dates the release 30 March 1916, early in his first year at the studio. The on-screen patent line names Bray Studios Inc. and Earl Hurd, with dates in August, November, and December 1914.
Themes
In film history
The Bobby Bumps cartoons are the first series produced on cels. Before that, a new drawing of the whole scene was made for every frame.
Making
Drawing Bobby on a clear sheet meant the piano and the parlor did not have to be redrawn for each frame. That split, characters on cels and a held background, is the process named on the title card.
Preservation
The short survives. Wikisource reproduces the title cards, including the Paderewski line and the Victor joke.
Notes
- Wikipedia calls Bobby Bumps and His Pointer Pup the first Bobby cartoon made at Bray. This piano short is the next title on that 1916 list.
- Pa's praise names Paderewski: "That boy'll be a Paderewski yet! Listen to those runs!
- His Master's Voice" quotes the Victor trademark, aimed at Fido.
- The series dog is Fido. Bobby's design follows R. F. Outcault's Buster Brown.
- Paramount released the 1916 Bray cartoons inside the Paramount-Bray Pictograph.
- Hurd and J. R. Bray licensed the cel process to other studios, including Disney and Van Beuren, until the patent lapsed in 1932.
Scenes
- Fido sits at the piano while Bobby hides.
- Pa beams and compares the noise to Paderewski.
- The spanking ends on a "His Master's Voice" card as the dog yelps.
Influenced by
- R. F. Outcault's Buster Brown
Quotes
Shucks, I'd like to ketch the feller what invented music lessons!
That boy'll be a Paderewski yet! Listen to those runs!
