Lady, Play Your Mandolin!
About Lady, Play Your Mandolin!
In a café that is really a Prohibition saloon, Foxy the gaucho rides in, buys a beer, and tells Roxy to play her mandolin for him. His horse unties itself from a cactus, gets a bottle on the head, comes back drunk, sets itself on fire, and loses its fur while Foxy and the crowd sing.
Cast & crew
More about Lady, Play Your Mandolin!
Rudolf Ising directed the first Merrie Melodies short. The earliest known release date is 13 June 1931. Frank Marsales scored it. Rudolf Ising voices Foxy, uncredited, with Rochelle Hudson and Abe Lyman also uncredited.
Themes
Background
Warner Bros. launched Merrie Melodies in 1931 as a sister series to Looney Tunes, built around a song.
In film history
It is the first Merrie Melodies cartoon.
Music
Frank Marsales wrote the score. The title song is Oscar Levant and Irving Caesar's 'Lady, Play Your Mandolin!'
Notes
- Foxy appears in three shorts in 1931. This is the first.
- The title song is by Oscar Levant, with lyrics by Irving Caesar. Nick Lucas took it to number 5 on the pop list in 1930.
- The café is a speak-easy: the customers are already drunk when Foxy arrives.
Scenes
- Foxy's horse comes back drunk, catches fire, and sings with its fur burning off.
