Long-Haired Hare
Encyclopedia
Long-Haired Hare is a 1948 Warner Brothers Looney Tunes
theatrical cartoon short released in 1949, directed by Chuck Jones
and written by Michael Maltese
. In addition to including the homophones "hair" and "hare", the title is also a pun on "longhairs", a characterization of classical music lovers. Nicolai Shutorov provides the singing voice of Giovanni Jones.
and singing "A Rainy Night in Rio." Nearby, an opera
singer named Giovanni Jones (his name perhaps a play on that of director Chuck Jones
) rehearses "Largo al Factotum
" from The Barber of Seville
. Overhearing Bugs, he absent-mindedly finds himself singing along, but loses his nut realising that his rehearsal has been interrupted. Giovanni angrily confronts Bugs and breaks the banjo strings and the banjo itself in half, crushing the neck and then slamming the body over Bugs' head.
As Giovanni practices again, he hears Bugs singing "My Gal Is a High-Born Lady" and playing a harp. He tries to ignore Bugs, but again ends up singing and dancing along. Giovanni angrily confronts Bugs once again. He grabs Bugs by the throat, puts him in the harp, and crushes his neck inside the harp like a vise
.
As Giovanni tries to sing again later, the sound of a Sousaphone
seems to come out of his mouth. The sound is coming from Bugs playing "When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on the Tuba". Though the rabbit promptly ducks into his hole, Giovanni reaches down into the Sousaphone, pulls him out, ties him by his ears to a tree branch, and yanks him down so that he bounces up and down beneath the branch, bonking his head repeatedly. As Giovanni walks away, an enraged Bugs decides its time for payback.
Bugs exacts his revenge against Giovanni though a series of public humiliations during his concert. First, Bugs vibrates the roof of the concert hall to disrupt the singer's vocals. Then he hammers it so that Giovanni moves across the stage and falls and gets trapped into a tuba. Bugs pulls him out and takes him backstage. Next Bugs sprays Giovanni's throat with "liquid alum
" which shrinks his head as well his voice.
Next, Bugs dresses up as a teenage bobby soxer
and asks Giovanni for an autograph, only the pen is a stick of dynamite
. After the off-screen explosion, Giovanni steps out to the stage with a singed face and evening wear torn to shreds. He takes a couple bows and then collapses.
During the concert's final act, Bugs poses as the highly respected Leopold Stokowski
to take over the conducting duties. Bugs makes Giovanni sing various notes, including a very low note. After accepting brief applause (which is instantly stopped when he raises his hand), Bugs cracks his knuckles, winds up his fists, and conducts Giovanni into holding a singular high G note
until Giovanni can hardly endure the strain. His face turns different colors as he squirms and unravels his formal wear. Bugs leaves his glove hovering in the air and steps outside to order a pair of earmuffs which are delivered instantly after Bugs places the order in the mailbox. Bugs returns to the stage to find Giovanni has obeyed the glove and is still singing the high note. He thrashes about on the floor banging his fists. The top of the concert hall's shell shatters and tumbles down on top of Giovanni .
For the encore, a roughed-up Giovanni appears out of the rubble to take a bow. Witnessing one last piece of the amphitheater balanced on a steel beam above Giovanni, Bugs again cues the singer to close out his performance with the high note so that the piece falls and crushes him off camera. Satisfied with his victory, Bugs removes his wig and ends the performance by playing vaudeville-era four-note tune, "Good Evening Friends", on a banjo.
, but a significant proportion of the score is pre-existing music, including several operatic
pieces. The soundtrack includes Gioachino Rossini's "Largo al factotum
" from The Barber of Seville
; Arthur Schwartz
's "A Rainy Night in Rio"; Barney Fagan
's "My Gal is a High-Born Lady"; Herman Hupfeld
's song "When Yuba Plays the Rumba on the Tuba" – played by Bugs on a tuba; Gaetano Donizetti
's aria "Chi Mi Frena In Tal Momento" from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor
; Richard Wagner
's prelude, 2nd theme from Act III of Lohengrin
; Franz von Suppé
's overture from Die schöne Galathee
; and the melody to "It's Magic
." This last piece is also used in the cartoon Transylvania 6-5000
. The Fagan 1896
song had a racially stereotyped subject and lyrics. The author of the re-written lyrics used in the cartoon might be Carl Stalling
or Michael Maltese
. The Donizetti piece, actually a sextet, seems to have been a favorite of Warner music arranger Carl Stalling
, and is also used in Book Revue
and Back Alley Oproar
.
Giovanni Jones' singing voice remained uncredited and unknown for many years. It was since revealed to have been provided by opera singer Nicolai Shutorov. This is noted in the commentary voice-over provided on the DVD.
Also noted on the DVD commentary is Bugs Bunny's conducting performance as "Leopold", as a send-up of conductor Leopold Stokowski
's energetic style, including his shunning the baton: Bugs makes a point of snapping the baton in half and discarding it. As Bugs enters the concert hall wearing a Stokowski-like hairpiece, the orchestra members begin whispering among themselves, "Leopold! Leopold!" The DVD commentator also notes that Stokowski conducted many performances at the Hollywood Bowl
, where the second half of this film is set. Leopold Stokowski was, at the time, one of the best known conductors in the world, although the most famous film in which he appeared, Fantasia (1940), was a notable flop that did not earn back its cost until 1970.
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
theatrical cartoon short released in 1949, directed by Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...
and written by Michael Maltese
Michael Maltese
Michael "Mike" Maltese was a long-time storyboard artist and screenwriter for classic animated cartoon shorts.-Career:...
. In addition to including the homophones "hair" and "hare", the title is also a pun on "longhairs", a characterization of classical music lovers. Nicolai Shutorov provides the singing voice of Giovanni Jones.
Plot
Bugs is happily minding his own business, playing a banjoBanjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
and singing "A Rainy Night in Rio." Nearby, an opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
singer named Giovanni Jones (his name perhaps a play on that of director Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...
) rehearses "Largo al Factotum
Largo al factotum
Largo al factotum is an aria from The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini, sung at the first entrance of the title character; the repeated "Figaro"s before the final patter section are an icon in popular culture of operatic singing...
" from The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
. Overhearing Bugs, he absent-mindedly finds himself singing along, but loses his nut realising that his rehearsal has been interrupted. Giovanni angrily confronts Bugs and breaks the banjo strings and the banjo itself in half, crushing the neck and then slamming the body over Bugs' head.
As Giovanni practices again, he hears Bugs singing "My Gal Is a High-Born Lady" and playing a harp. He tries to ignore Bugs, but again ends up singing and dancing along. Giovanni angrily confronts Bugs once again. He grabs Bugs by the throat, puts him in the harp, and crushes his neck inside the harp like a vise
Vise
Vise may refer to:* Miami Vise, a defunct AFL team* Vise , a mechanical screw apparatus* Vise , an architectural element* Venus In-Situ Explorer * The Vise, TV show* Visé, BelgiumPeople with the surname Vise:...
.
As Giovanni tries to sing again later, the sound of a Sousaphone
Sousaphone
The sousaphone is a type of tuba that is widely employed in marching bands. Designed so that it fits around the body of the musician and is supported by the left shoulder, the sousaphone may be readily played while being carried...
seems to come out of his mouth. The sound is coming from Bugs playing "When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on the Tuba". Though the rabbit promptly ducks into his hole, Giovanni reaches down into the Sousaphone, pulls him out, ties him by his ears to a tree branch, and yanks him down so that he bounces up and down beneath the branch, bonking his head repeatedly. As Giovanni walks away, an enraged Bugs decides its time for payback.
Bugs exacts his revenge against Giovanni though a series of public humiliations during his concert. First, Bugs vibrates the roof of the concert hall to disrupt the singer's vocals. Then he hammers it so that Giovanni moves across the stage and falls and gets trapped into a tuba. Bugs pulls him out and takes him backstage. Next Bugs sprays Giovanni's throat with "liquid alum
Alum
Alum is both a specific chemical compound and a class of chemical compounds. The specific compound is the hydrated potassium aluminium sulfate with the formula KAl2.12H2O. The wider class of compounds known as alums have the related empirical formula, AB2.12H2O.-Chemical properties:Alums are...
" which shrinks his head as well his voice.
Next, Bugs dresses up as a teenage bobby soxer
Bobby soxer
Bobby soxer is a 1940s sociologic coinage denoting the over zealous, usually teenage and young adult girls from about 12 to 25, fans of singer Frank Sinatra, the first singing teen idol. Fashionable adolescent girls wore poodle skirts and rolled down their socks to the ankle...
and asks Giovanni for an autograph, only the pen is a stick of dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
. After the off-screen explosion, Giovanni steps out to the stage with a singed face and evening wear torn to shreds. He takes a couple bows and then collapses.
During the concert's final act, Bugs poses as the highly respected Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
to take over the conducting duties. Bugs makes Giovanni sing various notes, including a very low note. After accepting brief applause (which is instantly stopped when he raises his hand), Bugs cracks his knuckles, winds up his fists, and conducts Giovanni into holding a singular high G note
Note
In music, the term note has two primary meanings:#A sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound;#A pitched sound itself....
until Giovanni can hardly endure the strain. His face turns different colors as he squirms and unravels his formal wear. Bugs leaves his glove hovering in the air and steps outside to order a pair of earmuffs which are delivered instantly after Bugs places the order in the mailbox. Bugs returns to the stage to find Giovanni has obeyed the glove and is still singing the high note. He thrashes about on the floor banging his fists. The top of the concert hall's shell shatters and tumbles down on top of Giovanni .
For the encore, a roughed-up Giovanni appears out of the rubble to take a bow. Witnessing one last piece of the amphitheater balanced on a steel beam above Giovanni, Bugs again cues the singer to close out his performance with the high note so that the piece falls and crushes him off camera. Satisfied with his victory, Bugs removes his wig and ends the performance by playing vaudeville-era four-note tune, "Good Evening Friends", on a banjo.
Music
The film's musical score includes original music by Carl StallingCarl Stalling
Carl W. Stalling was an American composer and arranger for music in animated films. He is most closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts produced by Warner Bros., where he averaged one complete score each week, for 22 years.-Biography:Stalling was born to Ernest and...
, but a significant proportion of the score is pre-existing music, including several operatic
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
pieces. The soundtrack includes Gioachino Rossini's "Largo al factotum
Largo al factotum
Largo al factotum is an aria from The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini, sung at the first entrance of the title character; the repeated "Figaro"s before the final patter section are an icon in popular culture of operatic singing...
" from The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
; Arthur Schwartz
Arthur Schwartz
Arthur Schwartz was an American composer and film producer.Schwartz supported his legal studies at New York University and postgraduate studies at Columbia University by playing piano before concentrating his talents on vaudeville, Broadway theatre and Hollywood.Among his Broadway musicals are The...
's "A Rainy Night in Rio"; Barney Fagan
Barney Fagan
Barney Fagan was a 19th-century American performer, director, choreographer, and composer. He is recognized as being a progenitor of both music and dance genres, and is often referred to as the "Father of Tap Dance."...
's "My Gal is a High-Born Lady"; Herman Hupfeld
Herman Hupfeld
Herman Hupfeld was an American songwriter whose most notable composition was "As Time Goes By."-Biography:Hupfeld studied violin in Germany at 9. He was in the military during World War I, and he entertained camps and hospitals during World War II...
's song "When Yuba Plays the Rumba on the Tuba" – played by Bugs on a tuba; Gaetano Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's aria "Chi Mi Frena In Tal Momento" from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
; Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's prelude, 2nd theme from Act III of Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
; Franz von Suppé
Franz von Suppé
Franz von Suppé or Francesco Suppé Demelli was an Austrian composer of light operas who was born in what is now Croatia during the time his father was working in this outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire...
's overture from Die schöne Galathee
Die schöne Galathee
Die schöne Galathee is an operetta in two acts by Franz von Suppé to a German libretto by the composer and 'Poly Henrion' ....
; and the melody to "It's Magic
It's Magic
"It's Magic" is a popular song.The music was written by Jule Styne, the lyrics by Sammy Cahn. The song was introduced by Doris Day in her film debut, Romance on the High Seas, and was published in 1947....
." This last piece is also used in the cartoon Transylvania 6-5000
Transylvania 6-5000 (1963 film)
Transylvania 6-5000 is a short Merrie Melodies animated film directed by Chuck Jones and starring Bugs Bunny. Bugs demonstrates how to handle a pesky vampire with six simple magic incantations...
. The Fagan 1896
1896 in music
- Events :*February 1 - Giacomo Puccini's La bohème debuts in Turin * March - Leo Stern plays in the premiere of Dvořák's second cello concerto in London*Engelbert Humperdinck is created a professor of music by the Kaiser....
song had a racially stereotyped subject and lyrics. The author of the re-written lyrics used in the cartoon might be Carl Stalling
Carl Stalling
Carl W. Stalling was an American composer and arranger for music in animated films. He is most closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts produced by Warner Bros., where he averaged one complete score each week, for 22 years.-Biography:Stalling was born to Ernest and...
or Michael Maltese
Michael Maltese
Michael "Mike" Maltese was a long-time storyboard artist and screenwriter for classic animated cartoon shorts.-Career:...
. The Donizetti piece, actually a sextet, seems to have been a favorite of Warner music arranger Carl Stalling
Carl Stalling
Carl W. Stalling was an American composer and arranger for music in animated films. He is most closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts produced by Warner Bros., where he averaged one complete score each week, for 22 years.-Biography:Stalling was born to Ernest and...
, and is also used in Book Revue
Book Revue
Book Revue is a 1945 Looney Tunes cartoon short featuring Daffy Duck, released in 1946, with a plotline essentially similar to 1938's Have You Got Any Castles?. It is directed by Bob Clampett, written by Warren Foster and scored by Carl Stalling. An uncredited Mel Blanc and Sara Berner provided...
and Back Alley Oproar
Back Alley Oproar
Back Alley Oproar is a Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short originally released in theaters on March 27, 1948. The short features Sylvester and Elmer Fudd as its main characters, voiced by Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan respectively...
.
Giovanni Jones' singing voice remained uncredited and unknown for many years. It was since revealed to have been provided by opera singer Nicolai Shutorov. This is noted in the commentary voice-over provided on the DVD.
Also noted on the DVD commentary is Bugs Bunny's conducting performance as "Leopold", as a send-up of conductor Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
's energetic style, including his shunning the baton: Bugs makes a point of snapping the baton in half and discarding it. As Bugs enters the concert hall wearing a Stokowski-like hairpiece, the orchestra members begin whispering among themselves, "Leopold! Leopold!" The DVD commentator also notes that Stokowski conducted many performances at the Hollywood Bowl
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheater in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States that is used primarily for music performances...
, where the second half of this film is set. Leopold Stokowski was, at the time, one of the best known conductors in the world, although the most famous film in which he appeared, Fantasia (1940), was a notable flop that did not earn back its cost until 1970.
Censorship
- On ABCAmerican Broadcasting CompanyThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, the entire bobby soxerBobby soxerBobby soxer is a 1940s sociologic coinage denoting the over zealous, usually teenage and young adult girls from about 12 to 25, fans of singer Frank Sinatra, the first singing teen idol. Fashionable adolescent girls wore poodle skirts and rolled down their socks to the ankle...
sequence (with Bugs dressed as a bobby soxer giving Giovanni Jones a dynamite stick as a pen while getting his autograph) is cut. - On CBS, in addition to the ABC cut, edited out all three times Bugs gets beaten up by Giovanni for interrupting his singing (smashing Bugs' banjo over his head after crushing it to pieces; slamming the harp shut on Bugs' neck; pulling Bugs through his tuba, then tying Bugs' ears to a tree branch, pulling his feet and snapping him back and forth so his head repeatedly strikes the branch), giving no reason for Bugs to ruin Giovanni's concert.
Availability
- Long-Haired Hare is available, uncensored and restored, on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1 is a DVD box set that was released by Warner Home Video on October 28, 2003. It contains 56 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons and numerous supplements...
, Disc 1.
Trivia
- The opera singer from the cartoon can be spotted on the bleachers during the basketball game in Space JamSpace JamAside from Jordan, a number of NBA players and coaches appeared in the film. Larry Bird portrays a friend of Jordan who joins him for a game of golf. When the Monstars steal the NBA players' talent, they invade a game between the Phoenix Suns and the New York Knicks, causing the Knicks' Patrick...
. - This cartoon is one of the few times Bugs can be seen without wearing a glove.