Correcting Misinformation about FRESH LOBSTER

This forum is nearly identical to the previous forum. The difference? Discussions about comedy from the SOUND era.
Richard M Roberts
Godfather
Posts: 2895
Joined: Sun May 31, 2009 6:30 pm

Correcting Misinformation about FRESH LOBSTER

Postby Richard M Roberts » Sun Oct 30, 2022 2:35 pm

Okay, so it’s been awhile since I’ve found a bit of internet nonsense that seems to have spread that needs to be put to bed, like the concept of the “Hampton” print of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA being the source of the video versions of the original 1925 silent version, but we’ve come across a doozy now.

The latest internet nonsense I’m coming across about an old film is this concept that the independent animated/live action short FRESH LOBSTER was made in 1928. This has now spread across the internet and made it to the imd(um)b page for it. I thought this “controversy” over the age of this film had been put to bed decades ago, but apparently not, and upon more research across the net, it appears that this change of date stems from animation historian/restorationist Steve Stanchfield, who wrote this piece on the Cartoon research site:

https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/b ... ster-1928/

And a post in the comments section from Jeff Missinne who says he wrote Walter Lantz asking him about the film and Lantz saying he saw it in a movie theater in the late 20’s. From what I can determine, this is all the evidence they have for saying the film was made in 1928.

Here is a link to the Youtube copy of the sound print of the film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_XXLqPkOPQ

Now, it is understandable to have animation historians who don’t know much else look at this and come to the mistaken conclusion that this is a late 1920’s film, but anyone versed in either the era or silent film comedians will know otherwise. To begin with, all one has to do is look at Billy Bletcher,who stars in the short. This is a late 20’s Billy Bletcher:

Image

Image

This is a mid-late 30’s Billy Bletcher, a little heavier, a little craggier, a bit less hair than he had in the late 20’s:

Image

Image

The next thing one should look at are the automobiles parked on the streets (which are obviously in the Los Angeles area, which should have told animation experts that the film was not done by the Fleischer Brothers, who had their studio on the East Coast), which are all early-mid-30’s model sedans and coupes. This car seen in the repeat background for the chase scene is a 1931 Ford Model B 2-Door Victoria Coupe:

Image

Image

What I find fascinating is that no one seems to pay any attention to the names in the opening titles for the film. It is presented by Max Alexander and Harvey Pergament. Let’s begin with a little background on both:

Max Alexander was a German-born nephew of Carl Laemmle who became an independent film producer and who started M &A Alexander Productions with his Brother Arthur Alexander in 1932 to produce states righted B-Westerns featuring stars like Jack Hoxie and Guinn “Big Boy” Williams and other types of B action pictures. Alexander was working in among and with other states-righter producers like A. W. Hackel, The Weiss Brothers, William Pizor and others and hired and worked with the talent pool that worked in the independents, directors like Armand Shaefer, Sam Neufield, Edgar Ulmer, Harry L. Fraser, Robert f. Hill and others. M&A Productions made films under a variety of names: Beacon Productions, Colony Pictures, and in the early 40’s M&A Productions made films for PRC release.

Harvey Pergament formed Cavalcade Pictures Inc. after he returned from World Wat Two in 1945. Cavalcade would produce and distribute all sorts of film, first specializing in 16mm non-theatrical films, shorts, educational films, documentaries, sales and training films, as well as non-theatrical distribution of entertainment features and shorts, and early television distribution. Harvey would acquire all sort of independent and states-righted films for distribution, including a lot of product from producers like and including Max Alexander. Cavalcade later branched out into importing foreign films for theatrical, non-theatrical and television distribution. In other words, an entrepreneur like Louis Weiss, who found ways to make money off of any film, and like Weiss Global International, Cavalcade lasted into the late 1980’s.

I have a beautiful 16mm sound original of FRESH LOBSTER from Cavalcade Films, with Kodak 1949 edgecodes. In the late 40’s Cavalcade had licensed a number of Independent films from producers like Max Alexander for very early television distribution, as well as distributing purchasable prints for non-theatrical home ownership, including FRESH LOBSTER. Max Alexander’s name on the title pretty much indicates that it was a Max Alexander production, which makes sense considering some other short films Cavalcade had available for purchase, including the 1934 Lloyd Hamilton comedy WEDDING BELLES, which was directed by Sam Neufield, who was working for Alexander around that time, and the surviving prints of that short are all Cavalcade prints struck in the late 40’s as well. Both FRESH LOBSTER and WEDDING BELLES may have been pilots for potential series of shorts that Alexander was looking into making that never went beyond these pilots, and were sold to Cavalcade along with a lot of other product in the late 40’s to clear the shelves and make some revenue from them. Neither of these shorts ever had an official theatrical release that has been documented, and are only known to exist in these Cavalcade prints.

Another indicator that the film was a Max Alexander production is the credited cameraman Harry Forbes, who was exclusively working on M&A Production feature films in 1934-38 (Forbes died in 1939). Forbes would have been the perfect cameraman for FRESH LOBSTER, he had shot the live-action footage for Walt Disney’s ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series in 1924, and would have known well how to shoot live-action to be combined with animation.

As to who animated the short, who knows? It could have been any number of moonlighting or between gigs animators in Southern California at the time. Composer Rex Dunn could have put that score together for Alexander in the late 30’s, his employment between 1930 and 1939 is a bit fuzzy, he had worked for Warner Bros-First National in the early 30’s, then Warner Brothers again from 1940-47, mostly scoring documentary shorts. He left Warners in 1947, so he could have put this score together for Cavalcade before he scored his last film, the 1949 Monogram feature PANHANDLE with Rod Cameron (Dunn passed away in 1959 at the age of 70). The score sounds like 1930’s product, both in arrangement and sound quality, especially from a then-independent producer, and it was probably always was part of the film.

Oddly enough, the silent prints of FRESH LOBSTER that I have found all seem to be of later vintage, and generations down from the Cavalcade sound prints. Both Murray Glass’s Glenn Photo Supply and Tom Dunnahoo’s Thunderbird Films had their own negatives on FRESH LOBSTER, duped from Cavalcade material.

In any event, all the evidence points to FRESH LOBSTER being actually made sometime in the mid-30’s, not 1928, and being released to the home markets in 1948. If anyone or any archive has 35mm material on the film, it would be interesting to see how old the print is, but so far, no archive or collector is known to have any 35mm material on the short. Walter Lantz’s fuzzy memory notwithstanding, it’s very inexact information to use to make a calculation on the date of this film.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 33 guests