A Feud There Was

The only reason this episode is worth watching is its historical value and brief peace theme. As you may have read in the summary, this is Elmer's debut. However, in this he is not yet quite Elmer Fudd. Elmer Fudd evolved from a character called Egghead and that is what this Elmer Fudd resembles.

The other good points of this episode are the animation, which is well done and the fact that Elmer Fudd is a "beautiful" peacemaker.* There is virtually nothing else about this short that makes it worthwhile, unless you like to see cowboys constantly shooting each other for no reason. There was one "joke" that I found very sad, when a chicken looks proudly at her eggs and then they are shot, "Three days hard work, all shot to pieces", or something like that.

I recommend this episode to anyone who likes to see unnecessary violence, or an Elmer Fudd pleading for peace. I hope you enjoy this more than I did.

*When I say beautiful, I mean he does not look beautiful, but the way he pleads for peace is beautiful. I do not blame you if you do not understand, I have a very odd way of perceiving things. :-)

And count Bob Nolan, Tim Spencer and Hugh Farr among the "voices heard" in this 1938 cartoon, that has more then just the morphing of Egghead into Elmer Fudd as an attribute.

Warner Bros owned a radio station in L.A. with the call letters of KFWB, so when a microphone with those call letters appears in this cartoon, it wasn't there by accident. Among the performers appearing on KFWB in 1933-34 was a group known as The Pioneer Trio (also known as the Gold Star Rangers on the program sponsored by the Farley Clothing Company), comprised of Leonard Slye, Bob Nolan and Tim Spencer. Fiddle player Hugh Farr joined them in late 1933-early 1934, and shortly after that staff announcer Harry Hall introduced the quartet as The Sons of the Pioneers, much to the surprise of The Pioneer Trio plus One. Halls explanation was that they all appeared too young to be pioneers but qualified as being sons of same, plus they were no longer a trio. The first printed appearance of the Sons of the Pioneers name was in a newspaper radio log dated March 3, 1934.

The music in this cartoon begins with a trio yodel (Slye, Nolan and Spencer), followed by the instrumental "Arkansas Traveler" and then a short song that begins with..."Let's get out the shootin' irons"...with the voice and fiddle of Hugh Farr there along with the other three musicians. And the entrances of Egghead (as Elmer Fudd-Peacemaker)are preceded by the yodeling voice of Leonard Slye. Yes, we could write the name Roy Rogers instead of Slye, but since Slye was not using the name of Roy Rogers when the music heard in this film was first recorded, we tend to side with the remaining few who prefer historical accuracy in film credits.

But...AHA!... says the WB cartoon lovers (count me in that group) who can read release dates, this cartoon was released on September 24,1938 and Leonard Slye had been renamed Roy Rogers by Republic Pictures Corporation back in 1937.

But...AHA...replies I (without an exclamation mark, which ranks second only to the word "Awesome" as a tiresome overdone exercise),read the small print above that states..."when this music was first recorded." You can bet your last dollar than when "A Feud There Was" was in the planning stage, Tex Avery and Carl Stallings weren't over at the Schlesinger Corral putting in a call to Roy Rogers to come over to the lot and record some music and, by the way, bring the Sons of the Pioneers...uh...wait...just bring Tim Spencer, Hugh Farr and Bob Nolan and leave Pat Brady, Karl Farr and Lloyd Perryman over at Columbia to back up Donald Grayson. We don't want to make Harry Cohn mad, and Leon ain't going to pay for Roy Rogers and six Sons of the Pioneers for an eight-minute cartoon.

No, the music heard here came from the first Standard Radio transcriptions ( mid-1934 with 102 songs featuring Slye, Nolan, Spencer and Hugh Farr ), owned by Gerald King, program director at KFWB, who had his own moonlighting company on the side. The second and third transcription series were made after Karl Farr joined the group and completed the original quintet. And Leonard Slye left the group in 1937, signed a contract with Republic and had his billing name changed to Roy Rogers, and was replaced as a member of The Sons of the Pioneers in October, 1937 by Pat Brady.

We'd like to add Slye, Nolan, Spencer and Farr as uncredited voices to this cartoon, but we'd have to use the name Roy Rogers to do so, and would not be allowed to,since he was uncredited, add the attribute (as Leonard Slye), so we'll leave that to be done by those less picky regarding historical accuracy in cast listings.

Did the four-member Sons of the Pioneers get paid for their work in this cartoon?

Of course not. They had already sold all rights to their KFWB and Standard Transcriptions to Gerald King, for a measly $600.

Did they even know, in 1938, their music and voices were used in this cartoon?

Not unless one of them caught the cartoon on original release, and told the others they didn't.

For other uncredited music by the Sons of the Pioneers in cartoons, see 1935's "Bronco Buster" from Walter Lantz and Universal.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.

Also have much admiration for Tex Avery, an animation genius whose best cartoons are animated masterpieces and some of the best cartoons ever made by anybody. 'A Feud There Was' is not an Avery masterpiece, compared to a lot of Avery cartoons it's fairly tame and lacks somewhat the wild wackiness and ahead-of-its-time edge that can be found in his prime years (the 1940s). Elmer, or Egghead here, is not as appealingly designed and his personality has not fully evolved yet, love his good intentions but he is slightly on the bland side.

Having said that, 'A Feud There Was' is generally a good representation of what Avery is all about and what makes his work so appealing. It's very well made and a lot of fun while also having a seriousness that doesn't jar at all.

The animation is excellent, very rich in colour, the backgrounds have meticulously good detail and the characters are very well drawn and natural in movement. One of the best things about 'A Feud There Was' is the incredibly catchy and infectious music that gives the cartoon so much verve.

Can't fault Avery, whose unmistakable and unlike-any-other style is all over, nor the dynamic voice acting (especially from the peerless Mel Blanc) and the numerous very engaging support characters.

It's well done in the humour and while the story doesn't break new ground it's lively in pace and easy to engage with.

To conclude, very entertaining and well made though Avery is not at his best. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This short is, so far as I'm aware, the first (and only) time Egghead is called Elmer. The similarities between the two are peripheral but notable: style of dress, a lack of hair, etc. At some point, Egghead stopped appearing and Elmer started getting paired off with Bugs and Daffy instead. Was it a deliberate decision? Possibly. Egghead was a useful, but limited, character. It makes sense that Egghead morphed into Elmer. This cartoon is a hilarious collection of bits strung together within a framing device loose enough to permit the gags but tangible enough to have a story, something which allowed Avery full rein while giving enough to the audience that they could follow along for the ride. Well worth watching. Recommended.

It's hard to tell whether or not "A Feud There Was" is making fun of rural people. No doubt playing off of the whole Hatfield-McCoy conflict, it portrays two yokel families spending all day shooting at each other. However, it's partly really interesting as the first ever appearance of the name Elmer Fudd (though he doesn't resemble the famous hunter whom we now know). In this case, he's a peacemaker trying to get the two families to lay down their weapons.

As I understand it, the men performing for what is presumably a radio audience are a group that included Roy Rogers. But as someone who takes no interest in Roy Rogers, I just like to focus on the cartoon itself. "AFTW" is something sure to please you. That Tex Avery was really something else.

The old gray hair ain't what it used to be. Ha!