Tex Avery (1936)

A bellhop in the No 1. hotel of a smalltown awaiting the arrival of Miss Glory dreams he has to page Miss Glory at a first class hotel in New York, and this turns out to be a nightmare. Finally he is awakened by the manager, because Miss Glory’s car has arrived, but instead of a beautiful lady, a child star a la Shirley Temple steps out to everyone’s surprise.

First color cartoon by Tex Avery.

Page Miss Glory is a 1936 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Tex Avery. The short was released on March 7, 1936. The film uses Art Deco backgrounds and character designs.

“Page Miss Glory marks a rare instance when the two meanings of the word ‘cartoon’ come into conflict — as audiences understood it in 1935-36, the term could mean an animated one-reeler screened at the movie house or the non-animated but nevertheless lively cartoons found in magazines like Esquire and The New Yorker. Miss Glory looks like the drawings of legendary 1930s New Yorker cartoonists Peter Arno or John Held Jr. come to life… Miss Glory boasts several animated dance sequences that could be described as out-Buzz-ing Berkeley; the key sequences look like someone took the sketches from the fashion designer of one of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers classics and animated them.”

Will Friedwald

Produced by Leon Schlesinger. Words and music by Warren and Dubin. Moderne Art conceived and designed by Leadora Congdon.