"A Donald Duck Cartoon"

Release Date September 1, 1939

Running Time 8:11

Synopsis

While trying to collect autographs at a Hollywood studio, Donald meets a number of movie stars, and runs afoul of a security guard.

Characters (see comments)

Donald Duck

Credits

Director : Jack King

Animation

John Elliotte

Larry Clemmons

Ed Love

Ward Kimball

Paul Allen

Videos

United States

Cartoon Classics : Limited Gold Editions : Donald

Italy

Paperino

Laserdiscs

Japan

Donald : Limited Gold Edition

DVD

United States

Disney Treasures : The Chronological Donald Volume 1 : (1934-1941)

Television

The Ink and Paint Club : #26 : Classic Donald

Mickey's Mouse Tracks : Episode 23

Technical Specifications

Color Type : Technicolor

Animation type : Standard

Sound mix : Mono

Aspect ration : 1.37 : 1

Negative format : 35mm

Print format : 35mm

Cinematographic process : Spherical

Original language : English

Released by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

Comments

A number of real celebrities are charicatured, including Greta Garbo, Mickey Rooney, Sonja Heine, The Ritz Brothers, Shirley Temple, Clark Gable, Charlie McCarthy, Joe E. Lewis, Katherine Hepburn, and Groucho and Harpo Marx.

From Ryan : This is absolutely one of my favorite Donald Duck cartoons. This time Donald is in Hollywood looking for autographs. A guard, who knows that there are no autograph hounds allowed in the studio, tries to catch Donald. I saw a segment of a storyboard for this short in a book and the animators were originally going to make the guard be a dog. I guess they decided to change their minds, which I think was good because very few of the Disney shorts at the time actually had humans in them. I could identify quite a few of the stars such as Shirley Temple and Clark Gable. There were three stars called the Ritz Bros. who I at first thought were the Three Stooges. Well, the guard soon learns that this autograph hound is none other than the famous star Donald Duck who is later surrounded by autograph books. This oughtta keep him busy for awhile. I liked how the guard said "Your autograph! Let me have it" as he hands Donald his pen. Donald squirts the pen at him and it spells his name all over the guard's uniform.

From Nolan : The autograph hound is my second-favorite Donald Duck short, next to Donald's Tire Trouble. I love the humor employed with Mickey Rooney and the Ritz Brothers. My particularly favorite scene is the Ritz Brothers doing their Egyptian dance behind the curtain, then their antics on Donald. Seeing Clark Gable pop up with his ridiculous face is humorous as well, to say the least. And who doesn't like Greta Garbo's car? Silly humor at its finest. You cannot go wrong with this one.

From Ajisai : It's not my favorite Donald short, but it's still really funny, and the celebrity caricatures are amusing to see.

From Baruch Weiss : I absolutely loved this cartoon. Aside from the music(including the title and end presentation) the caricatures were very amusing and I enjoyed the caricatures of Sonja Heine (whom Donald imitated at the begining of the 1939 classic "The Hockey Champ") and Shirley Temple, but caricatures of famous people like these in this cartoon (including "Mother Goose Goes Hollywood") were more popular in Warner Brother cartoons. Another caricature who hears Donald on the Studio Lot is Stephen Fetchit, his scene was snipped out in later showings of the short, but has been reinstated for Volume 1 of The Chronological Donald. It was also snipped out on the Limited Gold Edition video Donald. I have read that Disney was normally against editing their shorts on home video at the time, but Fetchit had become such a notoriously controversial figure by that time that editing him out of films was a standard pratice, now matter how damaging to the story!

Donald from "The Autograph Hound." It looks to be from the sequence with Sonja Heine as you can see the sign saying "Ice Keep Off" very lightly in the background. Sketch courtesy of Van Eaton Galleries.

Click on the thumbnail for the full-sized picture

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