"A Cat's Life" Terrytoon with Farmer Gray

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Al Alfalfa Cartoons Cat's Falfa Farmer Gray Grey Life Paul Silent Terry Terrytoon Terrytoons
MisterScott99
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  • Added: 27-Jul-07

1920's silent cartoon by Paul Terry, starring Farmer Al Falfa (also known as Farmer Grey). A stock music soundtrack was added in the 1950s for television.

I'm sure the person who picked the needle drops for these cartoons' stock music had no idea how powerfully his work would affect so many children, now grown up.

In 1971 I wrote to WABC TV channel 7 in New York to inquire about these cartoons. This was their answer:

"The silent cartoons which were shown on WABC-TV some years ago were obtained at the time from a company known as Common Wealth Film and Television. Unfortunately, this company no longer exists and I have no idea who might now have the rights to those films.

The films were basically Paul Terry Cartoons and were handled by a number of different distributors in the early days of television. I expect that you might be able to get some by dealing with the camera stores which sell prints for home use such as the Peerless and Willouby Stores in New York.

Yours Truly,
Tak Kako
Assistant Director of Programming"

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Comments on

"A Cat's Life" Terrytoon with Farmer Gray

15 Comments | Add Comment
  • I distinctly ...

    I distinctly remember 'Early Bird Cartoons'.

    Whoo-hoo!

    By Juliaflo [Affiliate User] 1211581500 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Dear WhatNxt, ...

    Dear WhatNxt,


    the title of that carton show that aired the reruns of

    the silent Terrytunes movie cartoons onn WABC TV Ch.7

    in NYC was"Early Bird Cartoons"

    By 143AC [Affiliate User] 1211240788 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Both librries used ...

    Both librries used on Clokey and HB shows. Also the Phil Green and Jack Shaindlin ones, whcih were absorbed to Capitol...and Sam Fox. (The Quick Draws among Hb were IMOP more enterprising in their selection contrasted with buck!)

    By SteveCarras [Affiliate User] 1210305641 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • That's great!! By ...

    That's great!!
    By chance, have you got "Big Game Hunt"?

    By ghellogm [Affiliate User] 1208294947 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • I watched these ...

    I watched these cartoons every morning as a kid in the late 50's early 60's on WABC channel 7 in New York...... This is really great to see again... Thanks alot.....

    By whatnxt2 [Affiliate User] 1208219212 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • fromthesidelines is ...

    fromthesidelines is right -- before the 1940s (when magnetic tape was invented), all music was stored on records, which were played with a needle inserted into the record groove. Stock music was priced by the "needle drop" each time a contiguous piece of music was used. I made a film with stock music in the eighties, and even though the music was from tape, they still used the term "needle drop" for billing purposes.

    By MisterScott99 [Affiliate User] 1206556673 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • A "needle drop", ' ...

    A "needle drop", 'PeppeRaskell', refers to music cues on a transcription disc, 78rpm or 33rpm long-playing record (as the Thomas J. Valentino stock music library was, right through the '80s), available to radio and TV stations, and independent movie producers {including Commonwealth}. Another famous music library on disc was Capitol's "Hi-Q" volumes, used extensively during the '50s and early '60s by Hanna-Barbera and other TV/movie producers...

    By fromthesidelines [Affiliate User] 1206554252 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Excuse me. What ...

    Excuse me. What exactly is a "needle drop?"

    By PeppeRaskell1 [Affiliate User] 1205722259 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Commonwealth ...

    Commonwealth distributed most of the silent Paul Terry "Terrytoons" for the 16mm "home movie" market [as they did the Van Beuren studio's library], and also leased them to TV in the '50s, using the Thomas J. Valentino music library as a "soundtrack" (the cue at 1:48 is familiar to anyone who listened to "Poisoned Arts" on WBAI-FM in New York in the '90s)..

    By fromthesidelines [Affiliate User] 1198358028 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • GREAT detective ...

    GREAT detective work, guys! Thanks for posting this--I haven't seen these since the early 60's! Also--thanks for all the commentary about the source music...that was very enlightening!

    By Pickinbuddy [Affiliate User] 1195556167 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Shades of Junior ...

    Shades of Junior Frolics with Uncle Fred Sayles on channel 13 in NY in the 50s.

    By adriennenajjar [Affiliate User] 1191804543 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • my god, the ...

    my god, the memories of a 50s-60s childhood...

    By conewells [Affiliate User] 1188777030 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • I discovered some ...

    I discovered some on tape while in college in 1970. Then I came across a number of 78 rpm records at a Thrift Shop. They were on a lable identified as Thomas J. Vanlentino, which also had a sound effects library that was used extensively in radio and television 50 years ago.

    I used to use the Boosey &^ Hawkes and Sam Fox music libraries with a needle drop of $35. I am sure it was much less when these early Terrytoons were repackaged for television.

    By RayPointer [Affiliate User] 1187800976 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • I bet you are right ...

    I bet you are right, but how did you learn this? Do you know what needle drops cost in those years?

    By MisterScott99 [Affiliate User] 1187795620 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • The music was from ...

    The music was from the Thomas J. Valentino library.

    By RayPointer [Affiliate User] 1186548695 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
15 Comments | Add Comment