Shrunken Cinema/Termite Terrace/Baseball Bugs
From Eccentric Flower
Baseball Bugs
1945
Summary: Bugs plays all positions in a baseball game against the Gas-House Gorillas.
Director: Friz Freleng
Writer: Michael Maltese
Featuring: Bugs Bunny.
Onreel
0:18 Sound cue: "Sabre and Spurs" by John Philip Sousa.
0:32 Strangely enough, there was a famous baseball stadium called the Polo Grounds, as incongruous as that may seem. However, I agree with Wikipedia that the facade in this shot makes it look more like the Yankee Stadium of that era. (The Yankees moved out of the Polo Grounds in 1923.) Either way, these cues (plus the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty later, of course) make it clear this cartoon is set in New York City.
0:38 Note that the audio says the Gas-House Gorillas are the visiting team, and their score is in the top position on the scoreboard. A "teetotaler" is someone who has pledged to give up alcohol. For the origins of "gashouse" see Offreel below.
0:55 "I'm only 93½ years old" is a reference to Fanny Brice's Baby Snooks routine ("I'm only three and a half years old!")
1:30 The Gorillas form a conga line for batting. Sound cue follows suit.
1:59 The "Maltese: Ace Dick" signboard is a joke on the cartoon's writer. The "Filboid Studge" sign as we pan further right is an extremely obscure joke unless you happen to be a Saki fan. (You may read the very short story in its entirety here.) It is also surely the only time a Bugs Bunny cartoon has shared an in-joke with Kurt Vonnegut.
2:02 Bugs has a carrot in a hot dog bun.
2:44 At least one of the signs here is a decipherable joke: "Ross Co." footwear is a reference to animator Virgil Ross. Other sign jokes: "Culvert Gin" (Calvert gin) and "Camuels" (Camel cigarettes).
3:44 One day it's going to require explanation that Bugs' slow ball makes a sound like a sputtering, nearly-dying gasoline engine.
4:14 Sound cue when Bugs reveals the pinup girl: "Oh! You Beautiful Doll."
4:24 Bugs' score is now on top on the scoreboard.
4:39 The "Safe!""Out!" exchange-reversal trick is also famously done by Bugs in Rabbit Fire as "Duck season!""Rabbit season!"
5:02 A little funeral-march sound cue here and another (bit of) "Filboid Studge" at top left. Someone was really happy with that joke.
5:09 "Does Your Tobacco Taste Different Lately?" is a reference to a Raleigh cigarette slogan of the era.
5:16 One day it's going to require explanation that this is a pinball machine joke. The scoreboard completes the joke by registering a "tilt." Children of 2020: Go ask your grandfather.
5:37 Sound cue when the Gorilla sees angels: "The Umbrella Man," a Stalling standby.
5:40 "Was this trip really necessary?" was a wartime slogan about reducing needless civilian travel (primarily to conserve tire rubber) but it has been used for many, many jokes, editorials, political screeds, and so forth since then, including some very hallucinatory interpretations of the concept "trip."
5:56 Sound cue: This appears to be "Sabre and Spurs" again.
6:39 Yellow Cab Co, natch.
7:04 We pull up at the "Umpire State" instead of "Empire State" building. If Bugs catches that ball on the 86th floor observation deck, the ball was about 1075 feet in the air. (We're adding 25 feet for the glove toss and the flagpole.) Assuming there were no lines for the elevators, Bugs could have gotten up there in a little over a minute.
7:24 "That's what the man said, you heard what he said, he said that!" is apparently a line from a radio show of the era which I haven't been able to specifically trace.
7:32 One of the rare "drum" closings where Bugs comes out of the drum instead of Porky.
Offreel
Tracing the origin of "gashouse" as slang for generally dirty, unruly types could make someone insane. Short version: The Gas-House Gorillas here are probably a reference to the "Gashouse Gang" St. Louis Cardinals of 1934, who earned the nickname because of their shabby appearance and their strong-arm tactics on the field (much like the Gorillas here). But where did they get it? There was a "Gas House Gang" criminal gang in 1890's New York, which took its name because they hailed from the "gas house" district (now Stuyvesant Town) where the gas storage tanks were. By "gas" I mean town gas (AKA coal gas), a gaseous product used for lighting. Natural gas wasn't viable until the 1940s and "town gas" was manufactured by distilling coal. Other versions of this story say that the "gashousers" were people who lived near the coal refining plant that generated this gas, and the story originates from several other cities besides New York. Either way, the point is clear: The neigborhood that had the gas works (not desirable for property values) was usually one of the poorest, and worst neighborhoods in town. (You probably don't care about any of this, but I had to look it all up, so by god I'm going to use it.)
My personal theory is that if the Gorillas are supposed to be the Yankees, then the Tea Totallers are the Boston team, as they are drawn like many cartoons of the era drew old-school Bostonians (long hair, sideburns, glasses, schoolteacherish faces), and of course Boston has long been associated with tea. Which Boston team is another question, as the Braves were also in Boston until 1953.
In addition to Mel Blanc's voices, Bea Benaderet did the voice of the Statue of Liberty and writer Tedd Pierce was the baseball announcer (and possibly some of the Gorillas).
