Bugs Bunny and the Tortoise

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1947? Bugs Bunny and the Tortoise. Mel Blanc. Canvas-bound. Warner Brothers. $20 from A Time Treasured Antiques, Duluth, Sept., '18.

I found this album during a chance visit to an antiques store as I walked back to the hotel from a lovely train ride in Duluth. I have remarked in several cases, including Disney and Random House presentations of TH, that the rabbit resembles Bugs Bunny. Well, here is Bugs Bunny himself in Capitol Records and Warner Brothers' "Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies" presenting the famous race. Elmer Fudd is, both visually and on the 78 rpm records, our host and narrator. The book, pasted into the cardboard jacket, has 20 double-sided pages, numbered to allow viewers to see a pair of facing pages with every portion of the two records. Bugs trips over a book of TH. Bugs goes directly to the end of the book to see by how much the hare beat the tortoise. He is angered by the result, even more when a tortoise offers to bet him on a race together. Daffy Duck serves as announcer for the race out and back again. After establishing an early lead, Bugs opines that the hare in the book probably knocked himself out. Bugs tries to avoid that by taking a rest. In the meantime, he puts a young duck into the water even though that duck does not want to get wet. Fun goes further when Bugs passes the tortoise, and the tortoise asks a taxi to follow Bugs. Only the taxi does not take the tortoise with him! Bugs walks into a trap, set for chickens by Henery the Hawk. A carrot farm proves to be Bugs' undoing. His stomach bulges as he sleeps against a tree. When the tortoise comes by, Bugs surprises him with the alarm clock he has set. The tortoise air mails himself by having a couple of air mail stamps slapped onto himself. Bugs wins by an ear. After a close finish, Elmer declares that "Bugs Bunny won by a hare!" Apparently first done in 1947 and republished in 1975. I cannot find any date information on either the printed material or the record. Researching this lovely find led me to finding better preserved copies online, and I have ordered one for the collection.

Date

Citation

“Bugs Bunny and the Tortoise,” Creighton University Libraries: Archives & Special Collections, accessed October 17, 2024, https://creightonarchives.omeka.net/items/show/651.

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