John Foster
1886 - 1959Pencil Mania
John Foster, Vernon Stallings
This Tom and Jerry cartoon (the human versions, not the cat and mouse) is an opportunity for the animators to have fun with the medium. There is no specific plot. One of the boys uses a pencil to create a myriad number of animated illusions that could only work in a cartoon. For example, a short vertical line is drawn, which when held by both ends suddenly becomes a saxophone. When played, the notes pop out of the bell of the instrument to suddenly grow legs and transform into ducks. After the song, the saxophone itself quickly follows suit and becomes a goose. The entire short consists of these disjointed, though often creative and humorously unlikely events.
Pencil Mania
Jolly Fish
John Foster, Vernon Stallings
Tom and Jerry go fishing, where they encounter an affectionate but annoying fish who won't leave them alone. They hear a piano-playing octopus (with twelve arms!) and have a run-in with a sword fish who cuts their boat in half. Other hijinks ensue, and the two eventually catch a tiny fish, which is in turn swallowed by a larger fish, and this process continues until they've caught a veritable whale. They row ashore triumphant, but when one of them puts their reel (still holding the fish) over their shoulder, the larger fish slip off, unbeknownst to them, leaving them with the runt they started with.
Jolly Fish
The Magic Mummy
John Foster, Vernon Stallings
Tom and Jerry are police officers, driving around in their car and enjoying listening to some music on their police radio, when they hear a bulletin announcing another theft of a mummy from the local museum. They stumble upon the culprit, a mysterious and ghoulish man who is carrying a coffin through a secret door in a cemetery. They sneak in after him and watch him command the mummy to life; it is a beautiful woman, who he then commands to sing for his audience of skeletal theatre-goers.
The Magic Mummy
Piano Tooners
John Foster, George Rufle
Tom and Jerry (the human versions, not the cat and mouse) work as piano tuners. After seeing them at work and several creative ways of tuning a piano (such as removing the offending key and cutting the key itself to a shorter length), the two attend an opera singers performance. The singer passes out when the piano plays a wrong note, and Tom and Jerry are pressed into service to re-tune the piano. After pulling the offending key from the keyboard like a bad tooth, the two give the opera audience a jazz piano performance, with the now recovered opera singer joining in.
Piano Tooners
Barnyard Bunk
John Foster, George Rufle
An old farmer has let his entire farm go and it is falling down around him, with mice taking over. Tom and Jerry (the human versions, not the cat and mouse) show up with magical saxophones, and the music has amazing effects on the farm. A chicken lays dozens of eggs, a cow gives gallons and gallons and gallons of milk, and two woodpeckers don't just peck a tree, they cut it down and split it into firewood. Even the farmer's well changes, filling with beer (by the mug of course) instead of water. The farmer trades Tom and Jerry a huge bag of money for the saxophones, but he gets the better deal - the bag is full of the mice from the start of the cartoon, and they carry Tom and Jerry off to throw them into the pond.
Barnyard Bunk
Western Whoopee
John Foster, Harry Bailey
The film begins with Milton riding his horse comically around the West until he hears a wanted criminal roaming the West. Upon hearing this, Milton's mouse agrees to comically change to be the width of a twig, as a way of disguise. The criminal, who remains nameless throughout the entire short film, rides in front of a tree; and sees a Wanted sign with himself on it.
Western Whoopee