Chess Nuts

The 1932 Fleischer cartoon “Chess-Nuts” opens with Betty, Bimbo and the bad guy King popping up from pieces on a chess board (it’s a photo used as a background drawing).

Two old guys are playing chess when the ash from the cigar of one of them falls on the queen.



Betty pops up from the head of the piece and brushes off the ash.



And then Bimbo and the King form.



That’s probably the most imaginative thing in the cartoon. We have things spring to life to cover Betty’s panties (parents of the ‘30s, apparently, weren’t so hung up about banning their kids from seeing something like that), and little else.

James I’m-Not-Shamus-Yet Culhane and William Henning are the animators.