Frankie! (East Coast Version)

Here’s a wonderful pan shot (thanks to Nick Richie for snipping it together) from the opening of “Swooning the Swooners,” a 1945 Terrytoon take on the Frank Sinatra craze by Bobby Soxers that also made up the plots of cartoons at Warner Bros. and MGM.



Farmer Al Falfa tries bashing his radio with a broom to stop it from broadcasting the Sinatra cat from crooning into his home. The third time around, the uncredited animator adds lines and multiples of the good farmer to enhance the speed of the broom-bashing.



The cartoon’s not in the same ballpark as Frank Tashlin’s “Swooner Crooner” or Tex Avery’s “Li’l ‘Tinker” (floating seems to be a gag that doesn’t really build to anything). John Foster gets the mandatory story credit with Connie Rasinski directing.