From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bowery Bugs Merrie Melodies (Bugs Bunny) series
Everybody's turning into rabbits!
Directed by	Arthur Davis
Produced by	Edward Selzer (unc.)
Story by	Lloyd Turner, William Scott
Voices by	Mel Blanc Billy Bletcher (unc.)
Music by	Carl Stalling
Animation by	Emery Hawkins J.C Melendez Basil Davidovich Don Williams
Layouts by	Don Smith
Backgrounds by	Philip DeGuard
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	June 4, 1949
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	7 mins
Language	English

Bowery Bugs is a Bugs Bunny cartoon directed by Arthur Davis, written by Lloyd Turner and Bill Scott, and released in mid-1949 as part of the Merrie Melodies series.^[1] It stars Bugs Bunny (voiced by Mel Blanc, who also voices the other men in the pool hall) and Steve Brody (voiced here by Billy Bletcher), who was based on the real-life Brooklyn bookmaker Steve Brodie, who claimed to have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge.

Plot

Bugs Bunny is standing at the base of the famous Brooklyn Bridge, (about 1/2 mile from the southern end of the actual street called the Bowery), telling an old man a story, in carnival-barker style, about how and why Steve Brodie jumped off the bridge.

Brodie has had a terrific run of luck -- all bad. He decides he needs a good luck charm and heads for the country -- as Bugs says, "To the forest primeval! To Flatbush!" (cycling past signs for Greenpernt---a play on Greenpoint, and Erster Bay, a play on Oyster Bay in Long Island)-- to search for a rabbit's foot, presumably down a then-rural Flatbush Avenue.

Brodie pulls Bugs (singing "All Is Not Gold That Glitters") out of a hole, and Bugs asks the usual, "Eh, what's up, Doc?" Brodie tells Bugs that he needs a good luck charm and that "he is it." Bugs responds by explaining why rabbits feet are not lucky. "Look at the life rabbits lead! Hunters, hounds, hasenpfeffer!" Bugs tells Brodie he needs help, and gives him a card for someone who can help him, a "Swami Rabbitima." Brodie says "Okay, but if me luck don't change, I'm coming back to get ya!"

The Swami (Bugs in disguise, having beaten Brodie back to Brooklyn) pulls an ancient corny joke out of the hat, asking Brodie when he was born, with Brodie responding, "I don't remember! I was pretty young then," essentially the same joke used in Chicolini's trial in Duck Soup. The Swami tells him that he has a meeting coming up with a man wearing a carnation (also Bugs in disguise), who will be his lucky mascot at gambling. Brodie's luck does not change, though (he plays a slot machine and receives a mere three lemons for his trouble), and after being evicted from the gambling establishment by a gorilla bouncer, he heads back to Swami, who tells him that he is lucky with love. However, flirting with a "lady" (also Bugs in disguise) only nets him a beating by a police officer for being a "masher." When Brodie returns and clarifies why he wants his luck to change -- "So's I can get me hands on some dough!" -- the Swami tells him to go to 29 River Street, home of "Grandma's Happy Home Bakery," where a baker (Bugs yet again) gladly provides him "a mess of dough," in which he bakes Brodie like a pie.

Unmasking the baker as Bugs, Brodie retraces his steps to confront the man with a carnation, the "lady," and the Swami himself, all of whom he unmasks as Bugs, leading Brodie to realize "Everybody's a rabbit!" When Brodie looks into what he thinks is a mirror (but is actually a window) and sees Bugs looking back at him, he thinks he has turned into a rabbit and snaps, hopping down the street, hysterically shouting "What's up, doc! What's up, doc!"

Seeing a police officer, apparently staring contemplatively at the river from the Brooklyn Bridge, Brodie begs (to his back) for help, declaring "I'm flippin' me lid! Everybody's turnin' into rabbits!" Turning, the officer reveals himself to be Bugs, demanding (in a thick Irish accent) "What's all this about rabbits, Doc?" Finally driven mad, Brodie leaps into the East River.

Bugs' story ends there, and the impressed old man says, "I'll buy it!" and hands Bugs some money - the timeless scam / joke about "selling" the Brooklyn Bridge to a gullible tourist.

Production details

• This is the only Bugs Bunny cartoon directed by Arthur Davis (not counting Bugs's cameo in The Goofy Gophers).
• Although Bill Scott (of Bullwinkle J. Moose fame) is credited as a co-writer, he told Keith Scott in the book The Moose That Roared that he had no recollection of working on this film. By all indications, Lloyd Turner alone was responsible for the film's story, with Scott having been moved to a brief, unsuccessful spell as Friz Freleng's story artist, though the reason why Scott was still credited on this short is not known.
• Aside from Quackodile Tears in 1962, this cartoon was officially the last Warner Bros. animated short directed by Arthur Davis. Although one of his last cartoons, Bye Bye Bluebeard, was released in late-1949, it was animated before Bowery Bugs.
• Art Davis' animators for the cartoon borrowed the special design used in McKimson's unit that was used for one more year after the cartoon was released. McKimson eventually used a design almost identical to the design he made for Bob Clampett's unit in 1943.

Censorship

• On ABC, two scenes involving head beatings were shortened:
  • When Bugs (dressed as the swami) asks Brodie if he'd like to read the bumps on his head, Brodie protests that he has no bumps on his head, Bugs originally hit Brodie six times. On ABC, the beatings were cut down to one.
  • When Brodie is sent out to charm a woman (Bugs in drag) and the "woman" cries for the police, Brodie was originally beaten by a cop's nightstick 11 times. On ABC, the beatings were drastically shortened to one and a half (with the rest covered by a fake black out into the next scene).

Availability

This cartoon is available (uncut, uncensored, and digitally remastered) on disc one of the third volume in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD series.

References