Tags for this video have been changed from 'hanna, barbera, mgm, comedy, cat, mouse' to 'hanna, barbera, mgm, comedy, cat, mouse, 40s' - edited by swampgirl

Tags for this video have been changed from 'cartoon, mgm, classic' to 'cartoon, mgm, classic, 50s' - edited by swampgirl

Tags for this video have been changed from 'fred, quimby, mgm, cartoon, classic, quiet, grumpy, bear' to 'fred, quimby, mgm, cartoon, classic, quiet, grumpy, bear, 50s' - edited by Deano

@coupland
I too am afraid of heights. It's just that feeling of falling I hate. Though I can get that feeling just by looking over a couple story escalator. I'm not afraid of much else.

I usually avoid roller coasters with the large drops, but I still enjoy the kind (pneumatic and magnetic like the Rock n' Rollercoaster in MGM, Florida) that don't need the big falls for acceleration. I love the loops.

Still, I'm the only one of my friends that will ride on the "barf" rides like the now defunct Chaos that used to be at HersheyPark. That thing was great!
http://users.wpi.edu/~avolfson/images/0506ARML/pic02.jpg

Continued:

Much is often also made of the “exceptional” research that Clampett and his animators undertook (they visited night-clubs and “drafted” African-African musicians and actors) to provide an accurate, celebratory, authentic and incorporative vision of urban African-American culture of the time. Along with Tin Pan Alley Cats (1943) it highlights Clampett's fascination with African-American street culture, its syncopation and language, pushing its potent stereotypes to the extremes of comic absurdity.

Also, as with many of Clampett's cartoons, one can sense the direct influence of comic books, popular music, street culture, live-action cinema and contemporary art (especially surrealism) upon these two films. Like much of Clampett's best work, these films are syncopated snapshots of a particular time, place and set of social mores. So it is hardly surprising to discover that the greatest period of Clampett's tenure at Warners coincides with the ramped-up stereotypes encouraged by the World War II era. As Tim Onosko argues, “Clampett created an entirely new and irreverent style of animated filmmaking more suited to the era than either Disney or Fleischer” (17). Although Onosko's parochial account unnecessarily favours Clampett at the expense of his Warners' colleagues, as well as Avery at MGM, it does pinpoint the ascension of the studio to the pinnacle of Hollywood short animation during this period and accurately regards Clampett's work as a cornerstone of this process.

To me that is what this video is, a snapshot of that era, not a racist hate film.

YouTube commentary:

This is "behind the camera" footage of the Jitterbug scene that went lost after being cut from the film.
The film originally contained an elaborate production number called "The Jitter Bug", which cost $80,000 and took five weeks to shoot. In the scene, Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly lion, and the Tin Woodsman are on their way to the Witch's castle when they are attacked by "jitter bugs" - furry pink and blue mosquito-like "rascals" that give one "the jitters" as they buzz about in the air. When, after its first preview, the movie was judged too long, MGM officials decided to sacrifice the "Jitter Bug" scene. They reasoned that it added little to the plot and, because a dance by the same name had just become popular, they feared it might date the picture. The Witch still refers to the bug in the final film, just before telling the Monkeys to "Fly!" Only home movies of the filming of "The Jitterbug" survive, though the song is on current versions of both the soundtrack CD and the recent anniversary edition videotape. The sequence was also incorporated into a recent stage version of the musical.