From cartoons to classical music
I wonder where I got some of my characteristics, my desires, things that make me who and what I am. In other words, what made me get into newspapers, or why do I like hamburgers and French fries. My preferences in reading lean toward mysteries and biographies. Where does that come from? And, my tastes in music include mostly classical but just about any other genre as long as I find it pleasing to listen to. I can at least pinpoint what spawned one of these favorites. Cartoons.
Yes, I said cartoons.
I’m a child of the 1950s, growing up in the early days of television. In fact, we had a TV set in our home two years before I was born. So, when I came along, TV was already a part of my life.
In those days, TV was black and white, and the screens were so small you had to sit inches away to see the images.
I recall watching all the old favorites and classics: “I Love Lucy,” Jackie Gleason, Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Abbott and Costello, Ed Sullivan (I vividly recall the night Elvis Presley appeared on his show. You couldn’t see him wagging his hips – they shot him from the waist up) and all the others that our rooftop antenna could pull in.
Saturday mornings were a regular cowfest with one horse opera after another. When I was very young, I didn’t realize that the people I watched were actors. I believed for a time that when one of the good guys shot one of the bad guys, the victim actually died. But I reasoned they couldn’t kill someone unless he was a very bad person. I guessed that each bad guy must have been in prison awaiting execution. They just gave him the opportunity to die during one of the TV shows they aired. Maybe that’s not such a bad idea.
However, my favorite (and I think just about any kid’s favorite, too) were the cartoons. There was Popeye, Baby Huey, Heckle and Jeckle, Mighty Mouse and, the best of all, the Looney Tunes.
It was those minutes-long stories that helped me develop my love for classical music.
How?
Well, recently I was flipping through the channels and up came a Looney Tunes cartoon on our own Herald-Standard Television, Channel 19.
It was the story of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf.
To briefly recap, two of the little porkers were more interested in playing than putting any effort into building their homes. So, one built his house out of straw and the other out of sticks. The third piggy was much more serious and industrious, crafting his home out of bricks and mortar.
The villainous wolf, naturally looking like he hadn’t had a decent meal in several months, decides he will eat the pigs. The first one runs to his straw house and the wolf neatly blows it away. The same thing happens to the second pig and his stick house.
Of course the wolf is defeated when he tries to blow down the brick house.
Supporting all this animation and comedy was music that, as a child, I never paid much attention to. But the tunes stuck in my head, and I would hum them over and over.
In the case of this cartoon, the background music was Khachaturian’s “Saber Dance,” not a pop song, but one of the classics.
Nearly all of my favorite Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam and Daffy Duck Looney Tunes featured similar classical pieces.
Hence, it spawned my choice of music.
Of course I still don’t know how the classics figure in with Wile E. Coyote falling off an enormous cliff holding an anvil as the Road Runner watches in glee.
But, in the end, I got some culture all those years ago watching cartoons. I also learned never to stick my head in a cannon to see if it what was loaded to the strains of the “1812 Overture.”
Just ask Yosemite Sam about that.
Have a good day.
James Pletcher Jr. is Herald-Standard Business editor. He can be reached at 724-439-7571 or by e-mail at jpletcher@heraldstandard.com
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