Studio: MGM Cartoons
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Short Synopsis
In "1620 7/8", the Pilgrims sail to Plymouth Rock in a Mayflower fitted with wartime anachronisms, a navy gun deck, a Henry J. Kaiser nameplate and a fuel ration card, and found a colony that immediately splits into "Ye Democrats" and "Ye Republicans". The Pilgrims queue for cigarettes, and the town crier mourns his "1-A" draft card. A pear-shaped, mild-mannered Pilgrim leaves his tumbledown trailer to hunt a turkey for Thanksgiving. The turkey, who emerges from the "House of Seven Gobbles" and talks like Jimmy Durante, spots an easy mark and offers himself up, then leads the Pilgrim through a string of rapid-fire gags that stretch cartoon physics to breaking point, always coming out on top. All through the film, a bear wearing a sandwich board urges everyone to "Eat at Joe's". Finally the Pilgrim and the turkey make peace and decide to do just that. They go into Joe's, the door closes, and crashes are heard. The bear walks out, picking his teeth; on his back is a tattoo reading "I'm Joe". Inside his stomach the Pilgrim holds up a sign: "Don't eat at Joe's".
Why It Matters
- It is wall-to-wall wartime topical humour, with rationing, the draft, the black market and party politics all crammed into a Pilgrim story. Many gags need footnotes now, but they show how closely Avery's cartoons tracked the daily life of their audience in 1945, and the "Eat at Joe's" running gag pays off perfectly.
- It is one of the few MGM cartoons in the U.S. public domain, because its copyright was not renewed, so it is among the most widely seen Avery shorts. It is also a showcase of his fastest gag style at MGM.
Notes and Trivia
- The Pilgrim's voice is an impersonation of Bill Thompson, Droopy's voice actor, who was away in the military.
- Some of the Pilgrims queuing for cigarettes are caricatures of Avery's animation crew.
- The "House of Seven Gobbles" puns on Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables.
- See also: The Screwy Truant (1945), Dumb-Hounded (1943).