Studio: Harman-Ising Productions, Leon Schlesinger Productions (Merrie Melodies)
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures, The Vitaphone Corporation
Produced by: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising, Leon Schlesinger
Short Synopsis
The circus comes to town, and the parade is the first half of the cartoon: elephants, bands, clowns and sideshow freaks march through the streets to Harold Arlen's "I Love a Parade", the Warner Bros. song the film exists to plug, with Foxy's successors, the nameless Merrie Melodies dog couple, as the romantic leads. The second half moves inside the big top for the show itself, a run of circus acts turned into gags, acrobats, strongmen, a daredevil and the usual animals, with a villain who makes trouble for the girl and a hero who deals with him. The title on the film drops the "I" of the song's name. It is a song cartoon in the Merrie Melodies manner of 1932: plot is minimal, the chorus comes round twice, and everybody dances.
Why It Matters
- The early Merrie Melodies were made to sell Warner Bros. sheet music, and this one has one of the best songs the series ever drew on; Marsales's arrangement and Ising's parade staging make the first reel a genuine production number, with the circus crowd moving in rhythm in a way the studio would perfect under Freleng.
- Love a Parade comes from the second season of Merrie Melodies, after Foxy and Piggy had been dropped as too close to Mickey Mouse, when Harman and Ising were running two series at once on a shoestring; within a year they would quit Schlesinger. Carman Maxwell and Rochelle Hudson, later a Hollywood actress, supplied the voices.
Notes and Trivia
- Arlen and Koehler wrote "I Love a Parade" for the Cotton Club revue Rhyth-Mania in 1931.
- The film is sometimes listed under the full song title.
- See also: You're Too Careless with Your Kisses (1932), Bosko the Doughboy (1931).