Busy Bakers Explained

Busy Bakers
Director:	Ben Hardaway Cal Dalton
Producer:	Leon Schlesinger
Story:	Jack Miller
Starring:	Mel Blanc The Sportsmen Quartet (both uncredited)
Music:	Carl W. Stalling
Animator:	Richard Bickenbach
Studio:	Leon Schlesinger Productions
Distributor:	Warner Bros. Pictures
Color Process:	Technicolor
Country:	United States
Language:	English

Busy Bakers is a 1940 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton.^[1] The short was released on February 10, 1940.^[2]

Plot

The local town baker faces going out of business, so an old man decides to help him stay in business after a kind deed offered to him by the baker. He then decides to go into business with the old man.

Home media

• LaserDisc - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Volume 4, Side 8
• DVD - Brother Orchid (USA 1995 Turner print added as a bonus)^[3]

Notes

• This short is notable for being the final cartoon to be directed by Hardaway and Dalton, due to Friz Freleng returning to Warner Bros. animation studios from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's animation studio in 1939, following the failure of their Captain and the Kids series. As a result, Hardaway was demoted back to storyman. He left after being demoted and joined Walter Lantz at Universal Studios, where he helped create Woody Woodpecker.^[4] Cal Dalton worked as an animator until 1947 after demotion when Freleng returned.
• This cartoon was re-released into the Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies program on October 20, 1945.^[5]

Notes and References

1. Book: Beck . Jerry . Friedwald . Will . Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons . 1989 . Henry Holt and Co . 0-8050-0894-2 . 99.
2. Book: Lenburg . Jeff . The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons . 1999 . Checkmark Books . 0-8160-3831-7 . 6 June 2020 . 104–106.
3. Web site: Brother Orchid. 25 March 2008. Amazon.
4. Book: Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation. Kevin S. Sandler. Rutgers University Press. 1998. 9780813525389.
5. Web site: Michael J. Hayde's BETTER LIVING THROUGH TELEVISION: BLUE RIBBON BLUES. Michael J.. Hayde. 18 August 2013.