Detouring America Explained

Detouring America
Director:	Fred Avery
Story:	Jack Miller
Animator:	Rollin Hamilton
Starring:	Robert C. Bruce Mel Blanc (all uncredited)
Studio:	Leon Schlesinger Productions
Runtime:	7 minutes 57 seconds
Language:	English

Detouring America is a 1939 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Tex Avery.^[1] The short was released on August 26, 1939.^[2]

Plot

A tour of the United States, with recurring checks on the progress of the human fly climbing the Empire State Building. Also featured are jokes and gags on the Everglades, the Wyoming prairies, Alaska, a California prospector, Sioux Indians and a Jerry Colonna-esque (literal) Texas cow-puncher.

Home media

• LaserDisc – The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Volume 5, Side 2 (USA 1995 Turner print)
• DVD – Each Dawn I Die (USA 1995 Turner print added as a bonus)

Censorship

• Two scenes are excised from the cartoon when aired on Cartoon Network and Boomerang United States television networks due to ethnic stereotyping against Native Americans and Inuit. They are:^[3]

• The scene with a poor, black hitchhiker at the North Pole, who sings "Carry Me Back to Ol' Virginny". Then, an Eskimo sends him back by taking him all the way back to the Virginia state line.

• The scene with an Indian mother dealing with her dopey, oversized, adult son she's carrying on her back.

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 . 91.
2. Book: Lenburg . Jeff . The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons . 1999 . Checkmark Books . 0-8160-3831-7 . 6 June 2020 . 104–106.
3. Web site: The Censored Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Guide: D.