Dog-Gone Funny!

Last week, I watched a documentary on Turner Classic Movies, called Added Attractions: The Hollywood Shorts Story, which highlighted the short subjects that used to run in front of movies from the 20s through the 50s. It was a fantastic film highlighting not only series that are still known today like The Three Stoooges, Our Gang ("Little Rascals"), Laurel and Hardy and more comedians, but many other types of shorts that you don't hear much about today. The documentary is included in a just-released Laurel & Hardy boxed set, and is well worth checking out.

What I want to spotlight now though is something I had never heard of befoe this and found utterly fascinating -- The Dogville Comedies. From a write-up on the documentary:

The Dogville Comedies, which spoofed hit movies of the day using dog actors, was the creation of Jules White and Zion Myers. Piano wire was used to hold the dogs in place and they were fed peanut butter to make the dogs' mouths move. Clips are shown from The Dogway Melody (1930) a parody of Oscar® winner The Broadway Melody (1929) and College Hounds (1930) in which the dogs played football.

Jules White's next project-- The Three Stooges. The clips the documentary showed on this series whet my apetite for more.

So, as always, youtube.com to the rescue . You HAVE to watch this. It's The Dogway Melody.

It is hysterical, and proably cruelty to animals, but it's WAY beyond dressing your dog in costume.