The Adventures of Paddy the Pelican

The Adventures of Paddy the Pelican is an American animated television series that debuted on local stations in Chicago during the 1950s.[1] It is exceedingly rare, but has gained some fame for appearing on Jerry Beck's Worst Cartoons Ever. On the DVD, Beck states that he has not found any evidence that this particular animated adaptation was aired on TV, although there is evidence that the Paddy the Pelican character began in 1950 as a local TV puppet show on Chicago's WENR-TV (now WLS-TV), with Helen York and Ray Suber as puppeteers.[1][2][3]

The Adventures of Paddy the Pelican
The opening title card to "The Adventures of Paddy the Pelican"
GenreAdventure
Comedy
Created bySam Singer
Directed bySam Singer
Voices ofSam Singer
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes6
Production
Running time5 minutes
Production companyTempe-Toons (referred to as "Medallion Productions" during the end titles)
Release
Original networkABC
Original releaseSeptember 11 (1950-09-11) –
October 13, 1950 (1950-10-13)

Description

In the cartoon, Paddy's adventures were presented in comic strip drawings done by Sam Singer.[4][5] This show appeared on the ABC network in the fall of 1950, but for only one month.[1] The show aired on the ABC television network weekdays between 5:15 and 5:30pm from September 11, 1950 to October 13, 1950.[6] Singer had also started producing a newspaper, Paddy Pelican Junior Journal.[7] The animated episodes currently in existence all have copyright dates of 1954, but the copyright was never renewed, so the series is in the public domain today.

The show is noted for its pencil tests that were never finalized to the actual animation, reused animation, rambling and apparently improvised voiceovers by the creator himself, a muffled and poorly synchronized soundtrack made by an organ, and general low-budget problems.[8] The only music is a few chords played on an organ, although the title card is accompanied by a man making noises apparently intended to sound like a pelican squawking. Most of the characters were voiced by Singer; however, one character was voiced by an uncredited actress.

Singer, who worked for Disney and other Hollywood animation studios, also produced a local children's television show, based on the Marshall Field's character "Uncle Mistletoe", as well as other early animated shows.[9]

The theme music was composed by Charles A. Cavallo.[10]

In October 2016, all the shorts were uploaded to YouTube.[11] They were taken from the original 16mm prints and were transferred, then uploaded online.

Episodes
# Title Original air date Length
1"Piggy Bank Robbery"September 11, 1950 (1950-09-11)[6]5:03
Paddy is observing Kenny Crow's odd banking habits. Kenny hides his savings in a piggy bank that is stashed in a secret panel of his house. But the evil Freddie Fox discovers the hiding place and conspires to steal the money while framing Paddy for the crime. Freddie plants pelican-shaped muddy footprints across Kenny's floor – and Kenny reacts to the theft by blaming Paddy. So Paddy needs to figure out who the real culprit is before he is sent behind bars.[12]
2"Two Wet Bears"September 18, 1950 (1950-09-18)[13][14]5:15
Amos and Buster the bears are swimming in the ocean when they discover an abandoned boat. A thunderstorm comes and wrecks the boat on the island, where the boat's owner, Beachcomber Bill, threatens to eat the two bears for wrecking his boat. A passing Paddy assists the two bears in getting off the island and out of danger.[15]
3"The Land of More"September 25, 1950 (1950-09-25)5:17

A boy wants to have a bigger balloon, so a mischievous elf makes it so big that it flies him all the way to "The Land of More", where things don't go the way he hoped.

  • This is the only short that doesn't feature Paddy.
4"Pirate Pete"October 2, 1950 (1950-10-02)6:01

Joco and Mary help out the Indians get their gold back from Pirate Pete.

  • Paddy only makes a brief cameo at the end of the short.
5"Swania Foiled Again"October 9, 1950 (1950-10-09)5:26
When the 50 bushels of corn suddenly disappears on the day they were to repay the fictional country Swania, Paddy does some detective work to find the culprit so they don't lose their land.
6"Plum Valley"October 13, 1950 (1950-10-13)[6]5:39
Paddy and a pie maker goes to Plum Valley when there's a plum shortage, only to have trouble getting out of the village afterwards, so Paddy figures out a way to get them out of this.

Merchandise

Sam Singer had a coloring book published called The Paddy Pelican Story and Coloring Mak-A-Book. The Michigan State University Library currently has a copy of this rare coloring book in their possession.[16] It is also in the public domain.

Bibliography
  • Hollis, Tim (2001). Hi There, Boys and Girls! America's Local Children's TV Programs. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-578-06396-3. via Project MUSE (subscription required)
  • Okuda, Ted; Mulqueen, Jack (2004). The Golden Age of Chicago Children's Television. Lake Claremont Press. ISBN 978-1-893-12117-1.

References
  1. Hollis 2001, p. 100.
  2. "Forgotten Friends". ChicagoTelevision. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  3. Woolery, George W. (1985). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part II: Live, Film, and Tape Series. The Scarecrow Press. pp. 386–387. ISBN 0-8108-1651-2.
  4. "Comic Art Collection-Coloring Books-Paddy the Pelican". Michigan State University. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  5. Okuda & Mulqueen 2004, p. 227.
  6. "Paddy the Pelican". TV Acres. Archived from the original on April 26, 2015. Retrieved April 24, 2015.
  7. Moppet Tab Papers By-Product of TV. Billboard. 1 July 1950. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  8. "The Adventures of Paddy the Pelican (found early animated TV series; 1950s) - The Lost Media Wiki". lostmediawiki.com. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  9. Cohen, Karl F., ed. (2004). Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America. McFarland. p. 238. ISBN 0-7864-2032-4. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  10. "1946-1954 Copyright Registration Cards (A-N)". 1946.
  11. "Paddy the Pelican - YouTube". YouTube. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  12. "Retro Cinema - The Adventures of Paddy the Pelican - FilmSnobbery". 4 February 2011. Archived from the original on 11 November 2016. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  13. Lackmann, Ronald W. (January 1971). "Remember television". Putnam. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
  14. W. Lackmann, Ronald (January 1971). Remember television. p. 52.
  15. toontracker (18 March 2007). "Paddy the Pelican - Piggy Bank Robbery". Retrieved 19 June 2017 – via YouTube.
  16. https://www.worldcat.org/title/paddy-pelican-story-and-coloring-mak-a-book/oclc/54404839
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