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From: <name omitted> Subject: Re: On with the Show this is it... In article <identifiers omitted> <another name omitted> writes: > Could someone please send me the complete set of words for the song > that opens/closes the bugs bunny cartoons. You know...the song starts > off something like this: > > Oh Mashay, Purple Lights > This is it; the life we like > We've been rehearsing and working our parts > We know every part by heart... My goodness! "Oh Mashay, Purple Lights"? <insert badly suppressed laughter here> I'm sorry, I'll behave now. ....
From: <someone else's name omitted> This is TOTALLY from long-term memory, probably not totally right, but it's the best I can come up with for now... Overture, curb the lights, This is it, the night of nights, ... Are there other verses?
Actually, <omitted> wasn't too far off. I have a newly-released book on the Warner Bros. animation studios (the real inside story) called "From Cels to Cells--Bugs, Thugs, and Drugs at Warner Brothers" And it lists the words to this song. If you sing it, you'll see how well it fits the tune. I'll add explanations as appropriate:
Oh Mache' Curb the Lights! This a zit? Deny the knights! No Morey--hearse Ignore nursing apart. Ween? Oh, Avery part! Pie art!
Oh, Mature! Curb the Lights! This a zit? We lit the hides! And owe what hides we lit. Unwitting Joe, This a zit?
NOTES:
OH MACHE'--(as in paper-mache--for various reasons, this was WB slang for heroin)
CURB THE LIGHTS!--(The assistant animators and 'tweeners used to laugh at how badly their stoned-out bosses reacted to the bright lights used in production.)
THIS A ZIT? --(Cartoon characters never have complexion problems before their close up scenes. This was the animation studio's dig at live actors and the difficulties of working with them.)
DENY THE KNIGHTS!--(Again, a dig at the live stuff. WB had been cranking out those chivalry epics one after another.)
NO MOREY HEARSE--(Morey Amsterdam wanted to do some voices for them, and the animators wanted him. Blanc pulled some strings with Jack Warner, though, and Morey was `dead')
IGNORE NURSING APART--(Chuck Jones's very shapely young wife was nursing her new baby around the studios, and he'd asked everyone-- especially the lascivious Tex Avery--not to stare at her.)
WEEN? OH, AVERY PART! PIE ART!--(Jones frequently threatened to decorate Avery's face with a pie if he (TA) didn't stop staring at his (CJ) wife's breasts.
OH, MATURE!--(Victor Mature was always hanging around the studios, trying to get them to model a 'toon after him. The couldn't get rid of him.)
CURB THE LIGHTS!--(ibid)
THIS A ZIT?--(ibid)
WE LIT THE HIDES!--(Referring to the evening of the drunken rampage in which they burned all the old WB Tarzan costumes.)
AND OWE WHAT HIDES WE LIT.--(They, of course, had to reimburse the studio for this arsonous running amok.)
UNWITTING JOE--(Their secret nickname for a local teamster boss who had a lot of leverage over all their union staff)
THIS A ZIT?--(ibid)
Are there other verses?
Yes, but you don't want to hear 'em. They are reeeaaalllly obscure!
Hope this helps.
Gary L. Dryfoos
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