And count Bob Nolan, Tim Spencer and Hugh Farr among the "voices heard" in this 1938 cartoon, that has more then just the morphing of Egghead into Elmer Fudd as an attribute.
Warner Bros owned a radio station in L.A. with the call letters of KFWB, so when a microphone with those call letters appears in this cartoon, it wasn't there by accident. Among the performers appearing on KFWB in 1933-34 was a group known as The Pioneer Trio (also known as the Gold Star Rangers on the program sponsored by the Farley Clothing Company), comprised of Leonard Slye, Bob Nolan and Tim Spencer. Fiddle player Hugh Farr joined them in late 1933-early 1934, and shortly after that staff announcer Harry Hall introduced the quartet as The Sons of the Pioneers, much to the surprise of The Pioneer Trio plus One. Halls explanation was that they all appeared too young to be pioneers but qualified as being sons of same, plus they were no longer a trio. The first printed appearance of the Sons of the Pioneers name was in a newspaper radio log dated March 3, 1934.
The music in this cartoon begins with a trio yodel (Slye, Nolan and Spencer), followed by the instrumental "Arkansas Traveler" and then a short song that begins with..."Let's get out the shootin' irons"...with the voice and fiddle of Hugh Farr there along with the other three musicians. And the entrances of Egghead (as Elmer Fudd-Peacemaker)are preceded by the yodeling voice of Leonard Slye. Yes, we could write the name Roy Rogers instead of Slye, but since Slye was not using the name of Roy Rogers when the music heard in this film was first recorded, we tend to side with the remaining few who prefer historical accuracy in film credits.
But...AHA!... says the WB cartoon lovers (count me in that group) who can read release dates, this cartoon was released on September 24,1938 and Leonard Slye had been renamed Roy Rogers by Republic Pictures Corporation back in 1937.
But...AHA...replies I (without an exclamation mark, which ranks second only to the word "Awesome" as a tiresome overdone exercise),read the small print above that states..."when this music was first recorded." You can bet your last dollar than when "A Feud There Was" was in the planning stage, Tex Avery and Carl Stallings weren't over at the Schlesinger Corral putting in a call to Roy Rogers to come over to the lot and record some music and, by the way, bring the Sons of the Pioneers...uh...wait...just bring Tim Spencer, Hugh Farr and Bob Nolan and leave Pat Brady, Karl Farr and Lloyd Perryman over at Columbia to back up Donald Grayson. We don't want to make Harry Cohn mad, and Leon ain't going to pay for Roy Rogers and six Sons of the Pioneers for an eight-minute cartoon.
No, the music heard here came from the first Standard Radio transcriptions ( mid-1934 with 102 songs featuring Slye, Nolan, Spencer and Hugh Farr ), owned by Gerald King, program director at KFWB, who had his own moonlighting company on the side. The second and third transcription series were made after Karl Farr joined the group and completed the original quintet. And Leonard Slye left the group in 1937, signed a contract with Republic and had his billing name changed to Roy Rogers, and was replaced as a member of The Sons of the Pioneers in October, 1937 by Pat Brady.
We'd like to add Slye, Nolan, Spencer and Farr as uncredited voices to this cartoon, but we'd have to use the name Roy Rogers to do so, and would not be allowed to,since he was uncredited, add the attribute (as Leonard Slye), so we'll leave that to be done by those less picky regarding historical accuracy in cast listings.
Did the four-member Sons of the Pioneers get paid for their work in this cartoon?
Of course not. They had already sold all rights to their KFWB and Standard Transcriptions to Gerald King, for a measly $600.
Did they even know, in 1938, their music and voices were used in this cartoon?
Not unless one of them caught the cartoon on original release, and told the others they didn't.
For other uncredited music by the Sons of the Pioneers in cartoons, see 1935's "Bronco Buster" from Walter Lantz and Universal.
