32 Days of Halloween VI: 32 Days Lives - It Begins Here

As I type this, a full moon (or close enough) is high in the night sky outside. Once more, you did not heed the warnings. You read the Latin off the back of the cereal box. Or you pulled the stake out of the skeletal remains in the clothes hamper downstairs. Or you reconnected the battery in that haunted Buick you keep in the garage. Whatever it was, you did it all right. So what is about to transpire is entirely your fault. Yes, I'm talking to you.

Because Halloween-time is on the move again, and it claims September 30th for its very own--31 Days is not enough for us to celebrate the mayhem. Thus, 32 Days of Halloween, Part VI: 32 Days Lives begins here. Quake in your boots. And if you own no boots, rent some boots. Then quake in them.

We begin as we do every year, with a classic animated short. Tradition demands we alternate between Warner Brothers and Disney, so this year we're back with Looney Tunes and your friend and mine, Porky Pig. This is "Jeepers Creepers" from 1939, directed by Bob Clampett and music by Carl Stalling with vocal work, naturally, by the legendary Mel Blanc. Please note: the final gag is from a less enlightened time, to put it mildly.

Also of interest, the colorized version is available here. I'd embed it here for posterity, but it's just so damn blurry.

Oddly, this isn't available on DVD or Blu-Ray.

And because it occurs to me that some of our younger audience members might not be aware that the song referenced is indeed "Jeepers Creepers" from the year previous. Here's Jack Teagarden and Louis Armstrong playing and singing the hell out of it. Because we can.

Best place to find that is from his Ultimate Collection--though out of print on CD, it is still "in print" on MP3. Wise move, Verve. Danke.