Jerky Turkey is an animated theatrical short, directed by Tex Avery

Tex Avery

Frederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery was an American animator, cartoonist, voice actor and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros...

, released on 7 April 1945 by MGM

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...

. The story for this cartoon was written by Heck Allen, the music by Scott Bradley

Scott Bradley

Scott Bradley was an American composer, pianist and conductor.Bradley is best remembered for scoring the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer theatrical cartoons, including those starring Tom and Jerry , Droopy , Barney Bear , and the many one-shot cartoons.Bradley was a...

, and the animation was done by Preston Blair

Preston Blair

Preston Blair was an American character animator, most noted for his work at Walt Disney Productions and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation department...

, Ed Love

Ed Love

Edward H. Love was an American animator who has worked at various studios during the golden age of animation. He is well known for his work at Disney , MGM , Walter Lantz , and his work on television shows such as Yogi Bear and The Flintstones.Love won a Golden Award at the 1984 Motion Pictures...

 and Ray Abrams. Voices were provided by radio actors Harry Lang, who appeared on the Cisco Kid, and Leone LeDoux, who specialised in baby cries. Internet sources claiming Daws Butler

Daws Butler

Charles Dawson "Daws" Butler was a voice actor originally from Toledo, Ohio. He worked mostly for Hanna-Barbera and originated the voices of many famous animated cartoon characters, including Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, Snagglepuss, and Huckleberry Hound.Daws Butler trained many working actors...

 provided a voice are incorrect, as he did not arrive in Hollywood until after World War Two.

Plot

The Pilgrim

Pilgrim

A pilgrim is a traveler who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journeying to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system...

s land at Plymouth Rock

Plymouth Rock

Plymouth Rock is the traditional site of disembarkation of William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. It is an important symbol in American history...

 and found a colony. A very large number of Pilgrims (some of them caricatures of Avery's animation crew) can be seen standing in line... for their cigarette rations. A Pilgrim goes hunting for a turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...

 dinner. The turkey outsmarts the pilgrim many times and eventually the two make up and decide to eat at "Joe's restaurant" which is being advertised by a bear, at the end the bear has eaten the two and reveals that he is Joe and the two complain inside the bear's stomach. Many of the gags revolve around life on the home front

Home front

Home front is the informal term commonly used to describe the civilian populace of the nation at war as an active support system of their military....

 in the United States during WWII

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, rationing

Rationing

Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, or services. Rationing controls the size of the ration, one's allotted portion of the resources being distributed on a particular day or at a particular time.- In economics :...

 and the black market. The turkey is a caricature

Caricature

A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...

 of the comedian Jimmy Durante

Jimmy Durante

James Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s...

.

Censorship

Some Cartoon Network

Cartoon Network

Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....

 and TBS

TBS (TV channel)

TBS , stylized in the logo as tbs, is an American cable television channel owned by Time Warner that shows a variety of programming, with a focus on comedy. TBS was originally known as WTCG, a UHF terrestrial television station that broadcast from Atlanta, Georgia, during the late 1970s...

 showings remove the "half breed" scene.

External links

• Available at the Internet Archive