The overblown musicals of the 1930s easily set themselves up to get parodied (in my opinion, it was outright inappropriate of Hollywood to make these sorts of movies given that the country was in the midst of the Great Depression). One spoof was Tex Avery's "Page Miss Glory", which has also been known simply as "Miss Glory" to avoid confusion with a movie by the same name. It portrays a bellhop in a hotel in Hicksville awaiting the arrival of a glamorous movie star. When she doesn't come, he dreams that he's a bellhop in an Art Deco hotel probably spoofing the average Fred Astaire flick. But boy does he have a surprise coming at the end! I've always liked how the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons poked fun at the popular culture of their eras. Granted, this is one of the rarer ones (I watched it on YouTube). Apparently, some of the characters are caricatures of the Warner Bros. animation staff (among them Chuck Jones). Either way, it's a pretty interesting relic of their early days.
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lee_eisenberg2 August 2007
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I'd never seen the short 'toon PAGE MISS GLORY until this week (or if I did, it was so long ago that all I retain is a subliminal memory of the denouement), but the cartoon people reminded me of the ubiquitous long-nosed "Kilroy was here" WWII graffiti drawing and also of the cartoon work of Robert Crumb, who emerged in director Terry Zwigoff's 1994 documentary CRUMB as perhaps the most extreme American misogynist NOT behind bars. It's been 15 years since I viewed CRUMB, so I cannot remember if Robert lists PAGE MISS GLORY as an influence. Given what happens to the hapless bellboy Abner in the 1936 'toon, culminating in a comeuppance from the least of females, perhaps it's not stretching a point to speculate this cartoon may have permanently messed up Robert Crumb's psyche.
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pixrox11 August 2022. . . Lugging Bell Boys dream of slugging luggage when they sleep. This query is important to Science, since Igor Pavlov did his famous experiments with bells and "duffel dudes"--as they were denoted back then--in the 1900's. Russian shrink Pavlov played around by ringing bells at the Moscow Motel whenever a duffel dude needed to be summoned to lug a guest's duffel's. To his shock and surprise, Pavlov noticed that after a couple months of this regimen, the duffel dudes began to slobber whenever someone rang a bell. As PAGE MISS GLORY illustrates, this phenomenon occurred regardless of whether the duffel dude was awake or taking a cat nap. Now, more than a century later, whenever someone refers to "Pavlov's drooling dudes" in academic circles, everyone knows exactly what's being talked about. As a collateral development, once Pavlov's paper was published in National Geographic, the mass media began referring to duffel dudes as "bell boys," a practice that's become nearly universal Today.
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brucepantages-123 October 2003In the mid 1930's Cosmopolitan Productions, a W. R. Hearst subsidiary for the purpose of producing and promoting his mistress, Marion Davies', moved from M.G.M. to Warner Brothers. Page Miss Glory was the title of a feature film starring Miss Davies and this cartoon shares not only the lilting song from the feature film, but also its title and a caricature of its star. The action occurs in the "Cosmopolitan" Hotel (get it?). It is all packaged in a dream sequence that goes from a hick town to an art deco metropolis and to say that it is eye candy all the way is to understate. There is a Busby Berkeley style musical number in the middle of the proceedings and of course the Marion Davies character is heavily featured as the mysterious and elusive "Miss Glory." Fun stuff! Don't miss this one.
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Sylviastel13 June 2019This animated short appeared on the Top Hat DVD. The film is quick and has everybody's favorite characters included Bugs Bunny. The film is only eight minutes long and was often shown at the cinemas before the main feature.
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Horst_In_Translation9 December 2018These slightly under 8 minutes we got here go by the title of "Page Miss Glory" and are another Technicolor cartoon directed by Tex Avery for MGM. This Schlesinger Studios production is about a simple man, a young guy waiting at a hotel for the star of the night Miss Glory. And while it is a small hotel with cows and other animals passing by the front door, the action quickly moves into a much bigger, much more spectacular hotel where we see the way the guy imagines Miss Glory to look like. But iut does not have a whole lot to do with reality as we find out at the very end. Well, the discovery eventually is not funny enough to make up for the mediocrity before that. The characters, especially the lanky protagonist, did not look right on several occasions and the character design could have been a bit better for sure, even for a film that is over 80 years old. The only somewhat funny moment was the waiter who allows himself to take a drink when nobody is watching and we see his red nose afterward. Okay, the music: It is mediocre, not among the worst the film has to offer, but very irrelevant and basically just reciting the title. Not enough quality there either. My suggestion is to skip the watch here. Watch another cartoon instead, this is nowhere nearf the best, not even among the better the 1930s have to offer and the use of color alone isn't enough.
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phantom_tollbooth22 April 2009Tex Avery's 'Page Miss Glory' is one of the most beautiful cartoons ever made, a parody of the live action musical of the same name, incorporating art-deco experimentation into a lush, grandiose musical extravaganza. If ever testament were needed to Avery's directorial genius, 'Page Miss Glory' is ample answer alone. While a bellboy in Hicksville awaits the arrival of the much touted Miss Glory, he drifts off to sleep and fantasizes himself as bellboy in a huge luxury hotel in which all the male occupants are vying for the attention of the sultry Miss Glory. Stuffed to the gills with great gags and eye-popping visuals, 'Page Miss Glory' is a very early Warner Bros. masterpiece. Avery excels and, while his subsequent output would be crammed full of defining masterpieces, it's only a shame 'Page Miss Glory' seems to have got lost in the shuffle. It is, for want of a better word, truly a glorious creation.
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pheed18 February 2003There's something about the idealized look of early animation that appeals to me. This cartoon (though I haven't seen it in years) presents a peek into the imaginary high-living, cosmopolitan lifestyle of the well-to-do in the 1930's. The music is memorable, the drawing and shading are gorgeous. If you're anything like me this cartoon will have you longing for a life which only exists in our dreams.
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TheLittleSongbird31 May 2013Tex Avery was an animation genius, and while I consider Page Miss Glory one of his better cartoons it's not always mentioned amongst his other work. That's understandable though because there is so much from him and many masterpieces. The animation for want of a word is gorgeous, the characters are very well drawn and in Avery's distinctive style and the colouring is softly-shaded and colourful. The music is catchy and energy, right from the background music to the musical numbers. The choreography positively dazzles and never looks awkward in the animation. The gags are similarly great, there's plenty to be seen, and they are done in a fresh and imaginative way that ties in with the musical numbers too. Page Miss Glory's story is simply constructed, but made fun by the snappy pacing, gags and music, while the characters are sweet and the voice work and singing top-notch. In conclusion, glorious cartoon from Tex Avery. 10/10 Bethany Cox
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DerrickFerguson118 June 2004I saw the cartoon 'Page Miss Glory' on TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES for the first time in about 10 or 15 years and it brought back for me good memories of when I was a kid and a rushed home because I knew that the 'good' cartoons were going to be on Channel 5 here in New York. This is back in the days when we only had seven channels, kids.
Channel 5 showed the Warner Brothers cartoons and 'Page Miss Glory' was always one of my favorites along with the owl who wanted to singa about da moona and da junea an da springa and the one with the elephant who sang the 'Hut-Sut Song'.
Thanks to TCM for showing this wonderful cartoon and reviving such wonderful memories from my youth. -
Vimacone2 June 2018Tex Avery arrived at Schlesinger's in 1935 after working a few years as an animatir at the Lantz studio. Although no studio records exist anymore, Tex evidently made a strong impression on the studio very early on as he started directing the prestigious Technicolor Merrie Melodies almost immediately. He was the 2nd director to be given this status. MISS GLORY was the first Merrie Melody he directed.
While the formula of having to plug a song compromised Tex's objective for comedy, this short has been celebrated for its art deco backgrounds and character designs. It's almost like The New Yorker magazine in movement. It's really a one of a kind film for Tex, although this was very much in vogue for the 30s. I wonder what the full story is for the collaboration with the credted art director.
Reportedly Tex didn't care for this short, like most of his earlier efforts, which is really a shame, because this the most outstanding WB cartoons for early 1936; When most of the ouput was still in a mediocre stage. A short like this would have been more appreciated by Freleng and no doubt Tashlin, who utilized the art deco style to the fullest extent. But Avery pulled the style off very well.
Aling with I LOVE TO SINGA, this short is an early Avery masterpiece. -
. . . you'll wake up dead, but apparently it doesn't work that way in the Cartoon Universe. When Busby Berkeley has the live-action chick go over the high-rise balcony during "Broadway Melody," movie goers figure that she's kicked the bucket on pretty much every level. But when PAGE MISS GLORY's dozing bellboy floats down to the sidewalk like some specter of 9-11, strains of "Broadway Melody" trailing after him in the background, a streetcar stops just short of slicing him in half, so that the screaming hotel desk clerk can wake him up. However, despite that fact that Warner Bros. animators have drawn in many religious symbols and parables here, some of which could be taken as Islamic, I do not think that this is either Warner's most overt warning of an approaching September 11, or that that sad event is the primary focus of this cartoon. While it's true that more people died trapped inside elevators then than on any other date in recorded history, and PAGE MISS GLORY's hapless Bellboy becomes a Plinko Game Chip in elevators running amok, this is probably just a coincidence, or maybe a Real Bad Dream.