The Autograph Hound

The Autograph Hound

The Autograph Hound is a 1939 Donald Duck cartoon which features Donald Duck as an autograph hunter in Hollywood. Many celebrities from the 1930s are featured.

Plot

Donald Duck tries to enter a Hollywood studio so he can search celebrities willing to sign their autograph. A police officer guarding the gate prevents him from entering the building. Donald manages to sneak inside by climbing on the limousine with Greta Garbo so that it seems he's riding along with her. The police officer discovers he's been fooled and chases Donald, who enters a room with the name "Mickey Rooney" on it. Inside, Mickey Rooney is dressing up in front of the mirror, when Donald asks him for his autograph. Rooney writes his name in Donald's book and makes it disappear and reappear with a magic trick. Donald, who is not amused, tries to impress Rooney by doing a similar trick with an egg. The egg is however obviously hidden under Donald's hat and Rooney who is aware of this, crushes it, laughing loudly. Donald gets extremely angry and starts waving his fists, while Rooney manages to put a violin in Donald's hands. When Donald discovers he has been tricked for the third time he throws the violin at Rooney. Rooney ducks and the instrument lands in the face of the police officer.

Alarmed, Donald runs away and hides under a bell-jar carried by actor Henry Armetta. When the police officer discovers Donald's hiding place the duck runs to another film set full with ice. There he meets Sonja Henie and asks her for an autograph. Henie signs her name by skating it in the ice, so that Donald has to carry it with him. While walking in a desert setting Donald discovers the ice has melted. He notices a tent with the silhouettes of three belly dancing Arabic women, who turn out to be The Ritz Brothers. Excited, he asks them for their autographs, but behaving like screwballs they jump on Donald and sign their group name on his buttocks. An enraged Donald throws a paint can at their heads, but it hits the face of the police officer instead.

Again Donald has to flee and he runs to a castle with the sign The Road To Mandalay, which turns out to be just a model. After bumping his head into it and realizing his mistake he runs into another direction. On a pair of stairs he bumps into Shirley Temple. She recognizes him and asks him too to sign an autograph? They both sit down to sign each other their autographs and Donald, excited he has his first real autograph, jumps in the air with joy. Then the police officer grabs him. Shirley Temple protests by saying: "You leave him alone: that's Donald Duck!". The police officer is surprised and drops Donald on the floor: "Did you say "Donald Duck"?" Other Hollywood actors hear his comment and enthusiastically rush to Donald to ask him to sign his autograph for them. (In chronological order: Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Charlie McCarthy, Stepin Fetchit, Roland Young, some anonymous soldiers actors and a cowboy actor on a horse, Joe E. Brown, Martha Raye, Hugh Herbert, Irvin S. Cobb, Edward Arnold, Katherine Hepburn, Eddie Cantor, Slim Summerville, Lionel Barrymore, Bette Davis, Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Mischa Auer, Joan Crawford and Charles Boyer). When the police officer asks Donald to sign his autograph book and offers him his pen, Donald squirts ink in the policeman's face. While the ink drips from the officer's face and writes Donald's name on his chest, Donald laughs hysterically.

Cultural references

* Quite a few of the caricatures featured at the end of the cartoon also appeared in an earlier Disney short: Mother Goose Goes Hollywood (1938)

* Donald Duck imitated Sonja Henie in an earlier cartoon, The Hockey Champ (1939).

* Bette Davis is featured in her role as Jezebel (1938 film), Lionel Barrymore appears as Dr. Gillespie from the Dr. Kildare film series and Charles Boyer is dressed as Napoleon Bonaparte in reference to his film Conquest (1937 film).

* The Road to Mandalay was the working title of the first "Road To"-series film: Road to Singapore, with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.

ee also

* Mickey's Gala Premiere
* Mickey's Polo Team
* Mother Goose Goes Hollywood
* Hollywood Steps Out
* Hollywood Daffy
* Slick Hare
* What's Cookin' Doc?

More information

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031064/ IMDB entry]

* [http://www.2719hyperion.com/2007/09/behind-walls-of-hollywood-studios.html Explanation and visual comparison between the caricatures featured in the cartoon and the real celebrities]


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