Uncommon first edition sheet music of Woody Woodpecker's iconic theme song, signed with an original drawing by cartoonist Walter Lantz, creator of Woody Woodpecker. We have traced no other signed copies of this famous song ever having appeared on the market. Together with a signed souvenir photograph, as follows:
1.) "Woody Woodpecker" original sheet music by George Tibbles and Ramey Idriss, featured and recorded by Kay Kyser. New York: Leeds Music Corporation, 1948. 4pp. Signed in the lower right of front cover, "Walter Lantz", with a charming sketch of the eponymous character. Heavy to moderate creasing throughout, with areas of uneven staining. Small, intermittent tears present to edges. Featuring a holographic Beckett authentication sticker affixed in the lower right verso. Measures 9" x 12" overall.
2.) Black and white photograph signed in the margins, "To William W. Stanhope/ Walter Lantz 1980". The image shows Lantz surrounded by his beloved characters, among them Woody Woodpecker, Chilly Willy, and Andy Panda. Exhibits light curling to edges, else very good. Featuring a holographic Beckett authentication sticker affixed in the lower right verso. Measures 4.75" x 7".
In 1947, Woody got his theme song when musicians George Tibbles and Ramey Idriss wrote "The Woody Woodpecker Song", making ample use of the character's famous laugh. Kay Kyser's 1948 recording of the song, with Harry Babbitt's laugh interrupting vocalist Gloria Wood, became one of the biggest hit singles of 1948. Other artists did covers, including Woody's original voice actor, Mel Blanc. Lantz first used "The Woody Woodpecker Song" in Wet Blanket Policy (1948), and it became the first and only song from an animated short subject to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1948, but it lost out to "Buttons and Bows". Lantz soon adopted the song as Woody's theme music.
"The Woody Woodpecker Song" and the Woody Woodpecker cartoons extensively used Woody's famous laugh, upsetting the man who created it, Mel Blanc. He first used the laughter, in a different recording, for the seminal pre-Bugs Bunny character in 1938's Porky's Hare Hunt. Although Blanc had only recorded three shorts as the voice of Woody, his laugh had been recorded as a stock sound effect and used in every subsequent Woody Woodpecker short up until this point. Blanc sued Lantz and lost, but Lantz settled out of court when Blanc filed an appeal. Although Lantz stopped using Blanc's Woody Woodpecker laugh as a stock effect in the early 1950s, Blanc's voice was still heard saying "Guess who?" at the beginning of every cartoon for the duration of the Woody Woodpecker series.
Uncommon first edition sheet music of Woody Woodpecker's iconic theme song, signed with an original drawing by cartoonist Walter Lantz, creator of Woody Woodpecker. We have traced no other signed copies of this famous song ever having appeared on the market. Together with a signed souvenir photograph, as follows:
1.) "Woody Woodpecker" original sheet music by George Tibbles and Ramey Idriss, featured and recorded by Kay Kyser. New York: Leeds Music Corporation, 1948. 4pp. Signed in the lower right of front cover, "Walter Lantz", with a charming sketch of the eponymous character. Heavy to moderate creasing throughout, with areas of uneven staining. Small, intermittent tears present to edges. Featuring a holographic Beckett authentication sticker affixed in the lower right verso. Measures 9" x 12" overall.
2.) Black and white photograph signed in the margins, "To William W. Stanhope/ Walter Lantz 1980". The image shows Lantz surrounded by his beloved characters, among them Woody Woodpecker, Chilly Willy, and Andy Panda. Exhibits light curling to edges, else very good. Featuring a holographic Beckett authentication sticker affixed in the lower right verso. Measures 4.75" x 7".
In 1947, Woody got his theme song when musicians George Tibbles and Ramey Idriss wrote "The Woody Woodpecker Song", making ample use of the character's famous laugh. Kay Kyser's 1948 recording of the song, with Harry Babbitt's laugh interrupting vocalist Gloria Wood, became one of the biggest hit singles of 1948. Other artists did covers, including Woody's original voice actor, Mel Blanc. Lantz first used "The Woody Woodpecker Song" in Wet Blanket Policy (1948), and it became the first and only song from an animated short subject to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1948, but it lost out to "Buttons and Bows". Lantz soon adopted the song as Woody's theme music.
"The Woody Woodpecker Song" and the Woody Woodpecker cartoons extensively used Woody's famous laugh, upsetting the man who created it, Mel Blanc. He first used the laughter, in a different recording, for the seminal pre-Bugs Bunny character in 1938's Porky's Hare Hunt. Although Blanc had only recorded three shorts as the voice of Woody, his laugh had been recorded as a stock sound effect and used in every subsequent Woody Woodpecker short up until this point. Blanc sued Lantz and lost, but Lantz settled out of court when Blanc filed an appeal. Although Lantz stopped using Blanc's Woody Woodpecker laugh as a stock effect in the early 1950s, Blanc's voice was still heard saying "Guess who?" at the beginning of every cartoon for the duration of the Woody Woodpecker series.