Paul Terry | The Jolly Rounders / 1923

 claiming her man

by Douglas Messerli

 

Paul Terry (writer and cartoonist) The Jolly Rounders / 1923

 

Sometimes one has to wonder why or how even the most imaginative of cartoonists chose the subjects they did. Paul Terry’s 1923 six-and-a-half-minute cartoon The Jolly Rounders is the perfect example. Evidently meant to be one of his spoofs of Aesop’s Fables, this work features a happy Hippo—daddy to an even dozen of little hippos and husband to a strict, home-ruling wife—who has stayed out late one night to drink with his friend.

      He cautiously returns home, believing he might have escaped his wife’s wrath only to discover her waiting in the next room with a rolling pin in hand, which she uses violently when he finally tiptoes in, tossing him and seemingly everything he possesses out of the house.

      So far the stereotype of a wife who keeps her man in his place makes total sense. But when his friend suggests he dress up as a vamp to make her jealous, it is difficult to see the logic. Is the possibility of seeing him with another woman supposed to make her any less determined to maintain a strictly kept house?

      What the men immediately do when our Hippo friend puts on a dress, however, is truly quite hilarious and, given the effect of drag of men in the films of the 1920s is perhaps predictable. Not only is our beleaguered hero attracted to his friend in drag, the friend suddenly feels clearly drawn to his formerly straight companion.

     The two accordingly head to the Hippo’s home where his several children, playing in the front yard spot them and run into the house to report, “Hey ma, here comes pa with a bimbo.” In the front yard they put on a show wherein they suddenly seem to find each other so attractive that they kiss, kiss again, and move into a long smooching clinch. If this is merely a demonstration to the missus, they certainly seem to enjoy it, as they quickly step into a taxi and speed away, the angry wife racing after them with the rolling pin on the ready.

      As she finally becomes exhausted she falls to the ground in tears, the taxi stopping and her husband coming closer to console her. But the jealousy hasn’t, as he puts it, quite set in, and she’s ready to pick up her weapon once again.

     Suddenly she’s back on the chase, the friend having rushed back into the taxi and her husband racing after it with his wife directly behind. When the vampish friend finally falls from the vehicle she jumps upon him beating him endlessly for his gender deceit—if she even recognizes it as such. Homosexuality or drag behavior is not forgiven in the slightest in her case. But she does accept her husband back into her arms, kissing and hugging him as the children dance in a circle around the happy heterosexual couple.

     Here we see what seems to understood as just punishment for a gender confusion no matter how short-lived. What I’d like to see is how these two men react to each other when they again meet up. Will they giggle at the silly wiles, feel deeply embarrassed for their abnormal behavior, or wish, at least for a moment or two, they might have a companion a little less violent with whom to enjoy the night.

 

Los Angeles, September 13, 2023

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (September 2023).