Thursday, May 14, 2015

Toons You Might've Missed: Little Audrey (1947)

I first became acquainted with Playful Little Audrey in Harvey Comics in the 70's, but her history extends well beyond her comics debut.

Audrey, you see, came out of folklore many years earlier, and had been licensed by Paramount's Famous Studios division in 1947 for a series of animated shorts. Ever reliable Mae Questel, the voice of Olive Oyl & Betty Boop, added Audrey to her repertoire. Audrey's adventures were often far more whimsical than that of Betty Boop, or even Olive's better known beau, Popeye.

Audrey made her comics debut in 1948 at St. John publishing, and was acquired by Harvey some time later. U. M. & M., which picked up the rights to Betty Boop, also acquired some pre-1950 Audrey cartoons as well. However, this is the original Paramount-Famous print of "Tarts & Flowers", from 1950.




Ever since Harvey discontinued its comics in the early 80's, Audrey has been kept in limbo. With cable networks looking for some girl-centric cartoons, maybe it's time Audrey made a comeback?

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