Bugs Bunny and the Tortoise

Abstract

I first found this album in fair condition during a chance visit to an antiques store in Duluth. As I researched that copy, I learned that the record and book were first done in 1947 and then republished in 1975. I could not and cannot find any date information on either the printed material or the record. Researching that lovely find led me to finding this better preserved copy online. My research this time has revealed online a different cover than we find on these two. That different cover includes "Bozo and His Rocket Ship," "Produced by Alan Livingston," and "ZIV International." Might I presume that that cover with additional information – and a rocket ship! -- is the 1975 version? In any case, I will keep both copies in the collection and give this copy a different ID on the chance that our two copies are different editions. As I wrote about that poorer copy, in Disney and Random House presentations of TH, the rabbit resembles Bugs Bunny. Well, here is Bugs Bunny himself in Capitol Records and Warner Brothers' "Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies" presenting the famous race. Elmer Fudd is, both visually and on the 78 rpm records, our host and narrator. The book, pasted into the cardboard jacket, has 20 double-sided pages, numbered to allow viewers to see a pair of facing pages with every portion of the two records. Bugs trips over a book of TH. Bugs goes directly to the end of the book to see by how much the hare beat the tortoise. He is angered by the result, even more when a tortoise offers to bet him on a race together. Daffy Duck serves as announcer for the race out and back again. After establishing an early lead, Bugs opines that the hare in the book probably knocked himself out. Bugs tries to avoid that by taking a rest. In the meantime, he puts a young duck into the water even though that duck does not want to get wet. Fun goes further when Bugs passes the tortoise, and the tortoise asks a taxi to follow Bugs. Only the taxi does not take the tortoise with him! Bugs walks into a trap, set for chickens by Henery the Hawk. A carrot farm proves to be Bugs' undoing. His stomach bulges as he sleeps against a tree. When the tortoise comes by, Bugs surprises him with the alarm clock he has set. The tortoise air mails himself by having a couple of air mail stamps slapped onto himself. Bugs wins by an ear. After a close finish, Bugs declares that "Bugs Bunny won by a hare!"