Release Date:

February 20, 1954

Main Character(s):

None

Summary:

A housewife named Marsha tells her unsympathetic and chauvinist husband, John, just exactly how busy her day was.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1280 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

The cartoon is a satire on marriage viewpoints in the 1950’s.

John and Marsha’s names are based off of Stan Freberg’s novelty record, “John and Marsha”.

This is a good example of how the backgrounds were influenced by UPA during this period.

This cartoon is a favorite of my mother’s and it’s also one of the few she actually remembers the title of (of course, unless you’re a fan of the Warner cartoons like me, most people likely don’t keep up with cartoon titles unless it’s a favorite of theirs).

The cartoon was originally titled “My Daze”, which is a pun for “My Days”.

The mailman looks a bit like McKimson himself.

The animator draft for the cartoon can be viewed here.

The pale-skinned Caspar J. Fragile looks a bit similar to the motorist in “There Auto Be a Law”.

“Powerhouse” plays during the scene where the parking meter is replaced with a fire hydrant.

Favorite Scene:

Marsha gets stuck behind not one, but two ladies making large deposits entirely in pennies.

What Happens in This One:

At the end of the day, Marsha walks into the living room and sits down exhausted just as John comes home. After he kisses her, he asks her where the kids are. Marsha tells him they went to an early show before walking into the kitchen. John then asks her, “Oh, uh, did you get to the bank?” Marsha: “Yes, I did, dear”. John: “Pick up my suit at the cleaners?” Marsha: “Yes, dear”. John: “Did you mow the lawn?” Marsha realizes she didn’t do this and gasps, “Gosh!” under her breath before answering, “I-I didn’t, John. I simply didn’t have time”. John walks in bewildered, “Didn’t have time!?” Marsha explains, “But John, I had so much to do. I just-” (animated by Rod Scribner), but John rudely interrupts, “Oh, you women. With all the time in the world on your hands, you never find time to get anything done”. Marsha lets out an offended scoff. “‘Huh’, huh!?”, John remarks, “Well, suppose ya tell me just exactly what you DID do with your time today?” as he pulls out a chair and sits down to listen (animated by Charles McKimson).

Marsha tells him, “Very well, dear. Gladly!” before she begins and a flashback is shown for most of the remainder of the cartoon, “After a night of blissful slumber (animated by Charles), enhanced by the symphony of the human buzz saw in the next bed”, referring to John’s snoring, “I leisurely arose when the alarm went off at 6 am”. Marsha gets up and rushes around to shut all of the windows, accidentally shutting one on the cat’s tail before setting him free (animated by Scribner). She then calls the children up, “Wake up, children. Come on. Time to get up”, before going downstairs and plugging in several appliances. She then calls from the bottom of the stairs, “John? Are you up?” John, from offscreen, sleepily replies, “Yeah”. Marsha then says, “Hurry up now, children” (animated by Keith Darling).

Marsha goes back into the kitchen and squeezes oranges and prepares the toast at the same time. The two kids, one boy and one girl, run down the stairs as the brother tells his sister, “Come on, slowpoke!”, to which she retorts, “I’m NOT a slowpoke!” The brother is delighted with breakfast, “Oh, boy! Bango! I love bango!”, but the sister complains, “I don’t like it!”, to which the brother figures, “Eh, girls don’t like nothing!” and then scolds his sister, “Hey! Don’t take all the cream!” The sister argues, “I can have as much as I like! Mother said so!” As they continue arguing, Marsha calls up the stairs, “John, hurry up! Your breakfast’s getting cold!” John then runs quickly down the stairs and talks very fast, “Just have time for a cup of coffee, dear! I’m late!” and also greets the children quickly, “Hi, kids!” As he heads out the door, John kisses everyone lined up beside the door, with the brother holding up the dog, and absentmindedly does this with the mailman as well (animated by Phil DeLara up to here). The mailman spits in disgust and remarks in annoyance, “Ooh, I hate that!” (animated by Darling)

Marsha continues as she is seen in a maid outfit in the flashback, “Then, of course, there was a little housework to be done!”, as she goes into a closet, “But thanks to that lovely present you so thoughtfully gave me for our last anniversary, it was practically no work at all!” Said present is a vacuum cleaner with several detached parts. She then begins to sound frustrated, “There were attachments to do all the work!” After connecting the appropriate attachments, she begins vacuuming the rug, only for the back to start letting out smoke. Marsha lets out a shameful groan before turning the vacuum off and then sweeping the rug instead (animated by Charles).

The next scene fades to the outside of the Eighth National Bank. “Then, lover boy, I took off to the bank to deposit those checks you told me to”. Marsha ends up stuck behind a very long line of people making deposits for the teller. Another teller becomes available so Marsha goes up to him to make her deposit. Unfortunately, a little old lady beats her to it to make a deposit of $200 in pennies, taking each out one by one while counting them. In the middle of this, the other line becomes shorter and shorter until there’s no one left. Marsha heads back over there only for a posh-sounding old lady to beat her to it and also make a deposit of pennies. She too takes each penny out one by one while counting them, much to Marsha’s displeasure (animated by DeLara).

Marsha then drives up to the Red Cross Blood Bank. “I almost forgot I’d promised to give a pint of blood to the Red Cross Blood Bank” (animated by DeLara). Inside the bank, a doctor instructs a woman to go “right in there, please” to deposit her pint of blood, before his next customer is a very pale-looking meek man. This man’s name is Caspar J. Fragile. The doctor asks, “And you want to deposit some blood, sir?” Caspar groans, “Oh, no, sir. I want to make a withdrawal”. Sounding somewhat disgusted, the doctor clears his throat while facepalming (animated by Herman Cohen).

“Lacy’s was having a sale so I dashed over there and bought you a pair of socks- and a few little things for myself”. Marsha is seen carrying a huge stack of boxes of things she bought there while walking out, and puts a small box in the way of her view up on top so she can see. Marsha then looks at her watch: “12:30. No wonder I’m hungry”. She walks with the stack of boxes into “Nifty Drugs” (animated by DeLara). From her point of view, the soda jerk asks Marsha, “What’s yours, lady?” She asks for a giant chocolate malt. The soda jerk gives her a literal large chocolate malt (animated by Cohen).

Looking at her very long checklist of things to do, Marsha checks off groceries as she’s headed to the “Super-Duper Market”. While there, she opens her passenger door to allow a grocery worker to put her groceries inside her car. Once she opens the door to the driver’s seat, the car is so overstuffed with groceries, that they all fall out on her (animated by Charles).

“But that’s not all, John”. She parks in front of the “Salon of Beauty” damaging the back of the car in front of her and the front of the car behind her in the process. Marsha then puts a nickel in the parking meter before going inside. In the middle of a gossip, Marsha remembers the parking meter and goes out with the curlers still on her head to put another nickel in it. The doors end up pulling the curlers off her head so she goes back while the parking meter goes back down to zero. Marsha comes back out with beauty mud all over her face which scares a man passing by into running off while screaming. Marsha shrugs at this before going back inside to remove the beauty mud. A “Dept. of Public Works” truck drives up as the mayor steps out and has a drill worker replace the parking meter with a fire hydrant. Marsha comes out to see an Irish-accented officer writing up a ticket for her before she explains, “But-but-but, Officer, it wasn’t there when I parked”. The officer sarcastically replies, “Of course not, lady. Someone just came along and put it there to annoy ya”. Fed up, Marsha exclaims in annoyance before the flashback ends (animated by Scribner).

Back in the present, John unsympathetically asks, “And that’s all ya did with your time all day, huh?” Marsha answers, “No, dear. As a matter of fact, I did one more thing. I bought you a little present”. John becomes intrigued by this, “You did? Well, where is it, honey?” She comes back with a box, “Here, dear”, and pulls out a rolling pin which she bashes him on the head with. Marsha tells him, “Little Man, I’ve Had a BUSY Day” with the rolling pin having the word “His” on it (animated by Charles).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕