An Italian organ grinder brings his three monkeys to Oswald's pawn shop -- can't he hold down a position for longer than a seven-minute cartoon? -- and gets $2 for them. When Oswald brings up a cage to keep them in, he discovers them running amok, despite all that his dog, Elmer, can do. Then they find a machine gun in this Oswald The Lucky Rabbit cartoon.
That doesn't sound lucky to me. The monkeys are the beasts that will evolve into Eeny, Meenie and Miny. They already have the theme song that will be used in the following year's THE BEAUTY SHOPPE, and one of them gets into the same sort of tangle with a cuckoo clock that he will in that cartoon. That is probably why they faded out after a year or two. Lantz knew he needed new cartoon stars to hang series on. He also needed writers who could write a few new jokes.
That doesn't sound lucky to me. The monkeys are the beasts that will evolve into Eeny, Meenie and Miny. They already have the theme song that will be used in the following year's THE BEAUTY SHOPPE, and one of them gets into the same sort of tangle with a cuckoo clock that he will in that cartoon. That is probably why they faded out after a year or two. Lantz knew he needed new cartoon stars to hang series on. He also needed writers who could write a few new jokes.
