This past Saturday there was a pre-Production Code episode of Betty Boop. In fact it was the last pre-Code Betty Boop, Betty Boop's Rise to Fame, which was released on May 18th of 1934. Enforcement of the National League of Decency-inspired Hays Code began in June of that year.
That's actual vocals by Cab Calloway and Maurice Chevalier. As Bobbi pointed out, in the early days of animation Fleischer Studios had an advantage over the West Coast studios in being located in NYC, which at the time gave them access to a much larger local talent pool for music and vocals.
After that comes an hour of MGM cartoons, billed as "Tom & Jerry and Friends" and finally the main event of Saturday morning, an hour of Warner Brothers, which is all classic material.
Well, mostly.
I read the title card of the first WB cartoon Saturday and was like "MCMXCII? What kind of non-canon Jar-Jar Binks shit is this?" and left to go do other stuff for five minutes until they cued up the next one. As it turns out, I probably should have watched it. I mean, it was from the same era that Animaniacs was in peak form, so...
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