"Jackie Curtis is not a drag queen. Jackie is an artist. A pioneer without a frontier." -- Andy Warhol. Superstar in a Housedress examines the life and legend of Warhol transvestite superstar Jackie Curtis who was a poet, playwright, performer, and one of the great personalities of his time. Jackie both lived and performed sometimes as a man, sometimes as a woman - and died tragically of a drug overdose under bizarre circumstances when he was only 38. The film features on-camera interviews with actor Harvey Fierstein who played Jackie's mother in "Americka Cleopatra" when he was 18, Ellen Stewart, founder of LaMama Experimental Theater Club, John Vaccaro, founder of the Playhouse of the Ridiculous, Paul Morrissey, Director of the Andy Warhol films, and surviving superstars Holly Woodlawn and Joe Dallesandro, plus 24 other friends and colleagues of Jackie's. The film includes never-before-seen video and film clips of Jackie performing in stage plays including "Femme Fatale," "Glamour, Glory and Gold," and "Vain Victory: The Vicissitudes of the Damned." and cabarets. The music of jazz musician and composer Paul Serrato is featured, as is the photography of Jack Mitchell who took more photographs of Curtis and the Warhol crowd than any other professional. Interviews with media personalities, writers and editors put the work and life of Jackie Curtis in historical perspective. Narrated by Lily Tomlin.
The building in the closing scenes is the Tregoweth Brown building, a reference to film editor Treg Brown.
The main character's name, "Michigan J. Frog", was created long after the cartoon was produced. Michigan J. Frog later became the mascot of the Warner Brothers television network ("The WB").
Steven Spielberg once described this as "the most perfect cartoon ever made".
The retrospectively-given name of Michigan J. Frog is derived from the one song he sings in this cartoon that writer Michael Maltese wrote especially for him, "The Michigan Rag". The last name is derived from his species, in the same fashion as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck et al., and the middle initial is derived from the fact that all cartoon characters are considered to have "J" as their middle initial (such as in "The Simpsons" (1989)), unless evidence exists to the contrary.
The song "Michigan Rag" was invented solely for this short.
First (and, as far as many people are concerned, only) appearance of Michigan J. Frog.
Terence Monk and Thurl Ravenscroft have each been widely (and incorrectly) credited as the voice of Michigan J. Frog.
In animation historian Jerry Beck's 1994 poll of animators, film historians and directors, this cartoon was rated the fifth greatest cartoon of all time.
Some believe that the story of this frog was at least partly inspired by a real amphibian. In Eastland, Texas they tell the story of one horned toad named Old Rip. He was placed in the cornerstone of the courthouse there in 1897. In 1928 the courthouse was demolished and the story is that they pulled Old Rip out and he was still alive (he did not get up and dance however). Eleven months later, Old Rip finally "croaked" and the citizens made him a fancy velvet-lined casket and put him on permanent display, where you can still see him today. In 1973, an anonymous person claimed that he wanted to come clean about Old Rip. He claimed that it was all a hoax back then and they had switched the dead "original" toad with a live one. No-one has ever come forward to verify this claim, but most think it is probably true that it was a prank. Whatever the real story, the legend of Old Rip has some interesting similarities to the frog in "One Froggy Evening".
When the frog is released from the cornerstone, he starts singing ragtime tunes such as "Hello Ma Baby", leading some observers to speculate that he is singing tunes he remembers from before the time he was placed in the cornerstone. In the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection", the various commentaries and special features make this point. However, not all the songs are from before the time he was imprisoned, which according to the cornerstone and the documents placed within, was April 16, 1892. (Since "The Michigan Rag" was written for the cartoon, it can be credited as being older than 1892.) "Largo al factotum", "Come Back to Erin," and "Throw Him Down, McCloskey" were written before the frog's supposed entombment (in 1816, 1866, and 1890, respectively), while "Hello, Ma Baby", "Won't You Come Over to My House," "I'm Just Wild About Harry" and "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" were written afterward (in 1899, 1906, 1921, and 1930, respectively).
The singing voice of the frog is provided by Bill Roberts, a popular Hollywood nightclub singer of the 1950s. Many sources erroneously credit Terence Monk with supplying the singing voice of the frog. This error appears to be rooted in an interview in which Chuck Jones identified him as such. However, he was not the baritone heard in the film. The confusion may have been caused by the fact that Jones did use Monck in "The Cat Above and the Mouse Below", where he sang "Largo al factotum" (from Rossini's "Il barbiere di Siviglia"/"The Barber of Seville").
"Come Back To Erin", the sentimental tune song by the frog about a lover longing for his Colleen, who is far away in England), was written by "Claribel", the pseudonym of Charlotte Alington Barnard. She was a prolific and successful English poet and composer of ballads and hymns during the 19th century. In 1868, she had two popular hits: "I Cannot Sing The Old Songs" and "Come Back To Erin" ("Erin" is a traditional name for Ireland). "Erin" was her most popular song. Over time, it became thought of as an Irish folk song, and a generation later, it become popular on the American vaudeville stage where such Irish songs were common.
Michigan J. Frog:
[singing] Hello, my baby / hello, my honey / hello, my ragtime gal. / Send me a kiss by wire / baby, my hearts on fire / if you refuse me / honey, you'll lose me / then you'll be left alone / Oh baby, telephone and tell me I'm your own.
Michigan J. Frog:
[singing] Everybody do the Michigan Rag / everybody likes the Michigan Rag / every Mame and Jane and Ruth / from Weehawken to Duluth / slide, ride, glide the Michigan / stomp, romp, pomp the Michigan / jump, clump, pump the Michigan Rag / that lovin' rag.
Continuity: When the owner of the frog gets thrown out of the talent agency, there's a hand-print on the wall to the side of the door he is thrown from. In the next shot it's gone.
Followed by
Another Froggy Evening (1995)
Edited into
Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales (1982)
Referenced in
(Blooper) Bunny! (1991)
- The "Hello, my baby" music is played over the end credits
"NewsRadio: Friends (#2.6)" (1995)
- Beth compares someone she knows to Michigan J. Frog
"The Simpsons: Lisa's Sax (#9.3)" (1997)
- Michigan J. Frog appears
From Hare to Eternity (1997)
Looney Tunes: Space Race (2000) (VG)
- One of the codes is "MICHIGANJ
Behind the Tunes: Animal Quackers (2003) (V)
- Referenced Michigan J. Frog
Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003)
- Michigan J. Frog makes an appearance and sings "Hello! Ma Baby"
"Wonderfalls: Wax Lion (#1.1)" (2004)
- The lion sings the same song as Michigan J. Frog in that film.
Behind the Tunes: It Hopped One Night - A Look at 'One Froggy Evening' (2004) (V)
- Referenced by title
Son of the Mask (2005)
Featured in
Chatterbox (1977)
- clip
Testament (1983)
- Seen on TV after cartoon intro.
Toonheads: The Lost Cartoons (2000) (TV)
- A clip is shown
"Great Performances: Chuck Jones: Extremes and In-Betweens, a Life in Animation" (2000)
Behind the Tunes: Animal Quackers (2003) (V)
- A clip is shown
Behind the Tunes: It Hopped One Night - A Look at 'One Froggy Evening' (2004) (V)
- Clips are shown
Son of the Mask (2005)
- Alvey watches it on TV.
Creating 'Son of the Mask': Digital Diapers and Dog Bytes (2005) (V)
- Clips featured.
Spoofed in
Spaceballs (1987)
- The chestburster dons a tophat and cane and sings like Michigan J. Frog.