Vimacone Tex Avery didn't really tackle the caricature cartoon genre very often, but this still remains one of the best cartoons he did.Following the pattern set with Freleng's "THE COO COO NUT GROVE (1936), this short is a showcase of several caricatures of well known celebrities in a popular Hollywood nightclub. Ciro's, the featured nightclub, had opened the previous year in 1940 and remained a popular spot in Hollywood for many years.Although not a conventional Avery film, it does feature some of Tex's trademarks such as a running gag and foreshadow's his greatest cartoon at MGM. The staging of Sally Rand's bubble dance and the reactions of the stars anticipates RED HOT RIDING HOOD (1943).Clark Gable is featured as a running gag pursuing a mysterious lady in red. When he does catch up to her at the end and is about to kiss her, she is revealed to be Groucho Marx in a drag, to Gable's amusement.Rumor has it, that there was a longer ending to this gag in which Gable kissed Groucho anyways; To which Gable allegedly objected to over homosexual implications and WB cut it from reissue prints. Recently, someone posted on YouTube a short fragment from this short, which is absent from prints we've seen over the years, which depicts Gable effeminately saying "I'm a bad boy". This snippet at least proves that there's footage missing from reissue prints and may corroborate the element of the story of Gable's objection to the gag.While most popular celebrities from the early 40's will not be familiar to modern audiences, this short has been ranked as one of the greatest WB cartoons of all time, and for good reason.

Raflet60 As a huge fan of old Hollywood I always loved this cartoon. I find it amusing how younger folks have a difficult time understanding it due to the fact they probably don't watch enough old movies to know who these stars are. In the Wikipedia article on this cartoon, they mention the actor sitting with Claudette Colbert early on as Don Ameche. Upon repeated viewing I'm inclined to think it's the great George Brent. It looks too much like him and he was a much bigger star than Ameche ever became. Although brilliant I will agree it is dated in that all the references pertain to movies of that era. As a 55 year old, I grew up when these movies were staples on television and recognized almost all of the stars. All in all this is a great representation of when Hollywood was truly loaded with big movie stars. I'd cringe to think of what a modern version would look like. On a final note, there is nothing confusing about this cartoon and it doesn't matter if children don't get it. These cartoons were never meant for children as they were shown in movie theaters prior to the main events. This is a great representation of how things were at that time in Hollywood.

Michael_Elliott Hollywood Steps Out (1941) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Delightful Warner short doesn't have any real story to speak of but the highlight here is seeing all sorts of Hollywood stars out dancing at a club. We get countless cameos including Gable, Garbo, Hardy, Cagney, Bogart, Robinson, The Three Stooges, Rooney, Stewart, Weismuller, Grant and many others including Karloff as the Frankenstein monster. Again, there's no real story going on here as the entire seven-minutes is just a set up for the various stars to run into one another. There are quite a few highlights but one would have to be the seen with Cagney and Bogart planning some crimes. Another is the brilliant final gag that I won't spoil here but it certainly ends the film on a big laugh. It was also fun seeing all the spoofs thrown at Gable but one of the biggest laughs comes from an Andy Hardy joke. The film contains the usual great animation, nice score and the brilliant voice work by Mel Blanc.

JohnHowardReid The Hollywood set steps out at Ciro's to be precise, where the night-clubbing action is exclusively set. The script is not particularly amusing or inventive, but fascinating all the same. The voice impersonations are mostly very skillful. One of the longest spots has Jimmy Stewart declining an invitation to rumba. At least two gags deal with Crosby's horse-racing ventures, whilst the climax features a bubble dance by "Sally Strand". Naturally the stars in evidence at Ciro's on this particular night (Dinner $50 and up. Easy terms available) are weighted in favor of Warner Bros, though a number of "foreign" stars receive a fair innings including the Hardys (both real and fictional), the Three Stooges, and Harpo Marx. Some of the faces are glimpsed so fleetingly they will be difficult for a 2007 audience to recognize. And maybe two or three are now forgotten.Musically, the film is a feast for song-lovers with snatches from Nat Ayer's "Oh, You Beautiful Doll", Tony Jackson and Egbert Van Alstyne's "Pretty Baby", Allie Wrubel's "The Lady in Red", Isham Jones' "It Had To Be You", James Brockman, James Kendis and Nat Vincent's "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles", M.K. Jerome's "Congo", Harry Warren's "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby", Murray Mencher's "Merrily We Roll Along" and others, all delightfully rendered by the studio orchestra under the baton of Leo F. Forbstein.To sum up: In view of the star line-up, somewhat disappointing, but still a must for all movie buffs.