A Hare Grows in Manhattan

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A Hare Grows in Manhattan Merrie Melodies series
"She's da daughter of Rosie O'Grady..."
Directed by	Friz Freleng
Produced by	Edward Selzer
Story by	Michael Maltese Tedd Pierce
Voices by	Mel Blanc
Music by	Carl W. Stalling
Animation by	Ken Champin Gerry Chiniquy Manuel Perez Virgil Ross
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	May 23, 1947
Color process	Color
Running time	8 min.
IMDb profile

A Hare Grows In Manhattan is a 1947 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Friz Freleng and starring Bugs Bunny (voiced by Mel Blanc).

The title is both a pun on "hair" and on the title of a popular book which figures into the climax of the cartoon.

[edit] Plot synopsis

The cartoon begins with the voice of an apparent Hollywood gossip queen named "Lola Beverly" talking behind the camera as it pans across Beverly Hills, settling in on Bugs Bunny's "mansion", which is actually a rabbit hole with fancy trimmings such as columns and a swimming pool. Lola (or "Lolly" as Bugs calls her familiarly, also effecting her hoity-toity manner of speech) coaxes a biographical story out of Bugs, and he talks about growing up on the lower east side of New York (presumably accounting for his accent). He is seen tap-dancing down the streets of the Big Apple and singing "The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady" (a song written in 1917 by Walter Donaldson).

Most of the story involves Bugs being repeatedly assaulted by a "street gang" consisting of a pack of stray dogs, led by a tough-talking but none-too-bright bulldog who wears a bowler hat and turtleneck sweater. There are at least two references to real-life New York City landmarks. In one scene, Bugs smacks the bulldog with pieces purchased at the Automat; in another, he tries to escape through the Stork Club (spelled here "Stork Klub," wherein real storks are the patrons). At one point, the bulldog finds himself hanging by one "hand" from a clothesline. Bugs, on an adjacent line, plays Tweety's time-honored "this little piddy" game (even talking in something close to Tweety's voice), peeling the dog's "fingers" from the line one by one. When he "runs out of piddies" and the dog falls, Bugs reverts to his normal voice, and his famous aside to the audience, "Gosh, ain't I a stinker?"

Bugs thinks he has dispatched the dogs, saying "that's '-30-' for today!" [[1]] He goes back to his tap-dancing and singing, and suddenly finds himself in a blind alley next to a newsstand. The gang of dogs reappears and marches in on Bugs menacingly. Bugs grabs a book and threatens to hit them with it in his "last stand". The dogs' eyes open wide when they see the book, and they turn around and race to, and across, the Brooklyn Bridge. The puzzled Bugs looks at the book and sees that it is the then-recent and famous novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which was obviously the inspiration for the cartoon's title.

Bugs says to himself and the audience, in a rare quiet and reflective moment, "Ya know, maybe I oughta read dis t'ing!" As the underscore reprises an instrumental bar of "Rosie O'Grady", Bugs is seen walking away from the camera and toward the city's skyscrapers, while reading the book and humming along until iris out.

[edit] Censorship

On the now defunct WB! channel, the following scenes are cut:
- The beginning where Lola Beverly describes Bugs's mansion (the edited version contains the reference to Bugs's swimming pool and nothing else)
- The scene where Bugs becomes part of the Egyptian cigarette billboard to escape the bulldog crops out the word "Cigarettes" on top of the screen and cuts two shots in the billboard sequence: one shot where an Egyptian lights another's foot on fire and a second shot where one Egyptian picks up a discarded cigarette butt at which another Egyptian is pointing.