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Woody Woodpecker was once the subject of a $100k lawsuit
"The Woody Woodpecker Song" was brought off the screen and into the courtroom in 1949.
Ho-ho-ho, ho, ho-ho-ho, ho
Oh, that's the Woody Woodpecker song
Ho-ho-ho, ho, ho-ho-ho, ho
Yeah, he's a-peckin' it all day long...
"The Woody Woodpecker Song" is pretty self-explanatory. Written in 1947, it was first used in a Woody Woodpecker short in 1948 and became one of the biggest hit singles of the year. It was the first, and thus far, the only song from an animated short to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song (which it lost to the Bob Hope flick The Paleface song "Buttons and Bows".)
However, just a year later, the song showed up somewhere even more unexpected — the courtroom.
In 1949, a lawsuit was brought in Akron, Ohio, by George Barrett and his wife. The suit alleged that their landlords had been trying to force out the couple from their apartment by, among other things, blaring "The Woody Woodpecker Song" at top volume for days at a time.
The lawsuit, according to the Akron Beacon Journal, said that the landlords had asked the Barretts to leave so that they could move into the apartment themselves. When the Barretts refused, the landlords began blocking in their automobiles, hiring local boys to leave garbage on the property... and committing warfare via Woodpecker.
The defendants "created a great clamor and noise" by playing the record "until said recording or record literally wore out," according to the lawsuit.
Even Walter Lantz, creator of Woody Woodpecker, could admit that the laugh was annoying in overkill. "People h-h-h-ha-ha at me in the market or drug store," Lantz said. "When I go for a haircut, the barber laughs. People call me up on the telephone and instead of saying hello, they laugh."
The landlords eventually cut off the Barretts' water, gas and electricity, and on top of the nonstop Woody Woodpecker Song, it finally drove them out of the apartment and into the courtroom where they sued for $10,000 in damages. In today's money, that's equivalent to over $127,000.
The judge ruled in favor of the Barretts, but to the tune of $216.50 — which included the money for their utilities being shut off, as well as $50 for "harassment".
44 Comments
Real Young.
Also on the Weigel side (MeTV affiliates), cut in for local interest, news, I know last weekend some of the folks who watch Svengoolie were disappointed as different affiliates were airing football instead. So it's more likely the different broadcast groups and affiliates exercising their choice.
That's not right.
heres one version i found as an example, i didn't know that a lot of people covered it back then
https://youtu.be/U5F5U0zABUs
(Britcat, if you know how to put that video on this page I would appreciate it. I *just don't* know how to do that. I'm sure the other readers will enjoy that video if it's posted here.)
heres the Baja Marimba band version
on the METV app below the text box, there will be 3 icons, one is for emojis, the second one is for youtube photos and the third one is for photos. you just tap on the youtube icon and you can paste the URL into the box and then the video would show up in the comments section (im not sure if its different on the website or not 😅) i hope this helps😄
$216.50 is equivalent to $2,780.76 in today's money.
Your math is as bad as your grammar and spelling!