1 00:00:03,080 --> 00:00:06,120 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:11,200 --> 00:00:13,800 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamman. This is the Monster Fact, 3 00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:16,079 Speaker 2: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 4 00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:24,640 Speaker 2: focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. Every 5 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:28,319 Speaker 2: Halloween season, my family and I invariably pull up some 6 00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:32,879 Speaker 2: old favorite animated shorts. Some of these are clips like 7 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:35,640 Speaker 2: the This is Halloween number from nineteen ninety three's The 8 00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:39,400 Speaker 2: Nightmare Before Christmas or the excellent Wizard Battle from Disney's 9 00:00:39,479 --> 00:00:42,120 Speaker 2: nineteen sixty nine film The Sword in the Stone. But 10 00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:45,720 Speaker 2: we also carefully dig a little deeper in the animation 11 00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:49,479 Speaker 2: graveyard to unearth, say the classic nineteen twenty nine Silly 12 00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:54,960 Speaker 2: Symphony Skeleton Dance, or the nineteen thirty two Fleisher Studios 13 00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:59,560 Speaker 2: Betty Boop short mini The Moocher. If you haven't seen 14 00:00:59,560 --> 00:01:02,960 Speaker 2: this string Jim, look it up. I'm gonna summarize the 15 00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:06,800 Speaker 2: plot briefly here, but it's gonna sound really weird, okay, 16 00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:11,360 Speaker 2: jazz Age Flappergal Betty Boop has an argument with her parents, 17 00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:14,360 Speaker 2: with whom she lives, and runs away with her boyfriend, 18 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:18,480 Speaker 2: a dog human hybrid named Bimbo. After a brief encounter 19 00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:21,120 Speaker 2: with Coco of the Clown from an earlier short. They 20 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:24,560 Speaker 2: encounter a number of strange and terrifying creatures in a cavern, 21 00:01:24,840 --> 00:01:29,280 Speaker 2: dancing skeletons, ghosts, devils, a witch, and what we might 22 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:34,000 Speaker 2: loosely describe as a dancing, singing octopus armed ghost Walrus, 23 00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:38,560 Speaker 2: voiced by American jazz great Cab Calloway. Note I realized 24 00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:41,080 Speaker 2: those might be front flippers, but they sure do look 25 00:01:41,120 --> 00:01:44,400 Speaker 2: like octopus arms to me. Walrus front flippers have digits. 26 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:47,760 Speaker 2: The ghost Walrus's front limbs in this cartoon do not. 27 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:52,160 Speaker 2: Cab Calloway also provided the ghost Walrus' sweet dance moves 28 00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:57,200 Speaker 2: via rodoscoping. Boop and Bimbo eventually flee home in terror 29 00:01:57,240 --> 00:01:59,840 Speaker 2: from all of these sights and sounds in the cavern, 30 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:03,000 Speaker 2: and true to the shorts title, the ghost Walrus performs 31 00:02:03,200 --> 00:02:06,600 Speaker 2: Callaway's big hit mini, The Moucher, a song that he 32 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:08,919 Speaker 2: would go on to perform in the nineteen eighty film 33 00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:12,320 Speaker 2: The Blues Brothers. The nineteen thirty two short is low 34 00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:15,919 Speaker 2: on plot and message, high on spooky, animated weirdness, and, 35 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:18,520 Speaker 2: of course, the stylings of Cab Callaway and his orchestra. 36 00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:22,120 Speaker 2: But why a ghost walrus. Why does it seem to 37 00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:25,839 Speaker 2: have octopus arms? I'm to understand it all comes down 38 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:28,760 Speaker 2: to animator whimsy, but it got me thinking, is there 39 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:32,160 Speaker 2: anything remotely similar to this creature in global myth and 40 00:02:32,200 --> 00:02:36,080 Speaker 2: folk traditions? Well as far as supernatural walruses go, there 41 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:39,040 Speaker 2: are certainly examples to draw on from the various traditions 42 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:42,520 Speaker 2: of different Arctic peoples who knew the creature and invoked 43 00:02:42,520 --> 00:02:46,679 Speaker 2: it in their belief systems. Likewise, medieval European folklore exaggerated 44 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:49,760 Speaker 2: the walrus as a sea monster, but the only thing 45 00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:53,119 Speaker 2: even close to a walrus octopus hybrid I've come across 46 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:58,079 Speaker 2: is the ursus or maritursus or eco turso of Finnish 47 00:02:58,160 --> 00:03:02,720 Speaker 2: folklore and literature. Creature is predominantly associated with the walrus 48 00:03:02,840 --> 00:03:05,840 Speaker 2: and often described as a kind of walrus human hybrid, 49 00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:09,359 Speaker 2: or even a walrus centaur of sorts, and it's thought 50 00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:12,880 Speaker 2: to have inspired the sea giant Rosemarine in Edmund Spencer's 51 00:03:12,919 --> 00:03:17,200 Speaker 2: fifteen ninety work The Fairy Queen. The Terusus also factors 52 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:20,840 Speaker 2: into the Finnish national epic The Kalevala, which concerns the 53 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:25,120 Speaker 2: mythical Sampo, but then the tersus also takes on many 54 00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:30,080 Speaker 2: octopus and even Cuthulhu sque qualities in modern visual interpretations, 55 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:33,800 Speaker 2: in part due to the word meritsus referring to the 56 00:03:33,840 --> 00:03:38,240 Speaker 2: common octopus in contemporary finish. I realize it's a stretch 57 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:41,320 Speaker 2: to connect the Finnish Sea Monster to a nineteen thirty 58 00:03:41,320 --> 00:03:45,440 Speaker 2: two Cabcalloway Betty Boot cartoon, but many the moucher certainly 59 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:50,400 Speaker 2: invites speculation. Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Factor, 60 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:53,440 Speaker 2: The Artifact or Animalius Dupendium each week. As always, you 61 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:56,360 Speaker 2: can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your 62 00:03:56,360 --> 00:04:06,280 Speaker 2: Mind dot com. 63 00:04:06,480 --> 00:04:09,040 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio. 64 00:04:09,360 --> 00:04:13,360 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 65 00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:15,240 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.