OVERLOOKED FILM, PLUS A LITTLE MORE: AN ELLIS PARKER BUTLER TWOFER (OR MAYBE A THREEFER)

Yesterday, to celebrate the birthday of Cornell Woolrich, I linked to a 1956 film based on one of his short stories.   Today marks the birthday of writer Ellis Parker Burler.  Could I do any less?

Arguably Butler's most famous story, "Pigs Is Pigs," was first published in American Illustrated Magazine, September 1905.  The story was then printed as a book seven months later by Doubleday, Page and Company.   Since then it has been reprinted many times in book form and in anthologies and is considered a classic of American humor.  The tale has inspired the Martian flat cats in Robert A. Heinlein's The Rolling Stones, as well as the Tribbles of Star Trek fame.  It was been filmed at least four times, beginning in 1910, then in 1914, and then in 1917 as an animated cartoon.  The 1954 Walt Disney cartoon (linked below) was nominated for an Academy Award for Animated Short Film.

Enjoy:

https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYXlF3sa9xs

(For those who have not read the story -- there may be one or two of you out there -- here's the original tale, read by Shep O'Neal:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDJhNNOwSEA)

Butler (1869-1937) was a prolific writer, with more than thirty books and more than 2000 stories and articles published.  Among his short stories were 39 stories about correspondence-school detective Philo Gubb.  Gubb  as so popular that public pressure prevented Butler from killing the character off, a la Conan Doye and Sherlock Holmes.  A number of the stories were collected in Philo Gubb, Correspondence School Detective (Houghton Mifflin, 1920).   Gubb's heyday in  films was in 1921, with The Hound of the Tankervilles, Philo Gubb,  Correspondence School Detective, and The Stolen Umbrella --  all featuring Victor Potel in the starring role.  Sadly, none of the three are available online and may have been lost to time.  To make for it, here's a Libravox recording of Philo Gubb, Correspendence School Detective, with seventeen adventures you can choose from:

https://archive.org/details/philogubb_1208_librivox

Happy birthday, Mr. Butler!