Changes: Mammy Two Shoes

Latest revision as of 18:57, 11 April 2024

Mammy Two Shoes (also known as Mammy, Mammy Two-Shoes, or Dinah in the 1940s Tom and Jerry comics) is a recurring character who appeared in 19 of MGM's Tom and Jerry cartoons.

She is a heavy-set, middle-aged African-American woman who often has to deal with the mayhem generated by the lead characters, but whether she is the owner of the home or merely the house-keeper is never really made clear. She is based on the "Mammy" archetype that was prevalent throughout the U.S. in the 19th and early 20th century.

As a partially-seen character, she was famous for never showing her head and face (although it is briefly visible in Part Time Pal, A Mouse in the House, Mouse Cleaning, and Saturday Evening Puss).

Due to the modern-day controversy of the archetype, beginning in the 1960s, the Mammy character has been dubbed, censored, re-animated, or edited out in television broadcasts.

History

Mammy's debut appearance was in Puss Gets the Boot, while her last appearance was in Push-Button Kitty. She was originally voiced by well-known African-American character actress Lillian Randolph. She was the second prominent black character of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio, following Bosko. She appeared in 19 Tom and Jerry animated shorts between 1940 and 1952.

Drgterr4 — Mammy Two Shoes attacking Tom.

One of Mammy's roles in the films was to set up the plot by warning Tom that she will toss him out of the house if he failed to act according to her wishes. She invariably catches Tom acting against her orders, and there are grave consequences. Naturally, it is Jerry that sabotages Tom to get him in trouble. She always called Tom by his full name Thomas (originally Jasper), and almost always used is in place of are and am ("is you" and "I is"). Her signature quotes are "Land Sakes!" and "What in the world is going on in here?", the latter of which is usually delivered upon rushing in to investigate the commotion being caused by Tom and Jerry.

William Hanna and Joseph Barbera initially portrayed Mammy as the maid of the house, with the real owners unknown to audiences - at least, her apron suggests she is a maid. Later, Hanna and Barbera seemed to suggest, through dialogue and occasional behavior, that the house was Mammy's own. On one occasion, she goes to her bedroom. This suggests she owns the house and is its sole human occupant, though the cutting continuity filed with each short at the Library of Congress always referred to the character as "Maid."

Mammy Two-Shoes was retired from the Tom & Jerry cartoons by Hanna and Barbera following several years of protests and condemnations from the NAACP. A 1949 reissue of the 1943 short The Lonesome Mouse prompted the start of the NAACP's campaign against Tom & Jerry. In this short, Mammy is scared by Jerry onto a stool and shaken as a straight razor, dice, and other stereotypical props fall from beneath her dress. When Randolph departed from Tom & Jerry to appear on television, Hanna and Barbera declined to recast the voice role and Mammy ceased to appear in the cartoons.

Censorship, discontinuation, and callbacks

Director Gene Deitch stated that the "retiring" of Mammy's character was one of the changes that he felt he needed to make for the 13 shorts produced by Rembrandt Films.^[1]

MGM Animation/Visual Arts, under the supervision of Chuck Jones, created replacement characters for Mammy in the Tom and Jerry cartoons featuring her for television. These versions used rotoscoping techniques to replace Mammy on-screen with either a stocky white woman (in most shorts) or a thin white woman (in Saturday Evening Puss); Randolph's voice on the soundtracks was replaced by an Irish-accented (or generic young adult in Puss) voice performed by June Foray.^[2]

Three years after Turner Entertainment acquired Tom & Jerry from MGM, the cartoons featuring Mammy were re-recorded to remove Mammy Two Shoes' use of potentially offensive dialect. Lillian Randolph's voice was dubbed over by Thea Vidale. The re-recorded versions of the cartoons would air on Turner's Cartoon Network-related cable channels, and have at times turned up on DVD. However, some European TV showings of these cartoons, especially the UK, as well as the US DVD release of Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection, and Tom and Jerry: The Deluxe Anniversary Collection and the US DVD and Blu-ray releases of Tom and Jerry Golden Collection, retain Randolph's original voice. The Region 2 Complete Collectors Edition DVD boxset has Vidale's voice on the first DVD and Randolph in a number of the episodes after that (such as A Mouse in the House and Mouse Cleaning).

As of 2011, most cartoons that featured Mammy-Two Shoes are rarely, if ever, aired on Cartoon Network and Boomerang USA. They are also unavailable on the Boomerang Streaming Service. However, some cartoons such as The Lonesome Mouse, A Mouse in the House and Mouse Cleaning were already rarely seen due to scenes that are already controversial. This even affects cartoons such as Puss N' Toots, The Little Orphan and The Mouse Comes to Dinner, in which Mammy-Two Shoes makes minor appearances. These censorship policies were only prevalent in the United States, and not overseas.

A white woman named "Mrs. Two Shoes" appeared in some episodes of Tom and Jerry Tales. She had most aspects of Mammy Two Shoes' personality, a similar look, and a similar name.

Characteristics

Personality

Mammy Two Shoes is very impatient with Tom, and is quick to eject him from the house if he misbehaves (or if she thinks he is, even if Jerry is the one responsible). She is afraid of mice and is thus rarely seen interacting with Jerry.

Appearance

With dark brown skin (later changed to an ivory-colored skin tone) she is distinguished by her usual, sleeveless dress with frills in the shoulders, a white apron with frills in the trim, old, yellow socks (often seen with some kind of suspender holding it up), and red slippers. The color of her attire often changes, but the pieces remain virtually the same. These colors are yellow, orange, green, blue, and red. She is usually seen holding a broom. She also wears a red polka dot bandana on her head.

She is of mid-stature with dark skin, slightly rotund with a large bust and thick hands.

Appearances

No.	Title	Released
1	Puss Gets the Boot	February 10, 1940
2	The Midnight Snack	July 19, 1941
4	Fraidy Cat	January 17, 1942
5	Dog Trouble	April 18, 1942
6	Puss N' Toots	May 30, 1942
10	The Lonesome Mouse	May 22, 1943
18	The Mouse Comes to Dinner	May 5, 1945
28	Part Time Pal	March 15, 1947
32	A Mouse in the House	August 30, 1947
36	Old Rockin' Chair Tom	September 18, 1948
38	Mouse Cleaning	December 11, 1948
39	Polka-Dot Puss	February 26, 1949
40	The Little Orphan	April 30, 1949
48	Saturday Evening Puss	January 14, 1950
53	The Framed Cat	October 21, 1950
58	Sleepy-Time Tom	May 26, 1951
61	Nit-Witty Kitty	October 6, 1951
67	Triplet Trouble	April 19, 1952
70	Push-Button Kitty	September 6, 1952^[3]

Major appearances

The Lonesome Mouse - She's tricked by Tom's and Jerry's truce.
Part Time Pal - She is tormented by a drunk Tom.
Old Rockin' Chair Tom - Mammy's longest onscreen appearance. She takes a cat named Lightning.
Sleepy-Time Tom - She keeps an eye on Tom if he's sleeping on the job.
Push-Button Kitty - She orders a robocat called Mechano.

Cameos

Fraidy Cat
Dog Trouble
Puss N' Toots
The Mouse Comes to Dinner
The Little Orphan
The Framed Cat
Casanova Cat - Toodles Galore's housemaid physically resembles her

Gags

Been constantly afraid of Jerry (or mice in general) and jumping to the nearest high spot such as a chair or the balcony.
Pulling up the skirt, often pulling up, comically, many layers of skirts with distinct patterns.
Easily losing her temper with Tom's shenanigans, to the point of addressing him as "Thomas!".

Gallery

Trivia

Coincidentally, some of the Disney cartoons during the 1930s~1940s featured a nearly identical character who shares the same name as Mammy Two Shoes.
In Saturday Evening Puss, When Mammy Two Shoes dashes home to punish Tom and his friends for throwing a party, her face is briefly shown once. This is the only instance her face is ever seen.
Although Mammy Two Shoes face was a mystery in the show, she fully appeared with her face in the comics and storybooks.
In The Little Orphan, Mammy is seen bringing a turkey to the table. Because the character retired after the release of Push-Button Kitty, this part is deleted in its remake Feedin' the Kiddie.
Although, Mammy Two Shoes met Jerry, she never met Tuffy.
- She only met Tuffy in the comics.

References

[1] "Tom & Jerry – The Gene Deitch Collection" (Paragraph 7) - Gene Deitch (cartoonresearch.com)

[2] A History of Mammy Twoshoes

[3] Shorts Chart - BoxOffice (1952)

[1]

[2]

[3]