Who is the Secret Hubley Fan?

Over the weekend I watched A Prairie Home Companion to mark the passing of a great filmmaker and cinema rebel, Robert Alman.

I didn`t think going into this experience that there would be a cartoon connection coupled with a little mystery. But at the end of the radio broadcast within the film the Lindsay Lohan character, a suicide opposed third generation girl from a family of no talent radio singers, sings a stream of conscienceness made up version of Frankie and Johnny.

That is where the cartoon mystery comes in. Somewhere in the first few lines of made up lyrics Ms. Lohan inserts the words Rooty Toot Toot. The question is, who is the UPA fan of the 1952 John Hubley classic of the same name?

Is it Garrison Keillor, long a down home intellectual? He is the writer of the movie. He is well capable of watching and loving classic cartoons.

Or maybe Robert Altman? He is the director and a filmmakers filmmaker. He would know about this work and about John Hubley, another film rebel.

Is it possible that Ms. Lohan has more depth to her than pretty little party girl tabloid princess? Altman is known for giving actors a lot of room to make the work their own. Maybe she grew up on cartoons? Maybe she thinks when she drinks? Maybe she loves UPA cartoons? Who knows?

One thing is for sure, somebody was surely making a reference to the great John Hubley animated short because Rooty Toot Toot does not rhyme naturally with anything in the lyrics.

Larry Loc  ¶ 9:33 AM