Into Your Dance

Into Your Dance is a 1935 Merrie Melodies short directed by Isadore Freleng.
== Plot ==
A blackfaced quartet singing the titular song welcomes guests boarding Captain Benny's Showboat. When the audience is seated, peg-legged Benny introduces "the world's most popular orchestra leader" and out walks a pig conductor. He is twice pelted off the stage with tomatoes as the audience laughs riotously at him, but he comes back in disguise to lead the band. An old dog screws a light socket onto his tail, making him flail about frantically as he gets electrocuted. The musicians follow his lead and play the "William Tell Overture" at super speed.
Then comes Amateur Night. A singing lady cow shrieks and wails until Benny has had enough. He rings a bell, signalling a stage hand to drag her offstage with the hook. A tough-looking fellow recites poetry until the bell rings, and he too gets the hook. Next up is a singing dog, but before he goes onstage, he distracts Benny and swipes the bell, sticking it in the seat of his pants. He then stutters and stammers his way through the first couple lines of the title song. The audience laughs at the dog as well as Benny desperately looks for the bell to get him offstage, but it's too late. The audience has left as the dog discovers that his terrible singing has cleared out the theater. Benny gets his revenge by chasing the dog off the showboat and into the night with a wooden plank, striking at the bell hidden in the seat of the dog's pants several times.
== Caricatures ==
* Paul Whiteman - the pig conductor is based on him.
== Availability ==
Golden-Age-of-Looney-Tunes-5-F.jpg|(1997) LaserDisc The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 5, Side 4, Musical Madness (1995 Turner dubbed version)
Lt annie oakley.jpg|(2007) DVD Annie Oakley (1995 Turner dubbed version)
=== Streaming ===
lt hbo max.jpg|HBO Max (2020 - 2023) (restored)
lt max.jpg|Max (2023 - 2024) (restored)
== Censorship ==
* Airings of this short on Cartoon Network in the early 1990s remove the scene of a blackface minstrel group performing "Go Into Your Dance" as the crowd enters the show. By the mid-to-late 1990s, the short was rarely shown.
== Gallery ==
Into-your-dance.jpg
IntoYourDanceRESTORED.jpeg|Cropped screenshot of 2020 restoration
== References ==
Category:1935
Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts
Category:Shorts
Category:Cartoons directed by Friz Freleng
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Tedd Pierce
Category:Cartoons produced by Leon Schlesinger
Category:Cartoons animated by Ben Clopton
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Bernard B. Brown
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound recorded by Bernard Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with music by Norman Spencer
Category:Cartoons in a.a.p. package
Category:Caricatures of real people
Category:One-Shot Cartoons