Page Miss Glory is a 1936 Merrie Melodies cartoon, directed by an uncredited Tex Avery and with art direction provided by Leadora Congdon.
In this cartoon, a hick town is preparing for the arrival of someone known as Miss Glory. While everyone is preparing, a country boy named Abner who works in a rural hotel aspires to be like the bellboys seen in the more upscale, urban hotels. He takes a nap and suddenly finds himself in an art deco moderne-style hotel, where he is the polished, upscale bellhop he dreams of being...and has to contend with musical numbers and slapstick from the other hotel staff in order to meet Miss Glory.
Should not be confused with the 1935 romantic comedy starring Marion Davies, which the cartoon is presumably named after.
Tropes:
- Absurdly-Long Limousine: This might be the first appearance of the staple Avery gag.
- All Just a Dream: Most of the cartoon is Abner the bellboy dreaming about meeting Miss Glory.
- Art Deco: The short is distinctly designed in this style except in the beginning and ending. (The title card mentions "moderne art" in its sole credit for Leadora Congdon.)
- Art Shift: When Abner falls asleep, the film shifts from a traditional 1930s cartoon look to a more stylized Art Deco design.
- Big Eater: Subverted. A fat man at the restaurant is given a huge meal, but then he just eats half an olive and pushes himself away.
- Binge Montage: A low-key and compressed one when the "Page Miss Glory" song is sung. It's started by three nattily-dressed gentlemen, with three glasses in front of them. The song is intercut with drinks being prepared, coming back to the gentlemen on the chorus. The second time there are a lot more drinks in front of them and they're not quite as in sync in their dancing; the third time they're reeling behind a huge pile of drinks and their Black Bead Eyes have been replaced by Wingding Eyes (crosses).
- Busby Berkeley Number: An abbreviated version, but we do get the overhead shot.
- Creator Cameo: Rural caricatures of the uncredited crew, including Avery himself, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett and writer Melvin 'Tubby' Millar, can be seen outside the hotel at the end of the cartoon.
- Grand Dame: There's one in the dream sequence— but she turns out to be Not So Above It All after Abner accidentally steps on her dress train, tearing off the whole dress and leaving her in a (patched!) slip: she quickly grabs some big leaves from a nearby potted plant and does a little fan dance for the audience.
- Mouth Cam: There's a shot of a customer drinking a martini shot from inside the customer’s own mouth, followed by an Alcohol Hic.
- The Reveal: Miss Glory finally arrives... and she's a little girl.
- Scenery Porn: The Art Deco backgrounds are gorgeous, especially when you consider the low budgets the animators had to work with.
- Shout-Out:
- The ending has the eponymous girl quipping, "Play, Don," a Jack Benny catch phrase, referring to Don Bestor, who led the orchestra for Benny's show in 1934-35.
- The Cosmopolitan Hotel in it was a reference to William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Pictures, which at the time had moved from MGM to Warner Bros. The studio was basically a vehicle for Hearst to promote his mistress/common-law wife Marion Davies' film career.
- Page Miss Glory came from the title of the 1935 live-action movie starring Davies.
- The human characters in the dream sequence are drawn in the style of Jazz Age cartoonist and illustrator John Held, Jr.
- Vocal Dissonance: Abner, being tall, lanky and bucktoothed, you would expect him to speak in a hillbilly-like Simpleton Voice. Instead, he's voiced by a ten-year-old Tommy Bond.
