Rediscover A 1951 Cartoon That Celebrates Michigan With Laughs

Did you know that there is an entire cartoon about Michigan? Yes, it isn’t just the cartoon frog that was created by Chuck Jones for Warner Brothers Merry Melodies named Michigan J. Frog that has the only connection to Michigan.

There’s an old cartoon that was made for Harvey Films, the same company that produced cartoons like Casper, the Friendly Ghost, and Baby Huey, called Sing Again of Michigan, which was made in 1951, that is all about Michigan and is meant to educate people about our state, while adding humor into the mix.

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Much like talking about the yellow pine, which gets scared of being chopped down and grows a yellow spine and runs away screaming. It also talks about the Great Lakes fish, like the sunfish, which has seen sun tanning. The sheephead fish, which is literally a fish with the sheep’s head, and the steelhead fish that gets caught by somebody hanging a magnet in the water.

The one funny part about it is when they talked about where Michigan is located geographically, it says that Michigan is referred to his being in the “North Central“ part of the United States as opposed to the Midwest, as it’s commonly referred to today.

They go on to highlight different things, like the furniture industry in Grand Rapids. Southwest Michigan also gets a tip of the hat, with Benton Harbor‘s cherry orchards being featured.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a cartoon about Michigan if they didn’t talk about the Detroit automotive assembly line, and it even features a song about Michigan that you can watch below in its entirety.

DISCLAIMER: Naturally, like most things from the mid-1900s, this cartoon features racial epithets that are in bad taste and reflect the insensitivity of the time it was made.