I first saw this George Pal animated short some years ago on American Movie Classics,when that station was worth watching. It incorporates animation with live action (okay,nothing new in itself---but stop motion puppet animation with live action?). Duke Ellington is seated at a piano,when several figures pop out of a series of bottles to interact with Ellington (and perform with him,as well). As musical shorts were the in thing at the time, George Pal's stop motion animation was a major plus on this short, which is sadly missing these days from the airwaves (the Paramont live action shorts,like the animated ones are hard to track down,due to the fact that the original distributors that sold the 16 & 35mm prints to television in the mid 1950's/early to mid 1960's had all gone out of business by the late 1960's,leaving behind some battered & scratchy prints that sometimes turned up on late night television). I'm sure some of the George Pal Puppet Toons can be found on various video compilations on budget video releases (check your local department stores)
Review of Date with Duke
