Red Writhing Gloves
Red writhing gloves poster, Liquid Laff
Poster with a Cartoon dog wearing a hat sweater and skirt looking up gleefully at a worried balding man. The poster reads Liquid Laff pictures Maisy the mutt In “Red writhing gloves”
Drawn by Ivan Hoth for Maisy the Mutt’s premiere feature, this is the very first cartoon in which Maisy the Mutt starred as the protagonist without her co star Hobble the Hound. An animated delight for audiences across the country this episode is what sprung Maisy the Mutt from a moderately popular character into a cartoon star. The subject matter of the cartoon was fairly grim compared to her modern depictions with Maisy playing the role of a traveling salesman/devil archetype.
In this animated short Maisy the Mutt encounters a down on his luck musician looking to make his fortune. Maisy offers him her magical red gloves and upon wearing them the musician becomes a success overnight. However, as was common for these older Maisy centered cartoons, the book to the musicians skill had a terrible and hilarious price. At night when the musician slumbered, the gloves, with his hands attached, would spring off of his arms and begin to play music all on their own. Maisy the Mutt would be present for these night time ventures and orchestrate the hands, dancing and causing sleepless nights for the musician.
From there the cartoon would show the musician's fruitless attempts to deal with the nightly occurrence and rid himself of the gloves all together. The episode ends with Maisy chasing the musician into the sunrise with his gloved hands in hot pursuit of their owner.
Maisy the Mutt offers the struggling musician a deal.
A screen from an old Maisy Mutt cartoon, in which Maisy, a rubberhose cartoon dog wearing a hat, a shirt and skirt, is talking to a lanky cartoon man wearing a suit and also a hat in a forest.
Maisy the Mutt dances to the tune of her mischief.
A screen from an old Maisy Mutt cartoon, in which Maisy, a rubberhose cartoon dog wearing a hat, a shirt and skirt, is wagging a stick as a lanky cartoon man’s hands detach from him and he looks on horrified. The hands have strange gloves on them. They are indoors, next to the man is standing next to a piano.