Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom (1953)

Bill Thompson: Professor Owl, Bertie Birdbrain

Photos 

Quotes 

• Owl : Today we're going to study about...

  Boy bird : [looking at a comic book]  Ancient history?

  Susy Sparrow : Love and mystery?

  Penelope Pinfeather : [writing on the blackboard]  Mathematics?

  Twin brothers : [balancing other students on their heads]  Acrobatics?

  Students : Readin', spellin'...

  Bertie Birdbrain : Storytellin'?

  Owl : No, no, no!

  [bops Bertie on the head] 

  Owl : The study of musical instruments is the subject for today.

  The Canary Sisters : [singing]  The study of musical instruments is the subject for today!

• Owl : [plays a band song]  Did you ever stop to think / When the band plays "rink-a-tink" / Where all the music comes from? / From a Toot, and a Whistle, and a Plunk, and a Boom.

  Students : That's where the music comes from!

  Owl : Did you ever understand / That a symphony so grand / So bright and yet sentimental?

  The Canary Sisters : That a Toot and a Whistle and a Plunk and a Boom...

  Students : ...are very instrumental. / For the horns go "Toot"... / The woodwinds "Whistle"... / The strings go "Plunk Plunk", too... / And the drums "Boom Boom" / With a big zoom zoom / And it comes out fine and true.

  Owl : So remember what I say / When the band begins to play / Just where the music comes from...

  Students : From a

  [toot!] 

  Students : and a

  [whistle!] 

  Students : and a

  [plunk!] 

  Students : and a

  [boom!] 

  Students : That's where the music comes from!

• Owl : Now, students, fly with me to the dawn of history, where we'll start investigating the toot and the whistle and the plunk and the boom. It's very stimulating. Oops!

  [realizes he rolled the screen too far and rolls up to a picture of four cavemen] 

  Owl : All right, boys, you're on.

• Owl : When a caveman blew through an old cow's horn, right then and the there, the first toot was born.

• Owl : When this cavemen blew through a tube of grass, the very first whistle came to pass. In order to make his cavegirl smile, he has to change his whistle's style. And when he saw he was doing fine, he added more holes. About eight or nine.

  [the caveman plays his prehistoric flute using his fingers and toes, but another cavemen bonks the cavegirl on the head and steals her away] 

  Owl : By using his head instead of his feet, some genius found some way to beat this problem in a manner neat.

• Owl : Our last caveman, with his rhythmic slap, came up with all things that click or tap. Came rattles, bells, and, we presume, all sorts of things that go "boom".

• Owl : When our third caveman plucked on the string of his bow, it was the very first plunk, as far as we know.

  Students : [singing]  First you take the bow / And sometime later, / Add a little jug / To make a resonator. / Add a few strings. / Listen how it rings. / Change the jug to a box of wood. / Slide the box down. / Aw, pretty good! / Add a few pegs / To tune it fine and sharp. / Change the shape a little, / Now it looks like a harp!

  Owl : And from here, there are two ways you can go. You could either plunk it...

  [the caveman plucks the strings of his harp and a string breaks] 

  Owl : ... or play it with a bow.

  [a smaller caveman plays his harp with a bow but a string breaks on his instrument as well]