The Pied Piper of Basin Street
1945 | 7m | English
Popularity: 0.1 (history)
| Director: | Shamus Culhane |
|---|---|
| Writer: | Ben Hardaway, Milt Schaffer |
| Staring: |
| In this swing version of the famous tale, a small town is overrun with rats. The mayor (caricature of Lou Costello) is in a quandary. His phones are busy with demands to do something. He hears a voice say: "what you need is a Pied Piper." Looking up, he sees a young man with a trombone (Jimmy Durante) who claims that he can run every rat out of town for a fee. The mayor makes a deal with him, and the trombone player goes to work leading the rats out of town with the playing of his trombone, and he locks them in a cage. Returning to the mayor's office, he's handed a bag of peanuts and thrown out. Unable to get the reward promised, the Pied Piper puts on his "Hank Swoonatra" (Frank Sinatra) suit croons to the girls. He leads them aboard a swinging showboat and opens the cage full of rats and they return to town, where only the mayor is left. The rats swarm the mayor's office and give him a bad time for his treatment of the pied piper. Production Number: D-10 A Swing Symphony cartoon. | |
| Release Date: | Jan 15, 1945 |
|---|---|
| Director: | Shamus Culhane |
| Writer: | Ben Hardaway, Milt Schaffer |
| Genres: | |
| Keywords | |
| Production Companies | Walter Lantz Productions |
| Box Office |
Revenue: $0
Budget: $0 |
| Updates |
Updated: Jan 21, 2026 Entered: May 27, 2024 |
| Name | Character |
|---|---|
| Harry Lang | The Mayor (uncredited) |
| GeGe Pearson | Nylon Girl Rat / Scared Woman (uncredited) |
| Dick Nelson | Dead End Rats / Red Skelton Rat / Grocer / Ned Sparks Taxpayer / Pied Piper / Solid Jackson (uncredited) |
| Name | Job |
|---|---|
| Shamus Culhane | Director |
| Ben Hardaway | Story |
| Milt Schaffer | Story |
| Laverne Harding | Animation |
| Pat Matthews | Animation |
| Darrell Calker | Music |
| Philip DeGuard | Background Designer |
| Jack Teagarden | Musician |
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| Walter Lantz | Producer |
| Organization | Category | Person |
|---|
Popularity History
| Year | Month | Avg | Max | Min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2024 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2024 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| 2024 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| 2024 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| 2024 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2024 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2024 | 11 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| 2024 | 12 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| 2025 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2025 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| 2025 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| 2025 | 11 | 3 | 8 | 0 |
| 2026 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2026 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Trending Position