Well, it’s National Poultry Day, and I’m getting mighty sick of talk of the price of eggs, so I thought I’d skip the hens and give a shout-out to the place of roosters in pop culture.
Chickens were originally domesticated in Asia about 8,000 years ago, adapted from various breeds of wild junglefowl. They first came to Europe around 800 B.C.
The blood sport of cockfighting also originated in Asia, several millennia ago. Gamecocks are specifically bred for aggressiveness and are baited to attack one another. Matches last until one of the poor beasts is finished — usually dead. The sport made its way to Greece and Rome in ancient times, but it was rediscovered when European explorers began travelling by the sea route to Asia regularly in the 16th and 17th centuries, and then it spread throughout the world, reaching a peak of popularity in the 19th century. The modern version takes place in a “cock pit” (that’s where the phrase comes from). The arenas have ranged from pretty posh ones in “gentlemanly” settings to very crude, elemental surroundings more in keeping with its barbarism. Polite society has always frowned on it; it is illegal throughout the United States, though, somehow no one blinks an eye at large-scale factory farming, which is essentially a chicken Auschwitz. (I’m not a vegetarian, by the way, I eat massive amounts of meat with a savagery unseen since the days of the cro magnon, hence Happy National Poultry Day. Mais, c’est comme ça.)
At any rate, cockfighting is a spectacle, if a discredited one, and we do write about spectacle here on Travalanche. Its greatest relevance here is that back in the 19th century, it was a popular past-time in the rougher saloons of the Bowery and Five Points, alongside bare knuckle boxing, clog dancing, fiddle playing, and attention from prostitutes — the ferment that eventually cleaned itself up and made way for vaudeville.
As a symbol of virility and male potency, the rooster has always appealed to the imagination of blues singers. There are entirely too many eye-winking songs invoking the rooster to ever catalog here, but we want to mention some key ones. Charley Patton’s “Banty Rooster Blues” (1929), Memphis Minnie’s “If You See My Rooster (Please Run Him Home)” (1936) and Margie Day’s “Little Red Rooster” (1950) all paved the way for Willie Dixon’s “The Red Rooster”, later known as “Little Red Rooster”, first recorded by Howlin’ Wolf in 1961, then covered by The Rolling Stones in 1964, and The Doors in 1970. Then there’s Lightnin’ Slim’s “Rooster Blues” (1959). And about a thousand others!
Warner Brothers animation director Robert McKimson created Foghorn Leghorn, memorably voice by Mel Blanc as an homage to Kenny Delmar’s Senator Cleghorn character from The Fred Allen Show. The classic Foghorn Leghorn cartoons were produced from 1946 through 1964. The comic idea, which has gotten lost over time as the culture has changed, was a species of pompous and vain Southern Gentleman we don’t quite produce any more, less “Good Old Boy” than “Kentucky Derby”. I would also like to give a shout-out to Foghorn’s old school friend Rhode Island Red, named in honor of my home state’s state bird!
The Kellogg’s Corn Flakes mascot Cornelius “Corny” Rooster debuted in 1957. Back in the day, there was a cartoon version of the more stylized one we know from the box, which starred in tv commercials. The character was voiced by Dallas McKennon and Andy Devine. At other times, the commercial just featured a crowing rooster sound, which famously inspired The Beatles’ song “Good Morning, Good Morning.”
Another rooster cartoon? Well, maybe that sort of thinking is what prevented Rock-a-Doodle (1991) from being a critical or commercial hit. But I must say the combination of elements COULD have made a masterpiece. It’s based on Edmond Rostand’s 1910 play Chanticleer (the characters of which are barnyard animals). The idea was first developed at Walt Disney studios, though Walt eventually killed it in favor of the very forgettable The Sword and the Stone. His later Robin Hood seems to have some of the country-barnyard flavor his Chanticleer might have had, particularly the Alan-a-Dale character voiced by Roger Miller. Here the vain rooster character (who thinks his crowing CAUSES the sun to rise) is an Elvis Presley type, voiced by Glen Campbell. The narrator is none other than Phil Harris of many a Disney film (who’d be my second choice to play Foghorn Leghorn in a fantasy land where Mel Blanc didn’t do him as Cleghorn. He was a big garrulous Southern dude). And the rest of the cast included Christopher Plummer, Ellen Greene (Audrey from the musical version of Little Shop of Horrors), Sorrell Booke from The Dukes of Hazzard, Charles Nelson Reilly, Sandy Duncan, and the one and only Eddie Deezen!
What about Rooster Brand Molasses, you may wonder? (see top of post). All I know is that they were based in New Orleans, and the poster is from 1891. But, if you’re a molasses fan, perhaps you will enjoy the post I did on National Molasses Day.