I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

This film was a part of the Washington D.C. Public Library's circulating 16mm film collection housed at the Martin Luther King Jr. Central Library. The collection is particularly noted for the wide variety of African American and African diaspora content. A short, animated children's film with the title I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly. It consists of a single reel of color 16mm polyester film with optical sound. A jingle plays in the background as the animation plays on screen. The song and story are about an old lady who swallows a fly and then swallows a spider to catch the fly. The songster then sings that the lady swallows a bird to catch the fly and then swallows a cat to catch the bird. The plot and song continue in this manner where the lady swallows bigger animals in succession to catch the smaller one she previously swallowed, eventually swallowing a dog, goat, pig and ultimately a horse, after which the singer says that "she's dead, of course.".

Catalog date

1964

Recorded places

Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America

Recorded subjects

African American; Animated films; Film

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