Analysis
The animation in Old Glory is realistic and heavily rotoscoped, different from the usual Warner Bros. style. Director Chuck Jones was known for his Disney-like style during this period, and Schlesinger assigned him to make this cartoon for that reason. The scene with Patrick Henry (voiced by John Litel) saying his "Give Me Liberty" speech was rotoscoped from the Warner Bros. color 2-reel historical short, Give Me Liberty. That short won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject - Color of 1936.
The original ending was cut when the cartoon was reissued twice as a Blue Ribbon Merrie Melody once on August 25, 1945 during the 1944-45 season (evident from the style opening rings used: orange rings with a black background) and again on September 12, 1953 during the 1953-54 season (evident from the style opening rings used: orange rings with a blue background). A version with a restored ending can be found on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 2, Disc 3. This copy retains the Blue Ribbon opening, but also the original opening shot of the flag and its music cue.
Old Glory is Jones's first short to feature Porky Pig. It is also Porky's first appearance in a color Merrie Melody since his debut in 1935's I Haven't Got a Hat, and his first short in three-strip Technicolor.
During the late 1960s, Old Glory was regularly screened between rock acts at the Fillmore in San Francisco. Many of the Fillmore's patrons drew great amusement from a pig saluting the American flag, as "pig" in 1960s slang was a derogatory term for a police officer and his saluting the flag was a symbol of the kind of America most people were against at the time: the kind that slavishly followed the government and didn't care for the rights of others.
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