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Why was Huckleberry Hound always singing that song?
Oh my daaaaarlin', Clementine!
If you know one thing about Huckleberry Hound, it's that he likes to sing "Oh My Darling, Clementine". The song itself originates from the 1880s, a classic but tragic song about a woman named Clementine falling into a river and drowning. The song was likely chosen for The Huckleberry Hound Show because it is so old that any copyright expired, but one short showed a sadder reason behind Huck's appreciation for the song.
In the 1960 short "Legion Bound Hound", Huck serves as a sergeant in the Foreign Legion leading Company-B. While showing the audience around the desert fort, Huck reminisces on how soldiers join the foreign legion because "After all, they come here to forget. Just like me. I come here to forget my fiancee. Uh, what's her name?" Huck rejoices in having finally forgotten the girl who broke his heart and decides to listen to some music.
He turns on the record player , and the song "Oh My Darling, Clementine" plays. He immediately turns it off. Clementine is the name of his ex-fiancee.
"Legion Bound Hound" is the 40th Huckleberry Hound short and, approximately, the 40th time the audience has heard the song. This moment was a little Easter egg to explain to the audience that Huck didn't just enjoy the song but had a deeper meaning for him. But it's not all sad, Huckleberry Hound eventually got his happily ever after in The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound where he fell in love and married Desert Flower, the young lady dog who saved Huck after a crash landing and helped him recover from amnesia. Even though he continued singing the song after meeting Desert Flower, we can only hope the amnesia helped Huckleberry Hound forget the real Clementine.
