Between Showers

Lets all go to the lobby

“Let’s All Go to the Lobby” is a 1957 animated musical snipe played as an advertisement before the beginning of the main film. It featured a family of four talking concession stand products, singing “Let’s all go to the lobby to get ourselves a treat” (to the tune of “We Won’t Be Home Until Morning”) and walking to the concession stand.

The trailer was animated by Dave Fleischer (producer of Popeye cartoons) and produced by Filmack Studios of Chicago, a company that specialized in snipes. It was part of a series of Technicolor trailers aimed at alerting audiences about a theater’s newly installed concession stand.

In 2000, “Let’s All Go to the Lobby” was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Further color snipes, such as ones using a clock and featuring singing and dancing hot dogs, popcorn boxes, candy bars and other concession stand products took their cue from this trailer. Those targeted at drive-in theaters directed their patrons to the snack bar. Such shorts are still used for this purpose.

“Lets all go to the kitchen” – Milk commercial by the America Dairy Farmers

The sequence was also parodied in several episodes of The Simpsons, including “Burns’ Heir” and “Wild Barts Can’t Be Broken”

-And the DVD of The Simpsons Movie:

In Grease, Danny sings his Sandy song in front of a drive in screen, which is playing clips of dancing foods.

The short is also referenced in the webcomic The Order of the Stick.

A local rib joint makes a loosely based variation:

The film Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters parodies this short by having heavy metal band Mastodon (appropriately portrayed as food items not fit for consumption) interrupting a group of movie snacks singing a similar song called “Groovy Time for a Movie Time” filled with sexual innuendo. The band then proceeds to sing their own song about the inconveniences and annoyances of movie theaters and audiences, entitled “Cut You Up With a Linoleum Knife” threatening to perform the titular act (and other acts of violence) on any viewer who does not follow movie etiquette:

Frank DeCaro’s “Out at the Movies” segment on The Daily Show began with modified film of the food singing “Let’s go out at the movies…with Frank DeCa-ro!” and featuring an image of DeCaro’s face responding enthusiastically to the animated hot dog.

In an episode of Two Stupid Dogs, the pair spend most of their time at a drive in theatre attempting to make their way to, and then purchase food from, the snack bar after the little dog sees a similar snipe.

In the Futurama episode “Raging Bender”, Hattie McDoogal shouts “Let’s all go to the lobby” when Bender picks a fight with the “Ultimate Robot Fighting” Champion in the middle of the cinema.

In a season four episode of the sitcom Two and a Half Men, titled “Smooth as a Ken Doll”, both Charlie (Charlie Sheen) and Myra (guest-star Judy Greer) are drunk and singing “Let’s all go to the lobby…” in the back seat of Charlie’s brother, Alan’s (Jon Cryer) car, after returning from a movie.

There is a commercial for Comcast that features the four talking food snacks singing “It’s time for movies on demand” and features the chocolate bar get taken by the family dog.

In the opening sequence to The Animation Show, animator Don Hertzfeldt used this jingle at the end of his short entitled “Welcome to the Show”.

The southern California improv team, The Lobby, is named after the song. The group originally intended to use the song as introduction music, but they have rarely done so.

In the Scrubs episode My Life in Four Cameras, when asked by Carla what their song is, Turk begins humming the tune. However, Carla refers to it as the “Let’s All Go to the Movies” song.