The Truth About Mother Goose

The Truth About Mother Goose is an animated film released in 1957 by Walt Disney and directed by Bill Justice and Wolfgang Reitherman. In it, a trio of jazz-singing jesters sing three Mother Goose nursery rhymes, while an offscreen narrator explains their origins in three animated vignettes. The rhymes include:

• "Little Jack Horner": Thomas Horner (steward to Richard Whiting, the last abbot of Glastonbury), allegedly stealing a title deed in transit to Henry VIII of England.
• "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary": The life of Mary Stuart. The video claims that the "silver bells" are said to "refer to the elaborate decoration on her dresses", the "cockle shells" to her love of exotic food such as cockles, with the "pretty maids all in a row" referring to her ladies-in-waiting.
• "London Bridge Is Falling Down": The gradual deterioration and dilapidation of the medieval Old London Bridge.

External links

• The Truth About Mother Goose at IMDb
• The Truth About Mother Goose Disney shorts (Internet Archive)