Walt Disney
Page 93
Return to text.
*Though Ub Iwerks had described the original Mickey as “pear-shaped,” he was not entirely accurate. Mickey was circular—in part, because a circular construction made him easy to draw. Sometimes the artists would simply take quarters and trace them for the basic components.
Return to text.
*Walt was taking a somewhat different attitude to casting voices now after the triumph of Snow White. He wanted to get a popular child actor named Frankie Darro to play Pinocchio’s dissolute companion Lampwick and confidently predicted he would. “When you get people like Burgess Meredith who want to do the voice,—certain actors who want to do voices for our characters, they look at it differently than they used to.” He now suggested they give screen credit to the actors “so it attaches some importance to it, and a certain prestige. Because we need those good actors, you know.” Story Meeting, Pinocchio—Boobyland and Escape, Dec. 8, 1938, Story Meetings 1938–1939, Pinocchio, Story Material, A 2961, WDA.
Return to text.
*Dick Huemer would suggest that Walt was so ignorant of classical music that when he heard the word “sacre,” he asked, “The sock?” But the transcript of this session indicates that Walt did no such thing. In fact, he hardly paused. Dick Huemer, “Thumbnail Sketches,” Funnyworld, Fall 1979, p. 41.
Return to text.
*In the event, they eliminate the Administration Building and housed the business offices in the Animation Building.
Return to text.
*Honoring his commitment to his employees, Walt reserved five thousand shares of the preferred stock for the top members of his staff, including his top-rated thirty-five animators. In the Matter of Walt Disney Productions and Arthur Babbitt, Decisions of National Labor Relations Board, Case No. C 2415, Mar. 31, 1943, p. 899.
Return to text.
*In a breakdown of reviews from both film and music critics, Paul Anderson, a Disney scholar, found 33 percent were very positive, 22 percent positive, 22 percent both positive and negative, and 16 percent negative, meaning that the general response was still overwhelmingly favorable. Paul F. Anderson, “The Disney Statistic,” POV 1, no. 2 (Winter 1992), p. 6.
Return to text.
*Also contradicting Stravinsky’s supposed outrage was the fact that he cordially welcomed Disney executive Don Niles to his home in September 1942 when Walt had dispatched Niles to discuss renewing the option on Stravinsky’s music. Niles reported that Stravinsky was “happy to negotiate a new option,” though he thought the war obviated the necessity for doing so, and that Stravinsky “stated that he would be only too willing to make his services available to us” at an appropriate fee once the war was over. Memo, Don Niles to Walt, Re: Stravinsky Option, Oct. 1, 1942, N folder, Walt Disney Corr., Inter-Office, 1938–1944, N-Q, A 1630, WDA.
Return to text.
*Though Walt was besieged with requests for money, some from perfect strangers, others from friends and acquaintances, and though he usually pleaded that he had nothing to spare, he did occasionally reward past service. He gave $ 200 to the sister of an old Kansas City friend so she could clear her mortgage and $ 200 more to a Kansas City pal who needed to make payments as he looked for another job; money to a Red Cross buddy; loans to Carl Stalling, the composer who had stalked out of the studio early in 1930; and over a thousand dollars to Jerry Raggos, the proprietor of the café in Kansas City who had given him meals when he was down on his luck, so that Raggos could open a restaurant in Phoenix. He even wrote a letter of reference for George Winkler, who had helped engineer his ouster from the Mintz operation.
Return to text.
*Walt later claimed that Bioff got involved when Sorrell asked the IATSE leader to call out projectionists, whom Bioff represented, all over the country wherever Disney films were playing. That was when Bioff offered his services to resolve the strike. Los Angeles Daily News, Jul. 10, 1941.
Return to text.
*As with the Communist influence in the union, Roy may not have been wrong about a government fix. Years later Sorrell boasted that when Roy was in Washington pleading his case, Sorrell contacted Senator Sheridan Downey, who phoned the Conciliation Service and told them to do right by the union. Then Downey took Sorrell to see Senator Hiram Johnson, who called the office with the same request. The final contract included retroactive pay and strike pay, which Sorrell had been demanding. Sorrell, pp. 73–75. “I feel to this day that he [Sorrell] just had the ‘in’ in Washington,” Walt complained years later. Walt Disney int., Pete Martin, Reel 6 & 7, Reel 7, p. 40.
Return to text.
*As one studio employee told the story, the navy officer bludgeoned Walt into accepting a minimal budget then told him that the conversation had been recorded to certify the deal. Erwin Verity, interview by Dave Smith and Rick Shale, Jan. 19, 1976, p. 2 WDA.
Return to text.
*Kimball may have been confusing scenes here. While there are several scenes of a frantic Donald, it is the aracuan bird who leaves the frame on one side and then reappears on the other.
Return to text.
*In October 1944 the studio business office calculated that Pinocchio, Fantasia, The Reluctant Dragon, Bambi, and Victory Through Air Power had lost a total of $ 2,396,500. Memo, Paul L. Pease to Board of Directors, Oct. 24, 1944, Paul Pease Folder, Walt Disney Corr., Inter-Office, 1938–1944, N-Q, A 1630, WDA.
Return to text.
*After a record year in 1946 the motion picture industry would be hit on the jaw by the final disposition of an antitrust suit that the government had brought against the major studios. A consent decree agreed to in 1946 would result in the divorcement of exhibition from production and distribution and the eventual dismantling of the old studio system. Disney, which owned no theaters and no distribution arm, was not directly affected, but the entire industry suffered.
Return to text.
*Walt seldom attended board of directors meetings either, despite Roy’s prodding. Outside directors, Roy wrote Walt in January 1946, “have shown evidence of being disinterested and of feeling they were not being treated right when you, as chief spark plug and production head, did not attend.” Memo, Roy to Walt, Re: Confidential, Jan. 31, 1946, Walt Disney 1941–1954 Folder, Roy O. Disney, Inter-Office Corr., Disney, Roy O.—trips to Disneyland (1954–1961), A 3002, WDA.
Return to text.
*This was an evolution. Bugs began life in 1940 as a rather dumpy madcap who frolicked wildly around the screen and evolved into a sleeker, brainier character—or, as animation historian Charles Solomon described the transformation, “Bugs started out in a sort of Harpo Marx mode, then moved through Groucho Marx.” Solomon, Enchanted Drawings, p. 155.
Return to text.
*“The tone of a Disney nature film is nearly always patronizing,” Richard Schickel would write in a typical criticism. “It is nearly always summoning us to see how very nicely the humble creatures do, considering that they lack our sophistication and know-how.” The Disney Version, p. 290. The bigger problem was fabrication. “I wanted to take them [otter cubs] to Yellowstone Park…get off beaten track trail,” wrote a naturalist who was working with the studio on a film. “Have them meet cub bears we had lured by feeding regularly near a lake. Then watch and photograph them meeting and playing. Would be a real natural comedy spot. Of course this will take time, but theatrical when we get it. Will be inimitable and always remain a Disney classic.” Emil Liers to Ben Sharpsteen, n.d., V Folder, Walt Disney Corr., Inter-Office, 1945–1952, M-Z, A 1636, WDA.
Return to text.
*There is a discrepancy between the names of those subpoenaed, as listed in the Hollywood Reporter, and those who later testified. Twenty-four so-called “friendlies” finally testified.
Return to text.
*Two years earlier Walt had purchased a lot at Smoke Tree with the intention of building his own cottage there instead of renting one.
Return to text.
*Though Walt delegated a good deal of authority on these
films, he nevertheless took his approval of the storyboards seriously. When he noticed that one sequence wasn’t shot exactly as agreed, he questioned the director Ken Annakin as to why. Annakin replied that he was going over budget and wanted to economize. “Have I ever queried the budget?” Walt asked. “Have I ever asked you to cut? Let’s keep to what we agreed.” Ken Annakin quoted in Katherine and Richard Greene, Inside the Dream: The Personal Story of Walt Disney (New York: Roundtable Press, 2001), pp. 87–88.
Return to text.
*It actually came to $ 879,000 Memo, C. V. Wood, Jr., to Walt, Re: Disneyland Construction Progress Schedule, Sept. 9, 1954, C. V. Wood Folder, Walt Disney Corr., Inter-Office, 1953–1955, R-Z, A 1640, WDA.
Return to text.
*The production values were so high that a Texas exhibitor named Bob O’Donnell recommended that Walt take the three shows and edit them into a single feature film for theatrical exhibition, which Walt did. The feature grossed $ 2.5 million.
Return to text.
*Among the petitioners who wanted to get into Disneyland was a fast-food franchiser named Ray Kroc. “I have recently taken over the national franchise of the McDonald’s System,” Kroc wrote Walt. “I would like to inquire if there may be an opportunity for a McDonald’s in your Disneyland Development.” Walt palmed him off on C. V. Wood. There was not to be a McDonald’s at Disneyland. Ray Kroc to Walt, Oct. 20, 1954, K Folder, Walt Disney Corr., 1953–1954, G-K, A 1552, WDA.
Return to text.
*The only pall on Walt’s mood during this period was the sudden death from a heart attack on July 4 of Perce Pearce, the pompous, pipe-smoking, hardworking writer-producer who had been with him from Snow White through the English live-action features through The Mickey Mouse Club, for which Pearce was filming segments in Europe when he expired. June Pearce to Walt, July 11, 1955, Perce Pearce Folder, Walt Disney Corr., Inter-Office, 1953–1955, M-P, A 1639, WDA. “WHILE I HAD MY LITTLE DISAGREEMENTS WITH PERCE THROUGH THE YEARS I REALLY LOVED AND RESPECTED HIM,” Walt wired his widow. Ibid., Jul. 13, 1955.
Return to text.
*This was not the last confrontation between Walt and C. V. Wood. Not long after leaving, Wood began luring away Disneyland employees for a new amusement park project called Magic Mountain in Golden, Colorado. When that failed to materialize, Wood, calling himself the “Designer-Builder of Disneyland,” resurfaced at the head of another amusement park venture, this one in New York called Freedomland. Walt, furious at the presumptuousness, decided to sue him. Memo, Donn Tatum to Walt, Re: C. V. Wood Matter, June 3, 1960, C. V. Wood Folder, Walt Disney Corr., 1961, M-Z, A 1589; Memo, Cottrell to Walt, April 14, 1960, Bill Cottrell Folder, Walt Disney Corr., Inter-Office, 1960-1964, A-Disney Aircraft, A 1648, WDA.
Return to text.
*Walt was also thinking of his animation legacy now. At least since 1953 he had been soliciting writers for a book on the art of animation, only to reject every candidate because he didn’t trust them. The project languished for several years until Walt finally settled on an Associated Press reporter named Bob Thomas. Walt suggested that Thomas work with Jaxon and Dick Huemer, and “since I am working with them on other projects, I could be close to it, too.” The book was eventually published. Memo, Walt to Jimmy Johnson, Re: Bob Thomas, March 25, 1957, Jimmy Johnson Folder, Walt Disney Corr., Inter-Office, 1956–1957, Disneyland J, A 1642, WDA.
Return to text.
*Retta Scott on Bambi became the “first girl animator,” in Walt’s words, but there would not be many more. In an Associated Press interview in 1946, Walt attributed the dearth of women animators to the fact that women were not particularly good at cartooning and that they lacked a sense of humor—statements for which Walt received a great deal of criticism. When Joe Lee, the chief editorial writer of the Topeka State Journal, came to Walt’s defense, Walt wrote him, “I suppose the first thing I should tell you is that I am sleeping inside again,” then admitted, “I guess there isn’t any sucker bigger than the one who sounds off about the fair sex, in a manner which they like to construe as detrimental to them, but I must plead either nolo contendere or non compos mentis.” Still, he concluded unrepentantly, “[I]f you think they possess a real sense of humor I’d like to be around some night when you are explaining how come you stayed out at the poker game ’til two o’clock in the morning.” Bob Thomas, AP, March 18, 1946; Walt to Joe Lee, Mar. 25, 1946, L Folder, Walt Disney Corr., 1945–1946, L-P, A 1535, WDA.
Return to text.
*When, as the fair drew to a close, the subsidy was revealed, it became a subject of controversy. No other state received a similar loan or grant from the fair, and though the money was supposed to be repaid through concession income, the concessionaire later admitted that “[t]here isn’t any chance of the fair getting much of that money back.” In effect, Moses had misallocated the money. Robert Alden, “Illinois Received Loan from Fair,” NYT, Sept. 3, 1965, p. 31.
Return to text.
*Some accounts say that Walt invited the staff to a screening of Song of the South, after which he suddenly decided that Mary Poppins could use animation, which threw the crew into a tizzy. See Greene, Man Behind the Magic, pp. 152–53. But memos indicate that Walt had thought of Poppins as a live action–animation combination as early as the 1940 s.
Return to text.
*This issue would prove to be sticky. Walt did not want to be subject to the whims of voters or local bureaucrats, and his attorneys had recommended that he get the Florida legislature to approve two or three municipalities in the Orlando area to create zoning, share in tax proceeds, adopt building codes, control liquor consumption, and regulate licenses. “The primary benefit derived by forming our own municipalities is control,” attorney Richard Morrow wrote Walt bluntly. Walt didn’t immediately warm to the idea, apparently because Universal head Jules Stein had warned him about the problems Stein had encountered with his own Universal City in California. But Walt finally agreed to—and the Florida legislature finally approved—a separate district for the park, which effectively removed the park from the control of Orlando voters and officials, but it left unresolved what would happen when EPCOT was inhabited. Memo, Richard T. Morrow to Walt, Re: Florida Municipalities, Nov. 24, 1965, M Folder, Walt Disney Corr., Inter-Office, 1965–1966, J-Reddy, A 1654, WDA; Foster, pp. 160–61, 188–91.
Return to text.
*When EPCOT finally was erected at Walt Disney World Resort, it was a permanent international fair, not the city of tomorrow that Walt had visualized. Mineral King would expire too, in part because of environmentalists’ objections but mainly because Walt wasn’t there to guide it.
Return to text.
*Released after Walt Disney’s death
Return to text.
*Released after Walt Disney’s death
Return to text.
*Released after Walt Disney’s death
Return to text.
*Released after Walt Disney’s death
Return to text.
*Released after Walt Disney’s death
Return to text.
*Released after Walt Disney’s death
Return to text.
APPENDIX
FEATURE-LENGTH PICTURES PRODUCED BY WALT DISNEY
A = ANIMATION
LA = LIVE ACTION
C = COMBINATION ANIMATION AND LIVE ACTION
TL = TRUE LIFE ADVENTURE
TLF = TRUE LIFE FANTASY (DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE IN A FICTIONAL FRAMEWORK)
1. 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (A) 2. 1940 Pinocchio (A)
3. 1940 Fantasia (A)
4. 1941 The Reluctant Dragon (C)
5. 1941 Dumbo (A)
6. 1942 Bambi (A)
7. 1943 Saludos Amigos (C)
8. 1942 Victory Through Air Power (C)
9. 1945 The Three Caballeros (C)
10. 1946 Make Mine Music (A)
11. 1946 Song of the South (C)
12. 1947 Fun and Fancy Free (A)
13. 1948 Melody Time (
A)
14. 1949 So Dear to My Heart (C)
15. 1949 The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (A) 16. 1950 Cinderella (A)
17. 1950 Treasure Island (LA)
18. 1951 Alice in Wonderland (A)
19. 1952 The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (LA) 20. 1953 Peter Pan (A)
21. 1953 The Sword and the Rose (LA)
22. 1953 The Living Desert (TL)
23. 1954 Rob Roy—The Highland Rogue (LA) 24. 1954 The Vanishing Prairie (TL)
25. 1954 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (LA) 26. 1955 Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier (LA) 27. 1955 Lady and the Tramp (A)
28. 1955 The African Lion (TL)
29. 1955 The Littlest Outlaw (LA)
30. 1956 The Great Locomotive Chase (LA) 31. 1956 Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (LA) 32. 1956 Secrets of Life (TL)
33. 1956 Westward Ho the Wagons! (LA)
34. 1957 Johnny Tremain (LA)
35. 1957 Perri (TLF)
36. 1957 Old Yeller (LA)
37. 1958 The Light in the Forest (LA)
38. 1958 White Wilderness (TL)
39. 1958 Tonka (LA)
40. 1959 Sleeping Beauty (A)
41. 1959 The Shaggy Dog (LA)
42. 1959 Darby O’Gill and the Little People (LA) 43. 1959 Third Man on the Mountain (LA) 44. 1960 Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a Circus (LA) 45. 1960 Kidnapped (LA)