"You Can't Sue God"

From Kirk Douglas' 1988 autobiography The Ragman's Son:  "I was shocked at Disney's audacity in exploiting my children."

What was the star of Disney's own 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea so upset about?  So much so that he carried a grudge for three decades?

Sometime in early 1956, Kirk Douglas and his two young sons, Joel and Michael, spent a Saturday afternoon at Walt Disney's Holmby Hills estate.  The highlight of the visit for Kirk and his kids was the opportunity to ride on the Carolwood Pacific, Walt's 1/8 scale model railroad.  Shortly thereafter, film footage of the older Douglas sitting atop a miniature engine and navigating a trainload of kids around Walt's backyard appeared on an episode of the Disneyland television program.  The show in question, Where Do the Stories Come From, demonstrated how the inspiration for the 1951 Donald Duck cartoon Out of Scale came from the model railroading hobbies of Walt and two of his animators, Ollie Johnston and Ward Kimball.  The episode first aired on April 4, 1956.

Douglas was surprised and distinctly irritated by the footage.  "I wrote him a letter saying that I would prefer that he never use film of my kids and me on a commercial program," he revealed in The Ragman's Son.  He noted that he then received a letter of apology in return.

 

But when Where Do the Stories Come From was rerun just two months later on June 6, 1956, the footage in question was still included in the program.  Douglas was outraged.  On the advice of his lawyer, he initiated a lawsuit that named Walt, the Disney Studios, the ABC television network and the program's sponsors among the defendants.  Douglas insisted it was a matter of principle and if he won, any monetary awards would be donated to charity.

But according to Douglas in his autobiography, just before the matter went to trial he had misgivings.  "I thought, what am I doing?  There are some people in our profession –Bob Hope, Walt Disney-who can do no wrong."  Over the objections of his lawyer, he dropped the suit.  "I doubt if I could have gotten anywhere with it.  You can't sue God."

Douglas' recollections, while apparently noble on the surface, are seemingly at odds with the public record from the summer of 1956.  In The Ragman's Son, he portrays himself as the offended parent, furious over the seeming exploitation of his children.  Yet, upon examining the film footage in question, the Douglas sons are at no point either identified or mentioned.  Numerous children are shown riding the train, but there is no direct correlation between any of them and Kirk Douglas, at least not to the public at large to which Joel and Michael would certainly have been unrecognizable.

Douglas' exploitation charge becomes especially curious when examining newspaper accounts of the affair from the summer of 1956.   He sued for $400,000 in damages and an additional $15,000 for compensation for the "work" he did in the filmed footage.  He claimed the matter was an invasion of privacy, but according to multiple reports, emphasized more that ". . . the showings damaged his reputation and earning power, because his status and income potential are based on the kind and number of appearances he chooses to make and the payment he gets for these performances."  It appears that what really upset the actor was that he wasn't paid for the appearance.

Not so coincidentally, a couple weeks after the charges were filed, Douglas expounded on how television had the means to undermine his career and livelihood.  In a newspaper column he himself penned, he stated, "I feel if people can twist a knob and see me in their living rooms every week, they will not leave the house to pay to see me in a film."

In fairness, Walt Disney is not without blame in the matter.  The studio agreed not to use the footage in subsequent airings of Where Do the Stories Come From and whether by error or design, failed to live up to that accord.  In response to the suit, Walt stated publicly that, "The entire appearance of Mr. Douglas on television was for 26 seconds and it is inconceivable that a man who has appeared so extensively in motion pictures, magazines and television could be damaged on a television screen in that amount of time."  But had the studio excised the footage as promised, the entire matter would have been over before it started.

The Art of the Title Card: Home Made Home

 

Everyman Goofy became handyman Goofy in the cartoon Home Made Home, released seventy-five years ago today on March 23, 1951. The title was a riff on the traditional "Home Sweet Home" saying which originated in the early 19th century. It became a popular embroidery motif which inspired Disney artists in the design of this particular title card. Layouts were credited to Al Zinnen; backgrounds to Dick Anthony.

Windows to the Past: Donald Duck and Easter Seals

Seventy-five years ago on March 16, 1951, Donald Duck and his nephews were helping the Easter Seals charity by way of this one-panel comic that appeared in newspapers across the country.  Christmas Seals and Easter Seals were popular fundraising programs throughout the early to mid 20th century.  Multiple seals were sold in blocks. Individual seals would then be affixed to backs of envelopes of seasonal greeting cards, hence the "seal" moniker.  The Easter Seals organization was founded in 1919 as the National Society for Crippled Children as reflected in the seals issued in 1951 and subsequently promoted with the help of the Walt Disney Company.

Long Ago Magic Along 31st Street in Kansas City - Revisited

Editor's Note:  Restoration efforts continue on the McConahy Building in Kansas City.  Tremendous progress has been made in the eighteen years since I created this post detailing Walt's history in Kansas City.  The grass roots efforts of Thank You, Walt Disney continue, as documented by their newsletters that are well worth checking out.  Needless to say, donations are happily and gratefully accepted.  Consider adding your support to this very worthy cause.

Revisiting this post brought back some wonderful memories, most especially that it came to the attention of Diane Disney Miller, who shared the following reminiscence: 

"We have a bit of wonderful film, shot by my dad, of the entire Disney family on what appears to be the screened porch of that home on Belfontaine. He pans around the room, and we see little Dorothy Disney with her parents, Flora perched on the arm of Elias' chair, laughing and talking animatedly. When I saw this film, not too many years ago, I understood why my dad always said 'My mother was a beautiful woman.'"

A short time back, 2719 Hyperion reader Steve Pierson shared with me photographs he had taken on a recent visit to Kansas City, Missouri. Walt Disney lived in that Midwestern city during his youth, and it was there as a young man he established his first animation studio. Steve sought out some of the landmarks associated with this period of early Disney history, seeking to identify places such as Walt's childhood home and the locations of the early Laugh-O-Grams Studios. Steve then very generously gave me permission to use the pictures in a post detailing the Kansas City of Walt Disney's formative years.

What began as the simple task of putting together a post showcasing Steve's efforts, quickly grew into a geographical and historical research vignette encompassing vintage photos, satellite imagery and resources such as The Animated Man by Michael Barrier and Walt in Wonderland by Russell Merritt and J. B. Kaufman. Having never been to Kansas City, I wanted to be able to better understand Walt's time there in a geographical context. I was also curious to discover just how much of Walt Disney's Kansas City had survived into the 21st century.

Michael Barrier visited Kansas City a few years back and noted, "Walt Disney's old neighborhood is so badly blighted—and so radically different from what he knew—that making that imaginative leap back to 1922 is, I'm afraid, very difficult." Barrier's observation is sadly very accurate. But despite the urban decay of the area, vestiges of Walt's life there do remain. And out of one of those vestiges, a project of both historical commemoration and neighborhood renewal may hopefully be realized some time in the near future.

Walt Disney arrived with his family in Kansas City in the spring of 1911. Their first residence was a rented house at 2706 East 31st Street, in a neighborhood a few miles southeast of downtown. For the next twelve years, the very significant events of Walt's life would transpire within a twenty-block stretch of that particular boulevard.

31st Street would form the southern border of Kansas City Star delivery route that Elias Disney would purchase that following summer. The area of route stretched north to 27th Street and was bordered on the west by Prospect Avenue and on the east by Indiana Avenue. Walt, his brother Roy, and Elias would deliver morning and Sunday newspapers to over seven hundred customers. In September of 1911, Walt enrolled at the nearby Benton Grammer School. He was required to repeat the second grade despite having completed that level while still living in Marceline. Eleven years later, he would audition students from that school for roles in Tommy Tucker's Tooth, an educational film commissioned by a local dentist. Benton student Jack Records, then eleven years old, won the part of Jimmie Jones. The school closed in 2002 and subsequently became the DA Holmes Apartments.

Two blocks away from the Benton Grammer School, Walt and a childhood friend set up a pop stand at the corner 31st and Montgall during the summer of 1912. According to the friend, "It ran about three weeks and we drank up all the profits."

No trace remains of the Disney family's original Kansas City residence on 31st Street. In the fall of 1914, Elias Disney purchased a small house a few blocks east at 3028 Bellefontaine Street just off 31st Street. That home would remain in the Disney family until 1921, when Walt's oldest brother Herbert moved his family to Portland, Oregon. Elias and Flora Disney followed their son west a few months later. The house on Bellefontaine remains to this day, as does the garage that Elias Disney built sometime in 1920. It was in this garage that Walt produced the Newman Laugh-O-Grams and later Little Red Riding Hood, the first independent Laugh-O-Gram cartoon.

When the house and garage at Bellefontaine became unavailable, Walt took to renting rooms and set up studios in a few different locations in an area surrounding the intersection of 31st Street and Troost Avenue, about 20 blocks west of his childhood neighborhood. A now somewhat iconic design that graced an envelope shows the 3028 Bellefontaine address scratched out and replaced with a handwritten "3241 Troost," undoubtedly the first of those locations.

In early 1920, Walt took a job with the Kansas City Slide Company that was located at 1015 Central Street. The job paid forty dollars a week. Later that year, that company moved to a location on Charlotte Street and became the Kansas City Film Ad Company. The building on Central Street still survives in the heart of downtown Kansas City. 2249-51 Charlotte Street has since become the location of the Truman Medical Center and Children's Mercy Hospital.

In May of 1922, Walt incorporated Laugh-O-Grams Films and set up the new studio on the upper floor of the McConahy Building located at 1127 East 31st Street. The McConahy Building survives still, and has become the focus of a grass roots restoration and urban renewal effort, the details of which can be found at the website Thank You Walt Disney. Walt often took his meals at the Forest Inn Cafe on the first floor of the building, the restaurants owners frequently extending him much needed credit. It was at this location that Walt and his staff produced the Laugh-O-Grams series as well as Tommy Tuckers Tooth and the "Song-O-Reel" Martha, a live action sing-along. The Studio was just beginning production of the first Alice comedy, Alice's Wonderland in June of 1923, when a lack of rent money forced them from the building.


Some sources assert that the studio moved to the nearby Wirthman Building at the corner of 31st Street and Troost. That building was also home to the large and elaborate Isis Theater, whose resident organist was Carl Stalling. Stalling's musical talents would be employed notably and famously by Warner Brothers in Hollywood some years later. But according to Michael Barrier in The Animated Man, it is likely that Walt returned to one of his former locations at 3239 Troost Avenue. It would have been there that the studio wrapped up production on Alice's Wonderland, and Walt Disney and Laugh-O-Grams Films essentially went broke. Shortly thereafter, Walt headed for Hollywood, while former colleagues Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Max Maxwell launched their own studio within the walls of the Wirthman Building. Arabian Nights Cartoons would purchase and employ many of the assets and equipment of the former Laugh-O-Grams studio.

The Wirthman Building and the Isis Theater went on to experience tragedy and adversity over the next five decades. The theater survived fires in 1928, 1939 and 1954. In March of 1970, the Isis became the center of racial unrest and rioting, and closed permanently shortly thereafter. Other tenants continued to occupy the Wirthman Building but it was ultimately demolished in 1997. A mural by Kansas City artist Alexander Austin was unveiled on the wall of an adjacent building in 2006, celebrating the history of Troost Avenue. Images of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse are depicted on the design.

Snapshot! - Posting of Advertisements is Prohibited

Harambe is one of my most favorite locations in all of Walt Disney World.  The attention to detail on the part of the Imagineers is simply staggering.  It is a wonderful place to explore in the hour or so before closing as the crowds have diminished and you can truly immerse yourself in the atmosphere of Africa.

This particular Snapshot! is a humorous homage to the vintage post no bills vignettes of the early to mid 20th century. 

And for more information on Kinga Hot Air Balloon Trips--

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Kinga Hot Air Balloon Trips

Disney's Hollywood: Gower Gulch and the Drugstore Cowboy

It's always fun to find trace evidence of bygone popular culture lingering in the background of a classic Disney cartoon.  Such evidence is on display in the 1943 Goofy short Victory Vehicles, and it serves to remind us of a long-faded but still quite memorable Hollywood archetype: the drugstore cowboy.

In Victory Vehicles, Goofy briefly played the part of a drugstore cowboy, aptly demonstrating lasso-powered mobility as a form of alternate transportation.  The narrator even refers to him as a "Hollywood drugstore cowboy."  So, just what exactly is a "drugstore cowboy," at least in context to the Hollywood of Walt Disney's time?  The answer can be found in that very same scene, if one looks beyond the mugging Goofy to the background behind him.  The Gower Gulch Pharmacy is the clue that unravels the story of this particular piece of silver screen folklore.

Gower Gulch is the nickname for a very specific piece of Hollywood geography: the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street.  This was a location central to a number of well known movie studios, including Columbia, RKO, Paramount and Republic Pictures.  Located at the southeast corner of Gower and Sunset was the Columbia Drug Co., famous for both its soda fountain and newsstand.  Both Columbia and Republic specialized in westerns during this time period, and aspiring actors, many of whom were actual working cowboys, would congregate in and around the drugstore, hoping to be selected by the studio casting agents who would frequent the area.  Many of these hopefuls would come to Gower Gulch fully outfitted in their cowboy clothing and gear, and thus the moniker "drugstore cowboy" was born.

Goofy Image © Walt Disney Company

The Art of the Title Card: Dude Duck

Today marks the 75th Anniversary of the classic Donald Duck cartoon Dude Duck, released on March 2, 1951.  Directed by studio veteran Jack Hannah, the short showcased the battle of wits between Donald and the horse Rover Boy #6 at the Bar None dude ranch.  Layout was by Yale Gracey; background by Art Riley.

Image © Walt Disney Company

The True Life Winston Hibler

While he certainly has one of the most recognizable voices in the history of Disney entertainment, Winston Hibler has ironically remained one of the more quiet giants behind so many studio success stories and productions both animated and live action. Most famous as the narrator of the True-Life Adventure films, Hibler’s creative efforts however, extended far beyond the award-winning nature documentaries that were the hallmark of his more than thirty-year career with the Disney Studios.

A Pennsylvania native who arrived in Hollywood in the early 1930s to pursue an acting career in motion pictures, Hibler ironically found work with Disney in 1942 behind the cameras. He began his studio career as a camera operator, but quickly became a technical director on many of the government-commissioned training films being produced for the U.S. military.

Hibler’s first entertainment-based endeavor was writing the Johnny Appleseed sequence from the 1948 package feature Melody Time. One of the most underrated gems of Disney animation, Johnny Appleseed was an auspicious debut that Walt Disney himself took notice of. Hibler quickly found himself fast-tracked into feature animation, providing story content for films such as The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Peter Pan and Sleeping Beauty.

But paralleling his contributions to the animation department was his involvement in a series of films that would ultimately become his legacy at Disney for work both as a performer and as a writer. While the True-Life Adventures literally pioneered the nature documentary genre and collected countless awards and accolades, decades later it seems that it is Hibler’s gentle, storyteller-based narrations that are best remembered by a generation of baby boomers and their parents. And it was a job Hibler never intended to do.

When preparing Seal Island, the first in the True-Life Adventure series, Hibler recorded a test track to check for story continuity. According to Hibler’s family, Walt previewed Seal Island for his wife Lillian using Hibler’s “scratch track”. When Lillian later viewed a cut sans-Hib, she pointedly asked Walt what happened to the first guy. Hibler subsequently voiced the final theatrical cut and went on to narrate all the remaining True-Life Adventure films, as well as the People and Places travelogues and numerous episodes of the Disney television program. With the exception of Walt himself, his is likely the most famous non-character voice in the history of the studio.

But the brunt of Hibler’s creative energies on the True-Life films was channeled behind the cameras. While starting as a writer, his subsequent experience allowed him to grow a career that came to encompass producing and directing credits as well. He was the force behind the vast majority of the live-action animal-themed episodes on the Wonderful World of Disney during the 1960s and 1970s, and the likes of Charlie the Lonesome Cougar, Lefty the Dingaling Lynx, and Ida the Offbeat Eagle became staples of Sunday evening entertainment.

Impressively, at the same time Hibler was also largely involved in the studio’s live action feature slate as well. Producer credits appear on such films as Those Calloways, The Ugly Dachshund, Follow Me Boys! and The Island at the Top of the World. He was working on early concepts for what would ultimately become The Black Hole when he passed away in 1976.

Hibler’s talents turned up in other places as well. He contributed lyrics to songs such as "Following the Leader" from Peter Pan and "I Wonder" from Sleeping Beauty. But what is likely one of his most famous and widely heard (and for the most part uncredited) works was this notable speech written for Walt in 1955:

“To all who come to this happy place – welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America, with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.”

While in the past score of years, people such as Marc Davis, Mary Blair, John Hench, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston and numerous other studio and Imagineering legends have rightly and prominently been given recognition that was long overdue, Winston Hibler’s legacy of contributions seems to still remain on the periphery of Disney history. While his lack of extensive animation and theme park notoriety has likely kept his profile lower than that of many of his contemporaries, he was certainly a cornerstone of the Disney Studio for many, many years. His creative impact extends far beyond the True-Life Adventure narrations he became most noted for.

Images © Walt Disney Company

From the Jungle Cruise queue area at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.

Jungle Cruise - The Criticism is Intense!

 This week's best clickbait.  It landed in a Google feed.

"Fan-Favorite Magic Kingdom Attraction Now Facing Intense Criticism"

Spoiler Alert! It's Jungle Cruise.

The photo featured with the article shows kids with balloons in front of Cinderella castle. Not an elephant or tiger in sight.  It takes five whole paragraphs before it even identifies Jungle Cruise as the subject. Classic clickbait tactics. Shameful editorial guidelines.

So the Jungle Cruise is now facing intense criticism.  From who?  It would appear that said criticism is coming solely from the author of the post.  The article is clearly an opinion piece where the writer projects very contrived  observations and conclusions on unnamed and unattributed sources. It generalizes the consensuses of whole demographics (i.e. "teens find it tame, "younger children lose focus").  The criticisms articulated are generally mild and certainly at no point intense.  It's as if the headline was written before the article.  Disguising hollow conjecture as objective journalism is a dishonest and sad way of generating attention.

As to the supposition itself - In my subjective (and clearly identified) opinion, Jungle Cruise is a perennial theme park attraction that has endured for over seven decades and will likely be around for at least seven more.  To say that it is suddenly facing intense criticism is nonsensical.  It transcends comparisons to thrill rides and other new tech attractions by way of brilliant and detailed designs (right down to its wonderful queue elements) and a legacy of historical significance and sentimental nostalgia.  It is important to also recognize that the perceptions of the very vocal but largely insubstantial coalition of influencers, lifestyle bloggers and clickbait journalists do not in fact represent the opinions of the vast majority of Walt Disney World visitors.  Most guests will likely experience Jungle Cruise once every few years, not two or three times every week. That degree of repetition is bound to inspire boredom and cynicism in even the most devoted Disney enthusiast. 

The Art of the Title Card: The Brave Little Tailor

It's fitting that one of Mickey Mouse's best cartoons would also have one of the studio's premiere title cards. Released in 1938, The Brave Little Tailor shines, as does its brilliantly designed title rendering. Unfortunately, it's difficult to even speculate as to the artist of the piece, as the short did not display credits. IMDB lists Les Clark and Frank Thomas as background artists

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The Brave Little Tailor and the Beanstalk

Image © Walt Disney Company