Articles In This Issue Page 1: Pat Farrell Page 3: SABOR Page 7: The Way I See It Featuring: Cathey Meyer Page 14: VAREP Article Featuring: Judy Goldick Page 14: NARPM Article Featuring: Brenda Davila Page 17: Associate Spotlight Featuring:
S ERVING S OUTH T EXAS AND S URROUNDING A REAS F OR O VER 39 Y EARS Vol.XXXIX, No. 9
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Hollywood Crawford Pages 22-23: News Flash
September 2021
It Was Really Mickey That Started It All Pat Farrell / Contributing Writer
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Can you imagine just how many children grew up at least hearing about, if not actually watching, the cartoon character Mickey Mouse? Mickey’s debut dates back to a time when most of those reading this were not yet born, however, their parents were most likely among those children watching Mickey’s antics. It is thanks to Walt Disney that we had and still have Mickey and a whole slew of his animated friends like Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, etc. Walter Elias Disney was born in the Hermosa area of Chicago on December 5, 1901, as the fourth son of Canadian father, Elias Disney who was of Irish descent and wife Flora Call Disney, an American of English and German descent. As a youngster Walter developed an interest in art and practiced by copying cartoons from Appeal to Reason, a newspaper to which his father subscribed. In Walt’s early years the family moved quite a bit and while they were living in Missouri he attended Saturday classes at the Kansas City Art Institute and also took a cartooning course by correspondence. After the family returned to Chicago he attended regular school during the weekdays while also attending Saturday classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Walt became his high school newspaper’s cartoonist, often drawing patriot-
ic images during World War I. In 1918 Disney tried to join the Army but was rejected due to his age so he altered his birth certificate, was accepted by the Red Cross, was sent to France as an ambulance driver, but arrived after the Armistice had been signed. While with the Red Cross he had some of his cartoon work published in the military newspaper, Stars and Stripes. After his return to Kansas City, he apprenticed as an artist at a local Art Studio, drawing illustrations for theater programs until he left there to form a very short-lived business with his animator friend, Ub Iwerks. After that business failed he went on to work for a company that was using animation. He became fascinated with the cel animation process but could not persuade the company to use it so, with friend Fred Harman he formed a company, Laugh-O-Gram Studios, to produce film clips which were essentially modernized fairy tales based on Aesop’s Fables. However, after an initial success that company also failed. Walt had produced a promising, 12-and-a-half-minute, one reel film which combined live action with animation, called Alice’s Wonderland, but unfortunately it was finished too late to save his previous company. At age 21 he moved to Hollywood where he continued to try to sell his film when finally, a New York film distributor contracted with him to produce six Alice comedies with an option for 12 more to follow. At that time, he formed another company with his older brother, Ron and called it the Disney Brothers Studio which ultimately became The Walt Disney Company. Although he, along with Iwerks, created a character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for distribution through Universal Studios, he later learned that they actually held the rights to Oswald. This is when Mickey Mouse was born but Walt’s first attempts to find a distributor for his Mickey films, Plane Crazy and the Gallopin’ Gaucho failed. However, when The Jazz Singer (1927) which had introduced synchronized sound was so successful he released his Mickey Mouse cartoon, Steamboat Willie in 1928 utilizing a
similar system. This film was a hit, so he followed it with the Silly Symphony series of Short Subject Cartoons, one of which was Flowers and Trees, which won him an Academy Award. The series consisted of numerous short films, all from five to seven minutes, that were produced in the Short Subject Cartoon category. But, unable to obtain an increase in his income at Universal Studios, he moved his studio operations to Columbia Pictures for the distribution of the Mickey Mouse films. In 1933 Disney produced the film, The Three Little Pigs, which was touted by some as “the most successful short animation film of all time,” and this too garnered him an Academy Award in the same category. During his career, Disney faced many ups and downs, successes, and setbacks, and by 1934 he had tired of working with just the short, animated cartoons. It was in that year that he began production of his first full length animated film which cost him $1.5 million to complete but was an effort that many thought to be a foolish venture and expected this to be his final folly and would lead him to bankruptcy. However, when pre-released in December 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was heralded as the most successful motion picture of 1938 and at the following Academy Awards ceremony Disney was given an honorary award, receiving one regular and seven small Oscar statues. This major success was followed by the animated films, Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Dumbo, after which the studio had suffered some major losses and they were in debt to Bank of America to the tune of approximately $4 million. Fortunately, the leadership at the bank had faith in the work Disney was doing and continued to financially support their efforts. World War II was another factor in Disney’s money problems as the film industry in Europe and thus the money from that market was drying up and the Studio was getting close to bankruptcy. While profit would have been welcomed, Disney helped in the war effort by producing training films for the US Government but only at
cost. There were several Donald Duck shorts to support the war bond effort and some propaganda films like Der Fuerer’s Face along with a feature film, Victory Through Air Power. Having weathered the war and his money issues Disney was very adamant in his support for the American way of life and very opposed to the communism ideals that seemed to be overtaking the entertainment industry. In 1954 Disney was made a "full Special Agent in Charge Contact" by J. Edgar Hoover who had also allowed Disney to film FBI Headquarters in Washington. In the early 1950’s Cinderella, with a production cost of $2.2 million was released and returned almost $8 million its first year. That decade also saw the release of Treasure Island, Alice in Wonderland, The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men and Peter Pan. By then Walt was less involved in movie making, and after visiting Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen had started to think in terms of his own theme park, a clean place where children and their parents would both find enjoyment. He began construction on land purchased in Anaheim, CA in 1954 and opened Disneyland the following year and by end of year had attracted 6.7 Million visitors. He did not give up film work altogether though and still managed to produce Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty during the 1950s and One Hundred and One Dalmatians and The Sword and the Stone in the early 1960s. The films noted here represent only the more recognizable of his films as there are so many more! We lost Walt Disney in 1966 at the age of 65. Is there actually a reader here that has not seen all, if not most, of Disney’s films or is still watching them when they are shown on television? Or is it possible there is someone who has never visited one of the Disney Theme Parks? Perhaps, there are some who were (or maybe their parents were) members of the Mickey Mouse Club because remember it all started with Mickey and although Walt Disney is gone, Mickey and his legacy remain.