Hibler and Reitherman Help Carry on Disney Cartoon Tradition, with New Pooh Film

07.18.11 - The last animated cartoon featurette to be approved for production by Walt Disney before his untimely death in December, 1966 was Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day.

This is a sequel to the highly successful Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree which garnered some $6,000,000 in the United States and Canada when it was released in 1966 with the live-action Disney movie The Ugly Dachshund.

Wolfgang Reitherman was the director of the first Pooh picture and Winston Hibler was the producer of Dachshund Both are longtime Studio men, with over 60 years service between them in the special Disney way of making movies.

The credit in bringing in the completed Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day after Walt's death goes to Reitherman as its director and Hibler as story supervisor. Now they have both been named producers for a new and exciting feature cartoon project called The Aristocats, with Hibler concentrating on story and Reitherman handling the directorial reins in a streamlining of procedures that is designed to continue to produce animated features in the Disney tradition.

"Animation has a strong, interesting and exciting part in the future of Walt Disney Productions," said Hibler. "With the formation of our new animation production unit, we are dedicated to carry forward Walt's unmatched tradition in cartoon entertainment, and we will be staffed on every level by men who worked as many as 30 years with the master showman in this special art."

For Hibler, one of the Studio's seven live-action producers, the new role is pretty much like returning to an old one. He headed up animation story units on early features like Cinderella, Peter Pan, and Melody Time. With Disney since 1940, he was a long time writer, director and commentator of the True-Life Adventure series, and is the producer of the current feature comedy The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit, starring Dean Jones and Diane Baker.

Reitherman began his Disney career 35 years ago as an animator and has moved up steadily to assistant supervisor and feature animation director. He has a great number of cartoon credits to his name, including The Jungle Book and The Sword in the Stone, when for the first time in Studio history, he was the overall director for an entire animated feature. Under the new unit setup the title of producer has been added.

In color by Technicolor, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day is released by Buena Vista.

From the original Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day press materials.

Veteran Comic Gives Voice to Disney's Winnie the Pooh

07.16.11 - Sterling Holloway provided the first speaking voice for one of the most famous and beloved characters in children's literature.

Winnie the Pooh is given voice in Walt Disney's enchanting animated cartoon feature, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, by Sterling Holloway, speaking for one of the most famous and beloved characters in children's literature.

The veteran motion picture, television and radio performer was the personal choice of Disney, who found in Holloway's plaintive and unique voice the exact vocal quality he had envisioned for the roly-poly little bear.

During the past 35 years, Holloway's voice has often been heard in Disney's animated-cartoon productions. He spoke for the stork in Dumbo, the zany Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland and the little mouse, Amos, in Ben and Me." He also did the voice for Kaa, the snake, in Jungle Book and Roquefort, the mouse, in The Aristocats, as well as many characters in Disney short subjects.

Born in Cedartown, Georgia, Holloway was educated at Cedartown schools and at Georgia Military Academy, Atlanta. His father was Sterling Price Holloway, a wholesale grocer and cotton broker.

From an early age Sterling wanted to he an actor and participated in many amateur theatricals. At the age of 15 he entered the American Academy of Dramatic Art in New York City. His classmates included Spencer Tracy, Pat O'Brien, and Allen Jenkins, all destined to win fame on the screen.

Before he was 18, Holloway had appeared on the stage traveling with a touring company of The Shepherd of the Hills, playing one-night stands throughout the West. He later joined the Theater Guild and appeared in The Failures, four editions of the Garrick Gaieties, and in Donna Magana.

While visiting in Pasadena he made his movie debut in two-reel comedies and was featured with Wallace Beery in Casey at the Bat.

He returned then to New York to appear in a number of musical revues, vaudeville, and supper clubs. He embarked on a successful career in radio.

Brought West again by the Pasadena Playhouse to star in the musical-comedy, Hullabaloo, he remained to resume his movie career. In addition to being heard in the aforementioned Disney animated cartoons, Holloway has been seen in a great number of screen hits, including Elmer the Great, The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend, and A Walk in the Sun.

One of the finest comedians and character creators in show business, Holloway has etched many memorable screen portrayals with a distinct voice and wistful, boyish appeal that he combines with an air of diffidence and gentle awkwardness.

Holloway lives quietly in Laguna Beach, a quaint art colony south of Los Angeles, and spends much of his free time reading and gardening.

Filmed in brilliant Technicolor and co-directed by Wolfgang Reitherman and John Lounsbery, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is re-released in feature form by Buena Vista.

From the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh press materials.

Do Bears Belong in an Enchanting Magic Kingdom?

07.14.11 - The Imagineering geniuses behind Walt Disney World knew perfectly well what they were doing when they included a Country Bear Jamboree among the attractions of the Magic Kingdom—theme park focal point of central Florida's Vacation Kingdom.

As any child can tell you (and Theodore Bear's adult admirers will agree), bears and good times just naturally go together.

At Walt Disney World, the good times revolve around a show of bearfoot music—the kind of country and western tunes that drove the west wild—presented by a troupe of 20 Country Bears. This latest phase of man's affair with the hear—an affectionate relationship that's just about as old as the history of organized entertainment—involves the use of Disney s sophisticated Audio-Animatronics® system.

In this case, the electronic approach that brought President Lincoln to "life" at Disneyland, and gives to all 36 American Presidents in the hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World, is used purely for entertainment purposes, with continuous shows daily at: Grizzly Hall, in the Frontierland area of the Magic Kingdom.

The result is a happy mix of America's favorite music and the best-loved friend of the young at heart. The fact is that Teddy, Dora, Theo, and Tad—not to mention Mr. Edward Sanders and the one-and-only Pooh—rule over an empire of the heart that knows no boundaries of language, background, age, or sex.

From the time that Theodore Roosevelt's name was adopted by the first stuffed Teddy, bears have adventured around the world. One even climbed the Matterhorn—with his Alpinist owner. Equally adventurous is Mr. Woppit; the fastest Teddy in the world, he broke all land and sea speed records in the company of his master, Donald Campbell.

Nor are bears at all shy about making friends in the highest places. A Teddy sits on the windowsill of John F. Kennedy's childhood nursery; President Johnson's Teddy remains in residence at his Texas ranch. Even Nashville—home of the Country Bear Jamboree sound—has its famous bear, living with his old friend, Elvis Presley.

There's even a library full of bear books—most notably, the histories of Winnie-the-Pooh. Some forty years old, he's younger than ever—and is even thriving in Latin and Russian (where the hero is called Vinni-Pukh). Graceful old age seems to be the furthest thing from Pooh's mind. British actor Peter Bull, official historian of the bear facts—his Teddy Bear Book is a current best-seller—reports that an original Pooh drawing was recently auctioned for some $3,000, which isn't bad for a bear with nothing more than a pot of honey to call his own.

At that, Teddy and Pooh—and their contemporary colleague, Smokey the Bear—are latecomers to the business of keeping people happy.

Way back when, the real article was the center of attention in all kinds of popular attractions. The Greek writer Plutarch tells of British bears transported to Rome for circus performances—and that was back in the first century. In the more recent past, trained bears traveled Europe, entertaining villagers by dancing, wrestling and boxing with their keepers.

Even today, the same Russian bears—the most adaptable and trustworthy of the species—play regular circus performances, executing remarkable feats of skill and daring. So far as the public is concerned, a Russian circus isn't worth its name without a troupe of bears roaring around the ring on motorcycles and driving through hoops of fire with uncannily human skill.

As a matter of fact, to some of us bears are human. Many American Indians look on the bear as a sort of supernatural brother. The Ainu tribesmen of Japan even have a bear cult—in which they bring up cubs with the care and affection normally given to a child.

As fascinating as real bears may be to man, the stuffed article, though, has the lead in the love department. And now the whole marvelous mystique is getting still another new dimension in the form of the down-home country bear.

What's more, Big Al, and Henry the emcee, glamorous Teddi Barra and Wendell of the grizzly bearitone... the whole 20-bear club making up the Country Bear Jamboree bids fair to rival Teddy and Pooh in popularity.

Even before their formal debut, there was a waiting list for country bear replicas. The Pepsi-Cola/Frito-Lay people, who are presenting the Country Bear Jamboree at Walt Disney World, report a mounting list of requests for traveling bearfoot musicians—the kind a visitor can take home and love.

Is the traditional Teddy worried about the competition?

Interviewed by an inquiring arctophilist (that's a friend of bears), the long-reigning boss-bear could only Pooh-Pooh the suggestion that rivalry was causing trouble.

"The bear fact," he is reported to have said, is that what's good for one bear is good for the entire Magic Kingdom."

From the 1971 Country Bear Jamboree (WDW) press materials.

Walt Disney's Heralded Bear Country

07.12.11 - Walt Disney's Academy® Award-winning True-Life Adventure, Bear Country is an exciting portrait of wilderness world.

The adjustments of animal life, large and small, savage and timid, as they are found in the western wilds of the United States, give meaning and excitement to Walt Disney's Academy® Award-winning True-Life Adventure, Bear Country, a Technicolor featurette.

The lion and the lamb have never lain down together. It's against nature. But there is strange fellowship and tolerance in the aboriginal wilderness where many species of beast and bird work out their destiny together in close proximity and competition for survival.

While the major wildlife drama in Disney's fascinating film is devoted to the North American black bear and his family affairs, many other creatures, bird and beast, are seen in the spectacular camera records of Alfred and Elma Milotte, James R. Simon and Tom McHugh.

Interspersed with scenes of violent bruin courtship, of discipline and training of the young, of prowling for food and comical antic in the black bear's private and social life, are revealing glimpses of squirrels, of hunting birds and fleeing mice, of an encounter between curious little bear cubs and helpless little coyote puppies. There are scenes of a startled rattlesnake whipping into defensive coil, of "gophers and other little earth dwellers, of a slinking mountain lion on the hunt, of marmot in a whistled greeting to spring, a gangling, young moose, hawk and swan and creatures of the air and mountain cliffs.

Bear Country looks at this interrelated life with unadorned realism to discover its wondrous patterns in the every-day life and death concerns of creation in operation. Magnificent beauty of forest and mountain in remote regions of Montana and Wyoming is an integral part of the wildlife it harbors for this impressive chapter in the much-honored True- Life Adventure series of natural subjects, released by Buena Vista.

From the original 1953 Bear Country press materials.

Disney Producer Walsh Shows Approach to Comedy with Blackbeard's Ghost

06.02.11 - If a much sought after formula for successful motion pictures really exists, then Disney producer-writer Bill Walsh, whose current offering is Blackbeard's Ghost, has found it.

Track coach Steve Walker (Dean Jones) tells Peter Ustinov he wants no part of his weird, wild and "spirited" antics after accidentally conjuring up the rotund pirate's ghost in Blackbeard's Ghost, Walt Disney's newest comedy-fantasy in color by Technicolor.

When examining the greatest successes in Walsh's 22-year Disney career — films like The Shaggy Dog, The Absent-Minded Professor, Son of Flubber, Mary Poppins, That Darn Cat, and Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. — his approach to comedy-fantasy becomes evident.

"The first portion of each film," comments Walsh, "takes time to establish characters and to delineate situation. Although this initial part may move more slowly than the rest of the film, it is a necessary and deliberate movement. Walt used to call this part of the picture winding the clock." Once the stage is set, the action picks up momentum as the picture unfolds.

"Too often comedies begin at a nervous clip, moving at a fast pace until they run out of gas, without having told a good story. The most important single consideration of any picture is the script," explains Walsh who has co-scripted 13 of his 16 features. "We are always on the lookout for fresh material that would be suitable for screen adaptation. Blackbeard's Ghost was developed from a very funny novel by noted illustrator Ben Stahl which tells the exploits of a long-dead pirate's spirit who is cursed to wander in limbo until he performs a good deed."

The second most important consideration is the cast. "Comedy-fantasies require actors who can play un-believable situations for real. Fred MacMurray and Dean Jones are that type of actor. Peter Ustinov, who has the title role in Blackbeard's Ghost, is another marvelous example."

"The success of Dean Jones, who has starred in three of my productions, including Blackbeard, lies in his sincerity. The nuttier the situation gets, the more he believes in it. Actors often go wrong in fantasy. They become cute with the material and lose audience contact.

"The supporting cast and secondary parts must also be all topnotch people who understand comedy. For example, Joby Baker, Elsa Lanchester and Richard Deacon beautifully complement the headline stars, Dean, Ustinov and Suzanne Pleshette, in Blackbeard."

Blackbeard's Ghost, filmed in color, stars Peter Ustinov, Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette. Robert Stevenson directed the Bill Walsh-Don DaGradi screenplay, which is based on a novel by the noted illustrator, Ben Stahl. Walsh is co-producer of the Buena Vista release.

From the original 1968 Blackbeard's Ghost press materials.

Walt Disney Brings in Treasure Island Actionful Saga of Fabulous Pirate Gold

05.30.11 - Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure is now translated to the screen in color by Technicolor, with Bobby Driscoll, Robert Newton and Basil Sydney topping a great cast of characters.

Eureka! — Marooned Ben Gunn reveals pirate loot to awe-struck Jim Hawkins (Bobby Driscoll), Long John Silver (Robert Newton) and Squire Trelawney (Walter Fitzgerald), in Walt Disney's all-live action Treasure Island, in color by Technicolor, based on Robert Louis Stevenson's saga.

Walt Disney has brought to the screen his completely live action production, Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, as a thrill-studded melodrama filmed on a spacious and realistic scale and with a story of a great prestige and red-blooded appeal to all amusement lovers, young and old.

Scene by scene and in color by Technicolor the producer matches the turbulent action, the play of elemental passions, the terrific character conflicts and the suspense inherent in famous saga of pirate treasure that lured to a distant island the young cabin boy Jim Hawkins, as played by Bobby Driscoll, the deadly rogue Long John Silver, as played by Robert Newton and Captain Smollett as played by Basil Sydney.

Treasure Island was filmed in England to get full location and atmospheric values and certain casting advantages for this "great adventure". Principals in the all- male cast, in addition to Newton, Bobby Driscoll and Sydney, are Walter Fitzgerald as Squire Trelawney, Denis O'Dea as Doctor Livesey, Ralph Truman as George Merry, Finlay Currie as Captain Billy Bones, Geoffrey Keen as Israel Hands, Francis de Wolff in the Black Dog role, John Laurie as Blind Pew and Geoffrey Wilkinson as the marooned Ben Gunn.

The all-live action method of picturing the swashbuckling tale is radically different from the animated drawings medium in which Disney customarily works his screen wonders. He organized his production personnel accordingly, selecting Director Byron Haskin for his repute in the living action field; Lawrence E. Watkin, well-known novelist and screen writer, for adaptation of the adventure tale which has been read by some 200,000,000 persons; Thomas Morahan for the stagings which supplement the outdoor English locations described by Stevenson, and his veteran producer. Perce Pearce, to manage the project.

Stevenson wrote his great sea tale of pirates and buried treasure and the hunt and battle for it expressly for his 13-year- old stepson, Lloyd Osborne. But he confessed that he himself and his older friends thrilled to the immortal saga as it came full-blooded from his pen. The author's work now has been translated to a living form, conceded to be electrifying in its impact on the screen, as the greatest adventure of all.

From the original 1950 Treasure Island press materials.

Pirate Costume Aged Some 200 Years for Ustinov as Blackbeard's Ghost

05.28.11 - A pirate costume for hefty, bearded Peter Ustinov, who looms larger in the entertainment industry than his physical 270-pounds, was a problem beyond mere size.

Peter Ustinov stars as free-wheeling, fun-loving (and somewhat rummy) spirite of a long-dead pirate who returns to earth — with hilarious results, in Blackbeard's Ghost, Walt Disney's newest comedy-fantasy in color by Technicolor.

For the lead in Walt Disney's new comedy, Blackbeard's Ghost, his swashbuckling garb had to be aged some 200 years to be authentic since the film takes place in contemporary New England, the actual site of the real pirate's pillaging.

"We took one problem at a time," confessed Chuck Keene, Disney Costume Department Head, "and fitted him with off-white canvas pants, a beige raw silk shirt, brown velveteen vest, navy blue wool full-length coat, and auburn velour hat; all of which were tailored to design specifications of our chief designer, Bill Thomas.

"His boots were specially designed cavalier boots, coming knee high with an extra-wide cuff. Constructed of black kangaroo leather, the boots had to be sturdy enough to support his massive hulk, yet still be comfortable to his wide foot and high instep. At the cost of $175, they were made by a craftsman who does nothing but make footwear for stars in specific roles.

"To age these boots two centuries, we sandpapered the leather and bruised it without breaking the support features down," continued Keene. "Then we sprayed them with a brown aging solution, waxed and powdered them. It's not really a complicated process, but it certainly gets results.

"We use the same process to age clothing. But in addition to sanding the material, we sometimes sandblast it, and that ages it in a hurry. His blue coat became an antique in a matter of seconds, buttons and all. A light brown spray of the aging solution was followed by a generous dusting with 'rottenstone,' a grey and brown powder, which discolored the navy fabric to a non-descript blue. Blackbeard's other garments were made old in similar fashion."

"I felt like a walking antique," quipped Ustinov, "wearing these relics from the costume department where they became museum collector's items overnight."

Filmed in color by Technicolor, Blackbeard's Ghost stars Peter Ustinov, Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette. Robert Stevenson directed the Bill Walsh-Don DaGradi screenplay, which is based on a novel by the noted illustrator Ben Stahl. Walsh is co-producer of the Buena Vista release.

From the original 1968 Blackbeard's Ghost press materials.

How I Met the King of the Leprechauns by Walt Disney

04.20.11 - Being half Irish myself, I learned about the Leprechauns of Ireland while I was still a small boy on our farm at Marceline, Missouri. I began to believe in Leprechauns, then, because some of my relatives had pretty convincing stories to tell about the magic powers of these Little People, and the tricks they could play when angry.

So, I promised myself that one day, after I had grown up, I would go to the land of the Leprechaun myself, and meet one in person. The opportunity finally came last year when we decided to use real Little People instead of cartoon imitations in a movie we were planning.

Most Irish in the old country respect Leprechauns. They leave food out for them at night, to keep them happy, and are careful not to disturb old forts and other ruins these wee folk guard as their very own. They are particularly careful not to throw water across any of the tiny paths Leprechauns leave in the grass, because Little People hate water, and there is no telling what sort of mischief they will be up to if they get their feet wet.

Anyway, once we decided on using real Leprechauns in the picture, I set out for Ireland to hire some. We needed about 150, all told, for the picture we had in mind.

How to find a Leprechaun? That was a big question. I found it wasn't easy. It takes a man mighty knowledgeable in the ways of Leprechauns to find one to talk to. I went to a library in Dublin. It was filled with books on the habits of Leprechauns. Each book recorded an encounter someone had with the Little People. There was even a little green suit which had been sent in to the library by a lady from County Cork. She had thrown out her wash water without looking where it was going and later found the fairy clothes hanging on a furze bush to dry. It was lucky nothing worse had come from such a careless encounter.

The librarian was an elderly scholar who soon took me in tow. He measured the clothing with a ruler.

"There you are," he said. "The man who wore them was just two feet tall. You could easily carry him in your valise-case."

"I don't suppose anyone ever sent you in a photograph?" I asked. " No, but we have the next best thing."

He took down a huge book, blew off the dust and opened it. It was full of wood engravings made by an artist who, it was said, had lived with the Leprechauns for years. From the pictures and the old scholar, I learned how the Little People came to Ireland 5,000 years ago.

"Well," began the scholar, "the Little People once were in heaven, living among the angels much as they live among the Irish now. Millions of them flocked together, and Brian Connors was King of them all, as he is today. Their lives were happy and peaceable until Satan started a war against the Angel Gabriel.

"Now, on the morning of the great battle, King Brian was lined up on the side of the White Angels, while across a valley were the Black forces of Satan. And when it came to hurling hills and thunderbolts, the Black Angels were beat from the first.

"The size of the Little People was their undoing. They found they were too small to lift a rock, let alone throw one. So Brian took them all to the edge of heaven to await the outcome, and that is where the victorious Gabriel found them.

"Any man," said Gabriel angrily, " that won't stand for the right may not deserve hell, but he is not fit for heaven, either." With that, he ordered the Little People into space, granting them one last wish. It was that they could live among any kind of people they liked.

"For two years they fell before reaching the world. And when they had circled it round and round they saw at last a beautiful island glimmering and sparkling in the middle of the sea.

"Stop there," shouted King Brian, "for of all the places we've seen, this is the nearest to heaven!"

"And that's why you find Leprechauns in no other place but Ireland." The old scholar stopped, through with his story. "I would like to capture that king," I told him.

So the scholar sent me to County Kerry, to find Darby O'Gill. Darby, he explained, knows more about Little People than anyone else in Ireland.

Darby lived in Rathcullen, a beautiful little town nesting comfortably in velvet green hills almost next door to Knocknasheega, the mountain where King Brian maintains his permanent palace.

I found Darby sitting in his gatehouse, telling the neighbours of his latest meeting with King Brian.

"When was that?" I interrupted.

"Last summer in the ruins atop Knocknasheega," the old man replied with a wink.

"Could you take me there? "

"Well, I suppose I could. But if it's Leprechaun gold you want, he may cheat you out of it as he did me."

"It is not gold that I want," I replied. "It is the king himself."

We set out on foot for the ruins, which were about a mile away. They were of an ancient abbey, broken arches and ghostly pillars where monks lived long, long ago.

"The king and his people are singing and dancing far below us in a great throne room of gold and black onyx," Darby said, pointing to the ground at our feet. "We may have to wait a bit before one of them shows up."

We sat down on a large stone, making ourselves as comfortable as we could under the circumstances.

"Now," Darby spoke up again, "if once you see one, don't look away. He may try a trick or two, throwing dust in your face or pointing away to distract your attention. But keep your eye squarely on him. That way you can bend him to your will."

So we waited and waited until the moon had nearly set. Then suddenly, a tiny tapping made us look around. There, seated on a ledge, was a Leprechaun, pounding away at a little shoe held against his leather apron. He was all dressed in green, with a little red hat with a feather stuck in it.

Cocking one eye as Derby had shown me, I presented myself.

"Good lad!" shouted Darby. "You've got him!"

The little man screamed at me in Gaelic and kept pointing this way and that to distract me. But I held on and finally, with Darby interpreting for me, I got him to notify the king we desired an audience then and there.

To my surprise King Brian spoke English. He is an educated man, you know, who makes it a point to keep up with the times. But his voice was all there was to him. There was nothing at all to be seen.

"Mr. Disney has come all the way from America to see ye, sir," explained Darby, talking to thin air. "Why don't you let him?"

"I've come all the way from the middle of the mountain to have a look at him," replied Brian's voice. "What's this I hear that he doesn't want our gold — is it some new trick maybe?"

Well, the king was happy to hear of my Irish ancestry, and that I'd come all the way from America, and that I didn't want any of his gold. So he condescended to let me talk to his crown and suddenly there it was before me, hanging in space and moving around in starts and stops as if for all the world it had a mind of its own.

"I'm going to do a moving picture about Ireland — the real thing," I told the crown.

"What is that to me?"

"I want you to be in the picture."

"Is it mad you are??"

With that the king appeared. I must have shown my excitement for King Brian shouted, " What ails you? Did you never see an immortal mortal before? "

"I've seen an engraving of you, but it didn't do you justice. I expected an older man," I said in a friendly way.

"Faith, I've only been on this earth 5,000 years!" shouted the king.

"You don't look a day over 4,000," I told him, smiling.

I'd scored a point. The king was so flattered at the compliment, he promptly agreed to come to Hollywood and show his handsome face to all the world.

"Well," he said, "if it's a Leprechaun picture you want, then it's Leprechauns you'll be needin' for the parts of Leprechauns."

Two months later he arrived at the studio with 150 of his subjects, all ready to make the first Leprechaun picture in the history of Leprechauns, which in honour of those who made it possible, we call DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE.

From the Darby O'Gill and the Little People press materials.