The Fabulous Disney Babe
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I had wanted to stop by Walt's Barn in Griffith Park, at
L.A. Live Steamers next to Travel Town near the Zoo, as Michael Broggie, author of Walt
Disney's Railroad Story
I was greeted at the door by Angry Little Man, who refused me entry, and decided it would be better to be mean and rude than polite. Fine, I hate it when I'm at a show and someone walks in, which is why you'll probably never see me at the Ahmanson unless there's some dire circumstance like a Disney show playing there and...never mind. Angry Little Man was then rude to two former Imagineers who got there after me, and we dished him for a while. He wasn't the only guy we dished: (note to the girls: it's "caffeinated poodle", don't forget) it was getting cold, and twenty minutes or so into the presentation, so we checked out the news truck to see if they had a feed we could watch. Nope, they were messengering it from inside, but please watch Channel 9 at 10 if you're in LA. They were nice, and Los Angeles-ly beautiful people. Angry Little Man then brought out Snotty Assistant to the Assistant's Assistant, who was, true to form, snotty.
One of the women sweet-talked someone who had no anger management problems, and he said, "Sure, come in." The women left, as their former boss was sure to chew them out for being late (they'd spent the day skiing, then raced from the snow to FedEx, where their tickets were waiting). I sat in a big comfy chair like the one in the Memorex commercials, surrounded by gorgeous Hirschfield art, and watched the video feed with the techie from channel 9. The weather came on his tiny portable TV, and he said: "Oop!" and gathered all of his equipment, unplugging wires from everywhere, and ran the lot out to the truck to feed it to the television station directly from the van. I need one of those vans; I lose phone reception in parking garages, and I bet that would help.
I warmed up, watching Leonard Maltin, a renowned Disney expert and author of one of my favorite books, "The Disney Films" (I keep wearing them to unrecognizable lumps of paper looking things up in them), engage Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, and Ward Kimball (and that takes some doing, kids). They talked about the Firehouse Five plus Two, ranking on Ward's playing abilities, and about their shared love of backyard railroads. When Walt got hooked, he had a great setup built in his backyard at Carolwood, and Ward quipped that he must get paid pretty good to get all that. Walt didn't comment.
Next, after clips from Westward Ho The Wagons (showing the special effects created by Peter Ellenshaw's matte paintings), So Dear To My Heart, my favorite live-action Disney film, and Cinderella, Leonard introduced artist Peter Ellenshaw, director Ken Annakin, and Ilene Woods, the voice of Cinderella. They talked about working with Walt, and Ilene remembered how Walt would come in after a day of recording and listen with his eyes closed and his head in his hands, and she described it as "being able to see the wheels turning", that he was seeing the finished picture in his head, and he'd say, "Well, try this little thing..." and make small changes that no one else had thought of, and "why, you know, he was right every time!"
Next, we saw a hilarious pitch film, never meant to be seen by the public, for the company that made Peter Pan Peanut Butter. "Watch the hands", Leonard cautioned. The President of ABC looked like a cross between Spike Jones and Howdy Doody, and was ingratiating, while Walt grew increasingly more impatient with him. He started fidgeting with the artwork, then scribbling on it, then picking it up and drumming on the table with it. It was a treat, getting a peek at the "real" Walt. Next, to counter the clip, was a promo piece from the beginning of Wonderful World of Color: Walt described how some of the colors in the Ink and Paint department came from Nature, and how others came from the miracle of chemistry (I love when he talked like that). and then shot a stern look across the set to some lovely early-sixties era models, pacing the set in black-and-white, dressed in the white coats of the Ink and Paint girls. He admonished them that his show was now in color and they'd have to "get with the program." He was going to cast a spell: "Bibbidi---Bobbidi---BLUE!" One girl turned red, one yellow, and the third blue. "That can't be right." he thought a moment, then cast a new spell. I wish I could remember it (Here come the emails! Thanks in advance!) All I can remember is that it ended with "NBC!" (I noticed this because the previous clip had been ABC. How things change...and back again today!)
Next, Diane Disney Miller took the stage. She shared some stories about what it was like to be Walt Disney's daughter, and how at times she'd be embarrassed, as a teenager, at some of his televised antics. She then shared home movies, some never seen before, and even had a photo of what the old house looked like now, then showed some film of the family on the porch. Next, we saw Walt kissing Lillian, hugging Lillian, talking to Lillian; it looked like he adored her. We saw Walt with family, the famous film of Diane falling out of the dollhouse, and some film of young Walt and his first films. Last, Diane showed film from the last trip the family took together, fishing in Vancouver. Walt was bored to tears by fishing. It was the summer of 1966, and no one knew that Walt had cancer. Six months later, he was gone. I'd seen some of those clips on the Wonderful World of Disney special; it's out on video now.
Leonard closed the show by letting Walt speak for himself, showing a clip from a Canadian interview where Walt says that if he had to do it all over again he wouldn't change a thing - but does he HAVE to?" This was followed by a clip from Snow White, and I headed up the stairs to try to catch up with DJ and Doobekah. I stopped to give Alice Davis, who Imagineered some of Disney's greatest attractions and worked on some memorable films for him as well, a hug. She gave the show a thumbs-up. On the way down the aisle to Doobie, I bumped into Master Animators Glen Keane (Beast, Pocahontas) and Eric Goldberg (Genie, Rhapsody in Blue). Why didn't I ask Eric about the Hirschfield exhibit downstairs? (Fab hits herself.) I did have the presence of mind, tongue-tied as I was in the company of greatness, to ask Glen what he was working on. "Treasure Planet." He's doing Long John Silver. I had heard that they were concerned, in the planning stages about how the hand-drawn animation would match with the computer-generated limbs the character wore; he surprised me by saying the CGI wasn't cold at all, and that it was matching up perfectly. "The only hard part is getting the animation right." Yeah, Glen. You have trouble getting animation right. Uh-huh. And Walt Disney was this guy with a mouse.