Magician of the Movies: The Life of Walt Disney by Bob Thomas

Author:Bob Thomas [Thomas, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Tags: walt disney, disneyland, disney world, snow white, fantasia
Publisher: Theme Park Press
Published: 2016-05-21T07:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

Enter Donald Duck

One day in 1932, Walt conducted the famous movie star Mary Pickford through his studio. He showed her how the animators worked at their drawing boards to create the action, how this work was copied in ink first and later in color on a celluloid, and how the moving figures were then placed against a background and photographed, converting the once static drawings into movement on the screen.

Walt also invited Miss Pickford to a storyboard session, where several of the Disney creators were working on the plot of a new cartoon. The actress stared in wonder at it all. She was entranced by the sketches that lined the walls, by the pudgy little pigs in their jaunty caps, and by the fierce-looking, shaggy-haired wolf.

“What is this all about?” she asked.

“Oh, we’re working on a cartoon about the Three Little Pigs,” said Walt. “Would you like to hear it?”

“I’d love to,” said Miss Pickford.

She sat down in a chair and listened, as the men demonstrated the children’s nursery story with some Disney touches.

One man played the jolly pig who built his house of straw. He tootled on an ocarina and danced a jig, until the wolf, played by another artist, came and blew his house down. At the loss of his home, the pig scampered to the twig house of his brother. This pig played the same catchy tune, but on a fiddle. Again the wolf—as the fairy tale describes—demolished the house, and the two little pigs fled to the brick house built by their more industrious brother.

At last the wolf was stymied. He huffed and puffed, but he only turned blue in the face. Refusing to be defeated, he sneaked onto the roof and dropped down the chimney, falling into a pot of boiling water. As the wolf how led and ran away, the Three Little Pigs joined in a final chorus of “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”

When the Disney men finished their recital, Miss Pickford clapped her hands with glee. She turned to Walt and shook her finger at him. “If you don’t make this cartoon, I’ll never speak to you again!” she said.

Walt was just as enthusiastic. He watched over The Three Little Pigs in every phase of its production, and when the cartoon was finished, he telegraphed his brother Roy, who was now in New York. “I think we’ve really got something,” he said with excitement—and he was right.

The previews on the West Coast confirmed Walt’s feelings. Still, when Roy showed the film to the salesmen in New York, it was received coolly.

“You’re giving us a cheater,” said one of the men.

“What do you mean?” asked Roy, his voice rising to an angry pitch.

“This picture has only four characters in it,” the man declared. “When Walt made that cartoon about Noah’s Ark, we really got our money’s worth.”

The reaction of the salesmen shocked Roy. He knew it was going to be a real battle to change their thinking, but change their minds he would.

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