Before the idea of Fantasia had been conceived, Walt planned to do a cartoon short of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, based on the classical music by Paul Dukas and the poem by Goethe. When renowned conductor Leopold Stokowski met Walt, he told him he knew about Walt’s plans for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and offered to conduct the orchestra free of charge. It was on this day in 1938 that great maestro Stokowski arrived in Los Angeles to conduct the music for that recording. As Walt said, “Well, that led to not only doing this one little short subject but it got us involved to where I did all of Fantasia and before I knew it, I ended up spending four hundred and some odd thousand dollars getting music with Stokowski.”