After a dozen photographers spent nearly three years in the white wilderness of the Arctic, a new True-Life Adventure was born. White Wilderness, released on this day in 1958, told the story of the animal inhabitants of Canada’s subarctic and Alaska’s arctic wilds. As was typical with the True-Life Adventures, White Wilderness and several other True-Life Adventures were directed by James Algar. Long before Algar directed true-life four legged friends, he was directing animated characters in films such as The Sorceror’s Apprentice and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Algar’s life was certainly a true-life adventure. Since joining Disney in 1934 as an animator on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, he produced and directed numerous Disney movies and television shows and even lived amongst the lions of Kenya for the film The African Lion, proving that he would do whatever was necessary to create quality productions. Algar’s great moments expanded past just film and television, however. He wrote and produced Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln for the 1964 World’s Fair and later, at Disneyland, and The Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World. For years, audiences were surrounded with his work, and quite literally so at the theme parks… he wrote and produced several of the 360° Circle-Vision films including America the Beautiful.
