Q : I have an old copy of Bambi that I bought on eBay. It’s stamped “Walt Disney Studio” inside and signed by Harry D. Bailey. Who is he?
Brian Davis, Washington, DC
A: Harry Bailey started at the Disney Studio in 1933 as an animator, working on such films as The Flying Mouse and Servants’ Entrance; he later became a storyman. Bailey left in 1936, but returned from 1938–39, as manager of story training. I do not know why he would have signed the book pocket in the Bambi book from the Studio Library.
Q : Which Mickey cartoon has come first in the world?
Mickey, Ohio
A: The first Mickey Mouse cartoon released to the public was Steamboat Willie on November 18, 1928 (the date we use as the introduction of Mickey Mouse), though audiences in one Los Angeles theater could have seen a preview of Plane Crazy as early as one day in May of that year.
Q : The promotional train from A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey went from city to city, promoting the film. What a great movie! It’s one of our regulars that we watch during the holidays. Anyway, the train was something else! It was all decorated with Christmas holiday vinyl wraps from the engine to the caboose. It was a sight to see. Inside the rail cars were props from the movie and artifacts from Charles Dickens and even snow falling from the sky! My question: Where is it? Is it in a big warehouse somewhere? Is it all taken apart? What happened to it after the tour? I think people would like to see it at Christmas time.
Larry, Sonoma, California
A: The Amtrak train, known as Amtrak GE P42 #156, pulled by two locomotives, was fitted out with exterior decorations and displays inside the cars, to help promote the film in 2009. Amtrak and Hewlett-Packard helped sponsor the train. At the completion of the tour, the Christmas Carol elements were removed from the train, and it was returned to regular service. In 2011, in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of Amtrak, the same train’s locomotives were repainted in an anniversary scheme.
Q : I was wondering the value of a full-length film, produced by Walt Disney Productions in 1939. I believe the title is Getting the Hook. It stars Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
Barbara, Oroville, California
A: This is a shortened version of a Disney cartoon, possibly Orphan’s Benefit (1934), in which Donald is forcibly removed from a stage by a hook. These shortened films were retitled and released by Hollywood Film Enterprises for use on home projectors; they are not rare. As I write this, a print of Getting the Hook is being offered on eBay with a starting bid of $7.50.
Q : I read that in the film The Opry House (1929), Mickey was first given white gloves as a way of contrasting his naturally black hands against his black body. Is that true?
Marie, Serris, France
A: The white gloves were added to Mickey’s hands in When the Cat’s Away (1929), the film made after The Opry House. John Grant, in his Encyclopedia of Walt Disney’s Animated Characters, quotes Walt Disney as saying, “We didn’t want him to have mouse hands, because he was supposed to be more human. So we gave him gloves.” The white gloves against a black body indeed provided a necessary contrast to the black hands that were utilized in the first few cartoons, so the gloves continued to be used thereafter.
Q : Hello Dave! I was honored to meet you recently during a Disney Studio Tour. My question is, in what city does Lady and the Tramp take place?? I’m having a Lady and the Tramp 60th anniversary party and showing the movie for my friends on an outdoor screen. I want to be sure my theming is correct for the party. Checking the Internet, you find answers ranging from Missouri to New York to Paris!
Lynnean, Palatine, Illinois
A: Ward Greene, the author of the story which was published just before the film came out, only says “there lived in a white and green house on a pleasant street a cocker spaniel named Lady.” The filmmakers probably just decided to make the American town very generic from an era “not so long ago but a time when most people still used gaslight and preferred horses and carriages to gasbuggies.”