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Dreamed up in the minds of the animators at Disney Television Animation and brought to life on television, the city of St. Canard was filled with dark corners, fast cars, and lots and lots of bad guys. We recently came across some of the original concept art for the television series and just had to share with you. The concept art shows the beginnings of some of the famous characters, vehicles, and locations that became popular in the Disney Afternoon television show Darkwing Duck. The art shows early versions of some of the characters from the show, including Taurus Bulba, Major Synapse, J. Gander Hooter, plus a not-so-ducky version of the Thunderquack.
Jerry Bruckheimer invited D23 to his Santa Monica production studio to talk about 40 years of filmmaking and about his new book Jerry Bruckheimer: When Lightning Strikes | Four Decades of Filmmaking. The book reveals the stories behind his films and television shows, written by Michael Singer, who has worked beside the producer in deserts, on tropical islands, and at every conceivable filming location in between.
Jerry Bruckheimer invited D23 to his Santa Monica production studio to talk about 40 years of filmmaking and about his new book Jerry Bruckheimer: When Lightning Strikes | Four Decades of Filmmaking. The book reveals the stories behind his films and television shows, written by Michael Singer, who has worked beside the producer in deserts, on tropical islands, and at every conceivable filming location in between.
It’s a New Year and every swimsuit model, football player or movie star who has their own calendar this January owes it all to the biggest celeb of all. That’s right, it was none other than Miss Piggy who started the whole celebrity calendar craze.
“There were no personality calendars back then,” Michael Frith explained. “No Cindy Crawford, no guys from Chippendale’s. Piggy’s calendar was something completely new.” With this inimitable Muppet diva as everyone’s favorite calendar girl, it’s no wonder we love Miss Piggy every day of the year.
A month-by-month monument to the Muppet goddess’ magnificence, the first Miss Piggy Calendar was issued for 1980, designed and directed by Michael K. Frith. The Muppet design maven created the wall calendar after mocking up some test shots and shooting them with a Polaroid camera to demonstrate how Miss Piggy could stylishly pose in sumptuous, albeit, satirical settings.
The calendar’s enormous success demanded a fabulous follow-up. The Miss Piggy Cover Girl Fantasy Calendar 1981 showcased “the Glamorous International Superstar” in elaborately designed and photographed imaginary backdrops.
The twist is that each month featured Piggy’s dreams of cover girl fame, with parodies of magazine covers in the exact style of each periodical.
Among other prime publications, Piggy graces the cover of Time (in which she is proclaimed Pig of the Year) and Cosmopolitan, featuring a true glam shot of the fab fashionista that was also used for the cover of the calendar’s box.
Jim Henson was particularly pleased with this calendar (with photography by Nancy Moran and Donal Holway and costumes by Miss Piggy’s own stylist, Calista Hendrickson), which was another megahit, creating the celebrity calendar trend that continues to thrive today.
D23 remembers those contributors to The Walt Disney Company who passed away in 2013.
Petro Vlahos (1916 – 2013)
Petro Vlahos received a special Scientific award with Wadsworth E. Pohl, and Ub Iwerks from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his work on Mary Poppins. They received the award for the creation and application to use of Color Traveling Matte Composite Cinematography, which helped make possible the combination of live action with animated actors in the film. The special-effects work on Mary Poppins was the most challenging the studio had ever known. Everything from the two-strip sodium process and piano wire to bungee cords were used to create the magical sequences. The work of the special-effects crew, as well as all the production staff, was the culmination of years of Disney innovation.
Norman “Stormy” Palmer (1918-2013)
His onetime assistant, former company vice chairman Roy E. Disney, once recalled, “I particularly remember Stormy’s work on the film Water Birds. For one sequence, he cut images of birds flying to Liszt’s Second Hungarian Rhapsody. This was the Studio’s Fantasia of the nature films, and not only did it create a whole new genre, but it won an Academy Award®.
Roger Ebert (1942-2013)
Roger Ebert was part of the Disney syndicated television series Siskel & Ebert, which began on September 18, 1986. Chicago film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert reviewed current films each week. Originally aired as Siskel & Ebert and the Movies. Gene Siskel passed away in February 1999. For the 1999-2000 season, beginning September 4, 1999, the title of the show was changed to Roger Ebert & the Movies. In 2000 it became Ebert & Roeper and the Movies when Richard Roeper joined the cast.
Annette Funicello (1942-2013)
Mouseketeer Annette Funicello won people’s hearts with her shy yet friendly smile, and by the end of the first season of the Mickey Mouse Club, her fan mail had ballooned to 6,000 letters a month. In 1955, at the age of 12, she performed the lead role in Swan Lake at the Burbank Starlight Bowl. Little did she know at the time, Walt Disney was sitting in the audience; he was there scouting children for his new television show, the Mickey Mouse Club. The next day, Annette’s dance school received a call from the Studio asking to see the little girl who played the Swan Queen. Annette soon became the 24th Mouseketeer. She would go on to be cast in several of the show’s serials, including Adventures in Dairyland and Spin and Marty. In 1959, after the Mickey Mouse Club disbanded, Annette was kept on contract with the Walt Disney Studio and went on to appear in many television shows, including Zorro, The Horsemasters, and Elfego Baca, as well as feature films The Shaggy Dog, Babes in Toyland, and The Monkey’s Uncle.
James Gandolfini (1961-2013)
James Gandolfini appeared in A Stranger Among Us (Tony Baldessari), Money for Nothing (Billy Coyle), Angie (Vinnie), Terminal Velocity (Ben Pinkwater), Crimson Tide (Lt. Bobby Dougherty), A Civil Action (Al Love). He was best known for portraying Tony Soprano in HBO’s series, The Sopranos.
Elliott Reid (1920-2013)
Elliott Reid appeared in The Absent-Minded Professor and Son of Flubber (Shelby Ashton), Follow Me, Boys! (Ralph Hastings), and Blackbeard’s Ghost (TV commentator).
Michael Ansara (1922-2013)
Michael Ansara appeared in The Bears and I (Oliver Red Fern), and narrated Shokee, the Everglades Panther.
Irwin E. Russell (1926-2013)
Irwin Russell was named to the Disney Board of Directors in 1987, where he remained until March 6, 2001.
Don Nelson (1927-2013)
Don Nelson wrote “Something Good Is Bound To Happen ” with Buddy Baker, Arthur Alsberg, for Hot Lead and Cold Feet.
Diane Disney Miller (1933-2013)
Diane was a fierce guardian of her father’s legacy who never hesitated to set the record straight, opening The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco to bring her father’s fascinating story to life. She and her sister, Sharon, have long been recognized as Walt’s inspiration for Disneyland, a place he created for families to have fun together.
Marc Breaux (1924-2013)
Marc Breaux was a choreographer, along with Dee Dee Wood, on Mary Poppins.
Dickie Dodd (1945-2013)
Dickie Dodd was a Mouseketeer on the 1950s television show, Mickey Mouse Club.
Cicely Rigdon (1923-2013)
Cicely began at Disneyland in 1957 as a ticket seller. In 1959, she joined the Tour Guide Department and was responsible for initiating its growth and development. “Walt really liked the Tour Guides,” Cicely said. “Every time he would come to the Park he would always stop by and see us and talk to us.” She eventually became the supervisor of Guest Relations, and in 1967 took on additional responsibility for the ticket sellers, ticket receptionists, and Guest Relations. While in Guest Relations, she was responsible for Walt’s apartment above the Main Street Fire Station, and was therefore known as the “Keeper of the Keys.”
For nearly 60 years, Disney has welcomed visitors from around the world by throwing open the gates to worlds of fantasy and adventure. Beginning in 1955 with Disneyland, an array of Disney theme parks, resorts, and other attractions have marked their grand openings with festive unveilings. A common sight at such events is the ceremonial ribbon cutting; over the years, any number of rides, shows, and celebrations have kicked off their debuts with a pair of oversized scissors and the participation of Disney characters and celebrities—or even Walt himself!
A Disney ribbon cutting is always cause for celebration
So as we here at D23 “cut the ribbon” on a whole new way to experience the treasures of the Disney vault, it seems like a good time to look back at these moments from Disney history. As you can see, no matter the occasion, a Disney ribbon cutting is always cause for celebration.
We’ll start off with the photo above, taken at the dedication of Disneyland’s Opera House and the West Coast debut of Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln in July 1965. Already a smash hit from the New York World’s Fair’s 1964 season, the show continued to play in Flushing Meadows throughout 1965. To bring the show to Disneyland, a duplicate of the attraction was constructed with a new, second-generation refinement of Lincoln’s Audio-Animatronics® figure.
Here’s an unexpected Disney princess: actress Shirley Temple Black, who helped Walt rededicate Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland on April 29, 1957. The then 29-year-old star is seen here cutting the ribbon for the Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough, which Walt was unveiling for the first time.
For the festivities, Shirley brought along her daughter Linda and son Charles, seen in the foreground, as well as her daughter Lori. The family spent the day in the park, waving to photographers from Dumbo the Flying Elephant and other attractions. For the rededication ceremony, Shirley appeared in a velvet cape and golden crown, and she read the tale of Sleeping Beauty to the assembled crowd.
This wasn’t Shirley’s first brush with Disney royalty, of course. Nearly 20 years prior, she had presented a special Academy Award®—complete with seven miniature Oscar® figurines—to Walt for his groundbreaking animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Walt wasn’t the only Disney to get in on the tradition of Disneyland ribbon cuttings. Here we see Walt with three of his grandchildren—Tammy, Joanna, and Chris Miller—as well as a family of friendly Audio-Animatronics® beavers. With their trusty wilderness hatchet they’re dedicating Disneyland’s new Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland attraction in May 1960.
200 Audio-Animatronics® critters
One of the park’s first major expansions, the new area was an improved version of the earlier Rainbow Caverns Mine Train. Its more than 200 Audio-Animatronics® critters occupied a seven-acre footprint, with areas themed to Walt’s various True-Life Adventure documentaries. The 1950 release Beaver Valley inspired this riverside area, where riders could witness the industrious creatures at work.
Perhaps the most famous ribbon cutting in Disney lore is the one that didn’t actually happen: the “scissors malfunction” that plagued Vice President Richard Nixon and his family in 1959 when Nixon, his wife Pat, and daughters Julie and Tricia had come to Disneyland to celebrate the debut of the Disneyland-Alweg Monorail System, Matterhorn Bobsleds, and Submarine Voyage.
The Nixons had been frequent Disneyland guests going all the way back to their first visit on August 11, 1955. As the then VP sailed out over moonlit London on Peter Pan’s Flight, his wife remarked to reporters, “Dick’s getting a bigger kick out of this than the kids.”
For the festivities on June 14, 1959, the Nixons led an hour-long parade down Main Street in a 1908 Oldsmobile. Following a gala celebration, and the release of 10,000 balloons, the new Disneyland E-tickets were dedicated.
The Nixon family proceeded to Tomorrowland to dedicate the Disneyland Monorail; the only issue was that the oversize ceremonial scissors picked for the occasion refused to cut through the ribbon. In an event that he himself would later poke fun at on his Wonderful World of Color television show, Walt was forced to intercede and tear the ribbon by hand to inaugurate his sleek, futuristic transportation system.
A few years later, when the Disneyland Monorail track was extended to service a new station at the Disneyland Hotel, the Nixons were invited to re-dedicate the attraction. “Inasmuch as your young ladies dedicated the original system,” Walt wrote to Nixon in May 1966, “it would be appropriate for them to dedicate the new extension.” Walt even assured that Disneyland had sorted out the finer points of ribbon cutting, promising, “I can even assure you that the scissors will be sharp this time!”
The Nixons were unable to attend the re-opening of the Monorail on June 11, 1961, but the celebration went on nonetheless, as you can see above. This ceremony was held on the new Monorail platform at the Disneyland Hotel itself; you can see the station’s trademark “Erector Set” architecture in the background. In attendance was California Congressman James Utt, seen on the left. He’d also been a guest for Disneyland’s 1955 opening-day celebration. Cutting the ribbon was actress Bonita Granville and her husband, Disneyland Hotel owner and president Jack Wrather. On the Monorail is Mary Boggess of Kentucky, the first passenger to ride the newly expanded route.
This festive event took place July 29, 1963, when Disneyland unveiled “Salute to Mexico,” a three-month showcase of Mexican culture that transformed Main Street, U.S.A.’s Center Street into a little slice of Mexico in Anaheim. Sponsored by People-to-People, Inc., for which Walt was a trustee, in cooperation with the Mexican Tourist Council, the exhibits ranged from “pottery and jewelry to contemporary art and bull fighting.”
Opening the exhibit were Teresa Lucero, 8, of Los Angeles and Patrick Wade, 12, of Anaheim; they were joined by Edmundo Gonzales, Mexico’s Consul General in Los Angeles as well as Carlos Arruza, a famous bullfighter from Mexico City, and Joyce C. Hall, chairman of the People-to-People committee. Hall, founder and head of Hallmark, was a long-time Disney friend and business partner.
Walt had been a People-to-People trustee since 1961, when friend and organization founder, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, recruited him. He was even approached by the president to head the organization in 1966 when Eisenhower stepped down from the role.
The ribbon-cutting tradition didn’t end with Walt, of course. For six decades, an endless parade of ceremonies and festivities has proclaimed the debut of new Disney adventures. The most recent of these came on December 6, 2012, when the ribbon was cut on New Fantasyland at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Always on the lookout for new items of historical interest, the Disney Archives in California brought back a piece of ribbon from the event to save for posterity.
To all who come to this happy place, welcome!
No matter the occasion, Disney ribbon cuttings have always heralded the arrival of fresh wonders and great excitement. It is in that spirit that we welcome you to this new adventure through Disneyana past, present and future. To all who come to this happy place, welcome!
Such Disney Legends as Julie Andrews and Elton John were among the many guest stars on The Muppet Show, but perhaps the most fascinating Disney Legend to trod the boards of the Muppet Theater was Wally Boag.
Master vaudevillian and king of comedy.
One of Walt Disney’s favorites, Wally was the comedic star of the long-running Golden Horseshoe Revue at Disneyland. Wally’s vaudevillian background and zany performing style made him a natural for the madcap show-biz shenanigans of The Muppet Show. In fact, Kermit the Frog introduces Wally as “master vaudevillian and king of comedy.”
Muppet designers transformed Wally’s set of bagpipes into a wacky bird-like creature . . .
It was another Disney Legend, Steve Martin—Steve had guested on The Muppet Show in 1977—who introduced Wally (Steve’s comedy mentor) to Jim Henson in 1980. A big Boag fan, Jim invited Wally to guest on the show, and soon the Frontierland funnyman was making balloon animals, spouting corny one-liners, and spitting out “teeth” as Pecos Bill, surrounded by Miss Piggy, Rowlf the Dog, and Annie Sue . . . and heckled, naturally, by Statler and Waldorf. For this episode, which aired May 9, 1981, the Muppet designers transformed Wally’s set of bagpipes—he purchased them back in 1947—into a wacky bird-like creature, and Wally kept the “bird pipes” intact ever after. Of course, Wally wasn’t the only future Disney Legend in that episode: there was also Jim Henson performing Kermit.
It’s no coincidence that both Jim and Walt Disney loved vaudeville—and that love was best expressed in their mutual admiration for Wally Boag.
The Muppet Show was always a showcase for stars, but never more so than when the stars of Star Wars joined Kermit and Company for some intergalactic insanity. In this January 15, 1980, episode, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), C-3PO, and R2-D2 burst into the Muppet Theater with an SOS from Chewbacca:
“Help, I am being held prisoner by a bunch of weird turkeys.”
The comedic chaos jumped into hyperspace with the appearance of Luke’s “cousin,” Mark Hamill as himself. Finally, aboard the “Pigs in Space” ship, the Swinetrek—with first mate Piggy filling in for Princess Leia—Luke and the droids rescued Chewbacca from Dearth Nadir (Gonzo in full-on Vader armor).
As zany as it was, this unique episode boasted some of the only new Star Wars material created between the first movie in 1977 and the release of The Empire Strikes Back on May 21, 1980. The Empire Strikes Back, of course, introduced Yoda, performed by master Muppeteer Frank Oz who later commented on the cosmic connection between the Muppet and Star Wars universes: “They both had the vitality and purity and joy and dreaming, and there’s certainly geniuses behind both of them. George Lucas and Jim Henson worked together on Labyrinth, and I think that which got them together was that synergy. There was an awareness and an appreciation… They were [both] very smart, very quiet, very strong people.”
As charming as a lovely girl in a frilly summer frock, as delicious as an ice cream social, as carefree as an old-fashioned sing-a-long around the player piano—that’s Walt Disney’s Summer Magic (1963). This lovingly crafted slice of Americana stars Disney Legend Hayley Mills in her fourth film for Walt, as the exuberant, quixotic, and effusive Nancy Carey, sweet 16 in Beulah, Maine, where she discovers new experiences, new friends, and new romance.
“‘Summer Magic’… two words that go well together, because summer always means a certain kind of magic to most of us. In fact, I think almost everybody looking back remembers summer times more often than the other seasons. Well, our story is about summer and about magic too. [It’s what] happened in one magical summer that changed the lives of an entire family—the Carey family.”
—Walt Disney
As Walt Disney explained, “Mrs. Carey and her three children, Gilly, Nancy, and Peter, found themselves in a financial bind that could only be helped by finding a cheaper place to live than Boston. So, without mentioning it to her mother, Nancy wrote a letter to a Mr. Popham in Beulah regarding a house they had seen there while on a trip some years before. The answer was even better than Nancy had hoped for.”
Thanks to Nancy’s resourceful and “slightly” exaggerated missive—full of tears, entreaties, and white lies—the Careys are able to live in the quaint Yellow House belonging to the long absent Mr. Hamilton, who is traveling in China. And through the kindness of postmaster-storekeeper-constable Osh Popham (Burl Ives), who is not above stretching the truth himself. Sparkling with seven Sherman Brothers songs and glowing with heartwarming nostalgia, Summer Magic this year celebrates 50 years of flitterin’ fun and feel-good family entertainment.
A Glorification: Story and Screenplay Summer Magic is based on Mother Carey’s Chickens, the 1911 novel byeducator and author Kate Douglas Wiggin who also wrote Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Disney obtained the rights to the book in 1955 as a potential project for some of the Mouseketeers. In 1961, the story was slated for the Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color TV series, but Walt ultimately envisioned the delightful dramedy as a theatrical feature for his popular young star Hayley Mills. The prolific producer signed writer Sally Benson (author of the stories that inspired Meet Me in St. Louis, 1944, and the co-screenwriter of the small-town suspense Hitchcock thriller, Shadow of a Doubt, 1943) to pen the photoplay. Sally worked closely with Walt, keeping him up-to-date in between story meetings through an extensive series of memos detailing her many ideas. For example, it was Miss Benson’s inspiration to telescope the events of the book into one summertime, ending with an autumn celebration.
The Summer Magic Barn at The Walt Disney Studios, Berm 5; the Animation building can be glimpsed to the right of the trailers.
In the meantime, Walt cast Burl Ives as Osh Popham. (Nancy describes the good-heartedly deceitful postmaster as the family’s Fairy Godfather.) Long known as a folksinger and balladeer, Burl had also become an acclaimed actor in such films as East of Eden (1955), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958),and The Big Country (1958), for which he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar®. Walt had in fact given Burl one of his first acting assignments in So Dear to My Heart (1948), a film not unlike Summer Magic in its nostalgic sentiment and period detail. Sally Benson had written a non-musical draft of the screenplay, but with Burl aboard, Walt asked staff composers Richard and Robert Sherman to come up with a suitable song. “As an actor, he’s wonderful,” said Richard Sherman. “But we knew him as a folksinger. He just had this wonderful, mellow, rich voice. So we were thrilled.”
Between scenes: Hayley Mills, Eddie Hodges, and Richard Sherman.
Taking Walt’s idea a step or two farther, the songwriting brothers proposed a selection of songs that could enliven the screenplay. Walt liked the idea of adding more tunes, and the brothers worked closely with Sally Benson in developing the story and placing the songs. During development, the film was known as Beulah, then The Amazing Careys, before Walt came up with the perfect title for this cinematic confection. Said Robert: “We wrote a song called ‘City People.’ Walt called me at home one night and asked if I agreed that the words ‘summer magic’ scanned the same as ‘city people.’ I told him that it did. He replied, ‘Good, then that’s the name of my picture!’ We changed the title of the song as well as a few salient lyrics.”
Richard and Robert Sherman flank Hayley Mills.
Welcome to the Disney Fun Factory: The Cast
The vivacious Hayley Mills was under a non-exclusive contract with Disney, and Walt had already starred her in a period drama (Pollyanna), a contemporary comedy (The Parent Trap) and an action-adventure-fantasy (In Search of the Castaways). The imaginative impresario saw this lighthearted musical as another varied vehicle for his versatile star. But Hayley did not think of herself as a vocalist and had been reluctant to sing the Shermans’ “Let’s Get Together” in The Parent Trap. Richard and Robert encouraged Hayley to “just be yourself,” and her vocal performance was a sensation. When it came to singing several songs in Summer Magic, Walt explained his thinking about Hayley’s musical mojo in an April 23, 1962, telegram: “We are not trying to make a singer out of Hayley; neither does the script indicate that the singing she does is of a professional type. Instead, it is only her personality we are endeavoring to put over.” Indeed, Hayley’s adorable, offbeat personality shines through in her Summer Magic vocal performances.
With the film now featuring original songs, teenager Eddie Hodges was cast as Nancy’s musically inclined brother, Gilly. A veteran of stage (Eddie was the original Winthrop in the hit Broadway musical The Music Man, which debuted in 1957) and screen (he had co-starred and even sang a duet with Frank Sinatra in the film A Hole in the Head, 1959), Eddie was an accomplished musician. To play the gentle, wise, and preternaturally patient Mrs. Carey, Dorothy McGuire returned to the Disney fold. Walt sent the actress a special note of greeting on August 8, 1962: “Welcome back to the Disney fun factory. We’re glad you’re going to be with us while we conjure up a little “Summer Magic,” and I’m sure the end result will be as much of a success as Old Yeller and Swiss Family [Robinson].” Dorothy enjoyed playing a mother as she had in her previous Disney films: “It suits me to a T. I love children of all ages, and the joys and sometimes little problems they present both on and off the stage. I find, of course, that being a real mother helps immeasurably in interpreting a role and developing a character. My experiences at home, with my daughter Mary and son Mark tend to give a real-life feeling to my work.” Dorothy went on to play the most famous mother of all: she was Mary the mother of Jesus in George Stevens’ epic The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).
Walt confers with director James Neilson on the backlot.
In addition to Deborah Walley as snobbish Cousin Julia and Jimmy Mathers (younger brother of Jerry Leave It to Beaver Mathers) as little Peter, the cast included Peter Brown as Tom Hamilton, the mysterious owner of the Yellow House. Off the set, Peter took Hayley to her first American baseball game—at Dodger Stadium, in dugout seats courtesy of his friend Dean Martin—and found her to have the wit, humor, and charm of a woman of 25. (Reportedly, a kiss—Hayley’s highly anticipated first on-screen kiss—was planned for Nancy and Tom Hamilton but was ultimately dropped.)
Gotta Crawl, Gotta Crawl: Songs
“We worked with the Sherman Brothers on the songs,” Eddie Hodges told historian Charles Tranberg. “What a delightful pair! They really supplied the musical energy of that picture, as well as the songs. The Sherman Brothers had a miraculous way of weaving a song into the very fabric of the story so that you just felt it belonged there.”
Burl Ives and Walt chat on the front porch of the Beulah barbershop.
As noted, the musical nature of the film began with the casting of Burl Ives. “Occasionally we had the good fortune of knowing ahead of time that a certain performer was going to play the character,” said Richard Sherman, “[as] in the case of Burl Ives in Summer Magic. We knew ahead of time that he was going to be featured, and we wrote the novelty called ‘Ugly Bug Ball.’” But, added Robert, “Walt didn’t want us to use the song because he didn’t like the word ‘ugly.’ So we said, you know to the creatures in the world, a hippopotamus to another hippopotamus is not ugly. And a caterpillar is not ugly to another caterpillar.” Continued Richard, “And he said, ‘you know, that’s not a bad idea. And if we put that into the script, then I think we can do the song.’” Burl made the “Ugly Bug Ball” song a Summer Magic highlight, as well as “On the Front Porch,” another homespun song composed especially for Ives and one of the Shermans’ personal favorites.
Beautiful Beulah, Maine: Filming
Principal photography began in July 1962 and concluded in October, corresponding with the time frame of the film story itself. Though the opening exterior scenes set at the Carey’s city home were filmed at nearby Columbia Ranch (now the Warner Ranch) in Burbank, the exteriors of rustic Beulah were filmed on the Disney Studios backlot. The exterior of the charming Yellow House and its spacious lawn was constructed on Berm 4 while the back of the Maine manse and the barn were constructed on Berm 5 near the Animation building. Special photographic effects master Peter Ellenshaw went on a research trip not to Maine, but to the Vermont countryside, where background footage was shot, the steam engine briefly seen in the film was photographed, and Peter soaked up the bucolic atmosphere in order to paint both pre-production concept art and the matte paintings used in the film to achieve the upper stories of the Yellow House and much of Beulah and its surrounding New England beauty.
Walt and Hayley chat in front of another Summer Magic “star,” the Stutz Bearcat motorcar.
The Well Worn Welcome Mat: Release Summer Magic was released July 7, 1963. Although there was no true soundtrack recording, an original cast LP album was issued on Disney’s prestige label Vista Records. Recorded at the legendary Sunset Sound Recorders studio, the album featured new renditions of the songs by the film’s performers with the exception of Marilyn Hooven, who took the place of Dorothy McGuire for the LP. The LP was produced and orchestrated by the film’s vocal supervisor, Tutti Camarata, while acclaimed illustrator Neil Boyle (who would also illustrate the Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln LP) painted the album’s evocative cover.
Director James Neilson (right) discusses Summer Magic with Burl Ives and Hayley Mills.
Another LP featured the Summer Magic songs as “performed” by a player piano. A tie-in with the piano-player element portrayed in the film, the album was also a nod to the growing resurgence of this nostalgic instrument’s popularity in the 1960s.There was also a unique promotional tie-in with the Aeolian Piano Rolls company in which constantly playing player pianos were in the lobbies of Summer Magic theatres in such cities as New York, Cleveland, and Atlanta; in New York, according to a Buena Vista Distribution report, the player piano was “drawing big crowds right off the street.”
From left: Tutti Camarata, Robert Sherman, and Hayley Mills at a recording studio.
The movie’s biggest draw was unquestionably “that wonderful Hayley!” At the time Summer Magic was released, Hayley was receiving more fan mail than any other motion picture star in the world—some 7,500 letters each month! Hayley’s main ambition was to be “a good actress,” a status she felt she had not yet achieved. “I’m like an old flannel, just soaking up any bits of information I can get. You can’t learn a lifetime’s work in four years.”
From left: Richard Sherman, Hayley Mills, and Peter Brown clown at the Summer Magic wrap party.
As refreshing as a glass of ice-cold lemonade on a hot August day, Summer Magic is 50 and Fabulous and still as magical as ever.
D23 Members visited The Walt Disney Studios on Saturday, June 8, 2013, for a very special 50th Anniversary Screening of Summer Magic. Joining D23 Members and their guests for this special screening were Disney artist and historian Stacia Martin, Disney historian Les Perkins, and Jimmy Mathers, who played the spunky and loveable Peter Carey in Summer Magic.
As a tribute to the film, the Walt Disney Archives put together a small display of props and costume concept art from the film in the theater’s lobby.
Several years after the maestro of the animation world skillfully blended art and classical music to create Fantasia, Walt Disney looked to classical music again as he planned a new animated feature, Sleeping Beauty. His selection of 22-year-old Mary Costa as the voice of Princess Aurora matched Peter Tchaikovsky’s beloved classical music with a voice destined to grace the world’s most renowned opera houses.
This Disney Legend still marvels at how her career was impacted by creative guidance from two of the 20th century’s most gifted geniuses
As it would turn out, Walt’s fateful casting of Mary Costa helped accelerate her fame. The singer’s early success ironically helped bring her to the attention of one of the world’s greatest composers, one whose work had been included in Fantasia years earlier. Hollywood is filled with unusual stories of life-changing encounters, and this Disney Legend still marvels at how her career was impacted by creative guidance from two of the 20th century’s most gifted geniuses.
More than 50 years after the release of Sleeping Beauty, Mary regards working with Walt on the animated classic as one of the positive influences on her decision to pursue opera. “Walt wasn’t really a musician, but he respected and admired people who made music their art,” she recalls.
As a result of the publicity generated by the movie, Mary saw her Disney work open doors to film and television appearances. As she voiced Briar Rose singing about her dreams of finding true love, Mary dreamed of an opera career. She knew a transition from popular entertainment into the more “serious” opera world was considered difficult to achieve. As production on Sleeping Beauty finished, Walt gave her some advice when she shared her ambitious goals one day at the studio.
If you apply the ‘Four Ds’—dreams, dedication, determination, and the discipline—you can make it
“An opera career is quite a desire,” he told her. “But if you apply the ‘Four Ds’—dreams, dedication, determination, and the discipline—you can make it.”
She took Walt’s alliterative principles to heart, and by the time Sleeping Beauty opened in 1959, Mary had launched a stellar career, including an early Hollywood Bowl appearance that would ultimately lead her to add more than three dozen operas to her performing repertoire. Just as Tchaikovsky’s music had brought her to Walt, Mary’s foray into opera was about to connect her to another Russian composer whose work had also been associated with Disney.
When Walt famously set classical compositions to animation for Fantasia, Igor Stravinsky was the only composer still living to see his work on the big screen. Born in Russia in 1882, Stravinsky was a boy when he saw Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty ballet during its premiere year in St. Petersburg. Stravinsky grew up intending to become a lawyer, but music lessons led him into a new career. Regarded as one of the early 20th century’s greatest composers, by the late 1930s he had moved to Hollywood where he often conducted concerts at the Hollywood Bowl. In 1940, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring was included in Fantasia, and the rest is Disney history. It’s a connection not lost on Mary Costa.
Walt Disney was fascinated by The Sleeping Beauty ballet, and so was Igor Stravinsky
“Walt Disney was fascinated by The Sleeping Beauty ballet, and so was Igor Stravinsky,” she notes. Not too long after the release of Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, Stravinsky heard a Mary Costa recording from her first Hollywood Bowl appearance.
Mary was appearing with the San Francisco Opera when she was told that Stravinsky had personally requested her to sing the role of “Anne Trulove” in the company’s first production of The Rake’s Progress, an opera completed in 1951 as one of the composer’s last great works.
“As exciting as that was, imagine the thrill when I was told that Stravinsky wanted to coach me himself for the role at his home in Los Angeles,” the singer recalls.
Then 80 years old, Stravinsky invited Mary to spend three weeks with him for private vocal coaching and intensive rehearsals. The idea of working directly with the composer himself was a little daunting, so Mary first worked with famed conductor Fritz Zweig, a protégé of another great composer, Richard Strauss. “I practically knew it backwards by the time Stravinsky was ready for me,” she says with a laugh.
He loved to make me laugh . . .
Accompanied by Zweig on the piano, Mary sang for Stravinsky in his studio. Although Stravinsky enjoyed a reputation for perfectionism that some artists found intimidating, Mary thought he had an incredible sense of humor. “He loved to make me laugh,” she says.
She even saw Stravinsky’s sensitive side during her three weeks with him. “He was remarkably knowledgeable about a singer’s voice. Like Walt Disney, he was intuitive about guiding my performance. Where Walt had coached me to think of singing like painting with a vocal palette, Stravinsky told me to keep up my energy level and to never ever let it drop, even during the softest phrases of my singing.”
Stravinsky was remarkably generous in that he encouraged me to take breaths where I needed them
With a challenging aria early in Act I of The Rake’s Progress, Mary viewed the role as one of the toughest in her young operatic career. “Singing of that caliber required being in top physical shape because of the energy a body needs to sustain that level of live performance,” she says. “Stravinsky was remarkably generous in that he encouraged me to take breaths where I needed them, even though we had the score right in front of us with his original suggestions marked to tell the singers when to breathe.”
To Mary’s relief, Stravinsky was pleased with her interpretation of the role, especially when she opened to critical acclaim in The Rake’s Progress. “He could be a very tough taskmaster, but he knew I was prepared and would do his work justice. He attended the performance and told me he thought it was perfect. That’s one of the great memories of my life.”
Prior to the production in San Francisco, she even joined Stravinsky and his wife for other performances of the composer’s work in Seattle during the Century 21 Exposition (1962’s Seattle World’s Fair). In Vancouver, she attended a performance of The Firebird, Stravinsky’s 1910 composition later adapted in Disney’s Fantasia/2000.
“I sat with his wife at that performance and she said, ‘Oh, Igor has grown to hateThe Firebird if it’s not performed correctly. It just upsets him so.’ Off she went backstage to calm him down and make sure he wasn’t too upset. I thought it was just funny to see him fret about which of his compositions were better than the others, but I think that critical level of thinking just demonstrates greatness.”
Mary’s work with Stravinsky represents one of the legendary facets of a career that flourished throughout the 1960s, from her work with Leonard Bernstein in the London premiere of Candide to her 1964 debut in La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera. In just a few short years, Costa realized the dreams she had shared with Walt Disney and became a respected soprano known for her devotion to the opera. With her movie and television background, she was frequently in demand as a guest on television variety shows where she made opera accessible to audiences.
Her reputation as an artist led to an invitation by Roy O. Disney to serve as one of the founding members on the Board of Directors at the California Institute of the Arts, the college established by Walt Disney in 1961. During her time on the board, the college hosted a benefit premiere of Walt’s last live-action film, The Happiest Millionaire (1967).
Walt wanted a combination of a classical and popular sound, and in many regards, my career always bridged those two worlds . . .
“I remember attending a CalArts function where Roy O. Disney and I had a lovely visit together, and he told me that Walt knew within five or six notes of my audition that my voice possessed the qualities he wanted for Sleeping Beauty. Walt wanted a combination of a classical and popular sound, and in many regards, my career always bridged those two worlds. I think that was true of Disney’s and Stravinsky’s work, too.”
In 2004, Mary returned to the Hollywood Bowl as a narrator in a musical extravaganza that featured a tribute to iconic Disney music. That evening, she couldn’t help but think back to her own history at the Hollywood Bowl, including the recording of the performance that led her to Igor Stravinsky just a few years after working for Walt Disney.
“As a singer, I rarely looked back,” she says. “I always looked ahead to the next project or the next concert, so only in recent years have I stopped sometimes to think about the wonder of how so many parts of my life are related to each other. In many ways, I think Sleeping Beauty was a kind of continuation of Fantasia, so how blessed I was to work with both Disney and Stravinsky in two different aspects of my career.”
Since her retirement from the opera, Mary set out to share lessons she learned from her show business experience and working with the likes of Disney and Stravinsky. She actively supports arts education and regularly visits schoolchildren to encourage them to explore their creative talents. In 2003, the U.S. Senate confirmed her presidential appointment to the National Council of the Arts.
In recognition of her contribution to the arts, the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville voted earlier this year to award her an honorary degree at its May 2013 commencement ceremony. The degree marks the third one she’s received in her life. Dr. Costa has mentored scores of young performers at the university’s School of Music and passed on much of what she learned from some of the creative geniuses who nurtured her own career.
“I learned the same principles from Walt Disney and Igor Stravinsky,” she shares. “Any music is serious if you’re serious about it, be it opera or popular music. That’s why I advise people to find their own voice when they sing. Never try to copy someone else. Be an original.”
