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Title: Walt Disney's Psychedelic Movie
Author: Stephen Schochet
Article:
Chasen's restaurant in old Hollywood was a legendary hangout
were movie stars expected to dine in peaceful private booths on
barbecued chili without putting up with celebrity gawkers. There
were occasional breaks in the quiet. Jimmy Stewart's bachelor
party was thrown there complete with midgets clad only in
diapers jumping out of cakes. Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre
got drunk one night and stole the restaurant's safe, carrying it
out onto the street until they were caught. WC Fields once
caused his girlfriend Carlotta Monti great anguish by dining at
Chasens with another woman. She called up nearby Cedar Sinai
Hospital and told them that the comedian was having a heart
attack, resulting in an ambulance coming to fetch him in the
middle of dinner. And in 1938 the conductor of the Philadelphia
Orchestra, the long haired, flamboyant Leopold Stokowski, in
town to carry on a discreet love affair with Greta Garbo, had
his dinner interrupted by a note from a waiter saying that Walt
Disney wanted to meet him.
The cartoon maker and the maestro were surprised that both were
fans of each other. As always Walt saw meetings with talent as
an opportunity to push the creative envelope. In fifteen years
of running his animation studio, Disney had used music to
supplement gags and stories, now he wanted to reverse the
formula. While recently attending a symphony at the Hollywood
Bowl he had been enthralled listening to The Sorcerer's
Apprentice by Paul Dukas. What if it were combined with a state
of the art, twenty minute animated cartoon? It could raise
animation to a higher art form and introduce new audiences to
classical music who had never appreciated it before. Stokowski
loved the idea so much he volunteered to conduct it for free. He
also suggested several other pieces that could be presented with
animation as well. And so Fantasia (1940) was born.
Disney's other reason to make Sorcerer was to save the career of
Mickey Mouse. A superstitious man, who like many in Hollywood
consulted fortune tellers, he felt that if Mickey died, his
whole organization would go down with him. The problem was that
Mickey like many stars was now type cast. He had gone from being
mischievous to bland. It had gotten to the point where Walt
would get letters of complaint every time the little guy would
misbehave on the screen. He had been surpassed in popularity by
the mean-spirited but more versatile Donald Duck. Walt also felt
that the high pitched voice that he himself provided for the
mouse was not exciting for audiences to hear, his role in
Fantasia would be silent. Disney remained Mickey's strongest
advocate, despite his artist's suggestions the four foot rodent
was a dumb character who should be replaced in the film by
Dopey. Their disdain lead to the phrase,"A Mickey Mouse
Operation" used to describe things that are second rate.
At that time, flush with the huge success of Snow White And The
Seven Dwarfs (1937) the 37-year-old Walt Disney was at the
height of his creative powers. Visitors to the studio were
amazed by his boundless energy, they would have more surprised
to find out he had suffered a nervous breakdown eight years
earlier. His anything is possible attitude carried over to many
of his artists who were zany characters to begin with. Working
on Fantasia with highbrow types like Stokowski and music critic
Deems Taylor, Walt would sometimes feel embarrassed by their
immature behavior. Don't be, he was told, Your cartoonists are
like the elves in Santa's workshop.
If Walt was ignorant about some classical music pieces, he made
up for it by plunging into Fantasia with boyish enthusiasm. His
imagination was translated into unique visions by the Disney
animators. A Bach passage reminded him of a bowl of spaghetti,
he was later amused when critics saw something profound in the
simple drawings that appeared on screen. Stokowski suggested
they use a piece called Sacre du Printemps or Rite Of Spring, by
Igor Stravinsky. "Socker, what's that?" Walt asked. After he
heard the music he wired ten thousand dollars to Stravinsky for
permission to use it. The desperate Russian composer needed the
cash to get safe passage out of occupied Paris. Sacre was
transformed from ancient pagan rituals to accompany a powerful
depiction of Earth's evolution. Beethoven's sixth symphony, The
Pastoral, was changed from a peaceful countryside setting to a
Mount Olympus spectacle where unicorns, centaurs and nymphs
roamed freely. After seeing the completed work for the first
time Walt said with wide-eyed innocence,"Wow! This will make
Beethoven!" Like what George Lucas would later do with THX, Walt
developed a new recording system called Fantasound, so that
audiences would be able to enjoy the rich quality of the music.
All of this spending was viewed with alarm by his tightfisted
business partner and classical music hating brother Roy, who
annoyed Walt by suggesting they use some Tommy Dorsey tunes
instead.
With past films Disney had often bowed to pressure from his
financial backers to finish them early while he was still
tinkering, trying to make them perfect. Giving in to the money
men always gave him a sense of loss. He dreamed Fantasia would
play forever in some theaters with new segments constantly being
added, an endlessly ongoing project. But Fantasia was a crushing
disappointment for Walt in 1940. Many movie theater owners
refused to pay for the installation of Fantasound, giving the
film very limited distribution. The exhibitors who did show it
charged much higher admission prices than normal keeping
audiences away. The people that did come were often put off by
the lack of a story or the frightening devil in the Night On
Bald Mountain sequence, for whom Bela Lugosi was the real life
model. Roy, who had indulged his brother because he was certain
they would break even overseas, saw World War II cut off much of
the foreign market. Classical music aficionados like the
ungrateful Stravinsky looked down their noses at Disney's
masterpiece. Fantasia was cut in length and went into mass
release as the second half of a double feature. The Disney
brothers took a financial bath they nearly never recovered from.
Fifteen years later Mickey Mouse was back on top with The
Mickey Mouse Club television show and Walt finally got his
ongoing dream project with Disneyland. But unlike other initial
money losers he made, such as Bambi (1942) and Pinocchio (1940),
he never lived to see Fantasia become profitable. Shortly before
he died in 1966 he said,"Fantasia? Well I don't regret it but if
I had to do it over again, I wouldn't."
In 1968 the Beatle's cartoon Yellow Submarine did very well with
the psychedelic crowd. Sensing a new market for Fantasia, the
Disney studio re-released it and the film was finally made
profitable by drug tripping hippies who speculated that Walt
must have been on something when he produced it.
About the author:
Want to hear more stories? Stephen Schochet is the author and
narrator of the audiobooks Fascinating Walt Disney and Tales Of
Hollywood. The Saint Louis Post Dispatch says," These two
elaborate productions are exceptionally entertaining." Hear
RealAudio samples of these great, unique gifts at
http://www.hollywoodstories.com.
THANK YOU FOR USING GOARTICLES.COM
The Articles Search Engine
Take A Moment To Visit Our Other Top Web Sites:
http://sitepronews.com http://ezinehub.com
http://www.allbusinessnews.com http://www.exactseek.com
================================================================
Title: Walt Disney's Psychedelic Movie
Author: Stephen Schochet
Article:
Chasen's restaurant in old Hollywood was a legendary hangout
were movie stars expected to dine in peaceful private booths on
barbecued chili without putting up with celebrity gawkers. There
were occasional breaks in the quiet. Jimmy Stewart's bachelor
party was thrown there complete with midgets clad only in
diapers jumping out of cakes. Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre
got drunk one night and stole the restaurant's safe, carrying it
out onto the street until they were caught. WC Fields once
caused his girlfriend Carlotta Monti great anguish by dining at
Chasens with another woman. She called up nearby Cedar Sinai
Hospital and told them that the comedian was having a heart
attack, resulting in an ambulance coming to fetch him in the
middle of dinner. And in 1938 the conductor of the Philadelphia
Orchestra, the long haired, flamboyant Leopold Stokowski, in
town to carry on a discreet love affair with Greta Garbo, had
his dinner interrupted by a note from a waiter saying that Walt
Disney wanted to meet him.
The cartoon maker and the maestro were surprised that both were
fans of each other. As always Walt saw meetings with talent as
an opportunity to push the creative envelope. In fifteen years
of running his animation studio, Disney had used music to
supplement gags and stories, now he wanted to reverse the
formula. While recently attending a symphony at the Hollywood
Bowl he had been enthralled listening to The Sorcerer's
Apprentice by Paul Dukas. What if it were combined with a state
of the art, twenty minute animated cartoon? It could raise
animation to a higher art form and introduce new audiences to
classical music who had never appreciated it before. Stokowski
loved the idea so much he volunteered to conduct it for free. He
also suggested several other pieces that could be presented with
animation as well. And so Fantasia (1940) was born.
Disney's other reason to make Sorcerer was to save the career of
Mickey Mouse. A superstitious man, who like many in Hollywood
consulted fortune tellers, he felt that if Mickey died, his
whole organization would go down with him. The problem was that
Mickey like many stars was now type cast. He had gone from being
mischievous to bland. It had gotten to the point where Walt
would get letters of complaint every time the little guy would
misbehave on the screen. He had been surpassed in popularity by
the mean-spirited but more versatile Donald Duck. Walt also felt
that the high pitched voice that he himself provided for the
mouse was not exciting for audiences to hear, his role in
Fantasia would be silent. Disney remained Mickey's strongest
advocate, despite his artist's suggestions the four foot rodent
was a dumb character who should be replaced in the film by
Dopey. Their disdain lead to the phrase,"A Mickey Mouse
Operation" used to describe things that are second rate.
At that time, flush with the huge success of Snow White And The
Seven Dwarfs (1937) the 37-year-old Walt Disney was at the
height of his creative powers. Visitors to the studio were
amazed by his boundless energy, they would have more surprised
to find out he had suffered a nervous breakdown eight years
earlier. His anything is possible attitude carried over to many
of his artists who were zany characters to begin with. Working
on Fantasia with highbrow types like Stokowski and music critic
Deems Taylor, Walt would sometimes feel embarrassed by their
immature behavior. Don't be, he was told, Your cartoonists are
like the elves in Santa's workshop.
If Walt was ignorant about some classical music pieces, he made
up for it by plunging into Fantasia with boyish enthusiasm. His
imagination was translated into unique visions by the Disney
animators. A Bach passage reminded him of a bowl of spaghetti,
he was later amused when critics saw something profound in the
simple drawings that appeared on screen. Stokowski suggested
they use a piece called Sacre du Printemps or Rite Of Spring, by
Igor Stravinsky. "Socker, what's that?" Walt asked. After he
heard the music he wired ten thousand dollars to Stravinsky for
permission to use it. The desperate Russian composer needed the
cash to get safe passage out of occupied Paris. Sacre was
transformed from ancient pagan rituals to accompany a powerful
depiction of Earth's evolution. Beethoven's sixth symphony, The
Pastoral, was changed from a peaceful countryside setting to a
Mount Olympus spectacle where unicorns, centaurs and nymphs
roamed freely. After seeing the completed work for the first
time Walt said with wide-eyed innocence,"Wow! This will make
Beethoven!" Like what George Lucas would later do with THX, Walt
developed a new recording system called Fantasound, so that
audiences would be able to enjoy the rich quality of the music.
All of this spending was viewed with alarm by his tightfisted
business partner and classical music hating brother Roy, who
annoyed Walt by suggesting they use some Tommy Dorsey tunes
instead.
With past films Disney had often bowed to pressure from his
financial backers to finish them early while he was still
tinkering, trying to make them perfect. Giving in to the money
men always gave him a sense of loss. He dreamed Fantasia would
play forever in some theaters with new segments constantly being
added, an endlessly ongoing project. But Fantasia was a crushing
disappointment for Walt in 1940. Many movie theater owners
refused to pay for the installation of Fantasound, giving the
film very limited distribution. The exhibitors who did show it
charged much higher admission prices than normal keeping
audiences away. The people that did come were often put off by
the lack of a story or the frightening devil in the Night On
Bald Mountain sequence, for whom Bela Lugosi was the real life
model. Roy, who had indulged his brother because he was certain
they would break even overseas, saw World War II cut off much of
the foreign market. Classical music aficionados like the
ungrateful Stravinsky looked down their noses at Disney's
masterpiece. Fantasia was cut in length and went into mass
release as the second half of a double feature. The Disney
brothers took a financial bath they nearly never recovered from.
Fifteen years later Mickey Mouse was back on top with The
Mickey Mouse Club television show and Walt finally got his
ongoing dream project with Disneyland. But unlike other initial
money losers he made, such as Bambi (1942) and Pinocchio (1940),
he never lived to see Fantasia become profitable. Shortly before
he died in 1966 he said,"Fantasia? Well I don't regret it but if
I had to do it over again, I wouldn't."
In 1968 the Beatle's cartoon Yellow Submarine did very well with
the psychedelic crowd. Sensing a new market for Fantasia, the
Disney studio re-released it and the film was finally made
profitable by drug tripping hippies who speculated that Walt
must have been on something when he produced it.
About the author:
Want to hear more stories? Stephen Schochet is the author and
narrator of the audiobooks Fascinating Walt Disney and Tales Of
Hollywood. The Saint Louis Post Dispatch says," These two
elaborate productions are exceptionally entertaining." Hear
RealAudio samples of these great, unique gifts at
http://www.hollywoodstories.com.
