The Animated Man (74 page)

82
. G. S. Eyssell to Rockefeller, November 29, 1944, RAC.

83
. March 29, 1947, balance sheet.

84
.
Dispatch from Disney's
.

85
. “Disney's Speed-up,”
Variety
, June 30, 1943, 20.

86
. W. H. Clark to Rathvon et al., memorandum, May 24, 1943, RKO. The memorandum says that the contract was canceled by a letter agreement dated May 19, 1943.

87
. Walt Disney Productions, 1945 annual report, 3, RKO.

88
. “Walt Disney—Teacher of Tomorrow,”
Look
, April 17, 1945, 26, AMPAS.

89
. “Walt Disney Plans Cartoon Movies for Industrial Use,”
Wall Street Journal
, December 1, 1943, 4.

90
. J. V. Sheehan to Walt Disney and Roy Disney, memorandum, November 9, 1944, WDA.

91
. “Realign Disney Organization Top Personnel,”
Motion Picture Herald
, September 15, 1945, AMPAS.

92
. Harry Tytle,
One of “Walt's Boys”
(Mission Viejo, 1997), 99.

93
. Tytle,
One of “Walt's Boys,”
51.

94
. Joe Grant, 1986 interview.

95
. Jackson, 1973 interview; Jackson, July 28, 1975.

96
. Roy Disney to Flora Disney, August 18, 1938, photocopy, private collection.

97
. Diane Disney Miller, interview with Hubler, June 11, 1968, BU/RH.

98
. Sharon Disney Brown, interview with Hubler, July 9, 1968, BU/RH.

99
. Sharon Disney Brown, Hubler interview.

100
. Diane Disney Miller, Hubler interview.

101
. Diane Disney Miller, Hubler interview.

102
. Diane Disney Miller, Hubler interview.

103
. Disney was interviewed on the
Vox Pop
program on November 12, 1946, from the premiere of
Song of the South
at the Fox Theater in Atlanta. Recording courtesy of Keith Scott.

104
. “Background on the Uncle Remus Tales,” April 8, 1938; “The Uncle Remus Stories,” April 11, 1938, WDA.

105
. Hee interview.

106
. From “About the Author” on the dust jacket of Dalton Reymond's only novel,
Earthbound
(Chicago, 1948).

107
. Hedda Hopper, “Looking at Hollywood,”
Los Angeles Times
, January 24, 1945, 9; “Potter Sues Disney, Asks $11,000 Salary,”
Hollywood Reporter
, May 2, 1945, 3.

108
. Jackson, 1973 interview.

109
. Jackson, 1976 interview. Jackson spoke of the shooting as taking place at MGM, but that was probably a slip of the tongue: the Disney studio's records show that it took place at the Goldwyn Studio. David R. Smith to author, e-mail, July 17, 2006.

110
. Jackson, 1976 interview.

111
. Roy Disney to Ned E. Depinet, March 29, 1946, RKO.

112
. Depinet to Rathvon, April 25, 1946, RKO.

113
. Tytle,
One of “Walt's Boys,”
57–58.

114
. Walt Disney Productions, 1946 annual report, 9, photocopy, AC. RKO's loan was paid off by 1949, liquidated, as Roy Disney wrote, “entirely from the conversion into dollars of motion picture earnings from twenty-four blocked currency countries.” Walt Disney Productions, 1949 annual report, 5, Jackson Library, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.

115
. Tytle,
One of “Walt's Boys,”
74, 83.

116
. Tytle,
One of “Walt's Boys,”
58.

117
. Joe Grant, 1988 interview.

118
. Jack Kinney, interviews, November 3, 1976, and December 8, 1986.

119
. Eldon Dedini, interview with Gray, January 31, 1977.

120
. Davis, 1976 interview.

121
. Ralph Wright, interview with Gray, February 1, 1977.

122
. Brightman interview.

123
. Hedda Hopper, “Walt Disney Back in Stride,”
Los Angeles Times
, June 30, 1946, AMPAS.

124
. “Disney to Go to Ireland,”
New York Times
, November 20, 1946, 43.

CHAPTER 7
“Caprices and Spurts of Childishness”

1
. The alliance's “statement of principles” was published as a full-page advertisement in both
Daily Variety
and
Hollywood Reporter
on February 7, 1944.

2
. “Leaders of Film Industry Form Anti-Red Group,”
Los Angeles Times
, February 5, 1944, 1; “Film Leaders Form Alliance Against Communism, Fascism,”
Los Angeles Herald-Express
, February 5, 1944, B1; and “The Battle of Hollywood,”
Time
, February 14, 1944, 23.

3
. Maurice Rapf,
Back Lot: Growing Up with the Movies
(Lanham, 1999), 131.

4
. Rapf,
Back Lot
, 140.

5
. Hilberman, 1976 interview.

6
. House Committee on Un-American Activities,
Hearings Regarding the Communist Infiltration of the Motion Picture Industry
, 80th Congress, 1st sess., 1947, 284–85.

7
. Tytle,
One of “Walt's Boys,”
14.

8
. Lillian Disney, Hubler interview.

9
. Sharon Disney Brown, Hubler interview.

10
. Hal Adelquist, story inventory report, May 28, 1947, RKO.

11
. Roy Disney to Rathvon, May 29, 1947, RKO.

12
. Thomas F. Brady, “Hollywood's Mr. Disney,”
New York Times
, July 14, 1946, sec. 2, 1. Hedda Hopper, “Walt Disney Back in Stride,”
Los Angeles Times
, June 30, 1946, said that
How Dear to My Heart
would be “about 90 per cent live action. In that one, Walt will resort to cartoons only when nature can't provide his needs,” AMPAS. According to David R. Smith of the Walt Disney Archives, a script dated December 28, 1945, seems not to allow for animation, but other scripts, from October 1945 and March 9, 1946, clearly do provide for animated inserts, and a budget for the film dated February 25, 1946, includes cartoon sequences. Smith to author, e-mail, October 25, 2005.

13
. The contract, dated June 24, 1946, does not mention
So Dear to My Heart
by name, referring only to “four (4) feature length, colored motion pictures,” but it is clear from 1946 correspondence between RKO and Roy Disney that
So Dear to My Heart
was always envisioned as one of the four, RKO.

14
. Card Walker, interview with Hubler, July 2, 1968, BU/RH.

15
. Leonard Maltin,
The Disney Films
(New York, 1973), 89. Live-action filming for
So Dear to My Heart
began on April 30, 1946, and continued until August 23, 1946. It resumed on February 5, 1947, and continued until March 28, 1947. Filming was at the studio April 30–May 23 and August 6–23, 1946, and in 1947. The rest of
the film was shot on location, primarily at Porterville. David R. Smith to author, e-mail, July 26, 2006.

16
. Bob Thomas, “Disney Talks of Plans,”
Los Angeles Herald-Express
, September 16, 1955, AMPAS.

17
. Those negotiations were reflected in the RKO file labeled “Disney/Special Negotiations” as of 1988, RKO. Bob Thomas,
Walt Disney
, 239 (see ch. 1, n. 40), says that “Hughes tired of running the film company and offered to give it outright to the Disneys, along with a $10,000,000 bank-credit line, but there was a catch: RKO had incurred heavy liabilities during its decline. After a meeting with Hughes to discuss the offer, Walt told Roy, ‘We've already got a studio—why do we need another one?' ” There was no record of such an offer in RKO's Disney-related files in 1988.

18
. Walt Disney Productions, 1947 annual report, 5, RKO.

19
. “Atlas Buys 25,000 Shares of Disney Productions,”
New York Times
, June 16, 1945, 22. In August 1945, preferred shareholders got the opportunity to exchange their shares for debentures and common stock, and most did so. Several years later, though, the Disneys still owned more than half the common stock. Walt Disney Productions, 1951 annual report, 6, Baker.

20
. Roy Disney, June 1968 interview.

21
. A fourteen-page outline by Al Perkins, dated April 20, 1938, is titled “
CINDERELLA
—Outline of a proposed Walt Disney Storybook Version of the Fairy Tale—Story to Be Used as a Basis for a Feature Motion Picture Production,” WDA.

22
. Tytle,
One of “Walt's Boys,”
150.

23
. Adelquist, story inventory report.

24
. Thomas F. Brady, “Walt Disney to Do a Film on Alaska,”
New York Times
, August 12, 1947, 27.

25
. Sharon Disney Brown, Hubler interview.

26
. A. H. Weiler, “By Way of Report,”
New York Times
, April 18, 1948, sec. 2, 5; “Documentary Series of Travelogs for Disney,”
Variety
, April 21, 1948.

27
. Thomas F. Brady, “Hollywood Arms,”
New York Times
, June 6, 1948, sec. 2, 5.

28
. William H. Clark to Gordon E. Youngman, May 13, 1949, RKO.

29
. James Algar, “The Animated Film: Fantasy and Fact,”
The Pacific Spectator
, Winter 1950, 18–19.

30
. Hedda Hopper, “Disney Marches On,”
Chicago Sunday Tribune
, December 26, 1948, AMPAS.

31
. Walt Disney Productions, 1950 annual report, 3, Baker.

32
. Winston Hibler, interview with Hubler, April 30, 1968, WDA.

33
. Thomas,
Walt Disney
, 213.

34
. Johnston, interview with Finch, June 2, 1972, WDA

35
. Michael Broggie,
Walt Disney's Railroad Story
(Pasadena, 1997), 45.

36
. Roger Broggie, interview with Hubler, July 16, 1968, BU/RH.

37
. Lillian Disney, Hubler interview. Disney's deed to the lot, purchased from
Janus Investment Corporation, is recorded in book 27503, p. 279, of Los Angeles County's real estate records. Broggie,
Walt Disney's Railroad Story
, 109, dates the purchase one year later, on June 1, 1949—a particularly unfortunate error, since it throws off the chronology of Disney's rapidly growing interest in railroads in other respects.

38
. Karal Ann Marling, “Imagineering the Disney Theme Parks,” in
Designing Disney's Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance
, ed. Karal Ann Marling (Paris, 1997), 43.

39
. Patrick A. Devlin, who is listed in the program for the pageant as Pat Devlin, in a letter published in the
Arkansas Gazette
(Little Rock), December 31, 1966.

40
. Marling, “Imagineering the Disney Theme Parks,” 43.

41
.
Official Guide Book and Program for the Pageant, “Wheels a-Rolling,”
Chicago Railroad Fair, 1948; the Santa Fe published a thirty-six-page souvenir booklet describing its Indian village, AC.

42
. An extensive excerpt from the memo is reproduced in Broggie,
Walt Disney's Railroad Story
, 88–91.

43
. Roger Broggie, “Walt Disney's The Carolwood-Pacific Railroad,”
The Miniature Locomotive: The Live Steamers Magazine
, May–June 1952, 15; courtesy of Hans Perk.

44
. Diane Disney Miller, Martin interview.

45
. Lloyd Settle, “Railroading with Walt Disney,”
Electric Trains
, December 1951, 18, AC.

46
. Roger Broggie, Hubler interview.

47
. Davis, interview with Hubler, May 21, 1968, BU/RH.

48
. Amy Boothe Green and Howard Green,
Remembering Walt: Favorite Memories of Walt Disney
(New York, 1999), 183.

49
. Sharon Disney Brown, Hubler interview.

50
. Diane Disney Miller, Martin interview.

51
. Johnston, Bob Thomas interview.

52
. Diane Disney Miller, Hubler interview.

53
. Hedda Hopper, “Disney Lives in World of Ageless Fantasy,”
Los Angeles Times
, July 29, 1953, AMPAS.

54
. Broggie, “Walt Disney's The Carolwood-Pacific,” 15.

55
. Lillian Disney, “I Live with a Genius,” 103 (see ch. 2, n. 27).

56
. David R. Smith to author, e-mail, October 31, 2005.

57
. Broggie, “Walt Disney's The Carolwood-Pacific,” 16.

58
. Broggie,
Walt Disney's Railroad Story
, 173.

59
. Starting in its May–June 1953 issue,
Miniature Locomotive
offered (for 35 cents) a catalog that included “everything needed to complete” a copy of Disney's
Lilly Belle
.

60
. Lillian Disney, “I Live with a Genius,” 103. “Walt Disney's Barn” was eventually moved to Griffith Park in Los Angeles, where it is open to tourists once a month.

61
. Roger Broggie, Hubler interview.

62
. Green and Green,
Remembering Walt
, 33.

63
. Roger Broggie, Hubler interview.

64
. Lillian Disney, “I Live with a Genius,” 103.

65
. Roger Broggie, Hubler interview.

66
. Johnston, interview with Finch and Linda Rosenkrantz, June 2, 1972, WDA.

67
. Transcript of meeting, “Discussion of New Studio Unit Set-Up,” October 24, 1938, WDA.

68
. Frank Thomas, interview with Bob Thomas, May 19, 1973, WDA.

69
. Thomas and Johnston,
The Illusion of Life
, 331.