SF Silent Film Festival to Screen Rare Laugh-O-grams July 16

Disney historian and author J.B . Kaufman will introduce six of Walt Disney’s first cartoons—including two recently discovered and restored by New York’s Museum of Modern Art—at July’s Silent Film Festival at San Francisco’s legendary Castro Theatre, July 16, 2011, courtesy of The Walt Disney Family Museum and MOMA. Walt’s first company, Kansas City-based Laugh-O-gram Films, created black and white animated silent shorts based on classic fairytales.

Jack the Giant Killer and Goldie Locks and the Three Bears, created in 1922, were re-discovered in 2010, having been mislabeled and languishing in MOMA archives for decades. Carefully restored, they will be screened along with Little Red Riding Hood (Walt’s first narrative cartoon), The Four Musicians of Bremen, both from 1922, and the Newman Laugh-O-grams, a sample reel created in 1921 to sell a topical cartoon series. Despite Walt’s dedication to Laugh-O-gram Films, his company declared bankruptcy in July 1923, prompting the 21-year-old to move to Hollywood, CA.

The Laugh-O-gram films will be screened with musical accompaniment from the theatre’s Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ. 

For tickets and more information, please visit: http://www.castrotheatre.com/tickets.html.

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is a nonprofit organization promoting the artistic, cultural, and historic value of silent film; committed to the belief that the best way to truly appreciate the power and beauty of a silent film is by seeing it as it was meant to be seen: on the big screen with live musical accompaniment. For fifteen years, SFSFF has hand-selected the finest 35mm prints, engaged leading musicians to compose and perform live era-authentic musical scores, and invited filmmakers, authors, stars, archivists, and scholars to provide context and commentary for each film. http://www.silentfilm.org/

The Castro Theatre was built in 1922 by pioneer San Francisco theatre entrepreneurs, the Nasser brothers, who started with a nickelodeon in 1908 in the Castro neighborhood. Built at a cost of $300,000, The Castro's designer was Timothy L. Pflueger (1894-1946), who gained great fame as a Bay Area architect. In 1977, the Castro was designated City of San Francisco registered landmark number 100. It is one of the few remaining movie palaces in the nation from the 1920s that is still in operation. http://www.castrotheatre.com/

J.B. Kaufman is a writer and film historian on the staff of the Walt Disney Family Foundation, and has published extensively on topics including Disney animation and American silent film. He is author of South of the Border with Disney and co-author, with Russell Merritt, of Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney and Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series. He has also contributed to the Griffith Project and other series at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, Italy.

THE FAUNTELROY FOLLIES: The Continuing History of Donald Duck

In light of the Donald Duck Contest we held last month, Disney Historian Paul Anderson has uncovered new information about our favorite duck's middle name that will have you quacking "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!" 

May I be the first to congratulate all the Trivia Scholars that successfully answered the three Donald Duck questions. I think Donald’s middle name is one of the perennial Top Ten Disney trivia questions of all time, as it routinely shows up in contests (for many decades now). All I can surmise from this is that there must be a great deal of interest in the fine-feathered fowl’s middle name.

As a Disney historian, I wanted to share a little bit about the origins of the name as well as a previously unpublished and unknown anecdote. Yes, this is not your dad’s Walt Disney history, this is brand new, breaking news right here and now on Storyboard (alert the media!).

As you glorious, gifted masters of minutiae winners know, the answer to this trivia question comes from the short film Donald Gets Drafted (1942). It is in this cinematic achievement that we first see the name “Fauntleroy” as it is manifest on Donald’s Order to Report for Induction. It has always been suggested that the name had its origins from the 1886 book Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett. A Fauntelroy garment often consisted of a sailor suit and hat, and Little Lord Fauntleroy himself was a well-known spoiled brat (does this sound like somebody we know?).

I recently came across a story transcript from the film Donald Gets Drafted from April 9, 1941. In attendance at this meeting were Walt Disney and a handful of storymen. Early on in the discussion Walt comes up with the idea of zooming in on Donald’s draft notice and showing the particulars.  Walt declares: “Could we come down on this draft paper and it says ...” And now, here, for the first time, we hear Walt’s idea for Donald’s middle name ... (drum roll please), it is “something funny.” Okay, I know, that’s not funny. It’s not a name, but Walt throwing out a suggestion to his storymen. Storyman Harry Reeves states that it should be “Donald Swansdown Duck,” to which Walt replies, “it ought to be some dopey, silly name.” And there it is left. So now you know, the very first ever incarnation of Donald’s middle name is: Swansdown! It is just one more, small piece of Donald S. Duck’s celebrated history.

Of particular interest to Donald Duck fans, is that also present at the story meeting was Carl Barks, who, of course, became Donald Duck’s best pal and champion (along with Clarence “Ducky” Nash and Tony Anselmo!). Carl did not suggest a middle moniker for Donald, which is unusual because he was legendary when it came to creative and imaginative character names for his comic book stories. So making the leap of faith that Walt’s storymen were well known for stashing unused ideas for future use, and Carl was in the meeting, we discover that Barks  did just that! In his Donald Duck story for the April 1946 issue of Walt Disney Comics and Stories #67, we find a flirtatious Donald with a “Miss Swansdown-Swoonsudden.” Coincidence? I think so! But a cool story, nonetheless!

Congratulations to Jessica Peterson who was drawn at random to win a personal audio birthday message from Tony Anselmo. A round of applause to all who participated in the contest and knew that Donald's birthday was June 9, 1934, Clarence Nash was the first person to voice The Duck, and Donald's middle name is indeed Fauntleroy!

Creepy Stuff from Our Collection

Just in time for the creepiest of holidays, we asked our Preparator, Ben Peters, to give us a look at some of the more creepier artifacts in our Collection.

As a general rule, my favorite parts of Disney films are the scary scenes and of the characters, I generally prefer the villains.  My coworkers always call me over when they pull out an artifact that is especially sinister looking because they know I will love it.  So for this Halloween blog I’ve chosen to share just a few of the more creepy artifacts in our collection. Happy Halloween!

 

This piece by Sam Armstrong for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) is a favorite of ours in the Collection Department. Armstrong has captured a very quiet but utterly creepy mood. The witch is definitely on an evil mission.

 

This cel set up from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) is a great example of the skill the Disney artists had in conveying emotion in even just one frame of film.  There is no mistaking the look of terror on Snow White’s face as she runs for her life.

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