November 25 - Aladdin

On this day, in 1992, Walt Disney Pictures' 31st animated feature, Aladdin, was released in theaters. Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, Aladdin is the fourth film to be released during Disney's Renaissance period. Ron and John have directed seven Disney animated features together including The Little Mermaid, Hercules and Moana.

Based on the stories from the Arabic folktale One Thousand and One Nights, Aladdin tells the story of a street rat who proves his worth and marries the princess with the help of a genie. The idea for the film originated in 1988 with lyricist Howard Ashman, who wrote a big story treatment, complete with several songs. The studio said no thanks. Later, during production on Beauty and the Beast, the project was partially revived and a new script written. Ron and John then came on board when they chose Aladdin as their next film, passing on a version of Swan Lake and what would eventually become The Lion King. In April of 1991, they showed Jeffrey Katzenberg a third script they'd written. He hated it, demanded a complete rewrite and told them that their release date in November 1992 wasn't changing. Luckily, by October of 1991, a script had been decided on and the production could barrel forward.

Image copyright Disney

Except, a good chunk of the script wasn't ever written down. When Ron and John conceived the character of the Genie, they'd always had Robin Williams in mind for it. Katzenberg tried to suggest John Candy, Steve Martin or Eddie Murphy, but the directors prevailed and Robin accepted the role. Not only did he accept, but he agreed to do it for scale pay, $75,000, instead of his current rate of 8 million, mostly as a thank you for the success of Good Morning Vietnam. His only conditions: the Genie couldn't be used for marketing purposes and couldn't take up more than 25% of the space in the film's advertising. Disney reneged on both conditions, causing a rift with Robin that wouldn't be healed until well after Katzenberg left the company. Luckily, all of Robin's almost entirely ad libbed dialogue for the Genie had already been recorded.

Image copyright Disney

Because let's be honest, the Genie is what really makes Aladdin (even if some of the references in it now feel pretty dated). The wildness of Robin's improvisations not only kept the animators on their toes but have made audiences crack up ever since. And since Robin was gifted at projecting sincerity and basic human decency as well, the Genie gives the movie its heart, too. Not that I'm trying to detract from the other voice actors in the film. If the only good thing in Aladdin was the Genie, the movie would have bombed horribly. The rest of the ensemble was marvelous, it's just that the first thing people remember about the movie is the crazy blue guy.

Whatever the cause, Aladdin was a huge success. It became the first animated film to gross over half a billion dollars. Funnily enough, it debuted in the number two slot behind Home Alone 2 with just over 19 million in ticket sales. It didn't become the number one film until its eighth week out and would be number one for five weeks out of its 22 week run.

Image copyright Disney

When awards time rolled around, Aladdin was showered with mentions. It was nominated for five Oscars (two of those for Best Song), winning Best Original Score and Best Original Song (A Whole New World). The Golden Globes smiled on Aladdin with Best Score, Song and a special award for Robin as well as a nomination for Best Picture. It also won an Annie Award, three Saturn Awards, four Grammy Awards and several others.

As much as I enjoy Aladdin, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the negative reactions to the film, especially from the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee. The ADC's first objection was about the way Aladdin and Jasmine are portrayed as opposed to the rest of the cast. The two main characters are decidedly a whole lot more white than everyone else and are presented as being more sophisticated than most of the other characters. It's a fair point but not one that much can be done about. The change the ADC could bring about was through its objection to one of the lyrics in the movie's opening song. The original line from Arabian Nights was "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face." For the home video release (and the Broadway show) the line was changed to "Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense." My only problem with this lyric change is that the next line was left intact "It's barbaric, but, hey, it's home." In my opinion, the revised line doesn't flow with that and both lines should have been changed.

November 24 - Billy Connolly

On this day, in 1942, Sir William Connolly was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His family lived in a two room flat until he was four. At that time, with his father off fighting in Burma with the Royal Air Force, his mother ran off with another man and Billy and his sister moved in with two of their aunts. When his father returned from war, Billy would suffer years of abuse at his hands. He can remember making the decision that he wanted to spend his life making people laugh after falling in a puddle at the age of 8 and hearing the sound he rarely heard at home. It's clearly an understatement to say that Billy's childhood was rubbish.

When Billy left school at the age of 15, he took two engineering qualifications with him (although one of them was given to him by mistake). When he turned 16, he began an apprenticeship with a welding shop as a boilermaker. His term ended when he was 21 and he would stay on at the shop for another year. By the time he was 24, Billy would have sparked his last weld in favor of a career in entertainment.

After watching an episode of the Beverly Hillbillies, Billy bought himself a banjo and decided to focus on being a folk singer. He joined forces with a man named Tam Harvey, creating a duo called the Humblebums. Eventually they were joined by a third bloke, released a record, lost the third bloke, released two more records and broke up. The records were critical, if not particularly financial, successes. Following the end of the Humblebums, Billy tried starting a solo career, but the comical introductions to his songs kept getting longer and longer. Finally, his record producer suggested that he forgo singing for a career in comedy.

In 1972, Billy made both his theatrical debut (in a revue titled Connolly's Glasgow Flourish) and his first solo album, Billy Connolly Live! The following year, his next album, Solo Concert, made him famous throughout Britain. Throughout the rest of the Seventies, Billy would continue to build on that fame and export his name to other countries, like New Zealand and Canada. A brief tour in the US as the opening act for Elton John, however, only proved that Americans for the most part can't understand a Scottish accent.

During the Eighties, Billy would continue his stand up, appear in multiple films, show up regularly on British television, promote all sorts of charitable causes and nearly drink himself to death. His first marriage ended after 16 years in the first part of the decade. In the middle of the decade, he became a teetotaler. By the end, his second marriage had begun (and continues to this day).

In the Nineties, Billy would finally gain fame in America. After starring in an HBO special with Whoopi Goldberg, he would replace Howard Hesseman as the teacher on the ABC sitcom Head of the Class for the final season. A couple of world tours and multiple part BBC specials would help round out the decade.

Billy became part of the Disney family in 1995 as the voice of Ben, a shipmate of John Smith, in Pocahontas. The following year, he narrated Muppet Treasure Island as Billy Bones. His third Disney role came sixteen years later when he headed up the Scot heavy cast of 2012's Brave as the singing patriarch King Fergus.

For the better part of the 21st century (the better part of what's happened so far), Billy has continued to make both comedic and dramatic appearances on television, the silver screen (The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies) and more stand-up tours. Along the way, he's won a BAFTA award, gotten a Screen Actor's Guild nomination, become a member of the Order of the British Empire, been declared the top comedian by BBC's Channel Four (twice) and been fully knighted. Six years ago, he revealed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. Earlier this year, he announced his retirement from touring at an exhibition of his art in his new home in Florida. Whether or not we'll see any more spectacular performances from the funnyman will depend entirely on how his disease progresses. With any luck, Billy has more than a few left in him.

November 23 - Fred Moore

On this day, in 1952, animator Fred Moore passed away in Los Angeles, California following complications as a result of a car accident the day before. Born in the same city on September 7, 1911, Fred had very little formal training as an artist. He attended a handful of art classes at the famous Chouinard Art Institute, which he paid for by bartering janitorial services, but the rest was all natural talent. Shortly after graduating from Polytechnic High School, Fred took advantage of the situation when a friend of his had to bail on a job interview at the Walt Disney Studios. The then 19 year old went to apply instead and got the job.

Fred started out in the Shorts Department (mainly because the Features department wouldn't exist for several more years). He became an expert at drawing the studios scrappy little mouse. He was also the main animator for the Silly Symphony of The Three Little Pigs. Walt's comment after seeing the finished Pigs was "at last, we have achieved true personality in a whole picture." The picture won the Oscar for Best Animated Short in 1934. Fred would work on over 35 shorts, earning another Oscar and an additional Oscar nomination in the process.

Image copyright Disney

Shortly after the release of The Three Little Pigs, Walt put Fred in charge of another group of characters, the dwarfs from the studio's first animated feature. Fellow animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston once declared that the dwarfs were Fred's crowning achievement saying "in the public's eye there have been no more memorable characters than the dwarfs." Fred would continue to contribute to features with the characters of Lampwick in Pinocchio (generally considered to be a self portrait), Timothy Q. Mouse in Dumbo, some of the scenes with the mice in Cinderella, the oysters in Alice in Wonderland and the mermaids in Peter Pan.

Image copyright Disney

Contrary to Frank and Ollie's assertion about the dwarfs, I think Fred's biggest, longest lasting contribution to Disney was the redesign of Mickey Mouse for 1940's Fantasia. He did principal animation for Mickey on the short Brave Little Tailor, which was the last time the mouse appeared as a "pie-eyed" character. For Fantasia, the biggest change Fred gave Mickey was actual pupils in his eyes, something that made the character exponentially more expressive. He also made Mickey's body more pear shaped than round and changed his skin tone from white to be more Caucasian. Not much has changed for Mickey since then other than his fashion sense.

Photo taken from traditionalanimation.com

One of Fred's other legacies are the sketches he would do of young ladies. Sometimes they were nude, sometimes (at least partially) clothed but they were always in humorous poses. Other animators were constantly asking Fred for drawings of his girls and they even influenced the looks of the centaurettes in Fantasia and Casey's daughters in the short Casey at the Bat, among others.  His unique design eventually became a class of its own known as a Freddie Moore Girl. Animators still refer to that look today.

Fred left the Disney studio for two years in the late Forties to work for Walter Lantz's studio, where he helped redesign another iconic character, Woody Woodpecker. His life would be tragically cut short during work on Peter Pan when he and his second wife, Virginia, were in a head-on collision returning from a football game in November 1952. Fred would survive long enough to make it to St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank, across the street from the Disney studio. 14 years later, Walt would pass away in the same building. For all of his genius at the drawing board, Fred would be given the Winsor McCay Award in 1983 and be made an official Disney Legend in 1995.

November 22 - Toy Story

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On this day, in 1995, Pixar Animation Studios, in partnership with Walt Disney Pictures, generally released its first feature film, Toy Story. Not only is the movie a first for Pixar, it is also the first feature film to be completely computer animated.

Toy Story is directed by one of Pixar's founders, John Lasseter. John's first encounter with computer animation was with the Disney company when he worked on Tron. He became completely enthralled with the new medium and suggested that The Brave Little Toaster be done using it exclusively. Disney disagreed and fired him. John then spent some time at LucasFilm before co-founding Pixar. In 1988, he produced a short, Tin Toy, in order to show off the capabilities of a computer his company had developed, the Pixar Image Computer. Tin Toy would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short. From that point forward, Pixar stopped trying to sell computers (which, while really advanced for the time were not flying off the shelves) and began creating animation in earnest. Disney took notice of Tin Toy's success and tried to lure John back into the fold. He decided to stay with Pixar and inked a distribution deal with Disney instead.

Image copyright Disney

The original script of Toy Story looked nothing like the final film. There was a character named Woody, but he was an evil ventriloquist doll who was paired with Tinny from Tin Toy. Other than the name Woody, the only thing to survive from that first treatment was the conviction that the movie would center around the fact that a toy's deepest desire was to be played with by a child and how that desire affected their entire existence. The film's production also suffered under the interfering of Jeffrey Katzenberg, then chairman of the studio. Jeffrey's insistence that the characters be more and more edgy (Tom Hanks complained at one point that Woody had turned into a jerk) and that tons of adult references be included actually caused the whole process to grind to a halt. A three month recess was called while the script was reworked into the final product.

Image copyright Disney

The result was phenomenal. Starring Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, both in their first animated roles, the buddy film was the highest grossing movie its opening weekend (and the next two). Made on a budget of 30 million dollars, Toy Story would take in over 370 million making it the highest grossing film of the year. Universally acclaimed, it would not only give a boost of enthusiasm to animation in general (and forecast the doom of hand-drawn films) but would establish Pixar as a powerhouse studio. Toy Story would win a Special Achievement Oscar, be nominated for three other Oscars (Best Song, Best Score and Best Original Screenplay), garner two Golden Globe nominations and win eight Annies. Two sequels followed, both of which were considered as good as (or even better than) the original, as well as several shorts and television specials. Attractions based on the franchise abound at Disney parks all around the world. A fourth Toy Story movie will be released in the summer of 2019. Only time will tell if it is a worthy successor.

November 21 - The Timekeeper

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On this day, in 1994, the Circle-Vision 360 movie known in the United States first as From Time to Time, and later as The Timekeeper, opened in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom. It had debuted two years earlier at Disneyland Paris, making it one of the few attractions in an American park that originated outside of America. Timekeeper was the first time that a Circle-Vision movie was given an actual plot. Previous films had just been flyovers of various landscapes. It was also the first movie to involve something other than just screens with the inclusion of an Audio-Animatronic figure in the theater.

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The US version of The Timekeeper starred Robin Williams as the title android, and the inventor of a time machine, and Rhea Perlman as Nine-Eye, another of the Timekeeper's inventions. The plot revolved around the Timekeeper showing off his time machine by sending Nine-Eye throughout time and having her send back images of whenever she landed. The science on how that worked in real time was understandably fuzzy. Along the way, Nine-Eye bumps into such luminaries as Leonardo Da Vinci, Mozart and Jules Verne, who is accidentally transported to the present day. Hilarity ensues as Verne tries to cope with modern gadgets and is finally returned to his proper place in history. The show ended with a trip to 2189 for a look at the future (spoiler: it includes flying cars).

Image copyright Disney

The film was only a moderate success at best. By early 2001 it was already only opening on a sporadic, seasonal schedule. The Disneyland Paris version closed in 2004 and a Tokyo Disneyland version closed in 2002. Interestingly, both of those versions would be replaced by Buzz Lightyear attractions. The Magic Kingdom's version would limp along until February 26, 2006 when it would finally stop showing for good. A year later the location would reopen as the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. If you pay close attention when you're in the theater now days, you can still see some of the Circle-Vision screens hiding behind Laugh Floor set pieces.

September 20 - Samuel E. Wright

Photo courtesy of imdb.com

On this day, in 1946, Samuel E. Wright was born in Camden, South Carolina. He is best known for his work with the Walt Disney Company. His biggest role came in 1989 in The Little Mermaid as Horatio Ignatius Crustaceus Sebastian, a crab from Jamaica with a Trinidadian accent (Samuel nailed his audition but apparently couldn’t do Jamaican). Samuel’s energy and enthusiasm helped propel Sebastian’s signature song “Under the Sea” to an Academy Award win for Best Song. Like his co-star, Jodi Benson, he then spent the next couple of decades reprising Sebastian for everything from The Little Mermaid II to the animated television series to video games.

Photo copyright Disney

In 1998, Samuel changed things up a bit by originating the role Mufasa in the Broadway version of The Lion King. Bringing his usual vigor to the role paid off when he was nominated for a Tony Award for Featured Actor in a Musical (he lost to Ron Rifkin for Cabaret). He would also appear in 2000’s Dinosaur as the voice of Kron the Iguanodon.

Photo copyright Disney

Outside of Disney, Samuel appeared in a number of films and Broadway shows. The highlight of his silver screen work is probably as Dizzy Gillespie in the 1988 biopic Bird. On stage, he was in the forgettable (the short lived Welcome to the Club with future co-star, Jodi Benson) and the incredible (another Tony nomination for The Tap Dance Kid in 1984). He also originated the role of Sam in Over Here!

A number of years ago, Samuel retired from acting and settled down in New York City.

November 19 - Eleanor Audley

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On this day, in 1905, Eleanor Zellman was born in New York City, New York. Not much is known about her birth or her early life. What we do know is that at the age of 20 she made her Broadway debut in 1926’s Howdy, King, changing her name to Eleanor Audley. For the remainder of the Twenties and all of the Thirties, Eleanor regularly appeared on stage in such shows as 1933’s Pigeons and People, 1934’s Ladies’ Money and 1937’s Susan and God. She made the transition to radio in the Forties, with recurring roles on My Favorite Husband, The Story of Dr. Kildare and Father Knows Best. She even played Cinderella’s stepmother for Hallmark Playhouse.

Photo copyright Disney 

Eleanor’s film career began in 1950 with Three Secrets and Gambling House as she continued her tradition of playing rather snobbish and overbearing characters. Just four years later she would roll onto the small screen, showing up on shows ranging from I Love Lucy to Perry Mason to Mister Ed. Her most famous television role was on Green Acres as Eddie Albert’s disapproving mother, a bit of a stretch since she was only five years older than Eddie.

Photo copyright Disney

Eleanor made three fabulous contributions to the Disney family. She first played Lady Tremaine in Cinderella. It wasn’t exactly a reprisal of her radio effort in the same role but the earlier production probably helped. She next turned up the villain dial as Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty. For both of the evil ladies, Eleanor was not only filmed as the live-action model for the characters but the animators designed their looks to closely resemble her. For her third Disney role, Eleanor went less overtly evil as the voice of Madame Leota in the Haunted Mansion.

Eleanor passed away on November 25, 1991 in North Hollywood, California from respiratory failure. She was 86.

November 17 - Les Clark

On this day, in 1907, Leslie James Clark was born in Ogden, Utah. Les and his family moved from Utah to Idaho before finally settling in Los Angles, California. He attended Venice High School and had a job in a local ice cream shop where he had hand lettered all the menus. There were two brothers, by the name of Walt and Roy, who frequented the shop and had complimented Les on his menus. Les finally worked himself up to asking Walt for a job. Walt asked for more examples, Les showed him some and Walt said Nice lines, show up for work on Monday. And just like that, the first of what would become Walt's Nine Old Men had joined the studio.

Photo borrowed from moma.org

Les' temporary position began in the Ink and Paint Department. He would also occasionally operate the camera. He eventually started working under Ub Iwerks and had become an accomplished in-betweener by the time the studio was developing a new mousy character. Les helped animate Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie and, after Ub left the company, would become the expert on drawing the cornerstone character of the studio. He refused to rest on his laurels, however, and continuously took art classes in an effort to hone his talent.

When it came time to launch the Silly Symphony series, Les was an integral part of the team, animating the iconic dance of The Skeleton Dance. He would continue his fancy footwork when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was in production as the animator charged with making the dwarfs dance with Snow White. For the next few decades, Les would have a hand in every major animation project the studio did. From Pinocchio to Make Mine Music, he was a lead animator. Starting with Song of the South, he began to fill the directing animator role and did so on Fun and Fancy Free, Melody Time, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp. Les was a sequence director on Sleeping Beauty and contributed to 101 Dalmatians.

Photo lifted from exploratorium.edu

After the completion of Sleeping Beauty, Walt asked Les to transition into a new role as the director of special projects for the burgeoning television department and the educational films the studio was beginning to produce. Les spent the final two decades of his career with Disney creating things like Donald in Mathmagic Land, Donald's Fire Survival Plan and shorts on topics as varied as The Social Side of Health and one called VD Attack Plan.

After 48 years of making magic with Disney, Les retired in 1976. Just a few years later, he would pass away from cancer on September 12, 1979 in Santa Barbara, California. For his immense body of work, the plucky Venice soda jerk would become an official Disney Legend alongside his fellow Nine Old Men and his one-time mentor Ub Iwerks in 1989.

November 16 - The Rescuers Down Under

Photo lifted from imbd.com

On this day, in 1990, Walt Disney Pictures' 29th animated feature, The Rescuers Down Under, opened in theaters. The movie was the second film released during the so called Disney Renaissance, but is rarely seen as being on par with the pictures surrounding it. The Rescuers Down Under is notable for a number of reasons, though. It was the first time a sequel to a Disney animated movie had been produced. It was the first film to be done entirely using the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS). This means it was the first completely digital Disney animated feature. Everything was still hand drawn, but it was scanned into a computer to be inked, painted and sequenced. No cameras were used in the production. Down Under was also the first Disney movie since Bambi to promote the environment and advocate for animal rights.

The Rescuers Down Under faced an uphill battle from its conception. America went crazy for movies either set in Australia or featuring Australians after the success of Crocodile Dundee in 1986. Unfortunately, by the time this movie opened, the craze had pretty much disappeared. Couple that with the fact that it premiered the same weekend as Home Alone and it's not hard to see why it had to fight for every dollar of 3.5 million it opened with. The studio was so disappointed, Jeffrey Katzenberg killed all further advertising and let the movie limp along to a 27.9 million dollar finish. The fact that Down Under was also a non-musical (and not just in that characters didn't sing songs but that there were no songs period) didn't help, especially coming after The Little Mermaid.

Photo courtesy of villains.wikia.com

The critical reception wasn't actually too bad. Most reviewers agreed that the story was nothing special but was still an improvement over the original film. They generally liked the production values, especially the action sequences and thought the voice talent was good. Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor, in her final film role, reprised their roles. George C. Scott was brought in as the villain McLeach and John Candy replaced the late Jim Jordan as the flying albatross.

The company's disappointment with The Rescuers Down Under, however, has continued in the handling of the film in the home video market. The first release on VHS saw the original film being included in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection, but not Down Under. It did make it into the Gold Classic Collection for the DVD release, but by the time Blu-ray came along, Down Under would get tacked on to the same box as its older sibling.  It apparently wasn't worth getting its own packaging. The lasting legacy of this, like it or not, mostly forgotten movie, is that sequels can be economically viable.

November 15 - Ed Asner

Picture courtesy of wikia.com

On this day, in 1929, Yitzhak Edward Asner was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Ed graduated from Wyandotte High School in Kansas City and moved north for college, attending the University of Chicago. After a short stint working a factory job for General Motors, Ed joined the United States Army Signal Corps. It was during this time that he was bitten by the acting bug and appeared in several plays that toured around the Army camps in Europe entertaining the troops.

Upon leaving the military, Ed briefly joined the Playwrights Theatre Company in Chicago before moving to New York. He would occasionally return to the Windy City to appear with the successor to Playwrights, The Second City. In New York, Ed got roles in such off-Broadway shows as a revival of Threepenny Opera until 1960, when he made his on Broadway debut in Face of a Hero with Jack Lemmon. Hero ran for a total of 36 performances.

Picture grabbed from metv.com

Ed made his television debut in 1957 on CBS in an anthology series called Studio One. Throughout the rest of the Fifties and the Sixties, he would make guest appearances on a variety of shows. Sometimes it was sci-fi like The Invaders or Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Sometimes it was dramas like Route 66 or Mr. Novak. Frequently it was other anthology shows like The Outer Limits and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. 

Ed's days of bouncing from role to role took a break in 1970 when he landed a steady gig as Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. For the next seven years he gave Mary Richards hell for having too much spunk, winning three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy. When that show wrapped, Ed did something unprecedented in the history of television. His character received a spin-off titled Lou Grant, not that unusual except that the new show was an hour long drama instead of a half hour comedy. The unprecedented part is that Ed would go on to win two more Emmy Awards, this time for Lead Actor in a Drama. He became the first person to ever win Emmys for both comedy and drama playing the same character (in the forty years since only one other person has managed that feat, Uzo Aduba for Orange Is the New Black). Ed would later win two more Emmys, one for his role in Roots and another for his role in Rich Man, Poor Man making him the most decorated performer in Emmy history with seven total wins.

Picture stolen from fanpop.com

Ed is no stranger to the big screen either. One of his first films was an uncredited role in the 1962 Elvis Presley movie Kid Galahad. Dozens of other roles followed including parts in They Call Me Mr. Tibbs with Sidney Poitier, Fort Apache, The Bronx with Paul Newman and Oliver Stone's JFK. His most enduring film role is probably as Santa Clause in 2003's Christmas Classic Elf.

Ed has done a number of roles for the Walt Disney Company, mostly as voice work for animated characters. For those who remember the series Gargoyles, he was the voice of Hudson for 39 episodes. He voiced Evil Georgie in a 1994 episode of Dinosaurs and various voices for Recess, Hercules, and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. Ed made live action appearances in the 1976 movie Gus and and an episode of Disneyland. His biggest contribution to the Disney family was as one of my favorite characters of all time, Carl Fredricksen in 2009's Up. I wholeheartedly agree with the critic who felt a new Oscar category should have been created for Vocal Acting just so it could have been given to Ed.

Picture lifted from geeks.media

Outside of acting, Ed has been highly active in politics and charity work. He was a two term president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1981-85. He endorsed Barack Obama for US President and regularly endorses candidates to lesser offices. He serves on the boards of The Survivor Mitzvah Project (providing aid to holocaust survivors in Europe), the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife and a non-profit school for kids with autism, Exceptional Minds (both his son and a grandson are autistic).

November 14 - Brian Keith

Picture borrowed from startrek.com

On this day, in 1921, Robert Alba Keith was born in Bayonne, New Jersey. The son of Robert Keith and Helena Shipman, both actors, his full name could also be Brian Robert Keith, depending on which source you consult. At any rate his professional name was Brian Keith and his career started shortly after his parents divorced when he was two.

When I say his career started, I mean he made an appearance in a silent film, Pied Piper Malone, at the age of three. He would then take a break for a couple of decades. His mother acted on stage and radio in New York while Brian was raised by his grandmother on Long Island. After graduating from East Rockaway High School in 1939, he joined the United States Marine Corps and served as an air gunner during World War II for which he earned an Air Medal.

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

Following the war, Brian picked up his acting career with small roles on the stage and radio. In 1952, he branched out into television making his debut on an anthology series called Tales of Tomorrow. All kinds of parts followed on everything from The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse to The Adventures of Ellery Queen. In 1955, Brian landed his own show, Crusader, where he played Matt Anders, a journalist who tries to free people stuck in communist countries. It ran for two seasons. For the rest of the Fifties and into the Sixties, he had guest roles on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Rawhide, The Fugitive, 77 Sunset Strip and dozens of other shows.

Brian had also had a variety of roles in movies during the same era, many in film noir genre, including one, Fourteen Hours, with his father. Brian's rugged good looks also made him good for Westerns and he starred in his share of those as well, including Arrowhead with Charlton Heston, The Violent Men with Glenn Ford and Sam Peckinpah's The Deadly Companions.

Picture grabbed from BasementRejects.com

Brian's first film with Disney was Ten Who Dared in 1960, as William Dunn, one of a group of men mapping the Colorado River in 1869. He's probably best known for his next role with the studio, Mitch Evers, the father of Hayley Mills and ex of Maureen O'Hara in 1961's The Parent Trap. He then portrayed Major General Vannerman in the sci-fi comedy Moon Pilot, Uncle Beck Coates in Savage Sam, the 1963 sequel to Old Yeller, and Sheriff Pete Williams in A Tiger Walks with Vera Mills. Brian's final role with Disney was as Cam Calloway in Those Calloways, with Ed Wynn and, again, Vera Mills.

Picture lifted from EmbarrassingTreasures.com

While Brian would continue to appear in dozens of films throughout the rest of his life, his biggest success would come on the small screen. In 1966, he nabbed the role of Uncle Bill Davis on the CBS sitcom Family Affair, which starred another Disney regular, Sebastian Cabot. Brian would earn three Emmy nominations during the shows five year run and become a household name. In 1973, he would get a show named after him, The Brian Keith Show, which would run on NBC for two seasons. His final major television role would be Milton C. Hardcastle on the ABC crime dramedy Hardcastle and McCormick. That show started in 1983 and ran for three seasons.

After several decades of success, Brian's life would end with decidedly tragic notes. In April of 1997, one of his daughters, Daisy, would commit suicide. Two months later, on June 24, 1997, Brian would be found in his Malibu, California home, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His frequent co-star Maureen O'Hara believed that his death was accidental but he was known to be suffering from emphysema and depression and may have been facing financial problems. Brian was cremated and laid to rest next to his daughter, Daisy, at Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles. He was 75.

November 13 - Beauty and the Beast

On this day, in 1991, Walt Disney Picture's 30th animated feature, Beauty and the Beast, was released at the El Capitan Theatre. The movie had kind of had a premier a month and a half earlier at the New York Film Festival, it just wasn't finished yet. Even the roughly animated sequences were pretty impressive, though. Based on a French fairy tale by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (try saying that five times fast), Beast is the third film of the Disney Renaissance and considered by some to be the pinnacle of modern Disney animation (I'm biased towards The Lion King for that title, but I do think Beast is a very close second).

When Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs successfully proved that audiences were willing to sit through a feature length cartoon, Walt began looking around for other stories to animate. One of the ones that looked promising was the tale of Beauty and the Beast. The Disney writers wrestled with the story throughout the Thirties and even into the Fifties before deciding it was too difficult to adapt. To complicate matters, French director Jean Cocteau released a now classic version of the story in 1946. Plans for a Disney version ended up being shelved, where they gathered dust for decades.

In the late Eighties, after the making of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Disney had a new animation group in England that needed a new project to work on. Beauty and the Beast was dusted off and put into production as a non-musical. When Jeffrey Katzenberg, then chairman of the studio, saw an early storyboard treatment in 1989, the kindest thing he could say was throw it all away and let's start over. With the success of The Little Mermaid, Jeffrey declared that the new Beast would be a musical and put Alan Menken and Howard Ashman on the job. He wanted the directors of Mermaid, Ron Clements and John Musker, to lead the group again but they were too worn out to accept. Believe it or not, the studio then turned to two guys who had never directed a feature film before, Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale. What Kirk and Gary had done was direct a little attraction for Epcot called Cranium Command.

Initially, the studio considered casting Jodi Benson, who helped make The Little Mermaid such a success, as Belle. They quickly decided, however, that this Disney heroine needed to sound more like a grown woman than a teenager and looked at over 500 actresses for the role. Howard Ashman, who was also an executive producer on the film, favored an actress featured on the cast recording of Show Boat and Broadway stalwart Paige O'Hara was given the part. To add some tragedy to the proceedings, Howard learned that he was dying from AIDS and so the pre-production hub moved from London to New York to accommodate his failing health. He would never get to see a finished film as he passed away eight months before Beast's release.

Most of the animation was done at the main studio in California although some was produced at the Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, specifically the "Be Our Guest" scene. Beast is the second movie, after The Rescuers Down Under, that was done using the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS), a digital process of scanning and inking drawings that allowed for greater depth and a more colorful finished product then the xerography technique the studio had used since the early Sixties. The music was mostly recorded with the actors singing at the same the orchestra played, instead of the usual practice of having the voice talent sing to a recording, thus giving Alan and Howard's songs a big boost of energy. And talk about voice talent. In addition to Paige, the cast includes Robby Benson, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers, Jo Anne Worley, Tony Jay, Richard White and Disney Legend Angela Lansbury.

Upon its release, Beauty and the Beast was a massive success. It was the first animated film to gross 100 million dollars in North America and grossed over 350 million worldwide. Beast was universally acclaimed by critics and still boasts a rare A+ rating from audiences today. It became the first animated film to win the Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy. When Oscar time rolled around, Beast garnered six nominations: three for Best Song ("Beauty and the Beast" would win), Best Original Score (also a win), Best Sound and, another first for an animated movie, Best Picture. It would also win several Grammy Awards, including one for Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson's pop version of "Beauty and the Beast." Beast was added to the National Film Registry in 2002.

Since 1991, Beauty and the Beast has spawned all manner of offspring. A hit Broadway musical opened in 1994 and ran for 13 years. Some version of that show is still running somewhere in the world. There have been several direct-to-video sequels, the most successful of which was The Enchanted Christmas. Multiple shows have appeared over the years in Disney's theme parks, the Florida ones in particular, and there might have been a live action version released at some point. All of which just goes to prove that when you have a tale as old as time, and you give it the respect it deserves, fans will love it for all of time.

November 12 - Song of the South

On this day, in 1946, Song of the South had it's world debut in Atlanta, Georgia. Controversial from its very opening, Song hasn't been officially seen in the United States for over thirty years now.

Walt had wanted to make a movie based on the stories of Joel Chandler Harris long before he started trying to get the rights to them. Even after he did secure the rights, he faced an uphill battle within the studio itself. Some people didn't think there was enough story to warrant the budget it would take, but most employees who raised objections did so along racial lines. Walt was well aware of the minefield he was steering into and but was a bit too overly committed to making the movie to not go full speed ahead anyways.

It was decided that Song would be a mixture of live action and animation, which certainly helped with the budget issues. When an ad was placed in the local newspapers for voice actors, James Baskett applied and was initially cast as a butterfly. Walt was intrigued with James' voice, asked to meet him and immediately wanted to test him for the film's lead. James passed the test and was cast as Uncle Remus and the voice of Br'er Fox (he got to remain in the role of the butterfly as well). Walt was so enamored with James' performance, he campaigned for an Oscar. His wish would be granted. James was awarded a special Academy Award for his virtuoso turn as Uncle Remus. Part of the film's controversy is of course the fact that it had to be a special award instead of a Best Actor award, but that's such a small part it's hardly worth mentioning. Ditto the fact that James didn't attend the premier because Atlanta was a severely segregated city at the time.

The biggest bone of contention with Song of the South is "confusion" over when the story takes place. While Disney has always maintained that the film takes place in the 1870s, and if you are a fashion expert the costumes apparently bear that out, the time is never mentioned in the film. Most viewers are going to assume that the story takes place pre-Civil War. The Hays Office had asked that the book at the beginning of the film clearly show the year of the action, but that, unfortunately never happened. As a result, the usual Disney sanitizing of locations and eras makes it look like the slaves on the plantation were just pleased as punch to be there. It was a notion that didn't really fly in 1946 (there were protests of the film even back then) and definitely doesn't fly now. Song wasn't helped by the fact that, as one reviewer put it, there wasn't enough charm to overcome the cliches.

Song's saving graces (doe's it have any, you might ask and the answer is yes, a couple) are the animated sequences and the songs. "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" has become a classic and also won the Oscar for Best Song. The animated bits and the characters of Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Bear and Br'er Fox have been seen on television numerous times and quite frequently in the parks. The attraction Splash Mountain is based on the Tar Baby and Laughing Place sequences (although you obviously won't see any mention of a tar baby anywhere in it). Most American kids don't have a clue that the Br'er characters come from a movie, not a log flume ride.

That wasn't always the case. Song of the South was re-released in theaters several times successfully, grossing over 65 million dollars total. The last time was in 1986 for the film's 40th anniversary. It's never been released on home video in the US but has appeared in Japan and most of Europe. Song has also been shown on the BBC as recently as 2006. Every once in a while, Disney will make some sort of announcement about it, but don't hold your breath that it will appear in the US any time soon. I personally have never seen the whole movie (even though it wouldn't be hard to as several bootlegs exist various places online), but from what I understand, I'm really not missing much. The plot hasn't aged well at all and wasn't terribly exciting to begin with.

November 11 - The Santa Claus

On this day, in 1994, Walt Disney Pictures released the now classic Christmas film, The Santa Clause. Starring Tim Allen in his first feature film role, it also features Peter Boyle, Judge Reinhold (in a role that Warren Beatty was considered for), and David Krumholz as the head elf, Bernard. The Santa Clause was originally going to be released under the Hollywood Pictures label until Disney put it in front of test audiences and found out that kids really liked it.

The film had a modest budget of 22 million dollars and grossed 189 million dollars, making it a hit that annually plays on television multiple times between Thanksgiving (or now Halloween) and Christmas. Clause also won a BMI Award for Film Music and a People's Choice Award for Favorite Comedy.

The film's director, John Pasquin, was a veteran of Broadway and television. Not only did he work with Tim on his show Home Improvement, John would direct two more movies with him, Jungle 2 Jungle and Joe Somebody, and be a part of Tim's current show, Last Man Standing.

The Santa Clause spawned two sequels, The Santa Clause 2 and (surprise!) The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause. The second film wasn't too shabby. The third film... let's just say it's okay if you skip it and leave it at that. The real irony about all three films: Tim Allen playing Santa Clause at all. He once revealed in an interview that he doesn't like kids.

November 10 - Carl Stalling

On this day, in 1891, Carl W. Stalling was born in Lexington, Missouri. Carl began playing the piano at the age of six and, by the time he was 12, was the main organist at his local movie theater. By his early 20's, he was conducting his own orchestra in Kansas City. He still played the organ in movie theaters there, but he wasn't just playing the sheet music that studios sent along with each picture, he was improvising new music during the shows. As chance would have it, in the early 1920s, during one of those improvised shows, Carl left a big impression on one of the audience members, who decided he just had to meet the organist. That audience member was a local businessman who made animated shorts, Walt Disney.

Carl and Walt kept up a friendly correspondence even after Walt moved to California. When Walt was on a long train trip to New York City to record the soundtrack for his first cartoon with sound, Steamboat Willie, he looked Carl up during a layover in Kansas City. During their visit, Walt asked Carl to write scores for the two Mickey shorts that had been produced before Steamboat and now needed sound, Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho. Walt was so pleased with the results that he offered Carl a position as his studio's first Music Director. Even though it meant relocating, Carl jumped at the opportunity.

One of Carl's talents was the ability to take a piece of existing music, adapt it for the short he was working on and add his own improvisations to make a harmonious whole. It was the norm for someone listening to one of his scores to suddenly hear a recognizable snippet of Beethoven or Mozart (or any other composer really). Carl also pioneered several new techniques for the scoring of animation. One was a precursor to the click track that is widely used today. Another was the use of "bar sheets" which showed what music was going to be playing alongside a shorts storyboards.

Carl's biggest contribution to Disney lore, however, was encouraging Walt to make a new style of shorts. The two friends had a running discussion for a while about what should come first, the animation or the music. Carl convinced Walt that his animators should try creating pictures to go along with an existing piece of music and the Silly Symphonies were born. Carl is credited with composing and arranging the music used in the first Symphony, 1929's The Skeleton Dance. Following the success of Dance, composers at Disney no longer had to try to match their compositions to the action of a short; the matching job fell to the animators instead.

Carl worked for the Walt Disney Studio for about two years, scoring about 20 different shorts, before he left and became a freelancer for a while. In the summer of 1936, he was hired by Leon Schlesinger to be the music director for his studio over at Warner Brothers. That studio had two cartoon series that had started a few years earlier, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. From the moment he was hired, Carl was the composer for almost every single animated short that Warner Brothers put out for the next 22 years. And that included the distinctive electric guitar slide that opened each short and the theme songs. With over 600 shorts to his credit in that part of his career, it works out to a complete score finished every 13 days. Carl's last cartoon with Warner Brothers was 1958's To Itch His Own. He passed away on November 29, 1972 as probably the most famous unknown American composer. He was 81.