Classic movie site with rare images, original ads, and behind-the-scenes photos, with informative and insightful commentary. We like to have fun with movies!
Archive and Links
grbrpix@aol.com
Search Index Here




Thursday, September 07, 2006

Walt Disney's Turbulent Year --- Part Two

That Disneyland preview of Sleeping Beauty appearing with The Peter Tchaikovsky Story on January 30, 1959 may have created an audience demand exhibitors couldn’t satisfy. Instead of the usual saturation opening putting popular Disney shows into small towns across the country during holiday or school’s-out weeks, this was a roadshow special with advanced admissions and very limited engagements. Exhibitors were up in arms over what they considered betrayal by a company whose primary audience were loyal kids and their parents filling small-town theatre seats. He is where he is today because he has drawn from the mass market, said Harrison’s Report on February 28, 1959, nearly a month into Sleeping Beauty’s exclusive 70mm release. There was no indication as to when it would become available in 35mm for standard bookings --- we cannot touch Disney nowhe has deserted us at a time when we need him most. Showmen acknowledged the potential of a pre-sold likely hit, but Sleeping Beauty was no good to them if they couldn’t play it. Has he let the public down by trying to erect a monument to himself? Harrison lambasted the inflated ticket prices --- $1.25 to $1.50 for adults, and even more egregious, ninety cents for children. Sleeping Beauty should have been a picture that patrons everywhere could go to their customary local theatre (to see) instead of having to drive fifty miles or so to the local 70mm house and pay through the nose. In Harrison’s estimation, this makes a second class citizen of the small theatre and its owner. Here in North Carolina, our only 70mm venue within a two-hour distance was Charlotte, and as for Sleeping Beauty’s local run, we didn't get that until August of 1959. The Liberty’s ad above reflects the increased ticket price Colonel Forehand had to impose (we are required by the distributor …) for under 12 seating. The usual dime admission for kids was now an astronomical twenty-five cents, neatly depriving juvenile patrons of whatever snack treats they contemplated. Showmen felt Sleeping Beauty’s pinch as well, judging by the cost of lobby displays shown here. Thirty dollars was enough to tip the scale from profit to loss in small situations, and I’d love to know just how many of those lavish standees Buena Vista actually sold. The Shaggy Dog was previously covered HERE, though at that time, I’d not been aware of a major flap in the Spring of 1959 pitting drive-in owners against Buena Vista. Distributors usually forgave lost revenue for young children in deference to the Under 12 Free policies most drive-ins observed. One of the major attractions for outdoor theatres was, after all, savings in baby-sitting costs parents enjoyed by bringing little ones along in back seats and letting them sleep quietly while Mom and Dad enjoyed the show. Free admissions for kids often made the difference between going to movies and staying home. For The Shaggy Dog, however, Buena Vista laid down new rules. No more percentages based only on adult and/or single car tickets. From now on, each child would be assessed at seventeen and a half cents, whatever the admission price set by exhibitors. The Fresh Pond Open Air Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts rejected BV’s terms, and the distributor withdrew the drive-in’s Shaggy Dog license. All this ended up in U.S. District Court with the Fresh Air claiming violations of the Sherman Act and accusing Disney of engaging in price-fixing (as it happens, three of the drive-in’s four owners were lawyers). We have never charged for children and we do not intend to do so, they said. The court ultimately ruled in Buena Vista's favor, saying that since drive-ins could impose whatever admission they chose, it did not amount to price-fixing. The Shaggy Dog would go on to take the highest gross of all Disney’s 1959 releases, despite its having been made for the lowest cost of any of them. Darby O’Gill and The Little People (released June 1959) and Third Man On The Mountain (November) were both excellent pictures failing to deliver the expected audience. Was Disney’s kind of storytelling outmoded? There’s a lengthy segment in the Disneyland episode, I Captured The King Of The Leprechauns, where Walt listens spellbound as guest Pat O’Brien spins his Irish folklore. Again he’s enraptured when Albert Sharpe tells of further encounters with the little people. Would kids already spoiling on cathode vines be as patient with such celebration of oral tradition? Men like Disney grew up with storytellers, before movies gained a national foothold and certainly before television wiped it all out. I Captured The King Of The Leprechauns was designed to excite interest in Darby O’Gill and The Little People, but I wonder if it might have actually had the opposite effect among that first generation weaned on TV. Third Man On The Mountain was a well-made mountain adventure shot in Switzerland. Disney had to reactivate his British offices in order to get the project started, not having made a picture in the UK since four he’d done in the early fifties. Producer Bill Anderson said the climbing stuff scared off the women viewers. He even reported Walt’s wife as having shut her eyes for fear someone was going to fall. Could this have killed it off, or did a largely British cast and flavor distance viewership? One of the problems with Disneys that disappoint is stigma carried from then on. Third Man On The Mountain was released on DVD, but nothing was done by way of restoration, and the widescreen theatrical ratio was discarded in favor of a much less effective full-frame. The Disneyland promo episode, Perilous Assignment (11-6-59) was also omitted. It’s a fine movie not likely to be appreciated until Disney remasters the DVD, but I’m not holding my breath for that. Bob Thomas reported in his Walt Disney biography record profits of $3.4 million for 1958-59 followed by a loss of $1.3 the following year, the first time in a decade this company had lost money. Considering those pictures released in 1960 (Kidnapped, Pollyanna, Toby Tyler, Ten Who Dared), the slow period had a while yet to run. Swiss Family Robinson (December 1960) would inaugurate a series of hits putting the company back on its stride, with 101 Dalmations, The Absent-Minded Professor, and The Parent Trap following in quick succession. It’s true Disney fell back on safe formulas encouraged by the success of The Shaggy Dog and Flubber shows, but there were nobler experiments all the way to the end of Walt’s life. The real calcification point for his "family" comedies wasn’t reached until the mid-sixties (and they are admittedly pretty dire after that --- I can remember walking out on Monkeys Go Home and Never A Dull Moment, while my willingness to sit through all of Lt. Robin Crusoe, USN was induced by my sister’s willingness to buy me a king-sized Baby Ruth at the concession counter).

3 Comments:

Blogger Kevin K. said...

Holy cow. I'd forgotten I'd ever seen "Never a Dull Moment" and "Lt. Robin Crusoe USN." And I never would've remembered they were Disney pictures.

6:57 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As a former owner of a small town theatre, I remember the days within the last 25 years when the Disney organization not only got higher box office percentage, but also wanted a percentage of concessions!

I don't know if it was the result of legal action or exhibitor boycotts, but the concession percentage was ended in short order.

9:26 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was elated to see the ad for a STARS IN MY CROWN reissue. It must have been an old ad-mat, though -- while STARS is arguably "one of the fine family pictures" of any year, it came out in 1950.

6:51 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

grbrpix@aol.com
  • December 2005
  • January 2006
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • September 2006
  • October 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • February 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • July 2007
  • August 2007
  • September 2007
  • October 2007
  • November 2007
  • December 2007
  • January 2008
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • September 2008
  • October 2008
  • November 2008
  • December 2008
  • January 2009
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • April 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2009
  • July 2009
  • August 2009
  • September 2009
  • October 2009
  • November 2009
  • December 2009
  • January 2010
  • February 2010
  • March 2010
  • April 2010
  • May 2010
  • June 2010
  • July 2010
  • August 2010
  • September 2010
  • October 2010
  • November 2010
  • December 2010
  • January 2011
  • February 2011
  • March 2011
  • April 2011
  • May 2011
  • June 2011
  • July 2011
  • August 2011
  • September 2011
  • October 2011
  • November 2011
  • December 2011
  • January 2012
  • February 2012
  • March 2012
  • April 2012
  • May 2012
  • June 2012
  • July 2012
  • August 2012
  • September 2012
  • October 2012
  • November 2012
  • December 2012
  • January 2013
  • February 2013
  • March 2013
  • April 2013
  • May 2013
  • June 2013
  • July 2013
  • August 2013
  • September 2013
  • October 2013
  • November 2013
  • December 2013
  • January 2014
  • February 2014
  • March 2014
  • April 2014
  • May 2014
  • June 2014
  • July 2014
  • August 2014
  • September 2014
  • October 2014
  • November 2014
  • December 2014
  • January 2015
  • February 2015
  • March 2015
  • April 2015
  • May 2015
  • June 2015
  • July 2015
  • August 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2015
  • November 2015
  • December 2015
  • January 2016
  • February 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2016
  • May 2016
  • June 2016
  • July 2016
  • August 2016
  • September 2016
  • October 2016
  • November 2016
  • December 2016
  • January 2017
  • February 2017
  • March 2017
  • April 2017
  • May 2017
  • June 2017
  • July 2017
  • August 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2017
  • November 2017
  • December 2017
  • January 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2018
  • April 2018
  • May 2018
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
  • August 2018
  • September 2018
  • October 2018
  • November 2018
  • December 2018
  • January 2019
  • February 2019
  • March 2019
  • April 2019
  • May 2019
  • June 2019
  • July 2019
  • August 2019
  • September 2019
  • October 2019
  • November 2019
  • December 2019
  • January 2020
  • February 2020
  • March 2020
  • April 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2020
  • July 2020
  • August 2020
  • September 2020
  • October 2020
  • November 2020
  • December 2020
  • January 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2021
  • April 2021
  • May 2021
  • June 2021
  • July 2021
  • August 2021
  • September 2021
  • October 2021
  • November 2021
  • December 2021
  • January 2022
  • February 2022
  • March 2022
  • April 2022
  • May 2022
  • June 2022
  • July 2022
  • August 2022
  • September 2022
  • October 2022
  • November 2022
  • December 2022
  • January 2023
  • February 2023
  • March 2023
  • April 2023
  • May 2023
  • June 2023
  • July 2023
  • August 2023
  • September 2023
  • October 2023
  • November 2023
  • December 2023
  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024