The Magazine Cover That Never Happened

 by Chris Lucas

Guest Column

DisneyBizJournal.com

December 8, 2020

 

On the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, staffers at TIME Magazine, one of the most influential weekly news publications in history, were mostly at home after spending the week putting the finishing touches on a special year-end issue that would feature the popular Disney character Dumbo - whose movie had premiered a few months before - as “Mammal of The Year,” in a whimsical departure from their usual “Man of the Year” covers. 

This was intended to help ease tensions during a time when the world was still feeling the effects of the Great Depression and was already at war in Europe, Asia, and other parts of the globe. 

 

It was also meant to show how Walt Disney’s influence on American culture was widening since his 1937 massive hit with Snow White.

 

Disney artists were commissioned to provide a black and white sketch of Dumbo, to match the usual style of portraits seen on TIME’s covers. 

 

When the U.S. Navy’s fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was unexpectedly attacked and destroyed by the Japanese that day, taking over 2,400 lives, the U.S. was instantly thrust into the war, and the focus of TIME (and every other publication) changed.

 

Dumbo was immediately bumped from the cover in favor of U.S. military leaders. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, one of the runners up to Dumbo, was named TIME’s Man of the Year for the third successive year. 

 

The story about Dumbo did run, but it was buried inside the magazine after dozens of pages about the war. The Disney Studio property in Burbank, California, was commandeered by the U.S. Army (due to its proximity to a Lockheed production facility) and Walt lost much of his staff to the service.

 

Disney spent most of World War II producing films at cost for the military, as well as designing insignia and logos for them. The studio didn’t begin to turn a profit again until 1950.

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Chris Lucas is the author of Top Disney: 100 Top Ten Lists of the Best of Disney, from the Man to the Mouse and Beyond.

 

On the PRESS CLUB C Podcast, enjoy Ray’s discussion with Chris Lucas about his career as an actor, author and Disney expert. Tune in right here!

 

Disney’s Purchase of Fox a Decision for the Long Run, Not a Short-Term Hit

by Ray Keating

Analysis

DisneyBizJournal.com

June 10, 2019

Accusations of businesses looking only at the short run usually are hurled by politicians, who, of course, specialize in short-run decisions. In reality, business owners and CEOs make decisions for a wide variety of reasons, and few, if any, are about trying to get a short-term kick at the expense of long-run well-being. 

The latest example is the purchase of Fox by Disney. We’re seeing via the box office that this acquisition wasn’t about boosting Disney’s bottom line in the short term.

When talking about 2019 Disney movies that were in the Disney column prior to the Fox merger, the House of Mouse is looking good in the short run, and for further building its brand and bottom line over the long haul. Disney is three for four so far, with the box office hits being Captain Marvel  (global gross of $1.13 billion), Avengers: Endgame ($2.73 billion, so far) and Aladdin ($607.6 million, so far), with Dumbo ($350.6 million) being the miss.

And it’s hard to see a miss coming among the pre-Fox-merger Disney line-up, with Toy Story 4, The Lion King, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Frozen II and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker on the way through the end of the year.

However, the 20^th Century Fox movies being released post-merger with Disney is a different story. Breakthrough offered a nice return with a box office take at $50.2 million on only a $14 million production budget. But it got ugly with the next two films. 

The botched Tolkien movie didn’t appeal to Tolkien fans, and hence it made a measly $7.7 million. 

And then there’s Dark Phoenix, the X-Men movie that just opened on June 7. It took in only $32.8 million domestically in its opening weekend, and a total global take of $136.6 million. Oh yes, and critics hate it, and audiences are less than pleased. With an enormous budget – widely reported at $200 million – Dark Phoenix is on its way to being a big box office bomb.

And the remaining Fox releases for 2019 look like a mixed bag. And while no one knows in the movie business what will hit and what will miss until the lights go down for audiences, the keys appear to be Ad Astra, Terminator: Dark Fate, Ford v. Ferrari and Spies in Disguise.

Ad Astra and Ford v. Ferrari particularly look intriguing. But we’ll have to see.

The sure bet, if you will, for Disney with the Fox deal was the acquisition of a wide assortment of IP that Disney will use, such as for its streaming service Disney+, and build on as well. For example, with Fox never having done anything well with the Fantastic Four and ending its X-Men run with two busts (Dark Phoenix and X-Men: Apocalypse) – while Logan was quite good, I’m not sure what to do with Deadpool, and who knows what will happen with The New Mutants – it will be Disney’s turn with these and a wide assortment of other properties to reboot and re-energize. 

That’s a long-run thing.

Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels. He can be contacted at  raykeating@keatingreports.com.

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