News, Analysis and Reviews of the Disney Entertainment Business
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Brought to fans, investors, entrepreneurs, executives, teachers, professors, and students by columnist, economist, novelist, reviewer, podcaster, business reporter and speaker Ray Keating
Episode #321: Iger on Chronic Indecision – Former Disney CEO Bob Iger talks indecision, with Ray Keating adding thoughts on establishing trust on decision-making.
The “Daily Dose of Disney with Ray Keating” podcast serves up a Disney or Disney-related quote each day, with DisneyBizJournal’s Ray Keating offering brief, additional thoughts on how each dose ties in to life, career, business, entrepreneurship, creativity, storytelling, work, or just plain fun.
(Editor’s Note: Julie Andrews made her theatrical debut in Mary Poppins, which premiered on August 27, 1964.)
Dame Julie Andrews is, arguably, the biggest female movie star who ever worked for Disney.
In 1956, Andrews starred as Eliza Doolittle in the Broadway show My Fair Lady for two years and never missed a performance. During that time, she also starred as Cinderella in a TV musical that was watched by over 100 million Americans.
She was cast as Queen Guinevere in Camelot on Broadway in 1960, opposite Richard Burton. Walt and Lillian Disney attended a performance and Walt knew immediately that he’d found his Mary Poppins.
Walt offered Andrews the role, but she declined because she was pregnant. He said, “I’ll wait,” and he did.
In 1963, she began playing Mary, her film debut. Andrews won the Oscar for the role, one of the few people in history to win an Academy Award for acting their first time out.
Mary Poppins was one of the biggest box office hits of all-time, but Andrews topped it a year later as Maria in The Sound of Music for FOX. It remains the third highest grossing movie in American history, adjusted for inflation.
After that, Dame Julie declined a string of similar musical roles, like a reprise of the Queen in the film version of Camelot, Nancy in Oliver!, Truly in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Dolly in Hello Dolly and Elegantine in Bedknobs & Broomsticks.
In 1997, after appearing in the Broadway version of her hit film Victor/Victoria, Andrews had throat surgery which went wrong, permanently damaging her natural five octave coloratura soprano voice. She was told she would never sing again, but in 2004 she performed the song “Crowning Glory” in a reprise of her role as Queen Clarissa in Disney’s Princess Diaries 2.
The 84-year-old actress is still quite busy.
In the last two decades, Julie Andrews has played a different type of Nanny in Disney’s live action adaptations of the Eloise at the Plaza stories; she was the narrator of Disney’s Enchanted; and voiced roles in the Shrek, Despicable Me and DC superheroes franchises for other studios.
The author of over 25 books and a lifetime achievement Grammy Award winner, Julie Andrews was named a Disney Legend in 1991, and was named a Dame by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, on New Year’s Eve, 1999.
On the PRESS CLUB C Podcast, enjoy Ray’s recent discussion with Chris Lucas about his career as an actor, author and Disney expert. Tune in right here!
Here are a few things you might not know about 1959’s Sleeping Beauty, Disney’s 16th animated classic.
- Production on the film started in 1950, but Walt’s ventures into television and theme park design slowed progress until 1956, when it began again in earnest. It was the longest working time ever devoted to one animated film.
- Costs ballooned, in part due to the delays, and at close to $7 million, Sleeping Beauty wound up being the most expensive animated film ever made (a record that lasted for decades.)
- Based upon the Charles Perrault version of Sleeping Beauty - though the story goes all the way back to the 1300s and has been adapted hundreds of times - the film’s exquisite and elaborate look was designed by artist Eyvind Earle, who also created the live action story book that opens the film. It now rests in the Disney Archives and is often sent out for display.
- The music was based on Tchaikovsky’s 1890 Sleeping Beauty ballet and was recorded by the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. Tchaikovsky is the same composer responsible for Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.
- George Bruns and Sammy Fain added modern songs and lyrics like “Once Upon A Dream” and “The Skumps.”
- In the ballet the princess is called Aurora, in the fairy tale she’s called Briar Rose. The screenwriters split the difference by using both names. Many people still just call her “Sleeping Beauty.”
- Aurora doesn’t have a spoken line in the film until nineteen minutes in. Her last line comes twenty minutes later. She only has eighteen lines in the whole movie. In total, she is in less than 1/3rd of the story named after her.
- The animators couldn’t decide whether Aurora’s dress should be pink or blue, so they just turned it into a joke in the film.
- Three famous TV “Aunts” were the live action models for the three fairies: Madge Blake (Aunt Harriet from Batman) Frances Bavier (Aunt Bea from The Andy Griffith Show) and Spring Byington (Aunt Daisy from Laramie). None of their voices were used in the final film.
- Ever the shrewd promoter, Walt named the castle at Disneyland after Sleeping Beauty, even though the movie wasn’t released until four years after the park opened.
- Sleeping Beauty was given a lukewarm reception by audiences and critics and made less than $6 million in its initial release. Not a flop, but not enough to return a profit, either. The biggest hit for Disney that year was actually a live action film, The Shaggy Dog, which cost just a million to make and took in almost ten times that amount.
- Until Mary Poppins came along, Walt considered Sleeping Beauty his studio’s masterpiece. Its lack of success was said to be one of the reasons he began to increasingly show a loss of interest in his studio’s animated films - which often took years to make with little return on profit - while spending more time on live action films and on developing attractions for Disneyland and the 1964 NYC World’s Fair.
- Sleeping Beauty was re-released to theaters in 1970, 1979, and 1986. Each time it was a box office hit. It’s now regarded as one of the greatest masterpieces in animation.
- This was the final classic fairy tale Princess animated film made during Walt’s lifetime. The studio wouldn’t return to the genre until 1989’s The Little Mermaid.
On the PRESS CLUB C Podcast, enjoy Ray’s recent discussion with Chris Lucas about his career as an actor, author and Disney expert. Tune in right here!
Combine movies – even better, some classic motion pictures – with history, and you’ve got me. Toss in a treasure hunt for movie props, meeting some people involved in making those movies, and a likeable and knowledgeable host, and well, how could I resist? And it turns out, Prop Culture on Disney+ is irresistible to the Disney movie lover.
All eight episodes of Prop Culture dropped on Disney+ on May 1st. The series host and creator Dan Lanigan is a collector of movie props, and clearly brings his passion to this show.
In each episode, Lanigan zeroes in on movie props from a particular Disney movie. He travels far and wide in tracking down, saving and/or inspecting assorted props. Lanigan has access to the Disney Archives, and gets in contact with individuals involved with the films, such as directors, actors, Imagineers, and designers. Indeed, as Lanigan has pointed out, the show ultimately is about those people.
It’s clear that Lanigan enjoys what he does, and the viewer is having fun going along for the ride.
The eight episodes cover props from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Mary Poppins, Tron, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Muppet Movie, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Honey, I Shrunk The Kids.
Each episode is a delight, but I particularly enjoyed the ones focused on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Mary Poppins, The Muppet Movie, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, as I have a soft spot for each film for various reasons.
The emphasis on swords in Pirates was fascinating, and the episode on Who Framed Roger Rabbit reminded me of how much I like that movie and that I’m long overdue for another viewing. As for The Chronicles of Narnia, well, since C.S. Lewis ranks among my favorite authors, it was nice to delve into swords, costumes and see some of the actors today who were children in the movie. I’m of the opinion that The Chronicles of Narnia movie remains underrated.
If you love movies – especially some classic Disney flicks – then binge watch Prop Culture, and hope for a second season.
It’s kind of surprising given its many successes over ninety-plus years, but Disney has never won an Academy Award for Best Picture.
In fact, it’s even more striking to note that coming into the 2020 Academy Awards ceremony tomorrow (February 9) night, Disney previously had only five films nominated for Best Picture.
The last one was Black Panther released in 2018, and before that was Toy Story 3 (Disney/Pixar) released in 2010, Up (Disney/Pixar) in 2009, and Beauty and the Beast from 1991. Both Up and Toy Story 3, though, did win Best Animated Feature awards.
Prior to these, one has to go back to Mary Poppins (1964) for a Disney Best Picture nomination.
But that’s it. This year, though, courtesy of the Fox acquisition, Disney has two Best Picture nominations – Ford v Ferrari and JoJo Rabbit. So, buying Fox already has increased Disney’s Best Picture nominations from five to seven – a 40 percent increase - and opened the possibility for the Oscar.
Indeed, could Disney finally get a Best Picture Oscar on Sunday night, and if so, given that each of these movies were Fox productions, would a win be considered a true “Disney” win?
So, what’s on your Saturday (January 25) night schedule? Well, at just before eight o’clock EST, you could tune in to the Disney Parks Blogto catch the livestream of a “Disney on Broadway” concert direct from Walt Disney World.
Tonight’s concert will feature Broadway performers Alton Fitzgerald White and Kissy Simmons from “The Lion King,” Heidi Blickenstaff from “The Little Mermaid.” and Gavin Lee from “Mary Poppins.”
