The Horse of the West

Two posts for today to make up for the dry spell. ;)

While YouTubing, I came across this recently uploaded file of Walt introducing the upcoming Disneyland programming for the following week which is scheduled to be "The Horse of the West". It looks good! It also looks like it would make me cry, but I'd love to see it anyway. Does anyone remember this one? It didn't sound familiar to me, but I hope to come across it one day.

Incidentally, I also came across this interesting YouTube file of Fantasmic!'s first commercial. There are a few shots before the final edited version of the commercial. Kinda cool!
Happy Tuesday, folks!

A Very Ducky Artist

A couple years ago I was lucky to meet Dick Alexander, an animator who worked for Disney in the good ole days. Unfortunately I didn't have a lot of time to talk with him, as the event we were at was of a musical nature, but he was kind enough to draw for me the above picture. I remember he said he worked on The Duck a lot, and if memory serves I think I recall him saying he did some work on Pinocchio, though I could be mistaken. Does anyone have any additional information on Mr. Alexander? I'd love to learn more about him! I just thought it was so cool that he'd take the time to draw something for me. He was a very nice man!

Aerial, not Ariel

Here is a very nice, and very early aerial shot of Disneyland's eastern side. As you can see there isn't much in the Tomorrowland/Fantasyland area yet, and the photo gives a nice view of the future home of the Matterhorn and the Subs. The surrounding area is still covered in orange groves, which must have made Disneyland smell spectacular during orange blossom season. Especially mixed with the ever lingering scent of waffle cone!

This photo opens up very large for your viewing pleasure.

Peter Pan Sweatbox Meeting Notes- pt. 4

Here is the conclusion to the Sweatbox notes. I hope you've all enjoyed them! :D

Peter Pan Sweatbox Meeting Notes- pt. 3

Part 3! Happy reading!

Can I be the 'Disney Kid'?

I don't recall seeing this posted on any other blogs lately (though it's very possible I could have missed it), but if you've seen it, I think it's cute enough to watch a 2nd time. What is it with the 1950s and having 'Kids'. I've heard of the Frito Kid, but now the Cheerios Kid? How many more were there? The Maypo kid was pretty cute, but I don't think he was officially called the Maypo Kid was he? Okay it's late, I'm sleep deprived, and just thinking silly thoughts now. Please excuse me. :P

Peter Pan Sweatbox Meeting Notes pt. 2

Here is part 2. Enjoy!

Peter Pan Storyboard

For those of you who don't make the Disney History blog a daily stop (and you should!), I would recommend heading over there. I have lent Didier Ghez a storyboard from Peter Pan that goes nicely with the sweatbox meeting notes that I have listed this week. Check it out! :)

Photoplay

Thanks to a reader, Brian, he informed me that the last page of the Photoplay article I posted in February was no longer working. I tried to fix the link in the original post, but for some reason it refuses to work. I am posting the last page here for those who were not able to read the original here.

Peter Pan Sweatbox Meeting Notes- Jan. 28, 1941 pt. 1

Being the week of the release of Peter Pan- Platinum Edition, I've decided to post what is one of my favorite Disney possessions. They are sweatbox meeting notes from January 28, 1941. I think the most significant part of this is that you can clearly see how much of this movie is from Walt. His ideas are so clear and it is fascinating to see in these notes just how his mind worked. He does much of the speaking here, and as you will come to find, his thoughts in 1941 came to fruition in many ways over a decade later when the film was released.

*Note: my scanner bed isn't legal-sized unfortunately, so much of the white exterior portions of the scans had to be cut off. All of the dialog is in tact, however.