Disney Bulletin - May 3, 1940

Flashback to 1940

Along with stories about birthdays and weddings being celebrated, an insight on a studio in transition; a note about the Ink & Paint Department moving from Hyperion to Burbank -- with a good humored shot aimed at Woolie Reitherman. There's also a funny note about editor Norman Palmer and his previously unknown contribution to Fantasia (somebody should update his IMDB listing!)

Page two contains the classic caricature of Dick Huemer by T. Hee. The last page is full of classifieds -- almost idyllic from a perspective of 67 years later!

The Softball Game - part 2

1:26 - 4:12

Picking up the softball game from where we left off last week, here is the remainder of the game section of the footage:

The house (in the upper left of the frame) is the only house in the immediate neighborhood that is still standing today. Below is a late 1930s photograph of the Disney Studio on Hyperion showing the former lot where this softball game was played (in green) and the same house circled in red.

Carlos Manriquez, seen running here, is mis-identified in the audio commentary as Carlos "Enriquez."
At this point in the audio commentary Hardie Gramatky is mistakenly identified as John Cannon.

Directors Jack King and Burton (Burt) Gillett were hired early by Disney and came west from studios in New York, the hub of animation at that time.
Batting here is George Drake, head of the the training and inbetweening department. Inbetweening was the first rung on the ladder at the studio in the 1930s. Most artists spent a relatively short time there before moving up and into other departments. Drake was in the unfortunate position of being viewed as the gatekeeper to advancement within the studio, which resulted in unflattering opinions of him.

Studio comptroller, George Morris, is watching the game at left.

Below is a breakdown of the game footage and the players as they appear on the film. Most are identified as in the images above. If you have additional identifications please let me know.

pitcher: Hardie Gramatky
catcher: Chuck Couch
second base: Roy Williams
third base: Fred Moore
batter #1: Walt Disney
batter #2: David Hand
- (teams switch sides) - pitcher: __________
catcher: Walt Disney
first base: Tom Palmer
second base: __________
short stop: Norm Ferguson
third base: David Hand
batter #1: Hardie Gramatky
batter #2: Carlos Manriquez
batter #3: Johnny Cannon
batter #4: Jack Cutting / runner: Hardie Gramatky
batter #5: Roy Williams
batter #6: Les Clark - (teams switch sides/cut/camera move) - catcher: Chuck Couch
first base: Carlos Manriquez
batter #1: Floyd Gottfredson
batter #2: George Drake
- (cut) -
batter #3: Walt Disney
batter #4: David Hand
batter #5: Norm Ferguson - (cut to post-game) -

The post-game features director Jack King and animator Johnny Cannon in a mock fight over a bat with a large group of other studio personnel gathered around. Those images will be posted in the next couple of days.

Disney Softball Game - part 1

0:15 - 0:59

In case you're not aware, Disney released a fantastic bit of historical film footage on the Disney Treasures DVD, "More Silly Symphonies." The segment is titled "Animators at Play," and it is a few minutes of film shot in the winter of 1930/31 during a lunchtime softball game in the lot adjacent to the old Disney Studio on Hyperion Avenue. This segment can be found under the bonus features on disc two of the set.

On this piece a cursory attempt was made at identifying the people on the film. Unfortunately this is near impossible to do as a commentary while film is running and Leonard Maltin does a good job, but the information is spotty and in a couple cases, incorrect.

While viewing this with friends, I was able to point out other people I recognized in the footage and began to made some notes. With some frame grabs I'm able to identify most of the people in these stills. If you can identify anyone who isn't named (or an error in mine) please let me know. Below are the first few. More in coming days.

(click on the images for a larger view)