With the Academy Award ceremonies just around the corner, several websites will probably discuss the many Oscars won by Walt Disney. In Oscar history, Walt still retains the honor of being both the individual with the most nominations and the one with the most wins. For this column, I will take a look at some of the stories behind those Oscars.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was the concept of the late movie producer Louis B. Mayer, who decided there was a need for such an organization to give status and respect to the motion picture industry. With the help of other prominent figures in Hollywood, the Academy was created and gave its first, then nameless awards, at a banquet on May 16, 1929.
The Short Subjects Awards were first handed out in 1932 in three categories: Cartoon, Comedy and Novelty. Supposedly, the cartoon category was established primarily to honor the work of Walt Disney. For several years most of the nominees and winners in this category were Disney cartoon shorts, with a token nomination or two to other animation producers like Leon Schlesinger.
For instance, in 1938, four Disney cartoons were nominated: The Brave Little Tailor, Mother Goose Goes Hollywood, Good Scouts, and Ferdinand the Bull. Ferdinand the Bull won and spawned a good deal of merchandise. In fact, Disney won in the cartoon Short Subject category every year from 1932 (Flowers and Trees) to 1939 (The Ugly Duckling).
The streak was broken in 1940 when MGM’s The Milky Way, about three little kittens who lost their mittens and dream of visiting the Milky Way in a balloon basket, took the award. There were no Disney cartoons nominated that year. The other two nominees in the category were MGM’s Puss Gets the Boot (arguably the first Tom and Jerry cartoon) and Warner’s A Wild Hare (arguably the first “official” Bugs Bunny cartoon).
Academy Awards Ceremony 1932: Mickey Mouse and Flowers and Trees
In 1932, besides Flowers and Trees, the other two nominees in the new category were Disney’s Mickey’s Orphans and Warner’s It’s Got Me Again.
Also that year, Walt received a special Oscar from the Academy for the creation of Mickey Mouse. Actor Charlie Chaplin was originally supposed to present the statuette, but had decided to stay home. This moment was a milestone in Oscar history since it was the first year that one man was given two awards at the same ceremony and only the second time a special Oscar had been awarded. (The first special award was to Chaplin.)
Walt Disney knew ahead of time that he was going to receive two awards. Up until 1941, winners were informed beforehand to help reporters meet their news deadlines.
That year, the fifth annual Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' banquet was held in the Fiesta Room of the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard on November 18, 1932. Nine hundred people attended.
As part of the festivities, and to show appreciation for the honors he was to receive, Walt produced a short color cartoon for those in attendance. Parade of the Award Nominees, a two-and-a-half minute short specially prepared for the ceremony, featured caricatures of those performers nominated in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories.
Mickey Mouse in green shorts led the parade of nominees (with some recycled animation from the 1931 Silly Symphony Mother Goose Melodies) down a red carpet. It was Mickey’s first color film appearance, pre-dating The Band Concert by several years.
In order, the caricatures were Wallace Beery for The Champ (with Jackie Cooper trailing along behind); Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne for The GuardsmanThe Sins of Madelon ClaudetDr. Jekyll and Mr. HydeEmma.
One newspaper reported that the film garnered a “huge laugh.” Another newspaper reported, “Judging by the applause, the greatest enthusiasm was for Walt Disney, creator of Mickey Mouse, and for Helen Hayes (who won Best Actress).”
David Lesjak has written a nice piece about that night on his website.
Academy Award Ceremony 1939: Snow White
At the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles on the night of February 23, 1939, was a nervous Walt Disney. He'd already been the recipient of seven Academy Awards from previous years. That night, Walt was presented with an Honorary Academy Award for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' “significant screen innovation, which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field for the motion picture cartoon.”
Snow White was the top-grossing film of all time at that point, and had become so hugely popular and critically lauded that the Academy felt the film deserved some recognition, but didn’t want to give a Best Picture Oscar (or a nomination in that category) to an animated cartoon.
According to his autobiography, Academy President (and legendary film director) Frank Capra was the one who came up with the idea of a special award of a full-sized Oscar statuette with seven smaller ones descending in a row. Even though Walt was adamant that he didn’t make films just for children, but for the entire family, it was felt that the top child star of the time, Shirley Temple, representing all of Walt’s young fans should make the presentation.
According to the caption on a photo distributed to newspapers by Wide World Photos Los Angeles Bureau: “Long applause greeted Shirley Temple when she walked to the rostrum to present a special award to Walt Disney for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which is recognized by the industry as a screen innovation that pioneered a new entertainment field.”
Capra swore that the following exchange “brought down the house” and you can watch a portion of it.
Shirley Temple: I am sure the boys and girls in the whole world are going to be very happy when they find out that the daddy of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Mickey Mouse, Ferdinand, and all the others is going to get this beautiful statue [removes the fabric covering the award]. Isn’t it bright and shiny?
Walt Disney: Oh, it’s beautiful.
Shirley Temple: Aren’t you proud Mr. Disney?
Walt Disney: I’m so proud I think I’ll bust. You know I think that Mickey Mouse, Ferdinand, Snow White and all the dwarves are going to be very proud that you presented it.
Shirley Temple: I’m glad.
The references to “Ferdinand” were to the main character in the Disney animated short cartoon that won that year, Ferdinand the Bull.
Animation Historian John Culhane interviewed Shirley Temple Black in February 1988 (the entire interview appears in Walt’s People Vol. 11) about that presentation:
Shirley Temple Black: I thought that the big statue was for Walt and that the Seven Dwarfs were the little ones going down the side and that Snow White herself hadn't gotten anything. I was 11 years old. And I was worried about Snow White at the time, that she hadn't gotten an Oscar. It's just that the big one is the one usually presented to who the person is. I mean Snow White wasn't there.
John Culhane: The story goes that even at 11 you were the one who said, “Don't be nervous, Mr. Disney.” Is that true?
STB: I don’t know, I don't recall whether I did or not
JC: And you saying, “Mother, can I go home now?”
STB: Oh, I absolutely remember that. Well, because I was kind of bored. I mean, I was a little young… I had spent the dinnertime breaking a hard roll into little pieces and making little piles of breadcrumbs, you know those nice hard rolls you get at dinners, at banquets? I'd had my dinner at 5 p.m., so I'd had my dinner and so there was nothing to do except do that and look at what everybody was wearing…or not wearing, and how many mustaches were in the room and all kinds of things of that sort were interesting to me at that stage.
JC: In the '38 and '39 awards, did you have a rehearsal?
STB: Just where we were going to go to and where we were going to hit our mark. I was giving a special award, so I knew what I had to say.
JC: Did somebody write for you the line, “Oh, isn't it bright and shiny!”
STB: Oh, no, no, no. Unfortunately, I came up with those myself! Whether it was the right thing to say or not, that's what I said. It was real. We ad-libbed in those days; we didn't have things written down. I suppose some people would memorize speeches in case they won, in fact I imagine everybody…He [Walt] was a very special guy and I enjoyed him very much. I am just sorry I never worked for him.
Academy Awards Ceremony 1942: Thalberg Award
The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award is awarded to “Creative producers, whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production.”
The award was named for Irving Thalberg, legendary vice president and head of the Production Division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who was responsible for developing MGM’s top productions. The award is not given every year.
The trophy is in the form of a bust of Thalberg attached to a rectangular base but is still considered as an “honorary Oscar.” The first recipient was Darryl F. Zanuck at the 1937 Academy Awards ceremony (held in 1938). Three other honorees subsequently received that design between 1939 and 1942: Hal B. Wallis, David O. Selznick and Walt Disney. Walt Disney was the youngest ever to win it.
Producer David O. Selznick presented Walt with the award. Walt was so overcome with emotion that he openly wept. According to the trade newspaper Daily Variety (from a February 27, 1942 story headlined “Walt Disney Weeps as He Gets Oscar”) “[Walt] found it difficult to speak and was only able to say with great emotion: ‘I want to thank everybody here. This is a vote of confidence from the whole industry.’”
Actually, Walt said a little more. Presenter Selznick praised Walt for using classical music by Bach, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky in Fantasia and stated that it “contributed to the musical education of the public.”
Walt replied to the audience, “Thank you so much for this. Maybe I should get a medal for bravery. We all make mistakes. Fantasia was one but it was an honest one. I shall now rededicate myself to my old ideals.”
I don’t think many people realize how easily Walt could be moved to tears. We are so accustomed to seeing him smiling and laughing and truly enjoying himself. He was deeply sentimental and often watching even rough cuts of some of his own films like Pollyanna or reading an emotional moment in a script would be enough to produce tears.
Actress Norma Shearer, Thalberg’s widow, went over to Walt when he returned to his seat and gave him a kiss. She did not care for the rendering of her late husband’s head on the trophy so, at her own expense, commissioned a new sculpture. She sent the new version to the first four winners (which included Walt) and the new version became the standard for many years.
Academy Award Ceremony 1948: Song of the South
Walt Disney wrote a personal letter on January 30, 1948, to Jean Hersholt, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, suggesting that James Baskett be awarded a special Academy Award for his work as Uncle Remus in Song of the South.
According to Walt’s letter, Baskett had not only brought to life the “immortal folklore character” of Uncle Remus, Disney argued, but was “a very understanding person and very much the gentleman.”
Disney was not alone in his praise of Baskett’s performance. Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper was one of the many journalists who declared that he should receive an Academy Award for his work as well.
Baskett was handed the honorary Oscar on March 20, 1948, for “his able and heartwarming characterization of Uncle Remus, friend and storyteller to the children of the world” by actress Ingrid Bergman. He was the first African-American male to receive an Academy Award. Baskett tragically died of heart problems and complications from diabetes just months later on September 9, 1948, at age 44.
Sidney Poitier was the first African-American actor to win a competitive Oscar for his performance in the 1963 picture Lilies of the Field more than a decade later.
Academy Award Ceremony 1949: Seal Island
Even in the 1940s, Walt was worried about the vanishing frontier. So he had a husband-and-wife photography team, Alfred and Elma Milotte, go to one of the last remaining wildernesses, Alaska, and shoot everything they could. Walt told them to film everything from Eskimos to businesses to whatever to try and capture the spirit of this disappearing outpost of civilization. Milotte owned a camera store in Alaska.
Studying reels and reels of unrelated shots, Walt zeroed in on footage of seals and asked the Milottes to emphasize the life cycle of the seals and not show any indication of man’s presence.
The resulting film, which was the first of the True Life Adventures series, did not appeal to RKO, Disney's film distributor at the time, who felt audiences would not sit still for a nature film. In addition, they felt the Disney name was so closely connected to animation that the small audiences that might show up would be disappointed seeing live animals.
Walt asked a friend who ran Pasadena's Crown Theater to show Seal Island for one week in December of 1948. In that way, this nature film would then qualify for consideration of an Academy Award nomination.
Though it was 27-minutes long, which was much longer than the usual short subject at the time, Seal Island was not only nominated but won that year's Best Documentary Oscar. The very next day, Walt took that Academy Award to his brother Roy O. Disney’s office and said: “Here, Roy. Take this over to RKO and bang them over the head with it.”
Confronted with the impressive Oscar, RKO distributed the film.
Academy Award Ceremony 1953: Music Presenter
Thanks to YouTube, most Disney fans have seen Walt Disney collect one of his many Oscars or even Disney animated characters like Mickey Mouse or Snow White present an Academy Award.
However, Walt Disney himself was a presenter three times. (In 1937, he presented the Short Subjects awards. In 1943, he presented the Thalberg Award to Producer Sidney Franklin).
On March 19, 1953, Walt Disney presented the music awards at the 25th Academy Awards, the first year the awards were televised, held at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood.
Host Bob Hope introduced Walt: “You know when we called Walt Disney and asked him to present the music award tonight, we said, 'Walt with all the songs you've commissioned for your pictures and what with Fantasia and all, you would be the right man to do it. After all, think about how much you have done for music and Hollywood.'
“And his warm reply was 'I would have thought it was the other way around'. In any case Walt fought his way through all the Oscars in his living room to our stage tonight. One of the great theatrical inventors of modern times, Mr. Walt Disney.”
Once again thanks to YouTube, Disney fans can watch that moment in time that aired on NBC, and perhaps cringe a little as Walt mangles several of the names of the nominees. Miklos Rosza became “Miklos Rosca.” Orchestra conductor Adolph Deutsch tried to loudly whisper to Walt the correct pronunciations from the orchestra pit but it didn’t help. Walt changed the song title “Am I in Love?” to “I Am in Love!” and couldn’t make it all the way through Dimitri Tiomkin’s name. However, the highlight was when Alfred Newman who won for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture walked away from the podium, leaving his Oscar behind.
Academy Award Ceremony 1954: Four Awards
Walt Disney achieved a milestone at the March 25, 1954, awards ceremony by becoming the individual with the most Oscar wins (four) in a single year up to that point. He won the Oscar in four award categories: Best Cartoon Short Subject: Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom (1953), Best Documentary Short Subject: The Alaskan Eskimo (1953), Best Documentary Feature: The Living Desert (1953), and Best Two-Reel Short Subject: Bear Country (1953).
Disney Legend Ward Kimball, who had directed Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom, had hoped to be able to walk up and accept the Oscar. However, he was told that since Disney was nominated for multiple awards, “it would be a better show to have Walt go up each time. And it was,” grumbled Ward when I interviewed him in 1996.
After receiving his fourth Oscar that evening, Walt told the audience, “Just gotta say one more word. It’s wonderful, but I think it’s my year to retire.”
Disney’s Ben and Me (1953) was also nominated in the Best Two-Reel Short Subject category along with Bear Country. It was the only animated cartoon in that category.
As Walt’s niece, Patty remembered, “Tom Jones, a Studio publicist, was assigned to take Walt to the Academy Awards one year. Walt told [his wife] Lilly not to bother coming to the event because he didn’t think he was going to win anything. So Walt went to the awards and got so many that the press took photos of him holding all these Oscars. When Tom drove Walt home, Lilly wouldn’t let him in the house because she was so mad that he told her to stay home. She was furious because it had been a big night and she wasn’t with him. So Tom had to drive Walt back to the Studio and [Walt] had to sleep in his apartment at the Studio that night.”
Academy Award Fun Facts
Oscar Bracelet
The largest single collection of Oscars outside of Hollywood is at the Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. In the early 1960s, Walt had a very special 18K gold bracelet fashioned with 20 miniature Oscar statuettes, each of which was engraved underneath with the name of the film for which it was awarded. Walt had to get permission from the Academy to duplicate the trademarked statuettes. Originally, Walt wanted to give his wife Lillian a necklace with these charms, but Lilly said she preferred a bracelet and she wore it often. It is now on display at the Disney Family Museum in San Francisco.
Three Little Pigs
We can thank Walt every time we respectfully use the name “Oscar” to refer to the Academy Award even though he didn’t invent that nickname. At the 1934 ceremony, Walt received an Oscar for the animated short Three Little Pigs that had gotten more than 80 percent of the votes of the Academy for the honor. It was the first award given that evening. Walt came up to the podium with his head covered in bandages because he had been injured in a polo match with Will Rogers, who was the emcee that night.
Screenwriter Frances Marion recalled, “Those who had never won the gold-plated honor referred to it disparagingly as the ‘Oscar’. But when Walt referred to the ‘Oscar’ in his speech, that name took on a different meaning, now that we had heard it spoken with sincere appreciation.”
Mary Poppins
The only feature film Walt produced that was nominated for Best Picture was Mary Poppins in 1964. The film was nominated for 13 awards, and won five of them on Oscar night, April 5, 1965, including Best Actress for Julie Andrews.
“Knowing Hollywood, I never had any hope that the picture [Mary Poppins] would get it,” responded Walt. “As a matter of fact, Disney has never actually been part of Hollywood, you know. I think they refer to us as being in the cornfield in Burbank.”
The Academy Awards Show That Never Was
In the 1960s, a delegation from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were unhappy with the previous year’s Oscar telecast. They came to the Disney Studio for lunch, trying to convince Walt to produce the next Oscar show.
According to author Bob Thomas in his book Walt Disney: An American Original, Walt replied, “Look, we live out here in the cornfield. All these years we’ve been turning out corny entertainment. I’ve never considered myself a big producer, like Louis B. Mayer or Darryl F. Zanuck. I’m not in their class. I don’t think our organization is cut out to make the kind of sophisticated entertainment that an Oscar show should be. And I think the public would resent it if I turned it into a Disney production. No, I think you’d better find someone else to put the show on for you.”
Academy Award Review
To help promote the upcoming release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and to remind audiences of the excellence of Disney animation, the Disney Studio released to theaters, for a limited time, a compilation of five Oscar-winning shorts titled Academy Award Review of Walt Disney Cartoons in May 1937.
The compilation consisted of Flowers and Trees, Three Little Pigs, The Tortoise and the Hare, Three Orphan Kittens and The Country Cousin. The shorts were bridged together with title cards and a narrator.
This compilation was re-released in 1966 and updated with four additional shorts: The Old Mill, Ferdinand the Bull, The Ugly Duckling and Lend A Paw. There was no narration in this version.
Believe it or not, Academy Award Review of Walt Disney Cartoons was released on a bilingual Japanese laserdisc in 1985. The shorts included were Flowers and Trees, Three Little Pigs, The Tortoise and the Hare, Three Orphan Kittens, The Country Cousin, The Old Mill, Ferdinand the Bull, The Ugly Duckling, and Lend A Paw
Special Award
In addition to the special Oscars for Snow White, the creation of Mickey Mouse and the Thalberg Award, Walt shared an honorary Academy Award for the development of the FantaSound system for Fantasia. On February 27, 1941, an Honorary Award shared by Walt Disney, William E. Garity and J.N.A. Hawkins was presented “For their outstanding contribution to the advancement of the use of sound in motion pictures through the production of Fantasia”.
