In a 2010 interview, Mike Bonifer, responsible for the Disney Family Album series in the 1980s with his partner L.G. Weaver, told me more about its origins.
“I wanted to make Walt Disney's life story and Jim Jimirro [the founding president of The Disney Channel] decided it should be a mini-series. I wrote a four-part mini-series with L.G. Weaver, who was my co-author on that book about Notre Dame football, Out of Bounds.
“The four parts were: 'Walt and Mickey,' about Walt’s childhood through the birth and popularity of Mickey Mouse; 'The Boy Who Would Be King,' about the tumultuous great-and-awful events between Snow White and World War II; 'A Castle at the End of Main Street,' about the creation of Disneyland; and 'Tomorrow,' when Walt’s failing health and his utopian dream of EPCOT had him battling time on two fronts.
“The screenplay was 500 pages long and the Disney Archives has a copy. I put two years into that project [1984-1986]. We spent six months just on research. Traveled to places where Walt lived. Talked to people who had known Walt like Clem Flickinger, Rush Johnson, Hazel George.
“I talked with Hazel on her deathbed for two consecutive days and she told me everything from the first day she met Walt up to his death. Most of it was too personal to put in a studio-sanctioned project. However, there are certain things in the script that don’t exist anywhere else.
“Then Michael Eisner came on board. His reader, Chris Vogler called me up and said, 'I shouldn’t be doing this but wanted to tell you that this is the best thing I ever read.' Vogler went on to author the book The Screenwriter’s Journey. So it was not surprising when Cardon [Walker Jr.] and I went in to see Eisner and he was all excited about the script and we thought it was going into production. He gave a few notes and wanted a final polish.
“However, around that time, Eisner was on the cover of Time magazine and he was being hailed as the new Disney and, suddenly, he started putting roadblocks in the way of the project. As the 'new Disney,' he didn’t want comparison with the original.”
There were other issues that prevented the mini-series from being made, including lack of support from the Disney family; Roy E. Disney feeling there was not enough about his father in the script. and the leadership changing at the Disney Channel. Four actors would have been cast in the roles of Walt at various stages of his life. Bonifer envisioned actor Kevin Kline playing Walt for one or more segments.
Disney Legend Sam McKim drew the storyboards for the project.
Over the years, there have been several attempts to tell Walt’s story with actors portraying him.
Thomas Ian Nicholas (perhaps best known for his role as “Kevin Myers” in the American Pie film series) portrays a young Walt Disney in the film Walt Before Mickey (2015). Olan Rogers portrays Walt Disney in the independent film As Dreamers Do (2014).
Christopher Purves played Walt Disney in the opera, The Perfect American, which showed a flawed man.
The Perfect American, a new opera by Phillip Glass, adapted from the novel by Peter Stephan Jungk, featured British baritone Christopher Purves as Walt Disney. It debuted in Madrid, Spain, on January 22, 2013, and then had a London production on June 1, 2013 by the English National Opera. The two-act opera focused on Walt as a flawed, dying man haunted by unpleasant visions from his past.
Glass' project began in the United States, when Belgian opera impresario Gerard Mortier commissioned it for the struggling New York City Opera in 2008. When he felt he was not given a sufficient enough budget, Mortier took The Perfect American to Teatro Real in Spain when he became its artistic director in 2010.
Purves told the Independent on May 30, 2013: “I love it when you can find some unpleasantness in a character. We all know people who are terribly nice, yet you think they're probably axe murderers underneath. There's a sentimental side to some people that I think can show that deep down in their psyche there's something rather disturbed.”
“I don't think Walt Disney was a horrible man, but there were many sides to him, including the ruthless businessman with an empire to protect—and we arrive at the opera with that paranoia fully intact,” he said. “People who create these monoliths often have a problem with relinquishing power and life: what's happening to them, what's their legacy, what's it all been for?”
Purves appeared in 11 of the 12 scenes of the opera.
Director Phelim McDermott said, “Behind the perfection of the animation and the vision there's the fact that he [Walt] was a human being with ambition and had maybe some not so nice aspects to his character. People who worked with him said that they loved him because he was a great visionary, but he was scary because of his perfectionism. That's one of the themes of the opera: if you create something that's perfect, you simultaneously create its own shadow in the background.”
Not surprisingly, Walt is shown to be a megalomaniac, tyrannical, racist, misogynist, anti-Semite and Nazi sympathizer. All of these claims have been widely and factually debunked over the years, but there are still people who believe these accusations to be true.
As esteemed Disney historian Michael Barrier said, “Walt haters are beyond the reach of facts. They are simply not interested in the facts at all. Since Walt Disney's life is a blank to most people (even though almost everyone knows his name), it will be all too easy for even sophisticated opera goers to assume that Glass' Perfect American has more than a kernel of truth in it, especially since Jungk's lousy book is the source and it has been praised, absurdly, by people who should know better, and probably do.”
“The basic idea, as so often with efforts to diminish Walt Disney, is that just about everything he did and said was the product of a neurotic obsession, a bogus idea that permeates so many examinations of Walt today,” Barrier said. “The problem is that the opera will be seen by precisely that educated, sophisticated audience that is already disposed to look down on Walt and his works, and that will find its prejudices reinforced and validated.”
You can view an excerpt from the opera of Walt arguing with the malfunctioning Audio-Animatronics President Lincoln figure.
At the age of 22, Michael McKinlay made his first trip to the Magic Kingdom in Florida and was inspired to explore the relationship between Walt Disney and his older brother Roy. Intrigued by the dichotomies between the two brothers, he wrote a play titled Walt & Roy in 1982 as his thesis play at the University of Alberta in Canada. The Theatre Network in Edmonton staged the play for the first time in 1986.
It won the Canadian Writers’ Guild Award and was nominated for the Governor General’s Award, Canada’s equivalent of the Pultizer Prize. It continued to be performed by theater companies in Canada for 12 years.
In July 30, 1998, it received its first American production at the Glaxa Studios theater on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. It ended its run on September 12, 1998. The two person play focused on the night before the two brothers have to meet with the bankers to try to get a loan to complete the unfinished animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
They are trapped together at the studio because of a driving rainstorm. (There was no rainstorm that night but the playwright uses that conceit to establish why neither can leave. He also wanted to suggest “it was a dark and stormy night” for theatrical effect.) The set was decorated with sketches by Michael Laughlin of Snow White storyboards and concept art.
Actor John Allore, a producer for the Bare Stage Theater company, performed as Walt Disney and Tom Babuscio played Roy. The play opens with a drunken Walt sitting behind his desk at the Hyperion Studio with a handgun and a half empty bottle of Jim Beam whiskey as he contemplates suicide. It is up to Roy to get him back into shape before the meeting the next morning.
“There are many stories about Walt,” McKinlay said. “I’m not vilifying him in any way but talking about the creative process. This portrays Disney as the human being that he was. Playwrights are always looking for that one moment of decision and, to me, this seemed to be it.
“When he was in his 30s, Walt was really a Doug Fairbanks kind of guy. This is letting an audience see him as this dashing, good-looking guy, whereas Roy was rather paunchy and just recovering from TB. You look for dichotomies.'
Allore told the Los Angeles Times on July 26, 1998 about his approach to playing Walt Disney: “I ignored the Walt Disney we saw in pictures and films but I did watch Mickey Mouse. Early on, he was a little pest. He was game for anything and I think that was a good place to start. Babuscio [who played Roy] has to have the gravity that counterpointed Walt’s fancy and sense of melodrama. We’re very curious about what Disney’s corporate ranks and Disney fans will think and we welcome them with open arms. We come in peace.”
Director Robert Lane said, “Thematically, I don’t think the play is anything larger than art versus commerce, practicality versus the dream. It’s about as good an illustration of that as I’ve seen. This is not a hatchet job.”
The play has basically two belligerent and immature people yelling insults at each other and rife with factual errors, including stating that Ub Iwerks was still working at the Disney Studio during the production of Snow White.
He wasn’t. He had left several years earlier. Roy chides Walt that Ub is the real reason for the success of the company. At the end of the first act, Walt points the gun at Roy and mocks him that he is better off dead. Earlier, he stole Roy’s car keys and thrown Roy’s clothes down an incinerator. These things never happened either.
Another production of the play was performed January 2000 in St. Louis by the Midnight Company at the St. Marcus Theatre, with co-founders Joe Hanrahan as Walt and David Wassilak as Roy.
“I found a review [of the Los Angeles production] of Walt & Roy in the Hollywood Reporter, and chased down what seemed to be a couple of dream roles for myself and my then-partner Dave Wassilak,” Hanrahan said. “When the script by Michael McKinlay arrived, his agent warned us it wasn’t perfect, and we could cut what and where we wanted.
“We actually cut too little, blinded by the fabulous concept of the play—a drunken, gun-toting Walt and his trying-to-keep-him-and-it-all-together Roy on the night before they were to visit bankers to get a loan to produce the first full-length cartoon, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” he said.
“The opportunity to play Walt was a joy,” Hanrahan said. “Alternately known as one of the more creative geniuses to ever grace the movie industry as well as Hollywood’s Dark Prince (often referred to as a tyrant at his studio who believed that everyone had one—but only one—good idea), the role gave me the opportunity to explore both sides. And having visited Walt Disney World many times with the family, I felt I had some idea of what paths his mind and creativity took.”
The reviews for both American productions praised the actors, but assailed the script as pretty bad with no dramatic structure, too talky and meandered along for much too long.
An upcoming independent comedy film entitled The Further Adventures of Walt’s Frozen Head offers an entirely unique portrayal of Walt.
During his yearly “de-thaw” to oversee the direction of his company and guard his creative legacy, Walt demands to be allowed up from the Utilidors to finally see his park, Walt Disney World. When management refuses to do so, he recruits a low-level theme park cast member named Peter to kidnap him for a day in the Magic Kingdom.
Significant portions of the film were shot on Walt Disney World property without the knowledge of the Disney Company. It has not yet been announced who is portraying the head that will be digitally incorporated into the final film.
The first actor to portray Walt Disney in a theatrical motion picture was Walter Fenner. Fenner was born in July 1886 and died in Los Angeles, California on November 7, 1947.
Walter Fenner, in Once Upon a Time, was the first actor to play Walt Disney in a theatrical motion picture.
In the 1930s and 1940s, it was debatable whether the biggest star of the Disney Studios was Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White or …Walt Disney himself. The name 'Walt Disney' was becoming as well-known as his animated creations but, like most of the Hollywood movie moguls, Walt would have been difficult to recognize by most ordinary people meeting him in public, until the popularity of his television show.
While many people have remarked on Walt's amazing acting abilities, he was also very shy and in fact, didn't originally want to host his own television show. So when Columbia Pictures needed the character of Walt Disney, they found someone else than the man himself to play the part of Walt Disney.
The 90-minute film Once Upon a Time (1944) was based upon a radio play, 'My Client Curly' by Norman Corwin. Theatrical promoter Jerry Flynn (played by Cary Grant) needs to come up with $100,000 by the end of the week or the theater that houses his productions will be sold to recover his debts.
As he leaves the theater, he runs into a 9-year-old boy who claims that he can make a caterpillar dance for a nickel. Flynn holds up the cardboard box with a hole punched in it and while the boy plays 'Yes Sir, That's My Baby' on his harmonica, the caterpillar named Curly apparently dances.
During the film, the audience never gets a chance to see Curly actually dancing. Flynn sees a chance to make his fortune and becomes the boy's partner. With his promotional skills, he gets international attention for this little miracle. While Flynn prevents scientists from dissecting the dancing caterpillar, he does fall prey to an offer from an unusual source… Walt Disney.
Mr. Dunhill (Paul Stanton), who represents Mr. Disney, approaches Flynn about the possibility of buying Curly.
“Mr. Disney's thinking of making a picture using a live caterpillar with an animated background,” says Dunhill, who suggests that Walt is prepared to pay any reasonable sum. Of course, Flynn instantly insists on $100,000 and emphasizes the price is “no more and no less” in order to save his theater.
Dunhill is taken aback until Flynn smiles and says: 'What's the market value of a fairy tale? Supposing somebody brought Mr. Disney a live Mickey Mouse?'
At one point in the film when the Disney Studios tries to negotiate for a lower price, Flynn has a phone conversation with Dunhill. In Dunhill's office you can clearly see a framed photo of Walt Disney surrounded by two Charlotte Clark plush dolls of Jose Carioca and Donald Duck.
Finally, Flynn gets a call from Los Angeles. It is Walt Disney himself. Walter Fenner is turned sideways and the lighting in his office is dim so his face is obscured. He speaks in a confident Midwestern-sounding voice that had me believing the first time I ever saw the film that this was indeed Walt Disney making a cameo appearance as a lark.
After all, Columbia once distributed the Disney animated short cartoons. On Walt’s desk is a large Charlotte Clark plush Mickey Mouse doll.
“Hello, Flynn. This is Walt Disney. Well, Curly is an internationally famous figure now. He really doesn't belong to you. He belongs to the world just like Mickey Mouse does. And we're paying you your price,” said the genial Walt impersonator.
The biggest fantasy element in the film is that a cash-strapped Walt during this time period would so easily come up with $100,000 to buy a caterpillar he had never seen.
Of course, Walt isn't aware of the bond between Curly and the young boy and that Flynn promised the boy to never sell Curly. That complication causes some problems that result in a surprise ending in keeping with the realistic fantasy of the rest of the film.
Once Upon A Time was released May 11, 1944. Why has the fame of being the first actor to play Walt Disney escaped Walter Fenner? Well, for one thing, he is not credited on the film as playing the part of Walt Disney, perhaps to convince audiences that they saw the real Walt. However, dozens of other performers including Lloyd Bridges playing an aviator captain are not credited either.
Fenner was just a journeyman actor. He had had some experience on the Broadway stage before coming to Hollywood and working in several low budget films.
The same year this film was released he also performed in two Henry Aldrich films: Henry Aldrich's Little Secret and Henry Aldrich Plays Cupid, but he played different characters in each film showing how unrecognizable he was to a general audience. Fenner died just three years after being the man who was Walt Disney.
Interestingly, the film was originally going to star Humphrey Bogart and Rita Hayworth in the roles played by Grant and Janet Blair. Hayworth refused to appear in the film and was put on suspension. Bogart went on to another film project and Brian Donlevy was to take his place, but delays resulted in him leaving the film, as well. Grant expressed interest in the film and was cast.
In the years following Walt's death, other performers have appeared as Walt Disney. Len Cariou, who might be better known to audiences for his Tony Award-winning performance as the demon barber Sweeney Todd from the Broadway musical production of the same name became Uncle Walt for the CBS made-for-television biography A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story (October 22,1995).
The television movie was based on Funicello’s 1994 autobiography. The screenplay adaptation of the book was done by John McGreevey and Peter Torokvei.
Cariou is a popular and prolific performer who has had continuing roles on television series like Murder She Wrote, Blue Bloods, Damages, and Brotherhood, as well as a plethora of guest roles on everything from Star Trek: Voyager to The Outer Limits to CSI and The West Wing.
The Los Angeles Times review on October 21, 1995 stated: “Also fun are cameos by Frankie Avalon, Dick Clark and Shelley Fabares as themselves, and Len Cariou's avuncular charm as Walt Disney. None of 'Uncle Walt's' alleged darker side colors Funicello's affectionate and grateful remembrance of the generous mentor who made her modest fairy-tale success possible.”
Earlier in 1991, director Robert Minkoff, who among his many impressive credits include directing The Lion King and Stuart Little, cast a performer making his official acting debut in the role of Walt Disney for a five-minute, live-action film titled Mickey's Audition (sometimes called Mickey’s Big Break) featuring cameos by folks like Mel Brooks and Angela Lansbury.
The film, which chronicled how Mickey Mouse was discovered for motion pictures by Walt himself, was done for the Disney-MGM Studios theme park Screen Test attraction but was never shown there. From 1994-1998, it ran at the Main Street Cinema at the Magic Kingdom. The actor portraying Walt Disney was his nephew, Roy Edward Disney, who many people felt looked eerily like his uncle.
In Part Two will have an up-close look at how Tom Hanks, in his own words, prepared for the role of Walt Disney in the film Saving Mr. Banks (2014).
