Freeze Frame! - Dancing With the Firehouse Five Plus Two

"The roots of the band germinated in the early 1940's when some of us at the Disney Studio used to gather in my office at lunchtime to listen to my records of such jazz legends as King Oliver, Baby Dodds, Jelly Roll Morton, and Louis Armstrong. Since most of our little nucleus of old-time jazz lovers had played various musical instruments back in school, we decided to really get into the spirit of the music by playing along with the records. Then one day the phonograph broke down right in the middle of "Royal Garden Blues." Undaunted, we kept right on playing and found to our amazement that we sounded pretty good all by ourselves!"

-Ward Kimball

The Firehouse Five Plus Two was no mere musical novelty act. Popular with both the general public and jazz music enthusiasts, the group's notoriety extended well beyond their roots at the Disney Studios. In a 1999 article for the Frisco Cricket, writer Hal Smith described the origin of the band's firefighting motif:

With leader Ward Kimball, trombone; Clarke Mallery, clarinet; Frank Thomas, piano; Ed Penner, bass sax and Jim McDonald on drums, the group billed itself as the “Hugageedy 8” and later as the “San Gabriel Valley Blue Blowers.” Eventually they picked up a trumpet man—Johnny Lucas—and a fine banjoist: Harper Goff. The final evolution came about when the Kimballs discussed the idea of taking the band along on a Horseless Carriage Club caravan from Los Angeles to San Diego. The only vehicle Ward Kimball could locate which was large enough to hold the band and old enough to qualify for the caravan was a 1914 American LaFrance fire truck. Keeping with the “fire” motif, Kimball acquired genuine fire helmets and red fireshirts to outfit the band. The newly-outfitted band was rechristened as the “Firehouse Five Plus Two."

Being born out of the Disney Studio, it was only fitting that the Firehouse Five Plus Two find their way into a Disney-produced cartoon. In 1953, they appeared in the Goofy short How to Dance, and were even acknowledged on the short's title card.

Freeze Frame! - The Sport Goofy Pile-Up

Happily, the Goofy cartoon How to Hook Up Your Home Theater is available again on iTunes after a brief hiatus. 2719 reader Shane Snyder was amazingly quick on the remote when he found this series of Sport Goofy cameos as part of a football player pile-up near the end of the short. Featured in the montage are characters from three separate Goofy cartoons. (Well four, if you count the obvious reference to How to Play Football.)

A hockey player from Hockey Homicide is followed by Goofy and his horse from the How to Ride a Horse segment of The Reluctant Dragon. Finally, and hilariously, is the instructional stick figure from the short How to Play Golf.
Some of the other not quite so hidden gags in the short include the bookshelf photos we featured in a prior post, references to Mickey Mouse and Dopey on the television box, a cuckoo clock inspired by the short How to Ski, and a cameo by Cleo from Pinocchio.

Another eagle-eyed reader spotted the stadium scoreboard near the beginning of the cartoon that identified the two football teams as the Geefs and the Dawgs--a distinct tribute to Goofy's two other cartoon identities, his early 1930s moniker of Dippy Dawg and his 1950s everyman persona of George Geef.

Special thanks to Shane and the other readers who contacted us via email and the comments section to point out these other great gags and tributes.


Explore the 2719 Hyperion Archives:

Freeze Frame! - Goofy's Photo Gallery
The Violent Mayhem of Hockey Homicide
How to Hook Up Your Home Theater

Freeze Frame! - Goofy's Photo Gallery

Walt Disney, John Lasseter, Clarabelle Cow and Goofy's debut in Mickey's Revue are all featured in this blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment from How To Hook Up Your Home Theater. They are quickly cast off the bookshelf to make room for a speaker component.

Freeze Frame! - Cowboy Camp at the Triple R

In Pixar's classic Toy Story 2, Andy heads to cowboy camp, setting off the chain of events that sends Woody, Buzz and company on journeys of both adventure and self realization. But just exactly where was cowboy camp? Andy's shirt provides the answer: the Triple R Ranch. This was the setting of three Mickey Mouse Club serials, The Adventures of Spin and Marty, The Further Adventures of Spin and Marty, and The New Adventures of Spin and Marty. The series were featured on the Mickey Mouse Club from 1955 to 1957.

Campers there were distinguished by their fashionable Triple R Ranch white t-shirts, as modeled here by series stars David Stollery and Tim Considine.

Freeze Frame! - Early Florida Tourists

Donald Duck visited the Sunshine State nearly two decades before Walt Disney World emerged out of central Florida swampland in late 1971. Donald and his nephews toured similar swampy landscapes in the 1953 cartoon Don's Fountain of Youth, released on May 30, 1953. The cartoon makers were likely guiding Donald and the boys through an area near St. Augustine. They travel along US Highway 1, and come upon the site of an old Spanish fort, dated 1571. It would appear that background artist Art Riley drew inspiration from both Castillo de San Marcos and the Fort Mantanzas National Monument (pictured) located in Saint Augustine. The Castillo de San Marcos was constructed during the latter decades of the 17th century; Fort Mantanzas was built in the mid-18th century.

Freeze Frame! - Gooseflesh 9000

Mickey, Donald and Goofy were in fact the original ghostbusters, chasing down troublesome spirits in the 1937 cartoon Lonesome Ghosts. They were the proprietors of Ajax Ghost Exterminators. Their phone number, as listed in a newspaper advertisement, was the fitting Gooseflesh 9000.

Freeze Frame! - Lucky Number 13

Disney cartoon makers loved to associate Donald Duck with the unlucky number 13 whenever they could. One entire cartoon revolved around the Friday the 13th premise (Donald's Lucky Day) and and his fictional birthday was celebrated in the film The Three Caballeros on Friday the 13th as well. The short Donald's Happy Birthday identified his birthday as March 13.

The "13" gag was employed twice in the cartoon Donald Gets Drafted, released on this day in 1942. Donald's draft notice cites order number 13, and he subsequently reports to Draft Board No. 13.

Also of note in the short--the draft notice reveals Donald's middle name to be Fauntleroy. And some of the sidewalk posters outside the Draft Board are significantly similar in style to designs produced by Walt Disney himself while with the Red Cross in France at the end of World War I.

Freeze Frame! - Hench's Palace of Pleasure

Here's a wonderful and very funny Freeze Frame! related to yesterday's post about amusement parks. The amusement pier background created for the Donald Duck cartoon Straight Shooters, and later used again in Hold That Pose and Father's Weekend, features a subtle but hilarious tribute to one particular studio veteran. One of the pier's entertainment venues sports a sign advertising Hench's Palace of Pleasure, a clear reference to Disney legend and famed Imagineer John Hench.

Freeze Frame! - Valiant & Valiant Newspaper Clippings

It is by no means an understatement to say that nearly every frame of the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit would qualify for Freeze Frame! status. While it has long been a fun and challenging task to identify all the cartoon character cameos in the movie, there is a wealth of details in the set dressings that are equally fun and entertaining. Newspaper clippings in Eddie Valiant's dusty office reveal some of the earlier and significant cases of Valiant and Valiant Private Investigators.

Freeze Frame! - The Edwin Parks Trophy

In the 1949 Goofy cartoon Tennis Racquet, the victor is awarded the Edwin Parks Trophy. But just who is Edwin Parks? The answer is not rooted in the sport of tennis, but in the ever mischievous antics of Disney Studio staffers.

Ed Parks was an animation veteran who began his career at the Hyperion Avenue studio in the 1930s. According to Parks' son Gary, his father " . . . attended Yale University Art School, with the idea of being a mural painter. During this time, he answered an ad posted on a bulletin board, 'Disney Needs Artists.' This soon led to his moving to California and a job at Disney, at the original Hyperion studio location, and then at the "new" (present) studio in Burbank. As did many animators, he began as an in-betweener, then as an assistant, and spent many years as an effects animator before moving into character animation on both features and many short subjects."

In 1961, Parks left Disney to join Hanna Barbera, where he stayed until his retirement in 1978. He passed away in 1999.

David Lesjak adds:

My research indicates Ed Parks started at the Studio as an Effects Animator on March 7, 1938 and by 1941 had transferred into the Publicity Art Department. He and a couple of other artists helped Hank Porter create insignia designs when Porter was overwhelmed with requests.

Studio employment records indicate Parks left on September 3, 1942 for military service and upon his return on October 30, 1945, he was assigned to work in the Animation Department.

Parks left the Studio in 1961. His only on-screen credit that I've been able to locate was as an Effects Animator on 101 Dalmations.

Image © Walt Disney Company

Freeze Frame! - Peet's Ice

Susie the Little Blue Coupe was largely the creation of Disney Legend and veteran story man Bill Peet. Peet worked extensively on the studios animated features and was responsible for conceptualizing and writing both 101 Dalmatians and The Sword in the Stone. He would retire from Disney into a very successful second career as an author and artist of children's books.

A homage to Peet in the Susie short takes the form of an ice struck that the little car follows through traffic.

Images © Walt Disney Company

Freeze Frame! - Mickey's Polo Team

While the 1936 short Mickey's Polo Team is best remembered for its many movie star caricatures, it also features a number of scenes that serve up a veritable who's who of Disney Studio cartoon characters from the mid 1930s. Most prominent are Mickey, Donald, Goofy and the Big Bad Wolf as the players for the Mickey Mousers team, who square off against the Movie Stars team comprised of screen comedians Charlie Chaplin, Harpo Marx and Laurel and Hardy.

But even more interesting are the numerous personalities that fill the grandstand:

1. Legs Sparrow, one of the three prime suspects from the Silly Symphony Who Killed Cock Robin.

2. Peter and Polly Penguin from the Silly Symphony Peculiar Penguins.

3. Three of the many miniature Mickey orphans that appeared in the shorts Orphans Benefit and Orphans Picnic. Because there are three, I identified them as such rather than as Morty and Ferdy who made their lone screen appearance in Mickey's Steamroller.

4. Cock Robin and a distinctly off-model incarnation of Jenny Wren from Who Killed Cock Robin. The Jenny Wren character was in fact a caricature of Mae West, though the resemblance is not apparent in this particular version.

5. The Wise Little Hen from the Silly Symphony of the same name. That short is best known for the debut of Donald Duck.

6. King Midas and Goldie from the Silly Symphony The Golden Touch.

7. The title character from the Silly Symphony The Flying Mouse, who is accompanied by his mother.

8. Ambrose and Dirty Bill from the Silly Symphony The Robber Kitten.

9. Pluto and his occasional girlfriend Fifi.

10. The Three Little Pigs surround famous child star Shirley Temple.

11. Two unnamed rabbits possibly derived from the Easter-themed Silly Symphony Funny Little Bunnies.

In separate scenes, Max Hare from The Tortoise and the Hare and Toby Tortoise Returns shares the screen with film star Edna May Oliver . . .

. . . while Clarabelle Cow swoons over ladies man Clark Gable.

Cheering the Movie Stars team in another area of the grandstand are a number of other notable Hollywood personalities of the era:

Clockwise from top left are Charles Laughton (from his title role in Henry VIII), Eddie Cantor, Greta Garbo, W. C. Fields and Harold Lloyd.

Freeze Frame! - Maurice at the Crossroads

In the past, we have pointed out Freeze Frame! homages to characters from Beauty and the Beast--the Beast in Aladdin, and Mrs. Potts and Chip in Tarzan--but the film itself has one especially interesting detail of note.

When Belle's father Maurice becomes lost in the woods, a post of weather-worn direction signs provides little in the way of help. Likely because the faded letters indicate destinations not typically found in a fantasy-based France of long ago. Most distinct are the locations of Anaheim and Valencia. While the reference to Anaheim is an obvious hat tip to Disneyland, there seems to be competing theories among Disney fans as to the meaning of Valencia. The obvious connection is that Valencia is the home of CalArts, the Disney-founded performing arts institute. Many of the school's alumni worked on Beauty and the Beast.

Less likely, in my opinion, is the idea that the signs represent the perceived theme park rivalry between Disneyland and Valencia's Magic Mountain. A third sign, above the others and slightly obscured, has been identified by some as Newhall, a community not far from Valencia. That and other near-indecipherable signs on the post likely represent locations that bear personal connections to animators and other talent who worked at Walt Disney Feature Animation during the production of the film.

Freeze Frame! - Bug City is All in the Family

Pixar is famous for inside jokes and this is especially true of the Bug City scene from A Bug's Life. When Flick arrives in the big city in search of warrior bugs, he is literally surrounded by thrown away cartons and containers whose brand names allude to family members of the film's creative team. Most notably, the names of director John Lasseter's five sons, Joey, P.J., Bennett, Sam and Jackson are represented on a soup cup, a soda bottle, a sardine can, a jar lid and a pretzel box respectively. John's wife Nancy has her maiden name Tague displayed on a wine bottle that sits in a corner of the bar.

A Bug's Life is filled with numerous other references, from Pizza Planet to Lost in Space to even the Broadway incarnation of The Lion King. But my particular favorite is the nod to Walt Disney Studios veteran Joe Grant. The Pixar folks salute Grant via the box of Casey Jr. Cookies, manufactured by the J. Grant Bakery. Casey Jr. is the circus train from Dumbo; Joe Grant is credited as one of that film's writers.

Freeze Frame! - Mrs.Potts in the Jungle

While by no means a "hidden detail," this cameo appearance by Mrs. Potts and Chip in Tarzan was still a fun discovery nonetheless. At the rate that Terk and her friends were "trashin' the camp," one must wonder if these slightly less animated Beauty and the Beast incarnations managed to survive the encounter.

Freeze Frame! - Classic Hollywood Monsters

Many, many classic Hollywood monsters have become ingrained in our popular culture, and the Universal Studios incarnations of the Frankenstein monster and Dracula have in many ways become icons of the Halloween season. Disney has had little association with this particular film genre. But for a brief moment in 1932, these two particular characters, along with Paramount Pictures rendition of Mister Hyde, all made a collective cameo appearance in the Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey's Gala Premiere.

Bela Lugosi's Dracula, Boris Karloff's Frankenstein monster and Fredric March's villainous Mister Hyde were all just recent Hollywood arrivals, with each of their films only having been released the prior year. They were just but a few of the nearly twenty celebrities caricatured for the short.

Freeze Frame! - Canine Cameos

Oliver and Company certainly does not stand at the forefront of Disney feature animation, but it is a fun and entertaining endeavor nonetheless. It was visually and stylistically more akin to much earlier forbears such as 101 Dalmatians and The Rescuers than to the Disney animation renaissance films that immediately followed its 1988 release, yet was innovative in its use of computers and computer assisted animation.

In the musical number "Why Should I Worry," the film plays a very quick yet still distinct homage to the Disney dogs that came before. Peg, Jock and Trusty from Lady and the Tramp take notice of the Dodger's musical antics, and Pongo from 101 Dalmatians strains at his leash so to be a part of the dancing canine entourage.

Images © Walt Disney Company

Freeze Frame! - They're Off

Director Jack Hannah and his crew really appear to have enjoyed themselves when making the 1948 Goofy cartoon short They're Off. Similar to elements in prior cartoons such as The Nifty Nineties and Hockey Homicide, a racing form makes reference to the short's own makers as well as other Disney Studio personnel.

Horse owners include Hannah, Campbell Grant, Riley Thomson, Al Bertino, Yale Gracey, John Hench, John Sibley, Art Babbit, Ken Anderson, Charles Phillippi and Andy Engman. Among the jockeys are Bill Berg, Volus Jones and Hugh Hennesy.

Hannah, Gracey and background artist Howard Dunn are also alluded to on a page of scrawled notes and formulas.


Still mysteries to me are the following names: M. Satterwhite, B. Selk, Toby, M. Greenberg, B. Newman, Bobby N., F. Bresson, R. Carlson, D. Link, T. Witmer and A. Scott. I am hoping that some of the ever so resourceful readers here can help identify any or all of these equestrian notables. I will update the post accordingly.

Edit-From Hans Perk:

Around this time (more precise in July 1946), Jack Hannah shared his room 2C-6 with his assistant director Bee Selck. Mary Satterwhite was in 2C-7, and in 2C-5 we find M. Greenberg, Yale Gracey and Thelma Witmer (bg painter) - next door to Howard Dunn, Don Griffith and Eustace Lycett in 2C-4. Frank Bresson in 3D-14, Robert Carlson (animator) in 1F-3 (with Russ Dyson), Dorothy Link in 2F-7 (with Jack Bruner and Chuck Wheeler), Art Scott in 2A-3, Toby Toblemann (ass. dir.) in 2A-7. No Newman at that time...

Also of note is a wonderful background pan near the beginning of the short that features numerous books on horses and racing. Funny bits include authors Pickham and Weep and titles Mother Hubbard's Selections and Know Your Nags.

Images © Walt Disney Company

Freeze Frame! - Mickey and Company Under the Sea

Here's a classic Freeze Frame! from The Little Mermaid, the feature that essentially ushered in Disney's animation renaissance of the early 1990s. Mickey, Donald and Goofy were all on hand for Sebastian's ill fated concert near the beginning of the film. Maybe this is where the trio ended up after their ship went down in the classic 1938 cartoon Boat Builders. An even keener eye will spot a number of mer-people throughout the same undersea audience sporting Mickey Mouse ears.

Freeze Frame! - A Trail Mix-Up Mystery

2719 Hyperion reader Jason Saldivar contacted me after last week's Rollercoaster Rabbit Freeze Frame! to point out another great Roger Rabbit detail, this one in the 1993 cartoon Trail Mix-Up. When Roger goes into a full-blown panic over a very small bug, the green-fumed insecticide he uses carries the brand name "MINK-OFF." This is a clever tribute to Rob Minkoff, the film's co-executive producer. Minkoff also worked as an animator on several Disney features including The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective and The Little Mermaid.

Jason also presented me with a Freeze Frame! mystery of sorts when he pointed out this other very interesting detail also from Trail Mix-Up. During the sawmill sequence, a small wanted poster featuring the picture of young boy flashes past in a real blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment. Just who is this unidentified lad?

I have to admit that up until just moments before putting together this post, I was still stymied. Then recognition suddenly dawned on me. The reference is as equally obscure as its moment in the film.
The character is from the Disney-produced 1992 animated short Off His Rockers. Here's a description of the film from Dave Smith's Disney A-Z:

Special experimental cartoon, making some use of computer animation; released on July 17, 1992. The magical tale of a young boy who has abandoned his faithful rocking horse playmate in favor of the latest video games. Unwilling to be "put out to pasture," the wooden horse uses some inventive and hilarious means to remind his fickle friend of the great times they used to have when his imagination was free to roam. Soon the boy is back in the saddle again as he gallops off into the sunset in search of exciting new adventures.

The connecting thread between Off His Rockers and Trail Mix-Up? Both cartoons were produced at Disney-MGM Studios and both were directed by Barry Cook. Cook would go on to direct Mulan, also produced at the Florida studio.

Off His Rockers was released in theaters with the Disney feature Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, and was subsequently included on the laser disc edition of that same film. It has been by-and-large unseen outside of those two presentations.

Thanks again to Jason for forwarding all this on. And for another fun Freeze Frame! from Trail Mix-Up, check this earlier post from right here at 2719.

Images © Walt Disney Company