Trick or Treat!

Today's Halloween treat is a very special work of art from the contemporary master of four color Disney ducks. This wonderful illustration is Don Rosa's homage to Carl Barks' comic book adaptation of animation director Jack Hannah's 1952 Donald Duck cartoon Trick or Treat. Whew. That's a considerable amount of talent in just one sentence. Happy Halloween, everyone!

13 Tombstones: Francis Xavier

REQUIESCAT
Francis Xavier
NO TIME OFF
FOR GOOD
BEHAVIOR
RIP

Our 13th and final tombstone is dead-icated to X. Atencio. (The "X" standing for Xavier.) He joined the Disney Studio in 1938 and worked on numerous animated features through the 1950s. He was the person behind the clever animated title sequences from The Parent Trap and Babes in Toyland. In 1964, Walt Disney asked Atencio to transfer to WED Enterprises to assist in the creation of the Primeval World diorama for Disneyland. He went on to develop dialog and music for attractions such as Adventure Thru Inner Space, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion for which he co-wrote the song Grim Grinning Ghosts. But most importantly, he is the one who penned nearly all the clever verses featured on the now infamous 13 tombstones that make up the family plot at Walt Disney World's Haunted Mansion.

13 Tombstones: Dear Sweet Leota

DEAR SWEET LEOTA
BELOVED BY ALL
IN REGIONS BEYOND NOW,
HAVING A BALL

As most Haunted Mansion enthusiasts know, Madam Leota is the Mansion's resident medium. Leota Tombs was an artist at WED Enterprises. During the Mansion's development, Tombs served as a model stand-in during concept testing for the crystal ball character in the attraction's seance room. She did such an excellent job that the test performance was used in the final version, and the character was named in her honor.

Another Dispatch from Sleepy Hollow

In response to yesterday's post on the Headless Horseman, Jim Korkis passed on some additional information about Disney's adaptation of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow:

I love the Disney version of the Headless Horseman legend. Out here at Walt Disney World, he pops up at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween, on the Haunted Hayride at Ft. Wilderness and of course, instead of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, there were plans for a Headless Horseman dark ride in Fantasyland. The Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World is set in the Hudson River Valley area (home of the legend) and Imagineer Ken Anderson's original concept for a haunted house attraction featured an appearance of the Headless Horseman as a climax.

However, Walt was beat to the animated punch by one of his former co-workers, Ub Iwerks. Iwerks produced an animated short entitled "HEADLESS HORSEMAN". Distributed by Pat Powers/Celebrity Productions on October 1, 1934 and directed by Ub Iwerks. Animation by Al Eugster. Cinecolor (two strip Technicolor). Under the banner of Celebrity Productions after he left the Disney Studio, Iwerks produced three cartoon series from 1930 to approximately 1936: Flip the Frog, Willie Whopper and the ComiColor cartoon fables. The ComiColor Cartoon series were primarily adaptations of classic folklore stories like Jack and the Beanstalk, the Headless Horseman and Sindbad the Sailor. They were produced in Cinecolor, a two color process using a combination of red and blue hues . Many of the cartoons were filmed in a three dimensional effect using a crude multiplane camera Iwerks had built using parts from an old Chevrolet automobile for about $300. These technical improvements never compensated for the lack of a strong story and charismatic characters.

(Yes, instead of Snow White, Peter Pan and Mr. Toad, there were plans for Cinderella--to theme in with the castle, Mary Poppins--riding in upside down umbrellas, and Legend of Sleepy Hollow. However, as costs soared, the Disney Company decided to just re-create attractions that had been done before, but ironically the Imagineers changed these attractions so much--Toad had two separate tracks--that it cost as much or more than the new attractions that were planned. )

Ever notice that the reeds that scare Ichabod were actually re-traced from "The Old Mill"?

Jim's email sent me scrambling back to my Ub Iwerks DVD collections where lo and behold, there was the Headless Horseman cartoon of which he spoke. One interesting observation I made while watching the short: it appears Iwerks originally used the gag where, during the final chase, Ichabod flips himself over in front of his horse and attempts to pull the mount forward and away from their fast approaching nemesis. Disney animators employed the same exact gag in their version of the story as well.

13 Tombstones: Brother Dave

DEAR DEPARTED
BROTHER
DAVE
HE CHASED A
BEAR INTO
A CAVE

Dave Burkhart began his career with Disney in 1967 serving as an artist model maker, building architecture and show models, including some full scale sets and props. He subsequently became a show designer and field art producer, working on attractions such as the Haunted Mansion, Swiss Family Treehouse and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

You Can't Reason With a Headless Man

While Donald Duck's 1952 cartoon Trick or Treat bears the Disney Studio's most direct homage to the Halloween holiday, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow segment from the feature film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad serves up equal amounts of ghostly chills and jack-o'-lantern imagery. For All Hallows Eve is in fact the setting for Ichabod Crane's penultimate encounter with perhaps one of Disney's most underrated villains, the Headless Horseman.

One of the true highlights of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and perhaps one of the most overlooked musical vignettes in Disney films, is the song "The Headless Horseman" from composers Don Raye and Gene de Paul, noted Hollywood talents, both with extensive popular music resumes.

Don Raye transitioned in the mid-1930s from vaudeville entertainment to songwriting, working with other bright young composers, most notably Sammy Cohn. A fortuitous match was made in 1939 when the Andrew Sisters began performing his material. This led to work in Hollywood, first on the 1939 movie Argentine Nights and later the 1941 Abbott and Costello debut film Buck Privates, both of which prominently featured Andrews Sisters' performances. He became a resident song smith for Universal Studios, teaming with Gene de Paul beginning in late 1941 and the two subsequently collaborated on such films as In the Navy, San Antonio Rose, Keep 'Em Flying and Ride 'Em Cowboy. de Paul was also on the Hollywood fast track; that same year he was Oscar nominated for work on the film Hellzapoppin. The two found their way to Disney in the late 1940s, contributing to So Dear to My Heart, Ichabod and Mr. Toad, and Raye later on Alice in Wonderland. Shortly thereafter, dePaul would become especially famous for the musical numbers in MGM's classic Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, released in 1954.

Distinctly reflecting their own musical backgrounds, Raye and de Paul infused the colonial American setting of Sleepy Hollow with the popular music styles of the mid 20th century. Frequent Andrew Sisters co-performer Bing Crosby tells the story via narration and song, and at one point provided vocal instructor Ichabod with his trademark "bo bo bo baba bo" crooning. But the segment's true musical highlight is in fact Crosby's vocalization of villain Brom Bones performance of the Headless Horseman ghost story.

Famous for such wartime hits as "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and "Beat Me Daddy Eight to the Bar," Raye's skills for clever, densely-worded lyrics are clearly evident in the tale of Sleepy Hollow's resident pumpkin thrower:

Now gather round while I elucidate,
On what happens outside when it gets late.
Along about midnight the ghosts and banshees,
Get together for their nightly jamboree.
There's ghosts with horns and saucer eyes,
And some with fangs about this size.
Some short and fat, some tall and thin,
And some don't even bother to where their skin.
I'm telling you brother it's a frightful sight,
To see what goes on Halloween night.

Oh, when the spooks have a midnight jamboree,
They break it up with fiendish glee.
Ghosts are bad but the one that's cursed,
Is the Headless Horseman, he's the worst.
When he goes a jockeying across the land,
Holding his noggin in his hand.
Demons take one look and groan,
And hit the road for parts unknown.
There's no spook like a spook that spurned,
They don't like him and he's really burned.
Swears to the longest day he's dead,
He'll show them that he can get a head.

They say he's tired of his flaming top,
He's got a yen to make a swap.
So he rides one night a year,
To find a head in the hollow here.
And he likes 'em little, he likes 'em big,
Part in the middle, or a wig.
Black or white or even red,
The Headless Horseman needs a head.
With a hip, hip and a clippity clop,
He's out looking for a top to chop.
So don't stop to figure out a plan,
You can't reason with a headless man.

Now if you doubt this tale is so,
I met that spook just a year ago.
Now I didn't stop for a second look,
But made for the bridge that spans the brook.
For once you cross that bridge my friend,
The ghost is through, his power ends.
So when you're riding home tonight,
Make for the bridge with all your might.
He'll be down in the hollow there,
He needs your head. Lookout! Beware!
With a hip, hip and a clippity clop,
He's out looking for a head to chop.
So don't stop to figure out a plan,
You can't reason with a headless man.

"Grim Grinning Ghosts" vocalist Thurl Ravenscroft did an equally fun yet slightly more sinister studio version of the song that was recently included on the iTunes exclusive Walt Disney Records Archive Collection Volume One.

And for more on the Headless Horseman and his connections to the Walt Disney World resort, listen to this week's episode of the WDW Radio Show.

13 Tombstones: Uncle Myall

IN MEMORIUM
UNCLE MYALL
HERE YOU'LL LIE
FOR QUITE A WHILE

Chuck Myall was an art director for WED Enterprises and contributed his skills to attractions such as It's a Small World and the Haunted Mansion. He was also one of the master planners of Walt Disney World.

13 Tombstones: Cousin Huet

REST IN PEACE

COUSIN HUET
WE ALL KNOW
YOU DIDN'T DO IT

Cliff Huet was an architect for WED Enterprises and one of the lead interior designers of the Haunted Mansion.

13 Tombstones: Master Gracey

MASTER GRACEY
LAID
TO REST
NO MOURNING
PLEASE
AT HIS
REQUEST
Farewell

Yale Gracey joined the Walt Disney Studios in 1939 as a layout artist on Pinocchio. He also worked on Fantasia as well as numerous cartoon shorts throughout the 1940s and 1950s. In 1961 he came to WED Enterprises as a special effects and lighting artist. His expertise in the field of special effects was gained via his own personal research and hands-on experimentation. He was responsible for nearly all the special effects in the Haunted Mansion.

13 Tombstones: A Man Named Martin

HERE LIES

A MAN NAMED
MARTIN
THE LIGHTS WENT
OUT ON THIS OLD
SPARTAN

While working at 20th Century Fox in the mid-1950s, Bill "Bud"Martin was recruited by Walt Disney to help in the design and building of Disneyland. His first major area of responsibility was as an art director of Fantasyland. In 1971, he was named Vice President of Design at WED Enterprises, overseeing the master layout of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. Among his projects were Main Street U.S.A. and Cinderella Castle, and he was one of the key designers of the ultilidors than run beneath that park.

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.

13 Tombstones: Mister Sewell

RIP

MISTER SEWELL

THE VICTIM

OF A DIRTY

DUEL

Peaceful Rest

Bob Sewell came on board at WED Enterprises shortly after the opening of Disneyland in 1955. A model shop veteran, Sewell was often in charge of show installations at the park. He was involved in the development of a diverse array of attractions including Nature's Wonderland, the Grand Canyon Diorama, the Submarine Voyage, the Swiss Family Treehouse and the Enchanted Tiki Room.

13 Tombstones: Grandpa Marc

IN MEMORY OF

OUR PATRIARCH

DEAR DEPARTED

Grandpa

Marc

One of Disney's legendary "Nine Old Men"of animation, Marc Davis also stands as one of the most influential and creative forces in the history of theme park design. His clever and highly detailed concepts were the basis for the audio-animatronic vignettes of both Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion, and his unrealized designs for Walt Disney World's Western River Expedition are among the great lost treasures of Disney Imagineering. He also contributed to other celebrated attractions including the Enchanted Tiki Room, the Jungle Cruise and It's a Small World.

More Mad Doctor Madness

2719 Hyperion friend and supporter Jim Korkis sent some additional information about The Mad Doctor that was featured in a post yesterday:

"Yes, you are right that The Mad Doctor was banned in Britain. With Dracula and Frankenstein (1931), the British Board of Film Censors demanded extensive cuts, enforced age restrictions, and outright banning of Hollywood horror films. The issue was “unsuitability” to children. (A) for Adults (H) for Horrific which both meant restricted viewing to those 16 or younger.

"The Mad Doctor was banned by the BBFC because of the skeletons (the "living dead"), not for Pluto being almost cut in half. It was also banned in Britain when it was released on 16mm for home use.

"Mad doctors and scientists were very popular in the 1930s. It was the mistrust of science. Whether it was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1908) which Walt read and was made into a 1920 film version with John Barrymore or the popular 1932 film with Frederic March that won him an Oscar as best actor. Or Dr. Frankenstein. Or Dr. Moreau in The Island of Dr, Moreau (1896) by H.G.Wells. In the book, Moreau is deported from England because of his cruel experiments on pet dogs so goes to a tropical island. This is the book that featured the line “The natives are restless tonight.”

"It was the first ever black and white Mickey Mouse cel set up offered for sale in 1988 and purchased by Steven Spielberg for $64,000. Mickey is at the top of the stairs with his back toward the audience and skeletons are starting to pop out of the stairs. (The next year a black and white cel from Orphans Benefit sold for $450,000.)

"It was the only Mickey Mouse cartoon improperly copyrighted so it fell into public domain.

"The triple XXX also meant poison."

Thanks, Jim!

Image © Walt Disney Company

13 Tombstones: Wathel R. Bender

HERE RESTS

WATHEL R. BENDER

HE RODE TO

GLORY ON

A FENDER

Peaceful

Rest

Wathel Rogers was a long time veteran of the Animation Department before moving to WED Enterprises in the mid-1950s. Initially part of the model department, Rogers' true calling emerged when Wat Disney drafted him for his now famous "Project LittleMan" which was the genesis of the development of audio-animatronics. Within the halls of WED Enterprises, he became known as Mr. Audio-Animatronics and went on to contribute his design and engineering skills to countless theme park attractions until his retirement in 1987.

A Visit to Dr. XXX

It is a near overwhelming task to quantify the sheer brilliance of the 1933 Mickey Mouse cartoon The Mad Doctor.

Director Dave Hand clearly intended to borrow style and design from that era's stark yet very stylized black and white horror films. This seven-minute tour de force is heavy on atmosphere and surprisingly, a little bit more chilling and unsettling than one might expect. So much so that it was considered unsuitable for some audiences by a British film censor, and later, 16mm prints carried a similar warning.

The Mad Doctor employs many standard horror story conventions, beginning with its dark and stormy night opening. It then goes on to blend three somewhat disparate themes--a haunted house filled with booby traps and secret passages, threatening creatures in the form of animated skeletons, and the title character mad doctor and his ambitious plans of body part amalgamation. Let's face it gang, those early Mickey cartoons were not the benign "strolling in the park one day" and "I'll clean up your yard" efforts that characterized his later Technicolor years.

The tone is established quickly when Pluto is violently kidnapped and taken to a skull rock-perched castle, the ominous and threatening features of which are only clearly revealed in split second lightening flashes. Mickey bravely follows in pursuit and quickly encounters the first in a series of comical yet still decidedly scary booby traps, when the castle bridge disassembles as he moves across it. Still teetering high above the crashing waves of the sea, Mickey is literally pulled into the castle's interior. At the same time, a nameplate near the door reveals the villain to be Dr. XXX. This is a distinct aside to Warner Brothers 1932 film Doctor X. That particular film's art direction and set design no doubt inspired Dave Hand and his crew as Mickey and Pluto's subsequent adventures would reveal.

Mickey finds himself in a set piece with all the standard haunted house embellishments. Cauldrons, chains and manacles, skulls and bones all litter the entrance foyer, while a swarm of bats emerge from the darkened recesses. Most striking is Mickey's journey down a secret passage that is, in my opinion, one of the single most amazing pieces of animation from those still rough-around-the-edges early days of cartoon production. In this sequence, as Mickey travels down a claustrophobic passage, the view follows him in a continuous shot as he pivots around a corner and tumbles down a long shaft. My young son, upon viewing this segment of the short, immediately exclaimed, "Wow, that was 3-D!" No, actually that was hand-drawn, traditional animation at its finest, where the background elements were ingeniously animated along with central character.

Following earlier efforts such as The Skeleton Dance and The Haunted House, the comical potential of skeletons is revisited again as Mickey encounters the prank-delivering undead denizens of the doctor's castle. It is here that the very clever designs of the creative team are entertainingly demonstrated, beginning with a coffin-styled cuckoo clock complete with skeletal cuckoo. Equally clever and well-realized is the skeleton-filled stairs that Mickey literally finds himself falling victim too. An ensuing chase scene in which the skeletons lob their own skulls at Mickey builds up the short's kinetic energy, but it's tempered somewhat by the still determined and resilient mouse's encounter with a giant spider skeleton.

At the same time, helpless victim Pluto is mired in troubles of his own. The mad doctor has revealed both himself and his diabolical plans. These plans involve Pluto and an equally terrified chicken and a lot of cutting and dissecting. The doctor's chalkboard diagrams are very funny as is his poetic soliloquy, but Pluto's fear in the scene is so palpable that the short does tangibly shift into a slightly more chilling and for some, no doubt frightening experience. When the mad doctor cuts apart Pluto's shadow, it is almost more disturbing than comical.

Despite his own valiant rescue efforts, Mickey soon finds himself in similar circumstances, and with no hope of escape. The story's happy resolution is only accomplished through the "it's all just a dream" plot device. But subtly, this underlying nightmare context is still a bit unsettling--the villain was never vanquished and the heroes were left to some decidedly grisly fates. I can see why some of those early card-carrying members of the theater-sponsored Micky Mouse Clubs may not have left the theater happily whistling "Turkey in the Straw."

But that was, and is still the joy of those early Mickey Mouse cartoons. Most of these endeavors displayed a plucky irreverence that was ultimately lost or diminished in later years. The Mad Doctor both immersed itself in, and at the same time, satirized Hollywood's then fledgling horror genre to great effect. It is certainly a classic piece of animation, and one of the most notable achievements of the Disney Studio's pre-Technicolor years.

This degree of notoriety served it well in recent years when it was used as the basis for content in the video game Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse. Many of the short's inspired gags and pratfalls translated deftly into challenging game devices.

The Mad Doctor can be found on the Walt Disney Treasures DVD collection Mickey Mouse in Black and White Volume One.

Images from The Mad Doctor © Walt Disney Company

13 Tombstones: Good Old Fred

HERE LIES

GOOD OLD
FRED
A GREAT BIG ROCK
FELL ON HIS HEAD
R.I.P.

Fred Joerger joined the Walt Disney Studios in 1953, coming on board as a set designer and model builder. He, Harriet Burns and Wathel Rogers were the members of WED Enterprises original model shop. He was a master of rock formations, as noted in this passage from his Disney Legends biography:

"Fred's unusual knack for creating gorgeous rockwork out of plaster led to his reputation as Imagineering's "resident rock expert." Among his rocky mountain highlights are the huge stones featured on the Jungle Cruise and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. In fact, he designed and constructed most all rockwork at the Florida theme park for its 1971 opening, including the breathtaking atrium waterfall featured in the Polynesian Resort."

13 Tombstones: Brother Claude

At Peaceful

Rest Lies
BROTHER
CLAUDE
PLANTED HERE
BENEATH THIS
SOD

Brother Claude refers to Walt Disney Studios animation veteran and pioneering Imagineer Claude Coats. He began his career with Disney in 1935 as a background painter, and contributed stunning water color backgrounds to numerous cartoon shorts and also to feature films from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs all the way through Lady and the Tramp. In 1955, Walt Disney recruited Coats to work on concepts and designs for Disneyland, and he subsequently became one of the key talents at WED Enterprises, the precursor to Walt Disney Imagineering.

Bringing his background artist skills to bear, Coats was largely responsible for designing the Haunted Mansion's interior environments.

A Don Rosa Halloween Treat

While Carl Bark's comic book adaptation of the cartoon Trick or Treat is considered by many to be Disney's best Halloween-themed four color endeavor, modern duck scribe Don Rosa contributed a dandy 10-pager to the genre that is equally classic though largely unrecognized.

Published originally in 1987 in Walt Disney Comics & Stories #526, Fit to Be Pied steers entirely clear of the more supernatural themes explored in Barks' Trick or Treat, and instead uses traditional Halloween trappings as the backdrop for another over-the-top conflict between Donald and his arch-rival Neighbor Jones.

The Duck-Jones battles were a staple of Barks' classic run of 10 page stories from Walt Disney Comics & Stories. And in true Don Rosa-fashion, our modern duckman pays loving tribute to those well-crafted neighborhood showdowns. With only the best of intentions, Huey, Dewey and Louie encourage the backyard rivals to set aside their differences and team up for a Jack-O'-Lantern carving contest being sponsored by the mayor of Duckburg. It seems that while Jones has a stock of enormous, prize-winning pumpkins, he lacks Donald's master pumpkin-carving skills. Due to the usual braggadocio and bickering, the partnership lasts a mere four panels. The gauntlet is thrown down and battle lines are quickly drawn. There are no pumpkins left in Duckburg, so Donald has to acquire one from Jones, and Jones soon realizes his carving skills are not what they need to be.

To say things get a little messy would be an understatement. The fates of Jones' pumpkins becomes a splatter-filled garden variety Ten Little Indians as each one befalls a fate predestined by the story's title. Pratfalls build in scale and scope, from Donald's early efforts at simple sabotage to Jones' full scale assault that demolishes most of the duck's house. And along the way, Rosa plants distinct visual clues that ultimately lead to the tale's penultimate climax--a hilarious sight gag that is clever in conception and brilliant in execution.

Unfortunately, Fit to Be Pied has not been reprinted during Gemstone Publishing's recent run of Disney titles that are still readily available. For those willing to search a little, either via Internet or back issue bins, the story was published in the aforementioned Walt Disney Comics Stories #526, and then reprinted in 1996 in the better quality format of Walt Disney Comics & Stories # 606.

Trick or Treat 2007

A mysterious crate has arrived at 2719 Hyperion. For the next two weeks leading up to Halloween, we will unpack its contents and share with you whatever surprises we find. Have your virtual sacks ready as we enjoy a fun countdown to Halloween.