1963 Fletcher Markle Interviews Walt Disney

you're a man who's famous for many thing not the lishus building a better Mouse arrow has been be paranoid or for 30 fighters I'm dating the beginning of that path of course from 1928 in the release of Steamboat Willie the picture that introduced sound to the cartoon and Mickey Mouse to the world was it actually the first cartoon in which Mickey appeared yes and which Mickey appeared yes but I was making cartoons long before that factor I think I've been in this business about as long as anybody living today I started actually in the to make my first animated cartoons 1920 of course they're very crude things then and I used all sort of little puppet things we didn't draw like we do today I used to make little cut out things and joints repinned and we put them onto the camera and we'd maneuver them and make them do things and before you came to Hollywood oh yes this started back in Kansas City Missouri where I was working in the over made the little advertisements for theaters it's equivalent to what you see in TV commercials today you know what's your winter cold in early you know get your your Fedora block or the letter and all those kinds of things get you know this was back in the days when they had the old canvas tops on cars get your top we knew you have to do necessary yeah there's one little thing I did there is a you had to think of little gags little catch things you know so I had this spanking shining car driving and I had a character on the street he he hailed the driver and he says hi old top new car and the guy in the car says no old car new tops and we go into the pitch of the where to get him renewed and all that stuff well I I was a dating Steamboat Willie simply because it was Miki's first appearance and also the first introduction of sound to the cartoon now in the case of Steamboat Willie I suppose some touch' came first and sometimes sound cancer so was it always pictures though on the days of Steamboat Willie it was picture first then we used to put the sound down afterwards and in those days you couldn't do what we call dubbing today where you could mix a lot of tracks and it wasn't yet the science that you could get away with so we used to have to do everything at one time and we used to have to run the cartoon we'd have the fellas with the sound effects we had the people with the voices we had the orchestra going and everybody had to synchronize that thing right on the button and we had it we had a way of doing it though we had a little kind of a little beat that worked up them down and and there were so many of those beats you know and they were all musicians working for me so they could follow those beats and when it came to certain number of beats they would go hop or they would go bang or they will go this or they would pop one of these pop guns you know and it will always fit there's a kind of opening night for everybody oh yeah it was it really was it well after Steamboat Willie of course came the silly symphony so many of them so happily remembered and and not quite ten years after Steamboat Willie we saw Snow White from the Seven Dwarfs first feature-length of cartoon yes just about ten years how do you how long was it in production well I actually started to plan the picture by 1935 I fool around with it trying to get a hold of a story and things for a couple of years and finally begin to jail then I went to work on it I finished it the fall in 1938 I don't know what I had or let what happen or anything we had the the family fortune we had everything wrapped up in snow wife the fact the the banker I think was losing more sleep than I was and fortunately they though away we put it in premiered it and everything else why everything was was fine the banker was happy and the following spring alone came out Academy Award oh yeah it wasn't fun - about two years later that I was almost broke well well two years later yes following Pinocchio and coming into the Fantasia yeah that's about did it you know but that was an early success financial favourite certainly an artistic success it was amazed we're always resist some people would would question that too and I by recalling a new and and musical Mickey fairly impressive as a conductor well that's what started I was doing this some sources apprenticed with Mickey Mouse and I happen to have dinner one night with stakhovski mr. Kafka said oh I would love to conduct that for you you know well that led to not only doing this one little short subject but it got us involved where I did all the Fantasia and before I knew it I ended up spending four hundred some odd thousand dollars getting music with szpakowski well but we were in that it was a point of no return we would have made it that was certainly worth it every foot of the way he's a great guy though I don't want to see these little stakhovski but he is a great musician a great artist well perfectionism always costs money I'm guessing that's certainly something you've all win after well I was always known as the perfectionist until I met the costume and you had a new member of the club well about a year after the release of Fantasia Robert Benchley I remember joined you in explaining to audiences all over the world how you go about making a cartoon what are the principal technical advances since that time well better drawing the first thing I did when I got a little money to experiment how you put all my artists back in school we art schools that existed then didn't quite have enough for what we needed so we set up our own art school or you were in eventing in you art anyway well yes but we were just going a little bit beyond what they were getting in the art school where they work with the static figure well we were dealing in in motion movement and the flow of movement deplored things you action-reaction all of that so we had to set up our own school and out of that school and come the the artists that now make up my staff here and more than that the artists that make up all the most all of these cartoon outfits in Hollywood uh-huh we're directly or indirectly out of my school well of course everything is people and it was the individual and collective talents of these artists I was only asking if there had been a technical advance in the your own work in the cartoon field seems to have acquired so much more depth to them so much more yes have any technical advances but basically the thing that gives us more depth is our ability to draw the way it should be drawn for this meeting already cut a lot of depth out of the way you you you you shape a line the way you you draw the figures that contributes an awful lot to the depth and to the overall effect that you see today with the cartoon now in the in the early 1940s we saw saludos amigos and little later the Three Caballeros the latter being first combination of live-action cartoons tell us a little about how those two pictures came into being oh sure which one the solution Agusan laughter that bad I presume kind of led you to the Three Caballeros well that was I was asked by the government to go with in South America and kind of a cultural thing you know before the was Nazi days and I went down with a staff to see if I couldn't make some films about the ABC countries down there you know Argentina Brazil and Chile and they were first wanted me to go on a handshaking goodwill tour and I said I don't I don't go for it I'm not a good hand-shaker and everything and then they came back and said will you go down and make some films about these countries I said well that's that's my business I can do that bring a pencil in your ID so I took a staff and we set up headquarters in the in Oland real you also left and set up a studio in the Argentine we went over to Chile and some of my artists we provided a party someone went up to Peru and when we came back I made these four short subject we brought back to the tico-tico certain was being played though and I brought that back and put it in back Brazil and both up became standard tunes in and we're out of it we could develop this little Brazilian parrot Jose Carioca who played with Donald Duck anyways these four films were put more or less put together and they went out in the theater of course there's one of those things that they thought Disney need the subsidy but you know fortunately that little thing went out and it did a heck of a business and the United States government didn't have to put up one nickel wonderful it was actually a goodwill tour for the government and it was later about about two years later that the Three Caballeros then because I knew there was a follow-up yeah combining live-action yeah I almost be on that one well I gather that Mary Poppins currently in production is the further development of the combination of live action yes you might say that we have a sequence in Mary Poppins that where we we have the live characters in with the animated drawings but basically Mary Poppins is alive musical fantasy well their whole story is is carried out by live actors and it's of course we have a lot of tricks but the trade here that we incorporated in the Mary Poppins such as they fly around and all that stuff you know but still it's basically a live-action musical fantasy well after the one are cast by the way so let's let's change the subject for a few minutes in the wall from film activities to outside activities perhaps I should say outdoors I'd like to talk to you about Disney man where did you originally get these the first notion we did well it came about when my daughters were very young and I Saturday was always daddy's day with the two daughters so we'd start out and try to go someplace with you know different things and I would take them to the Mary ground all night I took in different places and as I'd sit there while they rode the Mary ground did all these things sit on a bench and eating peanuts I felt that they should be something build some kind of a amusement enterprise built where the parents and the children could have fun together so that's how a Disneyland started well it took many years it was a whole period of maybe 15 years developing started with many ideas threw them away started all over again and eventually it evolved into what you see today is Disney but it all started from a daddy with two daughters wondering whether he could take them where he could have a little fun with them - well now that Disneyland is flourishing as a place of Dreams coming true who goes to Disneyland what is the ratio of adults to children for or for adults - one child that is we're counting though the teenagers as adults but of course from the wintertime you can go out there doing week and you won't see any children you'll see thee all the oldsters out there writing all these rides of having fun and everything summertime course that the the average would drop down but they over a year-round average it's for adults - one child and of course there in $9 there's only been one adult who's have been refused permission to the park well we didn't refuse him permission well we were all set you see we work according to what the State Department wants to do when they come in they they they have guests who chef was a guest of the government so I mean we were ready to receive Khrushchev but it so happened that the security problem here in Los Angeles because actually Disneyland is in another County you think and Chief of Police we can't blame him he had a he had he had quite a chore there to carry out he just was a little worried somebody may be walking in Disneyland with a shopping bag and what they might have in it you've never put a know you know exactly in it we were ready for him the press was ready the both the State Department security and the Soviet security had common case Disneyland and they were all set and I was already and fact we've had a lot of dignitaries down there and he was one that mrs. Disney wanted to go down and meet was Khrushchev she was disappointed he didn't come well it's it's certainly not ever an empty place so I can understand the security manager concern I had we had different shops places where we take pictures with Khrushchev and I had one of my favorite where I lined up in front of my eight submarines Sam I'll be nice I've been pointing to mr. Khrushchev saying well mr. Khrushchev here's my Disneyland submarine please it's eight the eighth largest submarine fleet in the world but we're going to be seeing part of the mature that the submarines make presently so it's interesting to hear about what took what was the initial cost of Disneyland that first saw the light of day all goes back so if I had different cost estimates one time was three and a half million and then I kept fool around with it and got up to 7 1/2 million and I kept fool around a little more and pretty soon at which twelve and a half and I think when we open Disneyland it was seventeen million dollars and then it grew like Topsy - today is going on 45 million dollars gosh well now today the the newest and most exciting aspect of of Disneyland is is what I turned this over on my tongue several times what you call audio animatronics yes audio-animatronic figures it's a well it's a sort of another door that's open for us see our whole forty some odd years here has been in the world of making things move inanimate things move from a drawing through all kinds of any little props some things now we're making these human figures dimensional human figures move make animals move make anything move through the use of electronics it's uh it's a tape mechanism that the tape it's like a sick their programming their sequencing when they do a missile when they're sending some some missile to the moon saying at different stages at different times things must happen that's all program predetermined so our show is put on that tape and it's programmed from this tape and we run it off a little one-inch tape that has 14 tracks on each track we can get up to 16 signals now those little signals go and impulse this figure and make the figure move make the figure talked and everything well look I could show it to you a lot better than and I can tell you about it we come over here now give you a little preview I should say well here we are let you a little audio and chronic setup with a part part of kids over here now these are not working from tape these are manatee control this little gizmo here kind of like a joystick on the old type airplanes it's what gives us a chance to program the bird and as we work this and get all the little movement sites that we want and the bird it out we record it on the tape and then from then on the tape will do everything that we've done here so now we'll have a little left go with this thing now this is uh my part of our Disneyland show I mean you know the Tiki Room this is a little problem that we had in Mary Poppins and this is the bird sang a duet with Julie Andrews maybe we can get a little response from with her hello there kid what can you do for so you're saying whistle anything now this is up one of the characters from the Tiki Room he's actually a substitute in other words one of our master sermons we have for McCall's who act as master ceremonies in the Tiki broom Disneyland and they actually keep the show rolling and along with them where other birds were singing and things and flowers at sing then the Tiki image is you know the carved Tiki poles and things where's Tiki gods they say and they drama and we have quite a show but this is the boy that takes care of it here in other words these he's a stand-in for one up you know he's very alert throw out your chest show them hug now this is Fletcher Marco of CBC I'm sorry I didn't catch the name Marco how ma RK le that's right how do you do sir how do you do uh whatever your name is I walk I'll what is my name well I'll tell you the truth we haven't given them a name yet how would you like Jose how do you do Jose now it's official how do you do Oh miss my accent well that's just a little demonstration of audio-animatronic figures let me make sure I understand what what happens in in controlling these birds by these extraordinary instruments you can at the same time record their movements on a tape that's right after we get a program it's like rehearsing the show and you go through it and rehearse it and rehearse it and you finally say that's it we say alright let's go for a take as we go for it take all the things we do here are recorded and then when we play the tape back he will do everything he's doing here only it's all part of a program show is he and I I understand then that the next step beyond the birds has been to do the same kind of programming with human beings yes not gonna replace the human being I know a lot just for show purposes because how you take Disneyland down there we operate 15 hours a day and these shows have got to go on go on on the hour I'm a tikibird show goes on three times an hour and I don't have to stop for coffee breaks and all that kind of stuff you see so that's the whole idea of it it's just another dimension in the animation that we've been doing all their life it's how we're going in two-dimensional things and everything it's a new door it's a new toy for us and we're having a lot of fun and we hope we can really do some exciting things in the future they are try one here rather hip how about a song in it what about you he'll take anything say that's right hasta LaVista well let's go over to finish our keys well let's change the subject again if we may I'd like to ask you now about your accomplishments there's an international film producer in that you've made films in how many countries in the world oh I can't recall because we've done a lot of my nature films and we have a series called people in places where we went all over Japan and different places even over into the Egyptian area but I have been basically making films in England first with our British company and then in Canada I mean you know well our telescope viewers are naturally interested in in your plan so for Canada they remember well of course Nicky there's wild dog of the north which I think was your first Canadian yes we did that between Calgary and bang and we worked with the Canadian Wildlife for us what did you call the keening Wildlife Society I guess is it Society well it's the government the government anyways rather they let us have an experimental station that they have was abandoned there weren't using we put her company there and he went right through the winter and they got some wonderful stuff on the film remember with the second film you went to two eastern parts to make big red mm-hmm for the locations doing red and coming up in the next few days Canadians are going to be seeing your third Canadian production the incredible journey that's the Sheila burnford they're selling the story of it I did one of my favorites I think the animals in that are terrific I I hate to say that to you Fletcher because you directed the humans I'm always partial animal actors anyway you know well I found the animals pretty pleasant too I must say but it's it's certainly the animals picture and one of the most remarkable animal stories of its kind that I've ever read let alone had anything to do with it it fell I I gather well that you first found out about the story even before it was published in in North America in his English publication yes it was first published in England we had that's where we caught on to it you have your plans long before it became a best yes we got into quite a hassle though on who some Biddy went on to get that story and I when it all ended up and I found I was my good friend George Seton was bidding against me George apologized he said I'm sorry I run the price up on the wall but he's I didn't know you were bidding against me these are things you could never know about in advance actually the the part of the Canadian story that interests me more than any other is is the fact that your father was born in in Canada and lived a good part of his life there before he moved to parts to the south and began producing son yes he was a born in the little town I think they called a blue veil it's right out of Goderich and I'm I the Disney family were Anglo Irish and they migrated over there in the 1830s that which makes me feel that the Disney's had foresight because it was 1840 when they had the potato famine in autumn but they were smart enough to get out before that and my father was born there and he was raised there and went to school there he factor he went to school in Goderich and he was about 20 years old when my grandfather went to Kansas out in the same area where General Eisenhower ex-president Eisenhower came from and he he was an alien of course being the Canadian and he had to buy his land he couldn't homestead and he bought a section of railroad land and that property stayed with the Disney family until them just a few years ago and my uncle had Acton and he had told him I said before you sell it let's let us know and for finally he wanted to sell it retire and I went to my brother I said let's buy this this virgin land that our ancestors you know acquired he said what do we want with farming land ever he wouldn't go with me so I didn't go ahead I found out later they struck gas and oil well you can't win them all know that we won't have you been back to to your father's homestead at all this year my father and I had planned to go back because there's a as a boy and my father always told me about his boyhood in Canada and he you see here fourth of July is a big deal here but my father always referred to the Queen's birthday and that was Victoria and that's when they had their big doings you know and I always wanted to go up there with my father because the youngster you know he told me about all these different things that he did and then the country thought it was the most beautiful country in the world and yet he come down here to live and he died before we had a chance to do that well after your father's death did you finally got a chance to get back up to the old homestead yes I finally made it took mr. Disney alone she's not too interested in ancestors and things you know we got up there she really fell in love with the town of cottage beautiful in town and she was quite happy about it but I wanted to find my homestead where my grandfather you know went out and cut the trees down and pulled the rocks apart and where my father was born so they gave me directions and everybody was trying to be helpful to everything and mrs. Disney reluctantly went along and I found this old place and I thought this is if there it was really deserted there were cows running through the house and chickens around and I had my camera I got out and I photographed that thing from every angle and when I got through I found out I had photographed the wrong homestead well ever since mr. Disney has ever forgot she she tells that to everybody about when Walt went up to Canada and he photographed the wrong homes that kill him well let's let's leave that in the past where it properly belongs and look ahead for a moment to to the future world what's what's on your immediate schedule I gather there are some projects for the world New York yes they're more or less an extension of Disneyland in a way we're doing the for shows for the World's Fair or yes it's about fifty million dollars worth of shows that we're doing for the World's Fair because that includes the cost of building the rental the land everything you're doing one for the Ford Motor Company they're doing one for General Electric doing one for the perhaps you call the company and the state of Illinois do you know these are like when you say extensions of Disneyland are any of them audio-animatronic yes audio-animatronic and and the dimensional type of shows like we do at Disney we're not film shows there's no film involved in any of these shows we use her audio-animatronic figures and at the state of Illinois exhibit they're going to have great moments with mr. Lincoln mr. Lincoln is gonna be there he's going to speak five times an hour it's gonna be very lifelike and very very believable and we've finding some wonderful words of mr. Lincoln that are still prophetic today I think it's gonna be a great moment for the public when they can sit in here mr. Lincoln talk about some of the things what is you Liberty you know the rights and the obligations that we have and all of that I think it's needed today to do so well it's very difficult to talk about reward because certainly you've had so many of them twenty-nine Oscars and nearly 700 other awards from all corners of the world but personally what what has been your greatest reward to date where are my greatest reward I think is that I've been unable to build this wonderful organization unable to enjoy good health and we appeal today I feel like I can still go on being a part of this thing after 40 some-odd years in the business and also to have the public appreciate and accept what I've done all these years that that is a great reward it seems unlikely but if if you have it to do over again would you do any part of it differently well if I had it to do over again I think no I don't think it would I don't know I hope I don't have to do it over again there's certainly a completely unique reward and having that feeling about your work and what you've accomplished yes that you're a reward of satisfaction than happiness yes what what does happiness mean to you well of course I mean happiness is a state of mind I mean that you and if you're ever your own doing you can be happy you could be unhappy if this record into the way you look at things you know so I think happiness is well contentment but it doesn't mean you have to have well you know but all individuals are different so they wouldn't be satisfied with just carrying out a routine job and being happy yet III envy those people I had a brother who who I really envy because he was a mailman but he'll all the fun he had himself a trailer and he used to go off and go fishing and he didn't worry about payrolls that story he just said and picture grosses or anything and he was the happy one I always said he's the smart Disney [Laughter]

Channel: onstageDisney

Views: 71,144

Keywords: The Incredible Journey, Walt Disney Studios, Fletcher Markle, Walt Disney, Interview

Id: 4nMrLcmBCuI

Length: 30min 26sec (1826 seconds)

Published: Thu May 03 2018