TIME-PIECE THURSDAYS: Disney Watches & Clocks

Much-worn and much-loved, it reminds me – every time I check the time – of a memorable visit to Walt Disney World...

GREATER POOHSPECTIVE

A short TV documentary on the new Disney Winnie the Pooh film in which I make a cameo appearance...

See also my posts on Mark Henn and Andreas Deja.

TIME-PIECE THURSDAYS: Disney Watches & Clocks

Let your conscience be your guide and keep an eye on the time...

SNOW WHITE AT RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL

Showplace: The Magazine of Radio City Music Hall Vol. 2, No. 3, January 20, 1938 featuring Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs...

Many thanks to Michael Goldberg for this addition to my Disneyana collection.

TIME-PIECE THURSDAYS: Disney Watches & Clocks

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs clock with an inscription to Brian Sibley from Adriana Caselotti, the voice of Snow White, dated 1988.

MARY POPPINS AND THE CAPTAIN

So, I was telling about how I wrote what might have been a film sequel to Mary Poppins...

Every now and again, during the process, there were stray conversations about who might play Barney – the ice-cream seller in the park who was to replace Bert as the leading male character in the film.

One such exchange was quintessentially ‘Hollywood’, by which I mean that it was so typical of Moviedom that it may easily have betokened a genuine cast-iron idea or nothing more than a wild and passing whim...

Anyway, this is what happened...

I'm taken to lunch by a Studio Executive at a ritzy restaurant on Rodeo Drive and, during the meal, I am suddenly confronted with a totally unexpected question:

“So," begins the Exec, "is it essential for Barney to be ‘Caucasian’?”

I look blank…

“I mean, does he have to be white?” he translates.

My failure to instantly respond is, of course, not because I don’t know the meaning of the word 'Caucasian', but simply because I can’t imagine why I am being asked…

For one thing, black people in Edwardian London were far and few between and whilst it was just possible, perhaps, to find a black footman serving in some big household,meeting a black ice-cream seller in a London park would have been an extremely unlikely occurrence.

And – apart from anything else – Barney is supposed to pass for Dick Van Dyke's younger brother!

Why do they want to know, I ask.

"Well,” comes the reply, “it just so happens that Michael is very keen to work with the Studio on a project..."

I interrupt: “Michael…?”

"Yes!" responds the Exec, as if dealing with a complete idiot, "Michael JACKSON! Having made Captain Eo for Disneyland, he's now a part of the Disney family..."

I can't help it – I laugh!

Exec is not amused. He becomes emphatic: "Look! He sings! He dances! He'd be PERFECT!"

I stop laughing: he's in earnest!

What's more, he's still enthusing: "Listen! Just think of the marquee-billing: JULIE ANDREWS -- MICHAEL JACKSON -- MARY POPPINS! It’s a BRILLIANT line-up --- AND a hands-down BOX-OFFICE CERT!"

As it turned out, Mary Poppins never did come back - not, at least, on film - but if she had, then it's anyone's guess whether we might also we have seen Captain Eo selling strawberry ices in Cherry Tree Lane…

TIME-PIECE THURSDAYS: Disney Watches & Clocks

"PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWERS! Itty-bitty living space!"