General

Wednesdays with Wade: Tinker Bell Talks!

Wade Sampson shares some of Disney historian Jim Korkis’s notes from and interview with original Tinker Bell model Margaret Kerry.

Published

20 years ago

June 28, 2005

Jim Korkis

I’d like to take this column to give a very big plug to Margaret Kerry’s new website. For those readers who liked my earlier column on Disneyland’s first Tinker Bells, then this will be a “must visit” site for you. (And Disney Archivist Dave Smith explained why “Tinker Bell” is two words because in the Disney animated film, Captain Hook refers to her as “Miss Bell”.)

For those of you not familiar with Margaret Kerry, Margaret’s career goes back to when she performed in the “Our Gang” series and films like Eddie Cantor’s “If You Knew Susie”. “The Charlie Ruggles Show,” one of the first network television family sitcoms on ABC, cast Margaret as the eldest daughter, Sharon. The final episode was her character’s wedding and honeymoon and it turned out to be a major media event.

Later, Margaret married Producer *** Brown and found a new career as a voice over artist in her husband’s uniquely animated productions. She is the voice of Spinner and Paddlefoot and the females in the first animated series to feature SYNCHRO-VOX (which is basically human talking lips superimposed on a cartoon drawing,) “Clutch Cargo”. “Captain Fathom” and “Space Angel” followed. Margaret can also be seen in many of the live-action segments that open and close the 139 episodes of “The New Three Stooges,” as well as be heard in the animated portion voicing all the kids, females, and various odd characters.

However, for readers of this website, Margaret’s most memorable theatrical performance was to be the live action reference model for the character of Tinker Bell in Disney’s animated “Peter Pan” at the tender age of twenty-two. Despite Walt himself in a magazine quote leading the public to believe that Tinker Bell was inspired by Marilyn Monroe, animator Marc Davis very loudly and frequently emphasized that it was Margaret who provided the physical inspiration.

Margaret is currently finishing up her autobiographical scrapbook entitled “Tinker Bell Talks: Tales of a Pixie Dusted Life”.

In October 2003, I got to accompany Disney Historian Jim Korkis as he walked Margaret around the World Showcase at Epcot. Margaret is a member of the Carolwood Pacific Historical Society and made her first trip to Walt Disney World for the re-dedication of the Roger E. Broggie engine. Jim was one of the speakers at the event but he is also a great interviewer who is often able to get unique stories out of someone. If you don’t believe me, check out his Ward Kimball interview that will be appearing in the second volume of “Walt’s People” out this summer. Jim got Ward to share stories that have never appeared anywhere else.

So to help publicize Margaret’s site, I asked Jim if I could share some of the notes he took while talking with Margaret that afternoon. However, those notes really don’t capture the experience of walking with those two and seeing Margaret wearing her “original Tinker Bell” nametag and so generously giving her autograph to those around World Showcase who recognized Jim and Jim proudly introducing her and quietly stepping back so the spotlight could shine on Margaret. (Jim even cleverly had some Tinker Bell pictures with him for Margaret to shine for her many fans.)

In his e-mail, Jim said, “Anything to help Margaret! She is a delightful, intelligent and classy woman who will never age. She has more energy than the eighteen year olds I mentor. I have been patiently waiting for her book since we discussed it over lunch at the Germany pavilion at Epcot. I still treasure the card of sympathy she sent when my father passed away several months ago. I hope that this brief glimpse at our conversation will encourage readers to not only visit her website but to buy her book. And tell Margaret I am sorry I missed her birthday and next time I am the one paying for the lunch!”

So here are some of Disney Historian Jim Korkis’s notes of Margaret Kerry’s memories from that sunny afternoon in October 2003:

“I had an agent who sent me over for the Disney audition for PETER PAN. How do you audition for animation and for a character who doesn’t speak? At home I had a room set up…my dance room…with all these mirrors and a bar, etc….so I got this little record player and put on an instrumental record and I worked up a pantomime to the beat of the record of making breakfast. You know, carrying eggs and maybe dropping one, etc. So the next day I went to the studio and took the record player and put on the record and did this mime I had created. I believe there were three people there…probably Marc Davis and Gerry Geronomi and somebody else I can’t remember right now. Anyway, they gave me some direction of ‘look up as if you see such and such’, etc. Now my memory is that they offered me the job there and then but it may have been not until I got home that I got the offer.

“Anyway, they said, ‘at your convenience, please come in on Monday’ and that sounded odd to me so I pushed it and said ‘How about 10:00?’ and they said ‘Fine’. So I showed up and was in a bathing suit….and tennis shoes! You can see it in a publicity photo or two and they offered to get me ballet slippers and I told them I had those at home and I would bring them in the next day and I did.

“They called me ‘Two Take Tink’ because I would get it right the first time and then they would have me do it a second time for ‘safety’. I was so young and foolish. I could have made a lot more money messing things up so they would have to do it over and over. I am the one who suggested they bring in Roland Dupree to body double Peter. Roland was a terrific dancer but never grew beyond five foot five so never became a romantic lead dancer.”

“Kathyrn Beaumont (the voice of Wendy in the film who also participated in the live action sessions) makes a separation between then and now. The work she did for Disney was back then. I went to her classroom when she was a teacher and told stories and did voices for her students…but only under the stipulation that I never reveal to them that Kathyrn had done any work for Disney.

“I did a voice for one of the mermaids and they encouraged us to ad-lib and come up with our own lines and I ad-libbed a little lisp for mine. There were three of us. June Foray and someone else. (Jim’s note: “probably Connie Hilton”) I also did a voice reading for the Indian squaw but June ended up getting that and I also did a couple of lines for Michael but I don’t think they were ever used. I think they had me do them for safety reasons…just in case.”

Jim is not just an expert in Disney but in a host of other areas and their conversation wandered into all of Margaret’s career and some wonderful anecdotes including the fact that she loved doing “The Charlie Ruggles” Show” but had never seen an episode. Someone had some kinescopes and showed her four shows and she said, “Damn, I was good! And nobody ever told me. The director, unlike a movie director, was up in that glass booth and he never told me if I was doing well or not.”

One of the announcers was Hal Smith and he was doing a live commercial for Dr. Ross dog food and the animal was so hungry he gulped down the food and threw up on Hal. Hal just picked up the puppy and petted him and said, “Did you eat too fast because you just love Dr. Ross dog food? Don’t worry, Dr. Ross will take good care of you, etc.” without missing a beat.

One time, Margaret and her husband took their two children to the Brown Derby on Hollywood Blvd. at Christmas and Hal came out dressed as Santa and saw the kids and started talking to them and Santa just knew everything about them. He even called Margaret’s daughter by a pet family name. The kids were enthralled. Hal even made sure he didn’t finish by going to his car in the parking lot but walking the other way until they were all out of sight.

Her first husband was *** Brown who produced “Clutch Cargo”. As I mentioned earlier, Margaret did voices with Brown’s “SYNCHRO-VOX” system. They had a strap around the top of her head to hold her face still and they painted white around her mouth (and different color lipstick for each character) and had a cardboard circle matte around her face when they filmed. She vaguely remembers that the lines must have been off to the side for her to see and read.

She also remembers that Brown was developing several series including one that was very similar to “Jonny Quest”. One that she loved was “Golden Eagle” about this World War I fighter pilot who donned the goggles and flight mask (like a superhero) to become the Golden Eagle in this World War I plane. The plane would even scream when it went into a dive like a screaming eagle. They had a “horizontal multiplane camera” where they could have put a picture of a plane on a glass plate and moved it across so it looked like a plane flying.

Margaret also claims to have developed the concept of a series that would take place in an animation studio, “The Company We Keep”, which she claims was stolen for “The Duck Factory” (and why isn’t that early Jim Carrey tv series on DVD?). It would have been loosely based on animation personalities that she knew and at the end of each episode would be pencil test animation.

I am sure these and many more stories will be in her book. When Jim talked with her, she was about three-quarters of the way through and told him she was going to throw it all out. She felt it was pretty boring stuff and that if she did it in more of a scrapbook format, then she could just tell the stories and share the pictures she wanted to and skip over the “boring stuff”. If you had been there listening to Jim interview Margaret, you would have quickly realized that in Margaret’s life, there was nothing boring!

General

Seward Johnson bronzes add a surreal, artistic touch to NYC’s Garment District

Published

10 years ago

June 23, 2015

Jim Hill

Greetings from NYC. Nancy and I drove down from New
Hampshire yesterday because we'll be checking out
Disney Consumer Products' annual Holiday Showcase later today.

Anyway … After checking into our hotel (i.e., The Paul.
Which is located down in NYC's NoMad district), we decided to grab some dinner.
Which is how we wound up at the Melt Shop.

Photo by Jim Hill

Which is this restaurant that only sells grilled cheese sandwiches.
This comfort food was delicious, but kind of on the heavy side.

Photo by Jim Hill

Which is why — given that it was a beautiful summer night
— we'd then try and walk off our meals. We started our stroll down by the Empire
State Building
…

Photo by Jim Hill

… and eventually wound up just below Times
Square (right behind where the Waterford Crystal Times Square New
Year's Eve Ball is kept).

Photo by Jim Hill

But you know what we discovered en route? Right in the heart
of Manhattan's Garment District
along Broadway between 36th and 41st? This incredibly cool series of life-like
and life-sized sculptures that Seward
Johnson has created.

Photo by Jim Hill

And — yes — that is Abraham Lincoln (who seems to have
slipped out of WDW's Hall of Presidents when no one was looking and is now
leading tourists around Times Square). These 18 painted
bronze pieces (which were just installed late this past Sunday night / early
Monday morning) range from the surreal to the all-too-real.

Photo by Jim Hill

Some of these pieces look like typical New Yorkers. Like the
business woman planning out her day …

Photo by Jim Hill

… the postman delivering the mail …

Photo by Jim Hill

… the hot dog vendor working at his cart …

Photo by Jim Hill

… the street musician playing for tourists …

Photo by Jim Hill

Not to mention the tourists themselves.

Photo by Jim Hill

But right alongside the bronze businessmen …

Photo by Jim Hill

… and the tired grandmother hauling her groceries home …

Photo by Jim Hill

… there were also statues representing people who were
from out-of-town …

Photo by Jim Hill

… or — for that matter — out-of-time.

Photo by Jim Hill

These were the Seward Johnson pieces that genuinely beguiled. Famous impressionist paintings brought to life in three dimensions.

Note the out-of-period water bottle that some tourist left
behind. Photo by Jim Hill

Some of them so lifelike that you actually had to pause for
a moment (especially as day gave way to night in the city) and say to yourself
"Is that one of the bronzes? Or just someone pretending to be one of these
bronzes?"

Mind you, for those of you who aren't big fans of the
impressionists …

Photo by Jim Hill

… there's also an array of American icons. Among them
Marilyn Monroe …

Photo by Jim Hill

… and that farmer couple from Grant Wood's "American
Gothic."

Photo by Jim Hill

But for those of you who know your NYC history, it's hard to
beat that piece which recreates Alfred Eisenstaedt's famous photograph of V-J Day in Times Square.

Photo by Jim Hill

By the way, a 25-foot-tall version of this particular Seward
Johnson piece ( which — FYI — is entitled "Embracing Peace") will actually
be placed in Times Square for a few days on or around August 14th to commemorate the 70th
anniversary of Victory Over Japan Day (V-J Day).

Photo by Jim Hill

By the way, if you'd like to check these Seward Johnson bronzes in
person (which — it should be noted — are part of the part of the Garment
District Alliance's new public art offering) — you'd best schedule a trip to
the City sometime over the next three months. For these pieces will only be on
display now through September 15th.

General

Wondering what you should “Boldly Go” see at the movies next year? The 2015 Licensing Expo offers you some clues

Published

10 years ago

June 10, 2015

Jim Hill

Greeting from the 2015 Licensing Expo, which is being held
at the Mandalay Bay
Convention Center in Las
Vegas.

Photo by Jim Hill

I have to admit that I enjoy covering the Licensing Expo.
Mostly becomes it allows bloggers & entertainment writers like myself to
get a peek over the horizon. Scope out some of the major motion pictures &
TV shows that today's vertically integrated entertainment conglomerates
(Remember when these companies used to be called movie studios?) will be
sending our way over the next two years or so.

Photo by Jim Hill

Take — for example — all of "The Secret Life of
Pets" banners that greeted Expo attendees as they made their way to the
show floor today. I actually got to see some footage from this new Illumination
Entertainment production (which will hit theaters on July 8, 2016) the last time I was in Vegas. Which
was for CinemaCon back in April. And the five or so minutes of film that I viewed
suggested that "The Secret Life of Pets" will be a really funny
animated feature.

Photo by Jim Hill

Mind you, Universal Pictures wanted to make sure that Expo
attendees remembered that there was another Illumination Entertainment production
coming-to-a-theater-near-them before "The Secret Life of Pets" (And
that's "Minions," the "Despicable Me" prequel. Which
premieres at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival next week but
won't be screened stateside 'til July 10th of this year). Which is why they had
three minions who were made entirely out of LEGOS loitering out in the lobby.

Photo by Jim Hill

And Warner Bros. — because they wanted "Batman v
Superman: Dawn of Justice" to start trending on Twitter today — brought
the Batmobile to Las Vegas.

Photo by Jim Hill

Not to mention full-sized macquettes of Batman, Superman and
Wonder Woman. Just so conventioneers could then see what these DC superheroes
would actually look like in this eagerly anticipated, March 25, 2016 release.

Photo by Jim Hill

That's the thing that can sometimes be a wee bit frustrating
about the Licensing Expo. It's all about delayed gratification. You'll come
around a corner and see this 100 foot-long ad for "The Peanuts Movie"
and think "Hey, that looks great. I want to see that Blue Sky Studios production
right now." It's only then that you notice the fine print and realize that
"The Peanuts Movie" doesn't actually open in theaters 'til November
6th of this year.

Photo by Jim Hill

And fan of Blue Sky's "Ice Age" film franchise are in for an even
longer wait. Given that the latest installment in that top grossing series
doesn't arrive in theaters 'til July
15, 2016.

Photo by Jim Hill

Of course, if you're one of those people who needs immediate
gratification when it comes to your entertainment, there was stuff like that to
be found at this year's Licensing Expo. Take — for example — how the WWE
booth was actually shaped like a wrestling ring. Which — I'm guessing — meant
that if the executives of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. didn't like
the offer that you were making, they were then allowed to toss you out over the
top rope, Royal Rumble-style.

Photo by Jim Hill

I also have to admit that — as a longtime Star Trek fan —
it was cool to see the enormous Starship Enterprise that hung in place over the
CBS booth. Not to mention getting a glimpse of the official Star Trek 50th
Anniversary logo.

Photo by Jim Hill

I was also pleased to see lots of activity in The Jim Henson
Company booth. Which suggests that JHC has actually finally carved out a
post-Muppets identity for itself.

Photo by Jim Hill

Likewise for all of us who were getting a little concerned
about DreamWorks Animation (what with all the layoffs & write-downs &
projects that were put into turnaround or outright cancelled last year), it was
nice to see that booth bustling.

Photo by Jim Hill

Every so often, you'd come across some people who were
promoting a movie that you weren't entirely sure that you actually wanted to
see (EX: "Angry Birds," which Sony Pictures Entertainment / Columbia
Pictures will be releasing to theaters on May 20, 2016). But then you remembered that Clay Kaytis —
who's this hugely talented former Walt Disney Animation Studios animator — is
riding herd on "Angry Birds" with Fergal Reilly. And you'd think
"Well, if Clay's working on 'Angry Birds,' I'm sure this animated feature
will turn out fine."

Photo by Jim Hill

Mind you, there were reminders at this year's Licensing Expo
of great animated features that we're never going to get to see now. I still
can't believe — especially after that brilliant proof-of-concept footage
popped up online last year — that Sony execs decided not to go forward
with production of Genndy Tartakovsky's
"Popeye" movie. But that's the
cruel thing about the entertainment business, folks. It will sometime break
your heart.

Photo by Jim Hill

And make no mistake about this. The Licensing Expo is all
about business. That point was clearly driven home at this year's show when —
as you walked through the doors of the Mandalay
Bay Convention Center
— the first thing that you saw was the Hasbros Booth. Which was this gleaming,
sleek two story-tall affair full of people who were negotiating deals &
signing contracts for all of the would-be summer blockbusters that have already
announced release dates for 2019 & beyond.

Photo by Jim Hill

"But what about The Walt Disney Company?," you
ask. "Weren't they represented on the show floor at this year's Licensing
Expo?" Not really, not. I mean, sure. There were a few companies there hyping
Disney-related products. Take — for example — the Disney Wikkeez people.

Photo by Jim Hill

I'm assuming that some Disney Consumer Products exec is
hoping that Wikkeez will eventually become the new Tsum Tsum. But to be blunt,
these little hard plastic figures don't seem to have the same huggable charm
that those stackable plush do. But I've been wrong before. So let's see what
happens with Disney Wikkeez once they start showing up on the shelves of the
Company's North American retail partners.

Photo by Jim Hill

And speaking of Disney's retail partners … They were
meeting with Mouse House executives behind closed doors one floor down from the
official show floor for this year's Licensing Expo.

Photo by Jim Hill

And the theme for this year's invitation-only Disney shindig? "Timeless
Stories" involving the Disney, Pixar, Marvel & Lucasfilm brands that
would then appeal to "tomorrow's consumer."

Photo by Jim Hill

And just to sort of hammer home the idea that Disney is no
longer the Company which cornered the market when it comes to little girls
(i.e., its Disney Princess and Disney Fairies franchises), check out this
wall-sized Star Wars-related image that DCP put up just outside of one of its
many private meeting rooms. "See?," this carefully crafted photo
screams. "It isn't just little boys who want to wield the Force. Little
girls also want to grow up and be Lords of the Sith."

Photo by Jim Hill

One final, kind-of-ironic note: According to this banner,
Paramount Pictures will be releasing a movie called "Amusement Park"
to theaters sometime in 2017.

Photo by Jim Hill

Well, given all the "Blackfish" -related issues
that have been dogged SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment over the past two years, I'm
just hoping that they'll still be in the amusement park business come 2017.

Your thoughts?

General

It takes more than three circles to craft a Classic version of Mickey Mouse

Published

10 years ago

June 9, 2015

Jim Hill

You know what Mickey Mouse looks like, right? Little guy,
big ears?

Truth be told, Disney's corporate symbol has a lot of
different looks. If Mickey's interacting with Guests at Disneyland
Park (especially this summer, when
the Happiest Place on Earth
is celebrating its 60th anniversary), he looks & dresses like this.

Or when he's appearing in one of those Emmy Award-winning shorts that Disney
Television Animation has produced (EX: "Bronco Busted," which debuts
on the Disney Channel tonight at 8 p.m. ET / PT), Mickey is drawn in a such a
way that he looks hip, cool, edgy & retro all at the same time.

Looking ahead to 2017 now, when Disney Junior rolls out "Mickey and the
Roadster Racers," this brand-new animated series will feature a sportier version
of Disney's corporate symbol. One that Mouse House managers hope will persuade
preschool boys to more fully embrace this now 86 year-old character.

That's what most people don't realize about the Mouse. The
Walt Disney Company deliberately tailors Mickey's look, even his style of
movement, depending on what sort of project / production he's appearing in.

Take — for example — Disney
California Adventure
Park's "World of Color:
Celebrate!" Because Disney's main mouse would be co-hosting this new
nighttime lagoon show with ace emcee Neil Patrick Harris, Eric Goldberg really had
to step up Mickey's game. Which is why this master Disney animator created
several minutes of all-new Mouse animation which then showed that Mickey was
just as skilled a showman as Neil was.

Better yet, let's take a look at what the folks at Avalanche Studios just went
through as they attempted to create a Classic version of Mickey & Minnie.
One that would then allow this popular pair to become part of Disney Infinity
3.0.

"I won't lie to you. We were under a lot of pressure to
get the look of this particular version of Mickey — he's called Red Pants
Mickey around here — just right," said Jeff Bunker, the VP of Art
Development at Avalanche Studios, during a recent phone interview. "When
we brought Sorcerer Mickey into Disney Infinity 1.0 back in January of 2014,
that one was relatively easy because … Well, everyone knows what Mickey Mouse
looked like when he appeared in 'Fantasia.' "

"But this time around, we were being asked to design
THE Mickey & Minnie," Bunker continued. "And given that these Classic
Disney characters have been around in various different forms for the better
part of the last century … Well, which look was the right look?"

Which is why Jeff and his team at Avalanche Studios began watching hours &
hours of Mickey Mouse shorts. As they tried to get a handle on which look would
work best for these characters in Disney Infinity 3.0.

"And we went all the way back to the very start of Mickey's career. We began
with 'Steamboat Willie' and then watched all of those black & white Mickey shorts
that Walt made back in the late 1920s & early 1930s. From there, we
transitioned to his Technicolor shorts. Which is when Mickey went from being
this pie-eyed, really feisty character to more of a well-behaved leading
man," Bunker recalled. "We then finished out our Mouse marathon by
watching all of those new Mickey shorts that Paul Rudish & his team have
been creating for Disney Television Animation. Those cartoons really recapture
a lot of the spirit and wild slapstick fun that Mickey's early, black &
white shorts had."

But given that the specific assignment that Avalanche Studios had been handed
was to create the most appealing looking, likeable version of Mickey Mouse
possible … In the end, Jeff and his team wound up borrowing bits & pieces
from a lot of different versions of the world's most famous mouse. So that
Classic Mickey would then look & move in a way that best fit the sort of
gameplay which people would soon be able to experience with Disney Infinity
3.0.

"That — in a lot of ways — was actually the toughest
part of the Classic Mickey design project. You have to remember that one of the
key creative conceits of Disney Infinity
is that all the characters which appear in this game are toys," Bunker
stated. "Okay. So they're beautifully detailed, highly stylized toy
versions of beloved Disney, Pixar, Marvel & Lucasfilm characters. But
they're still supposed to be toys. So our Classic versions of Mickey &
Minnie have the same sort of thickness & sturdiness to them that toys have.
So that they'll then be able to fit right in with all of the rest of the
characters that Avalanche Studios had previously designed for Disney Infinity."

And then there was the matter of coming up with just the
right pose for Classic Mickey & Minnie. Which — to hear Jeff tell the
story — involved input from a lot of Disney upper management.

"Everyone within the Company seemed to have an opinion
about how Mickey & Minnie should be posed. More to the point, if you Google
Mickey, you then discover that there are literally thousands of poses out there
for these two. Though — truth be told — a lot of those kind of play off the
way Mickey poses when he's being Disney's corporate symbol," Bunker said.
"But what I was most concerned about was that Mickey's pose had to work
with Minnie's pose. Because we were bringing the Classic versions of these
characters up into Disney Infinity 3.0 at the exact same time. And we wanted to
make sure — especially for those fans who like to put their Disney Infinity
figures on display — that Mickey's pose would then complement Minnie.

Which is why Jeff & the crew at Avalanche Studios
decided — when it came to Classic Mickey & Minnie's pose — that they
should go all the way back to the beginning. Which is why these two Disney icons
are sculpted in such a way that it almost seems as though you're witnessing the
very first time Mickey set eyes on Minnie.

"And what was really great about that was — as soon as
we began showing people within the Company this pose — everyone at Disney
quickly got on board with the idea. I mean, the Classic Mickey that we sculpted
for Disney Infinity 3.0 is clearly a very playful, spunky character. But at the
same time, he's obviously got eyes for Minnie," Bunker concluded. "So
in the end, we were able to come up with Classic versions of these characters
that will work well within the creative confines of Disney Infinity 3.0 but at
the same time please those Disney fans who just collect these figures because
they like the way the Disney Infinity characters look."

So now that this particular design project is over, does
Jeff regret that Mouse House upper management was so hands-on when it came to
making sure that the Classic versions of Mickey & Minnie were specifically
tailored to fit the look & style of gameplay found in Disney Infinity 3.0?

"To be blunt, we go through this every time we add a new character to the
game. The folks at Lucasfilm were just as hands-on when we were designing the
versions of Darth Vader and Yoda that will also soon be appearing in Disney
Infinity 3.0," Bunker laughed. "So in the end, if the character's
creators AND the fans are happy, then I'm happy."

This article was originally posted on the Huffington Post's Entertainment page on Tuesday, June 9, 2015