Lawrence Tibbett by Ham Luske

In Wikipedia, we find that «Lawrence Mervil Tibbett (1896-1960) was an American opera singer, movie actor, radio personality and recording artist. He sang with the New York Metropolitan Opera from 1923 to 1950. He performed roles ranging from Iago in Otello to Captain Hook in Peter Pan. As a baritone, Tibbett is acknowledged as one of the greatest opera singers produced by the United States, and one of the finest male voices of the past 100 years.»

Ham Luske (1903-1968) started working for Walt Disney in 1931, and soon became one of Walt's key animators, alongside Norm Ferguson and Fred Moore. He animated Max Hare in the 1935 short "The Tortoise and the Hare," and Jenny Wren in "Who Killed Cock Robin?" He also served as supervising co-director on "Pinocchio" and sequence director on "Fantasia," "Cinderella," "Alice in Wonderland," "Peter Pan," "Lady and the Tramp," "101 Dalmatians" and the cartoon sequences featured in "Mary Poppins." Later he directed TV programs for Walt Disney Productions.

Ham drew this cartoon of Lawrence Tibbett in the early 1930s....

<< Click to enlarge!

Prod. RM7 - The Boat Builders

The draft for Boat Builders shows none of the star names of many of the other shorts. E.g. we will not find Fred Moore or Norm Ferguson. Small wonder, as at this time they were busy finishing up on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

This Mickey short was therefor animated by Louie [Schmidtt], Chuck Couch, Eddie Strickland, Frenchy de Trémaudan, Gerry Geronimi, Paul Satterfield, Archie Robin and [Don] Patterson.

It does bring home the fact that the experienced animators Frenchy and Geronimi were not considered "good enough" to animate on the feature, as they were animating alongside those who likely used to be their assistants in the early 30s, Schmidtt, Couch, Strickland and Robin, while Satterfield and Patterson were relative newcomers to the Disney studio.

Looking at the numbering of the scenes, it looks like there were quite some adjustments, maybe after preview, especially on draft page two. Where on the draft is the scene "We'll call her the Queen Minnie"? I suspect there are several scenes that are so called "Camera Cuts" where the scene continues on the same background and exposure sheet, but the field shifts without panning, immediately at the new location.
As Mickey says, "All you do is put it together."

The film can be found on the 2001 Treasures DVD - Mickey Mouse in Living Color, or, on YouTube subtitled in Dutch here.

Directed by Ben Sharpsteen, released two months after Snow White's premiere, on 2/25/38. This draft dated 10/26/37...
I excuse my erratic posting schedule with my being busy.
I know, it's a lame excuse...

Prod. UM51 - Mickey's Amateurs

According to IMDb, Mickey's Amateurs was directed by Pinto Colvig (the clarinet-playing clown who was the voice of Goofy), story man Erdman "Ed" Penner and Walt Pfeiffer (Walt Disney's childhood friend who became management and who was manager of Disney's Penthouse Club for many years until after Walt Disney passed away).

Animated by Stan Quackenbush, Ralph J. Somerville, Ed Love, Marvin Woodward, Al Eugster, Les Clark, [Art] Palmer and Art Babbitt. Music by Ollie Wallace. Can be viewed on the 2001 Walt Disney Treasures DVD - Mickey Mouse in Living Color.
Released 04/17/37, this 4th semi-final draft of 1/12/37...

Three Years...

I just noticed that I let my three year anniversary as blogger slip by me unnoticed on May 22nd. After 513 posts, with 6 feature and 76 shorts drafts, as well as Action Analysis Classes, bar sheets, model sheets and a lot of other fun stuff, I can only say that it does not feel that long at all, and I thank my readers for keeping me motivated!