Prod. CM20 - Mickey Cuts Up

Mickey Cuts Up was directed by Burt Gillett and released 11/30/1931.
It is found on Disney Treasures DVD: Mickey Mouse in Black & White Volume 1 disc 1. You may still find it here on YouTube. Have a look, if you need a clearer understanding of the following documents!

Gillett left some documents pertaining Mickey Cuts Up behind, and
I would like here to show a few of these that I recently lucked into.
It is interesting to speculate in which order these were written - they seem to all be in Gillett's own handwriting and would probably date to late August or early September 1931.

First we have two pages, numbered 1 & 2, with ideas linked to names, Otto and Webb, which to me seems to mean that the ideas were originally thought out by either Otto Englander or Webb Smith. There are interesting ideas that did not make the film - they are crossed out: "mower bumps up and down on hedge - trick cuts."
Some were not crossed out and made it in the film: "Cuts down tree - disclose owl on 2nd cut" and "mower biting rear end - zigzag tail."
(In the film, this tail is missing on one of the cels, and since it is repeated once, it blinks on two frames).
I find these pages especially intriguing!
Then a page with story ideas that all appear in the film. "Cut tree - return - cut branches tree - leaving owl [then added later:] HOOT."
This seems to be an attempt at a continuity for the chase.

<< Click to enlarge!

A list of possible scenes for the first part of the film, not quite like how they turned out in the end, with Pluto being mowed because he stops to scratch instead of bumping into the wall.

<< Click to enlarge!

Finally we see a kind of script for those first scenes, that in red has possible scene divisions indicated. As you will see, it does not completely follow the actual final story. E.g. Pluto knocks into a wall, not a tree. Also we read that "hedge nods head - surprised look of Mickey" which was not executed as clearly as written here...

<< Click to enlarge!

The short was eventually animated by the usual suspects: Johnny Cannon, Les Clark, Gerry Geronimi, Jack King, Dave Hand, Norm Ferguson, Tom Palmer, Dick Lundy and Ben Sharpsteen, who was in charge of a group of junior animators, which very likely included Marvin Woodward, Chuck Couch, Hardie Gramatky, Harry Reeves and Dick Williams. This draft of 11/25/31...We can compare Fergy's sc. 20 and Hand's sc. 28, as both show the cat watching, then sneaking. Clearly Hand has tried to very logically "figure it out," making for quite mechanical movement, while Fergy has drawn what it feels like when a hungry cat sneaks up on a bird!

The background department at the time existed of Emil Flohri, Carlos Manriquez and Mique Nelson.

A Long Story Short... ...or: How two sheets of paper got united after some 25 years...

In truth I never thought I would see this draft completed. I had previously posted page one of it (the first image below) and noted that it was the first page of the original typed draft of Prod. CM-10, The Birthday Party, directed by Burt Gillett, released Jan. 6th, 1931. It only goes to show that it's a small world after all:

When director Burt Gillett (1891-1971) was lured away by Van Beuren in 1934 after his tremendous success with Three Little Pigs, he took with him to New York a box of drawings and notes. He gave these to a Jeannie, the 14-year old daughter of a family that Gillett and his first wife Louise had befriended. Years passed, and so did Jeannie - and the box ended up with her sister and her husband, a farmer (and very nice person) in Kentucky.

In the 70s they rediscover the box (and split it into two boxes), and try to find interest in the items, but find there isn't any. Then, in the late 80s, they happen to see an article about a New York collector in a magazine and they contact him - and sell him a stack of papers (for $800), only to read in their local newspaper a short while later that he had sold a single item from those papers at auction for $24,000. Later they find he sold many of the items through Cristie's East, selling for as much as $44,000 for a two-page item. They contact Christie's, and in 1994 and 1995 sell most of the rest of the items - for about a quarter of a million dollars: original Ub Iwerks storyboards for some of the earliest Mickeys, animation drawings and layouts, stills and even original Oswald contracts between Walt Disney and Margaret Winkler Mintz! I am certain that for Disney animation history, this was THE find of decade, though probably not many knew the source of this material.

Late last year the good folks in Kentucky find a box with the left-over materials that Christie's had sent back, as they did not think these would sell, and I am fortunate to have been able to acquire quite a few of these items through eBay - story notes, outlines, scribbles and a short stack of flippable animation drawings from the 1930 short Just Mickey. And one of the items is... page TWO (of two) of the Birthday Party draft!
It matches exactly over page one, even the stains from the paper clip match! Obviously, page one had come to me circuitously through the New York collector's purchase (eventually sold to me by a Florida seller), but both pages unquestionably started out in that same box
in Kentucky. Now, they're united and complete again after some
25 years! How about that?

Christie's did not always know what they were dealing with, as several of the items they sold cheaply had Walt Disney's handwriting on them, and they did not notice this. I now know a great deal more about Walt's handwriting, and I am certain that the red markings on this draft are in his hand. The name Flohri is also his scribble, and I now suspect it was his assignment of background painter Emil Flohri (1865-1938) to this project. Since Walt's work was his life (as Mike Barrier knows but Neil Gabler doesn't seem to, looking at their books), he was a very hands-on producer in this period, actively involved in every phase of production...

Prod. CM-11 - Traffic Troubles

Released 3/7/31, it took little over three weeks to animate, from 12/29/30 to 1/24/31. Again directed by Burt Gillett, it features my favorite group of animators: Dave Hand, Les Clark, Tom Palmer, Ben Sharpsteen, Dick Lundy, Jack King, Johnny Cannon, Norm Ferguson and Frenchy de Trémaudan.

This is the film for which Dave Hand did some animation that he later mentioned - Walt told him several times to exaggerate his actions, until Hand got so irritated he said to himself "I'll show him exaggerated!" and made it twice as wild, so much so he thought he might be fired. Upon seeing it, Walt just smiled and said something like "See? That's just what I meant..."

Prod. CM-7 - The Gorilla Mystery

The date on this draft is the release date, 9/22/30. It was directed by Burt Gillett and can be found on the first Mickey Mouse in Black and White Treasures DVD. Jaxon on the piano, and Johnny Cannon jazzing it up. "A scene where Mickey points a gun at the gorilla was cut," according to IMDb...

Prod. CM-10 - Birthday Party revisited

Some time ago, I posted the only page of an old version of the draft to the 1931 Mickey Mouse short called The Birthday Party. Here is it in its entirety in a later copy.
In 1942 it was remade as Mickey's Birthday Party...

Prod. CM6 - The Chain Gang

Released 8/18/1930 and directed by Burt Gillett, The Chain Gang mysteriously has Mickey Mouse as convicted criminal, animated by Norm Ferguson, Les Clark, Ben Sharpsteen, Jack Cutting, Jack King, Dick Lundy, Tom Palmer, Johnny Cannon, Wilfred Jaxon, Dave Hand and Charlie Byrne. This was the period where the crew alternated between Mickeys and Silly Symphonies, and scenes were dealt out from the top, first come first serve...For those of you who "arrived late," this is shorts draft number 58 on this blog - you can also find two features (Pinocchio and The Three Caballeros) and three sequences from other features, all as drafts...

Prod. CM9 - Pioneer Days

Directed by Burt Gillett, released on Walt's 29th birthday, 12/5/1930.
We again meet Ben Sharpsteen, Jack King, Norm Ferguson, Johnny Cannon, Les Clark, Wilfred Jackson, Dave Hand, Tom Palmer, Dick Lundy, Frenchy de Tremaudan, Jack Cutting and Charlie Byrne.
This is the group (minus the last two) that animated most all of the Mickeys and Silly Symphonies in the early 30's - and made most of the animation-technical discoveries that we take for granted today...

Prod. CM22 - The Duck Hunt

Directed by Burt Gillett, released 01/28/1932.
Animated by Johnny Cannon, Dave Hand - with Andrew Hutchinson and Gerry "Jerry" Geronimi, Norm Ferguson, Jack King, Ben Sharpsteen - with Chuck Couch and Harry Reeves, Frenchy de Tremaudan, Rudi Zamora and Dick Lundy. 8,791 drawings...

Went and saw the Kay Nielsen exhibit here just north of Copenhagen, on its last day. WOW! A truly amazingly gifted artist. And lots of art to look at! The good folks at the museum were justly humbled by the fact that there was no catalog. The only comfort they offered was the fact that there will be a book by Colin White about Nielsen, which was supposed to be issued during the exhibit. It will be available in English from London and Chicago, the Danish page says, and I just checked, it is planned to come out around - maybe just after - Christmas. The Danish publisher will distribute it in the US also. [Nov. 2009: date now shows as February 2010.]
This was the Disney room, with ten lovely items on loan from the ARL and a private collector, from Fantasia (with a clip running on video), Little Mermaid and Sleeping Beauty (image taken with my cell).

Prod. CM19 - The Beach Party

Directed by Burt Gillett, released 11/04/1931.
Animators: Dick Lundy, Dave Hand, Norm Ferguson, Tom Palmer, Jack King, Gerri Geronimi, Frenchy de Tremaudan, Ben Sharpsteen. Hand and Sharpsteen seem to have coached a number of junior animators and assistants: Sizzle (?), Tat (?) Frank Kelling, Chuck Couch, Joe D'Igalo, Andrew Hutchinson, Hardie Gramatky, Jack Cutting, Marvin Woodward, Charles Byrne(s) and Harry Reeves. These were exiting times: the films got better for so did the people making them! But the core was this small group of a few key men...
Good thing Frank Kelling didn't live in Denmark - in Danish, a Kelling is an old hag... Say, does anyone know more about Sizzle and Tat?

[Update from comments posted and sent to me: Sizzle was Cecil Surrey as found in previous postings, and Tat was Daniel Tattenham, a one-time animation studio head, see here.]

Prod. CM16 - Blue Rhythm

Directed by Burt Gillett and released 08/18/1931.
A plethora of animators, most only doing a single scene:
Joe d'Igalo, Les Clark, Tom Palmer, Frenchy de Tremaudan, Dick Lundy, Jack Cutting, Frank Tipper, Norm Ferguson, Cecil Surr(e)y, Charles Byrne(s), Johnny Cannon, Hardy Gramatky, Jack King, Ed Benedict, Rudy Zamora and Harry Reeves. A great little film that is on the Disney Treasures DVD "Mickey Mouse in Black and White".
I have never been so busy, folks! Therefor I have a very VERY erratic posting schedule! Remember to check Didier's blog for Silly Symphonies drafts, which are copies of documents in the Disney Archives. And remember to get J B Kaufmann and Russell Merritt's book Silly Symphonies! They have used all known drafts and put this info (condensed) in their very interesting book!

Prod. CM4 - The Fire Fighters

This draft is the earliest complete one I have with animator indications. (If anyone has page 1 of Touchdown Mickey...)
It was animated in the months after Ub Iwerks left the studio, one of the first films for Columbia. Ben Sharpsteen, Norm Ferguson and Dave Hand had not been with the studio for many months when they animated their scenes...

Directed by Burt Gillett, released 6/20/1930.
Available on Disney Treasures DVD "Mickey Mouse in B&W."

Prod. CM21 - Mickey's Orphans

Directed by Burt Gillett, this draft of 12/5/1931, the release date is four days later. Animation by Dave Hand, Joe D'Igalo, Jack King, Norm Ferguson, Gerry Geronimi, Tom Palmer, Hardie Gramatky, Ben Sharpsteen, Johnny Cannon and Dick Lundy.

This film is simple, yet charming and a bit odd. Why would Mickey even give saws and hammers to the orphans?
Available on Disney Treasures DVD "Mickey Mouse in B&W."

A thing I wondered about: in Neil Gabler's book on page 169 he writes of the first Leica Reels, and the note says: "Ben Sharpsteen, Answers to Questions submitted by Dave Smith, Sept. 1964." Is this Dave Smith the archivist, already then? I should have read it earlier, as I was sitting next to him at the Disney Legends ceremony...
[Update: it was obviously a typo: a later note says Sept. 1974]