Orgy for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or alcohol and nudity for Pinocchio are just a few of the inglorious episodes in the history of Disney Studios, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.
Walt Disney and the studios named after him are inextricably linked to global popular culture. The products from mouse pharmacies are now a guarantee of a certain family “morality”. Except… that perfect picture breaks sometimes and the very first time was in 1937, after the premiere of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
A Snow White orgy…
Walt Disney had made a big bet and mortgaged his house, so sure was he of the success that the very first animated film and the very first feature film in color would have. And since the man understood the power of advertising and dreams, the film’s premiere was in the image of Hollywood at the time: surreal with its Dwarfland – literally “the land of the dwarves” – a kind of forested area through which the distinguished guests passed on the way over to the red carpet. Building on the success of the premiere and the box office results – “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was only dethroned by “Gone with the Wind” a year later – Walt Disney wanted to thank his teams who had worked under constant pressure for two years. And what could be better than allowing them to stay in Palm Springs at the Norconian Hotel with their entire family?
Disney Studios is celebrating its centennial this year, but its history is not as white as snow. Photo provided by Walt Disney Pictures
“For two years we had worked long hours, days and nights to complete Snow White, and I still felt that stress,” confided Bill Justice, one of the studio’s animators, in his biography. When we arrived at the Norconian there were swimming pools, tennis courts, a golf course, music and of course an impressive amount of food and alcohol.”
“Something broke. An animator threw a fully clothed colorist into the pool. Employees jumped into the water and everyone quickly went crazy. Swimsuits were thrown out of the windows, everyone was naked in the swimming pools. Everyone was drunk and sometimes very surprised by the people they woke up next to the next day.”
Freddie Moore, one of Disney’s star artists and animators, even ended up in a tree because he mistakenly believed he was on the ground floor of the hotel when he was upstairs! One employee even made a remarkable entry into the hotel lobby… on horseback!
“Walt was horrified. The next morning he and his wife returned home. He never talked about that “party” again, and if you wanted to keep your job at Disney, you shouldn’t talk about it. We never had a party like that again,” concluded Bill Justice.
The police for Pinocchio
You might think that Snow White’s lesson was useful to Walt Disney, but no. Years later, British actor David Niven revealed the celebrations surrounding the release of Pinocchio in New York in February 1940.
Alcohol and nudity for Pinocchio are just some of the inglorious episodes in the history of the Disney studios, which are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year. Photo provided by Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney always strived to attract attention. So he hired eleven little people, dressed them up as Pinocchio, and placed them across the front of the theater so that they would cheerfully greet New York moviegoers on the first day of the feature’s broadcast. Unfortunately, this did not happen.
Because at lunchtime the 11 “audience artists” received food… and alcoholic drinks. As a result, three hours later they were naked, playing dice and shouting obscenities. Called in for backup, the police used pillowcases to put all these beautiful people back in their clothes and used ladders to get them downstairs as discreetly as possible!
Because there is more to life than just sex…
Disney Studios also had some problems with their theme parks. In 1989, for example, the studios paid $10,000 in fines and donated $75,000 to the state to establish a wildlife protection program after the manager of the Discovery Island Zoological Park was accused of encouraging employees to kill vultures and ibises to have encouraged.
Additionally, in 1993, Michael Eisner, then head of the studios, announced Disney’s intention to open a theme park in Virginia – complete with a golf course and shops – that would tell the story of the South. United States, from colonial times to 1945…slavery included. It took until historians rebelled against the idea of reconstructing the era of slavery in an entertainment context for Eisner to abandon the idea.