DHI HONORARY HISTORIAN CONTEST .... WINNER Drum roll please. First the Answer, then the stats, the winner ... and finally some history and several unpublished Walt Disney quotes. ***THE ANSWER: The House is from Walt Disneys live-action feature film Pollyanna (1960). It may look a little different, as additional story (and a wonderful Victorian roof) was added by Walts master matte painter, Peter Ellenshaw. The fifth image is a screen grab that shows how it looked in the film. The first three photos are more of my crummy photos (Im not a photographer, I am a historian). It is the McDonald Mansion in Santa Rosa, California, which was built in 1877. It now goes by the moniker Mableton. ***THE STATS: We had close to 40 people enter (I lost count, but this may be DHIs most popular contest yet). We had EIGHT (!) correct answers, which as a percentage of number of answers, may also be a record for us. Other popular answers were the Wrens Nest in Atlanta as well as various Disney homes (Portland, Chicago, etc.). Quite a few people that new the answer provided me with additional information, which I was impressed with. ***TOOTING EVERYBODYS HORN: Before announcing the winner, the following DHI members got this correct: Dave Mason Saturdays Toys Toys), Trish Healey (who walks her dog by the house often), Dean Day, Linda Pearce (it is her all-time favorite Disney live-action film), Kevin Beltzner, Steve Mabry (already a DHI Honorary Historian), Loa Shelley, and Darren Redstone. Sorry for the two that did not have FB fill in their name (no matter how hard I tried, I couldnt get it to work--perhaps someone can tell me). ***THE WINNER: Seven of the eight (as one is already a DHI Honorary Historian) went into NOT ol Disneyland Keppy Kap, as the Ludwig Von Drake hat I posted recently was closer at hand (and how appropriate that the Professor would provide this roll) and my nine-year old budding Disney historian pulled the name ...... .... .... .... Dean Day! Congratulations to our newest Disney History Institute Honorary Historian!! You join a select, but growing, few that truly know about Walt Disneys creative legacy. This, and $5.00 will get you a cup of hot chocolate at Starbucks (OUCH) at Disneyland! (Unless you area a CM of course!) :) (HISTORY LESSON TO FOLLOW, DONT LEAVE YET.) ****SOME ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS TOPIC, INCLUDING WHAT I BELIEVE IS AN UNPUBLISHED WALT DISNEY QUOTE ON POLLYANNA. Enjoy! The following Walt Disney quote comes from an interview done by Pete Martin with Walt Disney, but not the famous series of interviews done in the 1950s for Dianes book. This comes from a series of shorter interviews Martin did for the Saturday Evening Post in 1961. The quotes come from two different reels of the interview, I have put the two quotes together: Well, Pollyanna ... the connotation of Pollyanna hurt us. and We took Pollyanna, we brought it up so that it was not the icky, sticky Pollyanna that people begin to make fun of, but the title Pollyanna kept a lot of people away. Kept the men away. ... That was one of the disappointments of last year. -WALT DISNEY ****SPEAKING OF WALT I have this quote from writer and director David Swift about Walt and the film. I think it is a wonderful example of how Walt felt about the film, even if it did not do well on its first release. (Interview quote comes from my good friend and brilliant Disney historian, John G. West, who two decades ago was kind enough to let me copy his historical collection which now resides here in the Institute. WHAT MADE WALT CRY? Walt had purchased the rights to the Eleanor Porter novel, which was published in 1912, I believe. So he gave me the book and asked me what I thought, and I said I loved it. He said, Well, do a treatment. So I went home and wrote a 60 page outline. It was like a condensation of what the picture was going to be. And it may be the best writing Ive ever done since. It was just marvelous, and it was pretty much the picture that ended up on the screen, almost shot for shot. But it was told like a story that would be published in the Saturday Evening Post. And Walt loved it. He called me at home. He had read it, and he said, Bud, I finished your story. And I had a little tear. I said, What you mean is you cried, right? Yes, I cried. I loved it, lets make the movie. Does that mean its a go-ahead on a screenplay? Yes! What do you think Im talking about! I wrote the screenplay, and he loved that also. But it was much too long. I said that we had to cut it. He said, No, Ill tell you when to cut. Well, then wed scream and yell at each other. Finally two external links you might find of interest if you wish to explore this topic further. First, the McDonald Mansion (Mableton) has a Facebook page, which you can find here: bit.ly/1gV0YT4 Second, Disney History Institute Honorary Historian (see what this will do for your career!) :) Joseph Titizian wrote a wonderful article on Walt in Wine Country which talks about Santa Rosa and the McDonald Mansion, and so much more. You can read it here: bit.ly/1gV0YT4
Posted on: Mon, 14 Apr 2014 00:14:02 +0000
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