Walt Disney Presents One Hour in Wonderland - NBC - December 25, 1950
Special
Running Time: 60 minutes
One Hour in Wonderland is a 1950 television special made by Walt Disney Productions. It was first seen on Christmas Day, 1950, over NBC (4–5 pm in all time zones) for Coca-Cola, and was Walt Disney's first television production. It featured Disney as host, with Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont, Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy (who appeared on radio for Coke), and other celebrities who worked with Disney, including the Firehouse Five Plus Two jazz band. This special was actually a promotional program for Disney's upcoming theatrical feature, Alice in Wonderland. Kathryn Beaumont, who voiced Alice, was dressed like her for this television special. Walt's daughters Diane Marie Disney and Sharon Mae Disney were also featured in the production. Hans Conried appeard as the Magic Mirror. (Wikipedia)
Segments
Seven Dwarves' Party for Snow White (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) - 1937
Clock Cleaners (Mickey Mouse) - 1937
Br'er Rabbit Runs Away (Song of the South) - 1946
Bone Trouble (Pluto) - 1940
Jingle Bells (made for the special) - performed by Firehouse Five Plus Two
The Mad Tea Party (Alice in Wonderland) - 1950/1951
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Favorite Villains of Classic English Literature
Professor Moriarty - This villain is pure, beautiful simplicity: he's an alternate version of the hero with the morality removed. Both Holmes and Moriarty are quirky loners with genius IQs that thrive on challenging their intellects via loaning it out to others in some form of service. But Holmes has a conscience, a sense of right and wrong, which is why his service is that of a consulting detective, whereas Moriarty is a total sociopath whose service is that of a consulting criminal, meaning that he has an invisible hand in almost every crime that's carried out in London. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle gives an absolutely perfect description of him and how he operates as a villain: "He is the Napoleon of crime. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order. He sits motionless, like a spider in the center of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them. He does little himself. He only plans. But his agents are numerous and splendidly organized. Is there a crime to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a house to be rifled, a man to be removed--the word is passed to the Professor, the matter is organized and carried out. The agent may be caught. In that case money is found for his bail or his defense. But the central power which uses the agent is never caught--never so much as suspected."
Favorite adaptations: Professor Moriarty (Ernest Torrence) in Sherlock Holmes (Fox, 1932), Professor Moriarty (Lionel Atwill) in Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (Universal, 1943), Professor Moriarty (Eric Porter) in Sherlock Holmes (Granada, 1984), Professor Ratigan (Vincent Price) in The Great Mouse Detective (Disney, 1986), Jim Moriarty (Andrew Scott) in Sherlock (BBC, 2010), Jamie Moriarty (Natalie Dormer) in Elementary (CBS, 2012), and William "Liam" James Moriarty (Soma Saito) in Moriarty the Patriot (Shueisha, 2016).
Captain Hook - If Professor Moriarty is a great complex presentation of a simple character, then Captain Hook is the opposite: a complex character who is presented simply. A ruthless pirate captain with a limb replaced by the object he derives his name from is the easiest thing in the world to understand, but there's much more to old James beneath that surface: a well-educated English gentleman depressed with the notion that he's squandered his life away but too far gone in his pride to turn back, constantly striving for "good form" even when his occupation doesn't allow for much of it, and obsessed with getting revenge on Peter Pan partly out of jealousy and partly to distract from the inevitability of the end result of what Pan did to him - namely, an ever-pursuing crocodile that will ultimately mark the end of his life when the clock it swallowed finally stops ticking. If Pan shows the problems with never growing up, then Hook shows the problems with losing your innocence when you grow up. For as over the top of a villainous character as he is, he's also a tragic, even relatable one.
Favorite adaptations: Captain Hook (Ernest Torrence) in Peter Pan (Paramount, 1924), Captain Hook (Hans Conreid) in Peter Pan (Disney, 1953), Captain Hook (Cyril Ritchard) in Peter Pan (Broadway, 1954), Captain Hook (Tim Curry) in Peter Pan and the Pirates (Fox, 1990), Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman) in Hook (Amblin, 1991), Captain Hook (Jason Isaacs) in Peter Pan (Universal, 2003), "Jimmy" (Rhys Ifans) in Neverland (Syfy, 2011), Killian Jones (Colin O'Donoghue) in Once Upon a Time (ABC, 2012), Captain Hook (Stan Tucci) in Peter and Wendy (ITV, 2015) and Captain Hook (Jude Law) in Peter and Wendy (Disney, 2023).
And hey, wouldn't you know it! The same actor got the ball rolling in my favorite adaptations of both these characters! Clearly, the two of them were always destined to share this post.
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Here's a real curiosity in Bob Clampett's career: he had a technique called "Cut Up" with live-action heads on animated bodies, like a precursor to Syncro-Vox, and an unfinished 1962 pilot using it, "Tex & Judy", exists. Familiar voices include Mel Blanc and Hans Conreid, as well as the heads of Verna Felton and Billy Gilbert.
YEAH!! thank you for reminding me of this little gem, i’d forgotten about it!! i deeply enjoy learning out of Clampett’s career outside of Warners—one of my greatest hopes is that some more footage from Time for Beany will eventually surface one day!
but yeah, Tex and Judy is a lot of fun!! it’s always rewarding to see how Clampett was actively pushing the boundaries of the mediums he worked with. very fun casting choices too!!
see for yourself!
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BALL & THE BUTCHERS!
The Butchers & Meat Markets of the Lucyverse
Before supermarkets and online ordering, consumers visited local buthers and meat markets to shop. Here’s a look at the butchers of the Lucyverse!
Lucille Ball had a huge imagination when she was a child in Jamestown NY. In order to attempt to control her daughter, her mother made a deal with the local butcher for Lucy to run up and down the street between his shop and their home. It was in his butcher shop that Lucille first made her entertainment debut. In her autobiography, Ball shares details of her first performance on the butcher's counter. Lucy loved to dance and twirl for them, as well as giving her rendition of a jumping frog. She would stick her tongue out and croak. Customers would give her some pennies or a sweet treat to show their appreciation.
In 1942 Lucille Ball was the subject of a newspaper article titled “Conversation in the Kitchen” by Susan Thrift. The article details how the wartime homemaker can save money and conserve resources.
“If you have a freezing unit in your refrigerator, you can buy meat for the week. You’ve probably learned that you can depend much on a reliable butcher and standard brands. For the rest, remember what your mother taught you about the purchase of meat:”
“Valentine’s Day” (1949)
Katie the Maid (Ruth Perrot), is sweet on Mr. Dabney the butcher (Hans Conried), and Liz (Lucille Ball) offers to help. But when Liz's Valentine to her favorite husband gets switched with her check to pay the butcher's bill, Mr. Dabney gets the wrong idea.
Katie says she has a written a Valentine poem for Mr. Dabney the butcher. Liz calls him “old heavy thumbs”.
KATIE: “Some people may have better beef, but his liver’s good. And no one has oxtails and pig’s feet like him!”
Mr. Dabney reads the Valentine aloud:
“If you’ll be mine, then I’ll be thyne. You set my heart a-quiver. Say you’ll be my Valentine, And send two pounds of liver.”
Hans Conreid also played Mr. Dabney the butcher in “Overweight” (1949) where a dieting weigh-in is held at his butcher shop.
Mr. Dabney returns in “Reminiscing” (1949), a re-dramatization of “Valentine’s Day” as part of a “My Favorite Husband” retrospective episode.
When the "Valentine’s Day” script was made for television in 1952 in “Lucy Plays Cupid”, Mr. Dabney the butcher, played by Hans Conried, became Mr. Ritter, a grocer, played by Edward Everett Horton.
“The Freezer” (1952)
Hoping to save money, Lucy and Ethel purchases a walk-in freezer from Ethel’s Uncle Oscar, a butcher. When Lucy hears Ethel say that he has a “big cold chest,” Lucy drily replies, “Why don’t you knit him a sweater?”
After buying the freezer, they buy the meat to fill it at 69 cents a pound. Lucy over-orders two sides of beef from Johnson’s Meat Packing, a wholesale butcher. Lucy tells Ricky that bacon costs 75 cents a pound. The girls end up ordering 700 pounds of meat for a total of $483! Lucy immediately demands they take it back.
DELIVERY MAN: “Look, ladies, even if you defrosted it, pasted it back together and taught it to walk, I couldn’t take it back!”
To shift some of the meat, Lucy and other stake out the local butcher shop, stashing the meat in a baby stroller.
LUCY (to a customer): “Are you interested in some high-class beef? Are you tired of paying high prices? Do you want a bargain? Tell you what I'm gonna do. I got sirloin, tenderloin T-bone, rump, pot roast, chuck roast, oxtail stump.”
Fred Aldrich plays the butcher who is none too happy about Lucy and Ethel poaching his customers.
A December 1952 Philip Morris cartoon ad starts with the butcher delivering a side of beef to Lucy and Ethel, inspired by “The Freezer”.
“Together for Christmas” (1962)
The holiday episode opens with Lucy and Viv at the butcher shop, where Ernie the butcher (Joe Mell) is wrapping up Lucy’s Christmas turkey, even though Viv's family traditionally has a goose.
Ernie the butcher jokingly suggests stuffing the turkey with a goose!
“Lucy and the Plumber” (1964)
Lucy’s first talent discovery was made in Mr. Krause’s butcher shop when she saw his German Shepard Beauty “howl like the Beatles” when Mr. Krause (Tom G. Linder) played the harmonica.
”Lucy and the Great Bank Robbery” (1964)
Reading The Danfield Tribune, Viv notes that Oscar the butcher has a special on rump roast. This may be a throwback to Ethel Mertz’s Uncle Oscar the butcher.
“Lucy Gets Her Maid” (1965)
When Lucy and Viv take jobs as maids for a wealthy philanthopist, they realize that they not only have to prepare and serve the meals, but they have to act as their own butcher, too!
“Lucy and the Old Mansion” (1965)
A wrong number on the telephone keeps trying to reach Irving's Meat Market.
“Lucy Meets Mickey Rooney” (1966)
The backdrop for the Charlie Chaplin sketch features a sign for a market that has “Low Prices on Meat’s”. The grammatically incorrect possessive apostrophe is particularly odd. By that logic, the episode should be titled “Lucy Meet’s Mickey Rooney”!
“Someone’s on the Ski Lift with Dinah” (1971)
Harry feels entitled to approach Dinah Shore because his butcher’s cousin’s son’s best friend is engaged to her manicurist.
“Mary Jane’s Boyfriend” (1974)
Mary Jane’s boyfriend of the title owns a meat market. His name is Walter Butley (Cliff Norton). Harry calls Walter “meathead” because when he walked in the door, Lucy had just plopped a package of ground round on his head.
Possibly the most famous butcher on television was Sam Franklin, played by Allan Melvin on “The Brady Bunch.” Desi Arnaz Jr. appeared on the show in 1970, although Melvin did not appear on that episode. Also, Eve Plumb (Jan Brady) played Lucy Carter’s niece on a 1972 episode of “Here’s Lucy.”
Melvin appeared with Lucille Ball in a 1959 episode of “Sergeant Bilko” (aka “The Phil Silvers Show”) titled “Bilko and the Ape Man.” Melvin also appeared in several Desilu series: “Vacation Playhouse”, “The Danny Thomas Show,” “The Joey Bishop Show,” “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” “Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.,” “Mayberry R.F.D.”
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It's horrible to be desensitized about celebrities starring and voicing in adaptations of familiar properties and sounding absolutely nothing like the characters they play. But it's always been that way with me, like I've been upset about this in the past but as of now it just doesn't phase me anymore.
I love Benedict Cumberbatch but his performing as the Grinch was just bland and just Despicable Me Grinch Edition to me. That was mostly because I was more used to Boris Karloff or Hans Conreid being the definitive voice. Jim Carrey is an entirely different beast.
Scoob! to me was a huge middle finger in terms of casting. The only characters that sounded like the original were Scooby and Muttley (only because for Muttley they used archived recording). The rest was cramming in as many celebrities and Hannah Barbera references as humanly possible.
Chris Pratt voicing Mario is extremely iffy leaning heavily into yikes.
Personally (and I wish I and more people did this) we should just stop giving the Pratt (good or bad) attention. Stop making posts (again good or bad), stop reacting to all of it, and more importantly just pirate the movie if you're just gonna hate watch it. Movie studios don't care cause any attention good or bad is literally gonna help fill their pockets.
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