The Oscars: Shirley On Location

Over the years, The Oscars have bounced around from location to location. The very first one was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in the Blossom Room on May 16, 1929. The Roosevelt still operates today; above is a 1950s image of the Hollywood Boulevard hotel. The Ambassador Hotel held the dinner for the second Academy Awards event on April 3, 1930, as well as in 1932, 1934, 1940, and 1943.



All were in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub (below) except for 1932, which was in The Fiesta Room.



The Oscars were held in downtown Los Angeles at the Biltmore Hotel in 1931 and then 1935 through 1939. Below, Shirley Temple gives Claudette Colbert her Best Actress award for “It Happened One Night” (1934):



On February 23, 1939, Shirley famously presented Walt Disney with his specially designed Oscar for “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937):



Shirley also hobnobbed with Tyrone Power:



Douglas Fairbanks:



…and Ann Sheridan (Hedy Lamarr is behind Shirley):



An outside vintage view of the Biltmore:



The Biltmore Bowl ballroom where the Oscars were held at the Biltmore:



Increased attendance and World War II made banquets impractical, so the ceremony moved to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre from 1944-1946.



John Derek (of Bo Derek fame!) and Shirley were at Grauman’s for the March 2, 1944 event:



On March 7, 1946, she walked down the red carpet with then-husband John Agar:



The Shrine Auditorium was the location of choice from 1947-1948:



Red Skelton and Shirley, circa 1947:



1948 with John Agar again:



The 1949 Academy Award Theater on Melrose Avene in West Hollywood hosted the 21st Academy Awards on March 24, 1949 (since demolished). The RKO Pantages Theatre on Sunset Boulevard followed in 1950 and remained on the event roster until April 4, 1960.



Zsa Zsa Gabor and George Sanders at the Oscars in 1951:



In 1961, the Awards moved to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Shirley posed with Annette Funicello that evening:



On April 14, 1969, the 41st Academy Awards ceremonies moved to the brand new Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center of Los Angeles County. Shirley appeared there on April 9, 1984. Below she is shown holding her miniature Oscar from 1935:



Below, Shirley poses with Ginger Rogers, who she worked with on “I’ll Be Seeing You” (1944):



That’s it for my Oscar photo collection!

See more contemporary and vintage photos at my main website.

1990s 3D: Castle and Fantasyland

The Daveland Time Machine takes you back thirty years and allows you to experience Disneyland in-person via the miracle of genuine FauxD©. A balloon seller manages to stay on terra firma despite holding an incredible amount of Minnie Mouse balloons. Heading over to the heart of Central Plaza we see the Partners Statue, sculpted by Blaine Gibson and dedicated on November 18, 1993.



To the right is one of my favorite areas in the Park, the Snow White Wishing Well Waterfall:



From that area, we get a side-view of the Sleeping Beauty Castle:



The balloon sellers were out en masse that day!



It would appear our 1995 photographer had a balloon fetish.



A closeup of the seller's wares:



Definitely a fetish.



Inside the Castle, we get a rare glimpse of the Diorama, during the “Barbie and Ken” years (1977-2001):



Our 1995 photographer supplies us with two rare interior shots from the Snow White dark ride:





Still more 1995 3D images to come!

See more Disneyland Sleeping Beauty Castle photos at my main website.

Snow White, 1937: An Appreciation

One of my friends said to me last week, “Let’s go see ‘Snow White’; I want to see how bad it is!” With that, he bought us tickets to go see the trainwreck. But before I tell that story of what I (and three other people) viewed in a dark theatre, let’s go back to the classic animated version that Walt Disney himself released in 1937. This post is full of scene-spoilers, so if you’re new to this film that’s more than eighty years young, you might want to skip this one!

When I rewatched it the other night, I was reminded of what an expert storyteller Walt Disney was. At a very tight 83 minute length, one does not squirm from boredom as Walt knew exactly what was key to his story and what could be left behind.



With two simple written pages and a brief sequence that introduces the Evil Queen in all her menacing glory…



Walt gives the audience all the backstory and plot motivation they need to know before seeing Snow White, our young heroine.



While obviously very young and naive, she is old enough to have romantic longings and also shows signs of being weary from the manual labor that has been cruelly forced upon her by the Evil Queen, her vain stepmother. At the age of 19, Adriana Caselotti recorded the role of Snow White, imbuing the part with just the mixture of innocence and strength. Her vocal talents served her well and made her solo, “Someday My Prince Will Come,” the 19th greatest film of all time according to the American Film Institute’s 100 Years…100 Songs. Lucille La Verne brought more than enough menace and fright to the roles of the Evil Queen and the Old Witch.

Besides the glorious Technicolor, the innovative camera angles, and the high quality hand-drawn animation, I was impressed with how seamless the musical numbers were woven into the story, with each one carefully moving the story along. Snow White sings a song of longing and her Prince happens to be riding by. Overcome by the surprise and excitement of this unexpected romantic encounter (and one can safely assume it is her first), the Princess runs off to her room in the castle. 



The camera pans between the Evil Queen witnessing the scene in horror and Snow White obviously returning the affection of the Prince singing to her from down below.



The rest of the story moves along at a brisk pace, with a good mix of song, romance, comedy, and high drama. The editing is impeccable; the intercutting between the Evil Queen’s transformation into an old witch and Snow White’s bonding with the Seven Dwarfs keeps the tension building while showing how all the dwarfs (including Grumpy) fall for her kindness and charms.



The tension stays high with another perfectly edited sequence, as the audience roots for the dwarfs to get back to the cottage in time to save Snow White from the Old Witch and the poisoned apple. Will they make it or won’t they? I had forgotten just how tightly the film was constructed and how perfectly the musical score heightened tensions and yielded tears. The cutting back and forth between the two scenes keeps you on the edge of your seat. Storytelling at its finest!



The Old Witch escapes, and it looks like she might be completely victorious as she is about to roll a deadly boulder on top of the dwarfs:



While scary, it was sequences like these that made this feature film so endearing to both girls and boys. Walt had no qualms about frightening kids; as he once wisely said:

Life is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere, and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows.

Was there a happy ending? If you haven’t seen the film, do yourself a favor and watch it.



It is TIMELESS!! See more classic Walt Disney movie photos at my main website.

Modern Screen, August 1955: Disneyland

For the August 1955 issue of Modern Screen Magazine, actress Pier Angeli graced the cover. Inside, the gossip mag gave three full pages of coverage for the recently opened Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California. The first spread included a color photo of the Sleeping Beauty Castle model:



The historic model was on display at the Disneyland Opera House when I shot it in February 2007:



…and in June 2008:





One can “assume” that while the article came out one month after the Park opened, the feature was put together while Disneyland was still under construction, thus the model shots. A photo of Walt with a colt  from April 1954 was also used. Here’s the uncropped version from my collection:



The article features two “young stars,” Marla English and Larry Pennell, who posed for pictures at the Walt Disney Studio in Burbank, where the rides and vehicles were being construction/refurbished. Below are trees from the Snow White attraction and the Horse-Drawn Chemical/Fire Wagon:



A shot of the Chemical Wagon from 1956 taken in the Park:



The second page of the spread included color shots of the Main Street, Adventureland, and Mark Twain models:



A closeup of the Main Street model, which still had the bandstand situated in Town Square:



An August 1955 black and white closeup of the same model:



Closeups of the other models:





A closeup of one of the Stagecoaches, with Marla and Larry looking very lovey-dovey:



An August 1954 image from my collection of the same stagecoach, also shot at the Disney Studio in Burbank; note the corrugated wall, visible in many of the images from the Modern Screen article:



The last page of the feature included a map and other studio-shot photos of more vehicles and animals (both real and fake):



You might recognize Pennell from “The Beverly Hillbillies,” where he played Dash Riprock. Marla’s claim to fame was being cast opposite Spencer Tracy in “The Mountain” (1955), and then deciding to withdraw from the project. Marla told the columnists that she left as a result of hospitalization due to a recently administered smallpox vaccine. According to the St. Petersburg Times, September 18, 1955, this was the real reason, according to a close relative of Marla:

Said she: “Marla has fallen in love with a young Paramount player, Bud Pennell. She desperately wanted the studio to give him a part in “The Mountain.” Then the two of them could have gone off to France together. When the studio refused, she blew her top. A woman in love will do anything.” This, a Paramount executive conceded, was basically correct. “Only an actress in love,” he added, “would give up a picture with Spencer Tracy.”

At least they had Disneyland…

See more Disneyland brochures and map photos at my main website.