Tommy Tucker's Tooth

Walt Disney's first live-action film reminds children to brush their teeth. Really plain stuff. Harmless, I guess, but "Tommy Tucker's Tooth" is nothing that our parents didn't tell us when we were three years old. The only animation is a couple of acid devils chopping away at a tooth (giving it a cavity). The short is from Disney's short-lived Laugh-O-Gram Studios in Kansas City. Not surprisingly, a number of the shorts released by this studio were based on children's stories. After Laugh-O-Gram Studios folded, Disney decided to seek his fortune in Hollywood, and the rest is history. I suspect that back when this short ran in Kansas City's theaters, none of the viewers suspected that within a decade, the creator would be one of the most powerful people in entertainment, and that his company would one day be an international conglomerate.

I've not seen this movie in quite a few years, but there is a copy of it somewhere in my family. My dad, Jack Records, who lived in Kansas City as a child, played one of the kids in the movie (Tommy Tucker, I think, but hesitate to say for sure. He'd have been 11 years old at the time. I wish the credits had been listed here). He contacted the Disney Studios in his later life and got a print of the film. I'd like to see it again to confirm which character he played. As an adult, he became a physician (ob-gyn), spending his entire professional life in Oklahoma City. He died in 2000, at the age of 89. That his path and Walt Disney's should have crossed this way is one of our family's favorite stories.

Update: June 19, 2014

Someone uploaded a copy of the film to YouTube, where it is currently available for viewing. My dad played the role of Jimmie Jones.

This was the first short ever by Walt Disney, and one of the few things that he directed (he was mostly a producer). The quality is very poor, compared to the modern days of Pocahontas and Tarzan, but it still has that innocent touch that makes all of Disney's productions magical.