Mickey's Gala Premier

Already part of history as the cartoon on which the BBC pulled the plug the day war was declared; the film being premiered - a squib called 'Galloping Romance' - is of far less interest than the assembled Hollywood luminaries (including Garbo, Laurel & Hardy, the four Marx Brothers and the cast of 'Rasputin and the Empress') who arrive to make up the audience.

"Mickey's Gala Premiere" is an above-average Mickey Mouse cartoon from Disney's best period. The premise is simple: Mickey Mouse produces a movie, and all the biggest stars in Hollywood (1933 vintage) show up for the premiere.

Unfortunately, most modern viewers will be unable to identify some or all of the big stars who appear (in cartoon form) in this cartoon. The caricatures are quite cruel: Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler are drawn to look like a couple of gross hippopotami. Greta Garbo is drawn with exaggerated feet. (During Garbo's stardom, she was frequently the butt of jokes about her allegedly large feet ... actually, her feet were quite normal, but she had an ungainly gait that made them seem larger.)

Even viewers who recognise all the film stars in this cartoon might still be baffled by some of the references. Why are Buster Keaton and Jimmy Durante shown handcuffed together? Answer: this is a reference to one scene in 'What! No Beer?' ... a film that was released just as "Mickey's Gala Premiere" went into production.

From a British standpoint, the most notable aspect of "Mickey's Gala Premiere" is its unique role in the history of television. Before World War Two, television reception in Britain was only available in London and the Home Provinces, from a transmitter at Alexandra Palace. On the first day of September 1939, executives at 'Ally Pally' decided to shut down tv transmission for the duration of the war, so that the transmitters could not be used as signal beacons by German bombers. At the precise instant when the plug was pulled, London audiences were watching "Mickey's Gala Premiere" on television ... and the screens went blank about halfway through the cartoon. After the war, when the time came to resume tv transmission, a BBC executive jokingly suggested that transmission should begin with the same Mickey Mouse cartoon ... starting in mid-film, at the precise spot where it left off six years earlier.

Cooler heads prevailed, and on 7 June 1946, the Earl of Listowel threw the switch to resume British tv transmission ... starting with "Mickey's Gala Premiere" shown from its *beginning*. The cartoon was followed with performances from ballerina Margot Fonteyn, harpist John Cockerill and the New Zealand-born cartoonist David Low whose political cartoons had done so much to maintain wartime morale.

I'll rate "Mickey's Gala Premiere" 7 points out of 10, but at least one point is for this cartoon's unique role in the history of British television.

I love this as much as Warner Bros. 1941 "Hollywood Steps Out". The only error I see in the listing of celebrities is the audience scene after 3:15 into the cartoon. In the front left, I'd swear that's Richard Dix and NOT Chester Morris as so many have claimed.

This Mickey Mouse cartoon, as well as being extremely charming, is a joy to watch if you are a 1930s movie buff. The caricatures of leading players of the time such as Clark Gable, Eddie Cantor, Wheeler and Woolsey, Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, Mae West, Marie Dressler, Greta Garbo, and Will Rogers are fun to spot; I especially laughed at Will Hay (film censor of the time) in regal get-up, and at the slouchy, big-footed Greta Garbo.

The film within a film, Galloping Romance, is a kind of companion piece to an earlier Mickey cartoon, Galloping Gaucho. Again Pete kidnaps Minnie and again Mickey saves the day. This film is funny, snappy, and well put-together.

'Mickey's Gale Premier' stands out from many of the other shorts made at the time because of its currency and reference to many stars. Other studios made similar forays into celebrity caricature (Warner Bros. Coo-Coo Nut Grove for one) but this one is the most successful, even if you can't place who many of the people depicted are - if you can, this cartoon is a sheer delight.

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

The famed Grauman's Chinese Theater is the Hollywood location for MICKEY'S GALA PREMIERE, with a multitude of luminaries showing up for the occasion.

This is a marvelous little black & white feast for movie mavens who get to try to spot & name as many of the caricatured celebrities as possible. With this film Walt Disney was signaling that both he & his little buddy had reached the big time with the rest of Hollywood, literally, at their feet. The film within a film, GALLOPING ROMANCE, is treated like an authentic, stand-alone Mouse cartoon; featuring Mickey, Minnie & Peg-leg Pete, it is necessarily short, but fully up to Disney's standards. Walt supplies Mickey's squeaky voice.

Many of the stars whose likeness appears in MICKEY'S GALA PREMIERE are now quite obscure, therefore making their identification a difficult procedure. Here then, as much as possible, is a listing of the celebrities, noting when they make their first appearance in the cartoon (many show up more than once):

Out in front of the Theater: The Keystone Kops - Ben Turpin, Ford Sterling, Mack Swain, Harry Langdon & Chester Conklin.

Emerging from limousines: Wallace Beery & Marie Dressler (she was box office queen at the time); Lionel, John & Ethel Barrymore (all costumed for their roles in RASPUTIN AND THE EMPRESS, 1932); Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy; Groucho, Chico, Zeppo & Harpo Marx.

At the microphone: Maurice Chevalier; Eddie Cantor (costumed for his role in THE KID FROM SPAIN, 1932); Jimmy Durante; Ginger Rogers, Joan Crawford (costumed for her role in RAIN, 1932) & Bette Davis; Harold Lloyd, Clark Gable, Edward G. Robinson & Adolphe Menjou.

Entering the Theater: George Arliss, Sid Grauman, Joe E. Brown, Sir Charlie Chaplin (costumed as The Little Tramp), Buster Keaton & Mae West (costumed for her role in SHE DONE HIM WRONG, 1933).

Emerging from limousine: Mickey & Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Horace Horsecollar & Clarabelle Cow.

Seated in the Theater: Chester Morris, Gloria Swanson & William Powell; Will Hays (dressed in regal robes and crown to spoof his position as Censorship Czar); Greta Garbo; Will Rogers; Ed Wynn; Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey; Bela Lugosi (costumed as Count Dracula), Fredric March (costumed as Mr. Hyde) & Boris Karloff (costumed as Frankenstein's Monster).

Rolling in the aisle: Douglas Fairbanks.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.