Mickey's Gala Premier

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.

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.

IN AN ACTION that could be described as "one hand washing the other", Walt Disney saw the opportunity to both flatter the denizens of the Movie Colony; while at the same, time make use and exploit their familiarity with the public in producing a Mickey cartoon. The very nature of the short left very little need for any extensive plot or, as we reviewers say, a scenario.

AS ONE WOULD most likely expect, MICKEY'S GALA PREMIER is set in Los Angeles, Hollywood, California. Also, being a White-Tie affair of a Movie premier, the logical venue would be Grauman's Chinese Theatre. It was.

IT OPENS WITH rows of admiring fans crowding around and pushing to get a glimpse of the many stars in attendance. One after another, chauffeur driven limousines pull up and leave; first depositing their celebrity cargo on the red carpet. The Theatre is well represented in its own caricature, as batteries of searchlights sweep the skies.

THE FIFTY OR so movie stars & other Hollywood big-wigs present us with a most distinguished of an audience for the premiering movie in question. The characters present the animation team with a plethora of natural gags that flow almost naturally over the duration of the cartoon's eight or so minutes.

EVVRERY BIT, BE it sight-gag or verbal, seems to have been tailored to the star being lampooned. Many of the characters are limited to just appearing; which is more than enough for their "contribution" to the cartoon.

UNLIKE JUST ABOUT any other animated short, MICKEY'S GALA PREMIER has, of necessity, a "Cartoon within a Cartoon"; a storyline device that is often used in live action feature films that deal with the Film Capitol and its people. This seems to be a very standard Mickey & Minnie vs. Dirty Pete and employs a succession of standard sort of gags, with the mouse winning out in the end.

WE DON'T BELIEVE that this is an excerpt from another cartoon as that would be contrary to Disney's methods of doing things. The "cartoon" also seems to be too tightly constructed to a mere 2 or 3 minutes; without appearing to have been abridged.

THIS TITLE IS worth a screening or two, if only for the purpose of viewing and identifying the Hollywood stars being spoofed.

THERE IS SORT of a twist in the conclusion that makes all of the happenings and assemblage of talent to be rendered more believable; as if an animated cartoon short is required to be realistic!

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.

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.