This week marks the 75th anniversary of the release of Walt Disney’s “Fantasia.” The film, of course, is made up of eight animated sequences, ranging from the comical to the visionary, set to a Chernobog’s handful of the world’s classics, performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Leopold Stokowski.
Tomorrow morning on WPRB, we mark the event with vintage performances of music presented in the film, alongside additional works, all conducted by Stokowski.
“Fantasia” was first rolled out as a 13-city theatrical roadshow on November 13, 1940. A curio and a money-loser at the time of its release, its artistic vision, episodic, often non-narrative structure, and expense, in terms of both production and the installation of special equipment during its initial tour (“Fantasia” was the first commercial film presented in stereophonic sound) ensured that it couldn’t possibly recoup its costs, especially during wartime.
However, subsequent decades have solidified the film’s stature as a cult classic, reissued many times, so that it now stands, when adjusted for inflation, as the 22nd most profitable film in U.S. entertainment history.
The creative marriage of Disney and Stokowski was bound to yield fascinating results. Disney envisioned “a new style of motion picture presentation” that would bring classical music to an audience (among which he included himself) that ordinarily “walked out on this kind of stuff.”
Stokowski would prove to be an ideal choice. The conductor’s ability to conjure unusual colors from one of the world’s finest orchestras was captured on eight optical sound recording machines over seven weeks at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music. This kind of thing simply wasn’t done in 1939!
The development of “Fantasound” pioneered simultaneous multi-track recording, overdubbing and noise reduction techniques, all processes still in wide use today.
I hope you’ll join me tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 ET, as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of “Fantasia,” on WPRB 103.3 FM and online at wprb.com. We vicariously shake hands with the Mouse, on Classic Ross Amico.
