American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

whether or not an audience could or would sit through an hour and thirty minutes of animated pictures. Most of the bets were that an audience would go blind. As a matter of fact, that question had been settled as early as 1935, when European audiences lined up in long queues to see a two-hour bill of our shorts. This bill ran for seventeen weeks j in Stockholm, and similar all-cartoon bills have been quite successful in this country. At the time of Snow White's release, our staff had grown to about six hundred. Having committed ourselves to a program of both features and shorts, it became necessary again to expand drastically. An additional eight hundred people were added to our payrolls in the next two years. For more studio space, we were forced to lease a row of apartment houses adjoining the studio, and other temporary buildings were erected ' on the lot. We needed a new studio and in a hurry. Not only did we need more space and more buildings, but the increasing emphasis on the technical side of our craft demanded the most modern and specially designed type of buildings and equipment. The new plant was started in 1939 on fifty-one acres near the Los Angeles River in Burbank. We moved in around the first of 1940. The two years between Snow White and Pinocchio were years of confusion, swift expansion, reorganization. Hundreds of young people wei'e being trained ' and fitted into a machine for the manufacture of entertainment which had hecome bewilderingly complex. And this machine had been redesigned almost overnight from one for turning out short subjects into one aimed mainly at increased feature production. Produced under such conditions and forced to bear its share of this tremendously increased overhead during a twoyear period, Pinocchio cost something over three million dollars. Suddenly, the world war wiped out half our markets. Pinocchio is yet to return its original investment. It has been called a flop. Actually it was the second biggest boxoffice attraction of the year. Gone with the Wind was first. Pinocchio might have lacked Snow White's heart appeal, but technically and artistically it was superior. It indicated that we had grown considerably as craftsmen as well as having grown big in plant and numbers, a growth that is only important in proportion to the quality it adds to our product in the long run. The large profits from Snoiv White, short subjects, and the mounting royalties from our merchandising enterprises, had all gone back into the business to pay for the new studio and expansion program. Our payroll had risen to around three million a year. The war had cut our potential picture profits in half. The crisis was on. Another one. It was brought on by what might reasonably be called reckless expenditures. 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So if you want to improve the quality of the pictures you have already taken, show them on this famous Da-Lite Beaded fabric — the result of 32 years of leadership in screen manufacture. Available in the size, style and mounting which best fits your needs. Write for literature now! THE DA-LITE CHALLENGER is the only screen that can be adjusted in height by merely releasing a spring lock ml raisin? exsion rod. DA-LITE SCREEN CO., INC DEPT. 3 AC 2723 NORTH CRAWFORD AVENUE CHICAGO, ILLINOIS for the storm. Instead of the one feature-length picture every two years which seemed the limit of our capacity two years ago, we are now reorganized and equipped to release nine features in the next two years, each at a fraction of Pinocchio's cost. The first of these nine features, Fantasia, has been released. We have never been so enthusiastic about a picture. Every picture is an adventure, but Fantasia has certainly been our most exciting one. We take great music and visualize the stories and pictures which the music suggests to our imaginations. It is like seeing a concert. Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra re corded the music, using a new system of sound recording and three-dimensional reproduction called Fantasound. It is our intention to make a new version of Fantasia every year. It's pattern is very flexible and fun to work with — not really a concert, not vaudeville or a revue, but a grand mixture of comedy, fantasy, ballet, drama, impressionism, color, sound, and epic fury. Mickey Mouse and Disney in the same boat with Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Stokowski ! Well, where do we go from there? I haven't the faintest idea. I have never had the faintest idea where this business would drag me from one year to the next. It's at the controls, American Cinematographer March, 1941 141