Hollywood Studio Magazine (November 1967)

CHUCK GRIZZLE Norman Tokar, director of Disney's new comedy, "Year of the Horse," visits with Anthony Mayo and Guy Miller from Studio 103 Teen Post. Young Mayo is a student of a drama class organized and conducted by actor Dean Jones. Mr. Miller is director of the teen post. Teen-age members of actor Dean Jones' drama class held each week in the Watts area of Los Angeles, visiting their instructor on the set of his new picture, the Walt Disney comedy romance, "Year of the Horse." Standing from left to right are Guy Miller, Director of Studio 103 Teen Post; Helen Ephriam, Maxine Tucker, Gail Kennedy and Ethel Porter. Seated are Jones and Anthony Mayo. Young Gabe Essoe of the Publicity Department has just published a book entitled “Gable.” A biography of the late film star, Clark Gable, the work is the combined effort of Ray Lee and Gabe, and contains a forward by Joan Crawford. Price-Stern-Sloan is publish¬ ing. Notification of sale was timely enough, coming as it did, just a couple of weeks after his marriage to a pretty little gal from Garden Grove. Just for the record, the latest edition of the Funk & Wagnall dictionary con¬ tains that mouthful of word that Mary Poppins made famous, Supercalifra- gilisticexpialidocious. And why not. For the last couple of years the kids have made the tongue twister a contest and challenge around households every¬ where. You should hear it in Italian, German, Spanish and Japanese. The dubs for the foreign releases of pis- ney’s big one are fun in themselves. Rumor has it that on tap for the next edition of the dictionary is Tommy Steele’s and the music-making Sherman brothers’ statement of optimism from “The Happiest Millionaire,” FORTUOS- ITY. “Year of the Horse,” a comedy screen¬ play written by Louis Pelletier from an Eric Hatch novel, is currently in pro¬ duction at Disney’s Golden Oak Ranch near Newhall and at the Burbank Stu¬ dio. Produced by Winston Hibler, long¬ time associate of Walt Disney, the film stars Dean Jones and Diane Baker, with co-stars Morey Amsterdam, Lloyd Boch- ner, Kurt Russell, Lurene Tuttle and Fred Clark, and introduces fourteen- year-old Ellen Janov. Norman Tokar is directing. The major feature production tells the story of a Madison Avenue execu¬ tive who dreams up a zany advertising campaign to both keep his job and pay for his daugher’s champion steed. Scenes of the famous Washington Inter¬ national Horse Show held every year in the Capitol will be included in those portions of the picture depicting the stiff competition among the powerful jumping horses. “Year of the Horse” will be in pro¬ duction until mid-December, and will probably be released sometimes during early 1969. Students of a Watts area drama class, which was organized and is conducted by Dean Jones, visited the Disney Stu¬ dio recently to watch their instructor at work on the set of his latest assignment, “Year of the Horse.” They are members of Studio 103 Teen Post on East 103rd Street. The class is part of Jones’ self- imposed commitment to do what he can as an individual to help the youth troubled areas. New head of the Disney Make-up Department is Ottis Malcolm. Young Kurt Russell, who is currently working in his fourth Disney picture, “Year of the Horse,” received over 40,- 000 letters from fans last summer. The enthusiasm of his following is ev¬ idenced in the countless gifts he gets from all over the country. Kurt’s next release for Disney Studio, “The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band,” a musical, won’t be released until December of 1968. It stars Walter Brennan, Buddy Ebsen, Lesley Ann Warren, John Davidson and Janet Blair. With the signing of fourteen-year-old Ellen Janov for a role in “Year of the Horse,” another name is added to the Disney tradition of casting unknowns in major feature films. Selected from dozens of girls who responded to a recently publicized tal¬ ent search at Disney Productions, Ellen has never acted for stage or screen. She lives with her parents, Dr. and Mrs. Arthur Janov of Beverly Hills, and is a- sophomore at University High School in West Los Angeles. In “Year of the Horse,” a comedy romance, she plays the daughter of a beseiged advertising executive who invents a unique campaign to both keep his job and pay for the girl’s expensive champion jumper. Dean Jones stars as her father, and Diane Baker has been cast as her riding instructor and the love interest for Jones. A petite brunette who likes some of the new mod fashions, Ellen tried out for the movie role at the suggestion of noted Disney producer Bill Walsh, who heard her singing informally at a tennis club lounge in Palm Springs. She in¬ quired at the Studio, was given a screen test and got the part. 25