Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. (Disney) (1966)

DICK VAN DYKE IS AT HIS FUNNIEST IN WALT DISNEY’S ‘ROBIN CRUSOE’ One of Hollywood’s most versatile and brilliant young stars is Dick Van Dyke, currently starred with Nancy Kwan and Akim Tamiroff in Walt Disney’s fun-filled adventure-comedy, “Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.” An actor, comedian, singer and dancer to list but a few of his many talents, Van Dyke has in a few short years become an overwhelming favorite with millions of moviegoers and television viewers throughout the world. Dick plays the title role of a Twentieth-century castaway in this updated version of the popular Crusoe legend and the result is hilarious entertainment for everyone. The star of his own top-rated television series, “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” now in its fifth season on CBS, and the star of hit movies like “Bye Bye Birdie,” “What a Way to Go,” “The Art of Love” and Disney’s boxoffice blockbuster, “Mary Poppins,” the popular Mr. Van Dyke has become one of the most sought-after young talents in the entertainment world today. Recently signed to a new fourpicture pact by Disney, which brings his total number of film commitments for the next seven years up to fourteen, Dick has also accepted an offer from CBS-TV to star in three hour-long specials over the next three years. His first encouragement to act professionally came while serving a hitch in the Air Force. A fellow airman, Byron Paul, now his personal manager and his director on “Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.,” was impressed by Van Dyke’s performance in a local service show and persuaded him to try out as an announcer on “Flight Time,” an Air Force radio program. Dick got the job, but upon his discharge he forgot about show business and returned to Danville to open an advertising agency. A year later Danville’s answer to Madison Avenue declared bankruptcy, and formed a night club act with Paul Erickson of Danville. With little work available in California, the team traveled across country and landed in Atlanta, Georgia, where Dick broke into television with a variety-type morning show, while his partner bought a night club. Dick’s TV show was extremely popular and after a few years he received an attractive offer to do a similar program in New Orleans. He had been in New Orleans for six months when his former Air Force buddy, Byron Paul, paged him for an audition at CBS in New York, where he was a TV director. Impressed by his versatility and personality, the network put Dick under contract, Van Dyke eventually replaced Jack Paar on his morning show and filled in occasionally for Garry Moore. Although he worked extensively in daytime TV, Dick also found time to guest on almost every top variety show, including Ed Sullivan, Dinah Shore, Perry Como and Jack Paar. After establishing himself in television, Van Dyke decided to give the theatre a whirl. Despite the fact he had never taken a singing or dancing lesson, he was well received by critics in his first Broadway show, a revue called “The Boys Against the Girls,” which also starred Bert Lahr, Nancy Walker and Shelly Berman. His rave notices from this show led to two TV specials. One of these, “The Fabulous Fifties,” attracted the attention of the producers of “Bye Bye Birdie,” who were preparing the musical for Broadway. Dick was signed for the top role and under the guidance of director Gower Champion, he received his first professional dance training and emerged a major musical comedy star. Mat CRU #1A DICK VAN DYKE Dick Van Dyke Mixes Business, Pleasure On ‘Crusoe’ Location When Dick Van Dyke signed to play the title role in Walt Disney’s hilarious adventure-comedy, “Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.,” no one was more excited than his teen-age sons, Chris and Barry, two of the biggest surfing enthusiasts on the West Coast. The real reason for all the excitement was that much of the filming was scheduled to be done on location in Hawaii, mecca of the world’s surfers. Not one to disappoint the boys, and with summer vacation at hand, Van Dyke agreed to take the whole family along for a real Hawaiian holiday. It turned out to be just that for all the Van Dykes but Dick, who had to emote every day before the Technicolor cameras, while his brood frolicked in the blue Pacific or basked in the sun. On one of his rare free days, Dick agreed to go along with the boys on a surfing jaunt. A cove with the best breakers was selected and father and sons paddled their boards a mile out for the thrill ride to shore. What started out to be fun turned to panic as Dick found himself thrashing about in the water to keep from drowning. Aware that someone was nearby he looked up to see Chris and Barry standing idly by, watching his frantic efforts to keep afloat. Suddenly he realized the boys were only waist-deep in water and that his own feet were really touching bottom. “That did it,” he recalls. “I beached myself for the duration of our stay. Besides, lying in the sun is a lot less strenuous.” Filmed in brilliant Technicolor and also starring Nancy Kwan and Akim Tamiroff, “Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.” was directed by Byron Paul from a screenplay by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi. Walsh was also co-producer with Ron Miller on the Buena Vista release. WRITER-PRODUCER BILL WALSH ENCORES IN DISNEY’S ‘CRUSOE’ A former songwriter, gag man, advertising and publicity expert turned co-producer-writer is the Hollywood success story of Bill Walsh, one of the most creative talents of Walt Disney’s moviemaking organization. This affable gent, with a penchant for hard work and endless quips, recently wrapped up another two-fold job well done on Disney’s hilarious new adventure-comedy, “Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.,” starring the inimitable Dick Van Dyke, Nancy Kwan and Akim Tamiroff. Having teamed with Don DaGradi on the shooting script, he pushed his typewriter aside to share the movie’s production problems with his co-producer, Ron Miller. The Walsh touch has been in evidence around the Studio since the late forties when he won a national ad contest and landed a job in the publicity department. As a sideline, he began writing for the Mickey Mouse comic strip which eventually led to his scripting Walt’s first two big Christmas shows for television, in 1950 and 1951. Walsh also helped found the original series of hour-long TV shows called Disneyland for which he helped create the two highly successful Davy Crockett series. He next inherited the massive job of putting together the daily, hour-long Mickey Mouse Club for television and still going strong on a coast-to-coast syndication basis. Then came a long list of impressive movie assignments, with Walsh serving in a dual capacity of writer-co-producer on box-office smashes like “The Shaggy Dog,” “The Absent Minded Professor,” “Bon Voyage,’ “Son of Flubber” and the greatest blockbuster of them all, “Mary Poppins.” One of Cincinnati’s favorite sons, Walsh is still remembered there for the wild black bearskin coat he wore and the still-in-use Purcell high school anthem he wrote, “Onward Cavaliers.” With aspirations of becoming a chemical engineer, his football prowess landed him a scholarship at the University of Cincinnati. However, glowing reports of the Hollywood scene from former classmate Tyrone Power and a growing interest in show business, stemming from his collaboration with pal Ed Birnbryer on school musicals, soon caused his test tube dreams to fade. Then along came Barbara Stanwyck and Frank Fay en route to Broadway. Having caught a WalshBirnbryer revue, they invited Bill and Ed to join their company as music men and it was good-bye to chemistry, varsity shows and alma mater. But the show folded. Birnbryer decided to become a New Yorker and Walsh, thoroughly bitten by the Hollywood bug, went West to become one of the most all-around competent young men in filmdom. Mat CRU #2D ADRIFT on a sea of mirth, Dick Van Dyke starts his fun-filled adventure in Walt Disney's “Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N."’ aboard a rubber raft. He learns how to survive and like it, with the help of lovely Nancy Kwan. Akim Tamiroff also stars in the Technicolor production. Mat CRU #2C DANCE INSTRUCTION, island style, has Dick Van Dyke doing a hilarious imitation of Nancy Kwan's rhythmic movements. The fun and music are from Walt Disney's comedy adventure, ‘Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.” production. Akim Tamiroff also stars in the Technicolor DISNEY ARTISANS CREATE ISLAND ATMOSPHERE ON LOT IN BURBANK Following extensive location filming in the Hawaiian Islands, Walt Disney’s ablest art directors had a field day matching the tropical atmosphere in exterior sets and creating a wide variety of interiors for the producer’s hilarious new adventure-comedy, “Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.,” when the production company, headed by stars Dick Van Dyke, Nancy Kwan and Akim Tamiroff, returned to resume filming at the Burbank studio. This momentous undertaking fell to art directors Carroll Clark and Carl Anderson and set decorators Emile Kuri and Frank R. McKelvy. The first order of the day was a beach setting to match the Wailua Beach locale, one of the garden spots on the isle of Kauai. Tons of glistening white sand, transported from nearby Pacific beaches, along with dozens of palm trees and tropical plants, quickly transformed a section of the Disney Studio’s back lot into an exact replica. A separate back lot area became the site of a picturesque jungle pool, filled to brimming with azure blue water and complete with a cascading waterfall and lush tropical foliage. For the actors’ comfort and safety, an elaborate filtering and heating system was also installed. Crusoe’s quaint bamboo house, nestled in a grove of palms, was duplicated as an interior and exterior set. Stage two, one of the Studio’s two largest sound stages, housed the film’s most impressive and costly sets, the immense stone idol, Kaboona. Kaboona was surrounded by a dense jungle of tropical plants, palms and banyan trees with spreading roots grasping stone remnants of an ancient temple in their vise-like grip, the setting for the film’s hilarious climax. Nancy Kwan Dons Sarong For ‘Crusoe’ Diminuitive and delightful Nancy Kwan, who has spiced many movies with her exotic appeal, accepted the inevitable with charm and good humor when she was paged by Walt Disney to play a Polynesian maiden to Dick Van Dyke’s modern-day castaway in the hilarious new adventure comedy, “Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.” “TJ just knew I’d end up as the Dorothy Lamour of our generation,” she quipped. “But they are letting me play the role kind of tongue-in cheek and I love doing comedy.” One of the shapeliest figures in filmdom, lovely flowing brown hair, sparkling brown eyes, a perfect olive complexion and an abundance of talent, marked Nancy as the likeliest candidate for the role, and Disney would accept no substitute. There have been other languorous ladies who cinematically found romance at one time or another down among the sheltering palms but, like Nancy, they didn’t make a career of it. Lenore Ulric and Delores Del Rio, to go back a few years, Movita, Debra Paget, Jean Simmons, Gene Tierney, France Nuyen, Tarita and Dahlia Lavi are but a few. Still the unchallenged queen of all the screen’s island maidens is Dorothy Lamour, who came through endless typhoons, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions unscathed, to sail off into the sunset with her handsome lothario in the final scene of countless South Sea sagas. Filmed in brilliant Technicolor, “Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.” also stars Akim Tamiroff and was directed by Byron Paul from a screenplay by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi. Walsh also co-produced the Disney feature with Ron Miller for Buena Vista release. Mat CRU #1B WEDDING DANCE, native style, is performed by Nancy Kwan, who stars with Dick Van Dyke in Walt Disney's new comedy-adventure, “Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.” The Technicolor production also stars Akim Tamiroff.