The Happiest Millionaire (Disney) (1967)

Tommy Steele — A Million Dollar Talent For a lad from a South London slum who quit school when he was 15 and went to sea, Tommy Steele, the singing, dancing butler in Walt Disney’s “The Happiest Millionaire,” has come a long way. But then, Tommy was challenged when a short-sighted school teacher told him that “a boy from Bermondsey could never be anything in this world.” He stars with Fred MacMurray, Greer Garson and Geraldine Page in the $5 million musical comedy. Discovered strumming his guitar in a Soho coffee house, Steele became a rock ’n roll star in two weeks by satirizing the very musical fad that would make him a millionaire. He now has dropped the guitar-pounding rock © 1967 Walt Disney Productions Mat HAP 1-B (1 col. width — coarse screen) Mat HAP 2-B (Available in standard 2 col. width and coarse screen) completely and is concentrating on broadening his talents as a singer, dancer, actor, composer and writer. He has made seven command performances before the Royal family, sold millions of records, made half a dozen movies, performed abroad to mobs of screaming teen-agers and wowed both London and Broadway audiences as Kipps, a draper’s apprentice who inherits a fortune, in “Half a Sixpence.” His latest assignment is a starring role in “Finian’s Rainbow.” But that’s the way it’s always been for the boy from Bermondsey. From the London slums to Buckingham Palace, to Broadway and Hollywood, it’s been a spectacular adventure. Recalls Tommy, “That day I first left home to go to sea, my mother made me leave behind enough boat fare to get me home should I ever get in trouble. She told me, ‘Tommy, you’re only on this earth for a visit, so while you’re here you might as well make it a good holiday.’ “She didn’t mean not to work, just to make fun out of everything you do.” Tommy Steele has never been working harder in his life, “and ’m enjoying every minute of it,” he concludes. His mother still has that boat fare, but she’s convinced her lovable cockney son will never be needing it. Filmed in Technicolor, “The Happiest Millionaire’ was directed by Norman Tokar from a screenplay by A J Carothers. The film is based upon the book and Broadway play by Cordelia Drexel Biddle and Kyle Crichton. Bill Anderson co-produced the Buena Vista release with Walt Disney. ee 3 © 1967 Walt Disney Productions Miss Greer Garson, seven-time Academy Award nominee and a recipient of the coveted Oscar for her role in “Mrs. Miniver,” has the opportunity to work with a whole new breed of actors in Walt Disney’s musical comedy “The Happiest Millionaire.” Here, she meets with Guinevere, one o f twelve live alligators to appear in the film. Filmed in brilliant Technicolor, “The Happiest Millionaire” stars Fred MacMurray, Tommy Steele, Miss Garson and Geraldine Page, co-stars Gladys Cooper and Hermione Baddeley, and introduces Lesley Ann Warren and John Davidson. Joyce Bulifant ‘ByeYum Pum Pums”’ Into Featured Disney Role That “‘oh-so mysterioso” little blond who teaches Lesley Ann Warren the secret of “Bye-Yum Pum Pum’ in Walt Disney’s “The Happiest Millionaire” is up-and-coming starlet Joyce Bulifant. As her high-kicking, comical tango number in the film testifies, Joyce is a talented singer, dancer and actress well qualified to join the ranks of Fred MacMurray, Tommy Steele, Greer Garson and Geraldine Page, who star in the Technicolor musical comedy. y Mat HAP 1-C (1 col. width — coarse screen) As Miss Warren’s flirtatious roommate at a very elite girls’ school in the 1916 setting, Joyce reveals the tricks of the boy-chasing trade as instituted by the great Hollywood vamps, Nita Naldi and Theda Bara. Married to her childhood sweetheart, actor James MacArthur, son of that First Lady of the Theatre, Helen Hayes, Joyce made a brief movie debut in Disney’s “Third Man on the Mountain” when she accepted a small role for fun while visiting Jim on location in Switzerland. Her ancestry can be traced clear back to Mary, Queen of Scots. She likes the British Isles and Europe, and tries to make its antiquity at least a small part of her life. She lives with her husband and two small children in a Tarzana, California house made of stone, which they have decorated to look like an Old English carriage house. While working in “The Happiest Millionaire,” a biographical story about Philadelphia’s eccentric Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, Joyce revealed that one of her father’s 17th Century ancestors married into the Biddle family in Philadelphia. “But the relationship is strictly historical,’ she says. Upon graduation from the Solebury School in New Hope, Pennsylvania, she first gained valuable experience performing in professional summer stock. Later she attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, and eventually landed a role in the Broadway play, “Tall Story.” For her performance in the offBroadway production, “Whisper To Me,” Joyce was recognized as the most promising new performer of the year when she received the Daniel Blum Theatre World Award. She also has an admirable list of television credits. While under contract to Universal Studio, she appeared in the “Alcoa Hour” with Fred Astaire, “Thriller,” “G. E. Theatre,” “Wagon Train,” ‘The Virginian,” and starred one season in the TV series “Tom, Dick and Mary.” When she completed “Millionaire,” Joyce starred on Broadway in “The Paisley Convertible.” “Between work and family, I don’t have too much time for anything else,” remarks Joyce. “I like to travel, and I dabble in oil painting once in a while. Acting is my hobby, really. I just love it, and I try to work all the time. Singing, dancing .. . you know, the whole bit.” “The Happiest Millionaire” costars Gladys Cooper and Hermione Baddeley, and introduces Miss Warren and John Davidson.. Greer Garson’s Date With An Alligator Feature this if you can. Greer Garson, one of the more dignified ladies of the screen, holding a live alligator, cooing to it as if it was her pet poodle. It was a day and date that Miss Garson had dubiously anticipated, but when cast and crew of the new Walt Disney musical, “The Happiest Millionaire,” went to work with a comical alligator scene, she discovered that the quiet, crawling critters aren’t as forbidding as they look. “This is something new,’’ said Greer with a chuckle. “I’ve worked with pigs, hens, cows, chickens, dogs, horses, mice, and snakes, but never alligators. Who would ever suppose that my role as a millionaire’s wife would call for alligator handling?” Since “Millionaire” is based on the real life activities of the Anthony J. Drexel Biddle family, and since Papa Biddle kept alligators as house pets, they contribute greatly to the comedy and action of the story. Fred MacMurray plays Biddle, the man who seems to delight in startling his house guests with any number of off-beat notions. “At first I had my doubts about handling the creatures,” said Greer. “But it really isn’t so bad. They’re cool and dry, corrugated and leathery, as you would suppose. They are strong animals. Very muscular. I just pretended my gator was a $400 handbag from a fashionable store,’’ she laughed. ‘‘And filming the scene turned out great fun.’’ Filmed in brilliant Technicolor, “The Happiest Millionaire’ stars MacMurray, Tommy Steele, Miss Garson and Geraldine Page, co-stars Gladys Cooper and Hermione Baddeley, and introduces Lesley Ann Warren and John Davidson. The A J Carothers screenplay, based on the book and Broadway play by Cordelia Drexel Biddle and Kyle Crichton, was directed by Norman Tokar. Bill Anderson co-produced with Walt Disney for Buena Vista release. Page17