Monday, November 15, 2021

“FANTASIA”

In 1941 my oldest sister gave me a wonderful present for my 8th birthday. She took me to the world-famous Radio City Music Hall in New York City to see a live stage show performance and the introduction of Disney's ground-breaking movie, the musical, “Fantasia”.

The movie portrayed cartoon characters performing their skits to classical music. Leopold Stokowski conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra and I sat in a trance as the music wrapped around me. It literally felt like the music was carrying me up and into the movie that was enfolding.

I particularly remember “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” featuring Mickey Mouse as an aspiring magician who gets himself into and out of a bunch of predicaments. At one sequence he is practically over-run by a battery of brooms carrying buckets of water

Fantasia” never became a box office success but it was an enormous treat for me and I loved it. However, the memory that burns the brightest happened AFTER the movie was over. Two of the live stage show performers returned to say goodbye to us but instead they began sparring with each other. Finally one of the men came to the front of the stage and after he'd apologized for his partners actions he said, “I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here”. Quickly his partner rushed to the front and loudly chimed in with, “and I thank you from my bottom, too”….while proceeding to turn his back on the audience, dropping his pants and "mooning" the lot of us !!

How shocking! How crude! How DELIGHTFUL!! My virgin 8-year-old ears were burning but I thrilled to the naughtiness of it all. I couldn’t wait to get home to share the experience (in great detail and with many embellishments) with all my young friends!!


















 

5 Comments:

Blogger Joared said...

That's really wild and crazy! I remember seeing the first Fantasia movie when I was a young adult and fell in love with the music soundtrack. I loved Rites of Spring music and all of that music, as well as the video accompanying, including that Sorcerers Apprentice you described. I saw a remake of it some years later that had a few variations I didn't like as well as what I remembered. A few years ago I even bought a DVD of the original I had seen, but some how watching it was just not quite the same. I still love all that Fantasia music! It's a fantastic film.

12:39 AM  
Blogger Arkansas Patti said...

Wow, that extra performance was a shocker. I bet you were the hit of the playground retelling that experience.
I got to go to the Radio City Music Hall at about the same age but it was to watch Jack Benny perform. The place was huge and we were so far back, if the sound hadn't been good we wouldn't have known who he was.

3:44 AM  
Blogger Anvilcloud said...

Sue saw the movie and just told me she loved it. It’s the only one she remembers seeing as a kid. I used to read The SORCERERS APPRENTICE TO THE KIDS WHEN THEY WERE YOUNG AND I WAS MUCH YOUNGER TOO.

Sorry about slipping into caplocks, and I apologize for not typing over them.

7:19 AM  
Blogger Linda P. said...

I'm surprised there wasn't as much outrage as there was when Rites of Spring itself first premiered in 1913, and not as part of a soundtrack.

7:55 AM  
Blogger Marie Smith said...

Lol. Hilarious! Great story! Fantasia indeed.

9:19 AM  

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