THE EARLY YEARS
“Turkey in the Straw” seems to be a strange way to begin the Disney musical legacy. Possibly of Irish origin, (though no one seems to know for sure who wrote it or when), it is one of those sing-song classics that has endured due to the fact it’s both catchy and simple. Let’s face it, we’re not talking Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony or Vivaldi’s Four Seasons here; it’s more like “Camptown Races” or “My Darling Clementine.”
In any case, it’s significant because it’s not only one of the first songs to be heard in a Disney cartoon (in this case, Mickey Mouse’s 1928 debut, Steamboat Willie), it’s one of the first songs to be heard in any cartoon (or at least any cartoon where the sound is synchronized with the action).
(Here’s one for you trivia buffs: the first song to be heard in a Disney cartoon, and thus a cartoon with synchronized sound, was “Steamboat Bill,” which played over the opening credits and first scene of Steamboat Willie.)
The fact that there’s sound and music at all in Steamboat Willie is an early testament to Walt Disney’s vision and genius. At that time, talking pictures were a novelty. The Jazz Singer had debuted in 1927, but many Hollywood studio chiefs considered sound nothing more than a passing fancy.
Walt did not share their opinion. He was one of the first to buy into and experiment with sound, which he saw as a way to not only launch his new Mickey Mouse character, but also as a key to keeping his struggling young studio afloat.
From the start, the sound that played the key role in Disney cartoons was music. In Steamboat Willie, the characters don’t actually talk; they just sort of squeak, squawk and grunt. The real innovation comes musically, first with Mickey whistling “Steamboat Bill” and then later when he rigs up a goat as a hurdy-gurdy and begins playing “Turkey in the Straw.” (Mickey also manages to play a washboard, pots and pans, a cat, a duck, several suckling pigs and a cow’s teeth, which should go a long way in explaining all the strange noises heard during the song.)
The credit (or the blame) for the use of “Turkey in the Straw” goes to a young assistant animator named Wilfred Jackson, who went on to become a leading animator and animation director at the Disney Studio.
When Walt was conducting early experiments into whether sound could be synchronized with animation, he called on Jackson who, as a harmonica player, was the sole musician at the small Disney Studio. Jackson knew only a few simple tunes on the harmonica and his favorite was – surprise! – “Turkey in the Straw.”
And thus began, humbly enough, the Disney musical legacy.
Fortunately, from then on Walt Disney entrusted his music to his own tastes and more accomplished musicians, including his first musical director, Carl Stalling, an old friend from Kansas City who began by scoring the music to the next two Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts, Gallopin’ Gaucho and Plane Crazy. (Gallopin’ Gaucho and Plane Crazy were actually created before Steamboat Willie, but were held for release until sound could be added to them.)
It was Stalling who persuaded Walt to begin the “Silly Symphonies” cartoon series, which produced a host of firsts for the Disney Studio, including the use of color and the multi-pane camera, and the first hit song. The series grew out of disagreements Walt and Stalling had over the use of music in the Mickey Mouse shorts. Walt wanted Stalling to fit the music to the action, while Stalling felt the action should fit the music.
The compromise was the “Silly Symphonies.” In the Mickey cartoons, the music would continue to play second fiddle to the characters and the action, but in the “Silly Symphonies” the music would rule.
However, Stalling stayed with the Studio for only two years, jumping from “Silly Symphonies” at Disney to “Looney Tunes” and “Merrie Melodies” at Warner Brothers, where he created his own musical legacy by composing scores for Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, among others.
Realizing the increasing importance of music to his cartoons, especially with the advent of the “Silly Symphonies” series, Walt Disney began beefing up his music staff in the early 1930s. One of the composers he hired was Frank Churchill, a young musician who had studied at UCLA and gained his experience by playing honky-tonk piano in Mexico and performing on a Los Angeles radio station (as well as serving as a session player in recording sessions for Disney cartoons). This heretofore unsung musician would play an important role in Disney music over the next decade. And he started off with a bang, writing Disney’s first big hit, a song that came out of the most famous of the “Silly Symphonies,” Three Little Pigs.
Released in 1933 during the depths of the Depression, Three Little Pigs and its famous song, “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” provided hope and humor to a country that was badly in need of both. While this “Silly Symphony” became a huge box office success (and perhaps the most popular cartoon of all time), the song became a hit in its own right, topping the Hit Parade for several weeks in 1933 and selling several million copies to an American public that adopted the tune as a cheery anthem for the dark days of the Depression.
As with many Disney films, Three Little Pigs comes from a children’s story. But to Churchill, it also represented real life. While growing up on his family’s ranch in San Luis Obispo, California, he was given three piglets to raise by his mother. All went well until a real “Big Bad Wolf” killed one of them.
As legend has it, when Churchill was asked to write a song for the cartoon, he recalled his horrifying childhood experience and penned “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” in about five minutes, patterning the song loosely on “Happy Birthday.” Ted Sears, a writer in the story department, wrote the lyrics.
Interestingly, the song is never heard in its entirety during the cartoon. The version that was released on record was recorded after Three Little Pigs was released and features additional lyrics by Ann Ronell. Also, if the voice of Practical Pig sounds a bit Goofy, that’s because it is. Pinto Colvig, the man responsible for Practical Pig, also provided the original voice for Goofy.
Three Little Pigs won an Academy Award for Best Cartoon Short Subject for 1933, but “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” was never considered for an award. The reason was simple enough: Best Song did not become part of the Academy Awards until the following year.
