Buddy Ebsen: The Tin Man that Might Have Been

When we hear the name Buddy Ebsen, we usually think of Jed Clampett in the sit-com, The Beverly Hillbillies (1962-1971), which was his most famous role. We might also remember him as Barnaby Jones in the dramatic series of the same name which ran from 1973-1980 or as Doc Golightly in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). Did you happen to know, however, that Buddy Ebsen was Metro Goldwyn Mayer’s first choice to portray the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz (1939)? He also was Walt Disney’s first choice to play the role of Davy Crockett in the movie, Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier (1955). In this blog, I’d like to tell you a little bit about the man who gave life to the words, “Welllll, doggies.”

When MGM cast “The Wizard of Oz,” when they originally hired Ebsen to play the Scarecrow and Ray Bolger to play the Tin Man. Bolger, however, desperately wanted to play the Scarecrow, and the studio reconsidered and switched their roles. Ebsen was flexible about playing the Tin Man, but unfortunately had to quit the movie when he suffered a near-death reaction to the Tin Man’s makeup, which consisted of aluminum powder. (He revealed in a late-in-live interview that he also almost had his testicles cut off by the Tin Man’s costume!) MGM replaced him with Jack Haley and the makeup was changed from aluminum powder to aluminum paste. (Unfortunately for Haley though, some of the makeup got into his eye, and he had to go to see the studio doctor for an eye infection!) 

Interestingly, for the song “We’re off to see the Wizard,” the studio kept Buddy Ebsen’s vocals for the song in the final cut of the film, and didn’t even bother to record to Jack Haley singing it. They did, however, record Haley singing “If I Only Had a Heart,” and “If I Only Had the Nerve.” (Jack Haley eventually became in-laws with “Oz” co-star, Judy Garland, when his son, Jack Haley, Jr., married her daughter, Liza Minnelli. Haley also was godfather to John Lahr, the son of Haley’s other “Oz” co-star, Bert Lahr.)

When Walt Disney was casting “Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier,” he seriously considered Ebsen for the title character. When he saw Fess Parker in the movie Them! (1954), however, he said, “That’s my Davy Crockett,” and decided to cast Ebsen as Crockett’s sidekick, George Russel. Ebsen and Parker became best friends in real life, and reprised their roles for the sequel, Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (1956), as well as several mini “Crockett,” movies in the television show, Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color (1954-1992). (In “King of the Wild Frontier,” Parker and Ebsen both worked with Hans Conried, who is best known to Disney as the voice of Captain Hook/Mr. Darling in Peter Pan (1953)). 

“Davy Crockett,” was Ebsen’s only acting gig for the Disney Studios, but he was hired to narrate the Disney Channel Series, The Disney Family Album in 1984. The show aired until 1986. Since then, Ebsen has also appeared as himself in many Disney documentaries and specials including Walt Disney: A Golden Anniversary Salute (1973), Kraft Salutes Disneyland’s 25th Anniversary (1980), Walt: The Man Behind the Myth (2001) and numerous others. (Disney also hired Ebsen’s “Beverly Hillbillies co-star, Nancy Kulp, twice. Kulp played “Miss” Jane Hathaway on “Beverly Hillbillies.” She played Miss Grunecker in The Parent Trap (1961) and provided the voice of Frou-Frou the horse in The Aristocats (1970)).

Buddy Ebsen lived a long life, passing away at the age of 95 due to complications from pneumonia on July 6th, 2003. He neither won nor received any major award nominations for any of his work, but he had a remarkable career. When we look at “The Wizard of Oz” today it seems impossible that there’s no one else we could think of in the role of the Tin Man, other than Jack Haley. Unlike Haley, Ebsen managed to have a far more successful and versatile career in  Hollywood. He might have been a great Tin Man, but he certainly made an excellent Jed Clampett and a wonderful George Russel! 

Broadcast News Legacy

Do you remember the film Broadcast News (1987)? Released on Christmas Day of 1987 - the same year as many other memorable ‘80s classics, like The Last Emperor, Moonstruck, Wall Street, and Fatal Attraction - the film was a financial, critical, and public success and garnered seven well-deserved Academy Award Nominations, including Best Picture, and received 5 Golden Globe Nominations, but disappointingly won none. Despite that, the film has become one of the 1980s most popular films and quotable films. In 1998, the film received a nomination from American Film Institute as one of the top 100 Greatest Movies and in 2005, Aaron’s line from the film, “I’ll meet you at that place near the thing where we went that time,” received another nomination from AFI as one of the top 100 Greatest Movie Quotes. Beyond that, each of the principal stars for the film have made something for Disney at different points in their careers.

James L. Brooks, who served as writer/producer/director of the film, received Oscar and Golden Globe Nominations for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. He lost both of them: to John Patrick Shanley for his Screenplay for “Moonstruck,” and to Jeremy Thomas who produced “The Last Emperor.” However, he had already won the Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture Oscars for his directorial debut with Terms of Endearment (1983), which starred “Broadcast News” star Jack Nicholson. Nicholson won his 2nd of 3 Oscars for “Terms of Endearment,” in the category of Best Supporting Actor. Brooks also directed Nicholson in his 3rd Academy-Award-Winning performance in As Good as It Gets (1997). He also directed Nicholson, in what to this day, has been his last film appearance in How Do You Know (2010).         

William Hurt, who portrayed Tom Grunick in the film, received an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Nomination for his performance in the film. He lost the primary to Michael Douglas in “Wall Street” and the latter to Robin Williams in Good Morning, Vietnam (1987). (He won the Best Actor Oscar for Kiss of the Spider Woman two years earlier, in 1985). He played the role of Angus Tuck in Disney’s Tuck Everlasting (2002), and most recently, was seen as Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross in Disney/Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War (2016). (Interesting trivia: Stephen Mendillo, who played Tom’s father in “News” in real life, is just 8 years William Hurt’s senior.  

Holly Hunter, who played the role of Jane Craig in the movie, was a last-minute replacement for James L. Brooks, who had originally cast Debra Winger. Hunter replaced Winger just two days before shooting was to begin, because Winger had become pregnant with her son, Noah Hutton. Hunter also received Academy Award and Golden Globe Nominations for her performance in the film, but lost both awards to Cher in “Moonstruck.” (Her one and only win would come six years later with The Piano (1993)). She provided the voice of Helen Parr/Mrs. Incredible in Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles (2004), and while there is currently a sequel to “The Incredibles” in-production at Pixar, whether she will reprise the character has yet to be confirmed. (More trivia: Holly Hunter was also initially offered the role of Carol Connelly in “As Good as It Gets,” before Helen Hunt was cast.)  

Albert Brooks, who has no relation whatsoever, to James L. Brooks, played Aaron Altman in the movie. James L. Brooks previously directed Albert Brooks in “Endearment.” Like both of his co-stars, he received an Oscar Nomination for his performance and was beaten by Sean Connery in The Untouchables (1987). For Disney, Brooks voiced Nemo’s father, Marlin, in Finding Nemo (2003), and most recently reprised the role in Finding Dory (2016). (Trivia: The scene in “Broadcast News,” where his character, Aaron, sweats badly, was Brooks’s idea, when he saw a reporter on CNN sweat profusely in real life when he happened to be reading the scene for the first time in the script for the film.) 

Joan Cusack, who portrayed Blair Litton in “Broadcast News,” received no award nominations for her performance in the film. She did, however, receive the first of her two Best Supporting Actress Oscar Nominations for Working Girl (1988), which was released the very next year. The latter nomination would be for In & Out (1997). Two years after “In & Out,” she was hired by Disney to lent her voice to Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl in Toy Story 2 (1999). She has reprised the role for Toy Story 3 (2010) and all of the Toy Story Shorts that have come since. In addition to the “Toy Story,” Franchise, Cusack also voiced Abby Mallard in Chicken Little (2005) and the Mom in Mars Needs Mom (2011). She played Jenny Portman in Touchstone Pictures’s Raising Helen (2004) and Joan Carlyle in Disney’s live-action film, Ice Princess (2005), and is currently attached to reprise her role as Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl in Toy Story 4 (2018).

In addition to Aaron’s special line nominated by AFI, each of these actors were given tons of other hysterical one-liners in the movie, thanks to James L. Brooks. Some of my personal favorites:

“Except for socially, you’re my role model,” 

“Wouldn’t this be a great world if insecurity and desperation made us all look more attractive? If ‘needy’ were a turn-on,” 

“I lost one of you’re shoulder pads. I think it drowned.”

While this ‘80s flick might not have any visual effects like Ghostbusters (1984) or stunt doubles like the Indiana Jones series, it because of James L. Brooks’s hilarious writing and the brilliant performances of William Hurt, Holly Hunter, Albert Brooks, Joan Cusack, and the rest of the cast, that this movie has the potential to be remembered as a classic.    

Julie Andrews: The Epitome of Poppins

“Do you really think so?” These are the very first words that Dame Julie Andrews spoke on camera on the first day of filming one of the biggest blockbuster movies of all time-certainly for Walt Disney Studios, but also for films in general. She was cast as the lead in Mary Poppins (1964) by Walt Disney, despite the fact that she had never been in a motion-picture before, but she quickly rocketed to the top! Let’s take a look at what Dame Julie has done for the Walt Disney Studios, and the irony of her resulting Oscar Win.

At the age of 21, Julie Andrews was cast as Eliza Doolittle in the Learner and Lowe musical, My Fair Lady, based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. Starring opposite Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins and Stanley Holloway as her dustman father, Alfred P. Doolittle, she was well-received by audiences and critics alike, and the whole production was a big hit.

Jack L. Warner, one of the four founding fathers of Warner Bros. Pictures, saw the original Broadway production and purchased the film rights. He cast Harrison and Holloway in their stage roles. However, because Harrison and Holloway were both big names in terms of film and Andrews was not, Warner did not cast Andrews. Instead, Warner asked Academy-Award-Winner Audrey Hepburn to play Eliza in the film. (Harrison and Holloway both received Tony Nominations for their roles on stage as well as Academy Award Nominations for the film version and Harrison won both!) Because Audrey Hepburn couldn’t sing, Warner Bros. contracted Marni Nixon to provide Audrey Hepburn’s singing voice.

Disheartened, though still overtly ambitious, Julie Andrews went on to star in a television adaptation of Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (1957) and more than 100 million viewers tuned in the evening it aired on March 31st, 1957. Next she played the female lead in Lerner and Lowe’s next musical project, Camelot, based on the legends of King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the Nights of the Round Table. In 1961, she performed excerpts from that musical in an episode of The Ed Sullivan Show (1948-1971), and the episode was seen by the Disney composer/lyricist team of Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman.

As they worked on “Poppins,” Disney, along with the Shermans (and Screenwriter Don DaGradi and Co-Producer Bill Walsh) had been considering the likes of Mary Martin, Bette Davis, and Angela Lansbury for the role of the magical nanny. However, after Andrews’ Ed Sullivan performance they knew instantly that they had found their “Mary.” The Shermans recommended Julie Andrews for the role to Walt Disney and he went to see her in the actual show. After he had seen “Camelot,” Disney agreed she would be perfect for the role, and went backstage after the performance to offer it to her. Julie was hesitant to accept, because at this time she was pregnant with her daughter Emma Walton, at the time. Walt Disney offered to wait to begin filming until she had her baby, and after that, she agreed. Disney also offered her then-husband, Tony Walton, the job of designing costumes and some sets for the film. (In the film, Julie Andrews also makes an uncredited voice-over appearance as the whistling Robin that flies on to Mary Poppins's hand in the "Spoonful of Sugar" sequence.)

Julie Andrews went on to receive Golden Globe and Oscar Nominations for her performance as “Mary Poppins,” and was very fortunate enough to receive both. In the ultimate irony, she beat Audrey Hepburn, who had been nominated that year for the Golden Globe in My Fair Lady (1964), and as a result of that, Julie Andrews thanked Jack L. Warner for making her win possible. (Hepburn was not nominated for the Academy Award.) It would be nearly 4 decades before she made another film for the Walt Disney Studios again. 

After undergoing a traumatic throat surgery, which unfortunately took away her singing voice, the late-great Garry Marshall (1934-2016) hired her to play Mia’s grandmother, Queen Clarisse Renaldi in Disney’s The Princess Diaries (2001). The role did not require her to sing. She reprised the role of Queen Clarisse Rendaldi for the sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, which was released in 2004. She was also fortunate enough to perform a song in the film that didn’t have a great deal of range with co-star, Raven-Symone. (Garry Marshall later went on to say that Julie Andrews was one of his favorite people to work with of all time.) In between the “Princess,” movies, she appeared as the nanny on ABC Television in the television movies based on the Eloise books, entitled Julie Andrews Eloise at the Plaza (2003) and Eloise at Christmastime (2003). For the 2004, 40th Anniversary DVD Edition of “Mary Poppins,” Andrews narrated a short created especially for the DVD entitled “The Cat That Looked at a King,” which is based on an excerpt taken out of the book Mary Poppins Opens the Door (1943). She was also the narrator in Enchanted (2007).

Andrews went on to receive 2 other Academy Award nominations in the category of Best Actress throughout her career, for her performances as Maria Rainer von Trapp in The Sound of Music (1965) and as Victoria Grant in Victor/Victoria (1982). (In “Victor/Victoria,” she was directed by her second spouse, the late-great Blake Edwards (1922-2010). The film also marked her 2nd pairing with 3-time co-star, James Garner. With Garner, she made her only black-and-white film, The Americanization of Emily (1964), released the same year as “Poppins.” She and Garner were reunited in the made-for television film, One Special Night (1999).”  To this day, she remains the only Oscar-Winning movie star to win an Oscar for a performance in a Disney film. (Meryl Streep received her record-breaking 19th nomination for Disney’s Into the Woods (2014), but was beaten that year by Patricia Arquette in Boyhood (2014) and Johnny Depp was also nominated for his performance as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), but was beaten by Sean Penn in Mystic River (2003)). 

With everything that she made for Disney, Julie Andrews personified the nanny and/or grandmother that everyone wishes they could have with her incredibly beautiful song and dance skills and her very proper British diction. It’s hard to believe she only got the role because she didn’t get the one she wanted in the first place!

1966: The End of a Magical Era

In the 1960s, the Walt Disney Studios were at the top of their game. From the triumphant success of Disneyland, to films like Mary Poppins (1964), and The Jungle Book (1967), to the early development of the “Florida Project,” which would go on to become what we know today as Walt Disney World, the Disney Studios were riding higher than ever before. Sadly, on December 15th, 1966, Walter Elias Disney passed away to cardiac arrest following lung cancer surgery. In honor of my 50th blog, I’d like to tell you about some of the great achievements from Walt’s last prolific years…50 years ago…  

In 1964, the same year the studio released “Mary Poppins,” Walt and his brother Roy, purchased over 27,000 acres of land in central Florida for a project that they were to call “Disney World.” It was to include a more elaborate version of Disneyland, which was to be called the Magic Kingdom and it would also include a number of golf courses and resort hotels. The heart of “Disney World,” however, was to be an Experimental Prototype City (or Community) of Tomorrow, or EPCOT, where residents would live, work, and interact using special technology. EPCOT ultimately developed into a Theme Park that opened in 1982, 11 years after the Magic Kingdom opened in 1971. On July 24th, 1966, the New Orleans Square opened at Disneyland. It was one of the last additions to the park overseen by Walt himself. Walt created this to capture the flavor and the architectural detail of New Orleans Bourbon Street. To this day, it is the current park locale to Pirates of the Caribbean attraction and the Haunted Mansion attraction.

In addition to theme parks, with the release of “Poppins,” Walt was also able to achieve his long-term goal of receiving an Academy Award Nomination for Best Picture, a goal he had been hoping to achieve since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Although “Poppins,” lost the Best Picture Oscar to My Fair Lady (1964), it won 5 Academy Awards, out of a total of 13 nominations, including Julie Andrews as Best Actress for her performance as the titular character and Best Original Song “Chim Chim Cheree,” and it also went on to become the biggest hit in the entire history of the studio at that time. (Other live-action films that were in-production around this time were Follow Me, Boys! (1966) and The Happiest Millionaire (1967), which ignited the careers of Golden-Globe-Nominee Kurt Russell and Academy-Award-Nominee Lesley Ann Warren, who appeared together as brother and sister in The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968)).      

Walt also first brought Winnie the Pooh into his storytelling universe with the very first “Winnie the Pooh,” short Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966). The short was released on February 4th, 1966, just 10 months prior to Walt’s death. Walt also approved the final storyboarding for The Jungle Book (1967) and The Aristocats (1970), but unfortunately didn’t live to see the final cuts of either film. Each of the above turned out to be hits for the studio, and “Winnie the Pooh,” and “Jungle Book,” spawned several theatrical and direct-to-video sequels, as well as television shows. (The sequel short to “Honey Tree,” Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968) won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Cartoons. It also marked the first appearance of the characters of Tigger and Piglet, who hadn’t been in “Honey Tree,” previously.) A live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book was released to theaters on April 15th, 2016, which played to rave reviews. There is currently a live-action adaptation of “Winnie the Pooh,” in development at the studio. Plans for a sequel to “The Aristocats,” were developed, but ultimately scrapped.

In 1966, Walt Disney passed away, an artist at the top of his game. He left behind the most extraordinary legacy in the entertainment industry that no other filmmaker neither prior to him nor since him has ever been able to surmount. He created magical/family-oriented storytelling through the mediums of film, television, and amusement park attractions. It took a great deal of time for the magic to “come back to life,” after his death. While the theme parks have expanded a great deal and have continued to remain popular since their opening dates, it wasn’t until 23 years after his passing that the Disney films finally started again to look as though they had been produced by Walt Disney himself, with the release of The Little Mermaid (1989). Walt once said “Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.” There, undoubtedly, was a great deal of imagination left in Walt Disney and while he might not have gotten to achieve everything that we would have wanted to achieve, I’m sure we can all agree that we would be proud of everything that has happened at his studio since.  

Disney “Role” Models

In the early days of the Walt Disney Studios, whenever they cast an animated film, they filmed the voice-actors live, as a visual reference for the animators. However, if the voice actors didn’t closely resemble the designs that the animators had come up with for the characters, they would hire other actors to film as stand-ins for the voice actors. You might remember from one of my earlier blogs, that was how the character of Cruella De Vil was brought to life on screen in 101 Dalmatians (1961). Betty Lou Gerson provided the voice of the character, but actress Mary Wickes, served as her model. And just like voice actors at Disney, the model actors were re-hired for a multiple amount of times by the studio. In this blog, I’d like to tell you about two of Disney’s finest “visual” models.

Marge Champion was just 18 years old when she was hired by the Walt Disney Studios to serve as the model for Snow White in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). (She did some of the modeling for Dopey as well!) She was dating Disney Animator Art Babbitt at the time, and Babbitt supervised the majority of the reference filming. Just 4 months prior to the premiere of “Snow White,” Champion and Babbitt tied the knot on August 8th, 1937. (The animation on Snow White that Marge Champion modeled for was reworked for Duchess in The AristoCats (1970) and for Maid Marian in Robin Hood (1973)). Champion went on to do modeling for the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio (1940) and Hyacinth Hippo in Fantasia (1940), along with Ruby Dandrige, and Mr. Stork in Dumbo (1941). She also helped choreograph the hippo sequence in “Fantasia.” Champion and Babbitt unfortunately divorced after 4 years of marriage in 1941, and she would remarried twice, to Broadway star Gower Champion (1947-1973), and Boris Sagal from 1977, until he was killed in an unfortunate helicopter accident in 1981. Since then, she has retired to New York where she still continues to dance, even at age 96. She is the only surviving “cast” member of “Snow White.”

Helene Stanley served as the model for Cinderella, as well as the stepsister, Anastasia Tremaine in Cinderella (1950) at the age of 21. She also modeled for Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty (1959), and Anita in 101 Dalmatians (1961). Stanley also portrayed Davy Crockett’s wife, Polly Crockett in the live-action Disney film, Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier (1955). She married Dr. David Niemetz in 1959, and after modeling for Anita, permanently retired from show business and became a full-time wife and mother in 1961. She died of unknown causes at the age of 61, on December 27th, 1990.

These are just two of many people who have modeled for Disney characters. Disney does continue to hire human models today, as well as animal models (with trainers) who serve as inspiration for their animal characters. The models are never actually seen on screen. They unfortunately are not given screen credit in the film either, but the extraordinary efforts that they give to inspire the magical, colorful drawings that we see move about the screen in Disney movies never ceases to pay off.