Yesterday's Tomorrow - Disney's Magical Mid-Century

CHPATER 12
TUTTI HIRES THE SHERMANS

In 1950, Roy asked Jimmy Johnson to head the studio’s new music publishing division, as well as business affairs for the new Walt Disney Music Company. When the unit became profitable in 1954, Johnson started building toward a goal that would be a huge benefit to the company: he wanted Disney to have total ownership and control of its music and characters in publishing and music.

That same year, he and Bill Walsh brought in talent like Jimmy Dodd, who was initially hired as a songwriter and then host of the Mickey Mouse Club. Separately, Davy Crockett first aired on ABC around the same time, and “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” became a musical phenomenon. That single hit record, along with Johnson’s desire to have the company control the studio’s assets, emboldened Walt and Roy to enter the record business. In May of 1955, weekly music magazine Billboard reported that Disneyland would have its own retail record store on Main Street called the Wonderland Music Store. The article noted the store would carry current records as well as vintage 78s and possibly piano rolls.30 

Charles Hansen was a New York music publisher who for years was the sole selling agent for Disney music. He and Johnson were looking for a producer who could run a new record label for Disney. Disneyland Records would of course release movie soundtrack albums, but he also wanted to produce new material for young Disney stars like Mouseketeer Annette Funicello. To achieve this, he hired Salvatore “Tutti” Camarata.

Camarata was a violinist and Juilliard alumnus who switched instruments in his teens to play the trumpet in big bands. It was Jimmy Dorsey who gave him the nickname Tutti. After a stint in the US Army Air Corps as a flight instructor, Tutti joined Decca Records, where he arranged and conducted for some of the biggest names of the time, including Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong.

On Camarata’s first visit to the Disney studio, Jimmy Johnson screened Song of the South for him. “He shocked the crew by ‘watching’ the film with his eyes closed. He wasn’t really watching, he was listening,” said Johnson. Camarata put together an LP of the Song of the South score and it became the first soundtrack in the Disneyland Record catalog.

The new record label took off fast with hits by Mickey Mouse Club breakout star Annette Funicello, so Camarata hired a young songwriting team, brothers Richard and Robert Sherman, to write for her. It was the beginning of a historic collaboration between the brothers and Disney. Their first song for her was a top-ten hit, 1958’s “Tall Paul.” Walt had covertly been listening to their songs and asked the brothers to come to his office for a meeting. At that meeting he offered the Sherman brothers a life-changing job: staff composers for the company. Their work for Disney became legendary, reaching new heights of worldwide renown with scores for films like Mary Poppins and tunes for attractions such as the Enchanted Tiki Room and “it’s a small world.”

Camarata also brought Sterling Holloway to Walt’s attention and helped get Louis Prima and Phil Harris interested in voicing The Jungle Book characters King Louie and Baloo, respectively. With the sheer volume of records and licensed music growing, Tutti lobbied Walt and Roy to build a recording studio. But when they balked, he set up shop himself, buying a building on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood and opening Sunset Sound. It was home to the most memorable recording sessions from then on for films like

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Don Hahn
• Editore: Disney Press
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Copertina rigida
• Pubblicazione: 14.11.2017
• EAN: 9781484737644
• ISBN: 978-1-4847-3764-4
• Pagine: 176
• Dimensioni: 286 mm x 362 mm x 18 mm
• Categoria: Scienze umane, arte, musica > Arte > Architettura d'interni, design