Original Release: 1946     -     Reissue: 1956      -     Reissue: 1972/1973

"Song of the South, your music weaves a magic spell
Song of the South, I see the scenes I know so well
Cottonwoods in blossom over my cabin door
Pale moonlight on a field of white
You bring them back once more
I seem to hear those gentle voices calling low
Out of the long long ago
This heart of mine is in the heart of Dixie
That's where I belong
Singing a song, a Song of the South.”

Music: Arthur Johnston
Lyrics: Sam Coslow

Directed by: Harve Foster (live action) and Wilfred Jackson (animation)
Screenplay by: Dallton S. Raymond, Morgan Grant & Maurice Rapf
Based on stories by: Joel Chandler Harris
And on on a screen story by: Dalton Reymond
Cartoon Story by: Bill Peet, Ralph Wright, Vernon Stallings

Produced by: Walt Disney
Associate Producer: Perce Pearce
Cinematography: Greg Toland
Editor: William M. Morgan
Art Direction: Len Anderson, Philip Barber, Harold Doughty, Perry Ferguson, Hugh Hennesy, Charles Philippi
Music by: Daniele Amfitheatrof

Songs:

“Zip-a-dee-Doo-Dah” and “Everybody’s Got a Laughing Place,” by Allie Wrubel & Ray Gilbert
“How Do You Do” by Robert McGimpsey
“Sooner or Later” by Charles Wiilcott & Ray Gilbert
“Who Wants To Live Like That” and “Let The Rain Pour Down” by Ken Darby and Foster Carling
“All I Want,” by Ken Darby
“Song of the South” by Sam Coslow & Arthur Johnston
“Uncle Remus Said” by Elliot Daniel, Hy Heath and Johnny Lange

Release Date: 11/12/46
Budget: $2,125,000
Gross: $226,000
Aspect Ratio: 1.37.1

Plot:

In the American South of the nineteenth century, Johnny (Bobby Driscoll) arrives at his Grandmother’s plantation with his parents Sally (Ruth Warrick) and John (Eric Rolf). John soon leaves, causing Johnny to spend the summer missing his Dad. Yet, he soon befriends Ginny (Luana Patten) and Toby (Glen Leedy) with whom he shares summer adventures. When two local boys; Jake and Joe Favers (George Nokes, Gene Holland) threaten to drown a puppy, Johnny rescues it, triggering ongoing rivalry with the two brothers. Meanwhile, Uncle Remus (James Baskett), entertains the children with his folk tales of Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear.

Uncle Remus: (James Baskett); There's other ways of learnin' 'bout the behind feet of a mule than gettin' kicked by him, sure as I'm named Remus. And just because these here tales is about critters like Br'er Rabbit an' Br'er Fox, that don't mean it can't happen to folks! So 'scuse me for sayin' so, but them who can't learn from a tale about critters, just ain't got the ears tuned for listenin'.

Based on the Uncle Remus stories of Joel Chandler Harris, Song of the South (1946) is the (partially) animated classic The Disney Company doesn’t want you to see.

Song of the South takes place somewhere below the Mason Dixon line; during the period of The Old South. Because it has long been unavailable in this country, rumors concerning the film abound.

The N.A.A.C.P. and Bill Cosby, among others, think Song of the South is a racist film. It’s because of that widely shared opinion that Disney has refused to release the movie on DVD.

It’s true that Song of the South perpetuates stereotypes. Though James Baskett is delightful as Uncle Remus, the character lives to please the white people to whom he owes his livelihood. Aunt Tempy, as portrayed by Hattie McDaniel, is a twin sister of Scarlet O’Hara’s Mammy.

Yet, Bobby Driscoll’s Johnny carries on a friendship with African-American Toby (Glenn Leedy) with no mention made of race. Within the rigidly ordered, segregationist social structure, people of all extractions co-exist peacefully.

I believe that Disney is making a mistake in letting Song Of The South remain unavailable. Ignoring a period of history doesn’t erase its occurrence or influence. In order to understand where you’re going, it helps to know where you’ve been. We’re a young country minus the tales and legends of older lands. Films have become part of our national myth; part of our idealized legend. As Uncle Remus said, we can learn a lot about ourselves from our traditional stories. I see movies like Song of the South as American folk art.

While watching Song of The South, I realized that the film took place in the same world as Gone with the Wind (1939, Victor Fleming). Yet, while GWTW is revered as “the greatest Hollywood film,” Song of the South has been banished to memory and slowly decomposing video tape.

Author Joel Chandler Harris was born in either 1845 or 1848 in Eatonton, Georgia. Harris was illegitimate and the facts of his birth contributed to his shy nature. An obviously intelligent child, he came to the attention of the wealthy Andrew Reid who paid his tuition to Union Academy.

Former slaves George Terrell, Bob Capers and Old Harbert were among those to tell Harris the folk tales they heard when young. Harris stored these in his memory and they later formed the basis for many of his Uncle Remus stories.

In 1862, Harris left Eatonton to work as an apprentice printer on The Countryman which was published by Joseph Addison Turner on his plantation known as Turnworld. It was from here that Harris witnessed Sherman’s Army passing by on their ruthless March to the Sea.

In 1873, Joel Chandler Harris married the former Esther LaRose. It was a union that would last the rest of his life.

Harris left Putnam County and gained newspaper jobs in New Orleans and as associate editor of The Savannah Morning News. In 1876, he was hired by The Atlanta Constitution. In 1880, Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings was published. It was followed by Nights with Uncle Remus in 1883.

The Disney film simplifies the world painted by Harris in his stories. Subsequent books including Mingo and Other Sketches in Black and White (1884) and Daddy Jake The Runaway and Tales Told After Dark (1889) present a darker and more complex picture.

In 1900, Harris began to publish The Uncle Remus Magazine with his son; John. Remus returned in the books; Told by Uncle Remus (1903) and Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit (1906), "Humor is a great thing to live by and other things being equal, it is a profitable thing to die by,” Harris once told a reporter.

Shortly after the publication of the first Uncle Remus collection, Harris began renting the Atlanta Victorian which would come to be known as The Wren’s Nest. The writer purchased the house in 1883 from his editor at The Constitution. Harris later built houses for three of his children on the west side of the property. Today, The Wren’s Nest is one of the home museums run by The National Park Service. Parts of Song of the South were filmed there.

Joel Chandler Harris was one of the favorite authors of Theodore Roosevelt. The writer paid a visit to the White House in 1906. Harris died at home in The Wren’s Nest on July, 3 1908 at age sixty.

Harris’s stories continued to be collected and published after the death of their creator. Uncle Remus and The Little Boy was released in 1910 and was followed by, Uncle Remus Returns (1918) and Seven Tales Of Uncle Remus (1948).

Though Joel Chandler Harris has been labeled a racist, the charge is largely unfair. Like Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Harris collected the folk tales of his region, preserving a way of life for future generations. Harris’s colorful fables continue to entertain and teach much about human nature, just as they did when first told.

Treasure Island (1950, Byron Haskin) is known as the first live action film produced by Walt Disney. More properly, the Robert Louis Stevenson classic was the first entirely live action film produced by Disney. It was preceded by Song Of The South (1946) and So Dear To My Heart (1949, Harold Schuster, Hamilton Luske), both of which inserted animated sequences into live action stories.

Walt Disney always attempted to hire the best talent available and that certainly was true of Song of the South. Whatever one thinks of the film’s social values, one thing can’t be argued; the cinematography by Gregg Toland is absolutely stunning.

Perhaps the most innovative cinematographer of the studio era, Gregg Toland was born on March 4, 1904 in Charleston, Illinois. When he was fifteen, Toland entered show business as an office boy for William Fox. In 1924, Toland created a camera housing which blocked mechanical noise from interfering with sound recording.

Greg Toland was a pioneer in deep focus photography and dramatic lighting techniques. The films he shot have an unequaled depth of field and clatity. Toland first gained notice as a cinematographer with a split credit shared with Arthur Edeson on The Bat (1926, Roland West). By 1930, independent producer Samuel Goldwyn put Toland under exclusive contract.

Gregg Toland shot Come and Get It (1936), These Three (1936), Dead End (1937), The Westerner (1940) The Little Foxes (1941) and Wuthering Heights (1939) for William Wyler. The cinematographer worked with Howard Hawks on Come and Get It (1936), The Road To Glory (1936) and Ball Of Fire (1936). Among Toland’s most evocative cinematography was that of The Long Voyage Home (1940) and The Grapes of Wrath (1940), both of which were directed by John Ford.

However Toland’s most famous assignment came in 1940 when he was hired by Orson Welles to shoot Citizen Kane (1941). The cinematographer was given free reign to experiment with the coated lenses and arc lights with which he achieved his influential deep focus effects.

On Kane’s final credits, Toland’s name shared a title card with director Welles. “Up till then, cameramen were listed with about eight other names.” Welles told a reporter. “Nobody those days, only the stars, the director, the producer, got separate cards. Gregg deserved it, didn't he?" John Ford had accorded Toland the same credit on The Long Voyage Home.

During World War Two, Toland again worked with John Ford when he shot the Oscar winning documentary December 7th (1942).

After the war Toland returned to Hollywood where he shot films including The Kid From Brooklyn (1946, Norman Z McLeod), Song Of The South (1946), The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946, William Wyler), The Bishop’s Wife (1947, Henry Koster) and A Song is Born (1948, Howard Hawks.)

Immediately after finishing work on Enchantment (1948, Irving Reis), Gregg Toland collapsed and died of a massive heart attack at age forty-four.

Gregg Toland was Oscar nominated for his work on Les Miserables (1935, Richard Boleslawski), Dead End (1937), Intermezzo; A Love Story (1939, Gregory Ratoff), The Long Voyage Home (1940) and Citizen Kane (1941). He won the award for Wuthering Heights (1939).

Toland’s work on Song of the South gave him the an all-too-rare opportunity to work in color. The cinematographer proved himself an impressionist; using sun and shadow in place of paint and canvas. The result is an impossibly idyllic Old South which exists only in the songs of Stephen Foster, the pages of Joel Chandler Harris and his fellow Southern authors and on movie screens.

James Baskett, who played Uncle Remus, was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on February 16, 1904. He attended Tech High School where he studied pharmacology. Yet, after graduation, his family couldn’t afford his further studies. Baskett had to gave up his ambitions, settling instead for a career on stage.

During a visit to Chicago, Baskett became a member of the Salem Whitney and then the Homer Tutt troupe. He soon moved to New York where he became a member of the company headed by Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. He was also a member of the cast in several editions of Lew Leslie’s annual Blackbirds.

Moving to California, Baskett became a performer on network radio. Among many roles, he became famous as Gabby Gibson of The Amos and Andy Show. The popular program also was home to several other members of the Song of the South cast. Nick Stewart (Br’er Bear) was Lightnin,’ Johnny Lee (Br’er Rabbit) portrayed lawyer Algonquin J. Calhoun, Hattie McDaniel (Aunt Tildy) played Sadie Simpson and Roy Glenn, who probably provided the voice of Br’er Frog, also had a supporting role.

James Baskett made his film debut in Harlem is Heaven (1932, Irwin Franklyn). The actor then appeared in 20,000 Cheers for the Chain Gang (1933, Roy Mack), Policy Man (1938), Gone Harlem (1939, Irving Franklyn) and Comes Midnight (1940). Baskett had a memorable role as Lazarus in Revenge of the Zombies (1943, Steve Sekely).

James Baskett was the first actor to be signed by Walt Disney for a role in one of his studio’s films. In 1947, Baskett received an Honorary Academy Award. “for his able and heart-warming characterization of Uncle Remus, friend and story teller to the children of the world, in Walt Disney's Song of the South.” He was the first African-American to be given an Oscar

Unfortunately, Song of the South; Baskett’s most well known film role, was also his last. He died on of a heart attack on September 9, 1948 at age forty-four.

Bobby Driscoll, who played Johnny in Song Of The South, was born on March 3, 1937 in Cedar Rapids Iowa. Thanks largely to the efforts of his mother, Driscoll made his film debut in Lost Angel 1944, Roy Rowland). After appearances in movies including The Sullivans (1944, Lloyd Bacon), Sunday Dinner for a Soldier (1944, Lloyd Bacon), The Big Bonanza (1944, George Archainbaud), Identity Unknown (1945) and Miss Susie Slagle’s (1946, John Berry), Driscoll became the first contract player signed by Walt Disney.

Bobby voiced a boy with the same name as his in Pecos Bill (1946, Clyde Geronimi) which became an episode in the anthology film Melody Time (1948) For his work in So Dear To My Heart (1949) and the non-Disney The Window (1949, Ted Tetzlaff), Driscoll gained an Oscar as “the outstanding juvenile actor of 1949.”

In 1950, Bobby Driscoll gained his best known role as Jim Hawkins opposite Robert Newton’s Long John Silver in Disney’s Treasure Island.

The actor’s final assignment for Disney was Peter Pan. (1953, Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske). Driscoll not only voiced the title character but played the part in the live action reference film shot as a guide for animation.

Driscoll made just two more film appearances; in The Scarlet Coat (1955, John Sturges) and in The Party Crashers (1958, Bernard Girard) which also starred Francis Farmer and Connie Stevens.

In 1956, Driscoll married Marilyn Jean Rush and they became the parents of three children. Yet, as far as show business went, Bobby Driscoll had dropped out of sight. His marriage ended in divorce and little was seen of him from then on.

In the sixties, Bobby Driscoll suffered from drug addiction which led to hospitals, jail sentences and grinding poverty. On March 30, 1968, the actor’s body was discovered in an abandoned tenement in Greenwich Village by two children who were playing there. Bobby Driscoll was thirty-one years old. He was buried in a pauper’s grave.

Don Ameche, who appeared with Driscoll in So Goes My Love (1946, Frank Ryan) had said at the time; "He's got a great talent. I've worked with a lot of child players in my time, but none of them bore the promise that seems inherent in young Driscoll."

Born on July 6, 1938 in Long Beach, California, Luana Patten was discovered by Walt Disney who signed her for the role of Tildy in Song Of The South. For Disney, Luana also voiced a role in Pecos Bill (1946) before starring in So Dear To My Heart (1949) with Bobby Driscoll. Luana then dropped out of the movie business, choosing instead to complete her education.

In 1956, Luana was attended Wilson High School in Long Beach. She was working after school in the box office at The Lakewood Theatre when the movie house was robbed. The film playing at the time was Song of the South.

Patten returned to the screen in Rock Pretty Baby (1956, Richard Bartlett) before again starring for Disney in Johnny Tremain (1957, Robert Stevenson.) Among her other films were The Restless Years (1958, Helmet Kautner) Home From The Hill (1960, Vincente Minnelli), A Thunder of Drums (1961, Joseph M. Newman) and Follow Me Boys (1966, Norman Tokar) again for Disney.

In 1960, Luana married actor John Smith from whom she was divorced in 1964. She made her last featured appearance in They Ran for Their Lives (1968, Oliver Drake) but returned for a bit part in Grotesque (1988, Joe Tornatore).

Luana Patten died of respiratory failure on May 1, 1996. She was fifty-seven years old.

Ruth Warrick, who played Sally in Song Of The South, was born on June 29, 1915 in St Joseph Missouri. In 1937, Warrick won a contest to become an ambassador for Kansas City and traveled to New York to present a live turkey to Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.

Remaining in New York, Ruth gained employment as a member of Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater. When Welles journeyed west to make Citizen Kane, Warrick also traveled to Los Angeles. In Welles film, Warrick portrayed Emily Monroe Norton Kane, the wife of the mercurial publisher. She again worked with Welles in Journey into Fear (1943, Norman Foster).

In April, 1938, Ruth married Edward Rolf, who played her husband; John in Song of the South,. They became the parents of two children; Karen Elizabeth (1941) and Jon Erick (1942), but were divorced in 1946.

Warrick gained roles in films including The Corsican Brothers (1941, Gregory Ratoff) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr, The Iron Major (1943, Ray Enright), co-starring Pat O’Brien, Mr Winkle Goes to War (1944, Alfred E. Green) with Edward G. Robinson and Driftwood (1947, Allan Dwan). She had supporting roles in Daisy Kenyon (1947, Otto Preminger) starring Joan Crawford, Dana Andrews and Henry Fonda, Arch of Triumph (1948, Lewis Milestone) with Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer and Charles Laughton and Let’s Dance (1950, Norman Z. McLeod) with Fred Astaire and Betty Hutton.

Yet, it was television that gave Warrick her greatest fame. She played Janet Johnson on The Guiding Light (1953-1954), Aunt Edith Hughes Frye on As The World Turns (1956-1960) and Hannah Cord (1965-1967) on the nighttime Peyton Place (1965-1967) starring Mia Farrow and Ryan O’Neal.

In 1970, Warrick became a member of the original cast of All My Children, playing Phoebe Tyler. She continued in the role until her death, at age 90, on January 15, 2005.

When Hattie McDaniel was honored with the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Mammy in Gone With The Wind (1939, Victor Fleming).she became the first African-American to win an Academy Award in competition. When she arrived at the Oscar ceremonies, she became the first black person to attend the event as a guest rather than a servant.

McDaniel is one of the performers who endured much criticism because of the stereotypical roles she accepted. Yet, the actress had a realistic attitude about the business. “Why should I complain about making $7,000 a week playing a maid?” she once said. “If I didn't, I'd be making $7 a week being one."

Actors like Hattie McDaniel paved the way for the Halle Berrys, the Denzel Washingtons and the Samuel L. Jacksons. On a journey that’s taken far too long, McDaniel took several of the first steps. Born in Wichita Kansas on June 10th, 1895, Hattie McDaniel began her career as a vocalist and may have been the first American woman to sing on the radio when she performed with George Morrison’s Negro Orchestra in 1915.

McDaniel made her film debut with an uncredted bit in Impatient Maiden (1932, James Whale).Among the eighty-five movies in which she appeared were Blonde Venus (1932, Joseph von Sternberg) with Marlene Deitrich, and I’m No Angel (1933) with Mae West. Judge Priest (1934, John Ford) found her singing with Will Rogers while The Little Colonel (1935, David Butler) featured Shirley Temple.

McDaniel reprised her stage role as Queenie in Show Boat (1936, James Whale) in which she sang “Ah Still Suits Me” with Paul Robeson. Libeled Lady (1936, Jack Conway) starred Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy. McDaniel appeared with Gable and Harlow again in Saratoga (1937, Jack Conway). Nothing Sacred (1937) William Wellman) starred Frederick March and Carole Lombard while Carefree (1938, Mark Sandrich) featured Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

In the forties, McDaniel’s films included; The Male Animal (1942, Elliot Nugent) with Henry Fonda and Olivia DeHavilland, In This Our Life (1942, John Huston) starring Bette Davis, Johnny Come Lately (1943, William K. Howard) featuring James Cagney and Since You Went Away (1944, John Cromwell) with Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotton, Shirley Temple, Lionel Barrymore and Agnes Moorehead.

Hattie McDaniel starred on radio as Beulah, the maid who regularly proved herself smarter than those for whom she worked. In 1950, she was going to replace Ethel Waters in the Beulah television series when she was sidetracked by poor health.

Hattie McDaniel died of breast cancer on October 26, 1952. Like Luana Patten, McDaniel was fifty-seven years old.
The highlights of Song of the South involve the combination of animation with live action. Disney had been experimenting with blending these elements since his Alice in Cartoonland series in the twenties. Considering the technology of the times, Song of the South represented a giant leap forward.

When James Baskett’s Uncle Remus walks down the road celebrating a “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” kind of day, the woods are filled with animated creatures and the sky is alive with cartoon birds and butterflies.

At another moment, Remus sits down by the riverbank to fish in the company of portly Br’er Frog. Before Remus lights his pipe, he ignites the corncob of his buddy..

In episodes drawn from the Chandler Harris tales, Uncle Remus tells Johnny and Tildy the stories of The Laughing Place, The Wonderful Tar Baby and Br’er Rabbit and The Briar Patch. As Remus tells his stories, we see them as fully animated adventures.

For the cartoon sequences, James Baskett provided the voice of Br’er Fox, while Nicodemus Stewart spoke for Br’er Bear and Johnny Lee voiced Br’er Rabbit. When it came time to record The Laughing Place soundtrack, Johnny Lee had been called away from Hollywood on a USO tour. James Baskett provided the voices of both Br’er Rabbitt and Br’er Fox for the sequence.

Five of Disney’s Nine Old Men (Marc Davis, Ollie Johnston, Milt Kahl, Eric Larson and Johnny Lonsberry) were given credit as directing animators. Harve Foster handled the live action sequences while Wilfred Jackson was overall cartoon director.

Wilfred Jackson is one of the unsung pioneers of animation. Born on January 24, 1906, Jackson traveled to Los Angeles where he enrolled at the Otis Art Institute in 1925. In 1928, the young art student started hanging around the Disney studio. There was little money to hire anyone as it was a difficult period for Disney. Producer Charles Mintz had recently taken the character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from Walt and gave it to Walter Lanz who claimed he could make the popular cartoons for less money. Disney was in the throes of creating a new cartoon star.

Jackson volunteered to wash cells and assist animators until one day he unexpectedly got a paycheck. “I’m the one guy who was never hired,” he later said.

After Walt came up with Mickey Mouse, the studio animated his first three adventures. After they were already complete, Walt decided to retool the cartoons as sound shorts. The films were put back into production, at great cost and risk, to later be released as the first fully synchronized cartoons. It was Wilfred Jackson who figured out how to perfectly match sound and animation. His method involved a metronome which he used to mark beats. This information would then instruct composers, arrangers and animators.

In their book Disney Animation, The Illusion of Life master animators Ollie Johnson and Frank Thomas say that “Jaxon (Wilfred’s Disney nickname) was easily the most creative of the directors but he was also the most picky and took a lot of kidding about his thoroughness.”

Jackson was an animator on Steamboat Willie (1928), the first Mickey Mouse short to be released. He was a sequence director on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio (1940) and Dumbo (1942).

Jackson directed thirty five Disney shorts, the first of which was Mickey’s Follies (1928). With co-director David Hand, Jackson made the Oscar winning The Tortoise and The Hare (1934) and The Country Cousin (1936). Jackson also won Disney an Oscar with his direction of The Old Mill. (1937). The Band Concert (1935) was the first Mickey Mouse short produced in color and demonstrated Jackson’s continuing interest in the combination of animation and music.

During the Second World War, Wilfred Jackson made films for the U.S. Navy.

Wilfred Jackson directed the Night on Bald Moutain sequence for Fantasia (1940) and was one of the directors of Saludos Amigos (1942). He also directed Johnny Appleseed which became one of the segments of the anthology film Melody Time (1948).

With Clyde Geronomi and Hamilton Luske, Jackson co-directed Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1953) and Lady and The Tramp (1955).

In 1954, Walt Disney asked Jackson to produce and direct animated programs for the Disneyland television series on ABC. From 1954-1958, Jackson was responsible for thirteen shows.

After thirty-five years with Disney, Wilfred Jackson retired in 1961. He passed away at home in Newport Beach, California in on August 7, 1988, at age eighty-two. In 1998, Wilfred Jackson was recognized as a Disney legend.

Besides the honorary award to James Baskett, Song of The South was Oscar nominated for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture (Daniele Amiftheatrof, Paul J. Smith, Charles Woolcot). The film won Best Original Song for Zip-A-Dee-Doo_Dah! (Allie Wrubel (music), Ray Gilbert (lyrics).

Taken in the context of its times, Song of the South is an entertaining film which deserves to assume its place among the Disney classics. We might as well celebrate our collective yesterdays. Understanding the past is the best way to insure a positive future.

Rating: ***

Jp’06

John Kaufman can be reached via email at: Jkau779989@aol.com

Allston, MA

Sources:

www.IMDB.com (Internet Movie Data Base)

www.AllMovie.com (All Movie)

www.NCDB.com (Big Cartoon Data Base)

www.Disney.com (official web site)

www.UncleRemus.com (Joel Chandler Harris info)

www.gsu.edu (Joel Chandler Harris Info)

www.cr.nps.gov (Wren’s Nest info)

www.Songofthesouth.net (song Of The South info)

All images are © Walt Disney Productions