BOB SCHIEFFER:
"In the summer of 1993, Morley Safer caught up with Walt Disney on the eve of the premiere of
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The film would ultimately be the last animated feature to be released in his lifetime. Only Hyperion's
Coneheads would earn the distinction of being Disney's last overall release prior to Walt's death in September of that year. Out of respect for Walt's memory, CBS executives at the time elected not to go through with airing the following interview. That is, of course, until now. So sit back, relax and enjoy our special edition of 60 Minutes. A masterpiece we call
Walt Disney: The Final Dream Come True."
MORLEY SAFER:
"Months before leaving office, then-President Lee Iacocca presented Walt Disney with the National Medal of Arts. The year prior, he celebrated his 90th birthday on a televised ceremony in New York City. Many A-list celebrities were on hand for the occasion. Ted Turner arrived with Jane Fonda by his side. Even Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera put aside their rivalry with Walt to pay tribute. However, one A-list guest in particular stuck out like a sore thumb."
WALT:
"The first person to greet me at the Waldorf-Astoria that week was Donald Trump. Now, I've always appreciated his admiration of myself as a businessman, but on that particular night, he ran up to me jumping up and down as if I were St. Nick. Turns out, he was anxious to share with me a sample of a new cable program his company had put together."
Donald Trump, circa 1991.
SAFER:
"That was
Ren and Stimpy, right?"
WALT:
"Yes...that was it. The title escaped me somehow. Anyways...Donald introduced me to some of his staff members. One of whom was a fella dressed in these cat-ear glasses...and a very flashy bowling shirt. He introduced himself as John...uh...Chrysanthemum...or something like that..."
SAFER:
"You mean Kricfalusi?"
WALT:
"You're right...'Kricfalusi'...I apologize. Now, John right off the bat did not make a good impression. In fact, I thought he was incredibly rude and disrespectful to me while the other fellas from Trump's staff were much more courteous. John was the one who claimed to have created the characters. Later on, another staff member, Bob Camp, told me privately that he felt he deserved more credit."
SAFER:
"On your staff, you have several folks that worked with John at other places, right?"
WALT:
"Yes, that's true. Daniel Abbott, who was with me on the night of the encounter with Trump, came to us from Universal in '88. Daniel told me he worked with John a bit before that on a picture about...I think it was the one with the girl who sings a rock n' roll band or something. Daniel also said that John did not stay on that picture in question for too long. Apparently, John left abruptly after a big fight broke out over the appropriateness of a scene, I was later told, was supposed to show the girl scantily clad but wound up on the cutting room floor."
SAFER:
"Getting back to the incident with Trump and the gang, did he get the chance to actually show you their work?"
WALT:
"Yes. From the very get-go I wanted to give this little project a chance, yet I couldn't help but cringe. Firstly, one the characters I was later told was supposed to be a dog, but he looked more like one of those hairless mole rats. Secondly, I must admit that the segment with the cat building a helmet to cheer up his pal had me rethinking all the scary scenes from my own films..."
Clip from THE REN AND STIMPY SHOW; Courtesy of USA Network Group and Trump Manhattan Television.
"...the second segment was the turning point, but in a negative way unfortunately. In that segment, the dog kept refusing to brush his teeth until they all fell out. Once he started plucking out his nerve endings towards the end of the piece, I finally had enough. I had to tell Donald to turn the damn thing off about five times. Because of his child-like demeanor, it took the fifth time, and for me to raise my voice, for Donald to listen. Perhaps I must've overreacted because some of Trump's boys were reduced to tears...except for John."
The exact moment from Ren's Toothache that pushed Walt over the edge.
SAFER:
"Would
Ren and Stimpy be something you'd show to a six or seven year old?"
WALT:
"If Diane and Sharon were still that age, I would've said no, but they are now adults. If that show had launched decades earlier, I would've come out against it much more staunchly. Nowadays, I recognize that the onus should be more on grownups to monitor what their children watch."
SAFER:
"We met Walt in June [1993], a mere month before the release of his latest animated feature,
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit."
SAFER:
"Mickey Mouse may have been Walt's most iconic creation, but Oswald the Lucky Rabbit predates Mickey by roughly two years. Oswald came about in 1926 after Walt and his frequent collaborator Ub Iwerks decided to phase out the Alice Comedies due to rising costs. Two years later, Walt's then-co-producer Charles Mintz raided the Disney staff. When Walt balked at a proposed 20% budget cut, Oswald would become the intellectual property of Universal Pictures for the next 55 years. In 1982, Walt regained the rights to Oswald in exchange for Universal CEO Lew Wasserman hiring away Ted Berman, Art Stevens and Joe Hale to head up the feature film unit of Gemini, formerly DePatie-Freleng. Eleven years later, Oswald may be long forgotten, but that doesn't stop the Disney studio from bringing the character out of retirement."
SAFER:
"With all due respect Walt, I would've thought that because you were able to rebound so quickly with Mickey Mouse, that you would've moved on and forgotten about Oswald altogether."
WALT:
"People forget that when Mickey came about, it was at a time when the fortunes of Roy and myself were at lowest ebb. I was in New York when Mintz snatched Oswald from me. After the train ride back to Los Angeles, I immediately asked Ub Iwerks to help develop a new character. We tried dogs, cats, cows, frogs and so on until we settled on mice..."
"...I initially wanted to call the new character 'Mortimer Mouse.' But you can thank Lilly for suggesting the name 'Mickey.'"
Steamboat Willie (1928). This was actually Mickey's third cartoon, but was the first with synchronized sound.
SAFER:
"Today's generation of Disney animators may remember Mickey more so than Oswald, but this group of magic makers has never shied away from a challenge."
Al Hirschfeld's caricature of Eric Goldberg; drawn shortly after the release of Aladdin.
ERIC GOLDBERG:
"The
Oswald film had been brewing in Walt's mind for a number of years. When it came time to actually start working on it, a significant number of our crew members had never seen any of the original Oswald shorts. After we sat down and watched the few shorts that still survive, we had another problem to solve. Walt worked on Oswald right before the silent era drew to a close, so we brought in Frank Welker to develop a voice for Oswald and we like what we've heard so far."
SAFER:
"Walt, what do you think it'll take for Oswald to connect with today's kids?"
WALT:
"If, somehow, we're able to execute a cohesive story without having to depend on the kind of low-brow, outhouse humor that has become more commonplace these days on screens great and small, I'd say we'd in pretty damn good shape."
SAFER:
"Next year [1994], Disney will open yet another theme park. This time, a resurrection of the attractions Walt produced for the World's Fair some thirty years ago."
WALT:
"After the World's Fair of '64 and '65 ended, the city claimed that much of their tourism started to drop. By the time the Fair was over I pretty much moved on. But then I get calls from governor Mario Cuomo and the newly elected mayor Rudy Giuliani asking if I'd help bring tourists back to New York."
"...Save for the Unisphere and the New York State Pavilion, the Flushing Meadows Corona Park had pretty much sat mostly empty since the fair ended. After maybe two years of back and fourth between myself, the city, the state and the local residents, we came to a resolution that we could move forward with the park redevelopment while allowing the Hall of Science, the Queens Zoo and the tennis facilities to keep their doors open."
SAFER:
"Walt Disney says he is confident that the newly restored World's Fair will be ready for its slated reopening in the Summer of 1994. For
60 Minutes, I'm Morley Safer."
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