While Walt may have learned a few things from the fiasco that had been
Song of the South, he was still feeling nostalgic for the good old days.
So Dear To My Heart could have easily been a story about Walt growing up in the Midwest at the turn of the century. "Why, that's the life my brother and I grew up with as kids out in Missouri," proclaimed Walt after the film released. Since Walt had lived the small town rural life in Missouri he was even able to help out with some of the period set design and props. The film would go on to be one of Walt's favorite films that his company had ever produced. The film ended up being so influential that the book that it was based off of would change its name and portions of the book to better fit with Disney's narrative!
Story Background
So Dear To My Heart is based off of the book
Midnight and Jeremiah, a children's book by Sterling North. The story concerns a young boy named Jeremiah who lives with his Granny Kincaid in Pike County, Indiana in the early 1900's. After one of their sheep gives birth to a black-wooled offspring and summarily rejects it, Jeremiah takes it in, much to his Granny Kincaid's chagrin.Named Midnight, the sheep proves to be a handful for the two, but hard financial times lead to Midnight being trained to enter into the County Fair to win some money. With the help of Jeremiah's Uncle Hiram, Midnight goes on to win the grand prize even though he's not a pure breed. At the celebration back home, Midnight is scared off and Jeremiah is unable to retrieve him. Jeremiah begins to lose hope as winter sets in, but when he visits a model Baby Jesus at the local church he finds Midnight curled up under the manger.
The book had come out in 1943, so it was still pretty new when Disney got a hold of it. After the movie proved to be successful, Sterling North decided to alter the book to fall in line with Disney's film version. Major difference included: Jeremiah meeting Dan Patch, a famous race horse in the early 1900's, Midnight's name being changed to Danny (after Dan Patch), Danny losing the grand prize but winning a special prize, and the sheep running away in the middle of the story instead of the end. While there are some movies that prove to be better, or at least more popular than their book counterparts, it's a bit more unusual for the author to change their book to make it fall in line with the movie, though I'm sure this helped sell copies.
Film Production
Walt fell in love with the story of
Midnight and Jeremiah and set out to make his first fully live-action film. RKO, which was still distributing all of Disney's films, convinced Disney that when people heard the word "Disney" they thought animation. The decision was made to add some animation interludes throughout the film. The animation is explained as being part of Jeremiah's daydreams, with his scrapbook pictures coming to life to teach him various lessons. The Wise Owl, who looks to be a precursor to Professor Owl from the Disney Sing-Along tapes, tells Jeremiah stories through song about such historical figures as Christopher Columbus and Robert Bruce. The Wise Owl uses these stories to encourage Jeremiah to not to give up on Danny and later, to enter Danny into the County Fair. The animated segments are also where some of the most memorable songs come in, "It's Watcha Do With Watcha Got" and "Stick-To-It-Ivity". "I saw the cartoon characters as figments of a small boy's imagination, and I think they were justified," said Walt in a later interview. The amount of animation in this film is dwarfed by
The Song of the South, but Walt put just as much effort into making sure the short animated vignettes were perfect. The animation, which only amounted for 15 percent of the film, wouldn't be finished until August 1948, a full year after shooting had ended for the live-action segments.The film is unusual compared to other Disney films, as it includes aspects of Christianity that you don't see mentioned or discussed very often in their films. Part of animated sequence for "It's Watcha Do With Watcha Got" mentions the biblical story of David and Goliath, while God is mentioned several times through the film.
While producer Perce Pierce had gone to Indiana to scope out a location, the film would ultimately be filmed in Sequoia National Park and San Joaquin Valley in California. The landscape in those areas fit the description of the Indiana towns of the time and I'm sure filming somewhere that was only 250 miles from the studio was part of the allure. To get a more authentic feel, the Disney artist Mary Blair would visit Indiana in 1945 to research farm life. With her pre-production drawings providing a colorful and stylized conceptualization of the settings, characters, costumes, and designs for the film, Walt had the exact look he wanted to achieve. Blair's drawings took on a quilt-inspired look, with her telling Walt that "it seems that quilt making is a revived art in this country now, which fact adds more value to its use as a medium of expression in our picture." Walt and his family enjoyed the movie
My Friend Flicka (1943) which was directed by Harold Schuster. In fact, they liked the film so much that they had it screened at their home theater several times. Though Schuster was under contract with 20th Century Fox (as was the fashion back then), they agreed to loan him to Disney to film
So Dear To My Heart.
There were, however, some problems with filming in California, namely the heat. The production started in April of 1946 and went late into summer. The foliage began to suffer in the heat so every night twenty-seven greens men had to water the soil and plants to keep things looking lush. Temperatures went over 100 degrees and the cast began to suffer in their heavy period-appropriate clothing, though the animals had cool air pumped into their paddocks. Disney, at the time, had a very small sound stage, so some of the interior sets had to be built on location. Both Grundy's Hardware and Granny's house were both built on site. There was an old hardware store near Porterville that was bought in its entirety and all the goods were used to fill up Grundy's Hardware.
Cast
Since Bobby Driscoll was under contract with Disney, they needed vehicles to feature him in. The selection of
Midnight and Jeremiah makes sense, even outside of Walt's interest in nostalgia if you think about it in terms of finding something suitable for the young Disney star. Though Walt had tried to get the Academy to award Driscoll with a Juvenile Award for
Song of the South, he would succeed with this film. Thanks to his performance as Jeremiah in
So Dear To My Heart and Tommy in The Window (not a Disney film), Driscoll got his Juvenile Award. Luana Patten, another veteran of
Song of the South, plays Jeremiah's cousin Tildy. Patten would not return to be in a Disney film again until Johnny Tremain in 1957. Outside of the child stars you had Burl Ives as Uncle Hiram, and Beulah Bondi as Granny Kincaid. Ives, besides being an actor, was a singer, radio performer, and an enthusiast of genuine American folk songs. His distinct voice lent authenticity to the period songs such as "Billy Boy". Ives would return to Disney in 1963 for
Summer Magic. Bondi was well-known as playing Jimmy Stewart's mother in
It's a Wonderful Life, and was a perfect fit to play Jeremiah's stern-but-loving granny. Bondi took the role seriously, even going as far as learning to plow a field, spin wool, and work a loom. The last cast member I'll mention is Harry Carey, who played the County Fair judge. Carey was one of the silent era's superstars and usually played the rough and tumble character in films such as outlaws.
So Dear To My Heart would be his last film appearance.
Music
Today,
So Dear To My Heart is probably most remembered for its song "Lavender Blue" sung by Burl Ives. I know that I heard the song countless times as a child since it was included on a Disney music compilation CD we had. "Lavender Blue" is an English folk song and nursery rhyme dating back to the 17th century. Ives's version of the song would go on to be nominated for Best Song at the Academy Awards but would ultimately lose to "Baby, It's Cold Outside" from Neptune's Daughter. "Lavender Blue" would go on to be covered many times throughout the 20th century. Other songs sung by Ives included "Billy Boy" and "Ol' Dan Patch". Both "It's Watcha Do With Watcha Got" and "Stick-To-It-Ivity" were sung by Ken Carson, a popular Country Western singer who voiced The Wise Owl.
Release
To help promote the film,
Reader's Digest had a condensed version of North's story as part of its December 1948 issue. It was the first time that
Reader's Digest had ran any movie promotional concurrently with the film's debut. The film was previewed at the 27th National 4-H Congress in Chicago in November, 1948 with Bobby Driscoll and 1,200 4-H members in attendance. Driscoll, Patten, and Walt were at the official premiere in West Lafayette, Indiana in January 1949, where they were joined by the story's author, Sterling North. Critical reception for the movie was very positive and the movie went on to gross $2.7 million in its first run. It was re-released in 1964, bringing it's total gross to $3.7 million. While
So Dear To My Heart has been released on video in 1986, 1992, and 1994, it has never been released widely on DVD. It was planned to get a DVD release as part of the Gold Classic Collection, but was cancelled without a reason given. Like many of the other live action Disney films that aren't as popular, you can purchase a physical DVD if you are part of the Disney Movie Club.
While it's a pretty simple story, it is definitely worth a watch thanks to all the incredible talent in the cast, the singing by Burl Ives, and the entertaining animated segments. It will also make you nostalgic for a simpler time, even if you didn't experience it like Walt did. The easiest way to watch the film is through Hoopla, which is a free streaming service that is linked to your library card. In fact, as far as I've checked, they have almost all of the live action Disney films to view, though you only get a limited amount of titles you can watch (it depends on your library).
Sources:
- https://d23.com/did-you-know-12-blue-ribbon-facts-about-walt-disneys-so-dear-to-my-heart/
- http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/90643/So-Dear-to-My-Heart/notes.html
- https://www.waltdisney.org/blog/behind-scenes-so-dear-my-heart
Walt Disney's first fully live action film was born out of necessity more than anything else. Both Disney and RKO had money "frozen" in Great Britain from film revenues there, and they could not be spent anywhere else but England. Disney was still hurting from World War II and so leaving money in Great Britain was not the answer. Walt's solution was to make a movie there, but since he was considered as American as apple pie he wanted to make it a British story so as not to receive resistance from the country. It would have been too expensive to bring over animators and set up a new studio in England so this basically forced Walt's hand into making his first fully live action film. Walt would make three more movies in England to use the frozen funds, but his first would have to be a story that was British, but well known to American audiences. That story would end up being Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.
Treasure Island is probably one of the better known stories that the Disney company had adapted for live action. The story concerns a young boy named Jim Hawkins, who finds himself inexplicably whisked away on a treasure hunt that involves pirates, mutiny, and murder. The book's original title was The Sea Cook: A Story For Boys, so I think we should all be thankful that Stevenson changed it to Treasure Island. Seafaring books about military men, pirates, and explorers were all popular during the 1800's, and Stevenson basically borrowed themes and ideas from many of those books that came before his. That being said, many of the stereotypical things we associate with pirates came from Treasure Island, including treasure maps with an X to mark the spot, parrots on shoulders, peg-legs, tropical locales, and the Black Spot. First released as a serial in the children's magazine Young Folks from 1881-1882, it was later released as a book in 1883 under the title Treasure Island, or the Mutiny of the Hispaniola.Treasure Island proved to be a massive hit for Stevenson, who went on to author other classic stories like The Strange Case of Mr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Kidnapped. Treasure Island has been adapted countless times since it's publication and remains Stevenson's seminal work.
Walt had been thinking about adapting Treasure Island for quite a few years, but it was meant to be an animated film. Once the issue with frozen assets came about, it ended up being the perfect opportunity to adapt the movie, but in live action instead. Unfortunately, Disney did not own the rights to adapt Treasure Island, so Walt had to make a deal with MGM, the studio that did own the rights, to be able to make his film.RKO, which in the past had only distributed Disney films, partnered with Disney since they also had frozen funds they needed to use too. RKO became a partner production company with Disney, forming the RKO Walt Disney British Productions LTD. Walt was a bit more hands-off with the production, only visiting every once in a while due to the distance. Luckily, Walt trusted the direction of Byron Haskins, who would go on to direct The War of the Worlds (1953) and Long John Silver (1954).Walt had still wanted to include some animation in the film, and planned on having Long John Silver tell Jim Hawkins the story of Reynard the Fox. Obviously this did not happen, but concept drawings for this animated segment would later be used for Disney's animated version of Robin Hood. Of what little drama there was with the production, it all came from the film's pint sized star, Bobby Driscoll. Driscoll was the lone American actor on the film, something that Disney had done on purpose to help appeal the movie to American audiences who had seen Driscoll in Song of the South and So Dear To My Heart. Driscoll did not have a permit to work in England, and incidentally could not receive one since he was under fourteen. Disney was refused in court to allow Driscoll to work, though Disney put in an appeal. Though Driscoll was ordered not to work, production continued and they filmed all of his scenes as quick as possible. By the time the appeals court went back in session and they upheld the original verdict, Driscoll was already done working. The judge was not pleased, as you would imagine, and all the trouble led Walt to scrap the thought of bringing Driscoll back into the country to do a live action Robin Hood. Many of the wide shots that are supposed to be Driscoll are in fact his body double.
