Sunday, December 23, 2018

Funky Frontierland, July 1959

For a while, the Disney Studios had kind of an obsession with chimpanzees. You had "The Monkey's Uncle" (yeah yeah!), "Monkeys Go Home", and "The Barefoot Executive", not to mention Mr. Stubbs from "Toby Tyler" and chimps in "The Moon Pilot" and "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones". Those are just the examples that come to mind off the top of my head. Everything those chimpanzees touched turned to gold! 

It should come as no surprise that chimps showed up at Disneyland; in this case they helped to man the magnificent Columbia, climbing the rigging, and hopefully not attacking the fearful guests. An enraged chimp has the strength of 10 Hulks! Jacques Cousteau (at the bottom of the photo) is so scared he can barely stand it.


Chief Wavy enjoys the novelty of chimpanzees, and waves at them with extra enthusiasm. "Now I've seen everything!", he says to himself.


12 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-

Extra points for reciting the litany of chimpanzee appearances in Disney films-! (I wonder if the Disney Studio surpassed the other Hollywood 'heavies' in casting that arm of the Hominidae family in 'starring' roles-?) It certainly seemed like it, though. I can't say I remember any chimpanzees "climbing the mast" of the Columbia, or any other sailing vessel at the Happiest Place On Earth; but perhaps this was for a special occasion-? (I wonder of any of the chimpanzees were piloting the vessel-??)

Thanks, Major.

TokyoMagic! said...

Awww, I wonder where these chimpanzees are today? Perhaps they are retired and living in a compound in Florida, along with Bubbles.

Melissa said...

I would have sworn there was more Dean Jones/Simian crossover, but Uncle IMDb tells me that he was in only in the poorly named Monkeys, Go Home! (Chimpanzees are apes, rather than monkeys.) I guess he was more of an equal opportunity animal co-star, with a slight canine tendency.

JC Shannon said...

There did seem to be a chimp obsession in 50's and 60's movies. And don't forget The Hathaways, a TV show about a couple with three chimps. I can't think of a reason why chimps would be crewing the Columbia, but hey, it is Disneyland after all. I wish I had a dollar for every pic taken of Chief Wavy, I would buy all us GDBers a weekend at the park. Last one to Fowler's Harbor buys the Dole Whips!
Thanks Major.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, I’m sure I have left out some chimp-related Disney entertainment; I think I’ve seen a photo of Walt from the filming of the “Wonderful World of Color” with a diaper-clad young chimpanzee. I think they should have changed it up once in a while and used a mandril baboon. I believe that they had chimps on the Columbia for only a very short time - it probably proved to be more trouble than it was worth. There might be one other photo of them on this blog…

TokyoMagic!, don’t fool yourself! Those chimps were sent into space, intercepted by aliens, and now have IQs of 250. The speak with British accents, for some reason.

Melissa, chimpanzees aren’t monkeys? The next thing you’ll tell me is that whales aren’t fish. Dean Jones didn’t win an Oscar for his work in “Million Dollar Duck”; that’s when I realized that the awards were a joke.

Jonathan, gosh, I don’t remember even hearing about The Hathaways. Looking on Wikipedia, it says, “Ratings for the Screen Gems series were so low that ABC had largely to self-sponsor the program”. Ouch! I can’t hear the name “Screen Gems” without hearing Eva Gabor’s voice… “This has been a Screen Gems presentation, darling”! Yes, I would sure like a dollar for every pic of Chief Wavy, how do we make that happen?

Nanook said...

Ahhh-hem, Major...
Make that a Filmways presentation... darling-!

And as for that "dollar for every pic of Chief Wavy"... why, just start a GoFundMe campaign-! Here's my dollar.

Melissa said...

Maybe we could publish a Chief Wavy of the Month calendar.

I was watching old episodes of Ark II on YouTube the other day - they had a chimp with a dubbed-in speaking voice, but the voice was like something out of a nightmare. I don't know if the voice actor was speaking on the inhale or if the voice was electronically manipulated, but the sound conjures up Lovecraftian horrors.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook... D'OH!

Melissa, would he be in various stages of undress? That's how those calendars seem to go. I've never heard of Ark II! I'll have to look it up.

Chuck said...

Ark II! Now that's a deep cut I haven't thought about for a long time. Saturday morning science fiction, 1976-style. I loved that show, but that chimp's voice freaked me out.

Now I want a jetpack for Christmas...

Anonymous said...

For some reason, this post is making me think of the sparkly background to the credits for "Family Affair" with Sebastian Cabot and the guy whose name I can't remember but wasn't Brian Dennehy.

Seeing those chimps in the rigging is slightly terrifying. What if they refused to come down and started throwing dung?

For some reason, I never really cared for the live action Disney comedies. 20K Leagues was the only live film that I was interested in. Most of the ones listed in this post are unfamiliar to me. I guess I'm an oddball, but you all knew that anyway.

JG

Nanook said...

@ JG-

Make that Brian Keith - who also co-starred with Maureen O'Hara [and Hayley Mills] in the original The Parent Trap, 1961.

JG said...

@Nanook, I knew someone would know. All I could recover was Brian. Thank you.

JG