(Source: toonsatwar.blogspot.com)
As you probably know by now, I don't consider myself an authority on animation. I'm a student of the genre, and I probably always will be. So imagine when I discovered David Lesjak's Toons At War website. Lesjak is a huge fan of World War II memorabilia, especially when it concerns the Walt Disney Company.
Some of the site is heavy going and only of interest to hard-core animation fans (for instance, a description of how Disney laid out animation in the 1940's) but there are enough bits from Lesjak's personal collection to interest the casual viewer, including a Disney-authorized gas mask for kids.
Lesjak also shows how flying aces from pretty much every side of the war painted Disney characters on their planes, including the Luftwaffe's Hans Schmoller-Haldy and Horst Carganico, the R.A.F's Free French squdron's Rene Muchotte and several members of the Soviet Air Force. Mickey Mouse's portrait even showed up painted on several of Germany's infamous U-Boats.
But what really got me interested in Lesjak's site is a description of how Disney put together the 1943 Academy Award-winning short Der Fuehrer's Face. Originally called Donald Duck's Adventures in Nutzi Land, director Jack Kenney and Walt Disney quickly changed the name after songwriter Oliver G. Wallace composed the title track, a "serious song but it's got to be funny," as Walt Disney described it.
Oliver G. Wallace (1887 - 1963) was born in Britain and grew up in British Columbia. He started playing the piano to silent movies before breaking in as a songwriter. Here's what he recalled about writing the song (as told to Ralph Parker):
"Walt (Disney) encountered me in the hall and gave me a rush order. 'Ollie, I want a serious song, but it's got to be funny.' The further information that is was going to be for a picture telling Donald Duck's adventures in Naziland didn't help very much.
'What do you mean?' I asked.
'Suppose the Germans are singing it,' Walt offered. 'To them it's serious. To us it's funny.' Walt walked away. I stood in the hall. Once more I was on the spot."
Wallace reputedly cranked the song out in half-an-hour while riding his bike to the grocery store. Here are the lyrics:
When der Fuehrer says, "We ist der master race,"We HEIL! (honk!) HEIL! (honk!) right in der Fuehrer's face!
Not to love der Fuehrer is a great disgrace,So we HEIL! (honk!) HEIL! (honk!) right in der Fuehrer's face!
When Herr Goebbels says, "We own der world und space,"We HEIL! (honk!) HEIL! (honk!) right in Herr Goebbels' face!
When Herr Goering says, "They'll never bomb dis place,"We HEIL! [honk!] HEIL! (honk!) right in Herr Goering's face!
The most controversial element of the song was Wallace's use of a razzberry (also called "The Bronx Cheer") to emphasize the "HEIL" in the song. The Bronx Cheer was strictly verboten in cartoons and Wallace was worried that his boss would balk at the concept.
"I sang (the song) all over the place. The sound brought Walt out into the hall.
'Let's hear it,' Walt said.
I stalled. 'Orchestration...there's a funny sound in it...can't be made without an instrument...has to be practised.' The truth is, I didn't know what Walt would think of a highly robust Bronx cheer. Could such a sound be used in a Disney picture?
'Let's hear it,' Walt said. I let loose. Walt laughed. The rest is history."
A recording of the song was immediately dropped into the retitled short, a nightmare where Donald Duck finds himself part of the German war machine: forced to work 48-hour shifts, getting a 3-second 'vacation' (exercising in front of a painted backdrop of the Alps) and having to salute Hitler's portrait every time it goes by. Der Fuehrer's Face was an instant hit and won the 1943 Oscar for Best Animated Short.
But it was jazz bandleader Spike Jones' recording of the tune that kicked Der Fuehrer's Face into the stratosphere. Jones recorded two versions: the first used an instrument called a 'birdaphone' to simulate the razz, the second version tamed it down with trombones punctuating the "HEIL." It was the raunchier version that got released.
Although originally released as a B-Side, New York disc jockey Martin Block debuted the song on his 'Make-Believe Ballroom' show, and received hundreds of requests to play it again. The song spent sixteen weeks on the charts, topping out at #3.
Due to a canny promotion that had Block giving away a free copy of the 45 to anyone who purchased $50 or more in war bonds, the song raised $60,000 in two days. Southern Music, who published the sheet music, sold 15,000 copies of the song in that same period.
Oliver G. Wallace worked for 26 years at Disney and earned five Academy nominations. He, along with Frank Churchill, won Best Score for their work on 1940's Dumbo. Der Fuehrer's Face, despite the fact that it wasn't released onto home video until 2004, made the #22 spot of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of All Time, as compiled in 1994 by Cartoon Brew-meister Jerry Beck.
You can check out David Lesjak's history of Der Fuehrer's Face by clicking here.
