''One Hour in Wonderland'' is a 1950 television special made by
Walt Disney Productions
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
. It was first seen on
Christmas Day
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...
, 1950, over
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
(4–5 pm in all time zones) for
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...
, and was
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
's first television production.
It featured Disney as host, with
Bobby Driscoll
Robert Cletus Driscoll (March 3, 1937 – March 30, 1968) was an American actor known for his film and television performances from 1943 to 1960. He starred in some of the Walt Disney Studios' best-known live-action pictures of that period ...
,
Kathryn Beaumont
Kathryn Beaumont Levine (born 27 June 1938) is a British-American former actress, singer and school teacher. She is best known for voicing Alice in ''Alice in Wonderland'' (1951) and Wendy Darling in ''Peter Pan'' (1953), for which she was nam ...
,
Edgar Bergen
Edgar John Bergen (born Edgar John Berggren; February 16, 1903 – September 30, 1978) was an American ventriloquist, actor, comedian, vaudevillian and radio performer, best known for his proficiency in ventriloquism and his characters Ch ...
& Charlie McCarthy (who appeared on radio for Coke), and other celebrities who worked with Disney, including the
Firehouse Five Plus Two
The Firehouse Five Plus Two was a Dixieland jazz band, popular in the 1950s, consisting of members of the Disney animation department. Leader and trombonist Ward Kimball was inspired to form the band after spending time with members of the Disney ...
jazz band. This special was actually a promotional program for Disney's upcoming theatrical feature, ''
Alice in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
''.
Kathryn Beaumont
Kathryn Beaumont Levine (born 27 June 1938) is a British-American former actress, singer and school teacher. She is best known for voicing Alice in ''Alice in Wonderland'' (1951) and Wendy Darling in ''Peter Pan'' (1953), for which she was nam ...
, who voiced Alice, was dressed like her for this television special.
This television special was included as a bonus feature on the Masterpiece and Un-Anniversary DVD editions of ''Alice in Wonderland'', as well as the 2011
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
release and the Exclusive Archive Collection
laserdisc
The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as DiscoVision, MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diam ...
box set release.
Synopsis
Edgar Bergen
Edgar John Bergen (born Edgar John Berggren; February 16, 1903 – September 30, 1978) was an American ventriloquist, actor, comedian, vaudevillian and radio performer, best known for his proficiency in ventriloquism and his characters Ch ...
informs Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd that
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
has invited them to a
tea party
A tea party is a social gathering event held in the afternoon. For centuries, many societies have cherished drinking tea with a company at noon. Tea parties are considered for formal business meetings, social celebrations or just as an afternoon ...
. Charlie is hesitant to go, but reluctantly changes his mind when he learns
Kathryn Beaumont
Kathryn Beaumont Levine (born 27 June 1938) is a British-American former actress, singer and school teacher. She is best known for voicing Alice in ''Alice in Wonderland'' (1951) and Wendy Darling in ''Peter Pan'' (1953), for which she was nam ...
will be there. While driving to the studio, Edgar tells the story of
Alice in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
, much to Charlie's dismay. When they arrive, Walt Disney tells everyone that he was able to buy the Magic Mirror from
Snow White
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as Ta ...
(who apparently got it from the Wicked Queen). Charlie insults the mirror, calling it a "hopped-up
television set
A television set or television receiver, more commonly called the television, TV, TV set, telly, tele, or tube, is a device that combines a tuner, display, and loudspeakers, for the purpose of viewing and hearing television broadcasts, or using ...
." This enrages the mirror but Walt calms him down. The Mirror then shows everybody what they wish to see. He shows Kathryn a scene from ''
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...
'', Charlie the
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...
short ''
Clock Cleaners
''Clock Cleaners'' is a 1937 in film, 1937 American Animated cartoon, animated short film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures. The cartoon follows Mickey Mouse, Donal ...
'' (although Charlie wanted to see himself),
Bobby Driscoll
Robert Cletus Driscoll (March 3, 1937 – March 30, 1968) was an American actor known for his film and television performances from 1943 to 1960. He starred in some of the Walt Disney Studios' best-known live-action pictures of that period ...
a
Br'er Rabbit
Br'er Rabbit (an abbreviation of ''Brother Rabbit'', also spelled Brer Rabbit) is a central figure in an oral tradition passed down by African-Americans of the Southern United States and African descendants in the Caribbean, notably Afro-Bahami ...
story, Mortimer a
Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...
short, and Edgar, Disney's animation studios. There, the cartoonists (played by
Firehouse Five Plus Two
The Firehouse Five Plus Two was a Dixieland jazz band, popular in the 1950s, consisting of members of the Disney animation department. Leader and trombonist Ward Kimball was inspired to form the band after spending time with members of the Disney ...
) take advantage of Walt's absence to have fun playing jingle bells instead of working. At the end of the song, they realize Walt is watching, and frantically finish a scene with
Tweedledee and Tweedledum
Tweedledum and Tweedledee are characters in an English nursery rhyme and in Lewis Carroll's 1871 book ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There''. Their names may have originally come from an epigram written by poet John Byrom. The ...
. The Mirror at first refuses to show the unfinished ''
Alice in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
'', but changes his mind when everyone wants to see it. The Mirror then reluctantly shows a scene from the film. At the end of the special, Edgar has acquired the Magic Mirror. Charlie tries to make a deal with the mirror, but it turns out Mortimer is the new slave of the magic mirror. Charlie changes his mind and goes to sleep.
Segments
* Seven Dwarves' Party for Snow White (''
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...
'') - 1937
* ''
Clock Cleaners
''Clock Cleaners'' is a 1937 in film, 1937 American Animated cartoon, animated short film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures. The cartoon follows Mickey Mouse, Donal ...
'' (
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...
) - 1937
*
Br'er Rabbit
Br'er Rabbit (an abbreviation of ''Brother Rabbit'', also spelled Brer Rabbit) is a central figure in an oral tradition passed down by African-Americans of the Southern United States and African descendants in the Caribbean, notably Afro-Bahami ...
Runs Away (''
Song of the South
''Song of the South'' is a 1946 American Live-action animated film, live-action/animated musical film, musical drama film directed by Harve Foster and Wilfred Jackson; produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures. ...
'') - 1946
* ''
Bone Trouble
''Bone Trouble'' (1940) is an animated short produced by Walt Disney, and directed by Jack Kinney. It stars Pluto and Butch the Bulldog, in the latter's first appearance.
Plot
The short begins with Pluto waking up in his dog house. Pluto is ...
'' (
Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...
) - 1940
*
Jingle Bells
"Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and most commonly sung American songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont (1822–1893) and published under the title "The One Horse Open Sleigh" in September 1857. It has been claimed th ...
(made for the special) - performed by
Firehouse Five Plus Two
The Firehouse Five Plus Two was a Dixieland jazz band, popular in the 1950s, consisting of members of the Disney animation department. Leader and trombonist Ward Kimball was inspired to form the band after spending time with members of the Disney ...
* The Mad Tea Party (''
Alice in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
'') - 1950/1951
Cast
*
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
as himself and
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...
(voice)
*
Kathryn Beaumont
Kathryn Beaumont Levine (born 27 June 1938) is a British-American former actress, singer and school teacher. She is best known for voicing Alice in ''Alice in Wonderland'' (1951) and Wendy Darling in ''Peter Pan'' (1953), for which she was nam ...
as herself and
Alice
*
Bobby Driscoll
Robert Cletus Driscoll (March 3, 1937 – March 30, 1968) was an American actor known for his film and television performances from 1943 to 1960. He starred in some of the Walt Disney Studios' best-known live-action pictures of that period ...
as himself
*
Edgar Bergen
Edgar John Bergen (born Edgar John Berggren; February 16, 1903 – September 30, 1978) was an American ventriloquist, actor, comedian, vaudevillian and radio performer, best known for his proficiency in ventriloquism and his characters Ch ...
as himself, Charlie McCarthy, and Mortimer Snerd
*
Hans Conried
Hans Georg Conried Jr. (April 15, 1917 – January 5, 1982) was an American actor and comedian. He was known for providing the voices of George Darling and Captain Hook in Walt Disney's ''Peter Pan'' (1953), Snidely Whiplash in Jay Ward's ''Dudle ...
as
Magic Mirror (it was voiced by
Moroni Olsen
Moroni Olsen (June 27, 1889November 22, 1954) was an American actor.
Life and career
Olsen was born in Ogden, Utah to Latter-day Saint parents Edward Arenholt Olsen and Martha ( Hoverholst) Olsen, who named him after the Moroni found in the ...
in the
animated film
Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...
)
*
Adriana Caselotti
Adriana Elena Loreta Caselotti (May 6, 1916 – January 18, 1997) was an American actress and singer. Caselotti was the voice of the title character of the first Walt Disney animated feature, ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'', for which she w ...
as
Snow White
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as Ta ...
(voice)
*
Roy Atwell
John Leroy "Roy" Atwell (May 2, 1878 – February 6, 1962) was an American actor, comedian and composer, known for playing characters that mis-deliver their lines or stammer, most notably Doc from Walt Disney's classic Snow White and the Seven Dwa ...
as Doc (voice)
*
Otis Harlan
Otis Harlan (December 29, 1865 – January 21, 1940) was an American actor and comedian. He voiced Happy, one of the Seven Dwarfs in the Disney animated film ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs''.
Early years
Harlan was born in Zanesville, Ohio ...
as Happy (voice)
*
Pinto Colvig
Vance DeBar Colvig Sr. (September 11, 1892 – October 3, 1967), professionally Pinto Colvig, was an American voice actor, newspaper cartoonist, and circus and vaudeville performer whose schtick was playing the clarinet off-key while mugging. Co ...
as Sleepy, Grumpy,
Goofy
Goofy is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. He is a tall, Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic dog who typically wears a turtle neck and vest, with pants, shoes, white gloves, and a tall hat originally designed as a rumpled f ...
, and
Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...
(voice)
*
Scotty Mattraw
Winfield Scott Mattraw (October 19, 1880 – November 9, 1946) was an American film and television actor. He provided the voice of Bashful in Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs''.
The son of William Henry and Philamon Dano Mattraw ...
as Bashful (voice)
*
Billy Gilbert
William Gilbert Barron (September 12, 1894 – September 23, 1971), known professionally
as Billy Gilbert, was an American actor and comedian. He was known for his comic sneeze routines. He appeared in over 200 feature films, short subjects ...
as Sneezy (voice)
*
Clarence Nash
Clarence Charles "Ducky" Nash (December 7, 1904 – February 20, 1985) was an American voice actor. He was best known as the original voice of the Disney cartoon character Donald Duck. He was born in the rural community of Watonga, Oklahoma, and ...
as
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...
(voice)
*
James Baskett
James Franklin Baskett (February 16, 1904 – July 9, 1948) was an American actor who portrayed Uncle Remus, singing the song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" in the 1946 Disney feature film '' Song of the South''.
In recognition of his portrayal of Remus, h ...
as
Uncle Remus
Uncle Remus is the fictional title character and narrator of a collection of African American folktales compiled and adapted by Joel Chandler Harris and published in book form in 1881. Harris was a journalist in post-Reconstruction era Atlanta, a ...
and
Br'er Fox
Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear (also spelled Brer Fox and Brer Bear, ) are fictional characters from African-American oral traditions popular in the Southern United States. These characters have been recorded by many different folklorists, but are most ...
(voice)
*
Johnny Lee as
Br'er Rabbit
Br'er Rabbit (an abbreviation of ''Brother Rabbit'', also spelled Brer Rabbit) is a central figure in an oral tradition passed down by African-Americans of the Southern United States and African descendants in the Caribbean, notably Afro-Bahami ...
(voice)
*
Nick Stewart
Nick may refer to:
* Nick (given name)
* A cricket term for a slight deviation of the ball off the edge of the bat
* British slang for being arrested
* British slang for a police station
* British slang for stealing
* Short for nickname
Pla ...
as
Br'er Bear (voice)
*
Ed Wynn
Isaiah Edwin Leopold (November 9, 1886 – June 19, 1966), better known as Ed Wynn, was an American actor and comedian. He was noted for his ''Perfect Fool'' comedy character, his pioneering radio show of the 1930s, and his later career as a d ...
as
Mad Hatter
The Hatter is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and its 1871 sequel ''Through the Looking-Glass''. He is very often referred to as the Mad Hatter, though this term was never used by Car ...
(voice)
*
Jerry Colonna as
March Hare
The March Hare (called Haigha in ''Through the Looking-Glass'') is a character most famous for appearing in the tea party scene in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''.
The main character, Alice, hypothesizes,
: "Th ...
(voice)
*
Jimmy MacDonald as
Dormouse
A dormouse is a rodent of the family Gliridae (this family is also variously called Myoxidae or Muscardinidae by different taxonomists). Dormice are nocturnal animals found in Africa, Asia, and Europe. They are named for their long, dormant hibe ...
(voice)
*
Bill Thompson as
White Rabbit
The White Rabbit is a fictional and anthropomorphic character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. He appears at the very beginning of the book, in chapter one, wearing a waistcoat, and muttering "Oh dear! Oh dear! ...
(voice)
*
Firehouse Five Plus Two
The Firehouse Five Plus Two was a Dixieland jazz band, popular in the 1950s, consisting of members of the Disney animation department. Leader and trombonist Ward Kimball was inspired to form the band after spending time with members of the Disney ...
as themselves
*
Diane Marie Disney
Diane Marie Disney-Miller (December 18, 1933 – November 19, 2013) was the eldest daughter of Walt Disney and his wife Lillian Bounds Disney. Diane co-founded the Walt Disney Family Museum alongside her family. She was president of the Board o ...
as herself
*
Sharon Mae Disney as herself
References
External links
*
* {{DisneyAtoZ, title=''One Hour in Wonderland''
1950 television specials
American television specials
Black-and-white American television shows
Disney television specials
NBC television specials
Alice in Wonderland (franchise)