Walt Disney's Original "Newsie"

In light of Disney's newly Tony Award-anointed musical Newsies (and Jeff Kurtti's article about Walt and Newsies), I thought it was an opportune time to mention that Walt Disney showcased his own "newsie," Gallegher, on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. Though Gallegher wasn't a newsboy like the characters in the Broadway show, he was a copy boy on an 1890s newspaper who wanted to be a reporter—and in fact proved himself a headline-hunting scribe better than his elders in every episode. And his trademark cap was very much in the Newsies tradition. The photo above gives a glimpse at the detailed sets, props and costumes created for this elaborate TV series. For those who haven't already seen it, you can "read all about it" in the D23 article I wrote about Walt Disney's "Gallegher," starring the always-excellent Roger Mobley. 

Old News Is Good News

One year ago today, on May 13, 2011, I had the honor of giving a presentation at the Walt Disney Archives on the Disney Studio lot all about Walt Disney's "Gallegher." This was my second talk for the Archives' "The Walt Disney Archives Presents" series of presentations. Above you can see the page (click on the image for a larger view) from the official in-house website of The Walt Disney Studios that promoted the event. Film clips, rare behind-the-scene photos, print ads, newspaper and magazine clippings all helped to tell the unknown saga of the excellent but almost-forgotten TV mini-series. You can read all about it (extra, extra) in the resulting D23 article by Jim Fanning on the D23 website. And watch this blog for even more of the behind-the-scenes story about Walt Disney's "Gallegher" in (I hope) the not-too-distant future.

No Mallets, No Watermelon

On January 24, 1965—46 years ago today—"Gallegher" made its debut "in living color" on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. This multi-episode comedy-adventure about the go-getting boy reporter was a hit the moment it hit the airwaves in early 1965. The other two episodes of that first batch of "Gallegher"s aired on January 31 and February 7, and led to three more sets of sequels, including the Emmy-nominated "The Further Adventures of Gallegher," which premiered in September 1965. The debut of the nonstop exploits of the copy boy who always followed his newsworthy nose tracking down headlines was in itself big news, as evidenced by Gallegher's prominence in the 1964 Walt Disney Productions Annual Report. As you can see in this detail from the "Television" portion of the 1964 Annual Report (click on the image for a larger view), which touted "Gallegher" as part of the "bright array of stellar programming" resulting from "the public response to more fully developed stories such as last season's three-parter 'The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh.'" Unfortunately the Gallegher photo is flopped, as you can see from the part in star Roger Mobley's hair, which is actually on his left. (Even odder is the flopped image of NBC's trademark peacock. One wonders why it was necessary to have even the very symbol of Disney's then-home network facing the wrong way.) Ready to read more about Walt Disney's "Gallegher" as so ably portrayed by Roger Mobley? Then be sure and check out "Walt Disney's Forgotten TV Classic" at the D23 website (it's free), written by me. P.S. "Gallegher"'s January 24 premiere came just eight days after star Roger Mobley's birthday. Happy belated birthday, Roger!

More Colorful

Both last season and this, NBC has returned to its "living color" roots from the 1950s and 1960s (the phrase was first used for NBC's then-few color broadcasts in 1953) with a campaign promoting its shows and their characters as "More Colorful." This naturally makes me think of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, which at the start of the 1966-1967 TV season (when NBC finally became the "The All Color Network," as 100% of NBC's programming—from Today in early morning through Tonight at late night— were colorcasts) was promoted with this artwork, along with the rest of the Sunday prime time lineup. Featured are Bryan Russell and Roger Mobley starring in not "Gallegher" but instead the 1964 theatrical release Emil and the Detectives, which was the World of Color season premiere. (By the way, thsi art comes to us from Rankin-Bass historian Rick Goldschmidt's must-see blog, a fun visit anytime but especially during the holidays.)