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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that huffs and puffs about history every day

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Speaker 1: of the week. I'm Gay Bluesier, and in this episode,

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Speaker 1: we're talking about one of the earliest major successes of

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Speaker 1: Walt Disney Studios, in experimental animated short that left a

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Speaker 1: lasting impression on the public and helped pave the way

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Speaker 1: for everything from Bugs Bunny to snow White. The day

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Speaker 1: was May thirty three. The animated short Three Little Pigs,

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Speaker 1: premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

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Speaker 1: Directed by Disney Studios regular Bert Gillette, this musical version

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Speaker 1: of the classic fable told the story of three little

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Speaker 1: pigs and the different lengths they went to avoid being

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Speaker 1: eaten by the Big Bad Wolf. The first two pigs

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Speaker 1: are depicted as care free and naive. They hastily assemble

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Speaker 1: their houses from straw and sticks, respectively, and then gloat

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Speaker 1: about how much time they have left over. The third pig, however,

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Speaker 1: has a much stricter work ethic. He uses bricks to

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Speaker 1: build his house, and while the effort leaves him with

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Speaker 1: much less free time, he's confident that the added security

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Speaker 1: will make it all worthwhile. He's eventually proven right, as

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Speaker 1: the Big Bad Wolf has no trouble blowing down the

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Speaker 1: first two flimsy houses, but no matter how hard he

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Speaker 1: huffs and puffs, the brick build house never gives way.

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Speaker 1: When the short was first released, it was a milestone

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Speaker 1: in more ways than one. Not only was it the

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Speaker 1: first cartoon to generate a hit song, the Depression era

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Speaker 1: anthem Who's a Aid of the Big Bad Wolf, it

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Speaker 1: also pushed the scope of animated characterization to a whole

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Speaker 1: new level. That evolution was largely by design. Three Little

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Speaker 1: Pigs was one of seventy five Silly Symphony cartoons produced

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Speaker 1: by Disney between nineteen twenty nine and nineteen thirty nine.

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Speaker 1: This series was produced alongside the studio's popular Mickey Mouse shorts,

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Speaker 1: but unlike those, Silly Symphonies were mainly standalone stories that

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Speaker 1: didn't feature recurring characters or themes. The only uniting feature

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Speaker 1: of the series was its focus on music, with each

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Speaker 1: short being set to a different piece. Over time, though,

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Speaker 1: Silly Symphonies became a testing ground for new animation styles

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Speaker 1: and techniques. For example, nineteen thirty seven's The Old Mill

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Speaker 1: made several technical and aesthetic strides, including the use of

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Speaker 1: special lighting effects to achieve a greater sense of realism

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Speaker 1: and multiplaye photography to add new levels of depth to

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Speaker 1: two D animation. The goal with Three Little Pigs, on

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Speaker 1: the other hand, was to push the envelope of character animation.

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Speaker 1: Because the film starred three almost identical pigs, the designers

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Speaker 1: and animators knew they would have to come up with

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Speaker 1: other ways to give each character a distinct personality. Part

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Speaker 1: of the solution to that challenge came from Walt Disney himself.

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Speaker 1: He insisted the pigs be portrayed as humanlike characters. Since

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Speaker 1: they lived in houses, he wanted them to wear clothes

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Speaker 1: as well. The pigs outfits were a chance to reflect

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Speaker 1: their different character traits. The first two pigs wore much

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Speaker 1: more youthful costumes, complete with decorative touches like bows and ribbons,

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Speaker 1: while the third pig dressed more sensibly in a pair

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Speaker 1: of overalls. To further these distinctions, character designer Albert Herder

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Speaker 1: assigned each pig a unique object and a name derived

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Speaker 1: from that object. Fiddler Pig got a fiddle and fifer

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Speaker 1: Pig got you guessed it a fife. Practical pigs tool

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Speaker 1: of choice was a trowel instead of a musical instrument,

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Speaker 1: though in the final sequence of the short he does

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Speaker 1: play a piano, which is also made out of bricks.

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Speaker 1: These expressive elements were brought to life by lead animator

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Speaker 1: Fred Moore and then combined with equally distinctive vocal performances

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Speaker 1: and music. The result was a breakthrough in character animation,

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Speaker 1: one that prompted Walt Disney to proudly proclaim, quote, at last,

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Speaker 1: we have achieved true personality in a whole picture. Before

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Speaker 1: we go any further, though, I want to mention an

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Speaker 1: ugly aspect of three Little Pigs that's often overlooked today.

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Speaker 1: In the shorts original release, the Big Bad Wolf briefly

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Speaker 1: disguises himself as a stereotypical Jewish peddler. He knocks at

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Speaker 1: the door of the third pigs house and tries to

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Speaker 1: trick them into coming out by pretending to be a

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Speaker 1: brush salesman. Wearing glasses and a long false nose and beard,

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Speaker 1: The wolf speaks with a Yiddish accent, an unfortunate example

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Speaker 1: of the casual stereotyping that was common in popular entertainment

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Speaker 1: at the time. The scene played without much controversy in

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Speaker 1: thirty three, but after World War Two it was viewed

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Speaker 1: much differently. Disney Studios elected to change the scene for

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Speaker 1: the shorts re release. The wolf was reanimated to remove

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Speaker 1: the offensive disguise, and his lines were re recorded without

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Speaker 1: the Yiddish accent. The original sequence remains a dark counterpoint

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Speaker 1: to the development of character animation seen elsewhere in the short.

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Speaker 1: It showed that expressive animation and sound could be effective

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Speaker 1: tools for creating not only joy, but pain as well.

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Speaker 1: More key to the film's success was its standout use

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Speaker 1: of music and sound. In the original outline for the short,

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Speaker 1: Walt Disney suggested making it an operetta, with all the

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Speaker 1: dialogue being rhymed and sung through. Composer and songwriter Frank

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Speaker 1: Churchill was entrusted with that task, and the score he

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Speaker 1: provided integrated perfectly with the on screen action. But the

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Speaker 1: real star of the soundtrack was Churchill's original song, Who's

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Speaker 1: Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf. Let's take a listen.

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Speaker 1: You'll can play and fiddle. Don't think you can make

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Speaker 1: me sore. I'll be safe and you'll be sorry when

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Speaker 1: the wolf comes to your door. Dackle, who the Fate

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Speaker 1: and a Big Dack Wolf. The song is never played

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Speaker 1: straight through in the film, but is instead delivered in

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Speaker 1: fragments in between moments of action. Despite this stop and

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Speaker 1: start presentation, the theme song struck a chord with American

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Speaker 1: movie goers and became a popular tune in its own right.

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Speaker 1: Even apart from the short. Released in the middle of

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Speaker 1: the Great Depression, the song and the film it belonged

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Speaker 1: to came to symbolize the optimism and resilience of the

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Speaker 1: American public, even when the big bad Wolf of economic

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Speaker 1: scarcity was pounding at their door. The success of the

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Speaker 1: song caught Disney studios off guard. It's hard to imagine

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Speaker 1: now and the era of Let It Go and we

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Speaker 1: Don't talk about Bruno. But back then, Animation had yet

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Speaker 1: to produce an original hit song. That changed with Who's

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Speaker 1: Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? As customers began storming

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Speaker 1: their local music stores in hopes of buying the sheet

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Speaker 1: music to play at home. This was such an unexpected

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Speaker 1: development that Disney musicians had to copy the words and

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Speaker 1: music directly from the screen in order to meet the

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Speaker 1: public demand as fast as possible. In the meantime, audiences

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Speaker 1: got their fix of the song by going to see

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Speaker 1: the short again and again. Three Little Higgs proved so

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Speaker 1: popular that it was often given top billing on theater marquees,

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Speaker 1: above the feature film it accompanied, which was originally a

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Speaker 1: baseball comedy called Elmer the Great. The shorts theatrical run

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Speaker 1: was repeatedly extended due to popular demand, often outlasting the

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Speaker 1: features that played in front of At one New York theater,

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Speaker 1: the manager famously modified the film's poster by adding little

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Speaker 1: beards to the pigs faces, which he would then make

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Speaker 1: longer each week. The short continued to run even after

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Speaker 1: months in theaters. People still couldn't get enough of the

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Speaker 1: Three Little Pigs. The popularity spurred an unprecedented amount of merchandise,

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Speaker 1: including storybooks, figurines, clocks, soap, and just about anything else

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Speaker 1: you could think of. Achieving yet another notable first, Three

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Speaker 1: Little Pigs became the first film to make more money

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Speaker 1: from merchandizing royalties than it did from ticket sales. Prospect

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Speaker 1: that did, Knee and other studios noted with great interest.

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Speaker 1: Aside from raking in a ton of cash, the short

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Speaker 1: also won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film

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Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty four, Three Little Pigs was a money

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Speaker 1: maker for everyone involved, so much so that theater owners

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Speaker 1: were quick to ask Walt Disney to make more shorts

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Speaker 1: featuring the characters. Walt was initially hesitant to return to

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Speaker 1: the well, reportedly rebuffing the request by saying, quote, you

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Speaker 1: can't top pigs with pigs. He would ultimately go back

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Speaker 1: on that mantra by producing not one, but three sequel shorts,

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Speaker 1: The Big Bad Wolf in nineteen thirty four, Three Little

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Speaker 1: Wolves in nineteen thirty six, and The Practical Pig in

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine. Though they were all modest successes in theaters,

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Speaker 1: none of those shorts matched the cultural relevance or staying

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Speaker 1: power of the original, proving that Walt was right to

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Speaker 1: begin with, you can't top pigs with pigs. I'm gay,

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Speaker 1: Bluesier and hopefully you now know a little more about

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Speaker 1: history today than you did yesterday. You can learn even

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Speaker 1: more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and

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Speaker 1: Instagram at T D I HC Show, and if you

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Speaker 1: have any comments or suggestions, please send them my way

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Speaker 1: at this day at I heart Media dot com. I'd

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Speaker 1: love to know your favorite part of Three Little Pigs

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Speaker 1: mine are the framed pictures hanging inside the brick house.

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Speaker 1: One shows a salve feeding several piglets and his labeled mother.

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Speaker 1: Another shows a football labeled uncle Otto, and two more

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Speaker 1: show a chain of sausage links and a hamhock, both

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Speaker 1: of which are labeled father. It's a decidedly dark visual

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Speaker 1: gag and an otherwise lighthearted short, you know, apart from

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Speaker 1: the anti semitism. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show,

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Speaker 1: and thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back

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Speaker 1: here again soon for another day in history class MHM