A Question For Walt Era Fans

[carolinakid]

I was just curious and interested:
If you could go back in time and experience the Walt era personally, which decade would you choose?

1920-1929
1930-1939
1940-1949
1950-1959
1960-1969

Please take into consideration also what was happening in the world, the fashions, the non-Disney films, the TV shows, the music, Broadway, sports and anything else that might affect your response besides the Disney films themselves. Thanking you in advance and I look forward to reading your choice.

For me, although I’d be thrilled to experience any decade when Walt Disney was alive, I’d have to choose 1950-1959.
I’d love to have seen , first run on the big screen, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty as well as Treasure Island and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
On TV there was Disneyland, Walt Disney Presents and the Mickey Mouse Club, as well as my favorite all time show, I Love Lucy.
On Broadway, The King and I, Kismet, The Pajama Game, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, The Music Man, Flower Drum Song, Gypsy and The Sound of Music among others.
I love early rock and roll and doo wop so the radio would have been great.
The opening and early years of Disneyland of course. I would have found a way to get to Anaheim from the east coast!
The only drawback naturally would be that my boyfriend and I would still be very much closeted, living together as 2 bachelors to the rest of the world but for me it would be worth it to experience this Disney decade. And of course, I wouldn’t know what I was missing to be out and proud so I could have survived ok...

Now it’s your turn....

Oh, honorable mention for me would be 1960-1969.
My least favorite choice would be 1920-1929, although I love the music, especially the Charleston!

[Farerb]

I'd choose the '50s and the '60s.

[Sotiris]

The '50s for me too.

[Disney Duster]

It has to be the '50s for me. I would love to see my favorite film of all time, Cinderella, on the big screen, the way it was meant to be seen, with the right colors and all. I would also love living in the era for a lot of what carolinakid said. I would love watching I Love Lucy, West Side Story, Gypsy, and the Julie Andrews-starring My Fair Lady! I would also get to see the Julie Andrews-starring original Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella in color! I would enjoy the music and true 1950's diners and soda shops. I would have to be in the closet, and maybe never find other gay men, but oh well. I would love the happy, bourgeois feel of the time, that's mostly what I seek other than Cinderella. And TV dinners! And men in briefs and speedos! Lol.

[PatchofBlue]

The '50s had a really solid run for Disney, and it's my favorite decade for classical Hollywood in general. Alice in Wonderland is the only one I'm really indifferent to (and heaven knows I might actually feel different if I give it another viewing one of these days). Not to mention it'd be nice to see all of these films with the emergence of Disneyland as a backdrop.

One could also make a case for the '30s to be around for Snow White, and the '60s for The Jungle Book as a farewell to Walt.

[carolinakid]

Enjoying all your responses!

Duster, I didn’t know you were a Broadway baby like me!

I agree with Patch about all the great Hollywood movies released in the ‘50s.
A few of my favorites that I would love to see on the big screen:
All About Eve
Summer Stock
Singin’ in the Rain
Judy’s A Star Is Born
10 Commandments
Ben Hur
A Streetcar Named Desire
and so many more.

I also would have loved to see (and collect) all the original merch associated with the Disney classics of the 1950s.

[Vlad]

Well for me, I would have to chose 2 timeframes, 1930-1939, and 1950-1959. First, I would love to experience Snow White during the premiere in 1937. To see the audience's reaction to the first full-length animated movie. And see how they cheered it at the ending. Not to mention, that 1939 was a great year for the movies, with The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

And 1950-1959, because I think it was the period in which the Disney studio was the most creative. Also, some of the best movies came out during that decade, including, but not limited to All About Eve, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Ben-Hur, and The Ten Commandments. It was also the period when one of the best sitcoms ever had its debut.

[carolinakid]

Thanks, Vlad. I truly love your answer!

[Avaitor]

Personally, I like living in this particular time period. I like having access to most of the movies from this era at the ease of clicking onto Disney+ or pulling out my collection.

That said, I would be interested in seeing the earliest days of Disneyland and the potential of walking into Walt at the park. For that, I'm interested in the 50's and 60's.

[Marce82]

Disney film wise, I think it would have been interesting to be there between 1937 and 1942, to watch those first five features and experience what the audience felt. But then... who wants to live through WW2??

So I guess I would also say the 50's... nice time (unless you not a white, cisgender male)... and like many here have said here, it was their most prolific period, with a really polished look to their films.

That said, I am very happy I was a child in the 90s and I could experience the renaissance as it was happening.

[Farerb]

This was exactly my thoughts regarding the '30s and '40s.

And yes, in the end I'm happy to be a child in the '90s, which was one of Disney's (and Cinema's) best periods. Kids today don't know what they're missing.

[Disney Duster]

Yes, carolinakid, I love Broadway!

I also would get to see Sunset Boulevard if I lived in the '50s. And apparently it was possible to find other gay men. And I would also love to collect that awesome Cinderella merch!

Good answers Vlad and Marce82 about being there for those amazing first five features and seeing how the world reacted to them!

But like some of you also have said, living in the '90s as a kid and living now as and adult is truly the best. We got to see the Renaissance and great merchandise for the past and present films, and now we are getting all the films to watch whenever we want!

[Vlad]

Definitely. having these movies in my collection and getting to watch them whenever I feel like it is awesome. But then again, back in those days, when you only got the chance to see them in theaters, I imagine how much you would anticipate them. You would see the trailers and spots on TV, and ads in newspapers and magazines, the poster billboards all over town etc. That would increase the excitement.

[carolinakid]

Exactly, Vlad.

I’m old enough to remember the trailer at the end of every Disney Sunday night program and running through the house screaming to no one in particular....
“Snow White is coming back!”
“Mary Poppins is coming back!”
“The Aristocats is coming back!”
etc.

Do you think my parents had a clue I was gay?

And that’s another lost art. I used to have a big spiral notebook where I would cut out from the newspaper and use my glue stick to save EVERY Disney Film newspaper ad, especially the big ads on Friday which was opening day. I still have that notebook in a box somewhere in the basement. I remember the first ad I saved was a Christmas rerelease of Lady and the Tramp. I would have been around 12 and in the 6th grade.

[Disney's Divinity]

I haven't read all of the posts, so may post again later when I have the time. The era I would've chose to live in was the '60s. One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone. Plus, the culture in general at the time would've been fun to live through (music and so on).

The '40s would have been my second choice, those were Walt's best works, I suppose, they were more raw and powerful. And plus the studio had grown even greater since SW as far as animation, talent, etc.

[carolinakid]

Great answers, Div!

[Disney Duster]

What a sweet story, carolinakid.

[carolinakid]

Thanks, Duster. Retelling it brought back a lot of happy memories. Although I never officially told them and they never said anything, I’m sure they had to know I was gay. All they gave me was love and support until the day they died and they were both devoutly religious. They absolutely followed Our Lord’s threefold commandment of love.

[Disney Duster]

That's very nice to hear, carolinakid.

[Disney's Divinity]

It's funny reading through all the My Fair Lady comments because I watched it only a week or two ago when it aired on TCM, I think. I remember thinking it's a movie that I find I develop a more positive feeling for the more I see it. I think the first time I saw it, despite the fact I like Audrey Hepburn very much (she is an inspiration for Anita in Dalmatians from the decade I chose, after all ), I didn't really get what all the fuss over the movie is about. I think this past watch was the second or third time I'd seen it, and I liked it much more than I had in the past. I ended up tearing up a little at the ending scene, the way Higgins covers his face with his hat. I think I mostly had the urge to see it again because I wanted to see the early scenes (when Hepburn has the horrible voice, lol) again + I'd watched an episode of The Carol Burnett Show not long ago where there was a skit of Vicki Lawrence in a motherly costume singing "Get [Her] to the Church On Time" operatic that was so funny that got the melody stuck in my head. I don't know how old Higgins is supposed to be in the musical, but I almost wish the movie could've been made when Tillerson was a little younger. I've seen other movies of him where he looks much more handsome than he did in MFL (Blithe Spirit, for one example). I don't dislike May-December romances though; I love the Streisand version of Hello, Dolly!, for example.

But I'm with Avaitor, Sicoe, and Marce82, I like living in a time where we have access to so many great films from decades past to sort through.

Disney film wise, I think it would have been interesting to be there between 1937 and 1942, to watch those first five features and experience what the audience felt. But then... who wants to live through WW2??

Yes, exactly! That's the main reason I wouldn't pick it over the '60s myself.

I'm also glad to have grown up when the Renaissance was happening, and those films were at their height in merchandise / attention. It was a blessing, definitely.