This interview, conducted by David Tietyen while researching his book The Musical World of Walt Disney (Harry N. Abrams, 1990), was transcribed by Andy Wakeley.
[The first question asked by David Tietyen and the beginning of Jim Macdonald’s answer were lost.]
Jim Macdonald: [ . . . ] the six tracks of the theatre, and just let them run. These things would start heterodyning themselves, and a couple of the mixers started to get ill. I don’t know what it did to the paying public when they went in, but it didn’t bother me. But [the sound mixers] had to leave the theatre, because these frequencies were getting to them. I felt like I had great power. I felt like the mad professor, like a [mock evil laughter]. Here I had something that would make folks sick; you weren’t supposed to get sick. But that worked out so well. Oh, it was a great sound. I had that on a piece of tape, too.
David Tietyen: Yours is kind of a fun area to be into. Was Walt involved?
JM: Walt was not involved, but he liked sound effects. He used to love to come down and bring visitors. I was on stage and we were doing effects, and he’d bring some of his guests down. […]
