Walt and Mrs. Disney walked out of a motion picture theater on Larchmont Avenue in Hollywood and crossed the street to their parked automobile.
They found the car, a small coupe that had seen better days and many of them. Walt jerked off his hat and necktie and tossed them into the automobile. He stretched his released throat luxuriously and rumpled his hair. Disney was himself again! He flashed Mrs. Disney a quick smile of satisfaction.
The smile would have proved one thing to anyone who has worked with Walt: that he had not been to see a Disney picture previewed. After such previews he never smiles; and if he laughs it is the wild laughter of a desperate man. And the pity of it all, he will explain, is not that the picture was bad, but that he and his staff who failed so miserably are the same people who will make all his other pictures. Sad, isn't it?
Walt opened the door of the coupe and Mrs. Disney stepped in. He didn't close the door. He had seen something. He had vanished. Mrs. Disney looked out and saw him standing with his face pressed against the window of a pet shop. She clicked the light switch, yawned, and settled herself for an uncomfortable half-hour with the evening paper. Walt never passes up a pet shop.
Before going to bed, Walt waded through a pile of National Geographies, blew the dust off several volumes of the encyclopedia, and said, "What?" every time Mrs. Disney spoke or coughed.
By three in the morning, Mrs. Disney had learned about penguins from Walt.
To wit:
Penguins are nearly perfect cartoons of human beings both in characteristics of personality and appearance. They are fickle, brave, vain. They have tremendous bumps of curiosity and have a highly developed mob instinct.
They are little Charlie Chaplins. Walt thinks Charlie Chaplin and penguins are swell.
A penguin proposes by offering his ladv love a pretty stone. If she loves him, she accepts the stone; if she doesn't, she kicks it in his face. Penguin gold-diggers accept stones from all the boys and sometimes get enough stones this way to build their nest and feather it. Penguin parents leave their offspring with the old folks, while they go out to gad about.
These odd little web-footed birds toboggan on their breasts and ski by sliding down snowbanks standing up.
They steal from each other. They fight a la Punch and Judy. A husband will fight for the honor of his wife and, at the same time, carry on a clandestine affair with some other fellow's wife.
Before going into the water, the penguin colony pushes in one of its fellows. If a shark doesn't gobble up the martyr, then they all dive in. Nize Babies!
"Peculiar Penguins" will be released in June. Practically everybody, except Walt, will think that it's a first-class Silly Symphony.
