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New Directions. Measured by his social impact, Walt Disney is one of the most influential men alive. He has pushed the bedtime stories of yesteryear, the myths that all former races of men teethed on, off the nursery shelf, or amalgamated them into a kind of mechanized folklore. It's Walt Disney's Snow White now, and Walt Disney's Cinderella. The 20th century has brought forth a new Mother Goose, or, rather, a Father Goose. The hand that rocks the cradle is Walt Disney's—and who can say what effect it is having on the world?
Last week, moreover, there were four major pieces of evidence that Walt Disney is dramatically enlarging his sphere of influence. Items:
¶ With a bang that blew Wednesday night to kingdom come for the two major networks, Disney burst into television. Nine weeks ago Disney's first program, an hour-long (Wed. 7:30-8:30, ABC) flight on electronic wings over the panorama of Disneyland's coming attractions, won a phenomenal Nielsen rating of 41, was watched by some 30.8 million people, and, as ABC's President Bob Kintner put it, "cut Godfrey, the best in the business, down to size." In the next two months Disney was never out of the "first ten." ABC believes that "Disney has the biggest family audience in show business today."
¶ In 60 big movie houses all over the U.S. this week, Disney is offering a major effort in "live action," a $4,200,000 production of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, starring Kirk Douglas as the harpooner and James Mason as the sinister Captain Nemo. The picture has its faults, but they are not the kind that will make Disney any box office trouble.
¶ Disney's first full-length nature films, The Living Desert (which cost $300,000) and The Vanishing Prairie ($400,000), are bulling toward world grosses of $5,000,000 and $4,000,000 respectively. And all over the world, holiday revivals of old Disney favorites are flourishing. In Rio de Janeiro six movie houses are running a seven-day Festival do Disney, and the main department stores have based their Christmas decorations on Disney characters. Said one merchant: "Disney will soon be to us what Santa Claus is to the U.S."