The History of Disney’s Craziest Premiere: The Pinocchio Incident 

Okay, there may be a few small mistakes I made in the video that I want to quickly correct here. 1. Walt Disney may have attended in more premieres to his movies than just Snow White and Mary Poppins, including Bambi. Still, it was relatively rare to see him show up during those events. 2. The Wizard of Oz was not a box office success on its initial release. The movie itself didn't become profitable until its 1949 re-release. However, it still contributed to the little people phenomenon at the time with the influence of the Munchkins. Just wanted to make these clarifications and apologize for any little inaccuracies in the video. I still hope you enjoyed it because this was still something I've worked hard on and was very excited to get back to making more history videos again.

Rafiki: “Oh yes, the past can hurt. But the way I see it you can either run from it, or learn from it.”

This story is absolutely BONKERS! The could've saved themselves the trouble and just offered these people water, soda, sandwiches and chips. If this happened today, someone at Disney definitely would've gotten fired. Glad you shared this story Mat

They went through all of that, only for Pinocchio to be a box office bomb. That's the real irony

That was definitely one of the most insane moments in Disney marketing

Hearing this story, suddenly that scene in Dumbo with the clowns getting rowdy with champagne and Dumbo and Timothy accidentally getting drunk when consuming some of it hits differently now. I think we now know the REAL source of inspiration for the clowns… not the animators going on strike, but the little people who were hired to dress as Pinocchio at the premiere.

I could just imagine the chaos and sheer horror of the parents as there kids kept saying “mommy look little naked dancing people!”

i feel so bad for those drunk castmembers, hot ass day, gross costumes, nothing but alcohol and not a crum of food

0:37 I love how Walt is just standing there like "Ugh... I'm so f_cking tired" before realizing he's being recorded and smiles at the camera

The movie scared the hell out of me when I was a kid, the Pleasure Island and Monstro scenes especially, I’d have recurring nightmares of me, my siblings, and cousins being turned into donkeys and shipped off in crates.

I remember when I was a baby, we went to see a re-release of “Pinocchio” in 1978 with a holiday short “The Small One” which was a new Christmas cartoon. Both of them were good, and by the time when “Pinocchio” was re-released, no alcohol, no drugs, no kidnapping, nothing. That was at the time disco was at its peak.

The Disney company is far too cowardly to celebrate their CRAZY history

And the moral of this story is, do not hire little people to dress around in costumes to promote a movie on the day of its premiere and not give them a lunch with drinks that have alcohol.

Disney Pinocchio fun facts: Pleasure Island was once known as "Bogeyland," comparable to "Sillyland." Historian JB Kaufman explains the original thought process, saying, "They were thinking, what would this place be like? A place all the kids could do things they weren’t allowed to do elsewhere." Carney also sheds light on some of the darker themes in Pleasure Island, like when the kids become donkeys. "For every action, there is a penalty. It’s very dark if you think about it...Walt didn’t really think animated films were for kids... [they're] really for everybody," he says. And there's more where that came from The wave effects took massive amounts of strategy. Kaufman says "black, the negative, was exposed to represent the light patterns you’d see on the floor of the ocean." Then, for the waves, "blue construction paper and shading was done individually for each frame," he explains. There's also a multiplane effect, "where the tone of the water would be different in the foreground than it was in the background." He guesses about six animators worked on that scene alone, which is on screen for just over four seconds.

WHO GIVES ALCOHOL TO SMALL PEOPLE DRESSED AS PINOCCHIO?! The STORY IS INSANE!

My God, even before everyone saw the movie for the first time, the little people metaphorically turned into donkeys after drinking alcohol.

Further, Disney have never acknowledged this incident.

This story is one of those things where you wouldn’t be surprised if it either was or wasn’t real. We know the Pinocchios were real, and it wouldn’t surprise me that people could drink on the job back then.

There are some very serious doubts as to the actual story; one newspaper reported that Disney had "Hired a bunch of Toughs from Hell's Kitchen" to play Pinocchio, and they just got bored "playing" and decided to take off their costumes (not their clothes) and play craps on the marquee instead. Not as funny, but sounds like something that could happen. The Dwarf story comes from David Niven's memoirs; titled "Bring on the Empty Horses." he also referred to it in a 1975 interview. This is how he recounts it in the book: "Walt Disney's publicity department had their problems too. For the opening of Pinocchio in New York it was decided to hire eleven midgets, dress them in Pinocchio costumes and have them gambol about on top of the theater marquee on opening day. Food and light refreshments in the shape of a couple of quarts of liquor was passed up to the marquee top at lunch time, and by three o'clock in the afternoon a happy crowd in Times Square was treated to the spectacle of eleven stark naked midgets belching loudly and enjoying a crap game on the marquee. Police with ladders removed the players in pillow cases." Niven had a well-deserved reputation as a raconteur and storyteller; exaggeration was a constant theme in most of his tales of Hollywood. Not out of any malice--just a desire to "tell a good Story." But very likely this was in fact a story. I can find NO definitive statements that anything of the sort ever happened. However, the story of the Hell's Kitchen actors does appear in several newspapers of the time.

There’s so much you just weren’t able to fit into your Animation Lookback video for the sake of time. But it makes you wonder why they never saw how this could backfire.

We need a film about this 😂😂😂

If I worked at Disney, I would suggest we made a film about this instead of the live action remake...

Wow! that's the most shocking story I have ever heard Animat!

When animat does a better job of teaching not to do alcohol better than any psa could

You scared the sh*t out of me with that tense moment

Even back then Pinocchio caused a lot of activity XD

0:59 Ah yes, and there's my sleep paralysis demon and his wife 💀. Seriously, those old costumes of the Fab Five will ALWAYS be cursed nightmare fuel to me. And coincidentally, Guillermo del Toro's version of Pinocchio also had its premiere in NYC! But that aside, as a New Yorker, I always appreciate when people talk about the rich and unique history of NYC. It's definitely not a perfect city, but that doesn't change the fact its history makes the city stand out! Another bit of NYC history that I like to talk about: why Houston Street is pronounced HOW-stun street. Houston in Texas was named after Sam Houston, who was the seventh governor of Texas. While Houston Street in Manhattan was named after William Houstoun (yes, with another u), who was delegate to the Continental Congress for the Province of Georgia and later the State of Georgia to the United States Constitutional Convention in 1787. However, being a Revolutionary War patriot wasn't what got the street named after him, but rather who he married. The land that's now the Lower East Side and SoHo was once a farm owned by the Bayards. William married Mary Bayard. Her father decided to turn the western part of the farm (now SoHo) into a grid. They were named after Revolutionary War generals, but Mary wanted one named after William (who wasn't a general) just because.

Wow! Now I see one of the reasons why Disney use animatronic for small peoples.

As a person with dwarfism who is a big fan of Disney - this is one of my favorite facts to pull out when I am talking to someone

Until AniMat showed the picture of the little people on the roof of the theater I was struggling to believe this story really happened.

4:21 Wizard of Oz actually was not a box office hit when it first came out.

This does a better job than any PSA to say that I shouldn’t drink.

11:20 WHAT??? OH NOO!!! PILLOW CASES???? RUN FOR YOUR LIVES PEOPLE THEY ARE DANGEROUS, AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW! I heard some crazy stories about The Walt Disney Company before, but this story just doesn't take the cake, it takes the whole bakery! 🤯

I wanted to say thanks for having me help with this project. It was a lot of fun to help with the research. 😊

18:16 What Pinocchio does at the end is a wise decision. This story is one of the many reasons why I feel sympathy for people with dwarfism and why I will never drink alcohol.

A modern Pinocchio video that DOESN’T have about half of it being where you bash on the remake? I never thought I’d see the day!

Man did anyone ever just think I dont HAVe SOME FREAKING WATER BOTTLES HANDY???

Like Bruno, it's best not to talk about it.

and i though that the snow white party was crazy LOL

they need to make this into a movie

I like seeing the little moment before Walt smiles. A little glimpse of him not being "on".

You do make a good point; those who don't learn history are doomed to repeat it. Try explaining that to the GOP, and like you said, they'll call you "woke" and other derogatory terms.

When Woke people CAN recognize that the differences in others are Harmless I'll be more accepting of them. Currently I see far too many people who will stand on a soap box and speak out against a wrong and then the moment that the world isn't watching them they will cut loose with some of the most hatful words and most violent actions and they feel justified in this because the person they are attacking is bad in there minds. Woke people also, while wanting good things, will fail to consider the consequences of what they are asking for. They ask for things that SOUND good on the surface. But when you look at it deep down, are not good. They also frequently put all there effort in attacking some thing that is not the cause of the problem and asking for a solution that will not resolve the issue. Or they will offten place the very same punishment on others that they them selves just fought against.

This just reminded me to actually go watch ur Disney history vids

Meanwhile coachman is waiting to turn them into donkies

Where is the Event Organizer and the Food Supplier ?! Are they lack of them during the event ??

Funny thing is the first time I ever heard about this story was about 2 weeks ago, when I saw that photo of the Pinocchios on the marquee

Some how in 1941 It was the first Disney Moviet to win 2 competitive Oscars for both Maui. Topics

I legit forgot that this story happened a while back.

Thank goodness that i don't drink alcohol since i am a clean guy. Hope this incident never again

Wow im glad you beated defuntland on this one

Before the Pinocchio trilogy, there was this XD

At least they weren't doing cocaine.

This vid made me learn to never mess with people that are shorter and should appreciate the great things they could do as actually people. In short, the towns people in 1939's Wizard of oz should probably never use the M word nowadays.

I'm a light drinker and a six foot tall person myself............but my god. My.........god. This sounds like one of the most insane premiere stories in history, even for one as beloved as Disney.

I feel like it might not have happened. Giving people alcohol instead of water feels like one of the stupidest mistakes a company could make. That and alcohol is more expensive than water. So if you’re trying to save money, you would give someone plain water.

This story is... Is really something.

To think you would've gotten that info from Disney Dan, He actually made a whole video of that incident too. Then again to give you credit, I felt like I learn more about alcohol then I did in science class. To say In your words (With a few alterations) "I don't know about you, but your video here does a better job then any school campaign to tell me I should never Drink." But it goes to show the 40s were really the time period when people did whatever they want, racist jokes, humor that are more outdated then funny, and consume whatever they like.

I actually heard about this already. It was a few years ago when I saw a much shorter video from Disney Dan about this topic. But you really knocked it out of the park, maybe because your video runs fifteen minutes longer than his video, you were able to add more information than he ever could about this.

Despite a massive box office bomb during it's initial release, and it’s crazy premiere incident, in my heart, Pinocchio is better than Snow White, as if, it was artistic and technical groundbreaking of it's time, and felt that the story and character development looked more complex than Snow White's. This is why Pinocchio is always be my favorite movie from Disney Animated Canon, and yes, I respect y'all's opinions about this movie.

I never heard of this before until now.

And this is manly why I don’t drink alcoholic drinks.

Walt (after the premire): WHO DID IT??? WHY'D THEY DO IT??

Why did they only had alcohol?

Give a lil whistle and always treat your people with more than beer!

FATHER, when can I leave to be on my own? I've got the whole world to see!

Another crazy story I know is when they sent an ambassador to Russia, while communism was a thing without a visa, and she was put under armed guard for hours thinking she was gonna get oofed off bc Disney refused to have the Russian president at their park

What I don't get is why they didn't have any water. I mean don't movie theaters have drinking fountains

Why would they give alcohol? To little people

Disney gone *WILD*

The ironic thing is that Walt Disney, his wife and all of the animators did stayed at the hotel and celebrated by drinking alcohol after the big success of Snow White and the seven dwarfs. But even that one went chaotic when the animators were having too much fun. As principal scudworth said it best. Principal Scudworth: Those lovable scamps. They’re rioting at the college level!

Do more Animation History Videos! They are facinating!

I would have laughed if something like this happened for the live action remake had it been released in theaters.

You should make a video about Bobby Driscoll

Huh, wow, this was a very interesting Story, very unexpected and not so much at the same time, I wonder what other Hidden Stories there is?

Yes! More history videos!

Correction: Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs came out in 1937, not 1938.

Ideas for future editorials History of Frozen History of Live-action Transformers History of Sonic the Hedgehog movies

If I were alive at the time and went to that party, I would've brought water with me lol

The energy in this vid is a lot…

Thank goodness, another history video. If I didn't get one on time, I would've had to watch Family Guy

Well, that's one piece of history that'll be difficult to forget. But in all seriousness, that was a fascinating editorial and you do have a good point about why we shouldn't be prejudiced against people by their appearance.

Another good video! If AniMat can make a "Top 20 video and playlist" for "(His personal favorite(s)) Walt Disney Animation Studios Films", then I'm going to keep supporting his own work.

Holy crap I had no idea about this, the way these little people were treated is just so frustrating as if they werent human beings

Adding that to the list of places I would go if I ever acquire a time machine...

0:51 Dopey looks creepy as hell.

I personality never drink alcohol 🍷.

Yep alcohol. Causes nothing but problems.

17:06: Oh hai Duke!

I can't help it but I keep thinking about that scene in "A Christmas Story" during the parade when the flying monkeys from Wizard of Oz scurry around Mickey Mouse and leave him PO'ed...😂😆

Disneys Pinnochio is a classic

...huh. ...and yet, people wonder why Disney hated unions, even though a union could've prevented this. As for David Niven, he's appeared in Candleshoe and No Deposit, No Return in the '70s. One of them's a good movie. Both are, depending on your tastes. (I had to watch 66 out of 77 live-action Disney films of the Dark Ages, because somebody had to, so we know when Disney got back on its feet. My answer is 1982, the year of Tron.)

I actually heard all about this story in the Carthay Circle Restaurant at California Adventure. Which itself is named after the iconic golden age Hollywood theater where the premiere of Snow White took place.

while it was a major contribution to the little person phenomenon, i feel it should be noted that almost all of the little people actors hired for wizard of oz were completely happy with their time on the set. it was the largest hiring in history and often the first time many of them had met a substantial number of their fellow little people, people who understood what it was like and had similar experiences. many of them even found boyfriends, girlfriends or future spouses thanks to the casting of the film. so while it did cause problems, it also was a surprising source of understanding and bright spot in many lives.

I never knew Walt Disney's Pinocchio opening was this very weird and crazy as the history of this moment is something that needs to be remembered as Disney's craziest and oddest moment in their history regarding movies. Nice video and you learn something new everyday. 🎥 🎨 🎉🍷

This is why I never drink alcohol

Now that is crazy. I guess real life can be stranger then fiction at time. Maybe they should've given them Water or even Soda instead of Alcohol. That way they would've been hyper instead of drunk and things probably would've been better.

Elf teach me I should stereotype little people like that

Me Before Watching: Why is Wee Man on the thumbnail? Me After: Oh. Okay.