The Mickey Mouse Theater of the Air
The Mickey Mouse Theater of the Air was a musical-variety radio series for children, sponsored by Pepsodent and heard on NBC on Sunday afternoons. Broadcast from the Disney Little Theater on the RKO lot from January 2 to May 15, 1938, the program was created to promote the February 1938 release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In addition to Snow White (January 9, 1938), other shows in the series included "Mother Goose Land," "Cinderella," "King Neptune," "The Pied Piper," "The Old Woman in the Shoe" and "Old MacDonald."
Voices
Walt Disney did the voice of Mickey Mouse for the first three episodes. Starting with the fourth episode, Mickey was voiced by comedian Joe Twerp. Disney appeared as himself in some early episodes. In later episodes, Disney was too busy to attend performances, and he was impersonated by announcer John Hiestan.[1] Radio actor J. Donald Wilson provided the voice for one episode.[2]
Other Disney characters featured on the program were Donald Duck (Clarence Nash), Minnie Mouse (Thelma Boardman), Goofy (Stuart Buchanan) and Clara Cluck (Florence Gill).
Music was provided by the Felix Mills Orchestra, Donald Duck's Swing Band and The Minnie Mouse Woodland Choir. The opening theme music was "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?", and the closing theme was "Heigh-Ho" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Episodes
- Robin Hood (January 2, 1938)
- Snow White Day (January 9, 1938)
- Donald Duck's Band (January 16, 1938)
- The River Boat (January 23, 1938)
- Ali Baba (January 30, 1938)
- South of the Border (February 6, 1938)
- Mother Goose and Old King Cole (February 13, 1938)
- The Gypsy Band (February 20, 1938)
- Cinderella (February 27, 1938)
- King Neptune (March 6, 1938)
- The Pied Piper (March 13, 1938)
- Sleeping Beauty (March 20, 1938)
- Ancient Egypt (March 27, 1938) (guest appearance by Snow White)
- Mother Goose and The Old Woman in a Shoe (April 3, 1938)
- Long John Silver (April 10, 1938)
- King Arthur (April 17, 1938)
- Who Killed Cock Robin? (April 24, 1938)
- Cowboy Show (May 1, 1938)
- William Tell (May 8, 1938)
- Old MacDonald (May 15, 1938)
Trivia
- Sing a Song of Sixpence is sung by Stuart Buchanan.
References
- ↑ Korkis, Jim (2014). The Book of Mouse: A Celebration of Mickey Mouse. Theme Park Press. ISBN 0984341501.
- ↑ Korkis, Jim. "A New Mouse Voice In Town by Wade Sampson". Mouseplanet. Retrieved 2016-08-16.