DDDDD IIIII SSSS ''' ''' ''' DDDDD A TTTTT D D I S S ''' ''' n ''' D D A A T D D I S ' ' nnnnnn ' D D A A T D D I SSSS ' ' n n ' D D A A T D D I S n n D D AAAAAAA T D D I S S n n D D A A T DDDDD IIIII SSSS n n DDDDD A A T "All Disney news fitted to print" -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 2 Number 6 June 94 Edition --------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this issue...
In this column, DIS' 'n' DAT gives some more members of the FDC the
opportunity to tell the readership of this newsletter just who they
are and how they came rec.arts.disney in the first place.
Their responses, slightly edited, follow:
A little rabbit with a big mouth warmed the hearts of many theatre
goers in the early forties.
Known simply as Thumper, he stole the show in Walt Disney's _Bambi_.
Now, after fifty years, the bunny has decided to tell his life story
in a new autobiography published by DnD Books entitled "If You
Can't Say Somethin' Nice..."
Despite having been paid "scale" (Hollywood union term for
"minimum wage"), it was clear from the outset that his role in
_Bambi_ would lead the rabbit to bigger and better things.
Right after the film was released, Thumper got married to Angora, a
former receptionist at the Toon Town Hill Ton hotel.
They started a family quite quickly, and Thumper realized that he was
going to have to work on another film again.
The opportunity came in 1947.
The Disney studios were working on a series of shorts that were to be
released as the collection _Melody Time_.
Thumper auditioned and was offered a role in the sequence _Once Upon
a Wintertime_, having proven his ice-skating abilities in _Bambi_.
However, due to an apparent mixup in directions given to Thumper by
his agent, Thumper showed up at the wrong studio on the day of
filming, and he was replaced at the last minute by a bit-player who
worked on the Disney back lot.
Thumper angrily fired his agent over the mishap.
Discouraged, and having over 120 mouths to feed, Thumper looked for
work during the late forties and early fifties in Toon Town.
He appeared in a couple of Warner Brothers' shorts and in a Tom and
Jerry cartoon during this time.
Thumper was just another struggling actor looking for work.
One day, Thumper got an unexpected call from Walt Disney himself.
It seems that a clip from _Bambi_ where Thumper was teaching the
young prince how to ice skate was a real hit on the _Disneyland_
television show and drew thousands of letters requesting more from
Thumper.
Walt discussed with the rabbit his plans for a new television show to
combine live action and animation tentatively called "The Thumper
Show."
The show would focus on Thumper and members of his family (which
numbered over two hundred by this time), and would also feature some
talented human children which would be called "The Rabbit-Ears."
Thumper was actually responsible for hiring a cute little Italian
girl named Annette to appear on this show.
The Disney empire had grown by this time to include theme parks,
television shows, live action and animated films, and the time that
Walt could spend on any project was limited.
After he was busy working on a new theme park ride that would
eventually become The Matterhorn, another Toon was able to assert his
influence in the studio, and the focus of the television show was
changed from that of Thumper to Mickey Mouse.
Thumper tried to keep control of his show, but it became obvious that
he was too inexperienced in studio politics.
Mickey, on the other hand, started passing rumors of Thumper's
appearance in other studios' works, and possible affiliation with the
Communist party, and the rabbit found himself quickly black-balled
from the all the cartoon studios, including Disney's.
There was little work for Thumper for the next few years, and he
found it difficult to continue to support his still-growing family.
He turned to the bottle, and became a frequent visitor to the lounge
of Bugs Bunny's restaurant, "The Brown Doyby."
The gossip magazines soon heard of Thumper's plight, and soon
headlines reading "Ragged Rabbit Roused in Restaurant Ruckus"
appeared around the nation after Thumper was thrown out of the lounge
bodily for heckling a Mickey Mouse piano recital.
Thumper found his world collapsing.
After a few years of unemployment, Thumper received a knock on the
door of the flophouse where he was staying.
He was shocked to see that his caller was none other than Walt Disney
himself.
Disney apologized profusely for the hijacking of the television show
by Mickey, and promised to make it up by featuring Thumper in his next
animated feature.
Alas, during the filming of _The Jungle Book_, Mr. Disney passed
away, and the studio was in shock.
Mickey Mouse took this opportunity to have Thumper thrown from the
Disney lot, and instructed security to NEVER allow the bunny back in.
All of Thumper's scenes in the movie ended up on the cutting room
floor, and Thumper's role in the movie was given to a bear who, up
until that time, had only appeared in a movie in a bit-part in
_Bongo_.
The movie became a hit, and once again Thumper saw fame and fortune
fly away.
In 1967, Thumper left Toon Town and ended up in the San Francisco
during the famous Summer of Love.
Thumper does not recall much of what happened during the next few
years, except that he had done a lot of LSD, and he remembers waking
up in the pouring rain at Woodstock.
It is also rumored that Thumper's voice was used during the taping of
John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance."
During the seventies, Thumper attempted to put together a nightclub
act.
Despite a number of different singing partners, including his wife
Angora, his act never sustained enough interest from the general
public to be a financial success.
Returning to Hollywood, Thumper also attempted to get a part in a
television situation comedy, but was ultimately passed over for the
part of Mork by Robin Williams.
Despite these failures, Thumper never gave up and kept on trying.
Surprisingly, Thumper's next success occurred in a live action film.
During a trip to England, Thumper met an animator named Terry Gilliam
and ended up playing a small role in the cult hit _Monty Python and
the Holy Grail_.
Thumper's performance as the Killer Bunny earned him universal praise.
It was after this success that the Disney studio initiated a lawsuit
against Thumper, citing a clause in his contract that stated that the
rabbit could only work for Disney, and citing _Holy Grail_ and a few
of the shorts that Thumper did during the fifties.
Thumper eventually prevailed, and got the Disney studios to agree to
a more liberal contract, but the legal costs had devoured most of
the earnings that the bunny made from his live action hit.
He finally announced his retirement in 1984.
Thumper spent the next ten years locating and visiting all of his
offspring, which now numbered close to 1,000.
He set up the Thumper Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated
to finding work for unemployed Toon rabbits.
One of the Foundation's first successes came, surprisingly enough, to
Thumper's son Thaddeus, who landed a role in a commercial for
Energizer Batteries which is still running to this day.
Despite all his hardships, Thumper looks back upon his life with
fondness.
He is still married to Angora, one of the few Hollywood marriages to
last more than five years, let alone fifty.
Ironically, his legal fight with Disney turned up unexpected benefits.
With the new studio leadership, Thumper was able to perform a small
cameo appearance in his brother's film, _Who Framed Roger Rabbit?_
And when the film _Bambi_ was released on video, Thumper was the only
character that was entitled to receive residuals due to his
renegotiated contract.
FDC Column
The FDC is a growing group of people on rec.arts.disney that have dreams of
working for the Disney company in some capacity or another.
The FDC was founded to allow such people an opportunity to pretend
that they do work for the company that gave us Mickey Mouse,
Disneyland, and _The Little Mermaid_.
Recently, most FDC applicants are character walk-arounds, who assume
the role of their character quite literally in correspondence on rec.arts.disney.
Thumper Tells All
[Editor's Note: This is essentially a re-creation of one of the
"lost" installments of Martin Delaney's Toon Town series of
articles that were published in this newsletter last year.
The format of the article has been changed from Martin's first person
account.]