The Main Street Electrical Parade 2014

The Main Street Electrical Parade is a nighttime extravaganza in the Magic Kingdom that remains hands down my favorite Disney parade. The lively music, "Baroque Hoedown," provides a synthesized backdrop against which a succession of classic Disney tunes are played, and it is one of the show's strongest features. For many years the SpectroMagic parade made a passable showing in Walt Disney World, but its disappointing music consisted of many predictable orchestral swells in a major key and could never generate the same kind of excitement. Now the Electrical Parade is back with some alterations, of course, and I find myself remembering how this parade thrilled me as a teenager.

I don't pretend to be able to capture the wonder or the spectacle of the parade with a few random photos or video clips all taken toward the tail end. The thing really has to be experienced firsthand. I can provide only a taste.

Cinderella float

Cinderella float

Cinderella float

Cinderella float

Cinderella float

Midnight for Cinderella

Midnight

Save the clock tower!

Captain Hook and Peter Pan

Cinderella and Peter Pan Floats
The Main Street Electrical Parade

The Pete's Dragon float is a reminder that this parade had its origin in the 1970's.

Pete's Dragon Float

The last float

Note:  How did I spend my summer vacation? It's all here in my Disney World posts.

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Constantin Alajálov's Cinderella

Constantin Alajálov's illustrations for Alice Duer Miller's verse retelling of Cinderella (1943) were featured in Life magazine's issue of September 13, 1943. Life reported that Alajálov had considered a modern setting for his illustrations, but that proved unworkable. Instead he set his illustrations in the 1850's which is still a couple of centuries later than Charles Perrault's original version. Seven years after this book was published, Walt Disney was to release an animated feature of the fairy tale which was to become a classic in its own right.

Parts of the book now appear on Fulltable.com. It is especially good to see a few of the illustrations alongside the verses.

http://www.fulltable.com/vts/aoi/a/alajalov/s.htm

http://www.fulltable.com/vts/aoi/a/alajalov/s.htm

http://www.fulltable.com/vts/aoi/a/alajalov/s.htm

http://www.fulltable.com/vts/aoi/a/alajalov/s.htm

http://www.fulltable.com/vts/aoi/a/alajalov/s.htm

http://www.fulltable.com/vts/aoi/a/alajalov/s.htm

The Life magazine article appeared a couple of months before the book's release.

Life, September 13, 1943

http://books.google.com/books?id=cVAEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Cinderella+Life+Magazine&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uQqBU7mqGcuisQSi_YGABg&ved=0CF0Q6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=Cinderella&f=false

Life, September 13, 1943

http://books.google.com/books?id=cVAEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Cinderella+Life+Magazine&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uQqBU7mqGcuisQSi_YGABg&ved=0CF0Q6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=Cinderella&f=false

The shoe fits! Note also the ugliest evil stepfamily ever:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alice-Duer-Miller-Constantin-Alajalov-CINDERELLA-RETOLD-IN-VERSE-1943-/190990498559?nma=true&si=UB68sj2DvLx%252F9kdb54zXrlCgzYs%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Note:  I have an earlier post about Cinderella's slipper in the Disney version.

There's a lot more to read about Constantin Alajálov as well.

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Cinderella's Slipper

Try this on for size! Cinderella sure is lucky none of her evil stepsisters had tiny feet! This celluloid with original painted background was used in the creation of a lobby card promoting Walt Disney's "Cinderella" (1950). I'm not sure why you would reveal the ending to a movie in this way, but perhaps the audience was already familiar with the tale and needed to be reassured that Walt could provide a happy ending for poor Cinderelly.

Now I had always believed that the famous glass slipper (pantoufle de verre in French) resulted from a mistranslation of fur slipper (pantoufle de vair) when Charles Perrault's version of the fairy tale was published in English. I have now been set straight by snopes.com, a remarkably knowledgeable website which over the years has debunked every cherished urban legend I've ever sworn by. The glass slipper is indeed Perrault's own invention.

Walt Disney Studios, Cel and painted background of Cinderella and the Grand Duke, lobby card promotion for "Cinderella" (1950)
Sotheby's Paris
July 4, 2012

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/bande-dessine-comics/lot.94.html 

Walt Disney Studios, Cel and painted background of Cinderella and the Grand Duke, lobby card promotion for "Cinderella" (1950)
Sotheby's Paris Listing

July 4, 2012

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/bande-dessine-comics/lot.94.html 

Video Still from "Cinderella" Ending 1:09

Image added February 5, 2012

Walt Disney's "Cinderella" (1950) Ending

Video added February 5, 2012

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