Michael Sporn Animation – Splog » Fantasia Program recap

- Back in the olden days, films were released very differently.

It wasn’t until the early 60′s that an important film opened at more than one theater in a town/city. (I can remember that United Artists package of ten films that first did this. It included: To Kill A Mockingbird, Dr. No, and A Hard Day’s Night. Even then we were talking about 60 theaters – not 3000.)

Before then, in New York City, key films opened on Broadway, and you had to buy reserved seat tickets in advance to see it. The film would play at the one theater for a month or two and then move onto more theaters locally around town.

I can remember the trip to see How The West Was Won, The Tales of The Brothers Grimm, Lawrence of Arabia, and others.

With this higher priced film presentation, you were given a small booklet or you could buy the deluxe souvenir booklet. In 1963, I found this deluxe booklet for the initial premiere of Fantasia. I bought it from a used-book dealer while I was still in college. The film has no credit list; you have to consult the program to get that.

This past week, I watched Fantasia again and used the program to read some credits. That’s when I thought it might be interesting to feature the booklet on this site.