Production begins on Walt Disney's Darby O'Gill and the Little People - March 17th, 1958

On this day in 1958, production began on the live-action Disney film Darby O'Gill and the Little People.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio,
Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show that chases the rainbow of history every day of
the week. I'm Gabe Blusier, and on this Saint Patrick's Day,

(00:20):
we're tipping our hat to a lesser known Disney classic,
but feels right at home with the holiday. The day
was March seventeenth, nineteen fifty eight, production began on the
live action Disney film Darby o. Gill and the Little People.

(00:41):
Walt Disney had always wanted to make a movie about
Ireland and its folklore, lepre cons in particular. He began
developing one as early as nineteen forty five, and even
traveled to Ireland with a team of artists to gather
background material. Years later, while promoting Darby o. Gill, Walt
explained his fascination, saying, quote being half Irish myself, I

(01:05):
learned about the Leprekns of Ireland while I was still
a small boy on our farm at Marcelline, Missouri. I
began to believe in Leprekns then, because some of my
relatives had pretty convincing stories to tell about the magic
powers of these little people and the tricks they could
play when angry. Looking back, Walt's sudden claim to Irish

(01:25):
heritage seems a bit opportunistic, coming up only during the
publicity tour for his Very Irish film. However, his declaration
was rooted in truth, as his great grandfather, A Rundel
Elias Disney had immigrated to the US from Kilkenny, Ireland
in eighteen twenty three. That said, Disney didn't make a

(01:47):
movie about Leprekons solely to honor his family history. He
also recognized there was a built in audience for such
a film, namely Irish Americans. The intention to target that
democra graphic was made clear in a nineteen fifty nine
internal document from Disney's publicity department. When describing the plans

(02:07):
for the film's release, it says, quote, Unlike previous campaigns,
Darbio Gill will have a ready made market potential of
twenty million Irish Americans. Special attention will be paid to
these people with shamrocks in their eyes. Their numbers alone
could carry the picture to big box office earnings. By

(02:28):
nineteen forty eight, Walt had decided to base his film
on the Darbio Gill stories. Of Irish children's author Hermione
Templeton Cavanagh. Initially he planned to make a fully animated adaptation,
but by the end of the film's decade long development
process it had morphed into an all live action affair.

(02:48):
The change was largely inspired by the studio's recent success
with live action family films such as twenty Thousand Leagues
Under the Sea, Johnny Tremaine and Old Yeller. With the
help of some clever special effects, Disney would be able
to depict all the magic of Irish legends and live action,
and most importantly, he'd be able to do it on

(03:09):
a faster schedule and for much less money than if
he'd gone the animated route. Disney had the perfect director
for the job, too, British born filmmaker Robert Stephenson, the
man behind the highly acclaimed and highly traumatic Old Yeller.
Stevenson would go on to make many more Disney classics,
including nineteen sixty ones The Absent Minded Professor and nineteen

(03:32):
sixty four's Mary Poppins, but Darby O'Gill was a more
personal film for Stevenson. He was of Irish descent on
his mother's side and was well versed in leprekn lore.
In fact, Stephenson said that his grandmother would routinely leave
out a tiny jug of milk for any little people
who happened to pass by. She also kept a bucket

(03:52):
of water nearby, just in case any of the tiny
pranksters tried to play a trick on her. Because, of course,
as Stevenson explained, leprecons hate water, even for drinking. With
the film's medium decided, the script locked and the director
in place, Darby O'Gill and the Little People officially went
into production on Saint Patrick's Day, nineteen fifty eight. For

(04:16):
the uninitiated, the movie tells the story of Darby O'Gill,
the elderly caretaker of a grand estate owned by the
often absent Lord Fitzpatrick. A mischievous charmer with the gift
of gab, Darby often neglects his duties in favor of
telling tall tales about little people down at the local pub. However,

(04:36):
he's forced to take his job more seriously when a
young man named Michael McBride is sent to replace him.
He keeps that development a secret from his fiery daughter Katie,
but stumbles upon a possible solution when he manages to
capture Brian Connors, the real life King of the leprecons.
The King agrees to grant Darby three wishes in exchange

(04:58):
for his release, but the deal is complicated by the
bickering duo's repeated attempts to outwit each other. Will Darby
keep his job, Will King Brian keep his promise? Will
Katie and Michael fall in love? It's a Disney movie,
so you can probably guess. But the path to those
resolutions is so delightful and endearing that it's absolutely worth

(05:19):
the trip. Predictable or not. Walt Disney originally wanted Barry
Fitzgerald for the title role of Darby. However, that venerable
Irish star of the stage and screen was semi retired
by the late nineteen fifties and ultimately declined the offer,
so instead Walt turned to another veteran Irish actor, Albert Sharp.

(05:41):
He too was retired by the time Darby O'Gill went
into production, but he was such a fan of the
character and of Walt Disney that he agreed to come
out of retirement just to play the role. It's a
good thing he did, too, because Sharpe's portrayal equal parts
warm and wiley, is really the soul of the movie.
No matter how zany the story gets, Sharp's Darby keeps

(06:02):
the whole thing grounded, even when he's interacting with magical
knee high characters. Despite being fairly accurate in its depictions
of Irish myths and rural village life, Darby O'Gill was
shot entirely in California. Walt had briefly considered filming in Ireland,
but decided against it for budgetary reasons. In the end,

(06:23):
most of the exterior scenes were filmed at various movie
ranches throughout the Hollywood area, while the fictional village of
Rathcullen was built on a sound stage on Disney's studio
backlot in Burbank. The finished movie does include some second
unit footage shot in Ireland, which was later combined with
matt paintings by legendary artist Peter Ellenshaw to help sell

(06:45):
the illusion of nineteenth century Ireland. At one point in
the film's development, the twenty one inch high Leprechns were
going to be animated characters, which would allow them to
exist within the same frame as the live action sets
and actors. The final production took a different approach, though,
with the Leprecns being portrayed by real human actors as well.

(07:07):
The extreme height difference between the characters was achieved through
the use of forced perspective, a technique that alters the
viewer's perception of scale, making objects within a shot appear larger, smaller, farther,
or closer than they truly are. Let's use the movie's
most impressive sequence as an example. It takes place in
King Brian's throne room, deep within the Leprecon's secret cavern. There, Darby,

(07:33):
an average sized human, manically plays his fiddle while dozens
of Leprecons dance and cavort and ride tiny horses all
around him. Peter Ellenshaw and his special effects team were
able to seamlessly mix Darby and the Leprecns by blending
together two different shots, one in which Albert Sharpe was
positioned on a regular size set closer to the camera,

(07:55):
and one in which the LEPrecon players performed on an
oversize set with massive props four times further away from
the camera. Because two D cameras don't distinguish the true
distance between objects, the actors appear to be right next
to each other when the shots are overlaid. Of course,
that illusion required a lot of mathematical precision to determine

(08:19):
just the right perspective lines. Thankfully, that turned out to
be a piece of cake for the film's director, According
to Ellenshaw, quote being a mathematician and an extremely intelligent
man who used to read books on quantum theories and such,
it was quite simple for Bob to work out the
differences in perspective that we were playing with. Of course,

(08:40):
there's more to Darby Ogill than special effects and comedy.
It's got a fair bit of romance as well. The
couple at its center is Darby's daughter Katie O'Gill and
the replacement caretaker, Michael McBride. After an extensive casting tour
of Ireland in the UK, Walt Disney personally selected janetman
Rowe and Sean Connery for the roles. It was the

(09:03):
American film debut for both young actors, and it was
a somewhat difficult one for Connery as it called for
the Scottish actor to sing a duet with his co star.
It was later reported that Robert Stephenson considered dubbing another
singer over Connery's voice, but he ultimately decided against it.
I think he made the right choice and that Monroe's

(09:24):
voice more than makes up for Connery's shortcomings as a singer.
But hey, you can decide for yourself. Here's a clip
from Pretty Irish Girl. Oh she is my dear my
Darland won her eyes so sparkling, full of fun, No wander,
no wand can match the likes of her. Oh he
is my dear my darling. One his eyes so sparkling,

(09:46):
full of fun. No no, all that can match the
likes of him. Here's one. I love the gran my eye.
That recording was pretty much the start and end of

(10:07):
Sean Connery's singing career, but his performance in Darby O'Gill
actually helped his acting career quite a bit. According to Connery,
James Bond producer Albert Broccoli watched all kinds of films
while searching for the right actor to play the secret
agent Darby O'Gill and The Little People turned out to
be one of them, and when Connery came on screen,

(10:28):
Broccoli knew he had found his Bond. Jimmy o'd aka
King Brian was another actor who had hoped to use
Darby as a springboard to other Hollywood projects. He had
certainly earned the exposure after spending five months shooting tedious,
forced perspective scenes in a foreign country. Unfortunately, the beloved

(10:48):
Irish actor was denied his chance at international stardom due
to the film's rather unusual publicity campaign. Walt Disney thought
it would be fun to pretend that the Leprecons in
his movie were the real deal. He published all kinds
of material detailing the little people's involvement in the filmmaking,
including doctored photos of the Leprecons attending the movie's world

(11:09):
premiere in Dublin. If that weren't enough, Walt even produced
an episode of his anthology TV show in which he
traveled to Ireland to meet both Darby O'Gill and King Brian,
titled I Captured the King of the Leprecons. The behind
the scenes special claimed to show how Walt convinced the
real life little people to fly to Hollywood and appear

(11:31):
in his movie. Here's a clip good aiming your honor.
I brought mister Disney to see you, Sir Disney. I've
heard of the dailies, the Toppies, the tune Uns the
deb LUN's the Darnies, But Disney No, I don't know
any Disney, so good night tun Disney's fantasy was maintained
even in the film's opening credits, where an on screen

(11:53):
notice said, quote, my thanks to King Brian of knock
Nashiga and his leprechons, whose gracious cooperation made this picture possible,
Signed Walt Disney. Unfortunately, Disney carried things a bit too
far by leaving Jimmy o'dee's name off the film entirely
on screen, King Brian is credited as having played himself,

(12:16):
a concession to the idea that there were real leprechns
in the movie. Darby Ogill and the Little People began
production on Saint Patrick's Day, but it was actually released
in the middle of summer. The movie's world premiere took
place in Dublin, Ireland on June twenty fourth, nineteen fifty nine,
and two days later it held its American premiere at

(12:36):
Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Reviews for the film were
mostly positive, though it was only a modest success at
the box office. Those twenty million people with shamrocks in
their eyes never materialized. Plenty of research went into the
making of Darby Ogill, and for the most part, Ireland
and its traditions and legends are portrayed with respect and affection.

(12:59):
That the movie does included share of ugly Irish stereotypes,
many of which are personified by the film's antagonist, a drunken,
violent bully named Pony Sue Grew. At the time of
its release, though the public's main complaint, at least in
the US, was that they couldn't understand the character's Irish accents.

(13:19):
In response, Disney re released the film in nineteen sixty
four with many of the actors voices dubbed over, including
those of Albert Sharp and Jimmy O'd. I bring this
up because that dubbed version is the one that's most
accessible today, readily available for streaming on Disney Plus. The
service includes a content warning for the Irish stereotypes, but

(13:42):
there's no mention of the dubbing, which many might find
even more offensive. If that sounds like you, then I
recommend tracking down a copy of the movie on DVD
or Blu Ray, where the original nineteen fifty nine soundtrack
is still intact. Irish Brogue and all. I'm Gabe Bluesier
and hopefully you now know a little more about history

(14:05):
today than you did yesterday. If you have a second
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get in touch directly by writing to This Day at
iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show,

(14:27):
and thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back
here again soon for another day in History class.