Disney Facts! Volume 2

Facts 271-300: Lady & The Tramp Themed Page

For this is the night, it's a beautiful night! ;)

It's time for some Lady & The Tramp folks! 

Fact #271
Hiring Peggy Lee arguably was the first instance of a superstar voice being used for an animated film.

Fact #272
The film's opening sequence, in which Darling unwraps a hat box on Christmas morning and finds Lady inside, is reportedly based upon an actual incident in Walt Disney's life. After he'd forgotten a dinner date with his wife, he offered her the puppy-in-the-hat box surprise and was immediately forgiven. 

Fact #273
Before animating the fight between Tramp and the rat, animator Wolfgang Reitherman kept rats in a cage next to his desk to study their actions.

Fact #274
Barbara Luddy was nearly 50 when she voiced the young Lady.

Fact #275
At the time of its release, this was the highest grossing Disney cartoon since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. 

Fact #276
Peggy Lee later sued Disney for breach of contract claiming that she still retained rights to the transcripts. She was awarded $2.3m, but not without a lengthy legal battle with the studio which was finally settled in 1991.

Fact #277
A model of the inside of Jim Dear and Darling's house was built as a guide for staging.

Fact #278
Darling's real name is never used, even her friends call her "darling" at the baby shower. It is unclear if that's her name or an endearment.

Fact #279
The film's setting was partly inspired by Walt Disney's boyhood hometown of Marceline, Missouri.

Fact #280
A 1940 script introduced the twin Siamese cats. Eventually known as Si and Am, they were then named Nip and Tuck.

Fact #281
As the story was being developed at the studio, Ward Greene wrote a novelization. Walt Disney insisted that this be released some two years before the film itself to give audiences time to familiarize themselves with the plot.

Fact #282
Verna Felton, who voices Aunt Sarah, is the mother of actor Lee Millar, who provided the voice of Jim Dear.

Fact #283
The original story was created by Joe Grant while Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was nearing post-production. Ward Greene used Joe Grant's original version as the basis for his novel. Greene's novel was still being written while the film was still in production. Grant's wife was said to have been angry over the story being "stolen" but Walt Disney maintained all legal rights to the story.

Fact #284
In 1937, story man Joe Grant approached Walt Disney with some sketches he had made of his Springer spaniel called Lady. Disney really liked the sketches and told Grant to put them into a storyboard. However, Disney ultimately didn't think much of the finished storyboard. Six years later, he read a short story in Cosmopolitan by Ward Greene called 'Happy Dan the Whistling Dog'. He was sufficiently interested in the story to buy the rights to it. Then in 1949, after Joe Grant had left the studio, his spaniel drawings were unearthed and a solid story using his designs started to take shape. Grant never received any acknowledgement for his contribution to the film until the Platinum Edition DVD in 2006.

Fact #285
In the 1999 video release, some scenes had pieces of dialogue missing that had been part of the original theatrical release. This was believed to be caused by the studio restoration process that incorporated both US and international formats of the film, which inadvertently created a hybrid version. Disney often produces different international and foreign versions of their films to make the foreign dialogue fit.

Fact #286
CinemaScope presented some new problems for the animators. The wider canvas space made it difficult for a single character to dominate the screen, and groups had to be spread out to keep the screen from appearing too sparse.

Fact #287
The decision to film in Cinemascope was made when the film was already in production, so many background paintings had to be extended to fit the new format. Overlays were often added to cover up the seams of the extensions.

Fact #288
The song howled by the dogs in the pound is "Home Sweet Home" and was performed by The Mellomen.

Fact #289
When we are in the "December" month of Darling's pregnancy, we see her writing down some girl names. The names are Betty Ann, Betty Lou, Betty Ann Lou, Betty Lou Ann, Mary, and Mary Lou. Betty Ann Lou and Mary Lou get crossed off the list.

Fact #290
This was the last Disney film Wolfgang Reitherman worked on as an animator. He would move on to directing after this film.

Fact #291
One of the few Disney films in which there is no clear villain although Aunt Sarah could be considered one. The Rat is not generally classified as a villain as his actions are not malicious but are rather purely instinctive.

Fact #292
Nearly every trailer for the movie spoils the plot point of Lady and Tramp having puppies at the end of the film.

Fact #293
The filmmakers felt that the two fight scenes in the film should both have distinctly different approaches. For the scene of Tramp fighting the Strays they treated it as a schoolyard scuffle, one that the Tramp doesn't take seriously while the fight with the Rat was treated as a battle to the death. The differences are made more clear with the Tramp being visibly hurt in one and snorting at his opponents in the other.

Fact #294
Jock appears again in 101 Dalmatians.

Fact #295
The amount of spaghetti and meatballs on the plate Lady and Tramp eat from changes between shots.

Fact #296
Right before Tramp chases the rat into the house, he's out in the rain and is wet. In the next shot, he's dry.

Fact #297
When Jim puts the puppy, Lady, in her basket, he puts down some paper on the floor. A few shots later, the paper disappears.

Fact #298
The sounds of the dogs barking as they chase Lady, before Tramp saves her, are the same as those when they chase Bambi and Faline.

Fact #299
The sounds of Old Yeller growling and snarling after he becomes rabid are the same as Tramp when he fights the rat.

Fact #300
Main characters Jock, Tramp, Lady, Peg, and bulldog spotted during Twilight Bark in 101 Dalmatians. 

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I hope you all enjoyed these facts as much as I did!