Steve Martin and Disney

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We have this coterie of rich franchises, the company now that people want to engage with. I came here to try and continue what Walt Disney and his associates set in motion 50 years ago, which is to experiment with every new and innovative kind of entertainment possible. It's what we hope to do here, to really develop something that just more than an entertainment enterprise. It's something that contributes many other ways.

Hey, this is Synergy Loves Company, where we explore how Disney connects to everything. I'm Eric, and I want to thank you so much for keeping me company today. Before we get started, I want to let you know that I am giving away free stuff. I've got a bunch of stickers and magnets with the Synergy Loves Company logo on them, and I want to send them to you because you're listening to the show, whether it's the first time you've ever caught an episode or you've listened to every single one. I want to send you a magnet or a sticker with the Synergy Loves Company logo on it. There's a link in the description of this episode, and there are links on all of my socials. Just fill out the form and tell me where to send it, and I'll get that sticker or magnet or one of each to you in the mail. But I know why you're really here. You're here for the stunning conclusion to Only Legend in the Series, our miniseries on Only Murders in the Building. If you're just starting with this episode, I want to invite you to take a look at the last two episodes, because they're part of a series. Taking a look at the cast of Only Murders in the Building and their individual connections to Disney. Two episodes ago, we took a look at Selena Gomez and Disney Channel and Hollywood Records and all her connections to Disney. And then last time, we took a look at Martin Short's contributions to the Disney Company with his movies and his Disney Parks attractions, films that he's done around the world. But alas, no, they both were not Disney legends. Neither of them were the only legend in the series. It is someone else. So let's get into it right here. Part three. Only legend in the series. Here we go. He was a wild and crazy guy, or at least he played one on TV. He was an actor. But before that, he had been a magician, a musician, a showman, and a writer, all while studying philosophy and logic. But it really was the spotlight that called to him, even when the spotlight operator wouldn't listen to him. Well, excuse me. The thing that launched him into that spotlight was his stand up comedy act. He broke every comedy rule, and not even in a cool way. He played banjo, juggled, and participated in the balloon arts and close up magic. And the jokes he told didn't even have punchlines. But somehow he became the future of comedy by performing a vaudeville act. In the 1970s, there was something fresh about a silly banjo magic act. People loved it. Soon he was the biggest star in standup comedy. But he gave it all up before his career had reached its peak. You could say that it was a real jerk move, but he had landed some major movie roles and didn't have time to be a comedian anymore. It was the 1980s, and now he was a movie star. His movie credits began stacking up, but did enough of them connect to Disney? Could the silver screen make him a Disney legend? Or would he have to find another way into the Disney Legends Club? Is Steve Martin the only legend in the series? So far in this series, we've been looking at what it takes to become a Disney legend. And of course, the Disney Legend Award is that hall of fame to recognize individuals who have made great contributions to the Walt Disney Company. When we looked at Selena Gomez and Martin Short, both of them had been featured on many Disney projects. Selena Gomez on the Disney Channel with Wizards of Waverly Place and on her Hollywood Records deal with her band. Selena Gomez in the scene. Martin short had a handful of movies for Disney and Touchstone and a large impact on Disney Park's show spaces like O, Canada, the Monster Sound Show and Cinemagic. But neither of them had been named a Disney legend. If we look at Steve Martin's career when he left standup comedy for the silver screen, the dots just don't connect to Disney legendum. His first Disney movie project comes about in 1991. That's ten years after he left standup comedy for the movies. In Touchstone's, father of the bride, alongside Martin Short, except Steve Martin plays George Banks, the father of the bride, the main protagonist and the narrator of the story. Short's, franc plays a sometimes comedic foil to George Banks. And I know in the last episode I said Franc steals the show, but that's only when he's on screen. George Banks is always on screen, and he has some great comedic moments. My favorite is the one where he's trying to buy hot dogs and hot dog buns and kind of having a meltdown in the grocery store about how the hot dogs and the buns, the numbers just don't add up, and there's superfluous buns that aren't going to work for the hot dogs. So he starts taking the buns. It's just an iconic moment from that movie. I still wonder about this today, too. Whenever I go to the grocery store, if I was buying hot dogs and buns, I can't not think about it. Steve Martin's next project for Disney was a simple twist of fate. It wasn't actually a twist of fate that he was in a Disney movie. That was the title of the movie, a Simple Twist of Fate. It was released in 1994 on the Touchstone label, disney's way of releasing a more grown up fare without using the Disney name. And the movie didn't only star Steve Martin, it was written by him, too. It was a modern retelling of a Victorian novel by George Elliott. And in the movie, Steve Martin plays a recently single music teacher who ends up raising a toddler whose mother died of a heroin overdose. It deals with some heavy themes, but it still manages somehow to be a comedy. The movie might not be that familiar to you because it didn't make that much of an impact. The next year. In 1995, Steve Martin came back again as George Banks in Father of the Bride part Two. Father of the Bride, Part Two gives us more of that same humor from the first movie in a sequel that involves both his wife and his daughter going through pregnancy at the same time. But then Steve Martin doesn't show up in another Disney project until 1990 nine's Fantasia 2000. And there he is, the narrator who introduces the segment of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. So he comes on screen, gives his introduction, then we don't hear from him again. I know. Not so legendary yet. All right. In 2003, though, Steve Martin returned to the Touchstone label with Bringing Down the House, a movie he stars in with Queen Latifah. It's a romantic comedy where Steve Martin plays Peter, a straight laced tax attorney who decides to meet up with a woman who he's been talking to online. But when they meet in person, he discovers that he's pretty much been catfished by Charlene, played by Queen Latifah. She's an ex con who has been contacting him while she was still in prison. Other than the Father of the Bride movies, his work for Disney so far has been pretty minuscule or pretty forgettable. But Steve Martin isn't done yet. He has a big year with Disney. In 2005, his movie Shop Girl is released on Touchstone, and it's a romantic comedy that focuses on a love triangle between an older, wealthy man, a girl who works in a department store, and a less well off man who's a bit closer in age to her. When I say it's his movie, I really mean it. You see, Shopgirl was written by Steve Martin. He stars in it, and it's based on a book that he wrote of the same name. In fact, if we dig a little deeper into Shopgirl, steve Martin's book Shop Girl was published by Disney's publishing company Hyperion Press in 2000. Shopgirl, his comedy essays collection Pure Drivel from 1998, and his other short novel, The Pleasure of My Company from 2003, make a small string of fiction projects penned by Steve Martin for Disney's publishing arm Hyperion. So there's that. But let's get back to 2005. Steve Martin also starred in a Disneyland attraction. In honor of Disneyland's 50th anniversary, steve Martin hosted a short film titled Disneyland, the first 50 magical years, and it showed as the main event at the Main Street Opera House. It replaced Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, only to be replaced by Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln four years later when it was relegated to the lobby as a preshow for that same attraction. But in 2005, Steve Martin was presented with the Disney Legend Award. Yes, Steve Martin is the only legend in the series, and the award was presented to him in the category of Parks and Resorts. But wait, we've only talked about this one thing he's done for parks. We must be missing something. We need to turn the clocks back. Steve Martin's family home in Los Angeles was being demolished to make room for the San Diego Freeway. His family had to relocate. His real estate agent father moved the family to the soon to be booming Anaheim, California. This freeway project was also the same project that led Walt Disney to choose Anaheim as the location for his new theme park concept Disneyland. The Martin's house was just 2 miles away from Disneyland's build site. In the summer of 1955, Disneyland opened, and ten year old Steve Martin had heard through a friend that they were hiring kids to sell guidebooks in the mornings during the summer, and on weekends, he rode his bike the 2 miles to the Disneyland gate and was hired on the spot where he made two cent for every guidebook sold. Steve loved the magic of Disneyland. He often stuck around after his shift had ended just to explore the many facets of all the lands of Disneyland. He kept on his uniform as he explored the park after his shift, letting everyone know that he was a young cast member. And it made him feel important, like he was part of something special. There were many places young Steve found in Disneyland that would change his life forever. Frontierland, Adventureland, and Fantasyland all offered something important to his future as a performer. In Frontierland, he was mesmerized by the rope tricks of Eddie Adameck. Eddie took young Steve under his wing and taught him how to do rope tricks for himself. A few years later, when Steve had aged out of the guidebook salesboy job, he was hired as a rope trick demonstrator by Eddie. Steve would show how easy the rope tricks would be for a kid to do, and Eddie would sell trick ropes as souvenirs. This job with the trick lasso would extend his Disneyland work, allowing Steve to work into his teen years. More importantly, it gave him performance skills that he would take into his performing career. Remember when we talked about Martin short last time he had gotten his big movie break from the film The Three Amigos? That movie was written by Steve Martin. The title, like we talked about last time, was supposed to be The Three Caballeros, but had to be changed because of the Disney movie of the same name. The title it got. The Three Amigos is actually kind of a combination of the three Caballeros and Salutos Amigos. At least that's what I like to think. Steve Martin wrote a very frontierland movie inspired by the golden age of silent films that takes place around the same time that the Disney studio was being founded. And he used his Disneyland lasso skills in the movie, proving that skills that you learn as a kid could come in handy when you're older. When trick rope sales started to SAG, steve got a job at Tiki's Tropical Imports in Adventureland. It was not exactly what he wanted. He enjoyed being on stage. That human interaction between a performer and the audience, no matter how big or small the audience, that's what he really loved. So at Tiki's, he worked in the stockroom, putting price tags on merchandise. It really wasn't what he wanted to do, but from time to time, he would get the opportunity to go into the front of the store, where he would love to interact with the store manager, Irene. Her favorite phrase was an exaggerated well, excuse me for living. This stuck with Steve, and he would later adapt it into one of his biggest stand up bits of all time. And his catchphrase that was an even more exaggerated well, excuse me. While working at Tiki's, he learned about a job opening at Merlin's Magic Shop in Fantasyland. Steve's first love of performing was for close up magic. When he was younger, he had received some magic trick sets for Christmas and spent hours practicing the tricks in front of a mirror. The prospect of working at the magic shop at Disneyland meant that he could perform for customers while trying to sell tricks. The job was actually pretty easy for him to get since he was a frequent visitor to Merlin's Magic Shop since he started working at Disneyland at ten years old. The other employee at the magic shop was Jim Barlow, who had worked out some comedic pattern to draw customers in and to help him better sell some magic tricks with comedy. Steve soon started borrowing Jim's jokes and experienced his first foray into comedy mixed with a magic act. Jim also helped a young Steve Martin book his first paying gigs performing his magic act for Boy Scout troops. Another influence at the magic shop was Dave Stewart, the manager. Dave had been a vaudeville performer, so he showed Steve some of his vaudevillian gags and introduced Steve into the variety of magic, music and comedy that could be incorporated into the same act. But most important to Steve Martin's Disneyland influences was Frontierland's Golden horseshoe review. One hot summer day, ten year old Steve Martin would escape to the Golden Horseshoe for some air conditioning and a refreshing Pepsi, and it would change his life. The Golden Horseshoe Review had music, dancing, acting, comedy, and the opening act for the main show featured a multi instrumentalist, Lee Fugel, who was a whiz on the banjo. But on the stage, Steve would witness the comedy of Disney legend Wally Bogue. Wally Bogue was funny, he was clever, and the audience loved him. Steve wanted to be just like him. When Wally would tell a joke, the entire house would erupt with laughter. But he wasn't just into spoken jokes. He used gag props, silly hats and wigs and balloon animals, all to get visual laughs. All of this would be incorporated into Steve's future stand up comedy act. Steve went to the Golden Horseshoe so often to catch Wally's show that he began to memorize the act. He was able to dissect the jokes, learn about comedic timing, and what it was about the jokes that made the audience laugh. Wally Bogue gave Steve Martin his first education in comedy. After a while, Steve would sit in the audience lip syncing along with Wally's delivery, pretending and wishing that the laughs were for him. When Steve Martin received his Disney Legend Award in 2005, it was presented to him by Wally Bogue. The two were photographed together on Main Street just outside the magic shop that day to commemorate the event. Steve Martin was not a contracted Disney branded star like Selena Gomez. He wasn't featured in as many Disney films and Parks attractions as Martin short, his legendary status came from somewhere else. He was able to craft a legendary career out of the performances, skills and opportunities he had received from his time at Disneyland. Disney helped shape Steve Martin into the performer that he became, and he never forgot that. When Wally Bogue passed away in 2011, steve Martin paid tribute by tweeting my hero, the first comedian I ever saw live. My influence a man whom I aspired has passed on Wally Bogs. On Steve Martin's relationship to Disney and Wally Bogue. First, in 1977, he appeared on The Muppet Show. Steve Martin, that is Steve Martin's standup act was pretty much the human one man show version of Muppet style comedy, that variety show featuring Kermit on the banjo. But Steve would use his connection to The Muppet Show to introduce Jim Henson to Wally Bogue, who would also guest star on the show in 1980. 1 second thing I want to tell you is a lot of the information and stories that I got for this episode came from Steve Martin's book Born Standing Up. It's a great account of his stand up comedy career, and it focuses on the path that led him to his career and follows his life up until the time he retired from comedy. It was a really great read. It's pretty short and I highly recommend it. There's a whole chapter about his time at Disneyland. You can also get the audiobook and as a bonus, it's read by Steve Martin himself. So go check your local library. Find born standing up. I highly recommend it. So there it is. Steve Martin, who also is one of the creators of Only Martyrs in the Building is the Only Legend in the Series. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Synergy Loves Company. If this is your first listen to the show, you can go back and listen to the rest of this series, only Legend in the Series, where I focus on Selena Gomez and Martin Short also. Or you can go back and listen to any of the other episodes in the back catalog. There's a lot of great stuff in there, at least I think so. I'm biased, though. Also, make sure you subscribe because I got some great episodes coming up, some guests that you're not going to want to miss. Hit subscribe or follow in your podcasting app so you make sure that you don't miss those. Also, like I mentioned at the top of the show, I'm giving away free stuff. I have stickers. I have magnets that I want to give to you for listening. You just have to tell me how to get them to you. There's a link in the show description of this episode as well as on all my social media accounts. You can click the link, fill in the form, and I'll send you a sticker or a magnet or both in the mail. So if you want that link for free stuff or you just want to catch up and see what I'm doing these days, you can find me on Instagram and Threads at Synergylovescompany and I'm still on Twitter and also on Blue Sky at Eric H. Synergy on both of those. So you could find me either way or any which way from those social medias and just say hi. And if you're enjoying Synergy Loves Company, don't just keep it to yourself. Share it with a friend who loves Disney just as much as you do. 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