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News Archives: Russell Davies Interviews Robert Tieman

Originally aired Sunday, August 31, 2003 on BBC Radio 2.

Russell Davis Interviews Disney Archivist Robert Tieman. Below is a transcript of the portion of the interview specifically discussing Song of the South.

Davies: How do you deal nowadays with the dating of material? For instance, take an example, Song of the South. Now, I think that's got an Oscar-winning song in it, too... Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah. The Uncle Remus series is still very much prized in the South, I know, 'cause the last time I was in Georgia somebody gave me a very finely illustrated copy of that. But there's obviously a sensitivity all over America now about the presentation of black characters and so on, and so that wouldn't please everybody today. How do you...how do you get a balance with that?

Tieman: Well, Song of the South is a very difficult part of the company's history, because it's... it is such a beloved movie, I mean people remember it so fondly. It was last released theatrically here in the United States in 1986 and was one of the top-grossing movies for Disney of that year. And it hasn't been seen since then, basically. It's been released on video in several countries, in Europe and in Asia, but never here. And I think that really there are...there are lots of sensitivities because of the racial issue, which actually isn't something new. The sensitivities and protests, if you will, started back in the 40s when the movie was first released. And each subsequent reissue, it was re-ignited. And I think the Disney company has finally decided that it really is too much of a hot potato, and they'd rather stay away from it. But having said that, we hope that eventually it can be presented with a historical context and then perhaps see the light of day again.

Davies: And that's the way it's going with a lot of old pictures. The unacceptable will be cocooned in historical explanation in the DVD format. I don't think it can do any harm. Not that I would necessarily ratify the Academy's choice of best song for 1947 as composed by Allie Wrubel and Ray Gilbert. And sung by Uncle Remus himself, James Baskett.

["Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" plays]

Davies: I suppose if a committed campaigner were to persue this theme they "well, the same thing applies to the black crows in Dumbo." and so on, there's probably no end to it.

Tieman: Well yes, that, I mean there is that as well, and one of the things that...that is possibly a hopeful sign for the future, coming up I think next year, I think in 2004, will be a DVD set of Disney's World War II cartoons, which for years and years and years, were off the market. And, it was finally decided that if they were presented in the right historical context that they could be reissued, and the company has hired Leonard Maltin, who is a film comentator, to do a historical overview of the time that these cartoons were made, and what they were used for and so forth, and so I think once again with the proper context that these things can be done successfully.