By 1918 he had a strong reputation on vaudeville stages nationwide as “Ukelele Ike,” and played prestigious shows in Chicago, New York City, and with the Ziegfeld Follies, gaining fans with his jazzy renditions of popular songs and scat singing. Because of his frustration with the poor state of many of the pianos in the saloons he was playing, Edwards went into a music store and purchased the least expensive instrument he could find: a ukulele. He had been performing professionally for thirty years by the time Disney came calling, having left home at the age of 14 to play the saloon circuit. That includes advice from a certain moralizing cricket…Īt the time, Cliff Edwards was a very successful recording artist and live performer whose voice was very familiar to audiences. Pinocchio immediately runs away from home as soon as he can walk and initially ignores any advice given to him. Pinocchio as imagined by the Italian author was a rude and naughty wooden marionette who comes from a hunk of wood which can already talk. Jimmy began as a minor character in the original Carlo Collodi novel “The Adventures of Pinocchio.” As is often the case with the stories later adapted into Disney movies, Collodi’s book was a good bit darker than its eventual animated version. But if you looked around at the landscape today, you might consider the little guy to be nothing but a bit player. What exactly did happen to the animated insect? Jiminy is one of the most historically significant characters in the Disney company’s history, starring not only in more than one animated feature, but also in television, radio, comic books, record albums, commercials, and the Disney theme parks. Let’s start by honoring the tradition of setting up our main question here. June has a decidedly Disney flavor at Le Blog this year, as Lebeau and I both look forward to mouse-centric vacations late in the month: He on a Disney cruise and myself in Anaheim at Disneyland for the first time since I was very small. Well, we kind of are, but we’re also going to look at the life and career of Cliff Edwards, the man who provided Jiminy’s memorable voice. Most obviously, we appear to be asking what happened to a fictional cartoon character.
This entry in the “What the Hell Happened…” series will be a little different from what we’ve presented before.