We met Lou Debney in Walt’s People – Volume 4. In this interview, transcribed by Andy Wakeley, he focuses on Disney’s vast array of musicians and composers.
Lou Debney: Carl W. Stalling is still living. I understand he’s an old man. Ward Kimball got in touch with him while we were doing The Mouse Factory. I was associate producer on that and Ward and I turned out about forty of those. We decided to use one of his compositions for The Mouse Factory, called Minnie’s Yoo Hoo. Stalling wrote that many years ago.
The great Bert Lewis, who was here—now I had not personally talked ever with Carl Stalling. I started in ‘34, when Bert Lewis was working on as the writer of the short cartoons. Bert was a very kind, gentle guy, who had been there for a number of years. He looked like a little schoolteacher. He could’ve been a minister. I was eighteen; I’d say Bert must’ve been probably sixty-five then, this is in ‘34. When I got there he was writing music I believe for Orphan’s Benefit. We were still in the black and white; we hadn’t gone to color yet on our cartoons. Bert left the mark here definitely. […]
