Rumford’s Frank Churchill

Disney’s film composer and songwriter

by James Nalley

In 1937, the animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on the German fairy table by the Brothers Grimm, it was not only the first full-length animated film, but also Disney’s first animated feature film. Despite initial doubts from the film industry, it was a critical and commercial success. Part of its success was its musical score, which included well-known songs such as “Heigh-ho,” “Someday My Prince Will Come,” and “Whistle While You Work.” Interestingly, these catchy songs were written by a Rumford-born man, who went on to write songs for other full-length ani- mated films such as Dumbo, Bambi, and Peter Pan.

Frank Edwin Churchill was born in Rumford on October 20, 1901. After moving to Southern California with his family at the age of four, he eventually learned the piano. Inspired by classical music, he became proficient enough to accompany silent films at a local theater in Ventura, California. At the persistence of his parents, he began pre-med studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). However, after one year of study, he chose to pursue a career in music and dropped out. Subsequently, he played piano in bars in Tijuana, Mexico, followed by an orchestra job in Tucson,

Arizona. Despite his lack of formal musical education, Churchill found work as an accompanist and soloist at the Los Angeles radio station KNX (AM) in 1924.

In 1930, Churchill got his big break when he joined Disney Studios. There, he scored approximately 65 animated shorts, including the song, “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf,” for The Three Little Pigs (1933), which was a huge commercial success. As stated in his biographical article by Walt Disney Archives, “This song raised the spirits of countless Depression-weary audiences who adopted the song as a resilient national anthem of hope. Frank spoke of the song’s surprising success when more than 39,000 copies of sheet music sold within three days in New York City alone: ‘It seemed to be on every phonograph record…and practically every orchestra in the country was featuring this number.’”

As Disney Studios built up its reputation, Churchill was naturally chosen by Walt Disney to score the studio’s first full-length animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). As stated by Disney Archives, “Tall, slender, quiet, and reserved, Churchill worked from a mere idea, story sequence, or character to develop such classic Disney songs as “Heighho” and “Whistle While You Work,” which played a large part in the film’s success.” Meanwhile, “Someday My Prince Will Come” became a popular jazz standard performed by Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans, Miles Davis, and Keith Jarrett, among others. As for the film itself, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs became the first American film to have a soundtrack album. Before this film, a soundtrack recording was unheard of and had little to no value to a film studio.

In 1942, Churchill and fellow com- poser Oliver Wallace won an Academy Award in the category for “Best Original Score” for their work in Dumbo (1941). According to the book Walt Disney: An American Original (1976) by Bob Thomas, “Dumbo proved to be a financial miracle, compared to other Disney films. The simple film only cost $950,000 (equivalent to $17 million today) to produce, which was half the cost of Snow White and less than a third of the cost of Pinocchio Dumbo returned a profit of $850,000.” Churchill and Washington’s work on the song “Baby Mine” also earned a nomination for “Best Original Song.”

In 1942, Churchill, elevated to music supervisor at Disney Studios, was in the early stages of working on the scores for Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), and Peter Pan (1953). However, the same year, two of his closest friends and fellow Disney orchestra members had died within (cont. on page 16)

(cont. from page 15) a month of one another. This affected Churchill after which he became deeply depressed and started drinking heavily. On May 14, 1942, Churchill had been working at the studio and told his colleagues that he was returning to his ranch (in Newhall, approximately 40 miles north of Los Angeles) “for a rest.” Later that afternoon, authorities were called to the house, where his wife Carolyn found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was at the piano with a rifle, a rosary, and a suicide note that read, “Dear Carolyn, my nerves have completely left me, please forgive me for this awful act, it seems the only way I can cure myself…Frank.” He was only 40 years old. He was subsequently buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. This was also where Walt Disney himself was later buried.

One can only wonder where his career would have gone and what songs he would have produced if he had lived longer. In 2001, the Walt Disney Company honored Frank Churchill posthu-