Walt Disney and Leopold Stokowski

Edward Holcomb Plumb '29 didn't write the music for Walt Disney's Fantasia. He left that to Bach and Beethoven and Stravinsky and the rest of the composers whose symphonic works made up Fantasia's impressive score. However, Ed was Musical Director of the production and it was his assignment to work with Leopold Stokowski, conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, on the orchestrating and recording of the score, and to analyze the music for pictorial treatment by the Disney artists. When Ed finished school, he became an arranger for the Columbia Broadcasting System and Columbia Phonograph Company in New York. Then, on a fellowship from Dartmouth, he spent two and a half years in Vienna, where he pursued his musical studies at the Academy of Music and the University of Vienna and under such noted men as Dr. Josef Marx and Dr. Hans Weisse. Returning to the United States, he eventually became an arranger for Paul Whiteman, Johnny Green, Vincent Lopez, Rudy Vallee and other famous name bands, composing original ballet music in his spare time.

Between the periods of his music study and its practical or commercial application, Ed busied himself with food-providing activities ranging from tenement investigator to underwear salesman. Now that Fantasia has been released, Ed is hard at work arranging the scores of Dumbo and Bambi, forthcoming Disney features.

Eight years ago, Ed married Miss Louise Mason, in New York City. They are the parents of a native Californian named Susan Louise, who will be three years old on May 5. Leopold Stokowski, incidentally, wrote the foreword to Disney's book, TheNutcracker Suite, in the form of a letter to Susan Louise.

ED PLUMB (RIGHT), MUSICAL DIRECTOR OF "FANTASIA," DISCUSSES THE PRODUCTION WITH WALT DISNEY AND LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI.