Brilliance often goes unnoticed. We miss sight of it against the avalanche of banality that often fills our daily lives. True brilliance doesn't need to call attention to itself — it quietly continues beyond the jangly noise of each passing generation. It's there, silently lasting, until one day we turn and finally recognize the brilliance within something that has been there all along. Against the cacophony of musicals emanating from a post-war Hollywood, Stanley Donen's work quietly stood out. A young dancer/choreographer Donen worked his way to helming major motion pictures, with Hollywood's top talent. Right out of the gate, the lasting brilliance of Donen's directorial work was evident.
It's been said — When a person dies a library burns. For me, this African proverb resonants profoundly with news of the passing of Dave Smith, Founder & Director Emeritus of the Walt Disney Company Archives. Dave's foresighted efforts to seek-out, find, aggregate, and champion the past, ensured the archival preservation of the personal life and accomplishments of Walt Disney, and the institutional history for the longest running animation studio, and one of the largest entertainment companies, in the world. Sadly, so much of our collective film past is tossed aside to make room for the newest and next film ahead. It's a well-known shame that scores for such classics as The Wizard of Oz, alon
