Joan Rice at Riverside Studios

Joan Rice

Thanks to John Nelson for sending me this image of Joan Rice (1930-1997) - our Maid Marian. It was taken in the early 1950s at Riverside Studios in London, and it was here in 1945, that producer Sydney Box set up The Company of Youth for Rank Organisation. As a student of what became known as The Rank Charm School, Joan was given an allowance of £10 a week and trained in breathing, deportment, mime, accent correction, script reading, diction and rehearsing.

Among the many stars who attended this acting school were Petula Clark, Christopher Lee, Diana Dors, Joan Collins and Anthony Steele.

This blog has over 115 pages dedicated to the life and career of Joan Rice.

Splitting Arrows, Episode 14

"How in a fair and just world is this movie so under the radar? This movie was great ... it was really good. The performances are excellent, the costumes are great, the sets are lavish, and the matte paintings are well done."

These were just a few comments from Episode 14: Splitting Arrows - A Dedicated Lack of Foxes in Disney's Story of Robin Hood in 1952.

 

This is an available podcast that is part of a series of discussions on the various interpretations of the legend in movies and television down the years.  Episode 14, with Richard Hopkins-Luntz and Mike Nichols, is dedicated to The Story of Robin Hood. And my blog gets a special mention!

Not only do they give a link to my blog and Facebook Page, but they also discuss how I have uniquely delved deeply into every aspect of Disney's Story of Robin Hood in well over 800 posts. 

These podcasts can be found on YouTube, Spotify etc.

During the first few minutes of the podcast, they describe The Story of Robin Hood as "Walt Disney's unknown Robin Hood".

Hopefully, after Seventy-Two years, this wonderful film is finally getting the recognition it deserves. 

Thanks guys!

The Story of Robin Hood on TV

The Best Robin Hood Film Ever made (O.k. i'm Biased) is on tv in the uk today September 14th 2024 at 6:10 pm:

Talking Pictures TV Sky 328 Freeview 82 Freesat 306 Virgin 445

THE STORY OF ROBIN HOOD AND HIS MERRIE MEN (1952)

Director: Ken Annakin

Stars Richard Todd, Joan Rice & James Hayter

Saturday 14th September at 6:10pm

*Subtitles Available* on #TalkingPicturesTV

Alan-a-Dale's Dog

Elton Hayes as Alan-a-Dale with his dog

Throughout the movie, The Story of Robin Hood (1952), Alan-a-Dale played by Elton Hayes is followed by his faithful little dog, along the streets of Nottingham and through the winding paths of Sherwood Forest. By the end of the film, the minstrel and his loyal dog are in the outlaws' camp.  

To my knowledge, we never learn the little dog's name. But we do now!

Joan Rice with Alan-a-Dale's dog

On the back of a publicity photograph from the time of the films release, the name of the dog is revealed:

" RH-Pub-A8--JOAN RICE dressed as a page for her role as Maid Marian in "Robin Hood," makes friends with "Rusty." Rusty plays the part of Alan-a-Dale's (Elton Hayes) dog in the all-live-action Technicolor production, now being made by Walt Disney for RKO Radio."

So now we know!

Robin Hood Autographs

 

A big thank you goes out to John Nelson, who kindly sent in images of this autograph collection. The book must have been signed during the making of Walt Disney's Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men in 1951. Whoever gathered these signatures was possibly at Denham Studios or with the 2nd unit in Burnham Beeches in Buckinghamshire. An experience fans of the film can only dream about!

What a wonderful collection! Six members of the cast including Richard Todd (Robin Hood), James Robertson Justice (Little John), Elton Hayes (Allan a Dale), Peter Finch (Sheriff of Nottingham), Hubert Gregg (Prince John) and Joan Rice (Maid Marian). 

This blog has a large collection of autographs amongst over 91 pages of memorabilia. Just click on the label, 'Memorabilia.'

Disney's Merchandise Division 1952

Matt Crandall has sent me many interesting items over the last few years. His latest contribution to this blog is a page from Walt Disney Merchandising News about the release of The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men. This was the second edition of 1952 and also includes information on the advertising of his upcoming animation Peter Pan.

Merchandising News

We have seen many times on this blog the phenomenal amount of advertising Disney used to promote its films. Below is another example, as they prepare for the release of The Story of Robin Hood:

"WALT DISNEY'S STORY OF ROBIN HOOD will be advertised with colorful ads like this one. A heavy schedule includes consumer and leading movie fan magazines.

ROBIN HOOD merchandise includes a beautiful 20-page record reader in full color by Capitol. Simon and Schuster plan one Big Golden Record and two Little Golden Records featuring songs from ROBIN HOOD--"Come Sing High," "Riddle Dee Dee and "The Ballads of Robin Hood."

Beginning July 13, a 25-instalment series on Walt Disney's STORY OF ROBIN HOOD will be distributed by King Features to leading Sunday comics. A Dell Comic, Whitman Classic and several advertising tie-in campaigns will round out the great promotion behind ROBIN HOOD."

Regular readers of this blog will have seen images of the various records and comic strips among the many pages labelled 'Film Promotion' and 'Memorabilia.'

Below are just some of the huge collection of promotional material from this blog:

Jigsaw Puzzles

Record and 20-page Storybook Capitol US 1952

Record and 20-page Storybook Capitol US 1952

Comic Strip

Click on the labels below to see the vast amount of promotional material for Walt Disney's Story of Robin Hood on this blog.

Martitia Hunt

 

The fabulous actress Martitia Hunt as Miss Haversham in David Lean's award-winning Great Expectations (1946) and Queen Eleanor in Walt Disney's Story of Robin Hood (1952).

Facebook Page

 

This is a reminder to all my blog readers that I have a Facebook page, Disney's Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men. It currently has 614 readers and is regularly updated.

Robin Hood's Props

 

Did you know about Robin Hood’s Props? In 2011, while watching a re-run of TV’s The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Richard Greene, I recognised those distinct chairs designed by Carmen Dillon for Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood (1952). Later, during an episode of Robin of Sherwood (1984-1986), I noticed the Sheriff (Nickolas Grace) sat in one! 

But, that was not all! I also noticed Allan Wheatley, the Sheriff of Nottingham in TV’s Adventures of Robin Hood series often wore Peter Finch’s ‘Sheriff’ costume from The Story of Robin Hood.

After my blog post about this, my readers noticed those chairs appeared in several other medieval adventure films. These included Men of Sherwood (1954), which used other props and costumes from the Disney movie. 

No doubt, ‘Robin Hood’s Chairs’ were shipped out of Denham Studios with all the other thousands of props after Rank Organisation stopped film production after Disney’s Story of Robin Hood was completed. Probably, they were hired out for various projects for the small and silver screen. Laurence points out that The Black Knight was made at Pinewood, which could explain the availability of the chairs as props. 

With the help of my blog readers, I started a small list of some of the film and television productions that have used props from Disney’s Story of Robin Hood (1952) up to 64 years later:

The Men of Sherwood Forest (Film:1954)

The Black Knight (Film:1954)

The Adventures of Robin Hood (TV:1955-58)

The Dark Avenger (Film:1955)

Ivanhoe (TV:1958) Ep.The Night Raiders

(featuring Joan Rice. Joan would have remembered those chairs from her days filming on the sound stages at Denham Studio).

Sword of Sherwood Forest (Film:1960)

Robin of Sherwood (TV:1984-86)

The Mission - Stay With Me (Official Video) 1986

Horrible Histories (TV: 2013-15)

If you can add more, don't hesitate to get in touch with me.