SONG OF THE SOUTH’s ‘Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah’ Claws Its Way Out Of A Controversial Movie

“The negro situation is a dangerous one,” Caldwell wrote. “Between the negro haters and the negro lovers there are many chances to run afoul of situations that could run the gamut all the way from the nasty to the controversial.”

It only got worse as the film’s debut came closer. Two NAACP members saw a press screening and thought the film took place in pre-Civil War Georgia, alerting executive secretary Walter Francis White that the film featured a rosy picture of slavery, with slaves walking around happy and singing songs. He alerted the media, and it erupted from there, prompting picket lines and protests and anger.

Disney and others have always maintained the film takes place during the Reconstruction Era, after the Civil War and when slavery was abolished. That claim doesn’t hold up because it takes a wildly naive view of Reconstruction Era Georgia, which had massive troubles after the Civil War. Agricultural production took a massive hit. Emancipated slaves fled to towns, where they ran into food shortages, disease and overcrowding. Some of them went back to field labor, but there was a mediator involved who negotiated contracts. Many former slaves finally got the opportunity to go to school. It was a difficult time and nothing like what Song of the South portrays.

Things got worse at the premiere in Atlanta. Walt Disney introduced the movie and the cast and then promptly walked across the street to his hotel room, he had not expected the controversy surrounding the film and did not want to see the movie with an audience because of it. Lead actor James Baskett, who played Uncle Remus, was not allowed to attend the premiere because Atlanta was a racially segregated city and he wasn’t allowed at the theater.

If you can somehow ignore the racism, you’re likely to be treated to a movie that most people seem to enjoy. However, not many people have actually seen it in recent years, as Disney tends not to re-release it very often and currently has no plans to ever show it again on home video in America. That’s right, you can’t buy the movie on DVD or Blu Ray in the United States. Overseas the movie is released and they sometimes show it on TV, but not in America.

While the movie remains mostly buried and largely forgotten in America, there is one piece of it that is a mainstay of our culture: Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, the breakout song that won the Academy Award that year. Actually, the entire Song of the South soundtrack is pretty amazing, but it’s Zip-a-Dee that takes the cake. It’s charming, it’s easy to remember and it’s fun. It was also inspired by a racist song.

Turkey in the Straw was an American folk song performed and popularized in the 1830s by blackface performers George Washington Dixon, Bob Farrell and George Nichols. It’s not a harmful song by itself, but Dixon used its tune to create another song: Zip Coon, which is now known as a racist term you don’t say. Zip Coon has the following line: Zip a duden duden duden zip a duden day, which is the line that inspired zip-a-dee-do-da zip-a-dee-ay.

The song has been popularized in so many ways it’s hard to single out which one is the real reason it’s so well known today. It’s been covered by big-name musical artists like the Jackson 5, Louis Armstrong, Diana Ross and more, but it’s also been referenced in many, many movies and used for countless montages. It’s also a prominent part of the very popular Disney theme park ride Splash Mountain, which was inspired by Song of the South. And while Disney has been hesitant to show the full film in America, these songs are not something they’re ashamed of. They shouldn’t be either, because these songs are some of the best they’ve ever produced.

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Originally published at www.swiftfilm.com.