This Day in Pop Culture for March 16

1961: Disney’s ‘The Absent-Minded Professor’ is Released

Though color films had been around for many years, Walt Disney’s, The Absent-Minded Professor  was created in black and white and released on this day 1961. The film that starred Fred MacMurray and Nancy Olsen, was full of costly special effects. It featured Richard and Robert Sherman’s first song for a Disney feature (“Medfield Fight Song”) and used Wally Boag, a Disneyland stage performer, to serve as a stunt double for MacMurray. In 1997, Disney created a remake of the film called Flubber that starred Robin Williams as the absent-minded professor. It however, is not as fondly remembered.