DRUNK MIDGETS DESTROYED `PINOCCHIO' PREMIERE

DRUNK MIDGETS DESTROYED `PINOCCHIO' PREMIERE

CULVER CITY, Calif. (Wireless Flash) -- Walt Disney's classic cartoon "Pinocchio" will be re-released on video next Tuesday (March 7). Although the film is considered by many to be Disney's finest work, its 1940 New York premiere ranks as one of the most embarrassing events in Disney history thanks to 11 drunk midgets. According to Hollywood historian Stephen Schochet, Disney hired 11 midgets to dress up as Pinocchios and wave to kids from the rooftop. But the midgets started boozing it up, then stripped naked, and soon began shouting obscenities to passers-by. Things got so out of hand that cops had to climb to the theater roof and haul the drunken midgets into custody by stuffing them in pillowcases. The midget scandal caused a ruckus but the controversy didn't sell tickets. Schochet says "Pinocchio" was a bomb on its initial release and didn't make money until it was re-released several times.