A Taste of Sleepy Hollow

Walt Disney Productions' "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (release date: October 5, 1949) is an animated adaptation of Washington Irving's short story, narrated by Bing Crosby.

The amazing, classic Disney animation, the humor, the action, and the voice of Bing Crosby steal the show, but for me, one completely overlooked aspect, is the treatment of food throughout the film. These images add greatly to the richness and texture of the piece, yet they are so seamlessly interwoven into the plot that they are inseparable from the context of the story.

The feature begins with the narrator offering a brief history of the legend of Sleepy Hollow. We are then immediately introduced to the "burly, roistering blade" Brom Bones at the "Ye Olde Schnooker and Schnapps Shoppe." Displaying his prodigious strength, Brom whisks up a large cask and pulls the cork with his teeth. With one hand he easily handles the keg, filling a fistful of mugs in the other.

This is our first glimpse into the role that food, drink and agricultural products in general will play in shaping the story and moving the plot forward. As we will see, all of these images embody the "idealization" of what they depict. Indeed, the mugs that Brom fills are topped with rich, foamy heads. You can almost taste the crisp, refreshing grains, malts and hops.

We then see the eager town mutts and Brom's black charger licking their lips in anticipation. Brom breaks open the top of the barrel with a rap of his fist and sets it down so the animals can happily enjoy the contents. Then, in a very clever special effect, we see Ichabod strolling towards Brom through the clear bottom of the stein as Brom drinks, and the schoolmaster comes into focus as the level of the ale lowers as it is quaffed.

From there, we watch as the "tall but exceedingly lank" Ichabod Crane strides into town out of the rolling countryside on his impossible, stork-like legs. He uses his charms on the village lasses, and debonairly stops to open the gate for a bonny girl balancing a tray of pies on her head. In a smooth show of slight-of-hand, Ichabod doffs his tricorn hat, and produces one of the pies, which he quickly gobbles down. You can see the flakiness of the crust and the top is scored with crow's feet in a perfect pattern.

The next scene unfolds as Ichabod stalks the aisles of the schoolhouse, glancing into the lunch baskets of the students. He discovers a student drawing a caricature of the teacher, but withholds punishment after looking into the boy's basket overflowing with fresh fruit, sandwiches on home baked white bread and a slice of berry pie.

The scene fades from Ichabod smiling benignly at the boy, to Ichabod sitting at the dinner table of the boy's home, surrounded by platters of biscuits and corn on the cob. His pupil's mother presents him with a large serving dish, and when Ichabod removes the cover, wafts of steam from a perfectly browned turkey in a bed of greens, rises to his waiting nostrils.

Again the scene shifts, and Ichabod is home in bed. He plucks a turkey runner from his coat pocket and munches the meat from the bone in several quick bites. But since this is the ideal rendition of a turkey leg, he does not encounter any of the joints and tendons, that make eating a turkey leg so difficult. Would that it 'twere so. The sequence ends with Ichabod writing the word "Excellent" in his Social Calendar under the notation "Roast Turkey Dinner."

The story continues with Ichabod presiding over the Ladies Choral Society, and barely noticeable as the camera pans in to Ichabod seated at the piano, is a plate of doughnuts. Although this is very incidental, the director thought to include it as part of the food motif. After the humorous segment leaves the ladies in a swoon, Ichabod casually steps over them, takes a seat in the corner, and commences to devour a salad of perfectly formed, fresh garden vegetables.

Katrina van Tassel rides into the story in her father's carriage, and instantly draws the attention of all the male villagers, one who is eating a wide slice of juicy watermelon, whereupon the infatuated petitioners unload the cart of armfuls of picnic items. As Katrina leads the entourage to find the perfect spot, she passes Ichabod, who is on a picnic of his own, with a plump townswoman. Of course Ichabod is instantly smitten, and as he follows Katrina with his eyes, he sits down onto a delicious looking frosted, layer cake.

As the tale develops, we follow Katrina on a shopping trip in town, followed by her host of "rustic admirers" who are carrying her parcels. Katrina becomes piqued when Brom Bones scares off the competition for her affections, and seizes on Ichabod to challenge Brom's jealousy.

In the riotous scene that ensues, Katrina's packages are alternately scooped up by Ichabod, stolen away by Brom, spilled, scooped up, and spilled again, apples and potatoes rolling across the ground.

The story proceeds towards it's inevitable climax when Ichabod receives an invitation to the annual van Tassel Halloween frolic. This is the Halloween party I've always longed to attend. We approach the van Tassel estate, windows aglow, and the double doors open slowly before us, revealing a large open hall, bedecked with pumpkins and cornstalks around the pillars, swags of autumn leaves, and the country folk dancing to lively music. As Ichabod and Katrina waltz past the laden tables, Ichabod deftly reaches behind him, nabs a perfect wedge of spiced cake and consumes it without missing a step, nonchalantly licking his fingers.

The evening gets late, and as the roaring fire and the many carved jack-o-lanterns glow brighter, the revelers are seated, enjoying the bountiful banquet laid before them: hams, game hens, pickles, relishes, jello molds, and a variety of pastries and cakes. As Ichabod and the other partygoers partake of the delicacies  Brom sulks off in a corner with a plain looking sandwich until an idea comes to him how to use Ichabod's superstitions to his own advantage.

Katrina nurses a cup of tea, while nearby Ichabod sits with his heaping dish. As Brom relates the tale of the Headless Horseman, Ichabod eats enraptured. He inserts an entire game hen into his mouth and removes it, only the leg bones and ribcage remaining. Now, as his nerves get the better of him, Ichabod pours himself a cup of coffee, but is so frightened that he keeps spilling long after the cup has overflowed. As the party and Brom's story come to an end, Ichabod peels a hard boiled egg, and sprinkles it with a pepper shaker, but so entranced is he that he does not notice that the cap comes off the shaker, leaving a huge mound of pepper on the end of the egg, and the scene fades to black as Ichabod pops it into his mouth with fiery effect.

Of course, the entire story leads up to the incredible action sequence when Ichabod encounters the Headless Horseman in Sleepy Hollow. Although this scene is only about eight minutes long, it contains all the thrills and humor of a two-hour blockbuster, conceived as only the Disney animators in their heyday, could.

True to form, and to my thesis, the film ends as the narrator speculates on the demise of Ichabod Crane. Was he spirited away or did he merely run from the confines of Sleepy Hollow and into the willing arms of a wealthy widow in another county, where he sits at the head of a table, once again surrounded by heaping bowls of food, and his ubiquitous roast fowl?

There are other incidental food images such as when Brom bursts out of the root cellar with a bucket stuck on one foot and a long string of sausages wrapped around his neck,  but only the genius of Walt Disney could have brought these classic works of literature to the medium of popular entertainment. Walt Disney had and has many admirers and detractors (I am soundly in the former camp) but in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, he certainly stays true to the original's agrarian flavor.