Walt Disney Art Classics Convention 2004 - Part 2
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After showing a series of Studio photos, and making somewhat irreverent comments about them, Kurtti and Tieman suddenly turned on the class and announced, “You could be out doing something useful. Instead, you’re watching us. We’re really dumb!�? With that said, the final Medfield film, The Strongest Man in the World, was introduced.

Kurt Russell played Dexter Riley one last time in The Strongest Man in the World.

Again, a vintage radio spot was played to set the stage. For this 1975 release, the announcer promised, “There’s nothing he can’t lift—including your spirits!�?

Character stills were displayed, including Kurt Russell, again as Medfield student Dexter Riley, eating Crumpley Crunch cereal. One shot showed Riley with smoke apparently pouring out of his mouth and nose, illustrating the power of Crumpley Crunch. So powerful it was, according to Kurtti and Tieman, that it turned Dexter Riley into… costar Phil Silvers!

More location work was done in The Strongest Man in the World than previous Medfield efforts. Sites included the Burbank studios, Echo Park (again, with palm trees in Midwestern Medfield), the Golden Palace restaurant in Chinatown and even the Los Angeles federal penitentiary (which Robert Tieman suggested just might play a significant role in a Disney real-life drama of the near future).

One Disney Studio structure that appeared as part of the campus was an office building that had been moved from the original Disney Studio on Hyperion Avenue. Kurtti and Tieman pointed out that Walt Disney’s old office had been in that very same building. They whispered conspiratorially that soon, Tim O’Day would be moving into that office, with a new job title. “He’s gonna be the V.P. in charge of Sitting by the Door and Picking Up a Paycheck!�? they said. (The audience roared with delight at this, including Tim O’Day himself, who was in the back of the room.)

The next series of photos showed Dexter Riley and other students, taking a live cow up the steps into the Medfield College Classroom Building. By now, the building was quite familiar, having appeared in the two previous films.

In The Strongest Man in the World, Disney’s original Feature Animation building appeared as the Medfield College Classroom Building.

Kurtti and Tieman claimed that, since cows could only walk up stairs, and not down, the beast was simply left in the building, forever wandering from office to office. They also noted the reason the animal had been selected for the sequence: “Cows are always funny.�? They also added, somewhat inscrutably, “The word underpants is much funnier than underwear.�?

As the session wound to a close, “Professors�? Kurtti and Tieman apologized to any “students�? who had attended any of their previous lectures. They admitted there was something missing from this show that had been in every other show—Old Yeller. Mention of the popular dog star (rescued from an area animal shelter) couldn’t be worked into this presentation about Medfield College, try as they might. And so, they concluded, “That’s our class—Medfield College in reality and myth.�?

Old Yeller, played by Spike, did NOT appear as any part of the Medfield campus.