Mouse Clubhouse: Recent Episodes
Mouse Clubhouse
(NOTE: You may click on the images in this article to view them larger) The first person that comes to my mind when I think of my Disney TV Animation days is Tim Walker. I started out working on “DuckTales” and Tim was the director. We quickly became friends and I loved his passion for … Continue reading Animator Tim Walker’s
brave battle →
Renie Bardeau, and two of his well-known photos of Walt Disney Renie began working as a photographer for Disneyland in 1959 and remained for 40 years. He became the chief photographer for the park, and in addition to shooting countless celebrities and dignitaries that would visit Disneyland, such as Emperor Hirohito of Japan, Prime Minister Nehru of India, and a number of US Presidents, Renie also photographed some of the most well-known photos of Walt Disney. He captured all the shows, parades, attractions and special events at Disneyland during his time there. Renie also took some of the most well-known photos of Walt Disney himself. Perhaps his best known photograph is of Walt, walking alone through the castle, an image that has later been dubbed “Footsteps,” and in a fire truck in front of the castle, which turned out to be Walt’s last visit to Disneyland.
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/interview-Renie-Bardeau.mp3 Walt’s last visit to Disneyland Renie’s first photoshoot, the opening of the Monorail, 1959 Walt surrounded by children Walt at the Creole Cafe (Now Cafe Orleans) Pinocchio’s Daring Journey in Disneyland Michael Jackson Sleeping Beauty Castle with fireworks AUDIO INDEX
2:06 Charlie Nichols, Disneyland’s first chief photographer; Renie’s start at Disneyland; He began summers only, and then began working full time
4:35 Walt Disney; A story of Walt at the Hills Bros. Coffee shop in Disneyland; “It’s not Mr. Disney, it’s Walt”; Renie first met Walt at the opening of the Pack Mules attraction at Disneyland; Walt’s philosophy on the Disneyland Guest; Everybody in the photography department took pictures as a team, they did not get credit
10:38 Renie watched Walt buy popcorn for the ducks; Renie photographed Walt under the castle, the photo now known as “Footsteps”
13:40 Renie never visited Disneyland before working there; The photography department at Disneyland, which was located above Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln; His first photoshoot was the grand opening of the Disneyland Monorail in 1959
15:40 The camera equipment, flash bulbs and film, and the photographing process; Missing shots
17:48 Some of the people that Renie photographed include Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton, Buck Owens; James Garner, Johnny Cash
20:38 Renie took over 10,000 photos in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle; Maintenance assignments included photographing pigeon poop on the castle; Photographing inside attractions and the Main Street Electrical Parade; Daily duties, a fish bowl filled with things to photograph; Uses of the photos included advertising, newspapers, magazines, etc.; Photographing fireworks
31:31 Walt Disney’s last photo in Disneyland, Walt and Mickey in the fire truck in front of the castle; Walt told Renie, “If you don’t have the shot in the can, you don’t have it.”
Dave Smith, receiving Disney Legends Award Dave Smith founded the Walt Disney Archives in 1970, and continually developed the system for preserving Disney’s history and making it easily accessible. Dave was a recognizable face and household name to Disney fans through his personal appearances at fan events, and his appearances on television programs and documentaries. He effectively gave the public access to the Archives through his priceless books, such as the Disney Encyclopedia A-Z, and his “Ask Dave” columns first in print magazines and later online.
As usual, I apologize for the quality as I never intended these to be heard. I originally was just posting text transcriptions of interviews.
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/interview-Dave-Smith.mp3 AUDIO INDEX
2:57 Enjoying Disney when growing up; Before Disney he was a librarian and an intern at the Library of Congress
5:11 How he ended up working for Disney and forming the Walt Disney Archives; While at UCLA, Dave worked with the Disney Studios to create a Disney bibliography; Took a two-month leave of absence from UCLA to see what was available at Disney for the formation of an Archives
8:22 Dave began working as the Archivist in the 3H wing of the Animation Building; How he gathered materials; The purpose of the Archives and how it has grown; Collecting materials of Disney’s acquisitions; The types of materials the Archives keeps
14:02 The things Dave gets excited about finding; What Dave enjoys about the job; About The Disney Encyclopedia A-Z; How Dave gets the new facts about Disney
18:08 From the beginning, Dave hoped to make a career as the Disney Archivist; How Disney fans have changed since 1970; There was no organized Disney fan base yet; Favorite aspects of his job, meeting some of the Disney Legends; Inspiring others and mentoring those with a big interest in Disney
20:53 Favorite memories of working for Disney; Roy O. Disney hired Dave to compile the Disney genealogy and sent him around the country for it; Dave describes Roy; Roy told Dave that it was Roy’s idea, not Walt’s, to change the Disney Bros. Studio name to Walt Disney Productions
Legendary dancer/choreographer Miriam Nelson Miriam Nelson was a legendary dancer/choreographer, working on numerous classic movies and television shows. She worked in Hollywood, Las Vegas, and on Broadway, and her work, and even choreographed a number for the Academy Awards. Miriam choreographed various shows for Disneyland over the years, including many of the dances on the televised opening day of Disneyland.
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/interview-Miriam-Nelson.mp3 AUDIO INDEX
2:07 Enjoyed working with Ingrid Berman in “The Cactus Flower”; Taught Bette Davis the Can-Can; Worked on Art Linkletter’s Hollywood Talent Scouts; Choreographing “The Jolson Story” and doubling for Evelyn Keyes in the movie
8:08 Miriam was involved in the development of the traveling arena show Disney on Parade
12:17 Choreographing the live televised opening day of Disneyland; Producer Sherman Marks asked Miriam to choreograph a cast of hundreds; Choreographed the Davy Crockett number in Frontierland; Had to run from land to land for the opening; The same dancers were used in the various lands;
15:17 Dancers once got lost backstage during the Disneyland opening day event; Surprised when an unexpected number of kids entered Fantasyland; A small boy dancer was supposed to dance and was nowhere to be found; In Frontierland, Miriam was surprised when the ground was not paved as it was supposed to be
19:41 Miriam choreographed a lot of shows in Tomorrowland in following years; A note from Walt Disney; Directors were very frustrated and threatened to walk out; Was put up in a motel the night before the live broadcast
Disney Legends Alice and Marc Davis Walt Disney considered Marc Davis, one of his core animation team of “nine old men”! Not only an animator, Marc designed many characters such as Cruella De Vil and Tinker Bell, before moving on to WED, now known as Walt Disney Imagineering, where he designed many of the scenes for classic Disneyland attractions such as it’s a small world, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise.
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/interview-Marc-Davis-Disneyland.mp3 AUDIO INDEX
4:46 After 101 Dalmatians, Marc was working on a concept for a film on Chanticleer, and in a strange meeting was told he couldn’t do that; After Chanticleer Walt asked Marc to work for WED and he started on the Mine Train attraction; Marc added some humor; He placed a fox shaking his head left and right next to a fox nodding his head up and down so they were looking at each other; Marc didn’t like the seat placement in the trains, feeling that people were looking at each other in the attraction rather that at the scenes, it was more important for people to see what was ahead, not what was behind you; Created a scene in the Mine Train which would be an earthquake, rocking the cars, but after some earthquakes he realized it would just scare people, the job wasn’t to scare people, but to entertain people
13:32 Adding humor to the Jungle Cruise including the elephant pool, the African veldt, later added the safari camp that the gorillas took over; Marc designed the trapped safari chased up the pole by the rhino because Walt wanted Marc to do things for the attractions that could be seen by the Disneyland Railroad, the safari was so good Walt wanted it in the ride; Walt was going to see a new elephant scene in the Jungle Cruise, a scene which didn’t work well for long; Tommy Walker was in charge of entertainment at the park and dressed in an elegant suit and played a practical joke on Walt in the elephant scene – Marc never saw Walt laugh like that
18:35 When Alice met Walt Disney at the Tam O’Shanter restaurant, and he told her he was going to hire her; The first job Alice did for Disney was making the costume live action costume for Briar Rose reference for Sleeping Beauty, she later worked on Toby Tyler, and then she was asked by request of Mary Blair to do the costumes for it’s a small world; designed the scenes for the attraction and met with the United Nations
23:28 Walt did not want a storyline in the Haunted Mansion; some artists were working on a storyline about a bride who was stood up at her wedding, but Walt didn’t want that; the appearance of Haunted Mansion exterior and Walt’s decision to keep “everything on the outside of these buildings should look neat and clean.” Bringing humor into Disneyland, and the trapped safari in the Jungle Cruise.
26:03 Marc Davis learned that Walt Disney wanted to do a Pirates of the Caribbean walk-through attraction; Alice Davis talks about creating the costumes for Pirates of the Caribbean; How realistic to be with pirates, and that the truth is that most died of venereal disease than in battles in bawdy houses. No characters were caricatures of Walt Disney, the staff or anybody except one who was a janitor.
34:20 Talking about the last show Marc worked on, America Sings
Tim Conway Tim Conway is not only a Hollywood Legend, but a comic genius. His work ranges from starring in the classic television series’ “McHale’s Navy,” and “The Carol Burnett Show” to playing the voice of Barnacle Boy on the animated series “Spongebob Squarepants.” He also appeared in a number of Disney films including, “The World’s Greatest Athlete,” “The Apple Dumpling Gang,” “The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again,” “Gus,” and “The Shaggy D.A.”
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/interview-Tim-Conway.mp3 AUDIO INDEX
2:32 Tim’s start in comedy; He was interested in horse racing and wanted to be a jockey; Went to Bowling Green State University; Went into the army; Worked at a radio station and took over for performer Jack Riley, who had been writing promos; Tim got into acting in promotions and then directing television; Directed a morning show with host Ernie Anderson; Rose Marie discovered Tim’s work and brought it to Steve Allen; Tim worked on the Steve Allen show; Was offered the role of Ensign Parker on McHale’s Navy and ultimately took the role; Tim voices the role of Barnacle Boy with Ernest Borgnine of Spongebob Squarepants; Worked with Don Knotts a lot including some Disney movies
9:02 The Carol Burnett Show; Carol didn’t believe in incorporating political or religious humor so it always had wide appeal; Harvey Korman; Tim was a writer on the show and then performed something other than what he wrote
10:56 Working for Disney, starting with “The World’s Greatest Athlete,” and “The Shaggy D.A.”; Working on the Disney backlot; Getting pies in the face
13:20 Tim talks about Don Knotts and some of his comedy heroes; The Steve Allen show; Tim describes himself and reflects on his career
Two Disney Legends: Marc & Alice Davis I’m so excited to share this interview with you, despite it’s poor quality. A 1997 conversation with the amazing Marc Davis, one of Walt Disney’s “nine old men”! Walt was so fond of Marc, whose work includes everything from designing characters such as Cruella De Vil and Tinker Bell to designing story and character concepts for such Disneyland attractions as it’s a small world, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise, Marc was a major part of Walt Disney’s success.
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/interview-Marc-Davis-animation.mp3 It was always a treat to receive the Christmas cards Marc drew AUDIO INDEX
3:11 Marc taught life drawing at Chouinard Art Institute for 17 years; Alice Davis was one of Marc’s students in the class and started going out together
4:33 Started working for Disney on December 2, 1935, due to his knowledge of animals and anatomy; Began working as an assistant animator for Grim Natwick on the character of Snow White in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; With his knowledge of animals and anatomy, Marc became part of the story team on Bambi; Moved from studio on Hyperion to a studio on Seward St. in Hollywood; Marc was part of the first creative group to move to the new Burbank Disney Studios; Walt was so intrigued with Marc’s drawings of the Bambi character that Walt said he wants Marc to animate; Story director Perce Pearce would say “Man is in the Forest” to indicate that Walt was coming down the hall
8:47 Marc remembers Walt Disney, “What a tremendous man he was”
10:53 As a treat for the assistant animator, Marc got to animate on Snow White, the scene with Dopey dancing on top of Sneezy
11:46 On Bambi, Marc worked on the design of the characters, Bambi, Thumper and Flower, animated a lot on the film as well; Marc did a photographic study of human babies and put those expressions into young Bambi
12:49 Walt Disney had relied on his foreign revenues from the worldwide distribution of his films, probably more than any other studio, and during World War II, he suddenly was not able to access his money, from England in particular. Walt was asked by the United States government to do films that would help the war effort and Marc worked on some of those and those films helped Disney survive the wartime; Marc worked Alexander P. de Seversky’s Victory Through Air Power, for Disney, despite being overlooked on screen credit; Marc ran in to Seversky at the New York World’s Fair that Disney had attractions in
17:42 Due to the war, Disney could not do full-length feature films so they did short subjects that they would tie together; Cinderella was the first full-length animated feature Disney did after the war; Marc animated the first sequence on Song of the South and also worked on story on it; Disney wasn’t capable of doing a full-length animated film which is why the film was live-action with only some animation; Marc and Alice attended the 30th anniversary of Song of the South After the war Marc worked on some of the films such as Sleeping Beauty and 101 Dalmatians; Walt like that Marc could do anything – Alice tells a story of when Walt called Marc a genius
23:52 Marc designed Tinker Bell and animated the close-up scenes with her; Peter Pan was written as a stage play, not a book, and in it, Tinker Bell was only a spot of light so Marc had to develop the character, and some people complained about his version
HOPE YOU ENJOY THE QUIZ AND MY PHOTOS! Correct answers will be displayed at the end of the quiz.
1)
What attraction is this? Pirates of the Caribbean Haunted Mansion The Hall of Presidents The American Adventure2)
Who is this? Figment Dreamfinder Nessie Puff3)
What is this? Journey Into Imagination The Seas with Nemo and Friends Mission: SPACE The Land Pavilion4)
What attraction is this? Jungle Cruise Expedition Everest Kilimanjaro Safaris Rafiki΄s Planet Watch5)
What attraction is this? it΄s a small world American Adventure Pirates of the Caribbean Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros6)
What attraction is this? Expedition Everest Matterhorn Bobsleds Big Thunder Railroad Splash Mountain7)
What attraction is this? Space Mountain Buzz Lightyear΄s Space Ranger Spin Mission: SPACE Spaceship Earth8)
What attraction is this? The American Adventure The Hall of Presidents Carousel of Progress Spaceship Earth9)
Who is this? Big Al Zeke Henry Tennessee10)
What attraction is this? Epcot Center Mission: SPACE Space Mountain Spaceship Earth
John “Doc” Anello leads his band “Doc Anello and the Swing Machine” at Carnation Plaza Gardens in Disneyland John “Doc” Anello started working at Disneyland in 1975. After a brief stint filling in for talent booker Sonny Anderson, John became the park’s production manager, ensuring Disney quality at all entertainment venues. He later became the manager of Disneyland entertainment’s education department. For several years after retiring he would conduct his own big band, “Doc Anello and the Swing Machine” at at Carnation Plaza Gardens in Disneyland. (See below for more photos and audio index)
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/interview-John-Doc-Anello.mp3 Larry Billman (also hear my interview with Larry) and John Anello work on the Disneyland “Fun with Music” show Doc Anello and the Swing Machine AUDIO INDEX
3:07 John had a band before working for Disney; He started working for Disney in 1975 as production manager for entertainment; Took over the All-American College Program from 1976 until 1980; Taught at College of the Desert in Palm Desert from 1980 until 1988; He had a performing group that traveled all over the United States; He started his band again in 1989; Stan Freese was working at Disneyland and hired him in 1991 to play at least once a month at Disneyland; Moved to Florida to help write a book with Ron Logan (who headed Disney live entertainment for the whole company)
4:48 Working on a Disney intern program which would have been similar to “Dancing with the Stars,” but years before that show was created
6:48 Started his band again and played at Disneyland, but first played in a band at the age of 15 in New Jersey; Also had a trio and quartet he performed with outside of Disney; About John’s band, the Doc Anello and the Swing Machine, and some of the band members;
8:27 John was discovered by Disney talent booker Sonny Anderson when he was performing at the Disneyland Hotel with bandleader, Bernie Bernard, who often performed there and Sonny, who was playing the drums; Director of entertainment Bob Jani hired John as a temporary talent booker when Sonny Anderson was ill; Went on leave of absence from where he was teaching to work for Disney; About Bob Jani
11:47 John became in charge of the All American College Program, which original was the All American College Band and the All American Singers and Dancers for both Disneyland and Walt Disney World; From 1977 through 1980 he would travel the country auditioning talent for the program
16:02 John went back to teaching college and leading a group of talented students
Randy Thornton with Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman Randy Thornton is a Grammy Award winning record producer for Walt Disney Records. In addition to producing many of their albums including tributes to the Sherman Brothers, Annette Funicello, the Disney pavilions of the 1964 New York World’s Fair, and Disney theme park official albums, Randy is also responsible for not only producing but restoring, preserving, and in some cases, saving the original Disney classic soundtracks that were produced by Walt Disney himself. Enjoy additional images below.
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/interview-Randy-Thornton-his-start-classic-soundtracks.mp3 Randy Thornton at work at Walt Disney Records Some of the Disney albums Randy worked on AUDIO INDEX
2:49 One of Randy Thornton’s favorite Disney memories – it involved Scott Wolf, Michael Leon, Robbie Sherman and the Academy Award winning songwriter Robert B. Sherman
3:33 Randy’s start with Disney at Walt Disney Records; After studying at Art Center, he began working as a clerk in the music department I 1987; A little about Ron Kidd, director of product development
8:53 Characters at the studio on Randy’s birthday; Accessing the master tapes in the vault, being told to throw them out
11:40 Disney’s read-along albums, writing the stories for the “Alf” read-alongs, based on the television comedy series; “Alf” producer Tom Patchett likes Randy’s stories
15:24 CD technology was new; Randy was determining quality of Disney audio tracks for new Disney Classics CD releases, two of Disney’s earliest CDs; Inspired to do a “Mary Poppins” soundtrack CD; Discovering Sherman Brothers demo of songs intended for the “Mary Poppins” movie; Randy takes unique measures to get best quality audio on the first “Mary Poppins” CD and getting to remix the original music tracks for it; Possibly the first remastered soundtrack ever
25:23 Randy produces his first album, the “Jungle Book” CD in 1990; Began working with the Sherman Brothers; Working with Tutti Camarata; A little history about Tutti; Disneyland Vista Records becomes Walt Disney Records, and then for a year splits into Walt Disney Records for music and spoken word would be Disney Audio Entertainment
27:44 Michael Leon was producing “Pinocchio” soundtrack CD; Discovering original “Pinocchio” original music sessions including “When You Wish Upon a Star,” despite that many of the original soundtracks got destroyed; Collaborating with the film restoration on “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”
35:02 Creating listening experiences out of film soundtracks; The start of all the classic Disney soundtracks getting restored
Randy Thornton with Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman
Disneyland entertainers Jim Adams and Don Payne Jim Adams and Don Payne entertained thousands of guests at Disneyland and toured the country for Disney in the 1970s.
Together and individually Jim and Don were involved in performing, writing and directing many of Disneyland’s events such as “The Baby Animal Show” at Carnation Plaza Gardens, the “Fun with Music” show at the Fantasyland Theater, “The Great Annual Easter Walking Race” and much more. Jim and Don both also starred in Disneyland’s historic “Golden Horseshoe Revue,” alternating with Disney Legend Wally Boag. (See more photos and audio index below)
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/interview-jim-adams-don-payne.mp3 Jim Adams delights an audience member during the “Golden Horseshoe Revue” Don Payne entertains in the “Golden Horseshoe Revue” Jim Adams hosts “The Baby Animal Show” with Goofy and a live duckling As puppeteer, Don Payne takes a break during a television appearance to promote Disney’s “101 Dalmatians” Jim Adams shares a laugh with Disney Legend Fulton Burley in a bicentennial-themed version of the “Golden Horseshoe Revue” AUDIO INDEX
2:56 Jim’s start in entertainment at Disneyland; Began in the Christmas parade; Meeting Wally Boag for the first time; Wally enlisted Jim to perform in the Disneyland Drama Workshop including “Chicken Ranching for Fun and Profit” and “Tail of the West”; Intended for internal performances, “Chicken Ranching” was eventually seen by the public; Jim started performing in the “Golden Horseshoe Revue”
11:10 Jim toured the country promoting Disneyland and Disney’s latest film releases; Did television and radio shows, live shows at malls and hospital visits
13:06 Remembering Disney Legend Fulton Burley; Fulton was always entertaining people, both on and off stage; Fulton even entertained in the bathroom!; Working with Fulton in the “Golden Horseshoe Revue”
23:16 Don’s start at Disneyland; Began in the Christmas Parade, with his first performance on December 15, 1966, the day Walt Disney died; Don remembers snow at Disneyland that night; Don joins the character department and then becomes a performer in the “Golden Horseshoe Revue”
28:34 Jim begins performing the Mountain Man character as the “Golden Horseshoe Revue” pre-show, and Don takes over the Mountain Man pre-show when Jim was in the main show
Kathleen after being named Disneyland Ambassador 1993 Kathleen Mitts Micalizzi was the 1993 Disneyland Ambassador to the World. (More photos and audio index below)
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/interview-Kathleen-Mitts-Micalizzi.mp3 As part of the press, we were notified moments before the winner was announced so we could focus in on her Kathleen and Pluto in the Hollywood Christmas Parade
Kathleen in the 1993 Tournament of Roses parade
Kathleen in the Space Mountain attraction safety video AUDIO INDEX
1:38 How Kathleen came to appear in the Space Mountain safety video
2:49 Kathleen got her start at Disneyland performing in parades and shows including the Main Street Electrical Parade, Party Gras, Main Street Hop and Fantasmic!
5:07 After three attempts, Kathleen was finally chosen as Disneyland Ambassador to the World for 1993. Everything immediately changed for Kathleen as soon as she was selected; A funny memory of her first day as Ambassador
7:32 A lot of traveling was involved, representing Disney throughout the United States; About the Mickey’s Toontown promotional tour, and making television and radio appearances as well as hospital visits for sick children
9:03 The opening of Mickey’s Toontown, dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony
9:34 Traveling to Tokyo Disneyland for their 10th anniversary with all Disney Ambassadors, and visiting Paris
11:46 Appearing in the Hollywood Christmas Parade and the Tournament of Roses; Receiving gifts as Ambassador
15:53 Summing up her Ambassador year
Disney costume designer Alyja Kalinich For decades, Alyja Kalinich was a costume designer for Disney, and her work has been seen all over the world! Her costumes include many characters, overdressing for characters, and an almost unimaginable array of designs for Disney’s many parades and shows at Disney theme parks here and abroad. Alyja has done costume design for Disney on Ice, the New York City Ambassador Theatre, and Radio City Music Hall. She had to take so much into consideration when designing, such as where to place the battery packs and LED lights for the costumes she designed for Tokyo Disneyland’s Electrical Parade Dreamlights. In fact, an update to that parade in 2015, including lighted Rapunzel and Flynn costumes, would be her last designs before retiring. From Roger Rabbit, Aladdin and the Genie, to dancing seaweed, dancing film strips, insects, cheetahs and gazelle – the thousands of costumes Alyja has designed has brought joy to millions of people.
Scott Wolf: How did you get into designing costumes?
Alyja Kalinich: I went to art school. I majored in fine art at St. John’s University and then transferred to Parsons School of Design in New York. I studied illustration, and that was going to be my career… to illustrate.
When I finished there, I came to California on a vacation and loved it so much.
Before that, I started working for Oleg Cassini, who was a designer in New York, and doing his illustrations because a lot of designers can’t really draw very well – they do stick figures. I happened to have a saleable way of drawing, so they would use me to do their sketches, and some of them don’t have time, so I would do them.
Then I went on vacation to California and loved it and said goodbye to all my friends in New York and goodbye to Oleg Cassini. I decided to start a new life in California, and he actually came out two weeks later to do a film and he asked me to be his assistant designer on the film. So it worked out that I got into that and kind of saw the designer’s actual working, not just the sketch.
After that finished, I went looking around and found Disneyland and I thought, Well, okay, I’ll go by and check it out and see if there’s any design with sketching involved of any kind, because I could do interiors and all that.
I was hired by Bob Phelps and Tom Peirce. I believe Tom Peirce and Jack Muhs were the very first designers there, and they hired me as their sketch artist and I would do their sketches. They would of course have to present their designs and their ideas to the producer of the show and all that, so their idea would go with my sketch and they would talk it through and so on.
I did that for a number of years and then they needed a designer so they put me as an assistant designer first.
Larry Billman helped me actually helped me. It was serendipitous. Life is so serendipitous really. You can plan all you want, but it just takes you where it goes if you don’t say no. Larry rushed down to me, and he said, “Jack isn’t here, I need a design for Bob Jani,” who was at that time the big entertainment guru there. So I did a sketch and he took it from me and presented it to Bob Jani and Bob liked it, so it became my turn to actually art direct it, too. So that was my first thing. I remember it was kind of a bland look but I learned a lot from my very first experience and I owe it to Larry Billman, and the fact that Jack wasn’t there.
Then they put me on to other things and it came on and on and then I did parades. “The Lion King” parade, I did that one.
SW: That had spectacular costumes. Which ones did you work on for that?
AK: I did all the costumes for the parade.
Alyja’s costumes from the “Lion King Celebration” in Disneyland SW: The gazelles and and cheetahs and zebras? Those were a very unique style. Just beautiful. Was that the first time that Disney did kind of an artsy kind of animal like that?
AK: Yes, it was the very first time. The whole parade was a little bit of an abstraction. That was told to us by the producer/director so that was their input to us, the set designer and the costume designer. Then we, inspired by their thought, stepped away a little bit from reality. It was great fun.
SW: Did you have to do any kind of research for those costumes?
AK: Always. Before you begin a project, you kind of ruminate what goes on in your head through the days as you do your regular stuff, it’s in the back of your mind. Then I have tear sheets, every time I look at a magazine I always pull stuff out and put it away, and all of that stays in your mind and the act of seeing and that recognizing what you’ve seen that it could be like a hook to something. Taking and saving, all of that is a constant process in the life of a designer, I would think. A constant process, life is never dull.
Alyja designed all the ’50s costumes and overdressings for this Tokyo Disneyland show, from Minnie’s poodle skirt to Dale’s slicked back hair SW: So you were no longer the assistant by the time you did “Lion King”?
AK: Right. I was a designer then.
SW: Were you working strictly for Disneyland at that time?
AK: Yes, I was on staff for 20 years. When I was an assistant, I did go to Walt Disney World for awhile when it opened. My name is on one of the store fronts in Disney World! It’s my maiden name, Alyja Paskevicius! I couldn’t believe it! It’s there still!
Alyja in a 1971 newspaper article for the opening of Walt Disney World SW: That’s awesome! So you were there for the opening of Magic Kingdom?
AK: Yes.
SW: What kinds of costumes did you do back then in the ‘70s?
AK: That was the beginning of the park so there were a lot of operational costumes that I did drawings for Tom Peirce.
SW: What do you mean by “operational”? Is that like shops and restaurants and things?
AK: Yes, like what your wife wore (when she worked serving food) at Carnation.
SW: So you were working on a lot more than just shows and parades.
AK: I did both for Tom Peirce who did operational and for Jack Muhs who did entertainment. Tom Peirce is such a part of Disney history, and Jack Muhs, too, he’s passed away. He did the costumes for the Golden Horseshoe and then I redid them toward the end.
Film reel costumes “Disney on Parade at Tokyo Disneyland” SW: What was the process when you would start designing, like a parade?
AK: The producer and the director come to you, the designer. Usually the director comes and says we’re doing this parade or this show, and they give you the script or they give you the number of units in a parade, the general idea of the whole thing and the number of people, the number of men and women. They give you a lot of the technical details plus the general feeling and an inspirational talk as to what the story is, and what the music will be like. Then you go back to that little room or wherever, and you come up with your concepts. Then you have a meeting and you present the concepts.
I tend to like to do the whole parade rather than one costume at a time, because then you get a general overview in your mind’s eye. So you present that to usually the director and the producer, and they’ll say, “This looks good, this looks good, let’s change this, let’s do this different,” or whatever. It’s a very malleable process and you just stay flexible. It’s a group thing, but you have your own contribution. Then the set designer comes in and he has the same process. Then we all come together and we look at all the work together. The music comes in and we get approval on what to begin with and then we go to the prototype costume first.
A bug character from the Disney Silly Symphony “Flowers and Trees” What I would do then is take my sketch that has been finally approved by the show director and the producer. Take it to a costume house, which is sort of like how an architect would have a contractor. The architect goes to the contractor and says, “I would like this built, how would you do it? Let’s talk about what the materials would be,” and so on, so in that sense I go to a costume house and I would say, “Let’s talk about this. I would like this, this big, maybe a cage,” or whatever thoughts I may have and then listening to their experience. I need them badly because they’re the people with a lot of good thoughts, so I welcome everything. That’s where you really have to communicate. Communication is pretty big in this process, and then to inspire them to really get the essence of it, of that elephant or whatever you’re doing, the essence of it so that they would understand it and be excited to do it.
SW: When you set out to design something, do you have to worry about limitations, like is it even possible to do something like this, or do you shoot for the moon and see what the costume house can do?
An array of bugs from “A Bug’s Life” AK: I know what can be done. I know that I can’t have someone fly in the air without wires or that I need a harness if they’re up in the air. I know that from experience. So I do take that into account already. But if there’s new materials, plastic materials say, new types of fabric that I haven’t seen out there yet that they may know about, I welcome all those new ideas. I welcome everything from them. But I do know my limitations, and also the budgetary limitations and the time. The clock is always ticking behind me.
SW: Out of everything you’ve worked on, do you have a favorite project?
Alyja’s costume designs for the Jim Henson show “Here Come the Muppets” in Disney-MGM Studios AK: I guess “The Lion King” parade. That to me is everything, because of the music, too, it makes me kind of get a tear in my eye, but I love a lot of the stuff I did for Japan, and I love some of the Muppet stuff I did in 3-D, for the characters in Walt Disney World. I learned a lot about their quality of work because their art is softer and Disney art is more hard-edged. The Muppets have a lot of soft flowing things. I learned a lot from going from one kind of discipline to another, I was very fortunate.
SW: Did Jim Henson have to approve your work?
AK: Yes, but he died right then. It was just so horrible, and then someone else had to approve it, but he was such a nice guy. Such a tragedy.
One of Alyja’s costumes for the Party Gras parade in Disneyland SW: I know you worked on my favorite parade Party Gras, I saw the photo of the banana character in your other room.
AK: Most of the parade was done by Jack Muhs and I just contributed the new characters. That’s how it worked. That was assigned to me because I like to do little new characters or think them up.
SW: I saw you designed a seaweed costume. What’s the strangest costume you’ve done?
AK: Maybe the elephants for Radio City Music Hall.
SW: Was that the live Magical World of Disney show?
AK: Yes, the elephants, we did sort of a black light elephant dream sequence from “Dumbo” and we had them stretch and jump around. It was a good effect.
SW: What was that Magic World of Disney show?
AK: Similar to what Barnette Ricci usually does in the time I was there she would combine all the Disney music and all that, and all the characters and bring them all out and times. We had the giant brooms from “Fantasia” and the Rockettes had to get inside of them and they were not happy. They were not happy with me because they weren’t seen. I felt so bad, because when the performer is not happy, it’s not pleasant, but they did get to show themselves later. It was just a moment. I said, “It was just a moment when you’re a broom.”
SW: Was that the biggest show you’ve done?
AK: I did an Ambassador Theatre one for the premiere of “Hercules.” That was a big show as well. Every one of them is pretty detailed. Most of my projects have over a hundred people in them.
SW: Were you working for Disneyland when you were asked to do the Radio City show?
AK: Yes, it was all Disney, through Barnette. Barnette came to ask me. She was on staff in entertainment at Disneyland, so we were all kind of a group.
SW: Which “Disney On Ice” shows did you work on?
AK: “Pocahontas,” and a lot of the characters for the other shows, overdressings for like Mickey and Minnie and stuff like that.
SW: Overdressings are like the character’s “wardrobe,” right?
Dale wears one of Alyja’s overdressings for the Disney Dreams on Parade in Tokyo Disneyland AK: Yes. It changes the look of the character. The character still remains Mickey and Minnie but maybe has a raincoat on instead of the little dress that Minnie’s wearing. That’s an overdressing.
SW: When you design for ice shows, is it different than a stage show or a Disney parade?
Mickey and Minnie overdressings designed by Alyja for Tokyo Disneyland AK: Oh yes, it’s a whole different venue and different needs for the person. They have to move quite a bit. It’s quite another world.
Also, if you are doing an indoor show, it’s a whole other world than an outdoor entertainment because outside it’s very unforgiving. There’s no lights to hide behind. The lighting designer can help you with your costume, make them look more mysterious, the moodiness. You have to create that mood right there in the sunshine and it’s a strange little world, outdoor entertainment. You also have to have that costume be a focal point as you’re looking at it because behind that costume there are myriads of people, taking your attention away from what’s going on in the parade. There’s all kinds of faces, colors, and all of that. You have to keep that in mind and you have to make sure that when the person sees the costume up close that it looks like a well-made piece and that it has the quality of the thing that you’re trying to portray up close. It’s very unforgiving. It’s not very easy. I think theatrical design is easier because you’re in the dark, you can collaborate with the lighting person and determine color – it’s a lot more forgiving.
SW: You mentioned the lighting people a moment ago. What other people would you deal with?
AK: On every production it’s the director, the set designer, the lighting designer and the costume designer, working together, and the choreographer as well.
SW: Why would the choreographer work with you?
AK: If for some reason the person can’t move properly with the costume I’ve done, that I’d need to fix. That’s my problem unless we collaborate and they do a little less choreography and I do a little fixing on the costume. It’s very collaborative.
SW: Some characters have extravagant makeup, like some of your costumes for parades, flowers for example, also have flowery makeup on their face. Are you involved in that?
AK: Yes, I approve the makeup during dress rehearsal. We work out every problem that we can work out at dress rehearsal. We usually have a few dress before we do the final dress, and by the final dress all problems should be worked out and makeup should be the way it would be on the opening day. So yes, makeup is part of my thing, and also hair.
It is a hard job and it requires a lot of people cooperating and coming together and working with a lot of different personalities and a lot of different time frames, the money, all of that. But the final happy time is when you see the people looking at it and you can see the faces and you can tell there’s something in them that’s lifted up a little or taken away from their cares of the day by something visual and something musical. Those two things. Those two things can transport you to a much different world than the world you’re in. So I could see that.
And then I look at the things I could have done better and then I look at things I like, too, so I bask in that, I don’t negate that, but then I think, “Next time this…” but it’s the reaction of the people.
Alyja holds dolls wearing her costumes she designed for a parade. These were sold in Tokyo Disneyland.
Ron Logan at the Disney Legends ceremony From trumpet playing in the 1958 Christmas parade at Disneyland, Ron Logan climbed the ladder to become the executive vice president, executive producer of Walt Disney Entertainment, responsible for all the live entertainment in the entire company.
(Audio index and more photos below)
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/interview-Ron-Logan.mp3 Ron Logan, Betty Taylor and Dennis Despie at the final performance of the Golden Horseshoe Revue at Disneyland Ron Logan’s windows on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World Ron Logan’s fresh handprints in cement after receiving his Disney Legends award AUDIO INDEX
1:40 Started with Disney in 10th grade in a band headed by Les Brown, Jr.; In 1958, Ron was in the toy soldier band in the Disneyland Christmas parade; Was in the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics playing trumpet; About Disney’s participation in the Olympics; Ron became the leader of the fanfare group for the Olympics and he stayed as a consultant for Disney for 18 years, wrote scripts, worked on half time shows, put bands together for parades and New Year’s Eve and more
6:45 About the Disneyland entertainment department when it was headed by Tommy Walker who was the son of Vesey Walker who headed the Disneyland Band; The start of the Disneyland Band; About Tommy Walker; There were no rules at the time; The entertainment industry was a bawdy industry but brought into a family atmosphere;
10:10 Shows and parades back when Ron started; The entertainment was very professional; Entertainers were not even allowed to wear glasses, rings, watches, and jewelry; Ron demanded top quality entertainment; Ron did not like band members wearing sunglasses, but the union stepped in; Ron demanded quality in the entertainment
12:56 Meeting Walt Disney three times, Walt was very friendly to people and interested in people; A story about Roy Disney when the band decided to “have some fun”; Ron worked for talent booker Sonny Anderson, putting bands for together for various parades and events and was responsible for them
15:58 Ron went from music up the ladder to executive vice president of Walt Disney Entertainment Worldwide; His responsibilities as music director; What being the director of entertainment for Disneyland entailed
19:55 About Disneyland director of entertainment, Bob Jani; Bob discovering Ron during a rehearsal of a fanfare group led to Ron becoming music director in Walt Disney World
22:50 His role as executive vice president of Walt Disney Entertainment Worldwide, responsible for all entertainment in The Walt Disney Company; The day Ron Logan inherited the Mighty Ducks as part of the job; Inherited the Angels the same way; Also responsible for Asia, South America, Europe; The opening of Epcot; Bob Jani did a lot of planning for the grand opening of Epcot, but then Ron inherited that to make sure everything ran properly; Bob came up with the concepts
32:12 Disney was so unique there really wasn’t competition; Bob Jani made Dennis Despie the vice president of entertainment for Disneyland, and Ron was made the director; When Dennis left, Ron took over the job; Becoming Disneyland director of entertainment; Creative side vs. operational side; Training in Japan for Tokyo Disneyland; Big challenges for Euro Disneyland
43:32 Ron’s favorite projects
Disney photographer Gary Krueger Gary has been a photographer for Disney since 1967, photographing all of Disney’s theme parks here and abroad, including the grand opening of Walt Disney World and the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Euro Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland and the Disney Cruise Line and events such as many of Disney’s movie premieres including Lion King in London and New York, Pocahontas in Central Park, two Pirates of the Caribbean movies at Disneyland, Cars at the Charlotte Speedway, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/interview-Gary-Krueger.mp3 Mickey Mouse in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland, postcard photo by Gary Krueger Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio and Geppetto in Fantasyland, Disneyland postcard photo by Gary Krueger Mickey & MInnie in the American pavilion in Epcot, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger Polynesia Village Resort, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger Tomorrowland attractions, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger Pirates of the Caribbean, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger Liberty Square attractions, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger The Haunted Mansion, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger The Universe of Energy in Epcot, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger Romantic Mickey and Minnie on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger Mickey and the gang in front of Cinderella Castle, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger The Land pavilion in Epcot, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger Spaceship Earth in Epcot, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger Fireworks seen from the Japan pavilion in Epcot, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger Mickey and the gang ride the Toontown Jolly Trolley, Disneyland postcard photo by Gary Krueger Journey Into Imagination pavilion in Epcot, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger Italy pavilion in Epcot, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger China Pavilion in Epcot, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger Mickey and Minnie in Mickey’s Toontown, Disneyland postcard photo by Gary Krueger Country Bear Jamboree, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger Streetmosphere in Disney-MGM Studios, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger it’s a small world, Disneyland postcard photo by Gary Krueger Journey Into Imagination pavilion in Epcot, Walt Disney world postcard photo by Gary Krueger Mickey and the gang at Sleeping Beauty Castle, Disneyland postcard photo by Gary Krueger Characters at the Disneyland Railroad, Disneyland postcard photo by Gary Krueger Tree of Life in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger Frontierland attractions, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger Main Street in Disneyland (Dapper Dans: Bill Lewis, Jim Schamp, Shelby Grimm and Jim Campbell, Disneyland postcard photo by Gary Krueger Chip ‘n Dale in Mickey’s Toontown, Disneylandpostcard photo by Gary Krueger Minnie and Mickey at The Great Movie Ride, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger Mickey & Minnie in Mickey’s Toontown, Disneyland postcard photo by Gary Krueger it’s a small world, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger Tree of Life at dusk, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger Disney-MGM Studios water tower, Walt Disney World postcard photo by Gary Krueger Mr. Smee and Captain Hook on the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship, Disneyland postcard photo by Gary Krueger Stan Freese and Mickey Mouse lead the Disneyland Band, Disneyland postcard photo by Gary Krueger Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in Fantasyland, Disneyland postcard photo by Gary Krueger AUDIO INDEX
1:13 Gary’s start in photography and working for Disney; Getting hired by Walt Disney Imagineering; He quit and then became freelance
3:04 Photographed the opening of Walt Disney World; His photos were used for multimedia shows, slide presentations and much internal use; shooting Disneyland photos
6:49 Hired by Disneyland and Walt Disney Imagineering and some of his other work such as the L.A. Times, Los Angeles magazine and airplane magazines; He photographed an Evil Kneivel jump for Rolling Stone magazine
8:41 Many countries and cities around the world that Gary visited for Disney, including Morocco for presentations regarding the Moroccan pavilion in Epcot, and photographing the opening of Disneyland Paris and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Hong Kong Disneyland and much more
10:11 Gary photographed many movie premieres, including Beauty and the Beast in London or the Pirates of the Caribbean movie at Disneyland; takes hundreds of pictures per event
12:19 Moving into the digital age; Some of Gary’s techniques
17:50 How he was given various assignments, and he would choose the composition, such as for postcards
20:35 Gary’s hands became Abraham Lincoln’s for “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln”
22:49 Waiting for just the right moment for a photo, such as lining up the monorail and submarines
Actor Gary Dubin Actor Gary Dubin began his acting career at the age of six, and went on to appear in numerous movies and television series, including a recurring role as Punky Lazaar in “The Partridge Family,” and voicing the character of kitten Toulouse in the 1970 Disney animated feature “The Aristocats” (More photos below)
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/interview-Gary-Dubin.mp3 Gary appears in an episode of Adam 12 Close-up of Gary in Adam 12 Gary recording the voice of Toulouse in The Aristocats Gary Dubin in an episode of The Paper Chase AUDIO INDEX
:56 How Gary got started in acting at the age of six; Some of the films he appeared in, including his recurring role as Punky Lazaar in “The Partridge Family”
3:47 Auditioning for The Aristocats in 1969 at the age of 10; Being on the Disney lot; Preparing for and recording the songs
5:43 Spending time in studio schools as a child actor
6:15 Getting recognized for his work
Walt Disney and Harriet Burns study a bird Harriet Burns worked on some of Disney’s most classic movies, television shows and theme parks, having started on the earliest days of Disneyland and retiring after working on Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland. Harriet often worked on props for Disney movies such as “Babes in Toyland” and “Mary Poppins.” Primarily a scenic designer/model maker, Harriet ended up involved in much more than what her job typically entailed, and often appeared on television with Walt Disney. (See more photos below)
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/interview-Harriet-Burns-Babes-in-Toyland-Mary-Poppins-1.mp3 AUDIO INDEX
1:16 Working on “Babes in Toyland”; Working on the big cake for the “Babes in Toyland” cast party, which was a televised as an episode of “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color” entitled “Backstage Party”; performing the goose puppet for Mother Goose in the movie and television show
4:26 Working on the robin for the “Spoonful of Sugar” scene in “Mary Poppins”; Obtaining a robin skin from 1893 from the Natural History Museum for authenticity – trading it for Disneyland tickets; Julie Andrews wore a ring that went from the robin to the controls of the mechanical bird; Walt Disney liked to “show off” the bird
Harriet burns sits behind Walt Disney on the set of the “Babes in Toyland” movie, for the “Backstage Party” episode of “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color” Mary McCarty appears as Mother Goose as Harriet operates her goose puppet for the close-up camera shots
Jack Gladish, working on “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln” for the World’s Fair Jack Gladish started his Disney career as a precision camera machinist, working on classic animated films, and he later became an engineer working on attractions for Disneyland and Disney’s exhibits at the 1964 New York World’s Fair and eventually for the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. Some of the projects Jack was involved with throughout the years include Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, the Carousel of Progress, Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, the Jungle Cruise, Adventure Thru Inner Space and much more.
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/interview-Jack-Gladish-Jungle-Cruise.mp3 AUDIO INDEX
1:11 The process for creating the Jungle Cruise animals, particularly an elephant; Creating a master mold; How to cure the animals in an oven; Creating the vinyl skins and ensuring they won’t wear from rubbing against the fiberglass shell
Jay Meyer in Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe As a singer, Jay Meyer has appeared in countless performances on television, movies and stage. He was a regular singer with the Ray Conniff singers, in the “Top Twenty” choir on the Tennessee Ernie Ford television show, and with the Sportsmen Quartet in the Phil Silvers and Alice Faye show and the Jack Benny show, first on radio, then on television. Jay sang in the chorus on such movies as “Mary Poppins,” “The Sound of Music,” “Annie get your Gun,” “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad,Mad World” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” He’s appeared in concerts at the Hollywood Bowl with people such as Sammy Davis Jr. and Ray Charles, and in radio and television commercials for companies such as Post cereals, Mattel, Knotts Berry Farm and was seen singing “You Deserve a Break Today” for McDonalds. Jay is also seen and heard as a singing statue in the Disney “Haunted Mansion” attractions around the world. For fourteen years, Jay also appeared live in Disneyland entertaining audiences with Irish tunes in the historical Golden Horseshoe Revue.
HEAR JAY’S INTERVIEW:
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/interview-Jay-Meyer.mp3
SEE JAY IN VARIOUS PERFORMANCES:
ENJOY THESE PHOTOS:
Jay Meyer with a photo of his image in the “Haunted Mansion” Jay Meyer as a singing statue in Disney’s Haunted Mansion attraction Jay Meyer (top) with the Sportsmen Quartet Jay Meyer in a performance of Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe Revue AUDIO INDEX
1:19 Jay sings “It’s a Great Day for the Irish”
1:30 Jay’s start as a singer; Played trumpet and was the sole cheerleader at school; Jay joined the Marine Corps; Performed in the Marines
4:37 Jay moved to Los Angeles; Sang with Spike Jones, when Jones’ singer wife was pregnant; Joined the Jack Benny show as part of the Sportsmen
Quartet, including the Lucky Strike commercials
5:47 Jay sings one of the Lucky Strike songs plus clips of the original Lucky Strike commercials
8:29 Working on the Jack Benny Show and the Phil Harris/Alice Faye show; Went to New York and did Summer Stock; His wife, Tommy Meyer was a writer; Came back to California and did films and television
11:14 Jay was called to become a singing statue in the Haunted Mansion; Also did the Golden Horseshoe Revue as Fulton Burley’s substitute; Agreed to do the Horseshoe for six weeks in 1972 and stayed for 14 years
13:20 Jay sings “Too Ra Loo Ral” in a Golden Horseshoe Revue performance at Disneyland
Below is the transcribed interview of the Don Dorsey interview regarding IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth at Epcot. To hear the interview and view related content, please visit www.mouseclubhouse.com/interview-don-dorsey
SCOTT WOLF: This is Scott Wolf and this Mouse Clubhouse conversation is with Don Dorsey. Don is a musician, director, producer, and audio engineer whose work for Disney includes everything from musical performances and arrangements to sound design and complete show design and direction for several Disney parks.
I personally first became familiar with Don when I saw him on the Disney Channel in a show about the Main Street Electrical Parade. Don was demonstrating how he performed much of the music in the actual parade soundtrack. It wasn’t until a few years later that I made the connection that it was the same Don Dorsey who arranged and performed a synthesized classical CD I already had in my collection called Bachbusters. His CD was number one on the Billboard classical charts for 14 weeks in 1986 and his second CD, Beethoven or Bust was number one for 24 weeks in 1988.
In this conversation from 2009, Don talks about his start with Disney and working with people like Jack Wagner and Bob Jani, and his involvement in the bicentennial America on Parade.
Because I didn’t originally intend for this conversation to be heard by the public, and I was already familiar with those names, I didn’t ask Don to elaborate for people who may not know. Now that you’ll be hearing this audio, I want to give you a little more detail, so I’m sitting here with Don right now.
First and foremost, who was Jack Wagner?
DON DORSEY: Jack Wagner’s probably best known as the voice of Disneyland. For many years, Jack was heard doing all of the in-park announcements, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, please keep your hands and arms inside the various ride and attraction vehicles. Also, the voice of the Disneyland train announcements. For a long time, the voice of the ticket booths. And Jack was the audio producer for everything the entertainment division created. He was also my mentor. He persuaded Bob Jani to hire me as his personal assistant, and I worked directly with Jack at his home studio for many years.
SW: Right, and you also mentioned Bob Jani in the conversation we’re going to hear.
DD: Bob Jani was the vice president of entertainment at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, up to 1978. He created the Electrical Water Pageant, America on Parade, the Main Street Electrical Parade and later went on to form his own production company and become president of Radio City Music Hall Productions.
SW: I know you mention America on Parade in the conversation, can you set the stage about that parade for people who may not be familiar with it?
DD: America on Parade was one of the largest parades Disney ever produced up until Fantillusion for Tokyo Disneyland. It replaced all parades at Disneyland for 1975 and 1976 while we were celebrating the bicentennial, America’s bicentennial.
There was a special overture tune for America on Parade, written by the Sherman Brothers, called “The Glorious Fourth,” and that played as an overture before the parade arrived. The rest of the America on Parade music was me and Sadie Mae. Sadie Mae was a mechanical musical instrument that we call a band organ. It has flutes and pipes and drums and whistles and plays itself from basically large player piano rolls.
SW: Yeah, that’s very cool. And one last thing, before we get to the conversation. You briefly mention Jack’s announcement for the Electrical Parade. Is that the one that had the electronic voice?
DD: Yes, that’s the one. In thousands of sparkling lights and electrosynthemagnetic musical sounds.
SW: Well, thanks, Don! Now, here’s my conversation with Don Dorsey from 2009.
DD: When I got out of high school, I bought the Minimoog with money from my mother and just started learning it inside out and doing recordings at home, and I had a four track recorder and I would do multiple parts and mix them together and then overdub that and so on. So I was teaching myself multitrack recording and learning about recording.
Because I had a synthesizer all my friends from high school who had bands were very interested in that. So if they were going to go in the studio and make a demo tape, then I would come in and bring my synthesizer and add the synthesizer tracks to their demo tape, and sort of produce the session, work with them in the studio because I had more recording experience.
I worked out of this one studio in Santa Ana called United Audio. The engineer there was Bob Stone. Bob Stone was sort of a mentor in that as he was engineering I would ask a lot of questions and he would teach me. So as I did more and more recording sessions there and got to know the engineering a little better, and got to know Bob a little better and he saw that I was interested and capable, we got to be friends. At some point, and I don’t remember what the session or occasion was, but at some point he got called out of the room on a phone call and he was gone for a long, long time, and the musicians who were paying by the hour were getting antsy, and I just said, “Well, I know how to press record,” so I moved over into Bob’s chair, and I pressed record and I’m flying the session. Then, when Bob came back I said, “Here you go,” and he said, “No, no, you’re okay.” Then he sat and coached me from the producer’s chair and I was engineering.
So I had this engineering background and as I worked with more and more friend groups and so on, I would buy – the studio time I think was 75 dollars an hour or something. The studio wasn’t doing very well. As I was needing more and more studio time, and people were tied up for money, I would go to him and I would say, “If I pay you cash for 10 hours, can I get a discount?” And so we had this ongoing thing, I would buy in bulk the studio time, which would keep his studio busy and he would have cash. So I got some great deals on studio time, so I was able to find projects that I wanted to record and since I could now engineer, I didn’t have to have the engineer there, he didn’t have to pay the engineer, so it worked for him, it worked for me. So I brought people in and we produced demo tapes and stuff and I got more engineering jobs and so on.
Meanwhile, I was going to Cal State Fullerton, in the music department, I was a music major at the time and I was doing music copying and transcribing and stuff. Jose Feliciano opened a studio in Orange, on Tustin Avenue, and somebody said, “Oh, he’s got the studio, we should really go check it out. So we went down there, we opened the door and walked in, and it’s a big, empty, professional studio and finally we found the control room door and walked in.
There was a guy in there, his name was Bobby Thomas, and he was the engineer. And we started talking to him and he found out I had the synthesizer and he said, “Oh, why don’t you bring it to the studio,” so I brought it to the studio and we ended up staying up all night and recording a track of a piece that I had written. He played drums. What happened was he said, “Let’s record something,” and he set up the machine and everything and he went out and set up the drums and I stayed in the control room and played bass on the synthesizer to his drums and we just sort of laid down a rhythm thing and then he came back and we did overdubs and overdubs and overdubs, and that was how we got to be friends.
Somehow a connection was made, I’m very fuzzy on how this happened, between me and the Moog company. They had a local sales rep in L.A. and Orange County areas I guess, or southern California area or something. And maybe I contacted them with the idea of doing demos and making some money. That’s probably what happened is I sought them out and I said, “I’ve got a machine, can I work for you guys?” give demonstrations or whatever and they said yes, we’ll set you up with some schools and you can go give demonstrations.
I know I did a couple of those, but through knowing that representative of Moog, Jack Wagner also knew him and after Paul Beaver passed away, Jack asked this guy, “Do you know anybody else who knows how to program a Moog synthesizer, or has one?” He said, “Yeah, there’s this guy in Fullerton, his name is Don.” I got a call from Jack and he said, “I hear you’ve got a Moog synthesizer and we want to rent it for a project we’re doing at Disneyland.” And all they needed it for was to do a click track, but they wanted to rent it from me to do that and then in exchange, Jack gave me some recording tape. We had a swap kind of a deal. But we got to talking and he got to hear some of the stuff that I had been doing, but that was kind of like a one shot deal.
Then in 1973 – I think it was ’73, it might be ’74, I had my Minimoog and I had been writing half time shows for my high school marching band while I was in college. I’m doing all these odd jobs to earn money, I’m doing lead sheets for Jose Feliciano, I’m writing children’s musicals for Nancy Ebsen (Buddy Ebsen’s wife), I’m producing bands in the studio and repackaging studio time, I’m learning engineering. I’m all over the map.
SW: You were a teenager?
DD: Yeah, 18, 19, 20.
We did two seasons of halftime shows for my high school marching band. What I did was I took popular commercial tunes, you know, from TV commercials, and orchestrated them for the band and then they did a halftime show of commercial tunes. Those were the first orchestrations that I ever did, that was kind of my learning ground for that. I studied it in college but we didn’t have practical ways to do it other than exercises for the class, so I was doing it on the outside to learn about that.
So we had two great seasons of that, the third season, I came back and I said, “I want to do a halftime show with a synthesizer in it,” and the music director kind of looked funny and said, “How do we do that?” Wires, and amplifiers, and cables on the field, and you can’t march. I said, “I don’t know, we’ll figure that out.” He said, “I don’t know, maybe, maybe not. Maybe that’s not for us.” But I had the bug and so I went to Fullerton College, which was at that time called Fullerton Junior College, they had a marching band, and I had known their band director because he was the assistant conductor for the Orange County Youth Philharmonic that I played tympani in. I said, “I’ve got this idea, why don’t we do this synthesizer thing,” and he said, “You know what, the whole field thing is complicated, but if you would like to do one of our regular concerts, as like a guest soloist, that’s a cool idea and we would do that.”
So they commissioned me to write an arrangement for the concert band and synthesizer solo, which I did, and I chose a piece by Emerson, Lake & Palmer called “Abaddon’s Bolero,” which was basically, it was a lead line melody over increasing rhythm. It’s like a bolero. But it was something that because Moog’s at that time, you could play one note at a time, it was doable with the gear. So I called up this Moog rep and I borrowed a second synthesizer which was a bigger one with patch cables and everything, and we did the concert. While I was playing one instrument, I was setting up the program on the other one for the next verse and then I would play this one while I was reprogramming this one so that we could keep going. So I actually had two synthesizers going.
I don’t know if Jack read in the newspaper about that on his own or if I called him or sent him a clipping or something, but he came to that concert, and it was after that concert when he said, “I think we may have a job for you.” Then I didn’t hear from him again for a long time. It was late ’74 when he called and said, “We’ve got this America on Parade thing coming up, would you be interested in doing the synthesizer work on that?” And that eventually came to be and I got five dollars and hour, went to Jack’s house, set up the synthesizers in his dining room. The 16 track recorder was brought in and we did all of the stuff there. In addition, to overlaying the synthesizer on the band organ, I had to do other things.
For the track “Dearie” there had to be tap dancing, so I said, “I know what tap dancing sounds like,” we got some tap shoes and I just faked it with my hands, and later when that track hit the street, we had people comment, “Who’s the dancing? It sounds pretty cool.” I thought, “Oh, we fooled them!” But I played banjo, the sailing ship was the piano bench from my mom’s house that creaked and we brought it in and I squeezed it until it creaked just right, and we slowed it down so it made this old creaky wood ship sound. We were doing lots of inventing musical sonic storytelling in Jack’s dining room, and having a blast.
SW: It was a band organ initially…
DD: Yes, the idea was always to combine the authentic traditional band organ sound with new electronic sound and create what Bob Jani called “The Great American Music Box.” When Bob said, “That’s what I want,” that’s when Jack said, “Oh, I know the guy,” and they got me to do that.
SW: Had the band organ already been recorded?
DD: When he first contacted me, I don’t know if it had or not, but there was a while… I started in January of ’75, and I believe that they recorded the band organ in October or November in Nashville. The “books,” the punched music for those arrangements, Jim Christensen did the arrangements, basically a sketch arrangement, sent it over to Belgium, where the guy who creates the arrangement for that machine and punches the books lives. Then they send back the books. The books meet up with the machine in Nashville. They played them and recorded them.
SW: When you say “punches,” it’s like a music box?
DD: It’s like a piano roll except it’s on cardboard so it flip flops. It folds back and forth to create a stack, which is why they call it a book. It’s a big, heavy book. It’s about 15 inches tall and about five or six inches wide, and then depending on the length of the arrangement it could be anywhere from an inch to a couple inches thick. And it just feeds into the machine and comes out the other end and stacks itself back up.
SW: The band organ had the drums, and…
DD: It had the drums, and the bells and the horns and the snare and all those things. They sent the guy in Belgium a description of “here are the things on this machine and the ranges that it has, here’s the tune we want, here’s our idea for the structure of the arrangement, the baseline and the chords and all that.” And then he did what he does, which is orchestrate for band organ, create the thing, and send it back.
Nowadays, the music director would go and work with him in great detail. In those days, it was like, well, there’s one guy who does this so I guess we’ll just send him what we want and we’ll get what we get. It was really quite primitive. And one of the arrangements that we got back, I don’t remember off the top of my head which song it was, but there was one song where he had done like four choruses in a row and there was no verse. And so Jim Christensen was like, “We have to create a verse somehow,” so I said, “I can synthesize the band organ, I can fake enough of the band organ sound, so let’s just splice in some blank tape between the choruses and then I’ll record over the whole thing and then we’ll have that piece. So that’s what we did, and this was two inch tape, so these are big splices that we’re making. But, what I did was we got the tempo and then I recorded blank tape with clicks on it so we could count the beats, and then counted off as many beats as we needed, and cut it there and spliced it in, made up fake band organ sounds and duplicated it as best as we could.
The story’s kind of jumping around a little bit with the Moog guy and all that. Fullerton College actually had me come back a second year and reprise the performance and it may have been the second performance that Jack saw, I don’t recall, because I didn’t keep a journal in those days. I didn’t start keeping a journal until ’85, and it has been so good to have since then. I wish I had it for my early days.
So that’s how Jack and I got hooked up, but during the process of America on Parade, going back to the engineering part of this, at some point we had all this stuff recorded and Jack said, “Bob wants to hear it, we want to play it on the street on a mock-up of the sound system to hear what it sounds like. We need to go the studio and mix this,” and I said, “Oh! I’ve got a studio that I work at, I can get you cheap studio time, and I can engineer it,” and he goes, “Oh! Okay!” So we trundled down to United Audio and we did the mixes and we went back to Main Street and played them on Main Street for Bob and Bob said, “These are great! These are fine!” So Jack said, “Well, I guess you’re the engineer!”
We kept some of those first mixes, and then as we produced more stuff, then I was just the mix guy, and that whole parade was wrapped up and I helped them master the phonograph record. We went to record “The Glorious Fourth,” and I didn’t engineer that, but I was there, observing.
SW: And that was not the band organ, that was the song that was played before…
DD: That was part of the intro. Yes. And I got to play the “whoopee” whistle. It was at Warner Bros. that we recorded the orchestra, in the big scoring stage, and recorded the whole band and I got to play the “whoopee” whistle. I don’t know if it didn’t come out during the original recording or what, but I got to overdub it. They brought in vocalists and we mixed that then I went back to Jack’s and helped him with the production of it because there was narration and there was band organ music under it and there was “The Glorious Fourth” song. It was like seven and a half minutes or 7:35, something like that, and it was supposed to play to end at each zone as the parade arrived. So there was this timing issue which nobody had really thought much about yet, when the parade was going to launch.
So we finished all of the material for America on Parade, and my job was done. You know, great, thank you, we’ve got our soundtrack, we’ve got everything produced. And I thought, this is the biggest thing I’ve ever done, I want to see it open. And the opening was going to be in Florida, Walt Disney World. So I asked Jack, I said, you know, “Could I go?” and he said, “Well, as long as you pay your own way. If you want you can stay with me, and you can like be my assistant and drive me around, in fact you can go two days early and hand carry the master tapes because I’ve got things to do and that will save me two days.” So I bought myself a plane ticket to Florida and carried the master tapes down there. Showed up and Tom Durrell who was the chief audio engineer took me to Studio D and showed me that, and got the master tapes from me and all that.
During the week or two weeks of rehearsal and staging I was driving Jack around and following Bob Jani and watching how parades were produced and what happened at a rehearsal and coordinating all this stuff, and just soaking it all up.
After that whole experience and the parade opened, I flew home, but Jack and Bob flew back together and Jack told Bob he wanted to hire me full time as his assistant, and Bob said okay. So they gave me a contract and it was my job to report to Jack’s house every day at ten in the morning and work with Jack until he said we were done, which was usually about four, with an hour off for lunch, an hour and a half off for lunch, to work with him producing tapes, and seguing music and editing stuff and running errands to Bob’s office and back.
SW: What types of things were you working?
DD: Editing character voice tracks, editing announcements, he did a lot of character voices for the studio back then, we did the fireworks show music tracks…
One of the other things we did in Florida on that first trip actually was, and this is also before Jack got there, I’d forgotten about this, but one of the things he was supposed to do in Florida was to art direct a photography session for the Steel Drum Band for an album cover, because Jack was trying to produce albums that the park could sell. And I got there and we set up the drums and everything and I’m kind of like art directing the photography of the cover until Jack got there.
There’s also a great memory in a production meeting at Bob’s townhouse after rehearsal, and this is like two in the morning, or three in the morning or something. Bob was always so clean and proper and he had a white suit for Florida and white shoes and he was just always impeccably dressed. Mister polite, Mister organized, and there was the production team of ten or twelve people we were sitting around in his townhouse having a meeting and he got up at one point and said, “I baked a cherry pie!” And he goes to the kitchen which is right there and he tries to pull the pie out of the oven and actually flips and goes face down on the floor and it splatters all over his white suit and we’re all just like, “Oh no! This can’t have happened to Bob! How horrible!” And we’re kind of waiting to see what he does and he just kind of looks at it and goes, “I’ll deal with that tomorrow.” Came back and sat down and pretended like it never happened.
I was doing everything that Jack was doing, and he was teaching me editing and when do you leave a breath in, when do you take it out, pacing, how do you deal with presentations for executives, basically just being his right hand guy. And then when there was a recording session, I got to engineer it.
SW: He put a lot of trust in you, he just got of found you in a college.
DD: Well, he found me, but the whole America on Parade process took six months, you know, and we were working together every day for six months. He saw my musical aptitude, he saw my technical aptitude, he saw that I was willing to learn and to learn from him, you know. I brought knowledge to his realm that he didn’t have, the whole technical thing, you know, how do you align a tape machine, I don’t know that he had ever aligned his tape machines with a test tape, so I was able to say let’s get a test tape, let’s make sure your machines are clean, demagnitized, everything sounds good. I brought him another level of expertise to his production facility and he brought his experience and knowledge to mine. So in that respect it was a great time of learning and being able to contribute and help.
Because I was his guy, I was in big meetings with top people, seeing it all, learning it all, because when we left the meeting we had to go do what it was that was there, and if Jack had other stuff he had to be doing I could be editing music while he was recording announcements. If errands had to be run, I could be running errands while he was doing stuff, so he was more productive because I was available.
We did slide shows for the studio for marketing, it was not all glorious parade big stuff, it was a lot of daily things. Sometimes we were actually physically making announcement cartridges, cutting the tape loop and stuffing it in the plastic box and sending it off to the park, all out of his house.
SW: So you’re next big thing would be Electrical Parade?
DD: Actually, it was the Electrical Water Pageant.
SW: Yeah, how did that come to be?
DD: There was a company called E-mu, that brought a big synthesizer down to Disneyland to give a demonstration, and I think Sonny Anderson brought them in. We got a bunch of the music department and entertainment people together and they gave a demo of this big synthesizer. Of course, I was fascinated and everybody else was, “Oh, that’s cool.” Synthesizers were still relatively new and strange and here was this big box with a lot of patch holes on it.
I got to talking to the guys who built it. There was a tour going out on the road and I don’t know exactly how this idea came up, but the idea came up that maybe instead of sending a band with the tour, we can prerecord the music on the tour. And then from there it got to the point, well, “Could you do it all on this synthesizer?”
SW: A tour for like maybe promoting an upcoming film?
DD: Promoting an event or something. I think it was Space Mountain opening. Maybe that’s why the idea of the synthesizer seemed…
SW: That would make sense. It could sound spacey, futuristic.
DD: Yeah, that kind of sounds like it makes sense. So we made a deal with these guys to let me take that synthesizer home so that I could record this tour, and I did, and I have pictures of me with it in my house, and I recorded the tour.
Meanwhile, we found out that the musicians union, if you’re not taking live musicians on a tour, you have to pay as if you were taking live musicians on a tour. So I ended up making a lot of money by recording this track in my house and then everywhere they performed I got a check. So things were looking good for me, and then the Electrical Water Pageant came up, and Bob Jani said, “Have Don do that,” and so Jim and I worked it out, Jim wrote a theme or two and I did the synthesizer stuff and we recorded it in Jack’s dining room, just like that.
While the Water Pageant was going on, and the Electrical Parade was going to be coming back, I wanted to do the Electrical Parade. So I was working at home, figuring out what I wanted to do to it, just playing and doing tracks and demos and stuff for myself and got the idea to do this opening, and created the whole opening fanfare idea, and then brought that to Jack and Jim and Bob and said, “Here’s some stuff I’ve done, what do you think?” And they liked it and they said, “That’s great! You do that, too!” So, now I’m the guy and we set everything up, I think we still had stuff set up from the Water Pageant in Jack’s dining room so I just continued on and did the Electrical Parade tracks at that point.
SW: Had that ever been done, as far as having an introduction that was timed with the loop so it perfectly goes in to it?
DD: No. I invented that.
SW: Really?
DD: Yeah, it’s become, it’s a Disney signature. We call that the opening window, because in the music loop, the main loop is continuous music, the opening has a little bit of the same music so that you can switch without knowing and then it’s silent, and then you have the beginning. So you “open the window” when it’s silent and then you hear the beginning and it loops around and then you make a switch to the thing which matches perfectly but you don’t hear it because it matches perfectly. That’s what I invented, and to this day that’s how we do things.
SW: Was the parade changed, other than the additions of your music?
DD: Yes, because some of the things that had been 2D were made into 3D. There was actually quite a bit of 3D in the first parade. People like to think the first parade was all 2D.
SW: Right, that it was just a big, flat parade.
DD: No, it wasn’t. The Blue Fairy was 3D, and the Chinese Dragon was this big 3D thing that went down the street. And I think Small World was very similar both before and after. Because there isn’t good footage of the entire parade, it’s hard to tell exactly. But, generally that’s the distinction that people try to make is, well, it was 2D and it became 3D. It actually just became more efficient in terms of the battery power and fewer cables.
SW: What were the new tracks that you did?
DD: The year it came back, the opening, Blue Fairy, Alice in Wonderland was new, Cinderella was old, Dumbo was old, Pete’s Dragon was new. Was Pete’s Dragon that first year? Yeah, that was ’77. Small World was old, and Patriotic Finale was old. All things considered, there wasn’t a whole pile of new stuff, but the way that I had redone the underliner gave it a new peppy, punchy sound, and the opening created a whole different mindset to it.
SW: And closing as well?
DD: The closing came later because the closing… we didn’t need a closing until we did the Orange Bowl halftime, and we needed an ending.
SW: It used to just fade out?
DD: Yeah. I think the Orange Bowl halftime was January ’78. They were going to take all these floats to the Orange Bowl and it was a Pete’s Dragon/Florida/Electrical Parade promotion. And there were clips from the film, one showing Alice falling down the rabbit hole, so I had to do a little synthesized intro that led into the Alice music and then I had to do a tag for Alice that ended it. But these were straight through linear pieces of music, there was no looping or anything involved. You start a cue and you play it and it ends. But I had to kind of match sounds so we could edit in to what we already had. We did main Electrical Parade theme, and then we did the Alice section, and then it was a big Pete’s Dragon thing that had to go on for three or four minutes. So I had to create an opening for Pete’s Dragon and then I had to create three variations on the loop that kept building so that it could be long enough. Then I had to create an ending for Pete’s Dragon, and then I think the closing was just a fanfare standalone piece to button the show, and then Bob later said, “Take the ending of the main Blue Fairy thing, that just ends and wraps up, and now tack this fanfare on the back and let’s use that in the park.” So that became not just an end stop but an end fanfare thing to bring the lights back on. So that’s when we put that in, and the very first year that the parade came back, Jack’s voice was not synthesized. It was just his announcement. Then Battlestar Galactica came on TV, and I said, “Oh, I’d like to do that for the voice.” So then we got the vocoder and I think it was ’78 or ’79 when we added the vocoder voice, which everybody thinks has been there from day one, but it actually wasn’t.
SW: It wasn’t even there from day one of the new version.
DD: No, it was added. It just seemed like the right thing to do.
SW: Was it his original announcement before that?
DD: It was the same words. Yes. And it’s interesting that that particular verbiage turned out to be so musical.
Don Dorsey and Sadie Mae, the band organ heard in America on Parade (1976) Enjoy these Electrical Parade facts and other Disney entertainment history!
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Don Dorsey is a musician, director, producer, and audio engineer whose work for Disney includes everything from musical performances and arrangements to sound design to complete show design and direction for several Disney parks.
Don started his long-lasting relationship with Disney in 1975 and for the first 17 years served as the main audio recording and post-production engineer for the Entertainment Division of the Disneyland Park.
With the opening of Epcot in 1982, Don began creating and directing nighttime spectaculars for the World Showcase Lagoon beginning with A New World Fantasy and moving on to Laserphonic Fantasy, IllumiNations, and most recently Reflections of Earth. Other nighttime shows created and directed by Don include “Sorcery in the Sky” for Disney Studios Florida, and “Starlight Magic” for Tokyo Disneyland.
As of 2015, Don is in his 41st year of consulting to Disney and works mostly behind the scenes coordinating sound and music for Creative Entertainment at the Disneyland Resort.
I sat down with Don in 2009 to find out more about the creation of “Reflections of Earth.” I hope you enjoy hearing his interview! And don’t miss the photos below. As always, I’ve also included the Audio Index below. (Transcription available here)
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/interview-Don-Dorsey.mp3 Don Dorsey with his E-MU Synth (1977) Don Dorsey and his Minimoog (1972) Don Dorsey recording “tap dancing” sounds for America on Parade soundtrack (1975) Bob Jani stands on Main Street in Disneyland to hear the America on Parade soundtrack mix (1975) Recording the Electrical Water Pageant at Jack Wagner’s home studio (1977) AUDIO INDEX
1:36 Jack Wagner, the “voice of Disneyland,” and audio producer, and Don’s mentor; Bob Jani, the vice president of entertainment at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, creator of the Main Street Electrical Parade, Electrical Water Pageant and America on Parade among others
2:42 America on Parade, one of Disney’s largest parades, produced for America’s bicentennial; the Sherman Brothers’ song “The Glorious Fourth” was the overture for America on Parade; Sadie Mae, the band organ used for the America on Parade soundtrack
3:48 Don’s musical beginnings
8:12 Meeting Jack Wagner, and getting a one time for Disneyland; Being rediscovered by Jack Wagner while performing on his synthesizer for a concert; Being asked to do synthesizer work on the America on Parade soundtrack and performing banjo and various sound effects in Jack’s home dining room studio
13:33 The unique soundtrack of America on Parade, deemed “the Great American Music Box” by Bob Jani and the music of the Sadie Mae band organ; recording “The Glorious Fourth” parade overture
19:04 Following America on Parade, going to Florida and becoming Jack Wagner’s assistant; Working with Jack at his house each day; A funny Bob Jani memory when Bob gets cherry pie on his white suit
22:38 Learning from Jack Wagner
24:50 The Electrical Water Pageant; the E-MU synthesizer; the Main Street Electrical Parade returns after a hiatus during America on Parade; Don creates new music for the Electrical Parade; the beginning of Disneyland parade introductions – the opening window; the opening fanfare for the Main Street Electrical Parade
28:33 Updates to the Main Street Electrical Parade, including soundtrack and more dimensional units and new units; the parade became more efficient in terms of battery power and less cables; the history of the closing music of the Electrical Parade, which originated at the Orange Bowl halftime show in 1978; how Battlestar Gallactica inspired the original introduction dialogue sound
Larry Billman wrote and/or director hundreds of Disney live productions worldwide Larry Billman began his career as a performer on stage, screen and television before becoming a Writer/Director of Disney Resort live entertainment worldwide. For over 40 years he was involved in the production of hundreds of live shows at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea. Among those shows, Larry wrote the Hoop de Doo Revue, one of the longest running dinner shows in American history. That show debuted in 1974, and as of 2016, the show continues to delight audiences at the Fort Wilderness Resort in Walt Disney World. A few of his other credits include the Disney Character Director of Disney on Ice, Director of Entertainment at Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, and VP of Entertainment at Walt Disney World, to name a few. (See more photos and Audio Index below)
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/interview-Larry-Billman.mp3 Larry Billman, (top left) with the cast of the Disneyland version of the Mickey Mouse Club, which led to the 1977 revised television edition Larry Billman, as he appeared in the 1963 Disney movie, “Miracle of the White Stallions” Larry Billman (left) and John Anello (right) working on the unique “Fun with Music” educational Disneyland show AUDIO INDEX
2:14 Larry Billman appeared in the 1963 Disney film “Miracle of the White Stallions”
6:13 After being a choreographer on the traveling Disney on Parade, Larry was hired by Bob Jani at Disneyland Entertainment; More on the history the 1969 Disney on Parade; Larry was assigned to work with the circus performers; Working with circus legend Barbette; A Disney on Parade mishap with a dancer
14:56 Became a writer/director for a Disneyland revue in Tomorrowland, originally called “See America First,” which included original Mouseketeer Sherry Alberoni and Teri Garr. Music was written by Tom Adair and Paul Suter; The show’s title was changed to “Show Me America”; “Show Me America” was updated for Walt Disney World
20:26 Big name stars returned to Disneyland after “Show Me America” and Larry Billman and Barnette Ricci developed an opening number called “The Great American Music Machine” which featured a giant jukebox; There was later an opening with a pinball machine and later another show called “The Great Rock Circus”
23:20 Disneyland director of entertainment Bob Jani’s philosophy on Disneyland parades
25:30 The little-known “Fun with Music” educational show at Disneyland
26:47 Wrote and directed the All American College Singers shows which led to writing the Hoop de Doo Revue; The college program was supposed to run for six weeks
30:04 Bob Jani wanted Mickey Mouse Club-style kids at Disneyland; The Mickey Mouse Club stage show at Disneyland which led to the 1977 television version; The performers from the new television version performed at Disneyland
33:16 Japan Airlines worked with Disney to do a show called “Come to America” to encourage Japanese people to visit America, particularly Disneyland; The 1978 show toured to audiences of as many as 3,000; Did a second Japan Airlines tour in 1981 to announce the upcoming Tokyo Disneyland; Moved to Japan until 1985 and was the creative producer
35:40 Returning to America Larry’s job at Disney was not waiting for him; Prior to being in Japan, Larry worked with Irvin and Kenneth Feld on Disney on Ice; A little bit about Irvin; Larry helped shape Disney on Ice as it is today, rather than just having ice skaters and then a Disney act; Approached Kenneth about doing the Circus Fantasy marketing promotion at Disneyland; Larry went to work for Kenneth Feld on Ringling Bros./Barnum & Bailey circus, writing many of the shows
39:29 Invited to work on Tokyo DisneySea, what Larry enjoyed the most, working with Walt Disney Imagineering on the design of the park; Became the director of entertainment for Tokyo DisneySea
X Atencio with a replica of the Jolly Roger that he provides the voice for and wrote the dialogue for X Atencio began his Disney career in 1938 in animation, working as an assistant animator on “Pinocchio.” He went on to write dialogue for attractions such as the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Submarine Voyage in Disneyland and El Rio del Tiempo in Epcot, among others. X also wrote songs for many of the attractions he worked on including “Grim Grinning Ghosts” for the Haunted Mansion and “Yo Ho (A Pirates Life for Me)” for Pirates of the Caribbean. (Also, see more photos below.)
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/interview-X-Atencio.mp3 X Atencio stands by the tombstone tribute to him that used to reside outside the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland, but is now in his home backyard Disneyland vice president Norm Doerges, a boy from the audience, Pirates designers Marc Davis and X Atencio for the 25th anniversary of the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction in 1992 AUDIO INDEX
3:30 X’s start in Disney animation; attended Chouinard Art Institute; got a job at Disney in 1938 as an assistant animation to Woolie Reitherman, working on the Monstro scenes for “Pinocchio;” Worked on “Bongo” and then was drafted and went into the Signal Corps
14:01 Returning to the Disney Studios; Worked with Wooly Reitherman again, as an assistant animator on various shorts; did story sketch, storyboards on films; Working with Bill Justice on the “I’m No Fool” animated series of shorts, featuring Jiminy Cricket; Worked with Ward Kimball on the “pointy nose character” films, including the Academy Award-winning “Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom”
16:51 Returning to work with Bill Justice working on stop-motion films such as “Noah’s Ark,” and a “Symposium on Popular Songs” and opening titles for films like “The Parent Trap” and “The Shaggy Dog” and the “Spoonful of Sugar” nursery scene in “Mary Poppins”; About stop-motion animation, a very tedious job
19:12 Working on the never-completed animated short on doodles with storyman Larry Clemmons; Called into Walt’s office to move over to WED (now known as Walt Disney Imagineering); Worked in the model shop with Claude Coats on the Primeval World diorama for the Disneyland Railroad;
21:29 Was asked by Walt to write the script for “Pirates of the Caribbean”; Walt had an uncanny ability to find talent in people; Worked on the auction scene first, and read books and the “Treasure Island” film to get inspiration for the pirate jargon
23:20 Becoming the voice of the Jolly Roger talking skull and crossbones; Also had a line in the auction scene on the bridge saying “Six bottles of rum!”; Writing “Yo Ho (A Pirates Life For Me)”; People perceiving graphic lyrics in the song; Used a thesaurus to come up with lyrics
26:55 Writing for rides is different than a fixed audience; Writing the script for Submarine Voyage attraction; The Haunted Mansion lobby dialogue; No storyline in the attractions, stories didn’t lend themselves to rides; The raven in the “Haunted Mansion” was going to be the original attraction narrator; X is heard in the spiel when the “Haunted Mansion” ride stops and in the coffin saying “Let me out of here?”
31:01 Adding Captain Jack Sparrow to the “Pirates of the Caribbean” attraction and other changes; Translating the dialogue for Tokyo Disneyland
33:45 Writing the dialogue and song for El Rio del Tiempo in Epcot, “It’s Fun to Be Free” for World of Motion in Epcot, and “If You Had Wings” for the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World
35:57 Remembering the day Walt Disney died, the type of person Walt was, and the first time X met Walt
Stan Jolley at his “Ichpa-Mayapan,” which means “exclusive estate” http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Stan-Jolley-about-the-estate.mp3 Stan Jolley was a Hollywood producer, director, art director, production designer who had a lot to do not only with Disney, but with the very beginnings of Disneyland! His Disney film work included everything from “Zorro” to “Old Yeller” to “Elfego Baco” and “Toby Tyler.” He was the art director of the Academy-Award nominated animated featurette “Donald in Mathmagic Land.”
His large list of non-Disney movie credits include “Caddyshack,” “Witness” and “Superman” and television credits include “Mr. Ed,” “MacGyver” and “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.” As the art director for the pilot episode of “Get Smart,” Stan designed the classic title sequence with the doors and phone booth, as well as iconic props such as the “cone of silence.”
In 2009, for my Mouse Clubhouse, Stan invited me to photograph his 22,000 square foot estate. It is part home, part museum. Beyond every corner was not only a part of either Hollywood or Disney history, but with remarkable views in every room. In fact most rooms had at least one mirror in it so that you’d be able to see the gorgeous surrounding scenery no matter what direction you are facing.
Please enjoy the photographic tour below of the home of Stan Jolley and be sure to listen to the audio of that is beneath some of the photos.
This clapboard is from one of the films that Stan directed, “Today’s FBI” The 7.7 million dollar estate was built and designed in the early ’70s by Modernist Howard Lapham for socialite-sportswoman Maxine Cook. An admirer of Frank Lloyd Wright, Lapham focused on blending ancient Maya and modern design. This view is the entrance of Stan’s house This pathway which leads to the front door features beautifully aligned stonework columns. From this angle, it seemed like a perfect residence for the man who was the art director of Donald in Mathmagic Land. Just look at all the geometric shapes that can be recognized from this one angle! At the left, on the other side of the greenery is a tennis court nestled into the surrounding mountain scenery. Mayan calendar carved out of redwood. Be sure to listen to the audio of Stan describing this artwork and the front doors to his house as pictured below. http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Stan-Jolley-Mayan-calendar-and-doors.mp3 The front doors are 14 feet high, four inches thick, weigh 400 pounds apiece and are carved out of redwood The arrowhead-shaped pool offers a stunning view overlooking the Coachella Valley Stan sits on his couch, surrounded by the mountains. He would often bring a blanket outside and sleep on the couch to enjoy all the natural beauty Stan stands beside a beautiful portrait of Natalie Wood as she appeared in the movie “Gypsy.” Listen to the audio below for a fun story about it. http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Stan-Jolley-Gypsy-portrait.mp3 Stan admires artwork from his friend, legendary Disney artist Herb Ryman. Be sure to listen to the audio below of Stan’s start with Disney, thanks to Herb. http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Stan-Jolley-Herb-Ryman-and-Stans-Disney-start.mp3 Concept art of Tomorrowland for the opening of Disneyland Concept art for what would become the Plaza Pavilion for the opening of Disneyland. Note the artwork reads “Restaurant between Main Street & True Life Adventure Land” Concept art of Frontierland for the opening of Disneyland shows the “World’s Longest Little Bar” next to the Golden Horseshoe. The Mile Long Bar would open in Bear Country in Disneyland in 1972, with mirrors on each side of the bar interior for the illusion of length Concept art of a South Western Street in Frontierland for the opening of Disneyland Stan had this and the following two images created to potentially adorn Donald Duck’s “office” in an episode of Walt Disney’s Wonderful of Color. Stan added various captions to each just for fun.
Photos of Stan on the sets of various movies he worked on decorated one of his rooms, including this image. Henry Fonda (left), Stan Jolley (middle), and Fred MacMurray (right) on the set of the “The Swarm,” 1978 This piece of original concept art for Disney’s “Elfego Baca” was created under the guidance of Stan, who was the art director. Construction on the $125,000 permanent Western Street took over three months to complete, and was the combined plans of three of Disney’s art directors, Stan Jolley, Marvin Davis, and Carroll Clark. As Stan’s caption reads, this was the “first shot of filming the new Western Street built for Elfego Baca.” Since Stan was the art director for the show, he was there on the set, seen at the bottom left of the photo. Later, when he was the art director of the feature film Toby Tyler, he was the first one to modify the street. Stan converted his six garages at the house into art galleries! This former garage featured props and artwork with a western theme, and images of Stan’s father, I. Stanford Jolley, who was a character actor, primarily in westerns, for over 43 years. This collage features Stan’s dad in many of his film roles. In 1948, the Milwaukee Journal wrote that “I. Stanford Jolley, veteran villain, has died 77 times in 109 movies by 40 different and ingenious methods.” He went on to appear in nearly 400 different films and television shows. This artwork was given to Stan for his birthday. It was drawn by legendary Disney artist T. Hee, accompanied by the signatures of many of Disney’s artists (image below). Marc Davis, Dick Humer, Ward Kimball, Bill Peet and Ken Anderson were amongst the group. Yes, the happy names T.Hee, Huemer and Jolley were all working together.
Stan’s 1955 “Disneyland, Inc.” ID Cast & crew party for Zorro with art director Marvin Davis, actor Henry Calvin, Stan and actor Armor Goetten Stan with Robert Loggia, star of Elfego Baca Here is a Martian Wheat Field concept for Tomorrowland in Disneyland Concept art for Tomorrowland in Disneyland, this Metallic Screen Mural would feature fused colored plastic and special night lighting effects. Concept for the entrance to Tomorrowland in Disneyland, the rocket would actually be a giant sundial! Interestingly, this Disneyland Tomorrowland Entrance concept art is quite similar to Innoventions in the “new Tomorrowland” of 1998. This Disneyland concept artwork features the Tomorrowland entrance as it would appear with the iconic “Clock of the World.” Stan worked with Fred Joerger and Wathel Rogers of the Disney model shop, to develop the Storybook Land canal attraction. When the attraction first opened, there was no miniature scenery or buildings as there is now. In this image, they are determining the best scale and location for the new scenes. Stan stands with a cut out of Snow White’s cottage to determine the best scaling for the miniature building that still appears in the Storybook Land attraction. Stan’s ticket to the opening of Disneyland on July 17, 1955. Click below to hear why Stan did not attend the grand opening http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Stan-Jolley-the-opening-of-Disneyland.mp3 This is the only photo Stan had on display of him with Walt Disney. Stan added his caption of what the conversation might have sounded like.
Lee Fugal in the same 1965 Mustang he drove each day to Disneyland Lee Fugal was the preshow entertainment for Disneyland’s historical “Golden Horseshoe Revue. ” He would play the piano, banjo, trumpet and trombone and even play some of those simultaneously. You can see Lee in action at his website athttp://www.leefugal.com (See more photos below.)
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/interview-Lee-Fugal.mp3 AUDIO INDEX
1:27 Lee’s start at Disneyland; Driving to California and used trumpet and trombone oil to fix the car; His Disneyland audition playing “Mary Poppins” music in 1965; Played banjo
3:10 Performing as the preshow for Disneyland’s “Golden Horseshoe Revue,” and then sitting in with the band for the show; Staying after a two-week trial; Tommy Walker, Disneyland’s director of entertainment
5:08 Lee’s preshow act, playing piano, two and three trumpets at once, banjo; About Wally Boag, Fulton Burley and Betty Taylor; Lee’s final performance festivities; The “Golden Horseshoe Revue” band Vince Rossi (piano), Sam Conti (trumpet) and Jerry King (drums); The “Calypso” sandwich at the Golden Horseshoe and Pepsi Cola; The singing waitresses
13:21 Performing for and meeting Liberace; Playing trumpet for Al Hirt; Mishaps during the show including when the power went out inside the Horseshoe
17:37 Lee playing the banjo in “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color” in an episode entitled “Disneyland Around the Seasons”
Lee Fugal in front of Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe
Lee Fugal on banjo
Lee Fugal with the Gonzalez Trio at Disneyland
(Roberto, Carmelita, Lee and Arturo)
Don’t forget to visit Lee’s website www.leefugal.com!
1994 Disney Legends Ceremony, after putting his handprints in cement Jack Lindquist was involved in the opening of Walt Disney World, but he started as Disneyland’s first advertising manager, beginning in 1955. He continued with the company in marketing for Disneyland. Walt Disney World and international Disney resorts. His many accomplishments include the creation of the Disneyland Ambassador program, the creation of the Walt Disney Travel Company, the international waters ceremony for the opening of the it’s a small world attraction, Disney Dollars, and in 1990 Jack became the first president of Disneyland.
THE OPENING OF WALT DISNEY WORLD
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1:34 The start of World Showcase at Epcot; Traveling around the world for World Showcase, meeting people like Imelda Marcos and the Shah of Iran
3:44 The opening of Walt Disney World; Contemporary Resort did not have landscaping yet; People did whatever it took – at Disney it didn’t matter if it was their job or not
5:22 “Opening a theme park is like an invasion”; Disney is a great “dangling carrot” – there’s always something else to sign on for
6:26 Jack’s work philosophies, never took the company or the job too seriously because the core of the business is making people happy… if you can’t have fun how can your guests have fun?
During the Disney employee Christmas parties which were held at Disneyland, you never knew who might be working or where they’d be. I took this photo in 1993 when Jack Lindquist was driving passengers on a Main Street vehicle. The party hadn’t started and Jack was just sitting in the vehicle waiting. I was in, since I was also going to work on an attraction and I asked him for a ride. This was the first time I got to talk with Jack, being driven by him up and down Main Street in Disneyland. Jack Lindquist came up with the idea for a Walt Disney Travel Company. He was Disneyland’s first advertising manager, beginning in 1955. He continued with the company in marketing for Disneyland. Walt Disney World and international Disney resorts. His many accomplishments include the creation of the Disneyland Ambassador program, the international waters ceremony for the opening of the it’s a small world attraction, Disney Dollars, and in 1990 Jack became the first president of Disneyland.
THE CREATION OF THE WALT DISNEY TRAVEL COMPANY
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/interview-Jack-Lindquist-disney-travel-company.mp3 AUDIO INDEX
1:32 The beginning of the Walt Disney Travel Company; Didn’t realize what was involved in a travel company, just moved forward
3:24 Finding a location for the new travel company at the Disneyland Hotel; Getting the offices ready
4:59 The success of the travel company
1994 Disney Legends Ceremony, after putting his handprints in cement
Disneyland/Disney world talent booker Sonny Anderson on Main Street Sonny Anderson was a legendary award-winning talent booker in the music industry, and was much loved as the director of talent booking for Disneyland and Walt Disney World. He began his career with Disneyland playing drums in the Disneyland band in 1956.
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/interview-Sonny-Anderson.mp3 AUDIO INDEX
1:07 Director of talent booking for Disneyland, Stan Freese, describes Sonny Anderson and recalls working with him
4:15 Sonny Anderson’s start with Disney; Played in band in Long Beach and was teaching percussion; He was asked to play on the Disneyland Band record album, and was offered a job; Starting performing at the Disneyland Hotel at night
7:32 Sonny was writing musical arrangements for the band; Disneyland director of entertainment Tommy Walker made Sonny a full-time arranger at Disneyland; His secretary, singer Kay Bell; Sonny’s started a rock band and performed with that band; The band was called the Spacemen and also the Mustangs; Dress code at Disneyland; Walt Disney said he wanted to build a new stage in Tomorrowland12:56 Stan Freese talks about the Tomorrowland Terrace stage, that Walt Disney told Sonny he would have built; Sonny had a talent at discovering up and coming bands; More about the Tomorrowland Terrace, the stage that rose up from the ground; Stan’s sons Josh Freese and Jason Freese performed at Tomorrowland Terrace
16:09 Stan talks about the Night of Joy at Disneyland; Sonny talks about coming up with the idea for Night of Joy; Dick Nunis was skeptical about it
18:03 Stan remembers The World Symphony Orchestra which was put together for and performed at the grand opening of Walt Disney World; Sonny talks about Bob Jani; Bob had unique ideas and came up with the idea for the World Symphony Orchestra
22:06 Bob Jani promoted Sonny to talent booker; Sonny sat in with a band and Bob told him he could not do that; Sonny grew a moustache, which was not allowed at Disneyland
25:20 Stan discuss Sonny Anderson’s musical arrangements; Bob Jani was a genius in live entertainment; Stan remembers his first Disneyland Band concert and a warning he received from Bob Jani about some out of place jewelry he was wearing
30:17 Sonny discusses the authentic talent for the World Showcase at Epcot; Had to go twice a year to each country; Was working at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World and the moved back to Florida full-time; Sonny wanted authentic talent; Hired authentic singers and dancers from Hawaii for the Walt Disney World show at the Polynesian; Sonny also hired authentic talent for Disneyland; Hired famous jazz musicians to perform on the Mark Twain Riverboat; Stan Freese continues talking about some of the musicians Sonny hired such as Teddy Buchner and Jewel Hall; Jack McVea and Ernie McLean became two of Disneyland’s Royal Street Bachelors jazz group
Disneyland Band Concert record album that Sonny was first hired for Sonny Anderson with Johnny Schmidt and Kay Bell This ad for Disneyland Date Nites mentions Sonny’s group Kay Bell and the Spacemen
Peter Marshall Peter Marshall is a big band singer, television and radio host including “Hollywood Squares” and “Big Bands at Disneyland.” As an actor he’s appeared in both television and film, and in the feature film, “Annie,” he sings, “You’re Never Fully Dressed without a Smile.” He’s appeared in a number of stage musicals, such as The Music Man, La Cage aux Folles, and Skyscraper on Broadway. (Be sure to see all the photos below.)
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/interview-peter-marshall.mp3 AUDIO INDEX
1:56 Peter was an usher at the world famous Paramount at the age of 14. At the age of 15, Peter became a pageboy at NBC in the days of radio.
3:10 Peter wanted to be a singer and got a job in the early 1940s singing with Bob Chester and his orchestra at the Adams Theatre in Newark, New Jersey.
4:16 At 16 years old Peter went back to high school at his home in Huntington, West Virginia. Moved to California and was drafted and served in Italy during World War II, from 1944 to 1946. In the military, Peter became a disc jockey and program director of AES Naples (American Expeditionary Station). Peter would play “V discs” (victory discs).
9:45 After the war, Peter went to Florida and got a job in radio, had a 15 minute radio show where he talked and sang. It was called “Peter and the Wolf” with pianist Wolf Catlett. Peter mentions that he also sang in the military.
11:15 Peter went to New York and then California. Had a group called the Upstarts. He got a role in a show called “Tongue in Cheek.” Paired up with Tommy Noonan in a successful comedy act because Peter’s sister, actress Joanne Dru was dating Tommy Noonan’s brother. Peter teamed with Tommy Noonan to pay a dental bill. Opened at the Zambawanga and later at Billy Gray’s Band Box comedy club. Performed with Tommy Farrell for about four years. He then teamed back up with Tommy Noonan for two more years.
14:29 In 1961, Peter performed in Bye Bye Birdie with Chita Rivera, kicking off a string of theatrical performances including High Button Shoes, Anything Goes, Panama Hattie and Bye Bye Birdie in Las Vegas. He performed in New York in Skyscraper with Julie Harris and Charles Nelson Reilly.
14:50 Got his job doing Hollywood Squares, he thought it was a 13 week job and he hosted for 16 years. He needed a “straight man” who could work with comics. Continued to have an act in Las Vegas, opening for acts like the Mills Brothers, Joan Rivers, Bill Cosby and Jerry Lewis. He hosted the Peter Marshall Variety Show for two years. Peter did 35 commercials for Kelloggs, which led to hosting the Hollywood Squares.
18:15 At the start of the Disney Channel, Peter and Steve Allen did interviews with people who had done Disney films for Disney Channel interstitials. He then hosted “Big Bands at Disneyland,” which featured the great big bands and their leaders such as Count Basie, Woody Herman, Artie Shaw, Les Brown, Buddy Rich and Lionel Hampton.
Peter Marshall, singing Peter hosting the television series “Big Bands at Disneyland” at Carnation Plaza Gardens Peter with the legendary Lionel Hampton in “Big Bands at Disneyland” 1978 article announces Peter’s appearance in Walt Disney’s World’s “Top of the World” club
Walt Disney Imagineer of 40 years, Orlando Ferrante Orlando Ferrante started working at Disneyland in 1962, and for the next 40 years continued in the planning of Disneyland projects, as well as Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and the Disney Cruise Line. (See photos and audio index below)
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/interview-Orlando-Ferrante.mp3 Orlando Ferrante football card from his days with the San Diego Chargers Four Disney Legends, all of whom have been interviewed for Mouse Clubhouse. Bob Gurr, Blaine Gibson, Harriet Burns, Orlando Ferrante Orlando Ferrante’s window on Main Street in Disneyland Orlando Ferrante’s window on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World AUDIO INDEX
1:33 Orlando met Ron Miller and Dick Nunis; He became a professional football player for the San Diego Chargers; Ron helped get him a job at WED (now known as Walt Disney Imagineering); Orlando was the 50th person hired by Walt Disney Imagineering
3:03 Working on Disney’s shows for the New York World’s Fair, and Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, his first project; Mapo was developed, the building for Imagineering’s animation; Attending the World’s Fair and visiting attractions with the public; Bringing the World’s Fair shows back to Disneyland
8:06 What his work as coordinator entailed; PICO, Project Installation Coordinating Office for Disneyland and Walt Disney World; Project engineers; During EPCOT Center creation, they changed to a project management system
11:26 What Imagineering was like while Walt Disney was alive; All levels of employees were treated great; About WED Enterprises (now Walt Disney Imagineering); About Admiral Joe Fowler; Quality was most important with Walt, more than cost; Transporting pirates on the freeway for “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color” television series;
17:17 More about working at Imagineering and the coordinating process; Coordinating from the start of design through installation: Orlando some of his fellow Imagineers and the model shop, which was like the hub of Imagineering
21:05 The grand opening of Walt Disney World and other Disney parks; Worked on EPCOT Center and Tokyo Disneyland at the same time; Working on the production end of the show, working with operations and maintenance; Show/ride elements of Walt Disney Imagineering; Lived in Paris for 2 ½ years and then worked on Tokyo DisneySeas
26:49 Working on the Disney Cruise Line, helping with coordination on the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder ships in Italy; Working on a Wedway system for the Houston airport
30:29 Retiring in 2002 and becoming an official Disney Legends Award recipient; Orlando was originally offered a job working at the Celebrity Sports Center in Denver that Walt Disney bought with a number of Hollywood celebrities; A picnic at Disneyland months before its opening; Grand opening of EPCOT Center
Jack in the 1943 film “Best Foot Forward” Jack Lindquist appeared in the Our Gang comedies and movies such as “Best Foot Forward” before becoming Disneyland’s first advertising manager, beginning in 1955. He continued with the company in marketing for Disneyland. Walt Disney World and international Disney resorts. His many accomplishments include the creation of the Disneyland Ambassador program, the creation of the Walt Disney Travel Company, the international waters ceremony for the opening of the it’s a small world attraction, Disney Dollars, and in 1990 Jack became the first president of Disneyland.
JACK LINDQUIST’S EARLY HOLLYWOOD DAYS
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1:11 An extra in the Our Gang comedies (aka The Little Rascals) making $5.10 a day; The first movie Jack was in called “Midget Millionaires; Took dancing lessons at the school Shirley Temple attended; Worked in movies from 7 years old until he came out of the service; was in “Best Foot Forward” with Lucille Ball
7:40 Jack never wanted to be an actor; Learning to take rejection; Lived two block from RKO
Blaine Gibson began his Disney career in animation in 1939, and worked on some of Disney’s early classic features, animated shorts and even military films during World War II. Eventually Blaine began sculpting for Disney, creating the pirates in Pirates of the Caribbean, ghosts in the Haunted Mansion, Abraham Lincoln for Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, all the president before Barrack Obama for Hall of Presidents in the Magic Kingdom, Mark Twain and others for the American Adventure in Epcot, and much more. Blaine also sculpted the Partners statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse in Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom.
Blaine Gibson (left), On the Disney Studios lot, Blaine Gibson, Shani Wolf, Scott Wolf, Harriet Burns (right) http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/interview-Blaine-Gibson-animation.mp3 AUDIO INDEX
1:11 Blaine Gibson’s start in Disney animation; His first drawing
5:26 Learning that he got a job for Disney while chopping wood in 1939
9:44 At the Disney studio on Hyperion Avenue; Beginning in “traffic”; Listening to the Philadelphia Symphony recording for “Fantasia”; Exploring the Disney Studios
12:35 Getting into production as an in-betweener; Working on his first scene in the Pluto short “Bone Trouble”; Fantasia, Pinocchio and Bambi
14:26 In-betweeners/assistant animators/breakdown men and about the animation process; working for Ken Hultgren on Bambi; Art classes at the Disney Studios, and instructor Rico Lebrun
17:57 Walt’s goals in animation; Believability – not real, but believable
26:56 Sculpting, starting at five years old; The thrill of drawing; Effects animation; World War II films; Becoming assistant to great animator Frank Thomas
Barry Lane worked at Disneyland in the 1960s, when Walt Disney would still wander the parks, and was a tour guide there, one of the last male tour guides for many years to follow. Barry also was a skipper on the Jungle Cruise and worked in Disneyland’s historic Golden Horseshoe Revue!
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/interview-Barry-Lane.mp3 AUDIO INDEX
:59 Barry Lane’s start with Disneyland; Interviewed and was hired as a tour guide; Barry begin in April 1960, and was the last male tour guide for years to come
3:32 Giving his first tour at Disneyland without training, due to high park attendance
5:36 Becoming a skipper on the Jungle Cruise, because they had the best parties; Was laid off of his job 13 times
9:19 Worked at the Golden Horseshoe in foods, and ushering Guests into the building; Became a foreman at the Golden Horseshoe
11:53 Encounters with Walt Disney
13:50 Golden Horseshoe memories
15:15 Serving mint juleps on the Mark Twain
15:46 Meeting his wife, Connie
Here’s two interviews tangled together in one… Zachary Levi, the voice of Flynn Rider, and Mandy Moore, the voice of Rapunzel. Enjoy the photos below and as always, see the Audio Index.
Interview with Zachary Levi, voice of Flynn Rider and Mandy Moore, voice of Rapunzel in Disney’s Tangled http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/interview-Zachary-Levi-Mandy-Moore.mp3 “I See the Light” scene from Disney’s Tangled Zachary Levi recording for Disney’s Tangled Mandy Moore and Alan Menken, recording for Disney’s Tangled AUDIO INDEX
1:49 Zachary Levi explains if Flynn Rider’s look was modeled after him
2:37 Working with Mandy on music and dialogue; Working with the orchestra; He was new to professional singing, this was Zach’s first professional singing job
5:28 Singing Alan Menken’s music in Tangled, but a huge fan of Menken’s work
6:42 Zach’s audition process
9:11 Changing his voice for the role
10:45 Mandy Moore discusses performing as a voice role vs. an on-camera role; She only had sketches and oral explanations for character reference; Recording the dialogue; Directors Bryon Howard and Nathan Greno
13:50 Mandy’s audition process; Becoming a Disney princess
15:16 Seeing the finished movie; Being a part of a Disney legacy and Mandy’s feelings about her character, Rapunzel; Differences from other animation she’s worked
18:05 Mandy’s favorite memories working on Tangled, and how part of it was a career highlight
1966 Disneyland Ambassador to the World, Connie Swanson Lane http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/interview-Connie-Swanson-Lane.mp3 Connie Swanson Lane worked at Disneyland in the 1960s as a tour guide, VIP hostess, and she was the 1966 Disneyland Ambassador to the World. As Ambassador, Connie traveled both locally and abroad, bringing brought the joy of Disneyland around the world. She was involved in many historic Disneyland events, such as the grand openings of New Orleans Square, “it’s a small world,” and “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Connie’s Disneyland career was filled with numerous unforgettable experiences such as in 1969, leading her tour to Tomorrowland, to view the live broadcast of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing, and during her Ambassador year, getting the chance to work with Walt Disney.
AUDIO INDEX
0:00 Special introduction with audio of Walt Disney, Connie as Ambassador in 1966, and some thoughts of Connie by Disney Legend Jack Lindquist
2:59 Her start at Disneyland; Don Novis of the Golden Horseshoe Revue; Becoming a tour guide and working in Guest Relations
6:38 Connie saving a young boy who fell in the Rivers of America; The tour guide hat
8:40 Connie’s love of the international Guests of Disneyland; a memory of Walt Disney
10:35 Early Disneyland – Disneyland attire in the early days; Robert Shore
12:10 Cast member functions including Drama Club
13:00 Learning about and trying out for the Disneyland Ambassador program; The Disneyland tencennial Ambassador ceremony; Her path to becoming Ambassador in 1966
17:24 Learning about becoming Ambassador; Her Ambassador year; Getting an Ambassador makeover – getting her hair cut at the studio; Jack Lindquist; working with Frank Forsythe of the Disneyland Ambassador program
22:14 Connie’s year as Disneyland Ambassador to the World; Traveling internationally and much of the US; Representing Disneyland, Walt Disney, and all of Walt Disney Productions
25:11 Working with and reporting to Walt Disney; A photo session of Walt; Walt’s advice on how to treat Disney park Guests
28:15 The grand opening of “it’s a small world” in Disneyland – participating from Sweden
30:23 Hospital visits as Disneyland Ambassador; Polio sanitarium in Columbia
32:25 Walt Disney’s death
33:40 After Connie’s Ambassador year
Jeff Sherman, son of Disney songwriter Robert B. Sherman http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/interview-Jeffrey-Sherman.mp3 Jeffrey C. Sherman is a writer, producer and director for film and television. One of his Disney credits includes serving as story editor on the television series Boy meets World. He is the son of the legendary Disney songwriter Robert B. Sherman, one half of the famed Sherman Brothers team.
AUDIO INDEX
1:14 Some of the differences between Bob and Richard
2:45 Jeff’s memories of his father
3:43 Jeff visits the set of Mary Poppins as a child and meets Walt Disney
5:34 Jeff’s inspirations
6:47 The legacy of the Sherman Brothers
Don Dorsey is a musician, director, producer, and audio engineer whose work for Disney includes everything from musical performances and arrangements to sound design to complete show design and direction for several Disney parks.
Don started his long-lasting relationship with Disney in 1975 and for the first 17 years served as the main audio recording and post-production engineer for the Entertainment Division of the Disneyland Park, manning console knobs and faders for recording sessions with Mickey and his cohorts, and for musical groups which ran the gamut from bagpipes, steel drums and accordion to marching band, 100-voice choir and symphony orchestra. His electronic arrangements and performances for Disney’s original Main Street Electrical Parade have been heard by hundreds of millions of Disney Park guests.
With the opening of Epcot in 1982, Don began creating and directing nighttime spectaculars for the World Showcase Lagoon beginning with A New World Fantasy and moving on to Laserphonic Fantasy, IllumiNations, and most recently Reflections of Earth. Other nighttime shows created and directed by Don include “Sorcery in the Sky” for Disney Studios Florida, and “Starlight Magic” for Tokyo Disneyland.
As of 2015, Don is in his 41st year of consulting to Disney and works mostly behind the scenes coordinating sound and music for Creative Entertainment at the Disneyland Resort.
I sat down with Don in 2009 to find out more about the creation of “Reflections of Earth.” I hope you enjoy hearing his interview! And don’t miss the photos below. As always, I’ve also included the Audio Index below. (Transcription available here)
LISTEN:
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/interview-Don-Dorsey-Reflections-of-Earth.mp3 IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth Gavin Greenaway (left) and Don Dorsey (right) during a recording session of IlluminNations: Reflections of Earth at Abbey Road studios Don Dorsey programming the fire on the barges for Reflections of Earth Bernie Durgin (pyro coordinator), Eric Tucker (pyro designer) and Don Dorsey prepare for nighttime effects testing in China. The original styrofoam model of the Earth for the video globe in IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth A frame out of the video that wraps around the video globe in Reflections of Earth The Reflections of Earth globe in the daytime A scene on the video globe during a presentation of IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth Don Dorsey is a music director, whose work, amongst other things, includes the Main Street Electrical Parade, America on Parade, Reflections of Earth, Fantasmic!, and Sorcery in the Sky
AUDIO INDEX
1:49 The beginnings of Reflections of Earth; Air launch fireworks technology; Don came onboard as creative director of the show; Computer chip for firework shells; Benefits of the air launch technology; Mickey ears fireworks; Shooting star effect
7:36 Creating a production for the Millennium; Early ideas; The Millennium lagoon show comes together; The story of Earth
13:46 The music of Reflections of Earth; Hans Zimmer out-Gavin Greenaway in; Hearing the music for the first time; Creating the moment human beings appear on the planet; A hockey game was the inspiration for the opening of the music; future uses of the music; “Promise” (with music from the Epcot parade “Tapestry of Nations” and “We Go On”; Gavin wins an Emmy for the music; Don wrote the lyrics for “We Go On”
25:16 Opening narration featuring Jim Cummings; The show’s lighting cue when the lights go out, and the opening lighting cue for the Main Street Electrical Parade
27:58 More about music; Don wrote the lyrics for “We Go On”; the inspiration for “We Go On”
32:46 The video globe in Reflections of Earth; The thought of Spaceship Earth being covered with LEDs; Challenges with the globe; Fire effects and inferno barge; Programming the fire using a Midi keyboard
37:59 Producing the video on the globe; The process of creating the video and a graphic simulation; Determining how to display the various video “continents”; Creating a model of the Earth and engineering it
43:38 he movements and limitations of the fountains; Color coordination of fountains, fireworks and smoke
47:24 The lasers; The safety aspect of the lasers are regulated by the government; Achieving unique colors with lasers
48:32 The show officially premiered on October 1, 2000 and was expected to remain for ten years; Don’s feelings about the show
Scott Weinger is a television actor and writer, probably best known for his role as Steve Hale on the TV series “Full House.” Although he wasn’t seen onscreen, another of his most famous roles was providing the voice of the title character in Disney’s animated feature, “Aladdin.”
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/interview-Scott-Weinger.mp3 AUDIO INDEX:
2:13 Working on the Disney Studios lot as a writer for ABC shows
3:14 Auditioning for Aladdin
4:30 Working with Robin Williams
5:45 Favorite memory of working on Aladdin
Alan Menken is an Academy Award winning composer who has written the music for films including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Tangled, amongst many others.
Alan Menken with poster for “Tangled” http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/interview-Alan-Menken.mp3 AUDIO INDEX
1:03 Working on Tangled
3:32 Working with different lyricists; Aladdin stage version with outtake songs; the original intent of the Aladdin movie
5:40 Alan’s input in the music and working with the film’s writer
6:22 Alan’s favorite Disney memories which includes memories from Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast
I hope you enjoy these excerpts from interviews I did with people who were at Disneyland on its opening day on July 17, 1955.
Don’t miss any of my interviews. Send an email and let me know you want to be on my email list!
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/interview-Disneyland-opening-day.mp3 AUDIO INDEX
1:26 Harriet Burns, of the Imagineering model shop, talks about having to be at various positions in Disneyland on its opening day; Crowds and counterfeit tickets and heat; Melting asphalt; The day before Disneyland opened there was a gap in Tomorrowland; The Disney staff’s thoughts about Disneyland
4:41 Cubby O’Brien was a very young boy debuting as a Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeer at the opening day of Disneyland
6:19 Mouseketeer Sherry Alberoni Van Meter won a prize to attend Disneyland on its opening day; Serving ice cream for Walt Disney
8:25 Bobby Burgess danced with the other Mouseketeers on Disneyland’s opening day and it was hot; Disneyland parade; A special memory of riding the Skyway a few years later
10:31 Sculptor Blaine Gibson attended Disneyland’s opening with his wife; The heat; Blaine’s assistant Jack Ferges did not have a good experience
12:10 Marketing guru and president of Disneyland, Jack Lindquist was at the park on opening day as a guest of Kelvinator; Crowds and heat; Tickets had different times on them but the guests didn’t leave; Jack’s five year old son had an experience on the Canal Boats attraction; Eddie Meck was the publicity person for Disneyland; Jack knew Eddie Meck since he was a kid; Eddie Meck helped turn upset members of the press into fans of Disneyland
16:43 Miriam Nelson choreographed the performances for Disneyland’s opening day; Choosing a white knight and black knight for the opening of the drawbridge of Sleeping Beauty castle; Dancers got lost; New Orleans dance problems; Little boy tap dancer was not at his spot; The characters at the opening of Fantasyland; Frontierland was supposed to have cement for dancers who danced to “Bang! Went Old Betsy”; Walt Disney
by Scott Wolf
Blaine Gibson at the
Walt Disney Studios, 1993
Blaine Gibson began his Disney career as an inbetweener on a Pluto cartoon short film “Bone Trouble,” and then on “Fantasia” and “Pinocchio” and as an assistant animator on“Bambi.” Blaine eventually began sculpting for Disney, creating the pirates in Pirates of the Caribbean, ghosts in the Haunted Mansion, Abraham Lincoln for Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, all the president before Barrack Obama for Hall of Presidents in the Magic Kingdom, Mark Twain and others for the American Adventure in Epcot, and much more. Blaine also sculpted the Partners statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse in Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom.
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/interview-Blaine-Gibson-Mansion.mp3 AUDIO INDEX
1:52 The Haunted Mansion; Developing three dimension characters from Marc Davis’ drawings
3:18 The inverted concavity busts whose eyes seem to follow you; Sculptor George Snowden and Yale Gracey, special effects wizard; Working on Disneyland and animating; the first Mickey Mouse head
6:35 Yale Gracey and the technique to create multiple sea gulls from Blaine’s animation for the If You Had Wings attraction in the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World
8:30 Sculpting the head for Leota Toombs (the Imagineer who appears in the crystal ball in the Haunted Mansion) and a problem with the materials used to capture her life mask
10:13 Basing his sculptures on people – a worker at Disney Studios had a great head
Jeff Hoffman was responsible for the Disney Legends Awards for more than two decades http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/interview-Jeff-Hoffman-Disney-Legends.mp3 Jeff Hoffman’s began his Disney career selling merchandise at Disneyland shop and ultimately becoming vice president of Disney Worldwide Outreach. He was largely responsible for the Disney Legends Awards for more than two decades. (See below for more photos and audio index)
This beautiful Disney Legends Award belongs to animator/Disney attractions writer X Atencio Jack Lindquist was Disneyland’s marketing genius since 1955 and the first president of Disneyland Not even the rain dampened the excitement when Annette Funicello became a Disney Legend Richard M. & Robert B. Sherman wrote some of Disney’s most popular songs such as “It’s a Small World” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” The Sherman Brothers’ second handprints after a reporter stepped in it the first time Ollie Johnston, Ward Kimball, Marc Davis, Frank Thomas – the four remaining of the group Walt Disney dubbed his “Nine Old Men” Marc Davis’ handprints next to Ward Kimball’s “six-fingered” handprints gag Peter Ellenshaw painted realistic matte backgronds for films and masterminded special effects in films such as “Darby O’Gill and the Little People” and “Mary Poppins” Two onscreen Disney Legends, Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins) and Fess Parker (Davy Crockett) President of Buena Vista Distribution (a division of Disney), Irving Ludwig was key to the successful releases of many Disney films such as “Mary Poppins” and “The Parent Trap” Sterling Holloway, the voice of Mr. Stork in “Dumbo,” Cheshire Cat in “Alice in Wonderland,” Winnie the Pooh and much more Thurl Ravenscroft, Wathel Rogers, Angela Lansbury, Fulton Burley, Betty Taylor, Wally Boag, Dean Jones. What a thrill it was for to me to instigate the inclusion of Wally, Fulton, Betty and Thurl as Disney Legends AUDIO INDEX
1:15 The start of the Disney Legends Awards; the first Disney Legend ceremony, Fred MacMurray
6:52 The original committee to choose the Disney Legends; Choosing the term “Disney Legend”
11:43 Continuing the Disney Legends Awards after the Fred MacMurray ceremony; choosing the next Disney Legends; Walt’s “nine old men” honored; Ward Kimball’s “six-fingered” handprints
18:06 Annette Funicello’s handprints in the rain; the Sherman Brothers’ handprints mishap
21:09 The Disney Legends Award statuette; Award sculptor and designer Andrea Favilli; a large scale Award sculpture and the Legends Plaza; the 75th anniversary of The Walt Disney Company; Roy E. Disney’s award
Jack works on a caveman for Disney’s Magic Skyway attraction for the World’s Fair, working Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, and a 2014 visit to Walt Disney World http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/interview-Jack-Gladish.mp3 Jack Gladish worked as an engineer, responsible for submarines, dinosaurs, railroad locomotives and much more. Attractions include the “Carousel of Progress,” “Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room” and much more. During his career he headed the plastics and fiberglass shops at the MAPO department of Walt Disney Imagineering.
AUDIO INDEX
:56 How he got his start with Disney in the late ‘50s; Precision camera machinist, including work on the multi-plane camera; Mary Poppins’ robin for “Spoonful of Sugar”
3:06 Audio Animatronics; Abraham Lincoln’s head, including tongue, smile and expressions; Programming the movements;
9:50 The atmosphere at WED; Walt Disney; Walt making money
14:00 Roger Broggie; Troubleshooting at Disneyland; skins for Jungle Cruise animals; problem with zebra stripes
18:02 Railroad locomotives and submarines for the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World; how we became stationed permanently in Florida
21:12 World’s Fair; Primeval World; Carousel of Progress
Wally Boag at home http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/interview-Wally-Boag.mp3 Wally Boag starred in Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe Revue stage show from 1955 to 1982. During that time, some of his other contributions include appearing in some of Walt Disney’s movies, entertaining the troops in Iceland, performing in a Walt Disney stage show at Radio City Music Hall, writing Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room attraction and providing the voice of that show’s emcee macaw, Jose.
The original cast of the Golden Horseshoe Revue (Donald Novis, Judy Marsh, Wally Boag) Wally receiving a Disney Legends Award at the Walt Disney Studios Fulton Burley and Wally Boag in the Golden Horseshoe Revue Wally (with mask) filling in as stuntman for Fred MacMurray in The Absent-Minded Professor Publicity photo for tour with Wally Boag to promote the Walt Disney film, The Jungle Book AUDIO INDEX
2:35 His start in showbiz
9:26 Donald Novis; Golden Horseshoe Revue audition for Walt Disney
11:59 Fulton Burley; writing Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room; under contract with MGM; bring Fulton to the Horseshoe
14:03 History of “spitting out teeth” as Pecos Bill
16:33 More about the Tiki Room and writing for WED (now known as Walt Disney Imagineering); the Tiki Room in Tokyo Disneyland; the barker bird in Disneyland; his involvement in the Haunted Mansion
19:43 Stunt double for Fred MacMurray in the Absent-Minded Professor
Marcia hosting an episode of “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color,” at the grand opening the “new Tomorrowland,” and with Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/interview-Marcia-Miner-Phillips.mp3 Marcia Miner Phillips was a Disneyland tour guide, VIP hostess and the 1967 Disneyland Ambassador to the World.
AUDIO INDEX
2:03 Her start with Disney as a tour guide; memorizing the script; about the tours; a tour for a sight impaired Guest
6:35 Walt Disney; the grand opening of “it’s a small world”
8:43 A finalist for the 1965 Disneyland Ambassador, and that ceremony at Sleeping Beauty Castle; Walt Disney’s passing; Honorary Ambassador of Orange County
15:08 Re-release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs press tour
16:50 Her Ambassador year; Working at home without a Disney office
21:06 The opening of Pirates of the Caribbean and getting into photos; Roy O. Disney
23:49 Ambassador description; Walt Disney; Hedda Hopper; Peter Ustinov
27:08 “A day in the life of” the Ambassador; President of Turkey, Cevdet Suney; Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie
Kathryn Beaumont at the Disney Studios http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/interview-Kathryn-Beaumont-MGMDisney.mp3 Kathryn Beaumont was a child actress at MGM and went on to voice Alice and Wendy in Walt Disney’s animated versions of “Alice in Wonderland” and “Peter Pan” respectively
AUDIO INDEX
:55 Being a child actress; becoming a school teacher
2:35 The students’ awareness of Kathryn’s voice work and a funny related story
4:22 Performing the voice of Alice as an adult; Alice’s voice for Disneyland and Disney park shows
6:30 Remaining involved with Disney
8:00 Appearances for the original release of Alice in Wonderland
Kathryn Beaumont, performing live action reference for animators http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/interview-Kathryn-Beaumont-live-action-reference.mp3 Kathryn Beaumont was a child actress at MGM and went on to voice Alice and Wendy in Walt Disney’s animated versions of “Alice in Wonderland” and “Peter Pan” respectively
AUDIO INDEX
1:00 After recording the voice for the films, Kathryn filmed live action versions of the live action footage of the films for the artists’ reference, the live action reference process including lip syncing the voice
4:08 Filming the “tea party” sequence for Alice in Wonderland with Jerry Colona and Ed Wynn, and scheduling around Kathryn’s schooling
6:08 A unique visit with Walt Disney and some Japanese dignitaries, and Walt’s small train
Born on January 26, 1922, jazz pianist Page Cavanaugh was the special guest in a concert I went to at the Greek Theater back in the 1980s. They mentioned that he performs at a club in Burbank, and that began a wonderful friendship. Every week I would go see Page, listen to him play and talk with him about music, learning about the great composers and performers of American music.
Page worked with everybody! Frank Sinatra, Chico Marx, Louis Armstrong and on and on. I miss Page and I miss his stories.
I had known Page for awhile before I learned that he provided his musical talents for a Disney cartoon short entitled “The Truth About Mother Goose.”
This animated short, featured segments explaining the story behind Mother Goose stories. Page and his trio introduced each segment in song. Here’s a clip from the opening of the film:
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/interview-truth-about-mother-goose1.mp3 Although “The Truth About Mother Goose” was the only animated film Page appeared in, he was in a number of other movies including “A Song is Born,” “Lullaby of Broadway,” and “Romance on the High Seas.” In the latter, he accompanied Doris Day on piano and in voice for the song, “Put ‘Em in a Box.”
In that same film, Doris Day also sang “It’s Magic,” written by Jule Styne, with lyrics by Sammy Cahn. That song was nominated for an Academy Award that year.
One of the last times I saw Page, I recorded him singing this parody, “It’s Tragic.”
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/interview-tragic.mp3
(Jack Lindquist on telephone at left) Grand opening of “it’s a small world,” as children pour water from their native lands, Walt Disney prepares to pour American water from Davy Crockett’s canteen into the moat. Chuck Corson, whose interviews you can also hear on here, is in the background with the walkie-talkie. Jack Lindquist came up with the idea for the opening ceremony for the classic “it’s a small world” attraction at Disneyland. He was also Disneyland’s first advertising manager, beginning in 1955. He continued with the company in marketing for Disneyland. Walt Disney World and international Disney resorts. His many accomplishments include the creation of the Disneyland Ambassador program, the creation of the Walt Disney Travel Company, the international waters ceremony for the opening of the it’s a small world attraction, Disney Dollars, and in 1990 Jack became the first president of Disneyland.
THE OPENING CEREMONY FOR IT’S A SMALL WORLD
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/interview-Jack-Lindquist-its-a-small-world-opening.mp3 AUDIO INDEX
1:23 Needed something special for the opening of the it’s a small world attraction at Disneyland; Jack came up with the idea of having Disney reps all over the world send water from their native countries to pour into the attraction moat; got kids representing those countries to pour the water
Disneyland Ambassador Ceremony, 1991, Suzanne Palmiter, Jack Lindquist, Jill Ornelas 1967, Roy O. Disney, Jack Lindquist, and 1967 Disneyland Ambassador Marcia Miner stand by a model of the new Tomorrowland 1992 “Pigskin Bash” for the Disneyland Pigskin Classic football game Former Disneyland presidents Matt Ouimet, Jack Lindquist and George Kalogridis
Kathryn Beaumont, with Alice in Wonderland co-stars Jerry Colonna and Ed Wynn http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/interview-Kathryn-Beaumont-working-on-the-Disney-films.mp3 Kathryn Beaumont was a child actress at MGM and went on to voice Alice and Wendy in Walt Disney’s animated versions of “Alice in Wonderland” and “Peter Pan” respectively
AUDIO INDEX
:56 Working for MGM and then Disney
1:39 Already familiar with Alice in Wonderland
2:34 The audition for Alice, getting a contract with Disney
3:25 Remembering Walt Disney, the atmosphere at the Walt Disney Studios
6:05 Storyboard conferences with artists, writers and Winston Hibler; Ink and Paint and other departments sharing the progress of the film
9:05 Involvement in Peter Pan vs. Alice in Wonderland
11:55 Working with other actors such as Hans Conreid
http://mouseclubhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/interview-Stan-Freese.mp3 Stan is the talent booking director for Disneyland and tuba soloist extraordinaire. He was the longtime conductor of the Disneyland band and the first full-time conductor of the Walt Disney World band.
AUDIO INDEX
1:43 Performing tuba solos on the TV series Hee Haw
4:40 His start with music and choosing the tuba
7:01 Entertaining for Lawrence Welk and performing on his show
8:30 Tuba soloist for the government cultural exchange program including Soviet Union and Siberia; Command performance at the White House for President Nixon
9:25 Starting with Disney; the first leader of the Walt Disney World band; problems with the first band
12:45 Moving to Disneyland
14:11 Involvement with Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea
15:40 Auditions and benefits of entertaining at Disneyland; Disney entertainment; the Trash Can Trio and the Mariachi Divas
20:28 Big bands at Disneyland