August 20 - Demi Lovato

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On this day, in 1992, Demetria Devonne Lovato was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As the daughter of a musician and a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, Demi was pre-destined to a life of performing.  What wasn’t so easy to see were the obstacles she would have to overcome getting to that life, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Demi’s parents divorced when she was barely two and she moved with her mother to Dallas, Texas. She began taking piano lessons at the age of seven and added the guitar three years later. With acting and dancing classes on top of her musical lessons, it’s a wonder how she managed to fit in regular appearances as Angela on seasons seven and eight of Barney and Friends (which filmed in the Dallas area) as well as school. And that’s where we hit a major bump in the highway of Demi’s life. During an interview with Ellen Degeneres, she revealed that she was the victim of relentless bullying at school. It got so bad she begged her mother to be homeschooled. Her mother granted that wish and not only was she able to fit her educational schedule around all her other activities, but she was able to graduate from high school a year early.

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While still in school, Demi began to branch out from her beginnings with the purple dinosaur. She made appearances on the Fox drama Prison Break and the Nickelodeon show Just Jordan. This exposure led to her first starring role in a series as Charlotte Adams in the Disney Channel show As the Bell Rings. Bell was what is known as an interstitial program meaning it was only a few minutes long and played in the spaces between other shows and movies on the network. For Demi, it was her ticket to bigger and better things.

In 2007, Demi auditioned for and got starring roles in two major projects on the Disney Channel. The first one was as Mitchie Torres, an aspiring singer, in the teen movie Camp Rock. While Camp Rock debuted in 2008 with more viewers than its genre busting predecessor, High School Musical, it never reached the same frenetic heights of popularity. Not that that really mattered to Demi. She sang four of songs on the film’s soundtrack, including her debut single This Is Me, which would peak at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This Is Me led to a contract with Hollywood Records and her debut album, Don’t Forget, which hit the charts at number two in September of that year and had three tracks that charted as well.

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The following year, as she was graduating from high school early, Demi starred in her own show, Sonny with a Chance, also on the Disney Channel. 2009-2010 would turn out to be an incredibly busy two years for the young star, in ways both good and bad. She recorded a charity single, Send It On, with several other DC stars, proceeds going to environmental causes. In June 2009, she starred in another DC movie, Princess Protection Program, with Selena Gomez. In July, she released her second album, Here We Go Again, which debuted in Billboard’s number one slot and jump started a 40 city tour during July and August. In 2010, Demi and Joe Jonas recorded a second single, Make a Wave, for Disney’s Friends for Change charity. That fall, Camp Rock 2 debuted with Demi reprising her roll of Mitchie Torres. The new soundtrack debuted at number 3 and prompted the cast of Camp Rock 2 to join the Jonas Brothers on their tour. Then, at the end of October 2010, everything abruptly fell apart.

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While Demi would later explain everything that had been going on, it seemed to her fans that she was there one moment and vanished the next. She walked away from the Jonas Brothers tour, quit not only Sonny with a Chance but acting altogether and checked herself into a treatment facility for physical and mental reasons. After emerging from treatment nearly three months later, Demi slowly began to share the list of reasons that led to her self-imposed exile. That list is almost dizzying and yet all too common at the same time. Still suffering from effects of the intense bullying she endured when she was younger, Demi added more and more problems to her plate, fueled by her newfound fame and fortune, until she could no longer hold that plate, much less keep it spinning. She began to suffer from bulimia and depression (not necessarily in that order), both of which caused her to harm herself in other ways. In order to dull the increasing pain she felt, she began to drink and eventually became addicted to cocaine. She was spiraling towards a complete nervous breakdown when she physically assaulted a female dancer with the tour. Her manager and family staged an intervention at that point and convinced her to seek help. To top everything off, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder during her treatment.

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2011 became a rebuilding year for Demi. She was released from treatment in January. By April, she’d become a contributor to Seventeen magazine writing articles about her experiences.  In September, she released her third album, Unbroken, which went gold and had two singles, Skyscraper and Give Your Heart a Break, go platinum. In May 2012, Demi joined the judges panel of The X Factor and things seemed to be looking up for the young star. She’d even made a documentary of her struggles for MTV called Demi Lovato: Stay Strong. Unfortunately, she wasn’t staying as strong as everyone thought.

When Demi released her fourth album, Demi, in 2013, she revealed that she had been living in a sobriety house for more than a year. And that she’d actually been high when she was filmed for the documentary about her recovery. This time, though, she really did seem to be sticking to her plan to be better to herself. In addition to the new album, she released an e-book, also title Demi. She appeared in several episodes of the fifth season of Glee. She released a self-help book, Staying Strong: 365 Days a Year, that shot to the top of the New York Times Bestseller List. She sang a version of Let it Go for the end credits of Frozen that spent twenty weeks on the charts. And she went on tour again, once in North America and again on her first world tour.

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Over the next few years, Demi released two more albums, Confident and Tell Me You Love Me, both of which went gold with singles that went platinum (a trend she’s managed to keep up with every release). In 2017, she returned to acting as the voice of Smurfette in Smurfs: The Lost Village and, the following year, appeared as Lenore in the animated movie Charming. She’s also made numerous appearances on reality competition shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race and The Bachelorette, as either a guest judge or a performer. And on March 15, 2018, she celebrated being sober for six years. Except she then revealed that she’d only been mostly sober and had experienced some mighty struggles with her addictions. And then in June, just days after she admitted she’d had a relapse, Demi was rushed to the hospital, this time for an opioid overdose.

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Demi is currently on the mend once again. She’s endured more treatment, made new life plans and continues to battle her demons in a pretty public way. It’s no surprise that among the many causes to which she lends both her financial support and celebrity power, there are several that aim to combat bullying, raise awareness of mental health issues, empower women and advocate for the LGBTQ community and others who feel marginalized in society. She announced this last May that she’d signed up with a new manager and looks forward to the next chapter in her life. At least one project in that chapter has already been completed, with another gearing up. You’ll be able to see her in a Netflix original comedy, Eurovision, sometime next year with Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams. She will also be appearing in several episodes of the next season of Will and Grace. What else will this talented if embattled young woman unleash on the world? No one knows but Demi, but if she continues to move forward with the authenticity and determination she’s shown so far, there is more than a chance her future will be sunny.

April 17 - Ron Miller

On this day, in 1933, Ronald William Miller was born in Los Angeles, California. The son of Canadian immigrants, Ron played football at John C. Fremont High School before continuing his sports career at the University of Southern California. While he was there, he went on a blind date after a USC football game with a fetching young woman by the name of Diane Marie Disney. It was love at first sight and the couple was married on May 9, 1954. Ron then did a tour in the United States Army, returning to Los Angeles in 1956 to play professional football for the Rams. His career as a tight end only lasted one season. His father-in-law saw him play in exactly two games. In the first one, Ron was knocked unconscious on a carry early in the game and didn’t wake up until the third quarter. The second only went marginally better. Walt informed his son-in-law that he wasn’t interested in raising his own grandchildren, so why didn’t Ron come work for Disney before he got himself killed? Ron felt good about achieving his dream to play in the pros, agreed that Walt’s idea was probably a much safer way to go and hung up his jersey at the end of the season.

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Ron’s first job at his father-in-law’s company had actually occurred a few years earlier. While waiting for his draft notice to come through from the army, he shuttled plans for Disneyland back and forth between the WED Enterprises offices in Burbank and the construction site in Anaheim. For his return, Walt sponsored Ron’s membership in the Director’s Guild of America and made him an assistant on Old Yeller (but whether it was an assistant director or an assistant to the director is unclear, he didn’t get any official credit).

Shortly after getting his feet wet in production, Warner Brothers called Ron asking if he would audition to replace an actor they were having problems with on their popular Western Cheyenne. The audition led to a screen test, but didn’t go any further. When Walt got wind of what was going on, he told his son-in-law to forget acting and concentrate on being a producer. Ron acquiesced. The actor in question, Clint Walker, soon settled with Warner Brothers and returned to the show, so it’s a moot point whether Walt was simply being heavy handed with Ron or if he had some knowledge as to how the situation was going to turn out and was saving Ron some headaches. Either way, Ron never tried acting again.

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Putting his nose to the grindstone, Ron began moving up the production ladder, moving from associate producer to producer and, eventually, executive producer. He worked on classic films like Son of Flubber, Summer Magic and That Darn Cat! His first gig as a full-fledged producer was for the 1968 comedy Never a Dull Moment, starring Dick Van Dyke and Edward G. Robinson. Throughout the Seventies, Ron racked up producing credits on movies like Tron, Pete’s Dragon, Escape to Witch Mountain, The Rescuers and The Fox and the Hound. He also produced several episodes of The Wonderful World of Disney anthology show, earning six Emmy nominations and one win along the way.

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In 1978, Ron became the President of the Walt Disney Company, the number two man to then-CEO Card Walker. Ron was the more experimental of the two men. He embraced new computer animation techniques for Tron. He was a driving force behind the development and construction of Epcot Center. He created The Disney Channel. When he moved into the CEO position in 1984, he created Touchstone Pictures to open up the company creatively, which it desperately needed. But he also made colossal blunders, too.

Under Card, the company had been playing its cards very conservatively, spending most of the almost two decades since Walt’s passing trying to guess what the founder would have done. As a result, Disney stopped innovating (for the most part), putting out mostly mediocre fare that really didn’t even play to the company’s strengths much less build on them. Profits fell even though Disney held assets that could have prevented that from happening, if utilized properly. A fact that didn’t escape the notice of investors. One of them, Saul Steinberg, attempted a hostile takeover. As CEO, Ron negotiated a buyout of Saul’s 11.5% ownership, saving the company but at a huge cost (Saul made about $60 million off the deal). A group of shareholders sued. Around the same time, Ron was praising all the wonderful synergistic things that were going to happen along with the next animated classic the company was putting out, so it’s okay that it was the most expensive one yet (spoiler alert: The Black Cauldron failed on nearly every level). When a second hostile takeover reared its ugly head, it proved to be too much. After just 18 months at the helm of the company, Ron was asked to resign and replaced with Michael Eisner and Frank Wells.

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Following his forced retirement, Ron and Dianne relocated to the Napa Valley. A few years earlier, they’d purchased some land there with the intention of cultivating a vineyard for their twilight years. That plan just got moved up a bit. They founded the Silverado Vineyards, which currently produces five varieties of wine.

In 2009, Ron and Dianne help found the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, California. Ron served on the board of the museum from the beginning and was the President for several years. After Dianne passed away in 2013, Ron continued to look after the museum and the winery, until succumbing to heart failure himself earlier this year. On February 9, 2019, he passed away in Napa, California, never quite shaking the stigma that comes with getting fired on such a grand scale, but always believing that he had left Disney stronger for his service. He was 85.

March 27 - Brenda Song

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On this day, in 1988, Brenda Song was born in Carmichael, California. The daughter of Thai immigrants, Brenda began her professional career as a fashion model in San Francisco long before she ever opened a schoolbook. By the time she was six, she’d already appeared in two big commercials, one for Little Caesars Pizza and one for Barbie dolls. Her first film role was in an AFI student short directed by Elizabeth Sung, Requiem (1995). That led to a thirteen episode run on a Nickelodeon show, 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd, in 1999 and guest appearances on numerous other shows, including one on The Bernie Mack Show that earned her a Young Artist Award nomination.

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Brenda’s first gig for Disney came in 2000 when she starred in The Ultimate Christmas Present on the Disney Channel. She won a Young Artist Award for that performance and was ultimately asked to sign a contract with the company in 2002. That year she starred in the Disney Channel movie Get a Clue with Lindsay Lohan. She then appeared on That’s So Raven, had the recurring role of Tia on Phil of the Future and then starred in Stuck in the Suburbs.

In 2005, Brenda began playing her longest running role to date: the spoiled hotel heiress London Tipton. Beginning her run as London on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, she would continue being cluelessly rich when the series shifted gears and became The Suite Life on Deck in 2008. Personally, Brenda and Phill Lewis, who played Mr. Moseby, were the only two people worth watching on either show (yes, I’ve seen multiple episodes of them; I have kids of a certain age).

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Once Suite Life took off, Brenda became a regular on all things Disney Channel. Brenda leant her voice to the American Dragon: Jake Long series, The Emperor’s New School and Phineas and Ferb.  She made guest appearances on Wizards of Waverly Place and the Disney Games. She had a supporting role in Wendy Hu: Homecoming Warrior until the producers realized she had a black belt in taekwondo and recast her as the title character. In 2009, her Suite Life persona became one of the longest running characters in Disney Channel history.

Following the end of The Suite Life on Deck in 2011, Brenda began to take on projects outside of Disney. She appeared in Columbia Picture’s The Social Network, starred in an award winning short film, First Kiss, and had recurring roles in Scandal and New Girl on television. In 2013, she landed a starring role in the Fox comedy Dads, but the show only lasted one season. Since then, Brenda has appeared in a number of pilots for shows that didn’t manage to get picked up but don’t feel too bad for her. She currently has three projects in some stage of production: a Netflix movie, Secret Obsession, Seth Green’s directorial debut, Changeland, and a new animated series from the creator of Gravity Falls, Amphibia, for the Disney Channel. Brenda’s career is going to be just fine.

January 9 - Card Walker

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On this day, in 1916, Esmond Cardon Walker was born in Rexburg, Idaho. Card first arrived in the Los Angeles area at the age of 8 and, in 1934, began life as a freshman at UCLA. When he graduated four years later, he landed at job at the Walt Disney Studios in the mailroom. That’s right, folks. Card’s story is a classic tale of one man’s rise from the proverbial lowly entry position to the vaunted corner office. Lucky for us, it’s generally reported that he was an all-around good guy.

Card’s first job with the company was affectionately known as a ‘traffic boy.’ He spent his days moving drawings around the studio between the different departments, from an animator’s desk to Ink and Paint to the Camera Department and so on. From there Card moved up into the Camera Department and then the Story Department. At that point, in 1941, his career was interrupted, like so many other careers, by the start of World War II.

Card stepped up and fulfilled his patriotic duty, joining the United States Navy. He was eventually assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill where he served as a flight deck officer from 1943-1945. Card would fight in eight major battles in the Pacific Theater of the war, survive the deadly attacks (the only original flight deck officer on the Bunker Hill to do so) and, in the end, return home to his place at Disney.

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After the war, Card continued to both steadily rise within the company and gain an almost encyclopedic knowledge of it. At one point he became a unit manager in the Shorts Department and by 1956 he claimed the title of Vice President of Advertising and Sales. His vast knowledge about everything going on in the studio made him invaluable to Walt and the two enjoyed a close friendship. In 1960, Card was elected to the Board of Directors for the Studio for the first time. He would remain a member of that body for the next four decades.

When Walt died in 1966, Roy O. Disney became the company’s President and Card became the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Card was instrumental in helping Roy bring his brother’s final dream, Walt Disney World, to  life. With Roy’s passing in 1971, Card moved up to company President, serving as second in command under Donn Tatum, the company’s first CEO whose last name was something other than Disney.

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As time went on and Donn relinquished his titles one by one, they all went to Card. In 1976, Donn stopped being CEO, but stayed on a Chairman of the Board. Card remained President and added the position of CEO. When Don fully retired in 1980, Card became Chairman of the Board as well as CEO. Card retired from the CEO position in February of 1983 and retired as Chairman in May of the same year. He stayed on with the company as a consultant for several more years and ended his run as a member of the board in 2000.

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After 45 years of steady active leadership, Card left behind a mixed legacy. On the plus side, he made sure Walt Disney World happened (something I can never be thankful enough for), he expanded Disney theme parks into international waters with the opening of Tokyo Disneyland and he got the company into the cable business with the launch of The Disney Channel. He was also the driving force behind EPCOT Center, doubling the number of parks at the Florida Project. Which all sounds great until you flip the coin and look at the negative side.

Creativity was never Card’s strong suit. As Disney historian Jim Hill once noted, throughout the Seventies, when filmmakers who’d grown up on Disney fare were making pictures like Jaws and Star Wars, the company under Card’s leadership was churning out movies like Herbie Goes Bananas and Gus. While those pictures aren’t inherently bad, they are clearly out of place for their times. Card spent much of his time as President and CEO asking the age old question ‘What would Walt do?’ without realizing that the answer was innovate, take risks and constantly push the envelope of what entertainment could be. By trying to stay family friendly in a mid-Sixties kind of way during the Seventies and early Eighties, Card nearly destroyed the very company he loved. As Disney’s fortunes declined and its assets remained lovingly wrapped up in storage, the vultures began to circle. Card managed to retire before the crisis came to a head and his successor, Ron Miller, gets most of the shame for being removed from office to make way for Michael Eisner, but it was Card’s decisions that brought the company to the brink.

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In the end, I think Card comes out on top, if only because things turned out okay. While the creative side of Disney suffered under his leadership, the business side was blessed with firm foundations. Epcot, Tokyo Disneyland and the Disney Channel were all projects that benefited the company immensely in the long term and were executed very well. Card’s chief strengths were dual and embodied in a story from Epcot’s opening. He was asked why the company had named their new park such a cumbersome, odd sounding name.  His response was simple: it was inspired by Walt and he was confident people would get used to it. This dedication to legacy and sure, steadfast optimism about the future are what earned Card the honor of official Disney Legend in 1993.

Card passed away from congestive heart failure at his home in La Canada Flintridge, California on November 28, 2005. He was 89.

September 16 - Handy Manny

On this day, in 2006, Handy Manny made his debut as part of Playhouse Disney on the Disney Channel.

 Of all the shows my kids subjected me to... I mean, watched... when they were little, Handy Manny was easily my favorite. Set in the town of Sheetrock Hills, somewhere in... well, somewhere warm and coastal, the show centered around the town fix-it guy, Manuel Estevez Garcia III, and his trusty set of tools. Manny himself was voiced by Wilmer Valderrama who was best known for the character Fez on That 70's Show. The show featured a lot of characters that spoke both Spanish and English.

Just as in real life, something somewhere in Sheetrock Hills is always breaking and everyone knows that Manny is just the person to call when that happens. Occasionally, someone just needs something assembled but usually it's a repair. Even though Manny is constantly out on service calls, he apparently doesn't need a receptionist to answer the phone and he never seems to miss out on a job. Sheetrock Hills is a very accommodating place.

The only thing that Manny ever takes with him on a job are his tools. They include all the basics: a wrench, a saw, a hammer, pliers, two kinds of screwdriver and a tape measure; each tool, of course, has its own personality. When they get to the repair site, they put their heads together to figure out what needs to be done and whether or not they need some kind of part. They almost always need a part, which gives them the chance to go to the hardware store. They get their part, fix the problem, and learn something in the process just in time for the end of the episode.

I actually enjoyed many aspects of Handy Manny. One was the fact that it dealt with all kinds of personalities having all kinds of problems but it never seemed to get smarmy about it. It was predictable, as all children's shows are, but never cloying or in your face about stuff. I also loved the character of the Mr. Lopart, the man who owned the candy store next to Manny's repair shop. The sight gags they did with Mr. Lopart's fly-away comb over and his cat, who also had a comb over, were marvelous. The best part for me, though, was the hardware store. It was owned by a woman named Kelly and the innuendos between her and Manny were priceless. More than one character declared that Kelly had "everything Manny needs." The two would finally kiss, but only in the context of a play, so did it really count? The awkwardly romantic moments between them gave my wife and me the giggles pretty much every episode.

One interesting factoid about Handy Manny is that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group Los Lobos did the theme song, something that I'm sure was lost entirely on most viewers. After 113 episodes, spanning three official seasons broadcast over six and a half years, Manny and his tools said "Hasta luego" for the last time in February 2013.