June 27 - Kathryn Beaumont

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On this day, in 1938, Kathryn Beaumont was born in London, England. The daughter of a singer and a dancer, Kathryn was exposed to show business from the moment she was born. When the Germans began bombing London during World War II, she relocated to Northern Wales with her mother in 1941. Through her parents' contacts she made an uncredited appearance in a British romantic comedy, It Happened One Sunday, in 1944. When she returned to London at the war's end, Kathryn was offered a contract with MGM, who was looking to capitalize on American's war time fascination with all things British. The Beaumonts relocated to Los Angeles, California in order to fulfill that contract, but it never really panned out. She had small parts in On an Island With You, which starred Jimmy Durante, Challange to Lassie, and the 1949 production of The Secret Garden, which turned out to be child star Margaret O'Brien's last film and led to Kathryn's Disney debut, albeit in a roundabout way.

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Margaret O'Brien was quickly outgrowing her career, which apparently everyone but her mother could see. As her contract with MGM was nearing it's end, Margaret's mom tried to toughly renegotiate it by saying the studio should resign her for more money or let her go so she could make more money somewhere else. MGM immediately agreed to let her go, which should have been a red flag to Mrs. O'Brien. Being released from her contract meant that Margaret was available to play Alice in the Walt Disney Studio's Alice in Wonderland. Walt announced the casting and Mrs. O'Brien saw that announcement as a chance to ask for more money. A heated discussion ensued (some would call it a shouting match). At the end of it, Margaret was unemployed, Kathryn, who had also just been let out of her MGM contract, was auditioned and, four hours later, offered the role. In later years, Disney tried to say that Kathryn was the choice all along because she was British enough to stay true to the British story but not too British that American audiences would be put off. I say bullox. Margaret wasn't British at all and that's just a story to cover up a bad casting choice. At any rate, the problem was fixed and fixed well.

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Not only did Kathryn provide the voice for Alice but she filmed all the live action reference for the animators as well, which ended up being a little more than she bargained for. With all the crazy twisting and turning Alice had to do because of falling down rabbit holes (and various other hallucinatory moves), the live action shots actually made Kathryn quite nauseous. She was literally spun and twirled and dropped using all sorts of contraptions in order for the animators to get perspectives (and I'm sure facial expressions) just right. It wasn't enough to put her off performing as Alice however. She continued to be part of the movie's press events and was even there for the studio's first television production, One Hour in Wonderland.

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Following an extended press tour, Kathryn returned home to be offered a role in Disney's next animated feature, Peter Pan. She accepted the role of Wendy Darling and once again agreed to do the live action reference filming, once again ending up out of her comfort zone. This time around, the animators wanted shots of people flying through the air, so they rigged their three kids up on wires and suspended them high enough to film them from below. Kathryn has a fair to middling fear of heights and recalls feeling safe in the harness but that the stage looked really far away. Once again, she survived the ordeal and was more than happy to assist the studio with press events.

Following Peter Pan, Kathryn went off to high school where she joined the student government but shied away from the Drama Club. She was then accepted into the University of Southern California as an education major. During the summers throughout college, she continued her relationship with Disney, making appearances and recording voice overs for theme park attractions. When she graduated from USC, she became a teacher at a local elementary school and almost never looked back. I say almost because there was a handful of times when a student wondered why they recognized their teacher's voice and actually figured out why. It was a era before home video so Kathryn was safe most of the time, it was only during a periodic rerelease of one of her movies (or a showing on television) that anyone would make the connection. She lost touch with the Disney stuio and happily taught in relative anonymity for nearly thirty years.

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In 1983, in preparation for the 30th anniversary of Peter Pan, Disney tracked Kathryn down and was surprised to find her practically in their backyard. She reacquainted herself with the company and began making appearances again, as well as making new recordings of Alice and Wendy. When the Alice in Wonderland ride at Disneyland was refurbished and given a new soundtrack, Disney was able to get the original voice to do it. She also recorded all sorts of bits for various parades and video games. In 2005, she officially retired from acting a second time, turning all future recording duties over to Hynden Walch. In 1998, for embodying the quintessential classic Disney heroine, Kathryn was declared an official Disney Legend. She currently resides in Southern California with her husband of 34 years, Allen.

June 25 - Milt Kahl

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On this day, in 1934, Milton Erwin Kahl began working at the Walt Disney Studio. Born on March 22, 1909 in San Francisco, California, Milt loved drawing so much he dropped out of high school to follow his dreams of becoming a cartoonist. He started by working in newspapers layout artist for first the Oakland Post-Enquirer and then the San Francisco Bulletin. After getting his feet wet, he went out on his own, starting a commercial art business, just in time for the Great Depression to begin its strangle hold on the nation's economy. Milt struggled to keep his shop open until one day, in 1933, when he went to the movies for a mental health break and saw a Silly Symphony, The Three Little Pigs. He thought it was the most fantastic thing he'd ever seen and was immediately hooked on animation. By June 1934, his own enterprise was at an end and he applied at the Walt Disney Studio for a job. His talents were so impressive, he skipped the inbetweener position and began as an assistant animator.

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Milt began his Disney career in the Shorts Department, making contributions to classics like The Lonesome Ghosts, Mickey's Circus and the Academy Award winning Silly Symphony The Ugly Duckling. It didn't take long for him to move up to animator. I mean pretty much everyone got promotions once production started on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but Milt really deserved his. For the studio's first feature, he was in charge of animating the Woodland Animals and the Prince. By the second feature, Pinocchio, all of Milt's peers were awe of his talents. Ollie Johnston remembers Fred Moore coming into his office one day just raving about Milt's drawings. Ollie went to look for himself and was blown away. Walt was so impressed he made Milt Pinocchio's supervising animator.

Not only did Milt become one of Walt's Nine Old Men (as did Ollie), he's generally considered the leader of the group. He was comfortable and talented enough to do technically hard things like realistic looking fawns or stag antlers, he could also do artistically hard things like humans. Throughout the decades, Milt was responsible for finalizing the look of hundreds of characters in dozens of films. The list of characters he personally animated is almost mind blowing:

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Forest Animals and Prince

Pinocchio - Pinocchio and some of Jiminy Cricket

Bambi - Bambi, Thumper, several deer

Saludos Amigos - riding a llama sequence

Make Mine Music - The Martins and the Coys

Song of the South - Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox, Br'er Bear (especially the Tar Baby sequence)

Fun and Fancy Free - Lulubelle, Lumpjaw and various bears

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Melody Time - Johnny Appleseed, Guardian Angel, Slue Foot Sue, Pecos Bill

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad - Angus MacBadger, Rat, Mole, an angry mob, Brom Bones

Cinderella - Fairy Godmother, Prince Charming, The King, The Grand Duke

Alice in Wonderland - Alice, the White Rabbit, the Dodo, flamingos and hedgehogs

Peter Pan - Peter Pan, Wendy Darling, John Darling, Michael Darling, Mr and Mrs. Darling, Nana

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Lady and the Tramp - Lady, Tramp, Beaver, Trusty

Sleeping Beauty - Prince Phillip, King Hubert, King Stefan, animals, Samson

One Hundred and One Dalmatians - Roger, Anita, Pongo, Perdita

The Sword in the Stone - Wart, Merlin, Sir Ector, Kay, Archemedes, Madame Mim, dogs

Mary Poppins - Master of Hounds, hounds, fox

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The Jungle Book - Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera, Shere Khan, King Louie, Kaa, the Vultures

The Aristocats - Thomas O'Malley, Duchess, Madame Bonfamille, Edgar, George

Bedknobs and Broomsticks - King Leonidas, Secretary Bird

Robin Hood - Robin Hood, the Sheriff of Nottingham, Little John, Allan-a-Dale, Maid Marian, Friar
 Tuck, King Richard

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - Tigger, some Winnie the Pooh, a little Piglet

The Rescuers - Madame Medusa, Mr. Snoops, Penny, Brutus and Nero

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Once you've wrapped your mind around that list, realize this: not only did he animate all those characters, but for the titles in bold, he was also that film's directing animator. Meaning he animated his characters and made sure that all the other characters were being handle correctly as well. I don't think it's an understatement to say that if Milt's commercial art business hadn't failed, the Walt Disney Studio wouldn't have been as successful as it was.

Milt retired in 1976, as production was wrapping up on The Rescuers and after 42 years creating magic for millions of moviegoers. He moved back to the Bay Area and spent the remainder of his days making wire sculptures of ballerinas and other human forms. On April 19, 1987, Milt succumbed to pneumonia at his home in Mill Valley, California. Just two years later, in the second class of inductees, Milt and his fellow Old Men would be declared official Disney Legends. If he'd been there to accept the award, he would probably have declared, with his usual humility, "Aww... You're full of it!" And indeed, every time we watch a Disney classic, because of Milt, we are full of It.

May 11 - Albert Hurter

On this day, in 1883, Albert Hurter, Jr. was born in Zurich, Switzerland. The eldest of three sons, Albert was inspired to become an artist by his father, a technical drawing teacher at Zurich’s Berufsschule. At a young age, he was diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease, brought on by rheumatic fever (which can occur after getting strep throat). The series of diseases is something that would be easily curable by the early 1900’s, but which did irreversible damage to Albert’s heart, not killing him outright, but shortening his life considerably. Luckily, the disease didn’t keep him from living in the meantime.

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In 1903, Albert moved to Berlin to begin his formal art training. He studied diligently for seven years, returning to Switzerland shortly before Albert Senior died. Partly to escape from the overwhelmingly fond memories of his father (and partly because that’s where an exciting new art form was starting to explode), Albert soon moved to America, taking up residence in New York City. He began working in animation at the Barre-Bower Studio on the Mutt and Jeff shorts in 1912. Six years later, he suddenly left Barre-Bower (and the animation business altogether), apparently over continuous disagreements with his fellow co-workers (although what exactly those fights were supposedly about, no one really knows).

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Albert moved west to Southern California. For the next decade he eked out a living, designing clothes, furniture and magazine layouts for whoever would pay him. In 1931, he reconnected with Ted Sears, an old co-worker from his Barre-Bower days, who was then working for the Walt Disney Studio. Disney was always looking for new talent and hired Albert on Ted’s word. It quickly became apparent that Albert was a genius when it came to anthropomorphizing both animals and objects. Walt moved him into the Story Department (which, including Albert, now had three members) and turned him loose. Albert also sketched quickly and with great proliferation. Given a simple story idea (like "The Three Little Pigs"), he could go into seclusion for days, coming out the other side with dozens (if not hundreds) of characters, gags, settings, props, animal sidekicks, etc.

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Albert worked mostly on the Silly Symphonies, but when features came along, his fingers are all over Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Dumbo and Fantasia. It's almost impossible to overstate how many characters that came out of the studio in the Thirties and early Forties had their origin in Albert's brain. It's as equally impossible to pinpoint specific bits of animation that can be considered 'Albert's,' since most of his work was more on the concept end. Not only could he come up with all sorts of variations on a theme, his sketches often inspired the animators around him to explore new directions and themes. And the grounding he got in classic art back in Berlin elevated everything Disney did to artistic heights Mutt and Jeff could only dream of.

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One of the few characters that didn't change a whole lot from his early sketches was the first Disney Princess, Snow White. He nailed her right from the beginning. A big chunk of his ideas, though, ended up getting used on different projects from the one that gave birth to them. One general rule of thumb around the studio was that nothing Albert drew should ever be thrown away because eventually a project will come along that it will be perfect for. Albert's weak heart finally give out on him on March 28, 1942, but his sketches would continue to influence the look of Disney films for over a decade longer, showing up in Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp.

In his will, Albert, who never married or had any children, designated money to publish a book of his work, leaving it up to his old pal, Ted Sears, to make it happen. Ted toiled away faithfully and honored his friends last wish. Seven years after Albert's death, He Drew As He Pleased was published, featuring over 700 of his doodles, drawings and incredible concepts. I've only seen a fraction of what's in it but what I have seen is absolutely delightful (it is out of print but copies are available on Amazon for around $250). I really get the feeling that if Albert had lived longer or been slightly later in Disney history, made it past World War II perhaps, he would be better known. But, regardless of his lack of fame, his talent and influence are undeniable. Without Albert, the Disney we know and love, might never have existed.

April 15 - Hans Conried

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On this day, in 1917, Hans Georg Conried was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Raised as an only child (he had a brother who died at the age of five and a half-brother who lived elsewhere), Hans was pretty much given everything he could ever want as a child. He began appearing in local stage shows (mostly Shakespearean plays) at the age of 12. After graduating from high school, he attended Columbia University in New York City to study commercial art (at the urging of his father) and acting (because he wanted to). By 1934, his father’s failing health left Hans as the sole supporter of the family. It was soon decided that the Conried Clan should move to Southern California to see if the change of climate would help dear old dad. Once the family was settled, Hans spent his days working for a sports equipment manufacturer and his nights on stage with the Santa Monica Players.

One day, in late 1935, Hans heard an announcement on his favorite radio station that they were going to add locally produced broadcasts of uncut Shakespeare works. He got so excited by the prospect that he went to the station and basically accosted the manager with his enthusiasm. Once the manager understood that Hans wasn’t there to complain, he took note of the young man’s wonderful voice and extensive Shakespearean credits and hired him to be a part of the upcoming broadcasts. On January 14, 1936, Hans began his radio career as part of the cast of KECA’s live broadcast of Othello. He would be a regular voice on airwaves for the next two decades. He was a regular on Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood, Ceiling Unlimited with Orson Welles and spent several years playing the dim witted Professor Kropotkin on My Friend Irma.

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Hans made the leap to the silver screen in 1938. His first role was as a snobbish student in the MGM romantic comedy Dramatic School, starring Paulette Goddard and Luise Rainer. While he would appear in dozens of films over the years, none of his roles really ever rose above that of bit part (in fact most of them for the first two years were uncredited). He often said that the highlight of his movie career came in 1953 when he got to star in The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, the only movie ever written by Dr. Seuss. The film was a dismal financial and critical failure (so much so that Dr. Seuss tried his best never to mention it, ever) but Hans felt it was the most fun he’d ever had making a movie.

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When World War II finally came to America in 1941, Hans, as the only surviving son in his family, managed to keep from being drafted until September 1944. He was sent to be trained as a tank crewman, but the Army quickly realized that he was too tall for the job. He was then moved into a heavy artillery unit and shipped out to the Philippines. He wasn’t there long before Jack Kruschen, a friend and fellow actor, got him moved into the Armed Forces Radio Service. Hans spent the remainder of his tour there, travelling around Japan, Korea and the Philippines, setting up radio stations and performing for his fellow troops. While there he fell in love with Japanese culture and became a lifelong self-proclaimed Japanophile (his word).

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After returning to the United States in 1946, Hans began what would become the bread and butter of his career for the next thirty years: television appearances. One of his first gigs was on a quiz show produced in Los Angeles call Pantomime Quiz. An amiable rivalry sprung up on the show between Hans and his good friend, Vincent Price, and their often hilarious back and forth played out over several seasons. He quickly became one of the early popular personalities on the small screen through his frequent guest shots on The Jack Paar Show starting in the late Fifties. From then on, he had guest appearances on everything from I Love Lucy to The Love Boat. But his strongest collaborative relationship that beamed into everyone’s living rooms on a regular basis was with the animating team of Jay Ward and Bill Scott. The creative duo were the masterminds behind Crusader Rabbit, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends and Hoppity Hooper. Hans provided the voice for Snidely Whiplash on Rocky and Bullwinkle, Uncle Waldo on Hooper and was the live action host for Jay's Fractured Flickers (where he used many of his friends from Pantomime Quiz as interviewees). 

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Hans cemented his place in the Disney family when he took on dual roles in the company's 14th animated feature, Peter Pan. Not only did he play George Darling, he also gave voice to (and filmed the live action reference pieces for) the classic villain Captain Hook (which is the traditional way to cast those parts). As if that weren't enough, he played two roles in the classic short Ben and Me (Thomas Jefferson and a crook), was the prosecutor in The Story of Anyburg, USA, JB in The Goofy Success Story and became the Slave in the Magic Mirror for several episodes of Wonderful World of Color. On the live action front, Hans appeared as Thimblerig in the Davy Crockett series, Professor Whatley in The Shaggy D.A., and as Dr. Heffel in The Cat From Outer Space.

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In between all his screen appearances, Hans found time to grace stages, both on and off Broadway, as well. He was part of the original Broadway casts of Cole Porter's Can-Can, Candor and Ebbs' 70, Girls, 70, and a revival of Irene. Throughout the Sixties and early Seventies, he loved to take on regional theater productions or even join touring companies. His days of live theater, however, came to a halt one day in 1974, when he suffered a mild stroke. He recovered but was never again quite able to handle to physical stress of performing night after night. It also put a damper on his live action career in general. He soldiered on, though, and remained an active voice over actor right up to the end of life. He suffered a mild heart attack in 1979, then, on January 4, 1982, he had a major one. The following day, he passed away in a hospital in Burbank, California. He was only 64.

March 3 - Bobby Driscoll

On this day, in 1937, Robert Cletus Driscoll was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. When Bobby was five his father, an insulation salesman, began suffering health problems from handling asbestos all the time at work. On a doctor’s recommendation, the family moved to Los Angeles in 1943 to try to alleviate his symptoms. It wasn’t long before people began recommending that Bobby get into movies. The family’s dentist had a son who was a regular on the MGM lot and arranged for Bobby to have an audition. He nailed it and made his first screen appearance in that year’s Lost Angel with Margaret O’Brien. Over the next three years, Bobby appeared in nine more films spread around most of the major studios in town. All that changed in when Bobby came to attention of a struggling animation studio out in Burbank.

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In 1946, the Walt Disney Studio was producing a film based on the stories of Joel Chandler Harris that would be a blend of live action storytellers giving a framework to animated stories. Although many of the ‘package films’ the studio had been cobbling together during the lean war years included both live and drawn scenes, Song of the South was the first Disney picture to deliberately meld them together for the story’s sake since the Alice comedies. Impressed with Bobby’s previous work, Walt decided to put him under personal contract with the studio, the first time Disney had done that. His south co-star, Luana Patten, was also put under contract and the two quickly became known as Disney’s Sweetheart Team.

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Bobby and Luana were paired again in 1948 for So Dear to My Heart, which also starred Burl Ives. That same year, the Sweethearts teamed up with Roy Rogers for the live action part of the Pecos Bill segment in Melody Time. Bobby was loaned out to Disney’s distributor, RKO Pictures, for two movies, If You Knew Susie with Eddie Cantor and The Window. Howard Hughes, RKO’s new owner, didn’t think much of Bobby’s acting skills, but not only was The Window a surprise hit, that film, combined with his performance in Heart, earned him a special Juvenile Academy Award in 1950.

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Walt then cast Bobby as Jim Hawkins in the studio’s first fully live action picture, Treasure Island. In order to utilize money made in England during the war, the film’s production had to occur in that country. Unfortunately, someone dropped the ball when it came to everyone’s paperwork. Partway into filming, it was discovered that Bobby didn’t have a valid work visa and was ordered out of the British Empire. During the six weeks the studio was given to prepare an appeal, all of Bobby’s close-up scenes were quickly filmed before he had to return to the States. The long shots were then completed with a British stand in and the film was completed satisfactorily.

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Bobby’s final role with Disney was as the title character in 1953’s Peter Pan. Not only did he voice the boy who never grew up, he was the live action model for the animators as well. Following the release of Pan, Bobby’s contract could have been extended another two years. But Bobby had hit that age that all child star’s get to eventually. He was no longer the cute younger brother type. Even though he’d been a perennial favorite of Walt’s, even the studio head felt the only parts in Bobby’s foreseeable future were bullies and the decision was made to let him go. Bobby, like so many kids before and since, never recovered from the blow.

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The other studios in town didn’t show much interest in one of Disney’s prodigies. The chance for even cameo roles virtually disappeared as Bobby struggled to finish high school. Before graduating he turned to drugs, mostly heroin, to fill the gap his defunct career left in his life. For the rest of the Fifties, Bobby (now using the name Robert in a bid to reinvent himself) only managed to scrape up occasional appearances on one the ubiquitous anthology television series. He married his longtime girlfriend and had three kids, but the relationship fell apart by 1960. With his drug habit escalating, he was arrested as an addict in 1961 and sentenced to the Narcotic Rehabilitation Center in Chino, California. After his release a year later, he discovered his career was really over; no studio would touch him.

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Once he’d finished serving his parole, Bobby moved to New York City in 1965 to try a career on Broadway. It never materialized but he did become part of Andy Warhol’s Factory. He displayed some talent as an artist, working mostly in collage, and even had some work exhibited at the Santa Monica Museum of Art once. His art did not bring in much money, however. By early 1968, Bobby left the Factory, with hardly a dime to his name, and disappeared into the wilds of New York. On March 30, 1968, kids found his body in an abandoned tenement in the East Village, dead from heart failure brought on by extended drug use. With no identification, he was buried in the Potter’s Field on Hart Island. It wasn’t until a year and a half later, when his mother contacted the Disney studio in an attempt to locate him (his father’s health was rapidly declining) that a search was made and his fingerprints help identify his final resting place. His name was added to his father’s headstone, but the former star’s remains are still on Hart Island. At the end, he was only 31.

February 20 - Sandy Duncan

On this day, in 1946, Sandra Kay Duncan was born in Henderson, Texas. Growing up in nearby Tyler, Texas, Sandy began her professional career when she was just 12, earning $150 a week in a local production of The King and I. after spending some time at Lon Morris Junior College, a Methodist school in Jacksonville, Texas, she left the Lone Star State for the Great White Way. She enjoyed moderate success, appearing in a number of productions throughout the Sixties (including her first run of Peter Pan, playing Wendy), culminating in a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress (Musical) for 1969's short lived production of Canterbury Tales. Around the same time she did get some recognition (at least in California) for a humorous commercial she did for the United California Bank (now a part of Wells Fargo) and some national attention for a brief stint on Search For Tomorrow, CBS' long running soap opera.

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The beginning of the Seventies saw the beginning of bigger and better things for Sandy, even if a lot of them ended up having limited runs. She earned another Tony nomination, this time for Best Actress (Musical) for the 1970 revival  of The Boyfriend. A year later she starred in the film version of Neil Simon's play The Star Spangled Girl opposite Tony Roberts. Later that year, Sandy landed the lead in a CBS sitcom Funny Face, loosely based on the 1957 movie. With a prime time Saturday night spot right after All in the Family, the show had everything going for it, except two things: critics praised Sandy but dismissed the show and a tumor was discovered behind Sandy's left eye. Filming of Funny Face was put on hiatus while Sandy went in for surgery. The tumor turned out to be benign but she lost all vision on her left side. Contrary to popular belief, she does not have a glass eye. Since her left eye still tracked with her right one, the decision was made to leave it alone. Sandy made a quick recovery from her surgery, but it was too late for Funny Face. Even though she earned an Emmy nomination for her work, the show ended after just 13 episodes. Sort of.

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In the Fall of 1972, Sandy returned to television in a New and Improved version of Funny Face, now called The Sandy Duncan Show. The retooled show had essentially the same premise but a new cast (including Tom Bosley), new writers and a new time slot, on Sunday instead of Saturday. Once again, critics liked Sandy but hated the show. Without the strong lead-in of All in the Family, The Sandy Duncan Show also lasted just 13 episodes before being cancelled.

The rest of the decade saw Sandy appearing in several one-off productions. In 1976, she played Pinocchio in a musical adaptation on CBS that also starred Flip Wilson and Danny Kaye. She followed that up with an episode of The Muppet Show, starred in an episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies (as herself) and grabbed another Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Missy Anne Reynolds in Roots, a rare dramatic role. She ended the Seventies by returning to Broadway for her biggest show yet: another production of Peter Pan, but this time she played the title role, earning a third Tony nomination.

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Sandy joined the Disney family in 1970 starring opposite Dean Jones in the mostly forgettable comedy The Million dollar Duck. In 1974, she had a television special called Sandy in Disneyland and returned to the park for another special in 1976, Christmas in Disneyland. Then in 1978, she starred in The Cat from Outer Space, with Ken Berry and Roddy McDowall. But it's arguable that her best known Disney role (or at least the one that still gets regular viewings) came in 1981 when she was the voice of Vixey, Tod's foxy girlfriend who helps him survive in the wild, for The Fox and the Hound.

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Sandy's big television success finally arrived in 1987 on The Hogan Family, but it wasn't without controversy. The Hogan Family had started life two years earlier as Valerie, starring Valerie Harper. When Valerie was renewed for a third season, Harper wanted more money, was denied and walked out on the show. While negotiations continued, the feud with the network got ugly. Harper's character ended up being killed off, Sandy was brought in as a replacement and the show survived for four more seasons, marking the first time a show named after an actor continued on without its marquee name.

Since The Hogan Family ended its run in 1991, Sandy had kept busy with, mostly, a variety of stage performances. She played Roxy Hart in Chicago for two years, toured the country in a production of The King and I (as Anna this time, not one of the kids) and returned to Broadway in 2016 as Madame du Maurier in Finding Neverland. What else will the 72 year old spitfire do in her career? Only time will tell, but I can almost guarantee its perkiness will make you smile.

February 5 - Peter Pan

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On this day, in 1953, Walt Disney Productions 14th animated feature, Peter Pan, debuted in theaters. Peter Pan is notable for being the last Disney film in a couple of categories. First, it's the last movie that RKO Radio Pictures distributed. A few months later, Walt created his own distribution company, Buena Vista Distribution. Pan is also the last picture that all of Walt's Nine Old Men would work on together as directing animators.

As early as 1935, Walt wanted to make Peter Pan as his second animated feature. Unfortunately, Paramount owned the film rights at the time and was unwilling to cut a deal. He was able to get the rights in 1939 and began production. By mid-1940, the story had been pretty well decided on and characters were being assigned to animators. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, starting World War II, work on both Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland, also in production, ground to a halt. The government had the Disney Studio working on propaganda and training films for the duration of the war and then the studio struggled through its financial problems immediately following. It wouldn't be until May 1949 that production on Pan started again in earnest.

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Not only was Peter Pan released in theaters in 1953, but it was also entered in the 1953 Cannes Film Festival. The film itself didn't win any awards in Cannes, but Walt was honored twice during the festival. During the opening ceremony, the French Minister of Information awarded him the Legion of Honour (he'd also been given one in 1936) and he was awarded the Jury Special Prize for "his contributions to the prestige of the festival."

The critical reception for Peter Pan was fairly positive. Several critics didn't think much of the film's music, but since it had been written over a period of 14 years by several different people, that's not surprising. It retains a decent score even today, although the movie's handling of Native Americans is justly panned. Even Disney Legend Marc Davis admitted years later that he didn't know if the Indians would have made it into the picture if done today, and if they did, they certainly wouldn't have been portrayed the same way. And who can forget that Michael Jackson called Peter Pan his favorite movie, going so far as to name his estate the Neverland Ranch (which brings up a whole other set of controversies we won't discuss here).

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Although it took so long to get the silver screen, Peter Pan manages to enjoy a healthy legacy. Peter Pan's Flight is easily one of the most popular rides at Disney Parks around the world. Peter, Wendy, Captain Hook and Mr. Smee all make appearances in parades daily. And the movie has spawned several sequels. Could you argue that all of this attention really belongs to the original play's creative author, JM Barrie? You could (and probably should). But you can't deny that Disney not only keeps Mr. Barrie's vision alive, but helps us all forget that Mary Martin fiasco (don't even get me started).

January 8 - Iwao Takamoto

Image courtesy of illustrationhistory.org

On this day, in 2007, Iwao Takamoto passed away from a heart attack in Los Angeles, California. Born in the same city on April 29, 1925, Iwao graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School when he was just 15. Shortly thereafter, Pearl Harbor was bombed, World War II began and Iwao's family was imprisoned in the Manzanar internment camp with tens of thousands of other Japanese Americans. Luckily for him (and for us), he learned the basics of drawing, illustration and animation from two of his fellow prisoners.

When the war ended, Iwao decided to apply for work at the only animation studio he knew the name of, Disney. He was told to submit his portfolio. Having been imprisoned for the four years prior, he of course didn't have one. He bought two notebooks and spent a weekend filling them with sketches of literally everything he saw. Those sketches did the trick and he was hired as an assistant animator in 1945. Iwao contributed to several features during his sixteen years with the company, both as animator and as character designer. He would spend a good deal of his Disney career working directly under Milt Kahl, one of Walt's Nine Old Men, on projects like Cinderella, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty and 101 Dalmatians.

Image copyright Disney

In 1961, Iwao left Disney to join Hanna-Barbera Productions. As cartoon television series seemed to bloom on every network throughout the rest of the decade, Iwao left his indelible mark on the genre. He would hold several positions at Hanna-Barbera but his work as a character designer remains the most visible and therefore most impressive. His highlights reel started with Astro, the Jetson's dog in 1962. A few years later, his next big hit was Penelope Pitstop, who starred in Wacky Races and its spinoff show, The Perils of Penelope. But his most enduring character by far is another canine, Scooby-Doo.

Image copyright Hanna-Barbera

When asked how he came up with Scooby's look, Iwao once said that a woman at the studio owned great danes and enthusiastically showed him pictures of them, pointing out all their features. He then drew every aspect of the dogs the opposite of what they were in reality. Instead of a straight back and legs and a small chin, Scooby got a hump back, bowed legs and a large mug. Iwao even purposely made him the wrong color. And yet it somehow all works. Michael Mallory, a Hanna-Barbera historian, makes the claim that if Scooby had looked any different, more like an actual Airedale say, the show probably wouldn't have lasted more than one season. Instead, because of Iwao's genius, Scooby had been on a screen, big or small, almost continuously since his creation.

Image copyright Hanna-Barbera

Iwao would eventually move into the director's chair. One of his biggest projects was the 1973 feature film, Charlotte's Web, which he co-directed with Charles Nichols. He once said one of the hardest things he ever did was creating a spider with a look that inspired people to care about it. The film, which featured songs by the Sherman Brothers, received mixed reviews, with most critics calling out the obviously quick television type animation. But, really, what else would you expect from Hanna-Barbera?

After producing series like The Smurfs, The Addams Family and Hong Kong Phooey, Iwao would settle into the role of Vice President of Creative Design. He was in charge of all of Hanna-Barbera's merchandise and oversaw all the design work going on in the Animation Art Department.  When Time-Warner merged with Hanna-Barbera's parent company, Turner Broadcasting in 1996, Iwao became Vice President of Special Projects for Warner Brothers Animation. He held this position for the remainder of his career.

Iwao received two major honors from his peers during the latter part of his life. The first came in 1996 when he was given the Windsor McCay Award, a lifetime achievement statue given out each year at the Annie Awards. The second came in 2005 when the Animation Guild bestowed upon him their Golden Award for his more than five decades in the field. The ultimate honor, though, may have happened when he passed away in 2007. For the next week, Adult Swim, on the Cartoon Network, displayed "Iwao Takamoto (1925-2007)" as one of their bumpers. I think Iwao would have approved.

December 25 - Candy Candido

Image courtesy of wikia.com

On this day, in 1913, Jonathan Joseph Candido was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.  Considering Candy (as he was known) did literally hundreds of voiceovers for pretty much every major studio in Hollywood and was partnered with several stars over the years, it’s surprisingly hard to find even a few nuggets of information about his life. Here’s what I could scrape together.

He was famous for his four octave speaking voice. Candy would frequently start talking in a normal, mid-range voice and then suddenly sound either like a mouse on helium or the lower notes of a tuba. It was this quality that made him perfect for voice work. He spent a few years on the radio program The Jimmy Durante Show. Every week he would utter the phrase “I’m feeling mighty low.” Those four words became so popular with audiences that Candy and Jimmy would record a song with that title and they appeared in a Bugs Bunny cartoon (a sure sign you'd made it, and we’re talking about the words here, not Candy and Jimmy).

Image copyright Decca Records

Before his radio career, Candy had played bass (not guitar, the actual big giant bass) and sung for Ted FioRito’s big band and even made an appearance with them in a 1933 Soundie (think of it like an early version of a music video) singing  Ma, He’s Making Eyes at Me. A couple of years after that, he sang a duet with Fred Rogers in the film Roberta. Following his radio career, we learn that Candy was funny as he started touring the country with the great straight man, Bud Abbott, after Bud’s first partner, Lou Costello, passed away.

Image copyright Disney

For Disney, Candy made a number of roles his own over the course of a few decades.  Several of them were, like many of his roles, uncredited. He began with the Indian Chief in Peter Pan in 1953. His last role would be Fidget the Bat in 1986’s The Great Mouse Detective. In between, Candy lent his voice to one of Maleficent’s goons in Sleeping Beauty, some trees in Babes in Toyland, the crocodile Captain of the Guard in Robin Hood, and Brutus and Nero, the crocodiles in The Rescuers. He can also be heard on a handful of Disney attractions. On Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, listen to the devils; pay attention to the goons throughout the Sleeping Beauty Castle walk-through; he’s the graveyard executioner and a low pitched prisoner in the Haunted Mansion; he reprises his role of Indian Chief for Peter Pan’s flight.

After a long career that covered performances in films as diverse as The Wizard of Oz and Heavy Traffic, Candy passed away quietly in his sleep at his home in Burbank, California on May 19, 1999. He was 85 years old.

October 21 - Mary Blair

On this day, in 1911, artist Mary Browne Robinson was born in McAlester, Oklahoma. Her family had moved to Morgan Hill, California by the early Twenties. She had already graduated from San Jose State University when she received a scholarship to the Chouinard Art Institute. Mary graduated from Chouinard in 1933 and soon married another artist, and future Disney employee, Lee Blair. Her dream was to have a career in the fine arts but the Great Depression had other plans for her. To make ends meet, she ended up taking a job at MGM, in a medium she felt was beneath her: animation.

Mary continued to paint, and try to sell her work, whenever she could. Both Mary and her husband were devoted to watercolors. Even though her work at this time was saturated with color, few if any fans of her later work would recognize them as "Mary Blairs". Her paintings during the Thirties were probably influenced by the economic turmoil around her as they tend to be dark and moody.

By 1940, Lee, who had worked for several studios around Hollywood, had migrated to the Walt Disney Studio and Mary would join him there in April of that year. Her initial time with the studio would prove to be incredibly frustrating for her. She had plenty of work to do, making sketches and concept drawings for a variety of projects, but every film she worked on had already been pretty much conceived and she didn't have any room to let her imagination run wild. She also had to work under various other veteran company artists, so her work never looked like it was actually hers. To top it all off, one of the biggest projects she worked on was a "Baby Ballet" segment for a second version of Fantasia that never ended up being produced. Pretty disgruntled, she would resign her position by June of 1941. Lee, however, stayed on with the company, a decision that turn out to be spectacular for his wife.

In 1941, Walt was to embark on a three month goodwill tour of South America at the behest of the United States Government. He decided to bring a bunch of staff along to see if he couldn't pull some projects out of the trip. Lee Blair was one of the artists Walt chose to bring, mainly because he wanted to know if Lee's wife would also come along. During the time Mary had been with the studio, even though she felt stifled the whole time, Walt had fallen in love with her work. He was excited to see what she could do in South America. So, in August 1941, just two months after resigning, Mary was rehired.

South America would turn out to be the most important development in Mary's career. She experienced a literal color explosion in her work. She also began using charcoals, tempera and gouache in addition to her usual watercolors. As she layered color upon color, she found her true artistic voice and began producing the kind of work most of her fans enjoy and love. One of those fans was her boss, Walt. He was crazy about the pictures she was producing on the tour and gave Mary what she wanted from the beginning: her own artistic license at the beginning of a project, letting her create true concept art.

Mary was highly influential on the development of the two films that came directly out of the South America trip. Both Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros benefited from her color combinations and vibrancy. Walt was so delighted, he assigned her to work on many of the films throughout the late Forties and early Fifties. Mary's designs for Song of the South, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan made each of those films richer and more beautiful than they ever would have been without her.

By 1953, Mary was ready for a change and once again left the Disney Studio. She would now spend her time raising a family, having two sons, and she became a freelance illustrator and artist. Her best know work from this period would be the Little Golden Books she illustrated, but she also designed ad campaigns for companies like Nabisco and Maxwell House and created sets for Radio City Music Hall.

In the early Sixties, Walt began ramping up several projects for the 1964 World's Fair. One of them was for Pepsi and UNICEF and he knew just who he wanted to design it. Mary was enticed to work for Disney once again, designing It's a Small World. The song that stays stuck in your head for days might be a Sherman Brothers classic, but the look of the attraction is pure Mary. It's a Small World was so successful, that Walt would have it moved to Disneyland when the fair ended. It became such a beloved part of Disneyland, that versions of it would pop up in Florida, Tokyo, Paris and Hong Kong. The sun never sets on Mary's endearing little children dancing in their fanciful settings.

Mary would continue to do occasional work for the Walt Disney Company, mostly in the form of murals. In 1967, she created two murals in Tomorrowland at Disneyland, both of which have unfortunately been covered over. In 1971, she put a 90 foot high mural in the Grand Canyon Concourse of the Contemporary Resort of Walt Disney World. This one can still be seen today. Mary also created a series of Disney note cards for Hallmark.

Mary had lived in Washington and Long Island before returning to Soquel, California in the later part of the Seventies. On July 26, 1978, she passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage. Her legacy, though, lives on. In 1991, Mary was made an official Disney Legend. In 1996, she was awarded the Winsor McCay Award. And on October 21, 2011, Google created a doodle in honor of her 100th birthday.

Also on this day, in American history: First Transatlantic Voice Transmission