July 10 - The Fox and the Hound

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On this day, in 1981, Walt Disney Pictures released its 24^th animated feature, The Fox and the Hound. Based on a novel of the same name, Fox the movie began its journey in 1977 when Woolie Reitherman, one of Walt’s Nine Old Men and a long-time Disney director and producer, read the story. Of course he may have only chosen it because his son had a pet fox once, but whatever the reason, Woolie would come to regret that choice (even though what transpired over the next few years would probably have happened no matter what movie was in production at the time).

Things started off well enough. Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas, two more of the Nine Old Men, took the lead of a team made up of a new generation of animators including John Laseter, Brad Bird, John Musker, Ron Clements, Tim Burton, the list goes on and includes most of the names of the people responsible for the Disney Renaissance period a decade later. Fox was a transitional film between two generations of great animators and, like most hand offs between the old and new guards, it did not go smoothly, but not because of conflicts among the animators.

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For their part, Ollie and Frank had finished most of their animation by 1978 when they both retired and left the finishing of the film to the young bucks. Maybe they had confidence in the next generation, maybe they saw what was coming and didn’t want to watch first hand. Around the same time, studio management, under Ron Miller, began to be unhappy with some of Woolie’s decisions and added a co-director to the picture, Art Stevens. Art had been an animator since the Forties and had just co-directed The Rescuers. As Woolie was most likely still smarting from what was essentially a public slap down, it quickly became apparent that the two directors had very different visions on what kind of film they were making.

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It’s hard to tell who had lost their way more in this dynamic, the aging director, who was running out of ideas (as we shall see in a moment) or Disney management, who would next produce the debacle known as The Black Cauldron. How a movie got made at all with those two factions constantly fighting is something of a minor miracle. Looking at Woolie’s insanity first, at some point in 1979, he decided that the film’s second act needed a boost. At the point that Todd, the fox, is left in the woods, Woolie wanted to insert two cranes, played by Phil Harris and Charro, singing a song to him called “Scoobie-Doobie Doobie Doo, Let Your Body Turn Goo.” He even went as far as having Charro record soundtracks and live reference footage before Art declared it a terrible idea and, through management (and just plain good sense), got the scene cut.

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Even though they were right about the cranes, Studio management wasn’t all about making good decisions at this point in company history. A large group of animators was becoming highly dissatisfied with how things were being run in general. The grumbling came to a head on September 13, 1979 when Don Bluth and fifteen other animators suddenly resigned their positions and asked that their names be taken off the credits of Fox. With 17% of the animation staff gone, Disney had to scramble to hire new people to fill the gaps and finish the movie. And somewhere in the middle of all that, Woolie had his last fight with management as director, got pulled from the position, was relegated to a producer credit only and the release date was pushed back from Christmas 1980 to Summer 1981.

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When it was finally released, in spite of all the infighting and behind the scenes drama, The Fox and the Hound received mostly favorable reviews. Critics generally said it wasn’t anything particularly special but it did show glimpses of that old Disney magic at times. The fight scene between Todd, Copper and the bear is generally cited as a masterpiece of animation and everyone loves Pearl Bailey’s performance as Big Mama the owl. Financially, Fox did okay as well. Because of the delays in production, costs for the picture totaled $12 million, making it the most expensive animated film ever made up to that point, even adjusted for inflation (which is kind of laughable today; animated movies routinely cost over $100 million to produce versus Fox’s $35 million in 2019 dollars). Fox grossed a comfortable $39.9 million in its initial run and an additional $23.5 million in a rerelease seven years later, making it a profitable if somewhat ho-hum addition to the Disney family.

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In the end, The Fox and the Hound holds an awkward place in Disney history. It marked the end of the era of Walt’s Nine Old Men. Woolie Reitherman was the only one who remained by the time of its release and Fox left a bitter taste in his mouth. He spent the next few years working on a handful of projects that never moved into actual production and was killed in a car accident in 1985.  The next crop of animated genius was in place but still had to go through the painful valley of The Black Cauldron before they would start to come into their own and launch the Disney Renaissance. The baton might have been passed and audiences might have been mildly entertained, but no one who was running could really say they’d enjoyed the race.

May 30 - Dick Nunis

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On this day, in 1932, Richard A. Nunis was born in Cedartown, Georgia. Dick received a football scholarship to play for the University of Southern California and enthusiastically moved to Los Angeles. His dream of becoming a professional football player and then transitioning into a coaching position were on track right up to the moment he broke his neck in a game. He was lucky beyond belief to recover from his injury, but obviously had to change his career path. He graduated from USC in 1955 with a degree in education and at something of a loose end as to what to do with the rest of his life. A fellow football player, and lifelong friend, Ron Miller, told Dick he should apply for a job for the summer at the theme park his father-in-law was getting ready to open. Dick thought why not and became part of the opening training team at Disneyland, just for something to do for a few months. It would be more than four decades before he needed to find something a little more permanent.

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One of the first classes Dick taught included a group of executives from the top levels of the company, one of whom was Ron's father-in-law, Walt Disney. The class was what would eventually evolve into the first day of training for every new Disney cast member and is now called Traditions. Apparently Dick did a good job of imparting the wisdom he needed to and setting the tone Walt wanted, because he got to go on to train a big chunk of Disneyland's incoming cast. He often said in the years to come that he was forever grateful he got to learn the Boss's philosophy right from the man himself.

Dick didn't stay a trainer long, though. He soon became an area supervisor, then was put in charge of the mail room and steno pool before becoming an operations supervisor. At that point in his career, Dick was in charge of developing a formal standard operating procedure for every attraction in the park. Again, he did an outstanding job as most of the SOPs he helped write are still in effect today. By 1961, Dick was the director of Disneyland operations and became part of Walt's inner circle working on Project X, what I commonly refer to as the Florida Project in this blog, except, of course, at that point no one knew where it was going to be built.

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In 1968, Dick was made Vice President of Park Operations and, when Project X officially became Walt Disney World in 1971, his role expanded to Executive Vice President of both parks. As he oversaw the expansion of the Disney empire through the Seventies and early Eighties, with the addition of Tokyo Disneyland and EPCOT Center, he was named the President of the Outdoor Recreation Division in 1980. About the same time he was elected to the company's board of directors, a position he would hold until his retirement eighteen years later. In 1991, as the company went through a reorganization of all its divisions, Dick was named chairman of Walt Disney Attractions, which would be his last official job title with Disney.

Two of the main things that Dick made an important part of his leadership strategy were the importance of people to the organization and the concept of giving back to the community. When he started at Disneyland, the park employed about 600 people. When he retired, it took over 63,000 cast members to keep the North American parks going. During that entire time of expansion, he encouraged his fellow cast members to support charities. He served on the board of Give Kids the World, the village in Central Florida where kids from wish organizations from around the world come to stay for free when they visit, and was a big part of the University of Central Florida Foundation.

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When he retired on May 26, 1999, the day of his 44th anniversary with the company, Dick's days as a Disney executive were over, but he had no plans to slow down. Since then he's served on the boards of organizations as diverse as Duke Energy and Enterprise Florida, a group trying to promote economic growth across central Florida. He's led trade missions to Asia and Central America and created his own consulting firm, New Business Solutions. He's chaired arts councils, United Way campaigns and economic forums. At 87, he might not do quite as much as he used to but he remains an active and respected member of the community. And, of course, for turning a temporary summer job into a legacy of leadership, Dick was named an official Disney Legend in 1999, shortly after his retirement. He also received a window on Main Street USA in Disneyland that reads "Coast to Coast Peoplemoving - World Leader in Leisure Management - Dick Nunis, Proprieter - Founded 1955 - Offices Anaheim, Orlando, Tokyo - Wave Machines a Specialty"

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.

December 16 - Roy Edward Disney

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On this day, in 2009, Roy Edward Disney, son of Roy O. and nephew of Walt, passed away in Newport Beach, California. Born January 10, 1930, Roy would end up being the last member of the Disney family to take an active part in the company his father and uncle created. He graduated from Pomona College, long considered to be the premier liberal arts college on the West Coast, in 1951 and began working in Hollywood, initially as an assistant editor when Dragnet made the move from radio to television. By 1954, he’d joined the family business as an assistant director and producer on the Tru-Life Adventure series. Six years later, Roy would earn an Oscar nomination for a short film he penned, Mysteries of the Deep.

After Walt’s death, Roy was elected to the company’s board of directors, a position he would hold off and on for the next few decades. Fiercely loyal to the ideals of the elder Disneys and staunchly supportive of all things animation, Roy would often have a cantankerous relationship with the company leaders who came after both founders passed away. In 1977, he resigned his position within Walt Disney Productions in protest over the direction the company’s entertainment division had been taking. He knew the string of mediocre-at-best live action movies the company had been throwing out, coupled with the fact that all the old school animators were disappearing without, in his opinion, being adequately replaced, were hurting the company. The Black Cauldron was still a few years away but Roy could see it coming. He retained his position on the board however and several years later, when the company faced a hostile takeover crisis, he stepped up to the plate to save the company.

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One of the first things Roy had to do in 1984 was create a group of investors large enough to keep the company together. In order to effectively do this, he resigned from his seat on the board. Once he had the necessary funding in place, he then set about forcing the current company president, Ron Miller, out. I’m sure this move made for some awkward moments at family reunions from that point on as Ron was married to Roy’s cousin (and Walt’s daughter), Dianne Disney. He then was instrumental in getting Frank Wells and Michael Eisner hired as president and CEO. When the dust settled, Roy came back to the company as vice chairman of The Walt Disney Company and chairman of the animation branch. Since Michael and Frank were like the second coming of Walt and Roy O, Roy E was heralded as a savior who put loyalty to the company over personal considerations.

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Throughout the remainder of the Eighties and well into the Nineties, the Walt Disney Company experienced a rebirth. Animation hits like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King flowed out of the studio. All seemed rosy for the company, but tensions brewed behind closed doors. Roy clearly didn’t care for the new studio head, Jeffrey Katzenberg. He felt that Jeffrey took too much credit for recent successes and frequently overstepped his place in the scheme of things. When Frank Wells died in a helicopter accident in 1994, Jeffrey demanded a promotion. Roy told Eisner that he would start a proxy war if that happened. Roy would win this round. Jeffrey would leave the company (albeit with a large monetary payout) but his relationship with Eisner would slowly deteriorate over the next decade. This was partly due to the fact that, rather than replace Frank, Eisner simply took on the financial duties of the company (which was not a good move) and partly because the creative juices seemed to be drying up. Again, Home on the Range was a couple years off, but Roy saw it coming.

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During this cooling off period between Roy and Eisner, a couple of bright spots did occur. In 1998, Roy was surprised when he was made an official Disney Legend. Then in December of 1999, Roy’s pet project, Fantasia 2000, was finally released to theaters. The film had been in production for nine years and was meant to fulfill his uncle’s dream of making the 1940 movie Fantasia an on-going, ever evolving picture. Like its predecessor, Fantasia 2000 combined classical music with high quality animation and mostly inventive story lines. And, like its predecessor, it didn’t do terribly well at the box office.

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By 2003, Roy’s relationship with Eisner had not only gone completely south but his influence within the company was evaporating as well, as most of the executives now owed their positions to Eisner. Roy once again resigned his positions with the company and began a second campaign to remove someone he saw as ruining the company from the top spot. Part smear campaign against Eisner, part rally-to-my-last-name-boys bravado, Roy’s efforts eventually worked after he managed to put together a coalition of 43% of shareholders that voted against Eisner at the 2004 meeting. It would take another 18 months of bitter pressure before Eisner would finally resign, but in the end, Roy won that round, too (sort of, Eisner’s second in command, Bob Iger, took the helm). He rejoined the board as Director Emeritus, a non-voting position (although he still retained 1% of all shares) and remained in that position until his death.

In 2008, Roy was diagnosed with stomach cancer, a disease he would battle for over a year before finally succumbing. His passing was truly the end of an era. Other Disneys of his generation were still around, but none of them took an active interest in the company that bears the family name and now even they are gone.

October 24 - Lucille Martin

On this day, in 2012, Lucille Martin passed away in Studio City, California. Some people become legends through grand gestures of bravery or touching fits of public creativity. Others become legends by quietly doing what they were born to do, just out of the limelight, making it possible for the other kind of legend to burn even brighter. Lucille is a legend who belongs to that second category.

Born on August 10, 1922 in Zeigler, Illinois, a small town at the southern end of the state, Lucille's dream in life was to be a teacher. To accomplish that goal, she went off to the big city of Carbondale to get her teaching certificate at Southern Illinois Normal University (now known as Southern Illinois University Carbondale). This would have been in the early Forties. The details of how she spent her life for the next couple of decades, as with most people who aren't celebrities, are sketchy at best.

Here's what we do know. Lucille gave birth to two daughters, Janet and Sue. Given the era, we can assume that she was married at the time, but by the time her girls were 5 and 10 years old, only the three of them moved to Southern California. I can't confirm whether as a widow or a divorcee, but Lucille was a single mother at that point. A single mother who would get the bad news that her Illinois teaching certificate was useless in the Golden State.

 According to Lucille, her children were not happy with the fact that mom was going to have to go to work to support the family until she said "What if I worked for Disney?" Since that seemed a reasonable trade off to the girls, Lucille decided to brush off her secretarial skills, typed up a resume and on a Friday in September 1964, stopped by the Disney Studio to see about that job. Her timing was impeccable and she was hired, on the spot, into the secretarial pool. The following Monday, she showed up for work and was immediately assigned to the Publicity department. Next, she moved to the office of the vice president of Labor Relations and by the beginning of 1965, Lucille got the call that would set the course of the rest of her career.

When Lucille had been told that her new assignment was as a personal assistant to Walt Disney, she wasn't sure she'd understood what was said. But, upon arriving at the head of the company's office, she knew she was in the big leagues now and quickly stepped up to the plate. Lucille did have a little period of adjusting to Walt's idiosyncrasies. She insisted on calling her new boss "sir" instead of "Walt". To fix that, Walt drew a sketch of Lucille carrying a sign that said "Down with Sir" and gave it to her. Lucille kept that sketch in her office until the day she retired. And she stopped calling him sir.

After Walt's death, Lucille spent nearly a year putting everything in Walt's office into some semblance of order. She then became personal assistant to Walt's son-in-law, Ron Miller. She stayed with Ron as he became President of the company in 1980 and CEO in 1983. When Michael Eisner was brought in as CEO in 1984, to Lucille's surprise he kept her on as his personal assistant. In 1995, she was promoted to a vice presidency as a special assistant to the Board of Directors, serving mainly as a liason between the Board and company management. Lucille would serve in that role until, after 42 years of greasing the wheels for everyone officially in charge, she retired in January 2006.

The following year Lucille was declared an official Disney Legend for her wizardry and genius in all things related to administration. At the ceremony, Bob Iger praised Lucille's compassion and dedication, calling her a "treasured friend." Lucille's career stands as one of the few people to bridge all the way from the company's founder to it's current leadership.

Also on this day, in American history: Blanche Scott