August 2 - Castaway Cay

On this day, in 1998, the first boatload of guests got to enjoy the Caribbean paradise known as Castaway Cay. A small island called Gorda Cay (even though it looks like it's pronounced like the letter k you actually say it like key) has been a small part of the Abaco Island area of the Bahamas ever since, well, ever since people started naming things. A cay, by the way is basically a pile of sand sitting on top of a coral reef. There are thousands of them throughout the Caribbean, but Gorda Cay has had an inkling that it was destined for something bigger for a while now.

Image copyright Touchstone Pictures

The first people to live on the island started doing so in 1783. The semi-remoteness of Gorda Cay lent itself to smuggling operations and plenty of nefarious people would leave footprints in its sand for the first two hundred years of inhabitation. When air travel became a thing, a small airstrip was built on the island and is still there today. The first planes to land on Gorda were carrying illegal liquor during the Prohibition of the 1930s. When booze became legal in the US again, it didn't take long for the planes to start carrying illegal drugs instead. Eventually the Bahamian government cracked down on such illicit activities and Gorda Cay was used for more glamorous things.

The picturesque sands of Gorda Cay made it a beautiful, if somewhat remote, location on which to film beach scenes. The Walt Disney company had used it for just that purpose twice. In Touchstone Picture's inaugural movie, Splash, the scene where Tom Hanks' and Darryl Hannah's characters first meet is a glimpse of Gorda Cay. Twenty years later, parts of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl were also filmed on the island. Of course by the time the Pirates movies came around, Gorda Cay was virtually owned by Disney and was a ready made location for the company, but I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

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In the mid-Nineties, as the Walt Disney Company was gearing up to get into the cruise line business, company management knew they needed a private island getaway. Somewhere that guests could spend a day swimming in the waters of the Caribbean, but in a controlled way, a way that would entice them to spend some more money, more money that Disney could keep instead of going to Bahamian locals. It may sound like I'm waxing a bit cynical here, but that really isn't that far off from how corporate people think. I don't know if someone in upper management at that time had been part of the production team for Splash a dozen years earlier or not, but everyone became very interested in Gorda Cay as that destination.

Image courtesy cruisemapper.com

After scouting other nearby cays, the size and location of Gorda Cay cemented its future (the fact that it already had an airstrip was helpful, too). Disney entered into negotiations with the Bahamian government and came out the other end with a 99 year lease on the island, but not a lease like you or I would get on an apartment. Disney basically had full control to do whatever they wanted with the place and boy did they have some plans.

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Not only did Disney plan to basically build a resort on Gorda Cay, they knew they needed to make some changes to its very topography. While other cruise lines had private islands at the time, all of them required the cruise ship to park offshore. Guests then had to ride smaller boats, called tenders, back and forth between the liner and the island. Those tenders frequently showed up as complaints on guest surveys. Disney decided to dredge out a docking area so their cruise ships could just cozy right on up to the island and guests would just walk between their staterooms and the beach. 50,000 truckloads of sand and coral later, they got their wish (sometimes it's good to be a multi-billion dollar company before starting a project). All told, Disney spent $25 million transforming their island into the highest rated private destination in the cruise industry.

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Since it was so different from what it had been for hundreds of years, it needed a new name as well. Gorda Cay became Castaway Cay. Around 120 people now live there full time, none of which, as far as we know, are involved in the smuggling trade in any way. The cay technically opened for business on July 30, 1998, the same day that the Disney Magic left Port Canaveral on its maiden voyage but it was a few days into the Magic's itinerary that guests actually set foot on its beaches. Disney ships have been docking there several days a week since. And while it may seem like there has been a huge environmental impact on the island in that time, there has. But it could be much worse. Only 55 of Castaways Cay's 1000 available acres has been developed and Disney does a pretty good job of conserving the other 94% of the island.

I've been to Castaway Cay several times myself and also been to the "private" island that Royal Caribbean operates. While there were a few things I think RC does better than Disney, the island getaway is not one of them. If you can swing yourself a Disney cruise, the day you spend on Castaway Cay will very likely be your favorite day. And coming from someone who doesn't ever really feel a need to get off a cruise ship, that's saying something.

March 9 - Splash

Image copyright Touchstone

On this day, in 1984, the first film to be released under the Touchstone Pictures banner, Splash, hit theaters. Earlier in the year, recognizing a dire need for Disney to break out of its G-rated box while at the same time preserving the family focus of the Walt Disney name, CEO Ron Miller had created a new brand, Touchstone. While an ingenious move on his part, it didn’t keep him from losing his job later in the year. Brian Grazer, Splash’s producer, had been trying to get the film made at every studio in town with zero luck. It wasn’t until he changed his pitch from “mermaid learning to live on land” to “ordinary New Yorker falls in love with mermaid” that Miller agreed to finance the picture and decided it was perfect to launch the new label.

Only the third film directed by Ron Howard, Splash stars Tom Hanks (in his second film role), Daryl Hannah, John Candy and Eugene Levy. And because Ron loves his family, you can see his dad Rance Howard, near the beginning yelling at Tom Hanks about cherries and his brother, Clint Howard, at the wedding, being yelled at by Tom Hanks. The movie was a hit and launched Hanks’ career right towards his next blockbuster, Big. On a budget of only $8 million, Splash grossed almost $70 million by the end of its initial run. It earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay and won Daryl the Saturn Award for Best Actress.

Image copyright Touchstone

Besides just being a fun movie to watch, it’s the little things about Splash that amuse me. Daryl’s tail, for instance. It was so hard to get into and out of that she would usually just stay in it during meal breaks, but costume designer Robert Short really knew his stuff. Daryl was able to swim so quickly in it that she regularly outpaced the production team. Then there’s the name Madison. At the time of filming, it really was basically just a street name but because of Splash’s popularity it grew in popularity in real life. Shortly after Splash, it was the 216^th most popular girl’s name. Five years later it held the 29^th spot and by 2000 was third. Which I guess makes it a real name now. But my favorite tidbit is this: the beach where Tom and Daryl’s characters first meet has become a permanent part of Disney. The island in the Bahamas where that scene was filmed, formerly known as Gorda Cay, is now called Castaway Cay and welcomes guests of the Disney Cruise Line several days a week. I haven’t heard of any mermaid sightings from there just yet, but you never know…

March 2 - Bryce Dallas and Ron Howard

Image courtesy ew.com

On this day, in 1981, Bryce Dallas Howard was born in Los Angeles, California. As the oldest daughter of actor/director Ron Howard (who celebrated his birthday yesterday), you might think that Bryce was compelled to become an actress. In reality, her parents actually kept her away from television during her formative years, not letting her be an extra in her father’s films until she was seven and could ask about it. It is in her blood, though (both of Ron’s parents were also actors) and, once bitten, she was infected for life.

Bryce spent part of her teens at Stagedoor Manor, a performing arts camp in the Catskills, palling around with Natalie Portman. Her first (kind of) notable screen appearance was in Parenthood in 1989 (she’s the strawberry blonde girl in the audience at the school play if you want to look for her). She continued showing up in significant extra roles in her dad’s movies over the next few years (funny how those scenes never ended up on the cutting room floor) while beginning classes at New York University, the Stella Adler Conservatory, the Experimental Wing and Amsterdam’s International Theatre Wing. With all that, it’s no wonder she left NYU before earning a degree.

Image copyright Touchstone Pictures

Bryce concentrated on performing in theatres around New York, including the Public Theater, where, in 2003, she was playing Rosiland in Shakespeare’s As You Like It. One night, M. Night Shyamalan was in the audience and the talented redhead piqued his interest. He cast her in The Village, no audition needed, and Bryce’s performance as the blind heroine, Ivy Walker, earned several award nominations. She played in modest films for the next three years (including reprising Rosiland in the film version of As You Like It), before starring in Spider-Man 3 as Gwen Stacy. Bryce has since appeared in a Terminator picture (Kate Connor), the Twilight series (Victoria) and the reboot of the Jurassic Park series (Claire Dearing), so her box office totals are doing just fine, thank you very much.

Image copyright Disney

Bryce has only one Disney credit to her name (other than The Village which was a Touchstone Picture) so far. She starred in the 2016 film Pete’s Dragon, a quasi-remake of the 1977 classic, with Robert Redford. Her father, on the other hand, holds a couple unique positions in the Disney family.

Image courtesy wikipedia.com

Ronald William Howard was born on March 1, 1954 in Duncan, Oklahoma. His parents, both actors themselves, moved the family to Southern California when he was four. He began his acting career a year later with parts on Dennis the Menace, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and The Twilight Zone. In 1960, he began the first of his big television runs on The Andy Griffith Show as little Opie Taylor. His eight years as Opie took him right into high school. After finishing his primary schooling, he began attending the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, but, like father like daughter, he never graduated.

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Ron guest starred on a number of television shows during the early Seventies, including M*A*S*H and The Waltons. He also had a prominent role in George Lucas’ homage to the Fifties, American Graffiti. That, and a role on Love, American Style, led to his second big run on television. Starting in 1974, he starred in Happy Days, as another all-American guy, Richie Cunningham. By 1980, Ron was ready to trade in his acting shoes for a director’s chair and left Happy Days to seek his fortunes behind the camera. It’s worked out pretty well. You might have heard of some of his films: Cocoon, Parenthood, Apollo 13, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Beautiful Mind (which earned him a Best Director Oscar) and The DaVinci Code series, to name a few.

Image copyright Disney

Ron’s first Disney project was actually a record album. Just prior to the Haunted Mansion’s debut in 1969, Disneyland Records released a promotional album, The Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion, to whet people’s appetites for the new attraction. The story part featured Ron as Mike and Robie Lester as Karen, two teenagers who get trapped in the spooky Mansion. At about that same time, he was cast in a couple of episodes of Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. In 1970, he appeared in a Western movie for the company, The Wild Country, with his younger brother (and frequent collaborator) Clint Howard.

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Ron’s first big hit as a director, Splash, holds an important distinction in Disney history: it’s the first movie ever released under the Touchstone Pictures banner. The PG rated film (also something of an anomaly for Disney at the time) won several Saturn Awards (including Best Actress for Daryl Hannah, Best Supporting Actor for John Candy and Best Director) and the Golden Globe for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy. In 2018, Ron returned to the director’s chair for the company amid great controversy when he took over the helm of Solo: A Star Wars Story. The disappointing box office of Solo effectively ended non-episode Star Wars pictures, at least for a while, but its troubles began long before Ron arrived. He did his best to salvage something out of the mess he inherited (for the record, I enjoyed the film), but Solo only reaped just under $400 million on a budget of $300 million. Probably not Ron’s fault, but will also probably remain a black mark on his record anyways.

The Howard dynasty has yet to come together on a single project for Disney, but we can always hold out hope. In the meantime, each continues to chug along individually, entertaining the world one blockbuster picture at a time. Happy birthday Bryce (with a belated nod to Ron).

February 7 - Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor

On this day, in 1947, Wayne Anthony Allwine was born in Glendale, California. His professional career begins, like all great scripted careers do, in the mail room at the Walt Disney Studio in 1966. If we were indeed making a movie of this story, we would almost certainly have a scene in which the 19-year-old Wayne approaches sound effects guru Jimmy MacDonald who takes an envelope from Walt Disney and hands it to Wayne, just so we can get all three of them in the frame together. It’s a moment that probably never actually happened, even though Wayne and Walt’s times did overlap for several months, but it would be a scene the audience would later remember and say to themselves “Ah. Foreshadowing.”

Wayne moved up from the mail room and landed in the Sound Effects department, apprenticing under Jimmy MacDonald. He became a pretty good sound effects editor. You can hear his work on Disney films like Splash and Three Men and a Baby as well as films he did for other studios like Innerspace and Star Trek V. But in late 1976 he began apprenticing under Jimmy for an entirely different reason.

Image copyright Disney

Jimmy was nearing retirement at that point and was going to be leaving behind a large hole to fill. He’d been doing the voice of Mickey Mouse since taking over from Walt in 1947. An audition was held and his already protégé, Wayne, won the role. Jimmy began coaching him and Wayne made his debut as the Big Cheese recording the opening title bits for The New Mickey Mouse Club in 1977. From that point on, Wayne was the mouse for the next 32 years. He made his big screen debut in Mickey’s Christmas Carol and voiced the role in everything from Who Framed Roger Rabbit to The Lion King 1 ½.

Movies, television series and specials, parades, you name it and Wayne was kept as busy as he could handle doing it. He also did a handful of other voices (you didn’t think squeaking was his only talent, did you?) including a Henchman in The Black Cauldron and Thug Guard #2 (not to be confused with #1, completely different guy) in The Great Mouse Detective.

Image courtesy of historybyzim.com

On a personal note, life began to imitate art for Wayne starting in 1986. It was decided that Minnie Mouse would start talking again (she hadn’t had any lines for several years) and an audition was held. Russi Taylor won the role. She recalls meeting Wayne in a hallway one day and his excitement over having a Minnie for the first time. Both were in failing marriages (his third). After their not-so-wedded-blisses ended, they began hanging out together outside of the recording booth. They fell in love, just like the mice they played, and got married in 1991, not like the mice they played. They kept it quiet in order to make their nuptials about them and not their characters (people went a little crazy even back then when they heard that Mickey and Minnie were married), but they did live happily ever after for the next two decades.

Image courtesy of me.

Praised by many for bringing Mickey out of the world of bland falsetto and into nuanced deliveries and a multi-faceted personality, Wayne did some of his best work on the video game series Kingdom Hearts.  He was heard daily on the Disney Channel’s Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and can still be heard every fifteen minutes in the Mickey’s PhilharMagic attraction at the Magic Kingdom. In 2008, both Wayne and Russi were made official Disney Legends for their outstanding stewardship of Mickey and Minnie’s legacies. On May 18, 2009, Wayne passed away at his home in Los Angeles, California, finally losing a battle he’d been fighting for several years with diabetes. He was only 62.

 To date, Wayne is the person who voiced Mickey the longest of the four talents who’ve done it (regularly) so far and, with all the media outlets that exist today, the most prolific (Russi is, by far, the longest Minnie). Bret Iwan took up the mantle after Wayne’s death. Bret was hired because of Wayne’s failing health and was supposed to understudy Wayne, just as Wayne understudied Jimmy, but the two never actually got to meet. So far Bret’s doing just fine. Most people never realized that a change occurred and only time will tell if Bret hangs on to the gig longer than Wayne, or if the third voice really is the charm.

October 31 - John Candy

On this day, in 1950, comedian John Franklin Candy was born in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. After graduating high school, John enrolled at Centennial Community College to study journalism. Instead he was bitten by the acting bug.

In 1973, John made his big screen debut in a completely forgettable film, Class of '44 (the only notable thing about the film is, in fact, that it's John's debut). Several other bit parts in Canadian films would follow that one, the most impressive of which would be in The Silent Partner starring Elliott Gould. John's career wouldn't really get started until 1976 when he joined the Toronto branch of a little theater group called Second City.

Performing alongside the likes of Rick Moranis, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Harold Ramis and many others, John began to gain national acclaim. When the television series SCTV hit the airwaves, and NBC began broadcasting it in 1981, he gained international acclaim. John's gift for mimicry led to dozens of impersonations on the show, everyone from Julia Child to Orson Welles to Tip O'Neill. His original characters, like Leutonian clarinetist Yosh Shmenge, would not only delight on television but occasionally spill over onto the big screeen. John would also share in two Emmy wins for his writing contributions to the show.

During the run of SCTV, John's film career also ramped up. He made appearances in 1941, The Blues Brothers, Stripes, National Lampoon's Vacation and Going Berserk. After SCTV's last curtain fell, John's television days would be few and far between as he  moved onto the big screen almost exclusively. The remainder of the Eighties would be busy for John, if not always successful. His better roles would include Spaceballs, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, The Great Outdoors and Uncle Buck. His misses include Speed Zone, Hot to Trot and Volunteers.

John's contributions to the Disney family were consistently good. His first role for the studio was in 1984 for the very first film to be released under the Touchstone Pictures name, Splash. Playing Freddie Bauer, the womanizing older brother of Tom Hanks, John provided some of the best humor in the movie (I'm thinking of the scene where he impersonates a Swedish scientist). In 1990, he would be the voice of Wilbur in The Rescuers Down Under. Wilbur was the brother of Orville, the albatross in the original Rescuer movie who had been voiced by the late Jim Jordan. John's last turn with Disney was also the last film released during his lifetime: Irv Blitzer, the disgraced coach of the Jamaican bobsled team, in 1993's Cool Runnings.

Throughout the early Nineties, John's career kept chugging along. From small roles in films like Home Alone and JFK, to starring in Only the Lonely, he kept trying to prove he was more than just a lovable oaf. Unfortunately, his final two films wouldn't successfully prove that. On March 4, 1994, John's body would be discovered one morning during the filming of Wagon's East! in Mexico. Having suffered from weight issues his entire life, John had apparently had a fatal heart attack, although an autopsy was never performed. The makers of Wagons insist that they were nearly done filming John's parts, but, if you've ever had the misfortune to see it, he's barely in it and his character is mostly seen from far away and from the rear. The minute bits with John in it are fine; the film as a whole is so terrible it enjoys a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. John's final film to be released, Canadian Bacon, was only marginally better (a 14% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and basically convinced its director, Michael Moore, to stick to documentaries. Thankfully, John's legacy was already cemented by this point and we'll all fondly remember him as a shower curtain ring salesman or as the Polka King.