May 31 - Snow White's Scary Adventures

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On this day, in 2012, the Snow White’s Scary Adventures ride terrified its last child in the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World. When Disneyland was under construction in the mid Fifties, plans were naturally made to include rides based on popular Disney characters. When the park opened on July 17, 1955, guests could experience attractions based on Peter Pan, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (at least the Mr. Toad part), Alice in Wonderland, Dumbo, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Some of the rides just featured characters or elements of the films they were based on, like the flying elephants of Dumbo or the teacups of Alice. Other rides, like Peter Pan’s Flight or Snow White’s Scary Adventures, took guests right into the stories they were pulled from. Except they didn’t do it in a way that people expected.

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It didn’t take long for guests to notice that when they rode Snow White’s Scary Adventures, the attraction seemed to be missing something. Snow White was nowhere to be found. The Evil Queen/Hag made several appearances and the dwarfs were there, but where was the princess the ride was named after? The thing is, she wasn’t supposed to be there. The Imagineers had designed a ride concept that proved to be a little higher brow than it needed to be. You, as the rider, were literally stepping into Snow White’s shoes (or Peter Pan’s or Mr. Toad’s) and experiencing what she would have experienced, something the Imagineers felt was implied by the possessiveness of the attraction’s name. It was a nuance that was lost on the general public. For years, the number one complaint about Snow White’s Scary Adventures was a twofold statement, rarely uttered one part without the other: it’s too scary and where is Snow White?

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The concerns guests had about Snow White’s Scary Adventures went largely ignored for years. When the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World opened sixteen years later, it included a version of the ride. Arguably, the Florida ride was made even scarier. Instead of the three times guests encountered the Evil Queen in the original version, they encountered her seven times, apparently being crushed by a giant jewel she topples on to them to end the ride. In 1983, the Disneyland version would be modified to include Snow White and lighten the tone, but children in Orlando would continue to be scared for eleven more years. In 1994, the Magic Kingdom version was toned way down with most of the witch figures being removed, Snow White finally made an appearance and the ride ended with the witch’s demise. The word scary was also dropped from the attraction’s name. That’s how it stood for the next eighteen years, eventually closing to make way for Princess Fairytale Hall, where guests can meet a princess rather than wonder why she isn’t in her own attraction.

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The Disneyland version (really version 2.0) is still operating today making it one of the longest running rides in Disney history. The 1983 revamp didn’t just happen to Snow White’s Scary Adventures, all the dark rides were updated to actually include their namesakes at some point. An additional modification happened at the same time. When the figure of the witch offers the poisoned apple to guests outside of the dwarfs’ house, ride vehicles come close enough that people stole the apple a number of times over the years. Now if they try, their hand will pass right through it. It’s a projection. Additional versions of the ride are also operating in Tokyo Disneyland, a mix of the California and Florida rides, and Disneyland Paris, essentially the same as Disneyland’s current version.

May 28 - it's a small world

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On this day, in 1966, it’s a small world began sending guests on a whimsical journey of international goodwill in Disneyland’s Fantasyland in Anaheim, California. Walt was already under contract for three attractions for the 1964 World’s Fair, when he was approached by Pepsi to create a fourth one. The board of directors at Pepsi knew they were going to have a pavilion at the fair (it would be commercial suicide to not have a presence) but had procrastinated over what they wanted in their pavilion. Hollywood legend Joan Crawford was a member of that board by way of her marriage to the late Pepsi CEO Alfred Steele. She got fed up with the rest of the board’s dithering, asked her friend Walt Disney to come up with something and basically browbeat everyone into accepting whatever was presented, in spite of the fact that Walt would have less than eleven months to produce. Because Walt knew how to bring out the best in people (and had the best people to work with), everything worked out just fine.

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It was decided that the proceeds from the ride would benefit the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) so the basic theme was “Children of the World” and that became its working title as well. Because of the recent international tensions over missiles in Cuba, the theme was expanded to include brotherhood and peace (which may seem like it’s implied in an endeavor based on kids, but it really isn’t). The overall design of the attraction fell to the Legendary Mary Blair, who had already lent her considerable talents to shaping the look of films like Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. Unlike those projects where she merely influenced things, this overall look would be pure Mary. The simple clean shapes used in deceptively complex ways and the cheerful color palate combined to make a classic ride that endures and delights right up to today.

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Not that Mary didn’t have help along the way. The Legendary Marc Davis, as he did on so many Disneyland attractions, designed the scenes guests would travel through and many of the characters in them. His wife, the Legendary Alice Davis, designed the costumes the dolls wear and the Legendary Rolly Crump took care of the rest of the props and figures. The Legendary Blaine Gibson designed and sculpted the dolls with input from Walt himself, who insisted that every doll, no matter what country it represented, had an identically shaped face. It’s no coincidence that so many of the people who worked on this particular ride have gone on to achieve Disney Legend status (except for Walt himself, who has never been given the award; I know that it would be a fairly redundant gesture, it’s just something that makes me smile when I think about it), they are all that good.

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Which brings us to the music (I can hear some of you groaning already because, let’s be honest, the song has probably been playing in your head since you started reading this article). In its original form, Children of the World was going to have snippets of each country’s national anthem playing near the dolls from that country. It  was a plan that only sounded good on paper. In real life, it was a jumbled up, headache inducing wall of noise. So Walt brought his resident songwriters, the Legendary Sherman Brothers, into the project. He gave them just two guidelines: the song they wrote had to able to be done in a round (so it was infinitely repeatable without a beak) and it had to be easily translated into many different languages. They came back with It’s a Small World, a slow ballad about the universal theme of friendship. Walt said bring me something more cheerful. So they sped their song up considerably and replayed it for the boss. Walt liked the second version so much, he renamed the entire attraction after it. Love it or hate it, the Sherman Brothers’ ultimate ear worm has easily been played over 50 million times over the years making it the most played piece of music ever created, beating out the number two song by over 40 million plays. Of course, the fact that it is playing somewhere in the world at literally any moment of the day helps.

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The success of it’s a small world (and, yes, writing it without capital letters is the proper way to refer to the attraction) at the World’s Fair cannot be undersold. The ride’s high capacity (especially compared to other Fair attractions) meant that there was rarely a line, in spite of the overwhelming number of people who experienced it. Over the course of the two and a half years the Fair ran, over 10 million tickets were sold for small world resulting in over $8 million dollars being raised for UNICEF. At the Fair’s end, it was dismantled, transported back to Southern California and installed in its permanent home. When the Magic Kingdom opened five years later, it included a version of the ride, with the queue area moved indoors. Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland each have their own versions as well, so it’s fairly accurate when Disney claims that the sun never sets on cheerful children of it’s a small world.

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In 1997, Disneyland began a new holiday tradition with their version of it’s a small world. At the end of October, they add in almost a million twinkling lights as well as various Christmas decorations and costumes for the dolls. The soundtrack also gets changed to include international versions of Jingle Bells and Deck the Halls. The holiday version has proven so popular that it’s spread to every other park around the world except one. The Magic Kingdom ride stays unaltered (mainly to keep the change as something unique in the United States to its sister park).

May 20 - Tom Sawyer Island

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On this day, in 1973, Tom Sawyer Island opened in Frontierland of the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. The 19^th century, small town existence portrayed in Mark Twain’s classic story of Tom Sawyer, would seem to be a perfect vehicle for Walt Disney to have explored at some point. Given his own childhood in Mareceline, Missouri and the entrance to his theme park that was modeled after his boyhood home, it might come as a surprise that Walt never produced a film version of Tom Sawyer. In fact, Disney wouldn’t make a film featuring Tom and his friend Huckleberry Finn until nearly three decades after Walt’s death, the 1995 clunker Tom and Huck. That doesn’t mean Walt couldn’t find a use for the classic idealization of Middle America; he just chose to include it in his living movie instead.

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The original Tom Sawyer Island opened in Disneyland on June 16, 1956, one month and one day before the park’s first anniversary. Walt had considered several different themes for the large island in the middle of the Rivers of America before settling on the Twain tale. He asked the legendary Marc Davis to design an area especially for kids to enjoy some unstructured play (that of course wasn’t the phrase they used back then; they just called it having fun). Supposedly, none of Marc’s plans wowed Walt enough, so the Boss took the task upon himself and cranked out his own final design in one late night session. That makes Tom Sawyer Island the only attraction completely designed by Walt himself (in macro of course, Imagineers still took care of all the details).

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Guests had to board free floating rafts to get between the island and Disneyland proper. Once on the island, they could freely roam the paths, exploring caves, discovering forts and generally whooping it up in the ‘wilderness’. At one time, cast members would even leave large paintbrushes hidden around the island, evoking a sense that Tom had left it behind after doing some chores for Aunt Polly. If guests found one and turned it in, they received a small prize (and no it wasn’t getting to white wash a fence for the rest of the afternoon). Guests could also experience Tom Sawyer Island from afar by riding the Riverboat, the Mike Fink Keelboats or using their own power on the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes to glide along the Rivers of America and circumnavigate the island.

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Tom Sawyer Island proved pretty popular through the years, so when Walt Disney World opened, it was decided to replicate the area. The Florida version opened about 20 months after the park. Ten years later, when the theme parks went international for the first time, Tokyo Disneyland got its own version that opened with the park. Disneyland Paris has an island in the middle of its River but theirs is occupied by Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

While Walt Disney World’s version of Tom Sawyer Island is still operating (albeit on a more seasonal basis; if it is open when you go, the snack bar is killer) and is virtually unchanged from when it opened, the same cannot be said of Disneyland’s. In 2007, the theme of the original Island was pretty much completely changed over to Pirates of the Caribbean. A thin link was kept to the story of Tom and Huck by claiming that now, since the boys loved to pretend they were pirates, the island is an extension of their imaginative playtime. The only non-pirate themed structure is Tom and Huck’s tree fort, but even that has some pirate elements in it to tie everything together. The guest accessible area of the island has also shrunk over the years, as most of the technical equipment for Fantasmic! now takes up one end of it (for those of you only familiar with that show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the Disneyland show takes place on the Rivers of America). So if you're looking for the original experience, head to Florida or Japan. If you want to do Tom Sawyer Island 2.0, head on over to Anaheim. Either way, be prepared to slow down a little bit and let your sense of adventure take over for an hour or so. You'll be glad did.

February 15 - Cinderella

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On this day, in 1950, Walt Disney Productions' twelfth animated feature, Cinderella, had its world debut in Boston, Massachusetts. The Disney Studio had limped through World War II. With most foreign markets unavailable (and folks at home focused on making sacrifices for the war effort), the features Disney released during those years had failed to turn much, if any, profit. With a limited staff (most of the guys had enlisted), Walt cobbled shorts together into "package" films just to keep the place open. By the war's end, more than $4 million in debt threatened to force Walt into bankruptcy (again). As the boys returned home, Walt, desperate for a hit, turned attention to the land of fairy tales and implored them to dig up a diamond.

Walt's first take on Cinderella happened in 1922 when he produced a Laugh-O-Gram cartoon based on the French tale. In the early Thirties, he wanted to make a Silly Symphony of the story, but it quickly became apparent that it would be too hard to condense the narrative enough. In 1938, it was decided that Cinderella would probably make a good feature and work began on a script. Ideas were kicked around and refined over the next few years. Production was ready to start in earnest when most work the studio was doing was stopped by order of the United States Government. It wouldn't be until 1948 that Walt blew the dust off Cinderella's script and everyone sharpened their pencils once more.

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Cinderella marked the first film that all of Walt's Nine Old Men would work together on as supervising animators. It also marked the first film that Walt wasn't overseeing on a daily basis. He was in England off and on supervising the filming of the studio's first live action picture, Treasure Island.  While that gave the Men more autonomy, it also made the movie more expensive. Every time Walt would show up, he had all sorts of little changes he wanted done to work that was already finished. By October 1949, pencils and paintbrushes had finally been laid down and Cinderella was ready for her coming out party.

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The picture was Disney's biggest critical success since Dumbo and its biggest financial success since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Cinderella grossed over $8 million and became the sixth highest grossing film of 1950. It did even better in England, coming in at fifth. Not only did Cinderella wipe out the studio's debt, it provided enough cash flow to last the rest of the Fifties. It received three Academy Award nominations (Best Sound, Best Song and Best Score) and won the Golden Bear (Music Film) at the first Berlin International Film Festival.

Since then, Cinderella has become a staple in the Disney family. She's spawned two animated sequels and a live action adaptation. She even has two castles, one in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World and another in Tokyo Disneyland (never mind the fact that that upstart Aurora has three). She may not be the smartest or the most assertive Disney Princess, but she does possess that special something that means she'll be around for many more years to come.

January 9 - Card Walker

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

September 14 - Mickey Mouse Revue

On this day, in 1980, the Mickey Mouse Revue had its final curtain call in Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World.

On opening day of the Magic Kingdom, October 1, 1971, Fantasyland boasted the most attractions with eight. (Tommorowland, if you can believe it, only had one: the Grand Prix Raceway). Of those eight, only four remain today. The Mickey Mouse Revue isn't one of them. Except, as we'll see, it kind of is, at least in spirit.

Can you think of a better way to get guests into an air conditioned theater than a show featuring 24 beloved Disney characters singing a dozen hit Disney songs? It's probably not that hard a task in July, of course, but the Mickey Mouse Revue was a charming way to do it.

After guests entered the pre-show area, they were treated to an 8 minute film giving highlights of Mickey's career, from Steamboat Willie to Fantasia. They then entered the main theater for an animatronic extravaganza much in the style of the Country Bears. There was a main stage in the middle with side stages on both flanks. Mickey conducted the orchestra while various groups sang songs, and medleys of songs, from Snow White to The Jungle Book.

One fact about the show that makes you scratch your head, is that the theater was built to hold 500 guests, but the pre-show area was only designed for 300 guests. Yes, they got that sorted out later, but you wonder how everyone missed that not so little detail.

In 1980, the Mickey Mouse Revue packed its bags and traveled across the world to Tokyo Disneyland where it became an opening day attraction once again in 1983. Revue would entertain Japanese guests until finally closing for good in May of 2009.

After the closing of Revue, the theater hosted the 3D film Magic Journeys, then the epic puppet show Legend of the Lion King. Currently in its spot, in both the Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland, is another 3D movie, Mickey's PhilharMagic. The latest film also features Mickey as a conductor and has various characters signing (mostly newer) Disney songs, much like the show that debuted in the theater. Which just goes to show that while the mode of delivery constantly changes, the best stories continue to entertain.

September 2 - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

September 2 - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

On this day, in 1979, guests in Disneyland's Frontierland began boarding the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

When Walt Disney World opened in Florida in 1971, it did not include a Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. Imagineers felt it would be more exciting for Floridian guests to experience a cowboy theme because evidence of real pirates was all over the state. They proposed an area in Frontierland called the Western River Expedition that would have a river boat ride and a mine train roller coaster, with extensive plans and concepts committed to paper by Marc Davis. The fact that it would have been the most expensive attraction to date, coupled with the number one complaint of guests being "Where are the pirates?", meant it never got built.

After a Pirates ride opened in Florida in 1973, an Imagineer by the name of Tony Baxter proposed building just the mine train portion of the WRE. That plan got approval but it would be pushed back by the development of Space Mountain, a delay that would benefit the attraction. By the time Big Thunder went into actual production, computers were starting to be used in ride design and this probably gave the coaster a smoother ride.

Although it came from a plan meant for the Florida project, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was first built in California. Built on the land previously occupied by the Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland, there are all kinds of homages to it predecessor incorporated into the attraction.  The coaster itself is named after the waterfall the older mine train traveled by. Several of the animatronic animals from the previous ride can be seen along Big Thunder's track. The Rainbow Caverns on the first lift hill echo an old area and the mini Western town in the queue area should look familiar as well.

There are two major differences between the attractions in American parks. One, the track used in Disneyland's version is a mirror image of that used in Florida. Two, the landscape in California is rounder while Disney World's is much more angular.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad would make its way around the world. The Florida version would open in 1982. A version that is kind of a hybrid between California and Florida would open in Tokyo Disneyland in 1987. Disneyland Paris' version, basically a copy of Florida's, would be the only one that existed on its park's opening day in 1992. Both the Tokyo and Paris rides do not officially have the word Railroad in their name.

The last thing to note about Big Thunder is its medical benefits. A study came out in 2016 showing that riding the mine train coaster could help someone pass a kidney stone nearly 70% of the time. The study also noted that riding Space Mountain or Rock 'n' Roller Coaster did not have the same benefits, so if you're suffering from stones, head over to the Railroad first.