April 17 - Ron Miller

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

March 9 - Splash

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 10 - Jim Varney

On this day, in 2000, James Albert Varney Jr. passed away in White House, Tennessee from lung cancer. Born in Lexington, Kentucky on June 15, 1949, Jim showed a capacity for memorizing long passages from books at an early age. He was also an excellent mimic, especially with cartoon characters. When he was eight, his mom started him in children's theatre classes. By the time he was in high school, Jim was winning state drama competitions. At fifteen, he played Ebenezer Scrooge in a local production and he was performing professionally in nightclubs just two years later. He went on to study the Bard at a theatre in Virginia and performed regularly at Opryland USA in its early years. A big chunk of the rest of the Seventies was spent at the Pioneer Playhouse in Danville, Kentucky, performing in classics like Blithe Spirit to houses of only a few dozen people. Then came the role of literally a lifetime.

In 1980, Jim was cast in a television commercial as a character known as Ernest P. Worrell. That first ad was for an appearance by the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders at an amusement park near Bowling Green, Kentucky, Beech Bend Park. Ernest then literally exploded into the Eighties. For the next decade, Jim performed the lovable character selling everything from natural gas to cars to grocery stores to dairy products. He was franchised out all over the country. Nearly identical ads would run for Tyson's Toyota in Virginia and Audubon Chrysler in Kentucky, just the name of the business would be changed. I remember Ernest in commercials for Country Fresh growing up in West Michigan. And of course, his old buddy Vern, an unseen, unheard character that was essential to the Ernest persona was always right there with him, KnoWhutImean?

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The popularity of Ernest lead to ventures outside of 30 second commercials and, for longer than you might expect, Jim was able to sustain the bigger projects. The first leap was into movies. Directed by the same guy who helped develop the commercials (and would direct all subsequent Ernest films), John R. Cherry III, Ernest was first used in a film  called Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam. Jim played Dr. Otto, an evil villain with an extra hand on his head, who changes his appearance at the end of the picture to Ernest in order to escape detection. It was the next film Jim did that really catapulted his fame and brought him into the Disney family.

In 1987, Touchstone Pictures co-produced and distributed Ernest Goes to Camp, the first film that focused on Ernest P. Worrell. It was a hit. Made for only $3 million, Camp was in the top five films for the first three weeks it was open and grossed over $23 million. Touchstone would release three more Ernest movies over the next four years. Ernest Saves Christmas (1988) opened at #2 and grossed over $28 million, Ernest Goes to Jail (1990) opened at #3 and grossed over $25 million, and Ernest Scared Stupid (1991) which only grossed $14 million.

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Due to the tepid box office of Stupid, Touchstone stopped its distribution deal of the Ernest films, which turned out to be the smart move. The next picture, Ernest Rides Again, only grossed $1.4 million on a $7 million budget, making it the last theatrically released movie featuring the character. Believe it or not, there would be four more direct-to-video Ernest films before the franchise finally petered out in 1998.

The movies weren't the only other incarnations of Ernest though. In 1988, Jim starred in a Saturday morning kid's show, Hey Vern, It's Ernest! A delightfully weird amalgamation of different characters and sketches (my brother and I looked forward to it every week), Jim would be awarded the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series for his work, even though Hey Vern only lasted one season. Interestingly, while Disney wasn't involved with the production of the series, it did own the company that was for a few years in the late Nineties.

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Ernest's final arena of exposure (but thankfully not Jim's) was actually as part of an attraction. When Cranium Command opened with the Wonders of Life pavilion at Epcot in 1989, the pre-show involved General Knowledge showing new recruits different types of brains. A picture of Albert Einstein stood in for someone who used his brain and the type of person who didn't? You guessed it, Jim as Ernest.

Outside of Ernest, Jim enjoyed a broad mixture of successes and failures. He gained critical praise for his portrayal of Jed Clampett in 1993's film version of The Beverly Hillbillies. He starred in The Rousters with Chad Everett on NBC for one season (it just couldn't compete opposite The Love Boat). He was a regular cast member on the infamous television failure Pink Lady and Jeff. He was critically praised again for his work as an abusive father in 100 Proof.

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Jim came back into the world of Disney in 1995 as the voice of the classic toy Slinky Dog in Pixar's first film, Toy Story. He would reprise the role for 1999's Toy Story 2. For Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Jim brought Cookie Farnsworth to life. He was also featured in an episode of Hercules: The Animated Series as King Ephialtes.

Unfortunately, Jim had been a chain smoker all his life (in spite of the fact that he filmed an anti-smoking PSA as Ernest in the early Eighties). While filming Treehouse Hostage in late 1988, he developed a persistent cough. When that movie wrapped, he went to a doctor and was diagnosed with lung cancer. Jim would continue working, reportedly throwing his cigarettes away, but it was too late. Less than two years later he would pass away (Atlantis was released posthumously). He was only 50 years old.

January 31 - Down and Out in Beverly Hills

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On this day, in 1986, Touchstone Pictures released their fifth film, Down and Out in Beverly Hills. Starring Bette Midler, Richard Dreyfuss and Nick Nolte, DOBH takes its place in Disney history as the first movie of the company to ever get an R rating. Based on a 1932 French film, Boudu suave des eaux (which was itself based on a French play), the comedy follows a rich couple who save the life of a homeless man, who tried to drown himself in their pool, and the high-jinks that ensue when they try to rehabilitate him.

The film was fairly well received and turned into a modest box office success. It did well enough with audiences that a television series with the same name and premise (albeit a different cast) was created. The show, produced and distributed by Disney, ran on the Fox network, which was only six months old at the time. Unfortunately, the television version of Down and Out also earned a dubious place in history for itself. After just eight episodes, it became the first show to ever be cancelled by Fox.