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.

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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.

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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.

July 25 - Harriet Burns

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On this day, in 2008, Harriet Burns passed away in Los Angeles, California. Born as Harriet Tapp in San Antonio, Texas on August 20, 1928, growing up during the Great Depression really brought out her creative side. Toys and games couldn't be purchased, they had to be created out of materials that could be found. How imaginative was Harriet as a child? While most kids would give their pet goldfish a name like Goldie, she named hers Tackaonsitgo Popeye Gotsinyammer Cockapinay Kasuzyanna Karachi Dianashey Brianashey Jickalicky Jackaboney Christianna More and could actually remember the whole name every time. Was she destined to become an artistic Legend? Whether you believe in that sort of thing or not, yes.

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Following high school, Harriet's father told her that he would only pay for college if she majored in Home Economics (yes, that was, and still is, a thing). She agreed and enrolled at Southern Methodist University in Dallas but, in the end, pulled one over on dear old dad by changing her major to Art, kind of forgetting to tell him about that. After graduating from SMU, Harriet spent another year at the University of New Mexico studying advanced design (no word on whether or not dad paid for that). In 1951, she married her college sweetheart, Bill Burns and did some work designing displays for Neiman Marcus in Texas.

In 1953, the Burns family moved to Los Angeles, California so Bill could try his hand at a career in acting. It didn't work out terribly well. In spite of the fact that she had a one-year-old daughter at home, Harriet decided that she'd better find some work to help pay the bills. On the basis of her previous design work, she was able to get a position with Dice Display Industries Cooperative Exchange, a Hollywood based prop company. For a little over a year, Harriet designed and built props for shows like the Colgate Comedy Hour. She was also part of a team that designed and built sets for the floor shows at Las Vegas hotels like the Dunes. Near the end of her short time with Dice, Harriet was a leader of the team that designed Santa's Village, a small theme park in Lake Arrowhead, California. Even with all that steady work, Dice Display still went belly up in early 1955. One of Harriet's co-workers decided to  return to his former place of employment and suggested that she try to get a position there as well.

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Harriet heard rumors that the Walt Disney Studio wasn't hiring women right at the moment, but she applied anyways. She later quipped that they must have thought her name was Harry because she got the job. Her first assignment was on a new television show the studio was working on, The Mickey Mouse Club. She started out making props but soon was helping to design and build the iconic clubhouse set that would feature prominently in every episode. Harriet worked her magic at a station right next to Fred Joerger, who was one of two people in a new department known at that time as Model Department. Fred's admiration of her talents would change the course of her career (as well as the look and feel of Disney theme parks).

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Fred worked with Wathel Rogers doing a very specific job that Walt felt needed to be done. They were making models of everything that was being built for the company's new theme park over in Anaheim, Disneyland. Fred felt that he and Wathel could use the help of Harriet in their model work and suggested to Walt that she become part of their department. Walt agreed and Harriet was transferred in. She was only the third person, and the first woman, to become what would eventually be known as an Imagineer. It's a position she would hold until her retirement over thirty years later.

Harriet's first task in the Model Department (soon to be renamed WED Enterprises), was to create a detailed model of Sleeping Beauty Castle, the most iconic landmark in Disneyland. Once the park was opened in July 1955, the trio at WED continued making models of attractions, but now they started depicting potential rides instead of existing ones. One of Harriet's first projects of this kind was to design and build a model of the Matterhorn Bobsleds ride, a 1/100th scale replica of an attraction that was a 1/100th scale replica of the actual Matterhorn in Switzerland.

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As time went on, WED Enterprises began adding more and more people to its ranks and taking on more and more projects. Designing and building four attractions for the 1964 World's Fair pushed everyone's creativity to the limit and everyone, including Harriet, showed they were more than up to the task. Harriet was part of two teams for the Fair, the one working on Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln for the State of Illinois pavilion and the one creating the Carousel of Progress for the General Electric pavilion. Both of those projects have stood the test of time. Great Moments is still running on Main Street USA in Disneyland and the Carousel is still turning in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom.

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During the same time work was progressing on the rides for the World's Fair, Harriet was also busy doing another role she played with WED: she was a figure finisher. That meant she was one of the people who carefully applied paint and other materials to both Audio-Animatronics and the sets of attractions to give them their show ready or finished look. The first attraction she did this for was the Submarine Voyage which opened in 1959. It was the next one, though, that really showed off her talents. While doing finishing work on The Enchanted Tiki Room, hand applying thousands of feathers to the shows dozens of birds. she noticed a problem. When the four main birds breathed in and their chests puffed out, everything looked fine, but when they exhaled and their chests went back to normal, their skin looked bunched, kind of like Jose and the others were suffering from mites. Harriet solved this problem one day in a meeting. Walt was wearing a cashmere sweater and she couldn't help but notice that the knitted fabric moved at his elbows exactly like the Imagineers had envisioned the birds chests moving. Four custom made cashmere bird skins later and the bunching problem was fixed.

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Harriet was deeply involved in the design Disneyland's first major expansion, New Orleans Square, and all the restaurants and attractions that call it home. She made a model of the entirety of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and was one of the attraction's main figure finishers. For anyone wondering where Imagineers get their inspiration from, it just might be you. The pirate that sits on the bridge swinging his leg and singing as guests float under him was based on Harriet's mailman at the time. She was also part of the design team that created the Haunted Mansion just a couple of years later. Sharp eyed guests will notice a tombstone at the Mansion about an opera singer who shares a name with Harriet (it's not a coincidence; all the tombstones at the Mansion honor the attraction's original designers). Walt was so impressed with her talents, he featured Harriet on several episodes of the Wonderful World of Disney throughout the Sixties, showcasing her work in the Tiki Room, Pirates and the World's Fair rides.

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Harriet was part of Walt Disney Imagineering until her retirement in 1986. Not only did she work on stuff at Disneyland but she was also influential on the designs of Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland and EPCOT Center. She would continue to spend the rest of her life creating magic just on a smaller scale, doing it exclusively for her grandchildren and their friends. She also remained highly active in the Santa Barbara arts community, where she maintained her home. In 1992, she was honored with her very own window on Main Street USA in Disneyland, the first woman to ever receive one. It reads "The Artisans Loft, Handmade Miniatures by Harriet Burns." In 2000, the pioneering Imagineer was officially declared a Disney Legend. She passed away eight years later from complications brought on by a heart condition. She was 79.

July 24 - New Orleans Square

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On this day, in 1966, the New Orleans Square area of Disneyland welcomed its first official guests. When Disneyland opened in 1955, it was the culmination of a dream, but it wasn't the end of the dream. Walt continued to think up new things that he wanted to put in his park. Within two years of opening, several of Disneyland's attractions had been removed and replaced with something new or expanded to include fanciful new elements. The first major expansion Walt wanted to do would have involved almost doubling the size of Main Street USA to include an attraction that was all about the US Presidents. The technology of the time couldn't keep up with Walt's vision, though, and that plan never made it off the blueprint. Soon thereafter, however, there were enough dreams around that a whole new area could be created.

The first time the public got an inkling that an expansion was afoot came on the souvenir maps that began being printed in 1958 showing a pirate themed land that would be coming soon. Construction didn't actually begin on the area until late 1961. Part of Frontierland was leveled to accommodate the New Orleans Square and a giant hole was dug. That hole would be the basement of a restaurant and would house the pirate wax museum attraction that would be the highlight of the place. You heard that right. A wax museum. Fortunately for people everywhere, the 1964 World's Fair began taking up everyone at Disney's time and energy and construction in Disneyland was halted for a while.

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It is almost impossible to underestimate how the leaps in technology that Disney's Imagineers were able to make while creating attractions for the World's Fair were instrumental in the development of theme park entertainment. The creation of Audio-Animatronics, the boat ride system of it's a small world and the omni-mover ride system all helped push New Orleans Square to levels that wouldn't have been possible without the sponsorship money the Fair brought in and the millions of people willing to put everything to the test during the Fair itself. When construction finally resumed, just about every plan that had been in place for the attractions in New Orleans Square were either greatly modified or tossed out altogether.

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The pirate wax museum disappeared in all but concept only. It was quickly decided that Audio-Animatronic pirates would become part of it and that it would be a boat ride (the capacity numbers of it's a small world had been very impressive). It just as quickly became clear that the hole in the ground was no where near big enough to house this new attraction. In fact the park itself wasn't big enough. While the entrance to Pirates of the Caribbean was constructed inside the park, most of the ride would be housed in a new show building located just outside the official parameters of Disneyland. But don't think that hole in the ground would go to waste. A three story building was built there with a triple usage plan: the Blue Bayou restaurant on one floor; Club 33, a private club, above it; the top floor would be a cafeteria for Disneyland employees.

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When the time came for the grand dedication ceremony on July 24, 1965, Walt invited the mayor of the actual city of New Orleans, Victor H. Schiro, to be a part of it. Mayor Schiro declared Walt an honorary citizen of New Orleans. Walt quipped that New Orleans Square cost more than the Louisiana Purchase. Without adjusting for inflation, it did. In fact the $18 million cost for New Orleans Square meant that Disneyland's first new land had a higher price tag than construction for the whole park did just a decade earlier (again, that's without adjusting for inflation, but it makes its point; it's cheaper to build a room initially than to add it on later). Though no one knew it at the time, that dedication ceremony would be the last time Walt would make an official appearance in his beloved park.

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The irony of dedicating New Orleans Square when they did was that there wasn't much to do there yet. Besides a few shops, it was just a pleasant area to stroll through. The Blue Bayou Restaurant and Pirates of the Caribbean didn't start operating until March of 1967. Club 33 didn't open until April 1967 (which means, contrary to popular belief, that Walt never entertained anyone there; he'd already been dead for four months). The Haunted Mansion (which utilizes the omni-mover ride system I mentioned earlier) didn't open until 1969. What isn't ironic, is that Disneyland's first expansion left behind of legacy of guest favorites that has endured for over five decades.

June 1 - Jonathan Pryce

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On this day, in 1947, John Price was born in Carmel, Flintshire, Wales. Growing up the son of grocers, John began attending Edge Hill College at the age of 16, intending to become a teacher. But, like so many stories of successful actors, he got a role in one of the college’s theater productions and that was the end of the education degree. An Edge Hill professor, impressed with his performance, helped him apply to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. He was accepted, received a scholarship to boot and changed his professional name to Jonathan Pryce to satisfy Equity name rules. In spite of having to sell velvet paintings door-to-door in order to cover the rest of his tuition and having a professor who declared he would never amount to more than second rate villains on mediocre British television shows, Jonathan graduated from RADA, taking his place in a group of alumni that includes Alan Rickman and Kenneth Branagh.

Following graduation, Jonathan became part of the Liverpool branch of Everyman Theater Company, spending some time as its Artistic Director before moving on to the Nottingham Playhouse and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Throughout the Seventies, his stage highlights include Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew, Octavio Caesar in Antony and Cleopatra and Angelo in Measure for Measure. At the same time, Jonathan was building a reputation on various British television shows, taking both dramatic (Play for Today) and comedic roles (Chalk and Cheese). His film debut came in 1976 as Joseph Manasse in Voyage of the Damned starring Faye Dunaway and James Mason. All of that would have been enough to refute his RADA professor, but Jonathan went even further. He starred in a play called Comedians. It started at the Nottingham Playhouse in 1975, moved to London’s Old Vic Theatre and then went on to Broadway in 1976. The following year, Jonathan won his first Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. And he wasn’t even all that well known yet. 

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During the Eighties, Jonathan continued to prove his talent and grow in the public’s eye. He started by winning an Olivier Award as the lead in RSC’s Hamlet (not a bad way to begin a decade). From there he appeared in a handful of movies like Breaking Glass and The Ploughman’s Lunch with Tim Curry. His breakthrough role is widely considered to have come in 1985, as Sam Lowry in Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. Other highlights of the period include playing Herod in The Day Christ Died, working with Gene Wilder on Haunted Honeymoon and starring opposite Whoopi Goldberg in Jumpin’ Jack Flash. He continued winning accolades on the stage appearing as Trigorin in a London production of Chekov’s The Seagull and playing the lead in RSC’s Macbeth. And for those who like improve, he appeared on no less than three early episodes of the British version of Whose Line Is it Anyway? Then, just as the me decade was coming to an end, he fell into the role of a lifetime and a controversy to match it. 

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Jonathan decided to have a go at musical theater and broke into the genre in a big way. He managed to win the role of The Engineer in the original production of Miss Saigon on London’s West End, starring opposite Lea Salonga. Both Jonathan and Lea would win Oliviers for their performances. The production then prepared to jump the Pond to Broadway, taking its two stars with it. That’s when the public relations nightmare began. The character of The Engineer is half French, half Vietnamese. Actor’s Equity, the American stage union, refused to allow Jonathan, who is Caucasian, to play the role of an Asian. The fighting between Cameron Mackintosh (who threatened to cancel the $10 million production altogether) and Actor’s Equity got ugly. Equity finally caved in to pressure from the public and many of its own prominent members (John Malkovich was among those threatening to withdraw from the union) and allowed him to perform. A smaller controversy erupted around Lea Salonga’s involvement with the show. Equity felt that an American or British actor should have the role for Broadway (Lea is Filipina). However, an extensive search was made for a replacement and none could be found. An arbitrator ruled against Equity and Lea was also allowed to perform. Regardless of what you think of the show (it has pretty racist overtones to it), both Jonathan and Lea won Tony Awards for their performances and the show is currently the 13^th longest running Broadway show ever. 

Jonathan followed up Miss Saigon with the role of Henry Kravis in HBO’s 1993 film Barbarians at the Gate, earning both Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. The same year he started production on what would be River Phoenix’s last film, Dark Blood (River died before the film was completed and it’s never been shown). He then became the highly paid spokesman for Infinity cars for four years and starred in a Broadway revival of Oliver! In 1995, Jonathan won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival for his portrayal of Lynton Strachey opposite Emma Thompson in Carrington. In 1997, he played a Bond villain (a bit higher on the food chain than his RADA professor predicted), Elliot Carver, in Tomorrow Never Dies and spent the remainder of the decade cashing in on similar roles in Ronin and Stigmata. 

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Jonathan joined the Disney family in 1983 as part of one of my favorite films as a kid, Something Wicked This Way Comes, based on the story by Ray Bradbury.  It was his American movie debut. His performance as Mr. Dark, the proprietor of a sinister carnival, earned him a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Most Disney fans, however, will recognize him from a much different role, Weatherby Swann, the fictional Governor of Jamaica in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. He’s appeared as the somewhat hapless, but ultimately kind, Swann in 2003’s Curse of the Black Pearl, 2006’s Dead Man’s Chest and 2007’s At World’s End. Jonathan also made his musical film debut with the company in the 1996 Hollywood Pictures production of Evita. His depiction of Colonel Juan Peron, opposite Madonna’s Eva, not only earned him critical praise but opened him up to an even wider audience when the soundtrack album sold over 11 million copies worldwide. 

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In recent years, Jonathan has continued to shine on both stages and screens around the world. He appeared on Broadway in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and in no less than seven London productions, among them The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? for which he was again nominated for an Olivier Award. In 2015, he joined the cast of the HBO juggernaut Game of Thrones in Season 5 as the High Sparrow. The same year he portrayed Shylock in The Merchant of Venice at the Globe Theater. Later this year Jonathan will be portraying Pope Francis (who he bears a striking resemblance to) in a Netflix biopic called The Pope opposite Anthony Hopkins and he is scheduled to reappear on Broadway this fall in the play The Height of the Storm as Andre, a role he originated last year in London. If only that professor were still around to see the 72 year old still at the top of his game. Happy birthday, Jonathan!

May 22 - Thurl Ravenscroft

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On this day, in 2005, Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft passed away in Fullerton, California. Born in Norfolk, Nebraska on February 6, 1914, Thurl hit the road soon after high school, landing in Los Angeles, California. He began an art education at the Otis College of Art and Design. While at Otis, he became part of a singing quartet known as the Sportsmen Quartet. They could frequently be heard on Jack Benny’s radio show. Thurl’s first brush with the Walt Disney Studio came in 1940. The singing group he was a part of (it’s usually credited as the Mellomen, but that group didn’t form until 1948, so it may have been the Sportsmen) sang a song for Pinocchio called Honest John. The song was cut from the final film. Some sources claim it only ever existed for promotional purposes, but parts of the melody can be heard underscoring scenes with Foulfellow and Gideon, so who really knows anymore. Thurl himself got to remain in the film, though, as he had also been recorded as Monstro the Whale’s ‘voice.’ 

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In 1948 (as near as I can tell), Thurl got together with a few friends a formed a quartet usually known as The Mellomen (they recorded under a variety of names over the years). In addition to singing backup to the likes of Doris Day, Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee and Elvis Presley, the Mellomen made appearances in all sorts of Disney projects. You can hear them as the guards painting the roses red in Alice in Wonderland, pirates and native Americans in Peter Pan, the dogs in the pound in Lady and the Tramp, the elephant patrol in The Jungle Book, the trees in Babes in Toyland, singing the opening to Zorro, as the Honeypot Quartet in the Winnie the Pooh shorts and singing A Pirates Life for Me throughout the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The group was also featured on several episodes of the Disneyland anthology television series and Disneyland Records albums. The Mellomen performed together well into the Seventies before running out of steam and harmonizing their way into the sunset. 

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Thurl not only racked up an impressive list of Disney credits with his quartet, but he holds iconic solo roles, too. In one of them, he actually gets the dubious distinction of being mistaken for Walt Disney more than anyone else, ever. Have you ever had someone try to tell you that one of the singing busts in the graveyard scene of the Haunted Mansion was Walt himself? It’s not. It’s actually Thurl (must be the whole mustache thing). And for those of you who wonder about that sort of thing, his bust has a name: Uncle Theodore. He is also the voice of the drunken pirate in Pirates of the Caribbean, Buff, the American bison head, in the Country Bear Jamboree, and the first mate on the Mark Twain Riverboat. Thurl can also still be heard every half hour or so in The Enchanted Tiki Room as Fritz, the German accented macaw.  

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Lest you think that Thurl only soloed when it came to Disney attractions, you might recognize his deep bass from any one of the following Disney films: Paul Bunyan in the short Paul Bunyan (what else), Captain the Horse in One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Sir Bart in The Sword in the Stone, Billy Bass, the Russian Cat, in The Aristocats and Kirby in The Brave Little Toaster series (while not created by Disney, they were distributed by the company). In 1995, Thurl was declared an official Disney Legend for all the incredible voice work he’d done over the years. 

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Thurl didn’t do a whole lot of voice work outside of Disney, but what he did do is instantly recognizable. He is the uncredited singing voice of the Grinch in holiday classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas. He sang the song No Dogs Allowed for the 1972 Peanuts special Snoopy Come Home. But one of his most famous roles was one he first did in 1953 and continued doing until 2005, long after he’d retired from everything else. For 52 years, Thurl was the (until the end) uncredited voice behind Tony the Tiger, telling everyone how Grrreat! Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes are. He’s been replaced as Tony since then by Lee Marshall, but if you listen closely to the commercials, every once in a while you can still hear a recycled bit of Thurl. Only a few months after recording his last tagline, the great bass voice succumbed to prostate cancer at his home in Fullerton, California. He was 91.

March 18 - Pirates of the Caribbean

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On this day, in 1967, the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction began operating in the New Orleans Square area of Disneyland. Opening three months and three days after his passing, Pirates is the last ride that Walt Disney himself had a hand in designing (While Walt was integral to the concept of The Haunted Mansion, which opened two years later, that ride was almost completely redesigned after his death). On the original coming soon map of New Orleans square, Pirates was listed as a walk through wax museum attraction. After the huge success of It's a Small World at the 1964 World's Fair, it was decided to use the same boat system to carry guests through the Caribbean and to incorporate Audio Animatronics instead of wax figures.

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When Walt Disney World was being planned, it was decided that Pirates would not be one of the attractions that was replicated from Disneyland. Why? Because Florida already had a rich culture of real pirates, no one would want any fake pirates, right? Wrong. When the Magic Kingdom opened in October 1971, one of the biggest complaints from guests was the lack of a Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Disney had to then scramble to put one together. It wasn't until December 1973 that the Florida version opened. While it has a lot of similarities, it isn't the same ride. Version two is several minutes shorter and doesn't have the thrilling drops that version one has (it can't because of the high water tables in the Sunshine State), but it remains one of the most popular and treasured rides in the park. As the Disney empire expanded worldwide, executives did not repeat their 1971 mistake. There is a version of Pirates in Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Shanghai Disneyland.

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Pirates is a fairly unique attraction in the Disney family. There are plenty of rides that are based on movies in the parks, but Pirates is a ride that spawned not only a movie but a whole franchise (and while it's fine to mention Tower of Terror here, please don't embarrass yourself by bringing up the Haunted Mansion). While there are plenty of homages to the attraction in the original film, no one really knew how big the series would become. As the world of Pirates expanded and new characters and situations became beloved, it was increasingly obvious that the ride was out of synch with the new reality. So the ride that inspired a movie was in turn inspired by the movie and changed itself. In 2006, Animatronics of Jack Sparrow, a character created for the movie, were added into the California and Florida versions. Paris got Jack, as well as a Captain Barbossa figure, in 2017.

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Other modifications to the attraction have been made over the years to make it more politically correct. While those changes aren't historically accurate, they are entertaining and that's really what the ride is all about. X Atencio, one of the attractions original developers and the man who wrote its theme song, A Pirates Life for Me, once groused that his attraction was being turned into The Boy Scouts of the Caribbean, but I think that was just because no one likes to see their work changed (even if it no longer belongs to you once you've released it into the world). In spite of (or just as likely because of) all the changes Pirates of the Caribbean has gone through over the last four decades, it remains a must see in my book (and based on its wait times, millions of other books as well).

February 11 - Blaine Gibson

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On this day, in 1918, Ira Blaine Gibson was born in Rocky Ford, Colorado. Growing up on his parents' melon farm, Blaine showed his artistic talents at an early age. When he was twelve, he won a national contest sponsored by Proctor and Gamble for carving a figure out of a bar of Ivory Soap. The grand prize was $10 for his elephant.

Blaine would go to Western State College and the University of Colorado studying art until his family ran out of money. At the age of 21 he wrote to the Walt Disney Studio inquiring about a job. The studio sent him an application that required him to show off his drawing skills. Not only did he get the job, but he was asked to sign a release for the sketch he made of a boy milking a cow into a cat's mouth as the company wanted to use it right away. So, in the spring of 1939, Blaine moved to Southern California.

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Blaine began as an assistant animator at Disney. He worked on features like Fantasia, Bambi and Song of the South. By 1949, he was permanently assigned to working under Frank Thomas, one of Walt's Nine Old Men, and assisted him on such films as Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty and Peter Pan. He was good at animation but always kept an interest in sculpting, so much so that he would attend classes at Pasadena City College to improve his work. That dedication would pay off in 1954.

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As work was gearing up on Disneyland, Walt began pulling more and more people from the studio to work on his park. He discovered Blaine's talent as a sculptor and immediately put him to work on the new Project. Over the years, Blaine would sculpt faces for Audio-Animatronics in attractions from an uncanny likeness of Abraham Lincoln for the 1964 World's Fair to the Haunted Mansion to Pirates of the Caribbean to It's a Small World. When asked where he got his inspiration for so many different looks, he admitted that some of the ghouls and pirates he created might have looked a lot like people from his church while others were people he'd had dinner with over the years.

When Walt Disney World was being designed, not only were many of Blaine's creations duplicated in the Florida versions of existing attractions, but he was tapped to sculpt each of the Commanders in Chief for the Hall of Presidents in Liberty Square. Even after his retirement, Blaine would return to sculpt each new president. The first 43 Presidents in the Hall, from George Washington to George W. Bush, were all done by Blaine.

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Blaine's best known work, however, was produced in 1993, the statue known as Partners. The copper statue of Walt, holding hands with Mickey Mouse, gesturing out over the park and towards the future, has become synonymous with the Walt Disney Company. Working from a 1960 bust of Walt, Blaine modeled it after what he considered to be Walt's prime years, the mid-Fifties. He once said that the hardest part of the piece to get right was Mickey's fingers as they wrapped around Walt's. The original Partners is located in the hub area of Disneyland. Reproductions have found their way into four other locations around the world: the hub area of the Magic Kingdom in Florida, Tokyo Disneyland in Japan, The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California and The Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris, France. The statue was also given out in a miniature version, called Partners in Excellence, for a while to recognize Cast Members who were nominated by their peers as someone who embodied the spirit of Walt Disney.

Blaine retired from the Walt Disney Company in 1983 after 44 years of enduring contributions to the company's legacy. Besides returning every 4-8 years to create a new face for the Hall of Presidents, he would come back in 1993 to be honored as an official Disney Legend, for obvious reasons. On July 5, 2015, Blaine passed away from heart failure at his home in Montecito, California. He was 97.

January 12 - Marc Davis

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On this day, in 2000, Marc Fraser Davis passed away in Glendale, California. Marc began life about a hundred miles north of the place he ended it. Born on March 30, 1913 in Bakersfield, California, he was a Californian through and through. Well, mostly. While he attended art classes at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco and the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, he actually graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri. Needless to say, he didn’t spend much more time in Middle America than his schooling took but his presence there at all probably helped start his career working under one of the area’s most famous sons.

Coming on board the Disney juggernaut in 1935, Marc quickly earned the admiration of his fellow animators. Ollie Johnston recalled that, while several people contributed to the design of Snow White, it was Marc who made her walk in grace and beauty.

Marc wasn’t just good at bringing women to life. The consummate draftsman also made animals more believable. It started with his work on Bambi, Faline and Thumper in Bambi. He then gave us Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear in Song of the South. Bongo in Fun and Fancy Free and Mr. Toad in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad round out his furry contributions to the Disney family.  

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But truth be told, it really was drawing women where Marc excelled the most. He was so good at grace and beauty, he would often be given the difficult task of animating either the heroine or the villainess in a picture. Over the years, not only did he join Ollie as one of Walt’s Nine Old Men, he earned himself the nickname of Disney’s Ladies Man. Name a major female character from the Fifties and it’s almost a guarantee that Marc animated her. Cinderella, Alice, Tinkerbell, Aurora and Maleficent, and, lastly, Cruella de Vil (who technically didn’t appear until the early Sixties), were all created under Marc’s steady hand. Then, when One Hundred and One Dalmatians wrapped up production, he gave up animation forever.

As the Sixties began, Disneyland was almost constantly being updated and expanded and a huge amount of effort was being put into several projects for the upcoming World's Fair. WED Enterprises (the precursor to Imagineering) was designing and building almost more attractions than they could handle. Marc had made some contributions during the late Fifties to Adventureland's Jungle Cruise and the Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland. As the excitement in the department continued into the new decade, he decided to devote the rest of his career to designing characters and writing stories for the theme park instead of the silver screen.

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Marc still applied the same techniques in his new role. He still spent hours developing characters for an attraction and would use storyboards to plan out what guests would experience. His dedication payed off. As the technology behind Audio-Animatronics developed and matured, Marc would become a master at using them to tell stories. His first big project to open after his career shift was the classic show found in The Enchanted Tiki Room. For the 1964 World's Fair, he had a hand in all four of the attractions that Disney built: Ford's Magic Skyway, Great Moment's With Mr. Lincoln, It's a Small World and The Carousel of Progress.

When the World's Fair was safely behind them, Imagineers returned to creating new experiences for Disneyland. Marc's designs can be seen throughout both Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion, both of which opened in New Orleans Square. He then lent his style to the Country Bear Jamboree and America Sings, which was the replacement attraction for his earlier work Carousel of Progress.

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The last several years of Marc's career were spent developing an attraction that was never quite built. It was to occupy a massive area in Frontierland at the Magic Kingdom in Florida. Known as the Western River Expedition, it was supposed to be Florida's answer to Pirates of the Caribbean since, Disney executives reasoned, Floridians wouldn't be interested in pirates because the state was practically built by them. Instead, Marc designed a Western themed ride that would involve buffalo, a stagecoach robbery, a Native American adobe village, and a show with saloon girls, a bank robbery and plenty of cowboys. A mine train roller coaster would be housed in the same show building (yes, it would be the largest one Disney had ever built). From the outside, the building would look like and be called Thunder Mesa Mountain. From all accounts, it would have been a spectacular thing to see. So what happened?

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Guests to the Florida Project had one complaint they could all agree on, that's what happened. The question "Where are the pirates?" became the one most asked after the Magic Kingdom opened. So Disney hastily built a version of Pirates of the Caribbean, using a large chunk of the money allocated for Marc's Expedition. Then an economic downturn hit the country. Then Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (part of the plans for the attraction from the beginning) was built using most of the land that was to go to Expedition. And that was basically it. All the sketches and models that Marc slaved over were relegated to the research vault. Not to despair too much, though. Plenty of Imagineers have snuck elements of Marc's designs into other attractions including Splash Mountain and Expedition Everest, and I'm sure will continue to do so as often as they can.

In 1978, Marc retired after an incredible 43 year career with the Walt Disney Company.  He was named an official Disney Legend in 1989 for all of his iconic contributions to both the world of animation and beloved attractions that endure to this day. Shortly after he passed away, he was honored once more when CalArts established the Marc Fraser Davis Scholarship Fund, ensuring that creative genius will be able to flourish far into the future.

December 20 - Sam McKim

Photo lifted from filesofjerryblake.com

On this day, in 1924, Sammy McKim was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. During the Great Depression, Sammy and his family moved to Los Angles, California. When he was ten, Sammy was visiting a relative on the MGM movie lot when he caught the eye of a casting director as was almost immediately put to work as an extra. Republic Studios signed him to a contract and he began appearing in Westerns and other B movies, working with the likes of Spencer Tracy, John Wayne and Gene Autry. Throughout this entire period, Sammy was constantly drawing. Many times he’d make caricatures of his fellow actors and have them sign the pieces for him. When he hit high school, Sammy submitted his portfolio to the Walt Disney Studios and… was offered a job in traffic control. He said no thanks and joined the United States Army instead to serve in World War II.

At the conclusion of that conflict, Sam (as he was now called) returned to LA and enrolled in the Art Center College of Design. He graduated in 1950 and the military waited a whole 24 hours before they drafted him back into the Army for the Korean War. Sam served for 14 more months, earning the Distinguished Service Cross in the process, returned stateside again and, this time, enrolled at the Chouinard Art Institute. Graduating again in 1953, Sam was faced with a choice: return to a life of acting (he was offered a role in John Ford’s The Long Gray Line) or stay behind the cameras and create storyboards for 20^th Century Fox. He chose the career in drawing and never looked back.

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A round of layoffs hit Fox the following year and swept Sam into a new job at the Walt Disney Studios. His first assignments were to draw inspirational sketches of attractions for a little project called Disneyland. It wouldn’t be long before every land in the new park had some sort of influence from the hand of Sam McKim. He contributed to the look of the Golden Horseshoe Revue, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion and many more. Eventually, Sam would touch theme parks in the Florida Project as well. He helped design The Hall of Presidents at the Magic Kingdom, the Universe of Energy at Epcot and made dozens of sketches for the Disney-MGM Studios.

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Sam’s biggest contribution to the Disney legacy, however, is easily the souvenir maps he drew of Disneyland between 1958 and 1964. The intricacy of these maps has made them one of the most sought after pieces of memorabilia in all of Disney collecting. Almost thirty years later, Sam would reprise his role of park cartographer when he created one of his detailed masterpieces for the opening of Disneyland Paris.

In 1996, Sam was declared an official Disney Legend for all of his inspiring (and enduring) design work for the company over the years. He would pass away from heart failure at his home in Burbank, California on July 9, 2004. He was 79.