December 25 - Candy Candido

Image courtesy of wikia.com

On this day, in 1913, Jonathan Joseph Candido was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.  Considering Candy (as he was known) did literally hundreds of voiceovers for pretty much every major studio in Hollywood and was partnered with several stars over the years, it’s surprisingly hard to find even a few nuggets of information about his life. Here’s what I could scrape together.

He was famous for his four octave speaking voice. Candy would frequently start talking in a normal, mid-range voice and then suddenly sound either like a mouse on helium or the lower notes of a tuba. It was this quality that made him perfect for voice work. He spent a few years on the radio program The Jimmy Durante Show. Every week he would utter the phrase “I’m feeling mighty low.” Those four words became so popular with audiences that Candy and Jimmy would record a song with that title and they appeared in a Bugs Bunny cartoon (a sure sign you'd made it, and we’re talking about the words here, not Candy and Jimmy).

Image copyright Decca Records

Before his radio career, Candy had played bass (not guitar, the actual big giant bass) and sung for Ted FioRito’s big band and even made an appearance with them in a 1933 Soundie (think of it like an early version of a music video) singing  Ma, He’s Making Eyes at Me. A couple of years after that, he sang a duet with Fred Rogers in the film Roberta. Following his radio career, we learn that Candy was funny as he started touring the country with the great straight man, Bud Abbott, after Bud’s first partner, Lou Costello, passed away.

Image copyright Disney

For Disney, Candy made a number of roles his own over the course of a few decades.  Several of them were, like many of his roles, uncredited. He began with the Indian Chief in Peter Pan in 1953. His last role would be Fidget the Bat in 1986’s The Great Mouse Detective. In between, Candy lent his voice to one of Maleficent’s goons in Sleeping Beauty, some trees in Babes in Toyland, the crocodile Captain of the Guard in Robin Hood, and Brutus and Nero, the crocodiles in The Rescuers. He can also be heard on a handful of Disney attractions. On Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, listen to the devils; pay attention to the goons throughout the Sleeping Beauty Castle walk-through; he’s the graveyard executioner and a low pitched prisoner in the Haunted Mansion; he reprises his role of Indian Chief for Peter Pan’s flight.

After a long career that covered performances in films as diverse as The Wizard of Oz and Heavy Traffic, Candy passed away quietly in his sleep at his home in Burbank, California on May 19, 1999. He was 85 years old.

December 24 - The Aristocats

Image copyright Disney

On this day, in 1970, Walt Disney Productions 20th animated feature, The Aristocats, is generally released to theaters. The Aristocats began life as an idea for a two part episode of Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. It was also going to be a live action production. The project spent a couple of years being rewritten and reshaped until Walt suggested it could be the studio’s next animated feature. And so, in the Fall of 1966, as production on The Jungle Book wound down, development of The Aristocats started in earnest, making this film the studio’s last movie to bear the personal seal of approval from its founder.

Unlike many of its predecessors, The Aristocats is an original script developed by staff writers, most of the work being done by Tom McGowan and Tom Rowe. The original concept centered on two servants who stood to inherit a fortune once the family brood of cats was disposed of and their ill-conceived antics to try to make that happen. As time went on, one of the servants, the maid, was dropped and the focus of the story shifted to the cats themselves. Following Walt’s death, the emotional parts of the tale were pared down even more and the picture became more of an adventurous caper, similar to One Hundred and One Dalmatians (which is why The Aristocats is often described as Dalmatians except with cats).

Image copyright Disney

Casting the voice roles for the film followed a pattern that had been established with The Jungle Book and would continue with films like Robin Hood: a few splashy big names along with some tried and true Disney stalwarts. While the part of the villainous butler, Edgar, had been written with Boris Karloff in mind when the project was going to be live action, the role ended up going to veteran English actor Roddy Maude-Roxby. Walt had personally asked Phil Harris to play Thomas O’Malley the alley cat. This would be the second of three roles Phil would play in quick succession for the studio. Eva Gabor was tapped as Duchess, the mother cat and unlikely love interest of Thomas O’Malley. The cast was rounded out by Sterling Holloway, Pat Buttram, George Lindsay, Thurl Ravenscroft and Paul Winchell to drop just a few more names.

Image copyright Disney

The Aristocats also marks another last for the studio. It is the final animated picture that the Sherman Brothers worked on as staff songwriters for the Walt Disney Studio. Robert and Richard had been getting increasingly frustrated with how things were being run after Walt’s death and this movie would represent the last straw for them. Only two of their songs made it into the final product, The Aristocats (which enticed Maurice Chevalier to come out of retirement to sing) and Scales and Arpeggios, sung by Marie. The rest of the songs were written by various folks and include classics like Ev’rybody Wants to Be a Cat and Thomas O’Malley Cat.

The Aristocats was a financial success upon its release, grossing over $17 million worldwide on a budget of only $4 million. The reviews were generally favorable with many critics giving it three out of four stars. My only complaint about the movie is that some of its portrayals of foreign cultures have not aged well at all (I’m talking to you Paul Winchell). Otherwise, The Aristocats is a fun way to spend an hour and half, even if you might not remember too many of the specifics the next day.

December 23 - Helen Hennesy

On this day, in 1900, Helen Josephine DeForce was born in Spokane, Washington. Her father was Eastern District Superintendent for the Northern Pacific Railroad and considered her education of the utmost importance. As a result, Helen attended several colleges including Wells College and Stanford, eventually earning a BA from the University of Southern California, Pasadena. She got married shortly after graduation to an Ernest Ludwig on November 16, 1925. The union lasted less than two years with Ernest and Helen getting divorced after the birth of their daughter, also named Helen. Mother and child moved in with her parents in Pasadena. Helen began attending Library School with the Los Angeles Public Library. She graduated a second time in 1929 and began working as an assistant Children's librarian.

Image courtesy of disneybooks.blogspot.com

On July 1, 1935, she began a new job as the first librarian for the Walt Disney Studio. Later that year her father would pass away, leaving her as the main bread winner for herself, her mother and her daughter. Although her company id listed her as being part of the Story Department she was actually given free reign to organize and establish the Walt Disney Library. When the studio moved from the building on Hyperion Ave to its current location in Burbank, she even got to choose the new decor. During her early time at the studio, she would meet one of the layout artists, Hugh Hennesy. The two of them would really hit it off and get married, the second for both of them, on January 2, 1937.

image courtesy of disneybooks.blogspot.com

Helen took her role as Librarian very seriously. She was constantly sending notes off to various employees reminding them to return the materials they'd borrowed. She retained several of them that animators had returned with little caricatures of her (most of them just on the other side of flattering). Soon after her marriage to Hugh, because Walt had a policy that married employee's couldn't work together and her husband frequented the library in the course of his work, Helen left the studio and returned to work at the LA City Library. Hugh would pass away in 1954. Helen never remarried but continued working as librarian until the mandatory retirement age of 75. She would pass away in 1995 and is buried next to Hugh in San Gabriel Cemetery in Pasadena.

December 22 - Bill Cottrell

On this day, in 1995, Willilam H.D. Cottrell Jr. passed away in Los Angeles, California. Born on November 19, 1906 in South Bend, Indiana, Bill would move to Southern California to attend Occidental College as an English and journalism major. Following graduation, he briefly worked for George Herriman as a story man on the Krazy Kat comic strip. Then, in 1929, he became a camera man at the Walt Disney Studio.

Image copyright Disney

It wasn't long before Bill transferred to the story department and began making major contributions to shorts like Who Killed Cock Robin? He was a trusted enough part of the company that when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs came along, Bill became a sequence director. His touch can be seen whenever the Evil Queen can be seen.

At the same time, Bill was proving just how small a company the studio really was. He was courting, falling in love with and, in 1938, becoming the second husband of Hazel (Bounds) Sewell. Hazel had brought her sister, one Lillian Bounds, into the ink and paint department with her many years before. In 1925, Lillian had become Mrs. Walt Disney. With his marriage to Hazel, Bill became the brother in law of the Boss. Luckily, he also had the talent to back up his newfound connections.

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Bill and Hazel would join Walt on his goodwill tour of South America in 1941. He is credited with developing the story for the two films that resulted from that trip, Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros. He would continue to contribute to the stories of many of the studios projects throughout the Forties and into the Fifties, including Melody Time, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. More importantly, Bill was becoming one of Walt's most trusted advisers at a time when something entirely new was brewing.

As the Fifties began and Walt was turning his imagination towards a physical place in the world, he knew he needed a separate company to generate the ideas and technology he would require. When WED Enterprises (now known as Walt Disney Imagineering) was born, he also knew just who he wanted to lead it: Bill Cottrell. As the first president of Imagineering, Bill was responsible for bringing the plans for Disneyland to life. The genius of putting a story man in charge of those plans is fairly obvious in hindsight. Every trash can, lighting fixture and door would fit in with the story that had been created for each attraction, shop or restaurant it was near. The parks would never have the flow they do if it hadn't been for Bill's leadership from the beginning.

Image copyright Disney

In 1964, Bill became an even closer part of Walt's life when he became the president of Retlaw Enterprises, the private company that managed the Disney family's financial affairs. He would hold that position until his retirement in 1982. Which doesn't mean he didn't still make contributions to the entertainment side of things. He helped develop the Zorro television series and, as a fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories, inspired The Great Mouse Detective.

In 1994, Bill was made an official Disney Legend for his contributions to film, the theme parks and the Disney family in general over his 53 year career with the company.

December 21 - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

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On this day, in 1937, Walt Disney's first animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, had its world premiere at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, California. For the first decade or so that the Walt Disney Studio existed, it did what every other animation studio did. It made short cartoons with silly characters to make people laugh before the main feature at the movies. Walt had already pushed the boundaries of the form by pairing classical music with lush artwork in his Silly Symphony series. Sometimes the Disney artists were able to evoke tender emotions without the characters ever saying a single word. But Walt longed for more. Not only did he want the potentially (much) larger revenue that feature films would bring in to his little company, but he felt that the medium of animation could create a movie going experience like no other. He was pretty much the only one who felt that way but, thankfully, he was also the only one he was listening to.

In 1934, Walt knew in his bones that his crew was ready to take on a bigger challenge. In June of that year, he announced to the world that the Walt Disney Studio would be producing a feature length film based on the fairy tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The news was met with resounding derision. Walt’s brother (and business partner), Roy, and his wife, Lillian, both did their best to talk him out of the project. Everyone else in the industry looked at him funny, realized he was serious and began snickering. They figured if he wanted to bankrupt himself with such a harebrained idea, then by all means, we can’t wait to see… what’s it called again? Disney’s Folly? But Walt had a gleam in his eye and pushed forward anyways.

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Walt figured that Snow White could be produced for around $250,000. He could make 10 Silly Symphonies for that amount and his feature would probably be about ten times longer. He underestimated a little bit. The final costs would run over $1,488,000, an almost ridiculous total for any movie in 1937. But Walt figured in for a penny, in for a pound and not only mortgaged his house to the hilt, but he kept pushing his brother Roy to the edge of sanity trying to keep the studio afloat. I’m sure more than once over the four years of production, Roy looked at his brother and wondered if he’d gone absolutely batty. Walt had, but in a good way.

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In order to get his staff fired up about the project, Walt held a now famous story meeting one evening. He acted out the entire story with crazy voices, antics and so much enthusiasm no one could possibly come out of that room without being convinced that this was a great idea. Walt immediately began pulling his best people from every department to begin developing the picture. In the beginning, Walt felt that the picture would center on the seven dwarfs. He felt that each of them could be given a name that defined their basic nature and that they would get into all sorts of situations and gags. The rest of the characters, when discussed at all, were almost incidental. At one point the evil Queen was even being described as “fat and batty” (and even though she is usually referred to as Snow Queen or Evil Queen, she does have a name: Queen Grimhilde. Now you know). The story languished in development for the rest of 1934 and the start of 1935.

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Walt was getting discouraged and thought he’d bitten off more than his boys could chew, but apparently his European trip during the summer of 1935 revived his enthusiasm. When he returned, work began again with a new fervor, albeit in a different direction than before. Walt felt that the overly comic tone of the film wasn’t right and more attention should be paid to the relationship between the Queen and Snow White. As a result of this shift in focus, several sequences involving the dwarfs, that had already been fully animated, were scrapped. Ward Kimball, who would become one of the Nine Old Men, had poured himself into those scenes and was seriously considering leaving the studio once they were cut. Luckily for the Disney legacy, he stuck it out (the fact that he was made a supervising animator on Bambi probably helped).

Image copyright Disney; music copyright Bourne

Walt had decided that he wanted more of a European illustration look to his movie, which brought darker, richer colors and themes to it. Over the next two years, dozens of art classes were held at the studio. Many of the animators were great at cartoons but didn't have much (if any) formal training. The skills the entire staff gained through the process helped cement the domination of the Disney style of animation for years to come.

Music was, like always, an incredibly important addition. The songs in Snow White are so catchy and moving that the picture would become the first film to release a soundtrack album. Since Disney didn't have a way to publish their own music (yet) they would go through Bourne Company Music Publishers, an unfortunate turn of events since Bourne still owns the rights to Heigh Ho and Whistle While You Work today.

Photo courtesy of d23.com

Finally, after four years of blood, sweat, monumental cost overruns, toil and tears, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was ready for the public. At the premiere, the audience was packed. Many of the attendees were basically there just so they could say they were when the great Walt Disney fell flat on his face. Needless to say, what they saw stunned them. People laughed at the antics of the dwarfs, gasped at the cruelty of the Queen, openly wept as the dwarfs payed respect at Snow White's glass coffin and rose as one in a rousing standing ovation at the end. The New York times statement could be summed up in the line "Thank you very much, Mr. Disney" and Variety simply fell all over themselves with praise. Snow White enjoyed an exclusive run at the Radio City Music Hall, moved on to Miami and was put into general release in February of 1938. It would go on to make four times the amount of any other film released that year. By the end of its original run, Snow White would gross over $7.8 million giving it the highest grossing movie ever crown until Gone With the Wind came along.

Image copyright Disney

Once again, Walt had followed his gut, put everything he had (literally) behind his idea and changed the face of entertainment forever. For his efforts he was awarded a special Academy Award consisting of one large statue and seven little ones. The success of Snow White financed a new $4.5 million studio on a new plot of land in Burbank (the studio still sits there today) and assured the world that there would be many more animated features to come. The naysayers found themselves in the position of scrambling to catch up. They never did.

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.

Image copyright Disney

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.

Image copyright Disney

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.

December 19 - Robert B Sherman

image courtesy of wikipedia.com

On this day, in 1925, Robert Bernard Sherman was born in New York, New York. As the son of famous Tin Pan Alley songwriter Al Sherman, Robert, and his brother Richard (who would come along a couple of years later), eventually dove into the family business and elevated it to world renown status. The family moved frequently during Robert’s childhood before finally settling in Beverly Hills, California. During his high school years, Robert wrote and produced several programs for the radio and stage. One of those, Armistice and Dedication Day, raised thousands of dollars for bonds to finance World War II and caught the attention of the War Department. Robert was a mere 16 year old at the time.

In 1943, Robert talked his parents into letting him join the army when he was only 17. In April of 1945, he was wounded in the knee and would walk with a cane for the rest of his life. His list of medals for his service is fairly impressive: the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman Badge, two Battle Stars, an American Campaign Medal, a Good Conduct Medal and several marksmanship badges. As he convalesced from his wound in England, Robert became interested in British culture and soaked up as much history and made as many English friends as he could. He was always grateful for this period in his life since so much of his later career would center on British stories and characters.

Image courtesy of wikipedia.com

After his return home from the war, Robert attended Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. He majored in English literature and painting, served as editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper and wrote two novels. His brother, Richard, also attended Bard as a music major. A few years later, the brothers were living together in an apartment in Los Angeles, struggling to create their separate masterpieces. One day, their father, Al, goaded them with a dare: I bet you two guys couldn’t pool your talents and come up with a song that some kid would give up his lunch money to buy. He was a wise one, that Al. The boys banded together for the first time and wrote the song Gold Can Buy Anything (but Love) and sold it to Gene Autry. The Sherman Brothers, as a songwriting duo, was born.

Image copyright Disney

In 1958, Robert founded his own music publishing company, Music World Corporation. The following year, the brothers had their first Top Ten hit, Tall Paul sung by Annette Funicello. A former Mouseketeer having a hit song of course attracted the attention of Walt Disney. Walt began having the Brothers write a song here and there, like the ones used in The Parent Trap. Then Walt finally got the rights to his magnum opus, Mary Poppins, and he hired Robert and Richard on as full time staff songwriters. They won two Academy Awards for Poppins, wrote the music for a whole slew of attractions (Adventure Thru Inner Space, Carousel of Progress and Journey Into Imagination to name just a few) and movies (like The Jungle Book, The Aristocats and Bedknobs and Broomsticks). The most ear wormy thing they ever wrote however, and their song that’s been played the most often, is the them to It’s A Small World. I would go so far as to bet that it will be stuck in your head for the next hour just because I mentioned it. I’m not sorry. It is a pretty good song.

Image copyright Amazon.com

After Walt’s death, Robert and Richard stopped working full time for the Disney company (although they never really left it completely). Their first outside project was to team up with Poppins star Dick Van Dyke on the 1968 fantasy Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Over the years they began writing screenplays for projects as well as the music. Their version of Tom Sawyer won first prize at the Moscow Film Festival in 1973. An adaptation of Cinderella titled The Slipper and the Rose was chosen for a Royal Command Performance in 1976. On stage, the Brothers wrote a musical called Over There! that was nominated for Tony Awards and was the highest grossing musical of 1974. Since then, highly successful stage versions of both Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang have graced stages around the world.

Image copyright Disney

The tragedy of all the marvelous music, laughter and joy Robert and Richard brought to the world over their decades long career, is that it turns out the Sherman boys were pretty good actors as well. Modern conveniences may have kept their collaboration going, but the Brothers were, in actuality, bitter rivals who could go years without speaking to each other. Whether or not they ever actually repaired the rift between them, Robert and Richard were both inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 2005, given the National Medal of the Arts by President George W. Bush in 2008 and had been made official Disney Legends in 1990. In 2010, the Brothers received their own window on Mainstreet USA in Disneyland which reads “Two Brothers Tunemakers, Richard M Sherman and Robert B Sherman, proprietors, We’ll write your tunes for a song!” They also recently had a soundstage at the Burbank studios renamed in their honor

Robert B. Sherman, decorated war hero, father of four, and co-writer of more film scores for musicals than anyone else (except his brother of course) passed away on March 6, 2012 in London, England. He was 86.

December 18 - Candlelight Processional

On this day, in 1971, the first Candlelight Processional made its way down Mainstreet USA in the Magic Kingdom of the Walt Disney World Resort. Modeled after the event at Disneyland that debuted in 1958, the Candlelight Processional has grown by leaps and bounds since that Florida night 47 years ago. It started at the Magic Kingdom (obviously, because that was the only park at the Florida Project then) as an actual processional. Performers carried candles from Town Square, down Mainstreet USA to amass in front of the castle. The show was performed once each of two nights and that was it. That’s still how it goes down at Disneyland, generally just one weekend a year. Walt Disney World, of course, has to do things bigger and better than that.

The Candlelight Processional got a big boost in 1994 when it was moved from the Magic Kingdom to Epcot. Instead of having guests stand along the route with very limited seating near the stage (the seats available at Disneyland are by invitation only), guests now get to sit in relative comfort in the America Gardens Theater at the American Adventure Pavilion. And instead of just one show a night for a single weekend, the processional is performed three times a night throughout the holiday season (which somehow doesn’t make it much easier to get in). The Christmas story is still narrated by various celebrity guests (Neil Patrick Harris, Jodi Benson and Whoopi Goldberg are perennial favorites), still has hundreds of singers made up of cast members and local choirs, and still has a full orchestra underscoring the whole thing. And, yes, it is still a powerfully moving experience that everyone should see as many times as they can in however many years they have on this earth. I’m not kidding; it really is that good. You might still be able to catch a show this season if you leave right now...

December 17 - Rex Allen

On this day, in 1999, Rex Elvie Allen passed away in Tucson, Arizona. Rex was born on the last day of 1920 on a ranch near Wilcox, Arizona. His father played a mean fiddle and little Rex would sing and play guitar with him at social functions around the area. After graduating from high school, he toured the Southwest United States as a rodeo cowboy for a few years before heading to the East Coast to try his luck as a singer on the vaudeville circuits. He eventually settled in Chicago as a performer on WLS’ National Barn Dance, the precursor to the Grand Ole Opry.

In 1949, at the height of the popularity of singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, Rex moved to Hollywood, got a screen test with Republic Pictures and became one of the top ten box office draws of the era. He partnered with Buddy Ebsen for a while then teamed up with Slim Pickens in movies with titles like Rodeo King and the Senorita and Shadows of Tombstone. At the same time, he’d signed a deal with Mercury Records and began belting out a string of hit Country singles. When that deal ran out, Rex switched to Decca where he continued to press records well into the Seventies. One of those singles, Don’t Go Near the Indians, reached the top five of the Country charts in 1962.

Image copyright Disney

Rex came to the table a little late as the western phase in Hollywood began to wind down by the mid Fifties. In fact, he had the dubious pleasure of making the very last singing cowboy film, The Phantom Stallion, released in 1954. His attempt to transition into television began and ended with a one season stint on a show called Frontier Doctor. Fortunately, the rich tones of his voice would become his saving grace. Rex was hired by the Walt Disney Studio in the early Sixties to narrate some of their nature films. His voice overs worked so well, he would go on to narrate over 80 films and television episodes for the company throughout the decade. He can be heard on films like Run, Appaloosa, Run, Charlie, the Lonesome Cougar and the 1963 version of The Incredible Journey. All his narrative worked earned him the nickname “the Voice of the West.” Walt liked his sound so much, he asked Rex to play the role of Father for the GE sponsored attraction being built for the 1964 World’s Fair, Carousel of Progress (he was replaced as Father in 1993 by Jean Shepherd of A Christmas Story fame but can still be heard as Grandfather).

Image courtesy of ioffer.com

After his work with Disney, Rex continued a fairly prolific voice over career. In 1973 he narrated the animated version of Charlotte’s Web and for the rest of his life he recorded hundreds of tracks for various national commercials, the lengthiest contract of which was for Purina Dog Chow. In 1996, Rex was named an official Disney Legend for lending his voice to so many projects over the years. Tragically, three years later, at the age of 79, he would be accidently run over by his care giver in his driveway and suffer fatal injuries.

December 16 - Roy Edward Disney

Image courtesy of wikipedia.com

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

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

Image courtesy of wikipedia.com

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

Image courtesy of d23.com

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

Image courtesy of mouseplanet.com

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

Image courtesy of nydailynews.com

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

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

December 15 - Tim Conway

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On this day, in 1933, Thomas Daniel Conway was born in Willoughby, Ohio. Tim, as he was known, majored in speech and radio at Bowling Green State University and became a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. After graduating in 1956, he joined the United States Army for a two year tour. Following his discharge, he returned to the Cleveland area and began working on local television. Teaming up with Ernie Anderson (who later became known as the Voice of ABC), Tim began writing short comedy sketches the duo would perform in between the movies they would show each weekday morning on WJW-TV, the CBS affiliate.

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The practice in those days was that the big network would occasionally send one of its stars to physically visit each of their affiliate stations as a kind of goodwill gesture. In 1961, Rose Marie, from The Dick Van Dyke Show, came to Cleveland. After she saw some tapes of Tim and Ernie’s sketches, she offered to mentor them in a career in comedy. This especially came in handy for Tim, when the following year, WJW would fire him for lying about his directorial experience. He moved to New York, where Rose Marie got him an audition for The Steve Allen Show. He passed with flying colors and became a regular player on the show.

Tim came to national prominence when, in 1962, he played second in command Ensign Charles Beaumont Parker on McHale’s Navy with Ernest Borgnine. For four seasons, Tim’s bumbling Ensign Parker barely survived the war while causing laughter to erupt in living rooms across the nation. Following his tour in the Navy, Tim would appear in a string of short lived television shows. Perhaps the most infamous of these is1969’s Turn-On, a counter cultural sketch comedy in the vein of Laugh-In. The show was so controversial that many east coast stations pulled it by the first commercial break of the pilot and most west coast stations, hearing about it from east coast affiliates, refused to air it at all. The irony is that while Tim was only a guest star for the pilot, he was actually around for its entire run. This didn’t hurt his reputation any as he would get his own shows, The Tim Conway Show and The Tim Conway Comedy Hour, both of which would last about 13 weeks in 1970.

Tim’s next big success, and the one I think of most, came on The Carol Burnett Show. He officially joined the cast in 1975 although he’d been a frequent guest for several seasons already. Two of his best characters from this period were The Oldest Man and corporate boss, Mr. Tudball, although he didn’t really have to say anything to get people to laugh, including all his co-performers. For his genius on the show, Tim earned four Emmy Awards, one for writing and three for performing.

As the Seventies became the Eighties, Tim once again starred in a string of short lived shows while at the same time making guest appearances on dozens of others. Taking on everything from Diagnosis: Murder to Hot in Cleveland, he is best known to the younger crowd as the voice of Barnacle Boy, the sidekick to Mermaid Man (voiced by Navy pal Ernest Borgnine), on SpongeBob SquarePants.

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Tim became part of the Disney family when he starred in a series of films for the studio in the Seventies. It began in 1973 with The World’s Greatest Athlete, a film about someone trying to win every event at the NCAA Track and Field Championship. He also appeared in 1976’s Gus with Ed Asner and Don Knotts. His best known role for Disney though, is as legendary outlaw Amos Tucker, a part he played opposite Don Knotts (again) in two films, The Apple Dumpling Gang and The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again. Tim and Don worked so well together, they would go on to star in several more non Disney films throughout the beginning of the Eighties.

Tim’s final big success came through a series of quasi how to videos he produced starting in the late Eighties featuring a character named Dorf. Impossibly short, with a crazy accent borrowed from Mr. Tudball, Dorf bumbled his way through teaching his viewers to do everything from play golf to drive race cars. In 2009, Dorf reappeared on the website iSpotSanta as he helped Santa modernize for the times (it did not go well, as you can imagine).

For all his contributions to the world of entertainment, Tim was inducted to the Television Hall of Fame in 2002. He then became an official Disney Legend in 2004. In 2016, Tim announced that he was retiring from performing after he kept experiencing dizziness. Earlier this year, it was revealed that he was suffering from dementia and has been rendered nearly speechless. His second wife (of 34 years) and his daughter have been in a bitter battle over his care and custody ever since.

December 14 - Babes In Toyland

Image copyright Disney

On this day, in 1961, Walt Disney Productions' first live action musical, Babes In Toyland, was released in theaters. The film is loosely based on a 1903 operetta by Victor Herbert and was originally conceived of as animated. Walt eventually decided he wanted a movie along the standards of Wizard of Oz and Babes became, in the words of one executive, “a Disney cartoon with live people.” To that end, Ray Bolger, the Scarecrow from Oz, was cast except this time as the villain, Barnaby. The cast is filled out by teen heartthrobs Tommy Sands and Annette Funicello, Disney stalwarts Tommy Kirk and Kevin Corcoran and Ed Wynn in the second of his many appearances with the studio.

Image copyright Disney

For the Disney version of Babes, Walt had most of the lyrics from the operetta rewritten and many of the tempos of the songs changed up as well. It may not have been the best choice. Rather than living up to Oz, Babes opened to mainly negative reviews. Generally regarded as juvenile and clunky, even Tommy Kirk refers to it as an oddity at best, although he isn’t embarrassed about it like some of his other work.

While there were several other versions of Babes before this one (including one starring Laurel and Hardy), Disney’s take was the first one to be shot in Technicolor. It’s longest lasting legacy isn’t its music or any of its performances. It’s the fact that the toy soldiers from the film can still be seen every year in the various holiday parades at Disney parks around the world.

December 13 - Dick Van Dyke

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On this day, in 1925, Richard Wayne Van Dyke was born in West Plains, Missouri. Dick grew up in Danville, Illinois as the older brother to another future entertainer, Jerry Van Dyke. Their family on their mother's side was deeply religious and Dick flirted with entering the ministry until he took a drama class in high school. From that point on, he was set on the career path of professional entertainer (incidentally, so were his classmates Donald O'Connor, of Singin' In the Rain fame, and Bobby Short, a well known cabaret singer). Dick actually dropped out of high school in his senior year to enlist in the Army Air Force during World War II, but was too underweight to be accepted. He did eventually enlist as a radio announcer and would spend the remainder of the war in Special Services entertaining troops stateside. Sixty years later he would finally obtain his diploma at the age of 78.

Following World War II, Dick returned to Danville as a local radio DJ. In 1947, he began touring West Coast night clubs in a mime act with partner Phil Erickson. By the early Fifties, the duo had migrated with their act to Atlanta and starred in a local television show. By the mid Fifties, the show came to an end and Phil stayed in Atlanta while Dick moved to New York City to try his luck there.

Dick made his Broadway debut in 1959 in The Girls against the Boys, a revue that ran for 16 performances and also starred Bert Lahr. The following year, he auditioned for a small role in Bye, Bye Birdie. He nervously improvised a soft shoe routine as part of that audition. The show's director offered him the lead. Dick told him that the only dancing he knew how to do was what he just did. The director said we'll teach you. And teach him they did. Birdie ran for 604 performances and earned Dick a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. He would later star in the film version with Janet Leigh.

Dick had made various appearances on television starting in 1954, doing episodes of The Phil Silvers Show and The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, but it was in 1961 that his face became nationally known as the star of The Dick Van Dyke Show. A perfect storm of the comedy world of the early Sixties, the show also launched the career of Mary Tyler Moore and featured veteran comedians like Carl Reiner, Rose Marie, and Morey Amsterdam. Dick would pick up three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy and the show would win Outstanding Comedy Series four times over its five year run.

In the middle of his show’s highly successful run, Dick made his legendary entry into the Disney world. Walt knew with great certainty that he wanted Dick for the role of Bert, the chimney sweep, in Mary Poppins. According to Dick, he really didn’t even have to audition for the role. The other role he played for the movie, Mr. Dawes Senior, the head of the bank Mr. Banks works for, was an entirely different matter. Dick says that not only did he have to lobby hard for it, but that Walt secured a donation to CalArts from him as well. Mary Poppins herself would declare both parts to be practically perfect in every way if it wasn’t for one hardly mentionable thing: Dick’s cockney accent. Even huge fans of the movie have to admit it’s really bad. But apparently no one, not Julie Andrews, not Dick’s voice coach, not even Walt himself, said anything about it during filming, so can we really blame him for it? It’s become a (mostly) endearing part of the film, so the answer is probably no. Dick’s performance of the Sherman Brothers tune Chim Chim Cher-ee helped propel it to a Best Original Song Oscar and earned him a Grammy Award, along with his co-star, Julie.

Following Mary Poppins, Dick starred in two more films for Disney, neither of which was as successful. The first was Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. in 1966, an adaptation of the Daniel Defoe novel. The most notable thing about the film is that it is the only movie that Walt ever received a writing credit for. The second was Never a Dull Moment in 1968, a crime comedy that also starred Edward G. Robinson and kind of made its title a lie.

Throughout the rest of the Sixties, Dick starred in a string of mediocre comedies with the likes of James Garner, Shirley MacLaine and Debbie Reynolds. The highlight of the bunch would be the 1968 version of Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. With Dick as the Englishman Caractacus Pott (albeit with an American accent this time, he’d learned his lesson) and songs from the Sherman Brothers, Chitty is like Mary Poppins less successful cousin.

During the Seventies, Dick tried to capture lightning in a bottle once more on television. Another sitcom, The New Dick Van Dyke Show ran for three seasons from 1971-1974, but only earned its star a Golden Globe nomination. He tried again in 1976 with Van Dyke and Company, a sketch comedy show that only lasted three months (but still picked up the Emmy for Best Outstanding Comedy-Variety Show). He joined the cast of The Carol Burnett Show for the last half of its last season and did various guest spots on shows like Matlock and Airwolf.

Dick’s next performance for Disney was as a villain, DA Fletcher, in Touchstone Picture’s 1990 action comedy Dick Tracey. The positive reviews from that role led to his next big success on the small screen. After a guest appearance on Jake and the Fat Man, Dick’s character, Dr. Mark Sloan, got a set of TV movies and then his own series. Diagnosis: Murder began in 1993 and gave Dick an opportunity to work with his son, Barry, who is also an actor. For eight seasons, the father and son duo solved crimes together.

Following the end of Diagnosis: Murder, Dick has continued to pop up occasionally on both the big and small screens. He reunited with Mary Tyler Moore for a critically acclaimed televised version of The Gin Game. He took another villainous turn for the Night at the Museum series of films. He even made a cameo on his little brother Jerry’s hit show, Coach. And, in just a few days, Dick will return to theaters with a cameo in Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns, at the ripe old age of 93.

After a career spanning over seven decades, Dick has earned his place as entertainment royalty. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1995. He earned SAG’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013. And, in 1998, he became an official Disney Legend for his enduringly lovable performance of the chimney sweep who may or may not be from England.