July 27 - Bill Sullivan

Image courtesy themousecastle.com

On this day, in 1955, William Sullivan began his new job as ticket taker at the Jungle Cruise in Adventureland of Disneyland. Born in 1936, Sully, as most people called him, was studying architecture and working his first job in the aircraft industry when a television show changed his life. Like many people on July 17, 1955, Sully was glued to his television set watching the opening ceremonies of a new kind of entertainment in Anaheim, Disneyland. Unlike most people watching, he was inspired to completely change the course of his life by what he saw. The following Saturday he went down to the park to apply for a job. He was hired on the spot, quit his job at Northrop Aircraft on Monday and two days later was happily taking people’s tickets for the Jungle Cruise.

Image courtesy wikipedia.org

A quick detour into the world of tickets at the beginning of Disneyland. For the first three months of operation, it cost guests $1 to get into the park, which included three attractions, and then between 10 and 35 cents more for each additional attraction. In October 1955, ticket books were introduced with A, B and C tickets in them. The best rides, like the Jungle Cruise, required a C ticket while something like the Carousel would be an A ticket ride. In 1957, as more attractions were added to Disneyland, a D ticket was introduced and the ticket tiers were expanded once more in 1959 to include E tickets. Some attractions, like the Matterhorn Bobsleds, debuted at E ticket status while older attractions, like the Jungle Cruise, were promoted to E ticket status, or whatever level was appropriate. The phrase “that’s an E ticket ride” has sort of become synonymous with exciting thrill rides but all it really meant was you were riding one of the best rides. Yes, the Bobsleds were E ticket, but so was the Disneyland Railroad. We now return to you to our regularly scheduled post.

Image courtesy ochistorical.blogspot.com

It didn’t take Sully long to get promoted from Jungle Cruise ticket taker to wisecracking Jungle Cruise skipper. After 2.5 years exclusively in that madcap bubble, Sully got to train on other attractions and move around the park more. He was then promoted to what he called a Yo-Yo Supervisor. Disneyland couldn’t afford to make him a full supervisor just yet, so at high attendance times he’d be wearing a suit and tie and managing things, then when attendance dropped again, he’d be back in costume running an attraction, sometimes going back and forth between the two roles on a day by day basis. In 1959, when the park enjoyed its first expansion with the addition of the Matterhorn Bobsleds and the Nature’s Wonderland section of Frontierland, Sully was made a full supervisor.

Image courtesy d23.com

Almost as soon as Sully became full time management, he also became a specials man. When Walt was chosen to be a part of the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, Sully was on the company’s security team. He was part of the team that ran the premier of Mary Poppins at Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Sully was then chosen to go to the 1964 World’s Fair as an assistant manager to help facilitate and troubleshoot the four attractions the company built for it. He moved his family to Queens, NY for a year and his daughter even started kindergarten there. When he returned to California in late 1965, he was promoted to manager of all of Fantasyland. And that’s when things got busy.

Image courtesy youtube.com

While in New York, Sully had heard rumors of something Walt was cooking up called Project X that was going to take place on the East Coast, but no one knew what, when or exactly where. Shortly after becoming the head of Fantasyland, Sully was let in on the secret: another theme park was being planned for Central Florida. It then became Sully’s job, along with the Legendary Rolly Krump, to design the layout of Fantasyland for the new park. When they’d done all they could with that project, Sully was promoted to Senior Staff Assistant to the Vice President of the Florida Project, which basically meant he was now a high priced jack-of-all-trades.

Image courtesy linkedin.com

It might almost be easier to list the things Sully didn’t do in those years just before Walt Disney World opened. He helped design the entrance to the Magic Kingdom and Main Street USA (they made it twelve feet wider than Disneyland’s in order to accommodate bigger parades). He set up a post office to facilitate communication between Burbank and the construction companies. He helped get the Preview Center up and running. He was in charge of most of the promotional materials that were being made available to locals. He ran a legislator’s weekend so Jack Lindquist could convince the Florida state senators and representatives that creating a special economic zone for Disney was a great idea. He helped set up and staff the Preview Center. He was part of the Security and Fire Prevention team and was in charge of hiring the first 75 Security Cast Members for the Florida property. In short, Sully was the grease that kept the whole of Walt Disney World moving forward.

Image courtesy mousesteps.com

Sully was also an integral part of the team that was planning and building EPCOT Center. Officially he was the director of PICO, the Project Installation and Coordination Office. Basically what that meant is that, while he didn’t have the authority to approve or disapprove of projects, all of them came through him and his office. With all of his operational experience, Sully could (and did) make improvement suggestions and rework the design of anything he felt needed tweaking. He spent four years perfecting the park and then was in charge of actually running the place for the first two years it was open. During the same period, Sully help train hundreds of cast members for the opening of Disney’s first international park, Tokyo Disneyland.

Image courtesy guide4wdw.com

In 1987, Sully was promoted to Vice President in charge of the Magic Kingdom, the world he had done so much to help create. He spent several years there until one of his old co-workers, Jim Cora, who was now in charge of all international Disney parks, sweet talked him into coming over to Europe to help get Disneyland Paris ready for its opening. So Sully spent the first few months of 1992 opening another Disney theme park. He returned to Florida where he resumed his duties as top man at the Magic Kingdom until his retirement in 1993.

Sully has the distinction of being one of the few people who have their names on not one but two windows on Main Street USA, both in the Magic Kingdom. The first one he received was as part of a group of guys who were instrumental in getting Walt Disney World off the ground. It reads “Windemere Fraternal Hall – Lodge Meetings Every Friday – Charter Members - Bob Allen - Pete Crimmings, Dick Evans, Bill Hoelscher, Bob Mathieson, Bill Sullivan” and can be found on Center Street above Crystal Arts. Sully received his second one for his retirement and it’s a solo act above the ice cream parlor. That one reads “Sully's Safaris & Guide Service - Chief Guide Bill Sullivan.” As impressive as having two windows is, Sully was absolutely floored the day he got his letter inviting him to a ceremony in 2005 where he was officially declared a Disney Legend.

Image courtesy disneydispatch.com

Sully still resides in Central Florida although he says he doesn’t go to the Disney parks much anymore. He admits that it’s mostly because he’d get too upset about all the changes that have been made since they were “his” parks. They aren’t his anymore but he’s okay with that. For 38 magical years he carried on the Disney tradition and now it is someone else’s turn. When asked about his favorite memory from his career, he gets a twinkle in his eye and mentions meeting the cute blonde who worked across from the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland and has been his wife for over 50 years. I know just how he feels (although my twinkle is brunette).

July 24 - New Orleans Square

Image courtesy disneyaddicts.com

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.

Image copyright Disney

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.

Image courtesy wikipedia.org

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.

Image courtesy d23.com

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.

Image courtesy wikipedia.org

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.

July 18 - Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln

Image copyright Disney

On this day, in 1965, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, an Audio-Animatronic show, began wowing guests on Main Street USA in Disneyland.  In the late Fifties, Walt wanted to expand the Main Street USA area of Disneyland, specifically by building an attraction that was a tribute to the Presidents of the United States, all 34 of them up to that point. The problem was that Walt's vision had outpaced the technology of the day. There just was no physical way to create the show he had planned in his head, even if he had unlimited amounts of money to do it. The idea had to be shelved and the expansion never happened.

Several years later, as Disney was signing contracts to provide rides and shows for the 1964 World's Fair, the Imagineers of WED Enterprises brought a prototype of a new technology to show their boss. Since they couldn't make a show with 34 moving Presidents, they'd been focusing on making a single mechanical man in the likeness of Walt's boyhood hero, Abraham Lincoln. The Imagineers had managed to create something that, although quite primitive by today's standards, was kind of magical. Walt was intrigued by it, convinced the state of Illinois they needed it for their Fair pavilion and got them to foot the bill for constructing it.

Image courtesy pinterest.com

The first attraction with Audio-Animatronic technology to open was the Enchanted Tiki Room in 1963. Compared to Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, though, the Tiki Room is simplicity itself. A few beaks open and close, some wings flutter and eyes blink (granted this occurs on over a hundred different figures at once, but still). As impressed as guests were by singing birds and crooning flowers, they were floored by what what they saw in the Illinois pavilion. Great strides had been made in Audio-Animatronics in a short time. Not only did Lincoln speak and gesture and address different parts of the audience, but HE STOOD UP FROM HIS CHAIR! WHAT IS THIS SORCERY? Audiences marveled at the life-like qualities of the figure in the show and made Illinois one of the must-see attractions of the Fair.

Image copyright Disney

When the last guest had passed through the 1964 World's Fair, the Disney attractions were hands down some of the highlights of the whole affair. They were already pretty much paid for by the pavilions that had commissioned them and were already popular with guests, so it was natural that Walt would want to incorporate them into Disneyland. Three of the four attractions were installed whole while just the Audio-Animatronic dinosaurs from the Ford Pavilion made their way into part of the Disneyland Railroad. Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln found its way to Main Street USA (although it was a duplicate attraction, the original was believed to have been lost when the Illinois pavilion was completely demolished; turns out, the original figure was actually carefully packed up, delivered to California, strangely forgotten and discovered years later in storage), it's a small world took over Fantasyland and the Carousel of Progress landed in Tomorrowland. All four of them can still be seen today.

Image courtesy insidethemagic.net

Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln ran at Disneyland until 1972 before undergoing its first rewrite. The new show that opened in the space, The Walt Disney Story, actually didn't include the figure of Lincoln for the first three years. He was reinstated as part of the show in 1975, after thousands of guests asked where he went. And that's has been his status since then. Eventually a new gets written that leaves old Abe out and eventually he has to be written back in because people love and miss him. You can see him as part of the current show, The Disneyland Story Presenting Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. His technological aspects have been updated over the years making him still just as cool to watch as when he first stood up to illuminate guests over fifty years ago. Oh, and Walt did finally get that tribute to the Presidents he wanted, he just didn't live long enough to see it happen. You can see it at the Hall of Presidents in Liberty Square at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World (now with forty-five moving figures!).

June 14 - Evelyn and Claude Coats

Image courtesy disneybooks.blogspot.com

On this day, in 1910, Evelyn Henry was born in Edmonton, Ontario, Canada. When she was three, the family moved to Southern California, first to San Diego and then to Los Angeles. Evelyn studied art at Los Angeles High School and became a master at silk screening. In 1932, she was hired over at the Walt Disney Studio in the Ink and Paint Department as an inker, tracing the animators' pencil drawings onto cels. One of her first projects was the Silly Symphony The Three Little Pigs. Evelyn continued working on the Symphonies, contributing to the Academy Award winning The Old Mill for instance, while occasionally branching out into other series, like Mickey's first color short, The Band Concert.  

Image courtesy disneybooks.blogspot.com

During production on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Evelyn was promoted to head of Ink and Paint. She was specifically in charge of supervising the late night and weekend shifts all the women had to work if the studio was ever going to be finished in time for the  film's release date. At one point there was a brief break in the grueling schedule and Evelyn used it to marry one of the studio's background artists, Claude Coats. Following Snow White, she continued supervising the work that started up on the next animated feature, Pinocchio. 

Image copyright Disney

In 1939, she decided to retire from Disney to focus on raising a family. She turned the Ink and Paint Department over to her friend, Grace Bailey, and walked away for forever. Or so she thought. When the Great Animator's Strike came along in 1941, the studio was desperate for people to keep things moving along. They called Evelyn asking her if she could return to ink some cels for old times sake. She said sure and crossed the picket lines for several months (she later said she did not support the strikers in any way), helping to keep production on Dumbo rolling along. When the strike ended, she returned to her home in Burbank, at that point finished with her professional career.

Her husband, Claude, on the other hand, continued on to bigger and better things. Born on January 17, 1913 in San Francisco, California, he lived most of his childhood in Los Angeles as well, eventually graduating from Polytechnic High School. He went to the University of Southern California as an architecture student but changed majors and graduated with a degree in art, specifically drawing. He went on to study water color painting at the Chouinard Art Institute and became a member of the California Water Color Society. This led to an interview at the Walt Disney Studio and, in 1935, Claude began an apprenticeship as a background artist.

Image courtesy pinterest.com

Claude started out doing backgrounds for Mickey Mouse shorts such as Mickey's  Fire Brigade and Pluto's Judgement Day but it was his work for the Silly Symphony series that really got him noticed. His distinctive, richly layered backgrounds on films like The Old Mill and Ferdinand the Bull helped push both of them into the winner's circle at the Academy Awards. (It also brought him in contact with a fetching young woman in the Ink and Paint department.) These accolades convinced Walt to hand pick Claude to create the backgrounds for the studio's first feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Over the course of his career, he would paint backgrounds for 15 features, ending with Lady and the Tramp, and influence the look of several more. But his contributions wouldn't end there.

Image courtesy wdwforgrownups.com

In 1955, Walt once again hand picked Claude to join WED Enterprises, what would eventually come to be called Walt Disney Imagineering, as an art director and show designer. Along with the Legendary Mary Blair, he was responsible for crafting the look of three of the four attractions Disney built for the 1964 World's Fair: Carousel of Progress, Ford Magic Skyway and it's a small world. Following the fair, Claude served as a designer for such classic attractions as Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, World of Motion and Horizons. When he retired in November 1989, there was an attraction of his design in Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom, EPCOT Center and Tokyo Disneyland, every Disney park that existed except the newly opened Disney MGM Studios. For all of his spectacular work on the screen and in the parks, Claude was declared an official Disney Legend in 1991. You've also seen his name outside the Haunted Mansion on a tombstone that reads "At Peaceful Rest Lies Brother Claude – planted here beneath this sod."

Claude passed away on January 9, 1992 at the Coats' home in Burbank, California. He was just eight days shy of his 79th birthday. Evelyn remained there, spending her time volunteering at the Braille Institute, Goodwill and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She passed away on July 13, 2009. She was 99.

May 28 - it's a small world

Image courtesy popsugar.com

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

image courtesy abcnews.go.com

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

Image courtesy tokyodisneyresort.jp

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

Image courtesy pinterest.com

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

Image courtesy yelp.com

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

Image copyright Disney

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

April 30 - The 1939 New York World's Fair

Image courtesy ny.eater.com

On this day, in 1939, the New York World’s Fair opened for business. Disney’s involvement in the 1964 World’s Fair is Fair-ly well known. The development of Audio-Animatronics, the four attractions the company built (all of them still existing in some form today) and the birth of Imagineers are all much lauded stories from the company’s lore and for good reason. But 1964 wasn’t the first time Walt created content specifically for Fair goers. That happened twenty-five years earlier at the real New York World’s Fair.

Image courtesy hyperallergic.com

You heard that right. Technically, there has only ever been one World’s Fair in Queens and it took place during 1939/40. The 1964 Fair may have been better attended, represented more countries and been immortalized in the Men in Black franchise, but it was never officially sanctioned. And, yes, there is an international governing body that decides what is, and what is not, allowed to be called a World’s Fair (or Expo as it’s generally known as now). The Bureau International des Expositions, in existence since the 1790s, has all kinds of rules about this sort of thing, the chief one being how often a World’s Fair can be held (it’s been every five years for decades now). Seattle held one in 1962. Montreal would host the next sanctioned on in 1967. New York knew it was too soon to have one in 1964, but did anyways and illegally billed itself as one.  True, it’s not a legality that anyone is going to care about (except Montreal, which had the biggest, most successful official World’s Fair of the 20^th century and was still smaller in almost every way than the second New York one) but technically, 1964 never happened.

Image courtesy youtube.com

Anyways, by 1964, Walt and his crew were well seasoned Fair exhibitors. The Walt Disney Studio didn’t have as big a presence at the 1939 Fair, participating in only one pavilion, but it also wasn’t as big a company. The studio was contracted by Nabisco to create an exclusive Mickey Mouse short that would be viewed in their pavilion during the festivities. The resulting film, Mickey’s Surprise Party, was the first instance of a Disney produced public commercial. In the original film, Mickey and Minnie refer to Nabisco products during the story, most notably Milk Bone Dog Biscuits (which are now made by the J.M. Smucker Company). At the end of the short, we learn that Mickey’s favorite cookie is apparently a Nabisco Fig Newton (not the round, black and white Nabisco Oreo you might expect, although those are on hand as well). There is a later version of the short that was released on home video in the Eighties where all Nabisco references were overdubbed with new lines by Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor, but it’s fairly easy to find the original. Especially since Mickey’s Surprise Party is one of the few Disney cartoons that’s in the public domain, due to the fact that Nabisco owned it, not Disney.

Image courtesy

One of the features of the 1939 New York World’s Fair was that every day the fair was open was given a different theme. The buttons and programs highlighting each theme have become quite collectable over the years. On August 14, 1939, the Nabisco Pavilion sponsored Donald Duck Day. On that day, instead of showing Mickey’s Surprise Party, the pavilion screened the latest Donald short, Donald’s Penguin, released to theaters just a few days earlier. There was also a parade featuring a three foot tall Donald statue and Donald giveaways at the pavilion throughout the day.

Image courtesy enacademic.com

A final Disney related Fair fact concerns the time capsule that the Westinghouse Corporation put together. A seven foot long, 800 pound container was filled with Life magazines, a Gillette razor, thousands of pages of text on microfilm and an Ingersoll Mickey Mouse watch, first sold at the Chicago World’s Fair just six years earlier. Not only was the 1939 World’s Fair the first time the term time capsule was used, it might also impose the longest time period anyone will ever have to wait to open one. It’s still buried 50 feet down in Flushing Meadows, with a stone marker guarding the spot, waiting to be opened on the 5,000^th anniversary of the Fair. That’s right, if you want to get your hands on an original Mickey watch, all you have to do is be there when they open the time capsule in April of 6939.

February 11 - Blaine Gibson

Image copyright Disney

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.

Image copyright Disney

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.

Image copyright Disney

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.

Image copyright Disney

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.

February 6 - Marty Sklar

Image courtesy Walt Disney Imagineering

On this day, in 1934, Martin Adrian Sklar was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The son of a teacher and a Johnson and Johnson employee, he moved with his parents to Long Beach, California when he was twelve. After graduating from high school, Marty began attending the University of California, Los Angeles and working various odd jobs including ice cream scooper and USPS package deliverer. In his junior year, he became editor in chief of UCLA's student newspaper, The Daily Bruin. As that school year was winding down in May 1955, his phone rang with a message that he should call Card Walker, the head of Disney's publicity department, for an interview. Marty returned that call and began an incredible journey.

Disneyland was set to open in just a few weeks when Card hired Marty to produce The Disneyland News, a weekly newspaper all about the goings on at the new park. It took Card twenty minutes to decide Marty was the right guy for the job, but he still had to pass one more test: a presentation outlining his vision for the paper to Walt himself. Marty recalled being one of the most nervous 21-year-olds to ever exist, but whatever he said, it only took Walt ten minutes to approve. Walt was so impressed with Marty's work on the paper that, after graduating from UCLA in the spring of 1956, Marty was hired on full time to write marketing brochures for Disneyland.

Marty quickly became a close aide to Walt, writing many of the things that Walt would say in speeches or in print. He seemed to have a feel for how his boss would want to word things more than anyone else in the company. In the early Sixties, Walt brought Marty into WED Enterprises (now known as Walt Disney Imagineering) specifically to work on the Ford Pavilion for the 1964 World's Fair (he would write the script for Walt's narration of the Magic Skyway ride). He then went on to help develop The Enchanted Tiki Room and It's a Small World. He was instrumental in helping convince the Florida legislature that it would be a good idea to sign off on the Florida Project, first with a 20 minute film about the history of the company that piqued their interest and then a 25 minute film detailing Walt's plans for EPCOT, the Utopian city of the future, that sealed the deal.

When Walt died in December 1966, Marty admitted that it affected him more than when his father died. Not because he loved his father less, but because he'd spent a decade at that point getting inside Walt's head and virtually becoming him. Even though, as Marty later described it, it was obvious that Walt was dying, the company had failed to prepare a statement about his passing. Everyone seemed to turn to Marty, who honored his boss and friend, not for the first time and certainly not for the last, with a loving tribute that Roy O. Disney hastily signed and released.

Over the next several decades, Marty became increasingly important to Walt Disney Imagineering. As a touchstone to the past, he never said what Walt would or would not have liked or done, but everyone agrees that when Marty gave an opinion, it felt like it came straight from the founder. He helped shepherd the creation of Walt Disney World and, in 1974, became the Vice President of Concepts and Planning. At that point, he spent his days guiding the development of Epcot, turning it from a city in a bubble into a theme park showcasing technology and world cultures.

As the pages of the calendar turned, Marty moved up to Executive Vice President and then President of Imagineering. He supervised the construction of every Disney theme park from Tokyo Disneyland in the early Eighties to Hong Kong Disneyland in the early Aughts. In 2006, as he passed his 72nd birthday, he stepped down from his position as President to embark on an entirely new role: the first International Ambassador for Walt Disney Imagineering. For the next three years, Marty travelled the globe, giving seminars, recruiting new talent and representing the company at galas and openings. On June 17, 2009, the 54th anniversary of Disneyland, Marty Sklar, the keeper of the keys for over 53 years, retired. On that same day, he was honored with a window on Main Street USA in Disneyland that reads "Main Street College of Arts and Sciences - Martin A. Sklar, Dean - Inspiring the Dreamers and Doers of Tomorrow." He's also been honored with a window in Disneyland Paris that reads "Main Street Gazette - Since 1867 - We Print the News Before It Happens - Martin Sklar, Editor-in-Chief - Tony Baxter, Managing Editor." And he had been an obvious choice for the Disney Legend award in 2003.

Marty may have retired in 2009, but like so many of the old timers, he never really left. He frequently appeared in panel discussions at D23 (the official Disney fan club) events. He was also present for the opening day of Shanghai Disneyland in June 2016, making him the only cast member to be there in person for the opening of all twelve Disney theme parks in existence. A little over a year later, on July 27, 2017, Marty would quietly pass away at his home in Hollywood Hills, California. He was 83.

January 28 - Ralph Kent

On this day, in 1939, Ralph Kwiatkowski was born in Buffalo, New York. He would later change his last name to Kent because then, according to him, people would at least be able to pronounce it. As a child, Ralph fell in love with all things Disney the moment he saw Pinocchio. He wrote to Walt once and asked him for a job. Walt even wrote back, explaining that he didn’t have any positions open for an eight year old but if Ralph kept studying and working on his drawing skills, something might open up in the future.

So Ralph followed Walt’s advice, eventually graduating from the Allbright Art School in Buffalo in 1960. He then enlisted in the Army and worked on training films, illustrating the aids that went with them. After an honorable discharge two years later, he headed straight for Southern California to see if anything had opened up. To his delight, something had and, in 1963, Ralph became a marketing production artist for Disneyland.

Image copyright Disney

One of Ralph’s first big projects was to design the training materials for all four of the Disney built attractions that took the 1964 World’s Fair by storm. Over the next several years, he created promotional pieces for new attractions like the Enchanted Tiki Room and the Jungle Cruise. He also designed merchandise like souvenier books for Pirates of the Caribbean and a Christmas ornament for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. One of his proudest pieces, and something that has become quite a collector’s item, is a Mickey Mouse watch he worked up that Walt gave out to the company’s top executives in 1965.

In 1971, Ralph moved to Florida and began working his magic for all things Walt Disney World. He would eventually become the director of Walt Disney Imagineering East. One of the biggest influences he had on Disney characters, especially the core group known as the Fab Five, was his tirelessness in making sure they were always drawn the same way. Ralph was also in charge of developing the characters signatures. For a long time, he was one of only a handful of people authorized to sign for Mickey Mouse. Obviously that group has expanded quite a bit since the beginning, but the emphasis on consistency stems from him.

Image courtesy Etsy.com

Along the way, Ralph gained the nickname “The Keeper of the Mouse.” When it came to the Big Cheese, he was fiercely protective of his image. Even though Mickey started out as a prankster and, frankly, a mischievous pain in the butt, over the years he evolved into the saint-like character he is today. Ralph took preserving the shine of Mickey’s halo very seriously. He was highly selective of the kinds of merchandise the Mouse could appear on. Neckties, t-shirts and hats were great. Shot glasses and bras were definitely not. And as long as Ralph was around, that’s how it would be. Which is why we can almost pinpoint when Ralph was no longer in charge of those decisions. It was the moment Mickey shot glasses and underwear began to be available for sale.

Ralph first ended his career with Disney in 1985. Outside of the company, he still freelanced as a designer. Two of his most notable characters are the mascots for the Buffalo Bills, Billy Buffalo, and the Florida Marlins, Billy the Marlin. He couldn’t stay away from his first love forever though. In 1990, he returned to Disney as an artist trainer, eventually becoming a corporate trainer with the Disney Design Group. For his final retirement in 2004, Ralph was named an official Disney Legend and given his own window above Casey's on Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom. He would pass away on September 17, 2007 in his Kissimmee, Florida home after battling esophageal cancer. He was 68.

October 21 - Mary Blair

On this day, in 1911, artist Mary Browne Robinson was born in McAlester, Oklahoma. Her family had moved to Morgan Hill, California by the early Twenties. She had already graduated from San Jose State University when she received a scholarship to the Chouinard Art Institute. Mary graduated from Chouinard in 1933 and soon married another artist, and future Disney employee, Lee Blair. Her dream was to have a career in the fine arts but the Great Depression had other plans for her. To make ends meet, she ended up taking a job at MGM, in a medium she felt was beneath her: animation.

Mary continued to paint, and try to sell her work, whenever she could. Both Mary and her husband were devoted to watercolors. Even though her work at this time was saturated with color, few if any fans of her later work would recognize them as "Mary Blairs". Her paintings during the Thirties were probably influenced by the economic turmoil around her as they tend to be dark and moody.

By 1940, Lee, who had worked for several studios around Hollywood, had migrated to the Walt Disney Studio and Mary would join him there in April of that year. Her initial time with the studio would prove to be incredibly frustrating for her. She had plenty of work to do, making sketches and concept drawings for a variety of projects, but every film she worked on had already been pretty much conceived and she didn't have any room to let her imagination run wild. She also had to work under various other veteran company artists, so her work never looked like it was actually hers. To top it all off, one of the biggest projects she worked on was a "Baby Ballet" segment for a second version of Fantasia that never ended up being produced. Pretty disgruntled, she would resign her position by June of 1941. Lee, however, stayed on with the company, a decision that turn out to be spectacular for his wife.

In 1941, Walt was to embark on a three month goodwill tour of South America at the behest of the United States Government. He decided to bring a bunch of staff along to see if he couldn't pull some projects out of the trip. Lee Blair was one of the artists Walt chose to bring, mainly because he wanted to know if Lee's wife would also come along. During the time Mary had been with the studio, even though she felt stifled the whole time, Walt had fallen in love with her work. He was excited to see what she could do in South America. So, in August 1941, just two months after resigning, Mary was rehired.

South America would turn out to be the most important development in Mary's career. She experienced a literal color explosion in her work. She also began using charcoals, tempera and gouache in addition to her usual watercolors. As she layered color upon color, she found her true artistic voice and began producing the kind of work most of her fans enjoy and love. One of those fans was her boss, Walt. He was crazy about the pictures she was producing on the tour and gave Mary what she wanted from the beginning: her own artistic license at the beginning of a project, letting her create true concept art.

Mary was highly influential on the development of the two films that came directly out of the South America trip. Both Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros benefited from her color combinations and vibrancy. Walt was so delighted, he assigned her to work on many of the films throughout the late Forties and early Fifties. Mary's designs for Song of the South, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan made each of those films richer and more beautiful than they ever would have been without her.

By 1953, Mary was ready for a change and once again left the Disney Studio. She would now spend her time raising a family, having two sons, and she became a freelance illustrator and artist. Her best know work from this period would be the Little Golden Books she illustrated, but she also designed ad campaigns for companies like Nabisco and Maxwell House and created sets for Radio City Music Hall.

In the early Sixties, Walt began ramping up several projects for the 1964 World's Fair. One of them was for Pepsi and UNICEF and he knew just who he wanted to design it. Mary was enticed to work for Disney once again, designing It's a Small World. The song that stays stuck in your head for days might be a Sherman Brothers classic, but the look of the attraction is pure Mary. It's a Small World was so successful, that Walt would have it moved to Disneyland when the fair ended. It became such a beloved part of Disneyland, that versions of it would pop up in Florida, Tokyo, Paris and Hong Kong. The sun never sets on Mary's endearing little children dancing in their fanciful settings.

Mary would continue to do occasional work for the Walt Disney Company, mostly in the form of murals. In 1967, she created two murals in Tomorrowland at Disneyland, both of which have unfortunately been covered over. In 1971, she put a 90 foot high mural in the Grand Canyon Concourse of the Contemporary Resort of Walt Disney World. This one can still be seen today. Mary also created a series of Disney note cards for Hallmark.

Mary had lived in Washington and Long Island before returning to Soquel, California in the later part of the Seventies. On July 26, 1978, she passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage. Her legacy, though, lives on. In 1991, Mary was made an official Disney Legend. In 1996, she was awarded the Winsor McCay Award. And on October 21, 2011, Google created a doodle in honor of her 100th birthday.

Also on this day, in American history: First Transatlantic Voice Transmission