April 5 - Moon Pilot

Image copyright Disney

On this day, in 1962, Walt Disney Pictures released Moon Pilot. Based on a 1960 novel by Robert Buckner, Starfire, Pilot is notable for being the studio’s first science fiction movie. The plot is the usual silliness that Disney movies exhibited in the Sixties (but without the tang of desperation they acquired in the Seventies). An Air Force pilot is going to be the first man to travel around the moon so he has to go into top secret stealth mode to keep the Russians from finding out. While being babysat by bumbling federal agents, he runs into a beautiful but mysterious woman, who turns out to be an alien. The end scene is them flying off to her home planet singing love songs to each other. It’s not as bad as that summary might make it sound (two thirds of viewers on Rotten Tomatoes liked it), just don’t expect something on the level of, say, Passengers. Especially since humans were still six years away from actually traveling around the moon.

Image copyright Disney

The cast was made up of a mix of Disney mainstays and newcomers. The titular Pilot, Captain Richard Talbot, was played by Tom Tryon who also played the title role for seventeen episodes in the Wonderful World of Disney series Texas John Slaughter. Brian Keith, who starred a year earlier in The Parent Trap (and would appear in several more Disney films later on), was Talbot’s Major General. Even Tommy Kirk had a small role. Perhaps the standout performer of the film, though, is the French actress Dany Saval, in her first credited role. As Lyrae, the alien, she elevates the film above what’s typical for a somewhat slapstick comedy. Sharp eyed viewers can also see Sally Field and Jo Anne Worley, both enjoying their screen debuts.

Speaking of that slapstick, the film actually created some bad mojo between Walt and the FBI. Originally, the inept agents guarding Captain Talbot were identified as being from that agency. The FBI complained that guarding astronauts wasn’t something they did, so the agents became thinly veiled as Federal Security Officers. Once Moon Pilot was released, the FBI further complained that the movie made them look like idiots (which, to be fair, it did).

September 6 - Jo Anne Worley

On this day, in 1937, Jo Anne Worley was born in Lowell, Indiana.

Jo Anne grew up as the dreaded middle child of not three but five children. From the moment she could speak, the young Hoosier was aware that her voice might be a little bit louder than, well, everyone around her. She once joked that she would only lip synch in church so she wouldn't overpower the rest of the congregation.

Throughout high school, Jo Anne easily won the title of school comedienne every year. She also put in hours working as a waitress at the local truck stop, which may have fueled some of her comedy. After graduating in 1955, she began an apprenticeship with the Pickwick Players in Blauvelt, New York. Her voice was heard and, once the ringing in everyone's ears stopped, she'd won a scholarship to Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas.

Texas was only big enough to hold her for two years though. Jo Anne moved on to the similarly sunny pastures of southern California, continuing to study her craft at Los Angeles City College and performing at the Pasadena Playhouse. She got what looked like a big break as part of a musical revue, Billy Barnes People, that was headed to Broadway. It did actually make it, but only for six shows. In 1964, Jo Anne got what looked like another big break, again on Broadway, as the stand by performer for Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! Unfortunately, she was the stand by for Carol Channing, who would rather die before ever missing a performance. So Jo Anne did what many almost stars did before her, she created her own nightclub act and settled down in Greenwich Village. Of course, that's when she actually got a big break.

One night a guy by the name of Merv Griffin caught her act. He loved it and booked her on his television show. The audience loved Jo Anne so much, she would appear on the Merv Griffin Show 40 more times. All this exposure led to a role in a new off-Broadway production called The Mad Show. Believe it or not, it was a musical based on MAD Magazine and had Stephen Sondheim as one of its lyricists. Jo Anne happily sang for the cast recording and put in several hundred performances, but she would soon return to television for the defining project of her career.

In early 1968, two funny guys, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, put together a new sketch comedy show for NBC. The perks of being the show's creators included getting to name it after themselves: Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Jo Anne was a part of the mayhem known as Laugh-In from the beginning. For the next couple of years, she reveled in the non stop fun of the often politically controversial show. Jo Anne could often be seen cracking up in take after take, trying to get a joke out. By 1970, she yearned to do other projects and belted her last yodel for Dan and Dick.

Jo Anne has spent her time since then doing whatever her heart desires. She was a regular on game show like Hollywood Squares and every version of Pyramid ever made. She did guest spots on every television show that had celebrity guests from The Love Boat to Murder, She Wrote. She appeared in regional theater in shows like Gypsy, Anything Goes and, for real this time, Hello, Dolly! She also started doing voice over work.

For Disney, Jo Anne's biggest role has been as the voice of Madame Armoire the Wardrobe in Beauty and the Beast. I know, the wardrobe gets a much fancier name in the Broadway show, but that's all she gets for the movie. Jo Anne reprised the role in Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World, Belle's Tales of Friendship and the Kingdom Hearts video games. She can also be heard in A Goofy Movie as Miss Maples. Fans of Kim Possible might recognize her voice as that of Bonnie Rockwaller's mother. She also did roles on The Wuzzles and DuckTales.

Jo Anne's voice isn't the only thing she's put to good use for Disney. The first role she ever had with the company was as Katrinka Muggelberg in 1976's The Shaggy D.A. Since then she's appeared in episodes of Wonderful World of Color, Boy Meets World, Wizards of Waverly Place and Jessie.

In recent years, Jo Anne has returned to her roots in the theater, playing Mrs. Tottendale in the Drowsy Chaperone and spending eight months as Madame Morrible in the LA version of Wicked. Currently, she spends her time as president of Actors and Others for Animals, an organization that works to spay and neuter the pets of southern California.