Max's Directing Academy

What would Sunset Boulevard be without a tribute to Sunset Boulevard?

While that particular avenue in Disney's Hollywood Studios was directly inspired by the iconic Tinsel Town street of the same name, a second floor window above the Sunset Beverly Shops pays subtle homage to the classic 1950 Paramount film Sunset Boulevard.

Max's Classic Directing Academy employs the latest movie techniques. Its motto: "Are you ready for your close-up?"

The movie Sunset Boulevard was a showcase for Gloria Swanson, portraying a faded silent movie queen who becomes infatuated with a down-0n-his-luck screenwriter played by William Holden. While the name of Swanson's character, Norma Desmond, has found a place in pop culture vernacular, the name of Desmond's butler, Max von Mayerling, is not nearly as well known. According to the story, Max, played by Erich von Stroheim, was in fact a movie director, having worked with Desmond at the height of her silent-era stardom. The casting was significant in that Stroheim was similarly a director of silent movies and had worked with Swanson on a number of films during the 1920s.

The motto on the window refers to Swanson's famous line at the end of Sunset Boulevard, "All right, Mr DeMille, I'm ready for my close up."

A clip from Sunset Boulevard appears in the montage at the end of The Great Movie Ride, in which Swanson, when talking of silent films, tells co-star Holden, "We didn't need dialog, we had faces."

Freeze Frame! - Peet's Ice

Susie the Little Blue Coupe was largely the creation of Disney Legend and veteran story man Bill Peet. Peet worked extensively on the studios animated features and was responsible for conceptualizing and writing both 101 Dalmatians and The Sword in the Stone. He would retire from Disney into a very successful second career as an author and artist of children's books.

A homage to Peet in the Susie short takes the form of an ice struck that the little car follows through traffic.

Images © Walt Disney Company

Walt and the Wirthman Building

It appears I fell victim to one of the more persistent errors in Disney history when doing my research for the recent post on the geography of Walt Disney's life in Kansas City. Michael Barrier shared kind words for my efforts on his site, but pointed out that Disney likely never occupied space in the Wirthman Building. What is especially embarrassing is that my primary source for the article was Michael's own The Animated Man. As I specifically cited that book in the post, I do want to apologize for possibly misrepresenting its content in regard to the information I related concerning the Wirthman Building.

Also, for clarification, I'd like to post Michael's own comments from his site on why there is confusion over the the Wirthman Building location:

Laugh-O-gram did not move from the McConahy Building into "new quarters above the Isis Theater on the second floor of the Wirthman Building." As Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising confirmed, it moved instead into Kaycee Studios' old space above Peiser's. In 1924, after Walt Disney left for Hollywood, Harman, Ising, and Maxwell rented space in the Wirthman Building to make an "Arabian Nights" cartoon, but Disney never worked in that building. I know of only one piece of evidence to the contrary: "M. Mouse a Local Boy," an article published in the Kansas City Star on February 13, 1942, on the occasion of Disney's brief visit to Kansas City when he was returning from a wartime visit to Washington. The article says: "After attending the Kansas City Art Institute, Walt had a studio on Thirty-first street near Forest [the Laugh-O-gram studio], and later shared low-rent studio locations on Troost near Thirty-fourth and Thirty-first Streets." The first of those two "locations" on Troost was probably the one at 3239 Troost, above Peiser's; the other reference is probably to the Wirthman Building. The article also says that Disney was introduced to "Mrs. Joseph C. Wirthman, widow of the owner of the Wirthman building, in which Disney had his first [sic] studio." It's at least conceivable that Disney briefly occupied space in the Wirthman Building in 1921, when he and Fred Harman were in business as "Kaycee Studios," but I think it much more likely that someone, most likely Mrs. Wirthman, misremembered the "Arabian Nights" studio as an operation in which Disney was involved, and that Walt was too polite to correct the error.

I guess there is a certain romance to the notion that Walt rented space in the Wirthman Building. The presence of the Isis Theater and its connection to Carl Stalling certainly makes Walt's potential tenancy there an attractive supposition, as does a later vintage photograph that shows the Isis marquee advertising a Mickey Mouse cartoon. Similarly, a photograph that appears in the book Walt in Wonderland shows Walt Disney and staff promoting the Laugh-O-Grams films in a neighborhood parade with a sign that reads, "THESE PICTURES will be shown at the ISIS THEATRE Tomorrow Night."

Snapshot! - What Could Be Better?

This particular Snapshot! is dedicated to George, Andrew, Ray, Ryan, Glenn and the many others individuals who blog passionately and regularly about the many wonders of Walt Disney World.

But this post reflects more than anything the dedication of one of my very best friends in Disney enthusiasm, Jessica, from If We Can Dream It . . . For she was the one who risked her own personal well being on the side of a very busy road to capture this sequence of pictures that communicates the notion that there is a place for some of us beyond our digital cameras and computer keyboards.

Something tells me that Blogfest 2008 might possibly be located at Pleasure Island . . .

On the Porch at 3028 Bellefontaine Street

Yesterday's post on Walt Disney's early life in Kansas City inspired Diane Miller Disney to share a memory of her father and his family when they lived at 3028 Bellefontaine Street. Diane wrote via the post's comment section:

"We have a bit of wonderful film, shot by my dad, of the entire Disney family on what appears to be the screened porch of that home on Bellefontaine. He pans around the room, and we see little Dorothy Disney with her parents, Flora perched on the arm of Elias' chair, laughing and talking animatedly . . . "

"When I saw this film, not too many years ago, I understood why my dad always said 'My mother was a beautiful woman.'"

Long Ago Magic Along 31st Street in Kansas City

A short time back, 2719 Hyperion reader Steve Pierson shared with me photographs he had taken on a recent visit to Kansas City, Missouri. Walt Disney lived in that Midwestern city during his youth, and it was there as a young man he established his first animation studio. Steve sought out some of the landmarks associated with this period of early Disney history, seeking to identify places such as Walt's childhood home and the locations of the early Laugh-O-Grams Studios. Steve then very generously gave me permission to use the pictures in a post detailing the Kansas City of Walt Disney's formative years.

What began as the simple task of putting together a post showcasing Steve's efforts, quickly grew into a geographical and historical research vignette encompassing vintage photos, satellite imagery and resources such as The Animated Man by Michael Barrier and Walt in Wonderland by Russell Merritt and J. B. Kaufman. Having never been to Kansas City, I wanted to be able to better understand Walt's time there in a geographical context. I was also curious to discover just how much of Walt Disney's Kansas City had survived into the 21st century.

Michael Barrier visited Kansas City a few years back and noted, "Walt Disney's old neighborhood is so badly blighted—and so radically different from what he knew—that making that imaginative leap back to 1922 is, I'm afraid, very difficult." Barrier's observation is sadly very accurate. But despite the urban decay of the area, vestiges of Walt's life there do remain. And out of one of those vestiges, a project of both historical commemoration and neighborhood renewal may hopefully be realized some time in the near future.

Walt Disney arrived with his family in Kansas City in the spring of 1911. Their first residence was a rented house at 2706 East 31st Street, in a neighborhood a few miles southeast of downtown. For the next twelve years, the very significant events of Walt's life would transpire within a twenty-block stretch of that particular boulevard.

31st Street would form the southern border of Kansas City Star delivery route that Elias Disney would purchase that following summer. The area of route stretched north to 27th Street and was bordered on the west by Prospect Avenue and on the east by Indiana Avenue. Walt, his brother Roy, and Elias would deliver morning and Sunday newspapers to over seven hundred customers. In September of 1911, Walt enrolled at the nearby Benton Grammer School. He was required to repeat the second grade despite having completed that level while still living in Marceline. Eleven years later, he would audition students from that school for roles in Tommy Tucker's Tooth, an educational film commissioned by a local dentist. Benton student Jack Records, then eleven years old, won the part of Jimmie Jones. The school closed in 2002 and subsequently became the DA Holmes Apartments.

Two blocks away from the Benton Grammer School, Walt and a childhood friend set up a pop stand at the corner 31st and Montgall during the summer of 1912. According to the friend, "It ran about three weeks and we drank up all the profits."

No trace remains of the Disney family's original Kansas City residence on 31st Street. In the fall of 1914, Elias Disney purchased a small house a few blocks east at 3028 Bellefontaine Street just off 31st Street. That home would remain in the Disney family until 1921, when Walt's oldest brother Herbert moved his family to Portland, Oregon. Elias and Flora Disney followed their son west a few months later. The house on Bellefontaine remains to this day, as does the garage that Elias Disney built sometime in 1920. It was in this garage that Walt produced the Newman Laugh-O-Grams and later Little Red Riding Hood, the first independent Laugh-O-Gram cartoon.

When the house and garage at Bellefontaine became unavailable, Walt took to renting rooms and set up studios in a few different locations in an area surrounding the intersection of 31st Street and Troost Avenue, about 20 blocks west of his childhood neighborhood. A now somewhat iconic design that graced an envelope shows the 3028 Bellefontaine address scratched out and replaced with a handwritten "3241 Troost," undoubtedly the first of those locations.

In early 1920, Walt took a job with the Kansas City Slide Company that was located at 1015 Central Street. The job paid forty dollars a week. Later that year, that company moved to a location on Charlotte Street and became the Kansas City Film Ad Company. The building on Central Street still survives in the heart of downtown Kansas City. 2249-51 Charlotte Street has since become the location of the Truman Medical Center and Children's Mercy Hospital.

In May of 1922, Walt incorporated Laugh-O-Grams Films and set up the new studio on the upper floor of the McConahy Building located at 1127 East 31st Street. The McConahy Building survives still, and has become the focus of a grass roots restoration and urban renewal effort, the details of which can be found at the website Thank You Walt Disney. Walt often took his meals at the Forest Inn Cafe on the first floor of the building, the restaurants owners frequently extending him much needed credit. It was at this location that Walt and his staff produced the Laugh-O-Grams series as well as Tommy Tuckers Tooth and the "Song-O-Reel" Martha, a live action sing-along. The Studio was just beginning production of the first Alice comedy, Alice's Wonderland in June of 1923, when a lack of rent money forced them from the building.


Some sources assert that the studio moved to the nearby Wirthman Building at the corner of 31st Street and Troost. That building was also home to the large and elaborate Isis Theater, whose resident organist was Carl Stalling. Stalling's musical talents would be employed notably and famously by Warner Brothers in Hollywood some years later. But according to Michael Barrier in The Animated Man, it is likely that Walt returned to one of his former locations at 3239 Troost Avenue. It would have been there that the studio wrapped up production on Alice's Wonderland, and Walt Disney and Laugh-O-Grams Films essentially went broke. Shortly thereafter, Walt headed for Hollywood, while former colleagues Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Max Maxwell launched their own studio within the walls of the Wirthman Building. Arabian Nights Cartoons would purchase and employ many of the assets and equipment of the former Laugh-O-Grams studio.

The Wirthman Building and the Isis Theater went on to experience tragedy and adversity over the next five decades. The theater survived fires in 1928, 1939 and 1954. In March of 1970, the Isis became the center of racial unrest and rioting, and closed permanently shortly thereafter. Other tenants continued to occupy the Wirthman Building but it was ultimately demolished in 1997. A mural by Kansas City artist Alexander Austin was unveiled on the wall of an adjacent building in 2006, celebrating the history of Troost Avenue. Images of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse are depicted on the design.

Caxanga!

"Down in Brazil there's a sing-song game they play,
When you hear this tune it haunts you night and day.
Just play it once and I'm sure that you will find,
This quaint melody will linger in your mind."

Buried within the depths of Disney historical obscurity is a hidden gem known as Caxanga. It is one of my very favorite Disney cartoons. But among the likes of The Band Concert, In the Bag, Who Killed Cock Robin or the many others that occupy the very subjective halls of Jeff Pepper-determined fame, Caxanga has one very unique distinction. It was a production that was never completed, and hence, has never graced a movie screen.

Alternately called A Brazilian Symphony, Caxanga was one of many concepts that emerged from the early 1941 Latin American junket by Disney Studio personnel that ultimately gave birth to Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros and a number other similarly themed film sequences and cartoon shorts. The creative roots for Caxanga were documented in the film South of the Border with Disney, released in 1942.

South of the Border with Disney was a thirty minute film released in late 1942, that collected footage Walt Disney, artist Lee Blair and production assistant Larry Lanburgh took with 16mm cameras on that 1941 research trip-goodwill tour of Latin American countries. It predated the releases of any and all efforts it would ultimately inspire, primarily Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros. The matchbox game, like other concepts showcased in the film, were then just ideas and notions of the potential entertainment to come.

Footage from the film shows production supervisor Norm Ferguson, story man Bill Cottrell, technical director Jack Cutting and artist Mary Blair demonstrating the matchbox game. An off-screen narrator explains--

"And here's an old Brazilian game called Caxanga. They say the Indians played it centuries ago. It was played with shells originally, but today they use matchboxes. The object is to go through this passing routine without missing. Here again, rhythm plays an important part. First you sing the verse, then hum it, then play to the tempo in silence."

The next scene shows an artist drawing a number of story sketches, suggesting a future cartoon or sequence of Donald Duck playing the game.

Attempts were made to incorporate caxanga into ideas that were being considered. At various points of development, the game had been in story plans for "Aquarela Do Brasil," a sequence ultimately completed for Saludos Amigos; "Carnival Carioca," a unrealized vignette that followed Jose Carioca and Donald Duck visiting the carnival in Rio; and an early concept for "Blame It on the Samba" that was to have featured Carmen Miranda. Storyboards for the proposed sequence featured Jose and Donald visiting Miranda during a nightclub performance of the title song. The two then reminisce of an earlier visit to Rio on the Night of San Juan, where Donald had become infatuated with a Miranda-styled lady parrot. She, Donald and Jose had then played the matchbox game for a few moments. "Blame It on the Samba" later evolved into a segment in Melody Time, in a more abbreviated and distinctly different form, due mainly to the unavailability of Miranda caused by contractual difficulties.
The game later became the centerpiece of two separate proposed cartoon shorts. The first borrowed elements from the aforementioned "Blame It on the Samba." It featured Donald and Jose out for a night on the town in Rio. Donald falls for a cute duck, this time a caricature of Aurora Miranda, who would be showcased in The Three Caballeros. Donald and Jose play a game of caxanga with the stakes being a date with Aurora.

The second concept progressed to the beginnings of pencil animation with some recorded music and dialog. In 1995, a reconstruction of the short was included on the laser disc set Exclusive Archive Collection Three Caballeros-Saludos Amigos. Despite its non-animated, rough draft nature, it is in many ways a wonder, and an entertaining indication of "what might have been." As I said, it is one of my favorite Disney cartoons, despite its unfinished status.

The short opens with Donald Duck, Jose Carioca and interestingly enough, Goofy, seated around a table on a rooftop patio, playing the matchbox game. The setting is Rio as reflected by the view from the nearby balcony; it was no doubt based on a similar panorama of Sugarloaf Mountain enjoyed by Disney artists while staying in Rio de Janeiro. The details of a photo featuring Lee and Mary Blair that appeared in the book The Art and Flair of Mary Blair, bear a clear resemblance to the crude but still distinct scenery and location depicted in the Caxanga storyboard sketches.

Donald is quickly exasperated by both a clever gag involving on-screen subtitles and the furious pace of the tabletop game. The short then quickly transitions more into a clear musical vignette as Donald carries the melody of the aforementioned catchy tune with him into sleep and dreams. As Donald lies in his bed, water faucets, a clock, window shutters, a chandelier and even the lights of the city all begin to sound off in tempo to the melody. The storyboard sketches exhibit a pulsing, wacky dreamscape not far removed from the Pink Elephants sequence in Dumbo, but reflecting visual styles successfully executed in both Saludos Amigos and Three Caballeros. Sheep of the counting nature transform into matchboxes; Donald's bed becomes one with the game; oversize matchboxes morph into versions of Donald, Jose and Goofy who then substitute Donald for the matchbox in play. In on especially creative sequence, Donald precariously scampers across the tips of igniting matchsticks. Upon attempting to balance on the final one, his form goes into silhouette and then morphs into a crowing rooster, announcing the dawn and a hopeful respite from both the music and its inspired torment.

It's interesting to speculate as to where the creative process might have ultimately taken Caxanga. Based on the reconstruction, its clever and entertaining conceptualizations certainly had the potential to make it a vibrant, imaginative addition to Disney's Latin American canon.

Images and Video © Walt Disney Company

Souvenirs: The Return of a Classic

On my last few visits to Walt Disney World, I have noticed the return of a particular souvenir, both classic and iconic. The Mickey ears balloon has been around since 1971 and its image has decorated everything from store bags to promotional graphics. But in my mind, its most famous incarnation was the balloon-within-balloon souvenir that was a Main Street staple throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. When I saw them rising again above the Magic Kingdom on a visit last fall, I was instantly and sentimentally transported back to 1973 and an image of my younger sister, then six years old, with a most precious item securely tied to her wrist.

Snapshot: Disneyland! - Squirreled Away

One of the more subtle design elements of Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland is this tribute in downspout to one of Briar Rose's smaller forest friends.

Photo taken by davelandweb.com

Lost Imagineering: Dick Tracy's Crimestoppers

Back in 1990, Michael Eisner and many other Disney execs were hoping that Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy would become a popular and potentially evergreen property. So much so, that even before the film's June release of that year, plans were already on the drawing board for attractions in both Disneyland and Disney-MGM Studios. Dick Tracy's Crimestoppers looked to be an elaborate extension of the gangster scene from The Great Movie Ride, coupling audio-animatronics with interactive elements (ala tommy guns in ride vehicles).

The film was only a moderate success and the concept soon faded back into the blue sky from whence it came, another casualty of the curse of the Disney Decade.

The film did have a presence in both Disneyland and Walt Disney World that year in the form of the Dick Tracy Diamond Double Cross stage show.

New Music from the Walt Disney Records Archives

Walt Disney Records has been quietly re-releasing long unavailable material from its vast archives on iTunes over the past year or so, and happily, a number of new selections have hit the iTunes store today. The titles are:

Westward Ho the Wagons
Italiannette
Annette Sings Anka
Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House

And quite significantly, the original soundtrack from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

According to Walt Disney Records producer Randy Thornton--

"This is HOPEFULLY the beginning of a new line (only time will tell). Also, when you purchase this title, you can download a Digital Booklet with behind-the-scenes photos, and illustrations. I’ve written a brief “Producer’s Note” outlining the background of the project, and there is (the highlight for me) liner notes from my new friend, composer John Debney . . . It’s taken me over 10 years to get this released, and it was definitely worth the wait! Thanks very much for all your patience, enthusiasm and support for this great, classic stuff."

Thornton continues to be one of the true unsung heroes of Disney-related historical preservation. He has been tireless in his efforts to find and restore these vintage recordings and insure their availability to what is undeniably a very small audience of enthusiasts. Thornton is well known to Disney music fans as the person who produces the Official Disneyland and Walt Disney World music collections; he was notably responsible for the amazing and near-definitive Musical History of Disneyland collection, released during the park's recent 50th Anniversary celebration.

In addition, five albums that were previously available at the Disneyland/Walt Disney World Wonderland music-on-demand kiosks have been added to the archive releases available on iTunes. Those titles are:

Meet Me Down On Main Street
A Musical Tour of France with Maurice Chevalier
Songs from Lady and the Tramp
The Disney Afternoon
Country Bear Jamboree

One special note about today's releases--a number of readers have contacted me recently concerning the song "The Ballad of John Colter." Fess Parker performed the song in Westward Ho the Wagons and it is available on the collection released today. It is also included on the archive release Fess Parker - Cowboy and Indian Songs, also available on iTunes.

Special thanks to Greg Ehrbar for communicating this information via both the Magical Music of the Mouse and his own Mouse Tracks web site.

Adventurers Almanac: Missive from the Mailroom

Since posting the initial two entries in our Tales from the Adventurers Almanac series, I've had a number of readers inquire as to how one went about receiving this fun and interesting newsletter. I'll leave the explanation to Correspondence Committee member Bernice Smythe-Fenton. This appeared in Adventurers Almanac Volume No. 56, Issue No. 8:

Greetings and Salutations, fellow Members!

I cannot tell you how rewarding it is to be able to personally correspond with you clever, creative, and daring Adventurers from all over the globe. Over the past several months, we have received many fabulous updates on your expeditions. I encourage you to keep up the good work! It is your communiques back here to the Club that keep the Permanent Members, and those of us who don't get out much, abreast of the latest news. I very much enjoy my challenging and exciting task of trying to keep up with all of you. It is to that end that I feel it would be prudent to remind you of Membership Policy #7-29565.32 which explains how the Adventurers Almanac is distributed.

According to the Policy, at the point in time you go through the New Member Induction Ceremony (held twice nightly in the Main Salon), you shall receive a current copy of the Adventurers Almanac, if it is available. Your membership is valid for ONE YEAR, and you will be sent any additional issues of the Almanac printed in that one year time period. (I must confide that we have a very random publishing schedule due to the fact that Prof. Wren speculates on ink futures).

Once that one year time period has passed, however, you must renew your Membership. This, of course, entails participating in the New Member Induction Ceremony, paying your annual dues, and once again filling out a mailing address card for the Records Committee. If there is anyone out there within the sound of my typewriter whose Membership is delinquent, or if your membership is about to expire, please take this notice as a gentle reminder to come in to the Club so we may keep you on our membership rolls.

Yours in Postage,

Bernice Smythe-Fenton
Correspondence Committee

Hollywood Polo at Hollywood Studios

The 1936 short Mickey's Polo Team was inspired by Walt Disney's involvement in the sport during the 1930s. The sharp-eyed visitor to Disney's Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World can find a homage to Walt's love of the game and the Mickey Mouse cartoon that grew out of that enthusiasm.

The store Mouse About the Town, located on Sunset Boulevard, features an assortment of Walt Disney polo-related props and photos. Vintage black and white photographs of Walt in polo garb adorn one wall, while nearby are sketches of scenes from Mickey's Polo Team. A color photo from the cartoon sits amidst travel-themed items on a high shelf, while a helmet, mallets and riding crops hang decoratively above the store's main entrance.

According to Disney historian Wade Sampson, "Walt and Roy would play regularly with their employees on Wednesday mornings and Saturday afternoons. In addition, Walt and Roy joined the prestigious Riviera Club where such Hollywood luminaries as Spencer Tracy, Leslie Howard, Darryl Zanuck and others held court on the playing field. During this time, Spencer Tracy became a close friend of Walt's, and Tracy and his wife were often invited to Walt's home."

Check out Wade's terrific and very extensive article on Walt Disney and his participation in the Hollywood polo scene at MousePlanet.

Freeze Frame! - Mickey's Polo Team

While the 1936 short Mickey's Polo Team is best remembered for its many movie star caricatures, it also features a number of scenes that serve up a veritable who's who of Disney Studio cartoon characters from the mid 1930s. Most prominent are Mickey, Donald, Goofy and the Big Bad Wolf as the players for the Mickey Mousers team, who square off against the Movie Stars team comprised of screen comedians Charlie Chaplin, Harpo Marx and Laurel and Hardy.

But even more interesting are the numerous personalities that fill the grandstand:

1. Legs Sparrow, one of the three prime suspects from the Silly Symphony Who Killed Cock Robin.

2. Peter and Polly Penguin from the Silly Symphony Peculiar Penguins.

3. Three of the many miniature Mickey orphans that appeared in the shorts Orphans Benefit and Orphans Picnic. Because there are three, I identified them as such rather than as Morty and Ferdy who made their lone screen appearance in Mickey's Steamroller.

4. Cock Robin and a distinctly off-model incarnation of Jenny Wren from Who Killed Cock Robin. The Jenny Wren character was in fact a caricature of Mae West, though the resemblance is not apparent in this particular version.

5. The Wise Little Hen from the Silly Symphony of the same name. That short is best known for the debut of Donald Duck.

6. King Midas and Goldie from the Silly Symphony The Golden Touch.

7. The title character from the Silly Symphony The Flying Mouse, who is accompanied by his mother.

8. Ambrose and Dirty Bill from the Silly Symphony The Robber Kitten.

9. Pluto and his occasional girlfriend Fifi.

10. The Three Little Pigs surround famous child star Shirley Temple.

11. Two unnamed rabbits possibly derived from the Easter-themed Silly Symphony Funny Little Bunnies.

In separate scenes, Max Hare from The Tortoise and the Hare and Toby Tortoise Returns shares the screen with film star Edna May Oliver . . .

. . . while Clarabelle Cow swoons over ladies man Clark Gable.

Cheering the Movie Stars team in another area of the grandstand are a number of other notable Hollywood personalities of the era:

Clockwise from top left are Charles Laughton (from his title role in Henry VIII), Eddie Cantor, Greta Garbo, W. C. Fields and Harold Lloyd.

Snapshot! - A Slightly Sweeter Apple

The Wicked Queen's poison apple takes on a slightly sweeter nature in this spell book.

"juicy apple

gobs of butter

sack of sugar

pinch of mystery

cast spell

boil in cauldron"

The location is a window display at the Beverly Sunset Sweet Spells at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Souvenirs: Toontown Memories

Continuing our celebration today of the 15th Anniversary of Mickey's Toontown at Disneyland, here are a few fun souvenirs from that land's earliest days. Transportation is one of Toontown's key themes so a license plate is an especially appropriate souvenir.


The Toontown Trolley in many ways became the icon of the area, as demonstrated by its placement on these two different styles of buttons. In an interesting contrast, the smaller panel style button seemed to pay homage to Toontown's roots in Who Framed Roger Rabbit with its smiling sun and various animated objects, while the larger round button was a bit less looney and featured Gadget along with Chip 'n Dale in their Rescue Rangers incarnations.

Snapshot: Disneyland! - Celebrating Mickey'sToontown

Mickey's Toontown opened to Disneyland guests 15 years ago today on January 24, 1993. We're celebrating with a couple of fun Snapshots generously provided by our good friend Dave from davelandweb.

Here's an interesting bit of cartoon incongruity. Despite the nearby Gadget's Go Coaster which was inspired by the Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers television show, our two favorite chipmunks shed their bomber jacket and Hawaiian shirt trappings and returned to their "naked" roots at the Chip 'n Dale Tree House.

The chipmunks' hot-tempered nemesis lives nearby. While maps and guidebooks name the interactive playground/attraction as Donald's Boat, the carved figurehead at the prow gives hint to the boat's actual name: the Miss Daisy.

Photos taken by davelandweb.com

Adrian and Edith's Head to Toe

To most, its just the place in Disney's Hollywood Studio's to purchase Mouse Ears. But Adrian and Edith's Head to Toe, located on the right side of Hollywood Boulevard as you approach Sunset Boulevard, is in fact a clever homage to two very distinguished figures from Tinsel Town's golden age. The shop's tag line "Costumes to the Stars" and its interior props and decorations are the clues that lead to celebrated designers Edith Head and Adrian Adolph Greenberg.

It is rare that the names of costume designers live on in the way of stars and directors, but these two individuals have each achieved similar legendary status. Known simply as Adrian on most screen credits, Greenberg created costuming for over 250 films, working primarily for MGM during the 1930s. His most celebrated work was likely for The Wizard of Oz, which included Judy Garland's famous and iconic ruby slippers. Ironically, he was never nominated for an Academy Award.

Such was not the case for Edith Head, who earned 34 Oscar nominations over a career that spanned some five decades. Some of her more well known efforts include The Ten Commandments, Roman Holiday, Samson and Delilah and The Sting. She had just completed work on the Steve Martin comedy Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid prior to her death in 1981.

It is speculated that Head was also the inspiration behind the character Edna Mode in Pixar's The Incredibles.

Back From Walt Disney World!

Greetings all! We just returned from an extended weekend visit to Walt Disney World. I typically try to keep 2719 Hyperion updated while at Disney, but this trip unfortunately left me no time for blogging. Pretty substantial holiday weekend crowds, but a great time nonetheless. Stay tuned, posts should return to a normal schedule tomorrow.

It's the Greatest!

We mentioned in a post a few days ago how the original Mickey Mouse Club was a major part of 1950s popular culture, and this magazine ad from 1956 certainly bears that observation out. It was very important that the Mouseketeers at home identify with their television counterparts, and a genuine and OFFICIAL Mouseketeer Polo Shirt with its multiple alphabet card of iron-on letters could go a long way to making that happen.

Mother will think they're super, too, when she learns they're made of the finest two-ply combed mercerized "Durene Yarn" (White Only).

Retail Price (including the iron-on letters): $2.00.