Mouse Clubhouse interviews

Walt Disney considered Marc Davis, one of his core animation team of “nine old men”!  Not only an animator, Marc designed many  characters such as Cruella De Vil and Tinker Bell, before moving on to WED, now known as Walt Disney Imagineering, where he designed many of the scenes for classic Disneyland attractions such as it’s a small world, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise.

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4:46 After 101 Dalmatians, Marc was working on a concept for a film on Chanticleer, and in a strange meeting was told he couldn’t do that; After Chanticleer Walt asked Marc to work for WED and he started on the Mine Train attraction; Marc added some humor; He placed a fox shaking his head left and right next to a fox nodding his head up and down so they were looking at each other; Marc didn’t like the seat placement in the trains, feeling that people were looking at each other in the attraction rather that at the scenes, it was more important for people to see what was ahead, not what was behind you; Created a scene in the Mine Train which would be an earthquake, rocking the cars, but after some earthquakes he realized it would just scare people, the job wasn’t to scare people, but to entertain people

13:32 Adding humor to the Jungle Cruise including the elephant pool, the African veldt, later added the safari camp that the gorillas took over; Marc designed the trapped safari chased up the pole by the rhino because Walt wanted Marc to do things for the attractions that could be seen by the Disneyland Railroad, the safari was so good Walt wanted it in the ride; Walt was going to see a new elephant scene in the Jungle Cruise, a scene which didn’t work well for long; Tommy Walker was in charge of entertainment at the park and dressed in an elegant suit and played a practical joke on Walt in the elephant scene – Marc never saw Walt laugh like that

18:35 When Alice met Walt Disney at the Tam O’Shanter restaurant, and he told her he was going to hire her; The first job Alice did for Disney was making the costume live action costume for Briar Rose reference for Sleeping Beauty, she later worked on Toby Tyler, and then she was asked by request of Mary Blair to do the costumes for it’s a small world; designed the scenes for the attraction and met with the United Nations

23:28 Walt did not want a storyline in the Haunted Mansion; some artists were working on a storyline about a bride who was stood up at her wedding, but Walt didn’t want that; the appearance of Haunted Mansion exterior and Walt’s decision to keep “everything on the outside of these buildings should look neat and clean.” Bringing humor into Disneyland, and the trapped safari in the Jungle Cruise.

26:03 Marc Davis learned that Walt Disney wanted to do a Pirates of the Caribbean walk-through attraction; Alice Davis talks about creating the costumes for Pirates of the Caribbean; How realistic to be with pirates, and that the truth is that most died of venereal disease than in battles in bawdy houses. No characters were caricatures of Walt Disney, the staff or anybody except one who was a janitor.

34:20 Talking about the last show Marc worked on, America Sings

Tim Conway is not only a Hollywood Legend, but a comic genius. His work ranges from starring in the classic television series’ “McHale’s Navy,” and “The Carol Burnett Show” to playing the voice of Barnacle Boy on the animated series “Spongebob Squarepants.” He also appeared in a number of Disney films including, “The World’s Greatest Athlete,” “The Apple Dumpling Gang,” “The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again,” “Gus,” and “The Shaggy D.A.”

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9:02 The Carol Burnett Show; Carol didn’t believe in incorporating political or religious humor so it always had wide appeal; Harvey Korman; Tim was a writer on the show and then performed something other than what he wrote

10:56 Working for Disney, starting with “The World’s Greatest Athlete,” and “The Shaggy D.A.”; Working on the Disney backlot; Getting pies in the face

13:20 Tim talks about Don Knotts and some of his comedy heroes; The Steve Allen show; Tim describes himself and reflects on his career

I’m so excited to share this interview with you, despite it’s poor quality. A 1997 conversation with the amazing Marc Davis, one of Walt Disney’s “nine old men”! Walt was so fond of Marc, whose work includes everything from designing characters such as Cruella De Vil and Tinker Bell to designing story and character concepts for such Disneyland attractions as it’s a small world, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise, Marc was a major part of Walt Disney’s success.

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3:11 Marc taught life drawing at Chouinard Art Institute for 17 years; Alice Davis was one of Marc’s students in the class and started going out together

4:33 Started working for Disney on December 2, 1935, due to his knowledge of animals and anatomy; Began working as an assistant animator for Grim Natwick on the character of Snow White in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; With his knowledge of animals and anatomy, Marc became part of the story team on Bambi; Moved from studio on Hyperion to a studio on Seward St. in Hollywood; Marc was part of the first creative group to move to the new Burbank Disney Studios; Walt was so intrigued with Marc’s drawings of the Bambi character that Walt said he wants Marc to animate; Story director Perce Pearce would say “Man is in the Forest” to indicate that Walt was coming down the hall

8:47 Marc remembers Walt Disney, “What a tremendous man he was”

10:53 As a treat for the assistant animator, Marc got to animate on Snow White, the scene with Dopey dancing on top of Sneezy

11:46 On Bambi, Marc worked on the design of the characters, Bambi, Thumper and Flower, animated a lot on the film as well; Marc did a photographic study of human babies and put those expressions into young Bambi

12:49 Walt Disney had relied on his foreign revenues from the worldwide distribution of his films, probably more than any other studio, and during World War II, he suddenly was not able to access his money, from England in particular. Walt was asked by the United States government to do films that would help the war effort and Marc worked on some of those and those films helped Disney survive the wartime; Marc worked Alexander P. de Seversky’s Victory Through Air Power, for Disney, despite being overlooked on screen credit; Marc ran in to Seversky at the New York World’s Fair that Disney had attractions in

17:42 Due to the war, Disney could not do full-length feature films so they did short subjects that they would tie together; Cinderella was the first full-length animated feature Disney did after the war; Marc animated the first sequence on Song of the South and also worked on story on it; Disney wasn’t capable of doing a full-length animated film which is why the film was live-action with only some animation; Marc and Alice attended the 30th anniversary of Song of the South After the war Marc worked on some of the films such as Sleeping Beauty and 101 Dalmatians; Walt like that Marc could do anything – Alice tells a story of when Walt called Marc a genius

23:52 Marc designed Tinker Bell and animated the close-up scenes with her; Peter Pan was written as a stage play, not a book, and in it, Tinker Bell was only a spot of light so Marc had to develop the character, and some people complained about his version

Jim Adams and Don Payne entertained thousands of guests at Disneyland and toured the country for Disney in the 1970s.

Together and individually Jim and Don were involved in performing, writing and directing many of Disneyland’s events such as “The Baby Animal Show” at Carnation Plaza Gardens, the “Fun with Music” show at the Fantasyland Theater, “The Great Annual Easter Walking Race” and much more. Jim and Don both also starred in Disneyland’s historic “Golden Horseshoe Revue,” alternating with Disney Legend Wally Boag. (See more photos and audio index below)

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2:56 Jim’s start in entertainment at Disneyland; Began in the Christmas parade; Meeting Wally Boag for the first time; Wally enlisted Jim to perform in the Disneyland Drama Workshop including “Chicken Ranching for Fun and Profit” and “Tail of the West”; Intended for internal performances, “Chicken Ranching” was eventually seen by the public; Jim started performing in the “Golden Horseshoe Revue”

11:10 Jim toured the country promoting Disneyland and Disney’s latest film releases; Did television and radio shows, live shows at malls and hospital visits

13:06 Remembering Disney Legend Fulton Burley; Fulton was always entertaining people, both on and off stage; Fulton even entertained in the bathroom!; Working with Fulton in the “Golden Horseshoe Revue”

23:16 Don’s start at Disneyland; Began in the Christmas Parade, with his first performance on December 15, 1966, the day Walt Disney died; Don remembers snow at Disneyland that night; Don joins the character department and then becomes a performer in the “Golden Horseshoe Revue”

28:34 Jim begins performing the Mountain Man character as the “Golden Horseshoe Revue” pre-show, and Don takes over the Mountain Man pre-show when Jim was in the main show

Kathleen Mitts Micalizzi was the 1993 Disneyland Ambassador to the World. (More photos and audio index below)

Kathleen in the 1993 Tournament of Roses parade

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1:38 How Kathleen came to appear in the Space Mountain safety video

2:49 Kathleen got her start at Disneyland performing in parades and shows including the Main Street Electrical Parade, Party Gras, Main Street Hop and Fantasmic!

5:07 After three attempts, Kathleen was finally chosen as Disneyland Ambassador to the World for 1993. Everything immediately changed for Kathleen as soon as she was selected; A funny memory of her first day as Ambassador

7:32 A lot of traveling was involved, representing Disney throughout the United States; About the Mickey’s Toontown promotional tour, and making television and radio appearances as well as hospital visits for sick children

9:03 The opening of Mickey’s Toontown, dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony

9:34 Traveling to Tokyo Disneyland for their 10th anniversary with all Disney Ambassadors, and visiting Paris

11:46 Appearing in the Hollywood Christmas Parade and the Tournament of Roses; Receiving gifts as Ambassador

15:53 Summing up her Ambassador year

From trumpet playing in the 1958 Christmas parade at Disneyland, Ron Logan climbed the ladder to become the executive vice president, executive producer of Walt Disney Entertainment, responsible for all the live entertainment in the entire company.

(Audio index and more photos below)

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6:45 About the Disneyland entertainment department when it was headed by Tommy Walker who was the son of Vesey Walker who headed the Disneyland Band; The start of the Disneyland Band; About Tommy Walker; There were no rules at the time; The entertainment industry was a bawdy industry but brought into a family atmosphere;

10:10 Shows and parades back when Ron started; The entertainment was very professional; Entertainers were not even allowed to wear glasses, rings, watches, and jewelry; Ron demanded top quality entertainment; Ron did not like band members wearing sunglasses, but the union stepped in; Ron demanded quality in the entertainment

12:56 Meeting Walt Disney three times, Walt was very friendly to people and interested in people; A story about Roy Disney when the band decided to “have some fun”; Ron worked for talent booker Sonny Anderson, putting bands for together for various parades and events and was responsible for them

15:58 Ron went from music up the ladder to executive vice president of Walt Disney Entertainment Worldwide; His responsibilities as music director; What being the director of entertainment for Disneyland entailed

19:55 About Disneyland director of entertainment, Bob Jani; Bob discovering Ron during a rehearsal of a fanfare group led to Ron becoming music director in Walt Disney World

22:50 His role as executive vice president of Walt Disney Entertainment Worldwide, responsible for all entertainment in The Walt Disney Company; The day Ron Logan inherited the Mighty Ducks as part of the job; Inherited the Angels the same way; Also responsible for Asia, South America, Europe; The opening of Epcot; Bob Jani did a lot of planning for the grand opening of Epcot, but then Ron inherited that to make sure everything ran properly; Bob came up with the concepts

32:12 Disney was so unique there really wasn’t competition; Bob Jani made Dennis Despie the vice president of entertainment for Disneyland, and Ron was made the director; When Dennis left, Ron took over the job; Becoming Disneyland director of entertainment; Creative side vs. operational side; Training in Japan for Tokyo Disneyland; Big challenges for Euro Disneyland

43:32 Ron’s favorite projects

Gary has been a photographer for Disney since 1967, photographing all of Disney’s theme parks here and abroad, including the grand opening of Walt Disney World and the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Euro Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland and the Disney Cruise Line and events such as many of Disney’s movie premieres including Lion King in London and New York, Pocahontas in Central Park, two Pirates of the Caribbean movies at Disneyland,  Cars at the Charlotte Speedway, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

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1:13 Gary’s start in photography and working for Disney; Getting hired by Walt Disney Imagineering; He quit and then became freelance

3:04 Photographed the opening of Walt Disney World; His photos were used for multimedia shows, slide presentations and much internal use; shooting Disneyland photos

6:49 Hired by Disneyland and Walt Disney Imagineering and some of his other work such as the L.A. Times, Los Angeles magazine and airplane magazines; He photographed an Evil Kneivel jump for Rolling Stone magazine

8:41 Many countries and cities around the world that Gary visited for Disney, including Morocco for presentations regarding the Moroccan pavilion in Epcot, and photographing the opening of Disneyland Paris and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Hong Kong Disneyland and much more

10:11 Gary photographed many movie premieres, including Beauty and the Beast in London or the Pirates of the Caribbean movie at Disneyland; takes hundreds of pictures per event

12:19 Moving into the digital age; Some of Gary’s techniques

17:50 How he was given various assignments, and he would choose the composition, such as for postcards

20:35 Gary’s hands became Abraham Lincoln’s for “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln”

22:49 Waiting for just the right moment for a photo, such as lining up the monorail and submarines

Actor Gary Dubin began his acting career at the age of six, and went on to appear in numerous movies and television series, including a recurring role as Punky Lazaar in “The Partridge Family,” and voicing the character of kitten Toulouse in the 1970 Disney animated feature “The Aristocats” (More photos below)

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:56 How Gary got started in acting at the age of six; Some of the films he appeared in, including his recurring role as Punky Lazaar in “The Partridge Family”

3:47 Auditioning for The Aristocats in 1969 at the age of 10; Being on the Disney lot; Preparing for and recording the songs

5:43 Spending time in studio schools as a child actor

6:15 Getting recognized for his work

Jack Gladish started his Disney career as a precision camera machinist, working on classic animated films, and he later became an engineer working on attractions for Disneyland and Disney’s exhibits at the 1964 New York World’s Fair and eventually for the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. Some of the projects Jack was involved with throughout the years include Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, the Carousel of Progress, Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, the Jungle Cruise, Adventure Thru Inner Space and much more.

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