Gredo, St. Cloud, Minnesota

Gardner Games Co. of Chicago was indeed a Disney licensee for those six years. The 20,000 Leagues game from 1955 had a list price of $1. The Treasure Island game listed at $3. Other Disney games Gardner produced include a basketball game, a beanbag bucket game, a Casey Jr. game, and a Davy Crockett Adventure …

Avi, Irvine, California

Composer Richard Sherman consulted with the filmmakers.

Lexi, Seattle, Washington

Discovery Bay, announced in 1976 for Disneyland, is a project I would like to have seen. The project, planned for Frontierland where Big Thunder Ranch is now located was described: “Having as its roots a ‘San Francisco of the 1850s-1880s,’ the theme area would bring to life a time and place that climaxed an age …

Keith, Port Orchard, Washington

Yes, those two attractions both had the same narrator: Paul Frees. Walt Disney had some voice actors whom he especially liked, so he tended to pick them when he had a project that could use their talents.

Avi, Irvine, California

I did rescue a collection of the toy soldiers from the film in searching through a studio-building attic more than 40 years ago. The Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum included Tommy Sands/Tom Piper’s wedding costume and Annette Funicello/Mary Contrary’s red velvet cape. The other items …

Louis, Rego Park, New York

Walt Disney was well along in planning Walt Disney World when the New York World’s Fair closed in the fall of 1965, so he would have had no interest in building a theme park in New York. Besides, he insisted that sites for Disney parks have weather conditions that supported year-round operation. The two-year fair …

Randy, Lithia Springs, Georgia

John Grant in his authoritative Encyclopedia of Walt Disney’s Animated Characters, refers to him as a “rogue cat.” According to Grant, this differs from his earliest appearances in the Alice Comedies before his look was changed, where he was “most probably a tail-less rat or oversized mouse.”

Ken, Bernardsville, New Jersey

When the Donald Duck character costume was introduced at Disneyland in 1968, it did indeed have soft rubber feet. The harder, molded shoe (I would not call them galoshes), with tennis shoes worn inside, was added several years later, though I have been unable to pinpoint the exact year.

Avi, Irvine, California

While X. Atencio did not consider himself a songwriter, Walt Disney was very pleased with the lighthearted lyrics he came up with for Pirates of the Caribbean. When work was progressing on the Haunted Mansion, X. felt that a simple song would lighten up the mood in that attraction also. So, he wrote the lyrics …

Nick, Fresh Meadows, New York

The show was created for the 1964 New York World’s Fair, then moved to Disneyland after the fair closed in 1965. It ran at Disneyland from 1967 to 1973, when it was moved to Walt Disney World, opening there in 1975. With slight changes, upgrades, and maintenance, essentially those are the same Audio-Animatronics characters running …