Gene Simmons, bass guitarist for the heavy metal rock group KISS, loved “When You Wish Upon a Star” ever since he saw Pinocchio as a child, and he recorded the Academy Award®-winning Disney anthem on his 1978 album Gene Simmons. So Gene and the rest of KISS were right at home at a Pinocchio party …
See more
After the world lost Walt Disney in 1966, his older brother and business partner Roy O. Disney made it his mission to bring to fruition Walt’s final dream, the “Florida Project.” Five years later, Roy and Mickey Mouse dedicated Walt Disney World® Resort on October 25, 1971 with the words: “WALT DISNEY WORLD is a …
See more
When the Submarine Voyage attraction was added to Disneyland Park, the Imagineer-designed submarines were constructed at the Todd Shipyards in San Pedro, California. The subs—each one 52 feet long—made the voyage to Walt Disney’s original Magic Kingdom in Anaheim via the Southern California freeways and side streets in April 1959, so they would be ready …
See more
Truckloads of sand transformed the Disney Studio parking lot in Burbank into a stretch of Acapulco beach for live-action scenes in The Three Caballeros (1944). A wall keeps out the intrusive sight of Riverside Drive beyond, while on the far left a Donald Duck cutout stands by to help the bathing beauties imagine acting with …
See more
Walt Disney encouraged recreation among his artists in his custom designed Studio, which opened in Burbank in 1940. As this 1946 photo attests, the Studio could in those days accommodate a large putting green beyond the full-size baseball field next to the commissary.
See more
During the filming of Mary Poppins (1964) in 1963, songwriters Richard and Robert Sherman pay a visit to Sound Stage 2 on the Burbank Studio lot to pose with stars Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, thumbing it on the Cherry Tree Lane set. According to the Sherman brothers, this is the most reproduced photo …
See more
The Disney Studios’ iconic Animation Building was “cast” as mythical Medfield College in more than one Disney film, including The Strongest Man in the World (1975) in which Disney Legend Kurt Russell—playing Dexter Riley—tried to boss around Bossy. Kurt’s frequent sidekick, Michael McGreevey, holds the door for the long-awaited moment when that cow finally steps …
See more
In November 1965, Walt Disney confers with artist Marc Davis and sculptor Blaine Gibson, two of the Imagineering geniuses behind the then in-development Disneyland Park attraction Pirates of the Caribbean, which opened on March 18, 1967.
See more
Ronald Reagan, Bob Cummings, and Art Linkletter prepare to host the live Dateline Disneyland TV special over the ABC network on the Opening Day of Disneyland Park, July 17, 1955. The famous trio—with Mr. Reagan now referred to as President Reagan—would re-unite once again for the celebration of Disneyland’s 35th Anniversary in 1990.
See more
Disney Legend Ward Kimball animates the charro rooster Panchito for The Three Caballeros (1945), which contains the artist’s favorite sequence of all the animation he produced: the title song sequence featuring Donald Duck, José Carioca, and Panchito himself. “I still look on it as one of the good, big things I did because I broke …
See more
