On this day in 1961, audiences first got a glimpse into Toyland, that “dear little girl and boy land,” with the release of Babes in Toyland, Disney’s first live-action musical fantasy. The film starred Annette Funicello as Mary Contrary and Tommy Sands as her sweetheart, Tom Piper. As the two are about to be married, the evil villain Barnaby has the brainless idea to kidnap Tom and marry Mary himself, knowing that she is to inherit a large sum of money when she weds. Barnaby is played by Ray Bolger, best-known as the scarecrow who wants a brain in The Wizard of Oz. The all-star cast also includes Ed Wynn, Henry Calvin, Gene Sheldon, Tommy Kirk, Kevin Corcoran, Mary McCarty, and Ann Jillian. Dancer/Choreographer Rikki Lugo began her Disney career in the 1950s as a dancer at Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe Revue and later was a featured dancer in Babes in Toyland. She has fond memories of working with both Annette Funicello and Ed Wynn on Babes in Toyland. “Annette and I used to have lunch at the commissary and we would be really good and have our little salad and hard-boiled egg. We were eating with everybody, and we’d always leave just a little bit early. We’d go, grab a Hershey bar, run to the bathroom and eat it. And the most wonderful man in the world was Ed Wynn. I adored that man, he was so sweet. When we were on Babes in Toyland, it was the Friday before Easter and he had a box of See’s candy for every female. Every female that had anything to do with that movie got a box of candy from him, and he gave it to them personally and said, ‘Happy Easter!'”