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SuperGrover22 wrote in yesterday with a Why For question: Copyright Ballantine Books. All rights reserved I just finished reading your review of Brian Jay Jones ' " Jim Henson: The Biography ." Can you please explain why Michael Eisner seemed so eager to get his hands on the Sesame Street...

If you're looking for someone to thank for two of Walt Disney's greatest triumphs -- Disneyland Park and " Mary Poppins " -- take a moment right now to think about the late Diane Disney Miller . Miller -- who passed away earlier today following complications from a fall -- played a...

So when Jim Henson finally signed the Muppets over to The Walt Disney Company, where exactly did the deal go down? New York City? London? LA? Nope. According to Brian Jay Jones , the author of " Jim Henson: The Biography " ( Ballantine Books , September 2013), this fateful meeting actually...

So it was Walt who dreamed up the Disney Company. And it was his older brother Roy O. who repeatedly found the funds necessary to turn Walt's dreams into reality. And it was Michael Eisner who took Disney when it was dead last in Hollywood (Out of the eight studios in town that were making movies...

Last month when I was out at the D23 EXPO , longtime Imagineer Doug Hartwell was nice enough to give me a brief tour of the "Journey into Imagineering pavilion. Doug Hartwell and Jim Hill stand in front of the Disney Springs model. Photo by Nancy Stadler As part of that tour, we stopped in front...

So it's been a week now since the first big on-property beta test of MyMagic+ was held, where Guests staying at four different WDW resorts were given the opportunity to personalize their vacation experiences. Of course, when these people elected to be part of the MyMagic+ beta test, I don't think...

Since sinkholes are back in the news again in Central Florida , Hungry Howie was inspired to drop me a line earlier today to ask about the sinkhole that almost swallowed EPCOT Center back during the construction of that theme park: For years now, I've been hearing stories about EPCOT's sinkhole...

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray." This oft-quoted line from Robert Burns ' 1785 poem applies to an awful lot of aspects of modern day life. But none more so than the work that's recently been done in & around WDW 's Magic Kingdom Park . Take -- for example...

So what does it actually take for D23 to pull together those Fanniversary events that they've been presenting around the country for the past few weeks? According to Jeffrey Epstein, spokesman for the Official Disney Fan Club, it takes a solid six months of behind-the-scenes effort to produce each...

When " The Wizard of Oz " held its Hollywood premiere back on August 15, 1939 at Grauman's Chinese Theater ... Copyright Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved ... MGM really went all out. They took the courtyard of this famous movie palace and transformed into a miniature...

You've heard about Fast Pass Plus , right? Well, this Saturday morning, the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood will be home to Peter Pan Plus. Which will (in theory, anyway) be able to give all you J.M. Barrie fans out there a new appreciation for the many & varied ways that The Walt Disney Company...

So have you been following this whole Disney / Barneys Electric Holiday controversy ? If not, let me do a quick recap: Back in August, when Barneys New York first released some concept art for the special holiday windows that Disney artists & animators would be creating for this luxury retailer's...

Over the past week or so, I've gotten a number of e-mails from JHM readers about this year's Attractions Expo . People wanting to know more about what it was like to wander the floor of the Orange County Convention Center after the International Association of Amusement Park & Attractions...

So when exactly did Bob Iger let George Lucas now that he was interested in acquiring Lucasfilm Ltd. ? It wasn't " ... a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." But -- rather -- last May in Orlando, when both Iger & Lucas were at Disney's Hollywood Studios to take part in an elaborate...

Last Monday afternoon, I was at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum and overheard a pretty funny exchange between two of the docents who'd been assigned to work the " D23 presents Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives " exhibit. Photo by Alice Hill It seems that one of these...

Okay. I know. It's not considered cool or kosher to peek at your Christmas presents. Especially six months ahead of time. But half the fun of attending a PR event like yesterday's Disney Consumer Products' Holiday Showcase in New York City is that you get a preview of what will be showing...

I got a note from Diana D. a few weeks back. It turns out that her husband has become a fan of those "Unofficial Guide's Disney Dish" podcasts that Len Testa and I have been recording for iTunes. And since her husband was now addicted to behind-the-scenes stories about The Walt Disney World...

It's been a while since JHM last did a story about the various domain names that The Walt Disney Company has registered. Me personally, I always love the research phase for pieces like this because they then allow me to peek over the horizon. See what the Mouse possibly has planned for the future...

There are those who talk about the big planetary alignment that's supposed to occur at the end of 2012 and what that then means for the fate of mankind. But me? I'd prefer to talk about the planetary alignment that just happened this past weekend at Carnegie Hall . Seriously. Someone must have...

In response of yesterday's "Looking back / looking ahead at Marvel Entertainment's merger with The Walt Disney Company" story , She Hulk wrote in to say: In this article, both Jay Rasulo and Jeph Leob use the term "bandwidth" while discussing what Marvel used to be able to...