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Go ahead. Ask a Disneyana fan who Marc Davis was. Better yet: Find yourself a comfy chair, sit down, and THEN ask a Disneyana fan who Marc Davis was. Marc Davis shows Walt one of the Audio Animatronic figures that were built based on his designs for Disneyland's "Pirates of the Caribbean"...

They say that a man's home is his castle. Well, tonight, my castle is under siege. The wind field associated with Hurricane Sandy has already made its way up to New Hampshire, sending wind gusts of 50 - 55 MPH whistling through the trees. Which means that Nancy and I have already experienced a number...

If any baby boomers that you know seem a bit blue today ... Well, there's a reason. Robert B Sherman , the man who -- along with his brother Richard M Sherman -- basically wrote the soundtrack for their childhoods ... passed away yesterday. Robert Bernard Sherman (December 19, 1925 - March 5, 2012...

It wasn't always easy directly working for Walt Disney. Sometimes you found yourself dealing with some very weird assignments. "My brother and I were in our office one day when we got a phone call. 'Walt wants you down on Stage 4,' " Disney Legend Richard M Sherman recalled during...

"The Muppety Makeover of Disneyland that Almost Happened" Can you picture a Kermit -green version of the Matterhorn ? Or -- for that matter -- Miss Piggy standing in for that winkin' Cleopatra that you see as you float through " it's a small world " ? Or Animal filling in...

It's the joke that senior members of Mouse House management have never found to be all that funny. That it now costs so much to vacation at the WDW Resort they should probably change the name of the place to Wallet Disney World. (L to R) Larry Silverstein, president and CEO of Silverstein Properties;...

Veteran Disneyland visitors always have the same sort of reaction when they finally get the chance to visit Hong Kong Disneyland . As in: This theme park is exactly the same ... only different. Photo by Florence Doyle By that I mean: This theme park's entrance plaza -- with its Mickey-surfing-atop...

When Ridley Pearson first wrote that scene for " Disney After Dark " where the Kingdom Keepers kids are looking for clues inside of WDW 's version of " it's a small world " and then get attacked by the dolls, he thought that there was just no way that Mouse House managers...

There's kind of a perception out there that - once the holiday season wraps up in Southern California - that the Disneyland Resort isn't much as fun to visit as it used to be back in October , November and December. Which is kind of understandable. Right now, anyway. Given that Disney California...

When it comes to making changes at Disneyland , it's always been something of a delicate balancing act. The Walt Disney Company - because it wants this theme park to remain relevant - is always pushing for new stuff to be added to the place. So that Guests will then be compelled to return to "The...

Back in the late 1950s, when Corky Wilds was working for Mitchell Camera Corporation , he'd make the trek from his home in North Hollywood out to Glendale. "This was before the highway got built. So the only way to get to Mitchell Camera's offices in Glendale was to drive up Riverside Drive...

There have been lots of looky-loos lately over that Fantasyland Forest construction fence. Which has resulted in an equally large number of theories floating around online about what's currently going on with this $300 million project. Take - for example - all that soil that's been piled up towards...

"This is the latest thing we've done ... Audio-Animatronics," Walt (Disney) said. "We are using the new types of valves and controls developed for rockets. That way we can get extremely subtle motions." "About that word," I said, "Audio-Animatronics." "It's...

MonkFan wrote in to say: I really enjoyed that “ TRON attraction that Disneyland almost got ” you wrote earlier this month. So I was wondering if you have any more stories about rides & attractions that almost got built at the Parks that you could share. Maybe something about my favorite part of...

During the 11 years she spent at The Walt Disney Company, Cynthia Harriss worked on an amazing array of projects. She helped grow The Disney Store chain from just 140 stores in North America to over 400. She also guided the Disneyland Resort through its $1.4 billion transformation, when this Southern...

"There can be only one ..." And -- no -- I'm not channeling for the Highlander here. I'm talking about the real budgetary challenge that many consumers are facing this holiday season. Where -- instead of heaving multiple presents at friends & family as they have in years past -- they can now afford...

Danni T writes in to say: You've been posting an awful lot of Disney World stories lately. Isn't it time that you wrote something about Disneyland again? Maybe do another one of those stories where you talk about rides, shows or attractions that never got built? Ask and ye shall receive. The history...

Having already put together Imagineering Field Guides for the Magic Kingdom , Epcot and Animal Kingdom , Alex Wright has taken a break from writing about the Walt Disney World Resort (Reportedly because the folks at Disney Editions want WDW Guests to get used to calling the park-formerly-known-as-MGM...

It's as predictable as the tides. First a new attraction soft-opens at one of the Disney theme parks. And then someone online declares this new ride or show is " ... the worst thing that Imagineering has ever designed." Which is why -- on the heels of "Spaceship Earth" 's torturous test-and-adjust period...

For Disney's Animal Kingdom fans ... It's one of those bad news / good news kind of day. The bad news is ... Plans for DAK's long-in-development nighttime parade -- "Rivers of Lights" -- have been tabled. Not because Animal Kingdom management lost confidence in Steve Davison's original concept. But ...