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  • Blog Post: "Be Our Guest" features an unvarnished take on Disney Company history

    I have to admit that It's been kind of amusing to watch the reaction (both here and elsewhere around the Web) that Tuesday's "What's really behind the sudden change in Disney Parks & Resorts' facial hair policy" story has been getting. With all sorts of would-be Disney scholars...
  • Blog Post: "Walt and the Promise of Progress City" covers an awful lot of Disney-related real estate

    "You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen ..." Well, if you're a Disney history buff, then you must already know about Walt's land searches of the early 1950s. As Disney tried to find just the right spot in Southern California for his family fun park . Likewise if you're...
  • Blog Post: Why For does Howard Stark look like Walt Disney in “Iron Man 2” ?

    IronManFan236 sent in a question that was short & sweet: Did Marvel Studios deliberately make Howard Stark look like Walt in “ Iron Man 2 ” as a tribute / tip-of-the-hat to the Disney acquisition deal? Iron Man 2, the Movie: Copyright 2010 MVL Film Finance LLC. Iron Man, the character: TM & Copyright...
  • Blog Post: D23 fine-tunes its selection of special events for 2010

    D23 is still a few weeks out from its really-for-real birthday (Just for the record, The Walt Disney Company launched its Official Community for Disney Fans back on March 10, 2009). But given that D23 just revealed that it will be holding first anniversary parties at Disneyland and WDW’s Magic Kingdom...
  • Blog Post: Blaine Gibson remembers Harriet Burns, the First Lady of Imagineering

    Last year, after Disney Legend Harriet Burns passed away, Pam Burns-Clair decided to put together a book about her mother. Mind you, what Ms. Burns-Clair had in mind wasn't a traditional biography. But -- rather -- a gathering of memories. Which is why -- in partnership with noted Disney historian Don...
  • Blog Post: Toon Tuesday: How to have a rockin' good time on Mickey Mouse’s birthday

    So where will you wind up spending MM’s b-day? It’s tomorrow, you know. November 18 th . That’s the date that The Walt Disney Company officially acknowledges as being this iconic character’s “ birthday ” (i.e. the day that “ Steamboat Willie ” – the first Mickey Mouse cartoon with synchronized sound...
  • Blog Post: "the boys: the sherman brothers' story" spotlights two complicated men who wrote deceptively simple songs

    You already know this story, right? Richard M. & Robert B. Sherman , the house composers for Walt Disney Studios while Walt was still alive. Academy Award winners for their work on “ Mary Poppins ,” Dick & Bob (aka “the boys”) had a gift for producing eminently hummable tunes. As is demonstrated...
  • Blog Post: Toon Tuesday : A tribute to Ollie Johnston

    Last Tuesday night, I traveled down to one of the cities I most dislike in all of Southern California: I went to Hollywood . Good ol’ Tinsel Town, with its sidewalk hucksters wearing eBay costumes of Bugs Bunny and SpongeBob , with its endless food courts and faux-trendy boutiques. Hollywood, that theme...
  • Blog Post: Remembering Harriet Burns (1928 - 2008)

    This past Friday, the Disney community lost one of its celebrities. Harriet Burns passed on at the age of 79. She was the first woman hired by WED as an artist. She was born in San Antonio and remained in Texas for most of her young life, venturing only to Dallas to pursue a college degree in art in...
  • Blog Post: Toon Tuesday : Getting a head with Blaine Gibson

    Like most old guys, I tend to get my brain stuck in a certain time frame. So I didn't immediately recognize the man sitting in the limo. For some odd reason, I expected to see the guy I remembered. The slender, dark haired young man with the horn rimmed glasses. However, this older gentleman didn't exactly...
  • Blog Post: Toon Thursday : Mermaids, donuts and musical concrete

    Hey, folks -- Jim Hill here. Before this month's Floyd Norman column officially gets underway, I thought that I'd take a moment to let JHM readers know that Mr. Fun recently launched his very own blog. Appropriately titled Mr. Fun's Blog . So if you want more than just the usually once-a-month dose of...
  • Blog Post: Monday Mouse Watch: Will MGM's upcoming name change really allow the Universal Orlando Resort to nudge Disney out of the spotlight?

    What's in a name? Well, as Universal learned the hard way back in 1998, when it decided to rename its recently expanded resort " '>Universal Studios Escape " and thus confused hundreds of thousands of tourists ... Sometimes picking the wrong name for your theme park and/or resort can prove to be disastrous...