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Paging Mr. Tom Morrow…In this article we will take a quick look at Disney Cruise Line’s newest ship, the Disney Treasure. We will rub elbows with Ray Bradbury and meet Indiana Jones’ father. We will follow a 16-year-old Walt Disney as he joins the Red Cross, visit a post office in Marceline, Missouri, and take a trip to Brazil with Walt Disney and his team of animators.
X Marks the Spot: Unearthing Disney Treasure
A few years ago, I was bitten by the cruising bug and have become a BIG FAN of Disney Cruise Line. The Disney Cruise Line fleet currently has four ships, with three additional ships on the way! Disney’s newest ship, the Disney Treasure, is currently under construction at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany.
Tune in to the Disney Parks Blog on Wednesday, August 30, 2023, at 11:00 AM Eastern Time for a special look at what’s onboard during a virtual grand reveal event for the Disney Treasure.
Earlier this year, On March 30th, the Disney Treasure reached a significant milestone in its construction with a keel laying ceremony at Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany. The keel laying ceremony is a time-honored maritime tradition, where a newly minted coin is placed under the keel of the ship for good fortune.
The coin portrayed Captain Minnie Mouse in her new adventure look, styled after the medallion on the bow of the ship.
Typically, a reproduction of the ship’s keel coin is featured in the Pub found aboard the particular Disney Cruise ship. I hope I have the opportunity to see the Treasure’s keel coin on display in its Pub on a future cruise.
This Day in Disney History: August 20th- August 26th
August 20, 1974: Enchanted Actress Amy Adams was Born in Aviano, Italy
Amy Lou Adams was born in Aviano, Italy and raised in Castle Rock, Colorado. Adams is the fourth of seven siblings. She has received various accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for six Academy Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards.
Adams began her career as a dancer in dinner theater from 1994 to 1998 before making her film debut in the dark comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999). She then made guest appearances in television. Her first major role came in Steven Spielberg's biopic Catch Me If You Can (2002).
The musical fantasy film Enchanted (2007), in which Adams played a cheerful princess-to-be Giselle, was her first success as a leading lady. Adams would later reprise her role in the sequel, Disenchanted (which she is also credited as a producer).
In 2011, Adams partnered with screen-writer and actor Jason Segal in the 2011 musical comedy film, The Muppets. She also voiced Sweet Polly Purebred in the 2007 live-action film, Underdog.
August 21, 1995: The PeopleMover closes at Disneyland, California
The PeopleMover was an attraction in Tomorrowland at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
The PeopleMover opened as part of New Tomorrowland on July 2, 1967. The attraction's vehicles were always in constant motion and were accessible by a large turntable inside the station. The trains were not powered by motors within themselves, but rather by rotating Goodyear tires embedded in the track, which the trains would pass over every nine feet. The cars were all red, blue, yellow, and green with white roofs until they were repainted all white with colored stripes in the 1980s. The PeopleMover closed in August 1995 as part of Michael Eisner's program to save money by shutting down expensive and classic attractions and was replaced by Rocket Rods in 1998.
The PeopleMover was sponsored by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company from its opening in 1967 until December 31, 1981, and was also referred to as the Goodyear PeopleMover.
Among those who provided the PeopleMover's onboard narrations were Jack Wagner, B.J. Ward, and Anthony Daniels, the voice of C-3PO.
August 22, 1920: Science Fiction Author Ray Bradbury is Born in Illinois
Popular science fiction writer Ray Bradbury is born in Waukegan, Illinois. Ray Bradbury’s lifelong friendship with Walt Disney, and his relationship with the Walt Disney Company, began when Bradbury ran into Walt Disney while Christmas shopping. Disney was a childhood idol of Bradbury’s and Walt instantly recognized Bradbury because Walt was a fan of Ray’s stories. Walt invited Ray out to lunch the next day and their friendship would go on to last for the rest of Walt’s life.
Best known for his stories The Martian Chronicles (1950), Fahrenheit 451 (1953), and The Halloween Tree (1972), Bradbury would go on to write the screenplays for two Disney films based on his work: Something Wicked This Way Comes in 1983 and The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit in 1999.
Bradbury's 1969 short story Downwind from Gettysburg was inspired by Disney's Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.
Because of his involvement with the 1964 New York World’s Fair, Bradbury became interested in the EPCOT Center project at Walt Disney World. Ray Bradbury famously wrote a treatment and script for the Spaceship Earth attraction and was instrumental in the development of EPCOT Center.
I have previously published an article about Ray Bradbury’s involvement with the creation of EPCOT Center and Spaceship Earth. Click the link below to read the full story.
In the original version of Epcot's Journey Into Imagination attraction, the words 'Something Wicked' are printed on the spine of one of the colossal books in the literature scene - a reference to the Disney film and an ode to Bradbury. A self-professed "Disney nut," Bradbury came to the defense of Disney in 1965 upon reading an article decrying Disneyland as vulgar entertainment. In response, he penned "The Machine-Tooled Happyland," for the October 1965 issue of Holiday Magazine.
Here is an excerpt from the beginning of Bradbury's article.
...I believe Disney’s influence will be felt centuries from today. I say that Disney and Disneyland can be prime movers of our age.
But before I offer proof, let me sketch my background. At twelve, I owned one of the first Mickey Mouse buttons in Tucson, Arizona. At nineteen, selling newspapers on a street corner, I lived in terror I might be struck by a car and killed before the premiere of Disney’s film extravaganza, Fantasia. In the last thirty years I have seen Fantasia fifteen times, Snow White twelve times, Pinocchio eight times. In sum, I was, and still am, a Disney nut.
-Ray Bradbury, October 1965
An excerpt from Ray Bradbury’s, “The Machine-Tooled Happyland”, in Holiday Magazine
Click the link below to read Ray Bradbury’s essay, titled “The Machine-Tooled Happyland”, in its entirety. It is worth the read.
“THE MACHINE-TOOLED HAPPYLAND” by Ray Bradbury – October 1965 | HOLIDAY
A shining moment for Bradbury came on Halloween night 2007, when "the Father of Halloween" experienced his personal dream come true: the lighting of his very own Halloween Tree at Disneyland.
In celebration of the 35th anniversary of his 1972 novel, The Halloween Tree, Disney honored him by dedicating his own Halloween tree during a tree-lighting ceremony in Frontierland.
August 23, 2004: The Walt Disney Post Office Building is Dedicated in Marceline, Missouri
The dedication of the Walt Disney Post Office took place on August 23, 2004. One interesting event during the dedication that day was the surprise appearance of Mickey Mouse, who came riding up in the back of a mail truck. As part of the ceremony, Mickey planted the Ben Franklin tree that currently grows in front of the Post Office. Ben Franklin was the very first Postmaster General and put in place the foundation for many aspects of today’s mail system. The Ben Franklin Tree has been extinct in the wild since the early 19th century but survives as a cultivated ornamental tree.
August 24, 1942: Walt Disney's 6th Feature Film Saludos Amigos has its World Premiere in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Saludos Amigos premiered in Rio de Janeiro on August 24, 1942. It was later released in the United States on February 6, 1943. At 42 minutes in length, it is Disney's shortest animated feature film to date.
In early 1941, before U.S. entry into World War II, the United States Department of State commissioned a Disney goodwill tour of South America, intended to lead to a movie to be shown in the US, Central, and South America as part of the Good Neighbor Policy. This was being done because several Latin American governments had close ties with Nazi Germany, and the US government wanted to counteract those ties.
Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters were popular in Latin America, and Walt Disney acted as ambassador. The tour, facilitated by Nelson Rockefeller, who had recently been appointed as Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (CIAA), took Disney and a group of roughly twenty composers, artists, technicians, etc. from his studio to South America.
Saludos Amigos (Spanish for "Greetings, Friends") is a 1942 American live-action/animated anthology film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It is the sixth Disney animated feature film and the first of the six "Package films" made during the 1940s, when many members of the Walt Disney Studios’ production staff were drafted into World War II. Due to this decrease in resources, the company could not afford to make feature-length films during this time and instead produced films composed of multiple shorter segments.
The film chronicles a group of Disney animators on a goodwill trip to South America. This is documented in live action portions of the film. The animated segments detail which places they visited on their trip.
The group of Disney animators and production artists included Walt Disney, Lee Blair, Mary Blair, Pinto Colvig (the voice of Goofy), Norman Ferguson, Frank Graham, Clarence Nash (voice of Donald Duck), José do Patrocínio Oliveira (voice of José Carioca), Frank Thomas and Fred Sheilds (narrator of Goofy’s, “How To” film shorts).
The film included live-action sequences featuring footage of modern Latin American cities with skyscrapers and fashionably dressed citizens. At the time, this surprised contemporary US viewers, who associated such images with US and European cities, and contributed to a changing impression of Latin America. Film historian Alfred Charles Richard Jr. has commented that Saludos Amigos did more to cement a community of interest between peoples of the Americas in a few months than the State Department had in fifty years."
The film was nominated for three Oscars: Best Musical Score, Best Original Song for its opening theme, and Best Sound Recording.
The film was popular enough that Walt Disney decided to make another film about Latin America, The Three Caballeros, to be produced two years later.
August 25, 1930: Actor Sean Connery is born in Edinburgh, Scotland
Thomas Sean Connery was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on August 23, 1930.
In his youth, Connery worked as milkman before joining the Royal Navy. Connery was discharged from the navy at the age of 19 on medical grounds because of an ulcer. After working a variety of jobs, he eventually decided to become a full-time actor.
In 1959, Connery landed a leading role in director Robert Stevenson's Walt Disney Productions film Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959), alongside Albert Sharpe, Janet Munro, and Jimmy O'Dea. The film is a tale about Michael McBride, portrayed by Connery, a wily Irishman and his battle of wits with leprechauns.
James Bond creator Ian Fleming and producer Albert R. Broccoli later saw Connery in the Disney film and cast him as Secret Agent 007, in Dr. No. (1962). Sean Connery would go on to play the character of James Bond for 21 years.
In 1989, Connery would go on to star in the third installment of the Indiana Jones franchise, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), as Indiana’s father, Dr. Henry Jones Sr. Connery’s casting in this role led to the inside joke that James Bond is the father of Indiana Jones.
August 26, 1918: Walt Disney Forges his Parents' Signatures to Enlist in the American Ambulance Corps, with the Red Cross, as an Ambulance Driver
On this day in 1918, a 16-year-old Walt Disney enlisted in the Red Cross Ambulance Corps. A very patriotic citizen, Walt wanted to join the military to fight in the Great War (WWI), but he was too young.
Two of his older brothers were already in the armed forces; Ray had been drafted in the Army, and Roy was enlisted in the Navy. During one of Roy’s visits to Chicago from his Great Lakes posting, Walt met him at the train station and remarked later that his brother "looked swell in that sailor’s uniform.”
Roy’s letters were full of “blowing bugles and ...patriotism,” Walt remembered. “I just had to get in there.”
The military would not take 16-year-olds. He had heard about a Red Cross unit that would take 17-year-olds, and he knew that was for him. After his mother signed his passport application, he committed a little forgery, changing the birth year from 1901 to 1900, and he was thus able to get into the Red Cross, along with a friend from school.
In 1918, Germany signed an armistice. However, the Red Cross Ambulance Corps still needed more drivers to help with post-war operations in France. Walt arrived in France and was put to work making deliveries, driving ambulances and chauffeuring important officers. By September of 1919, the Ambulance Corps had finished its work and Walt returned home, having seen the world.
When Walt was not driving the ambulance, he sketched on the canteen menus, drew designs on the canvas ambulance flaps and created caricatures for his friends to send to girlfriends and families (for a small fee!). “I found out that the inside and outside of an ambulance is as good a place to draw as any,” Walt later remarked.
During his time in France, Walt drew in a scrapbook given to him by a girlfriend. The scrapbooks were originally handed out to servicemen by The Chicago Public Library.
Walt’s notebook survived the war and recently surfaced in a private auction in 2014. After returning home from France, Walt Disney gave the scrapbook to his close friend, Virginia Baker, who in turn passed it to her daughter, Leslie Riddell. The book remained in the Riddell family until recently when it was bought privately by a Disney collector.
The scrapbook features five pages of patriotic artwork drawn by Disney in 1918 when he was a 17-year-old amateur cartoonist visiting war-torn France.
Below are two of the five drawings found in the scrapbook.
Experts say these sketches are some of the earliest examples of Walt Disney’s artwork.
The scrapbook containing Walt Disney's drawings was put up for auction for a staggering $200,000 and went up for sale in New York on November 23, 2015.
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Harper