July 11: Off To Disneyland

On this day in 1956, the Barstow family from Wethersfield, Connecticut left for a week-long California vacation. Many families had taken vacations to the West Coast ... but this one had a few unique Disney twists to it.
The 5-member family won the trip when youngest son Danny entered a nation wide contest sponsored by the 3M Scotch Tape Company. The prize included airfare, 4 days worth of Disneyland tickets, and hotel accommodations. Like many proud fathers, Robbins Barstow (an ardent amateur filmmaker) filmed the entire week-long adventure (which also included visits to Knotts Berry Farm & Universal Studios). Pieced together into a 30-minute color amateur documentary (complete with narration and cornball jokes), the film was later titled Disneyland Dream.
Fast forward to December 2008 - Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announced the names of 25 important motion pictures to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Among the 25 chosen was Barstow's Disneyland Dream! (Robbins had donated the film, along with 11 other titles in the Robbins Barstow 20th Century Family Home Movie Collection.) Chosen for its historical and cultural significance, Disneyland Dream quickly became a must-see video on the internet.
A few weeks later in January 2009, it was announced that comedian/actor & former Disneyland employee Steve Martin had recognized himself in the Barstow's 1956 film. About 20 minutes into the documentary, a young Martin can be seen selling guidebooks just inside Disneyland's entrance!
Little did the Barstow family know that when they left for their memorable vacation on July 11, 1956 ... they would forever become part of Disney history.

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July 05: A Dream Is A Wish That Mack Makes

On this day in 1912, Songwriter Hall of Famer Mack David was born in New York City. A versatile lyricist and songwriter, David wrote in just about every conceivable style of popular music for film, TV, and Broadway. Whether you're a Disney fan or an avid movie/TV viewer ... you have heard his music.
Originally wanting to become an attorney, David attended Cornell University and then St. John's University Law School. But when his younger brother Hal showed interest in music as well, it was big brother Mack who advised him to take up a more stable career. But Mack failed to follow his own advice, and instead of following a career in law, began writing songs on Tin Pan Alley. (Hal David went on to have great success too as a lyricist writing many hits with songwriter Burt Bacharach.)
(Tin Pan Alley, a collection of New York City-centered music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the U.S. in the late 19th century and early 20th century, was originally a specific place at West 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue.)
In 1945, Mack wrote the words for Duke Ellington's "I'm Just A Lucky So-And-So," and in 1947, had a hit with a novelty tune "Chi-Baba, Chi-Baba," written with Jerry Livingston and Al Hoffman. The writing team of Livingston, Hoffman & David would continue into the 1960s with great success.
In 1948, David moved to Hollywood, where he became active in film and television. His songs were featured in the score for the Disney animated 1950 feature Cinderella, written with Livingston and Hoffman. These songs included "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes", "The Working Song", "So This is Love," and the film's hit song "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo" (which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1950). For Disney's 1951 feature Alice in Wonderland, the same team wrote "The Unbirthday Song."
The nomination for "Bibbidy Bobbidi Boo" was the first of eight Academy Award nominations David would receive and it catapulted his career. His feature film credits went on to include such classics as "The Hanging Tree" (written with Jerry Livingston from The Hanging Tree), "Bachelor in Paradise (written with the legendary Henry Mancini) from Bachelor in Paradise, and "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (written with Ernest Gold) from the classic comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
But Mack's music wasn't limited to just film, in 1961 the Shirelles had a hit with his song "Baby, It's You", written with Burt Bacharach (his brother's writing partner). "Baby, It's You" was covered a few years later by The Beatles.
Mack teamed up with Livingston throughout the 1960s and together they wrote for many successful television series, including Caspar the Friendly Ghost, 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, Bourbon Street Beat and Surfside 6. Even their theme song “This is It” for 1960's The Bugs Bunny Hour became a hit!
After a long and successful career, Mack David was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1975. Sadly, he passed away on December 30, 1993 at his home in Rancho Mirage, California.

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July 03: A Famous Oregonian

On this day in 1914, musician George Bruns was born in Sandy, Oregon. A composer of music for film & television, he was nominated for 4 Academy Awards over his lifetime. Although a Disney Legend since 2001 (18 years after his death), his name may only be familiar to some Disney fans ... but his music is most definitely familiar to all Disney fans.
First enrolling at Oregon State Agriculture College in 1932 to study engineering, Bruns spent most of his time on and off campus playing music (he had first learned to play the piano at age six). He played tuba in the ROTC band and string bass in a local popular orchestra. In 1934 he cut short his studies to become a full-time musician. Bruns played around the Northwest with his own swing/jazz band (which included a trumpeter named Doc Severenson - who would later have great success as the musical director for The Tonight Show). Finding the local Oregon music scene limiting, Bruns moved to California in 1950.
Based out of Los Angeles, Bruns began arranging and conducting for Capitol Records and UPA Studios, while still playing live in bands (including one led by Tennessee Ernie Ford). By 1953 Walt Disney was looking for someone to do the music for Sleeping Beauty and Bruns accepted the job. He would stay at Disney for 22 years. As one of three musical directors at Disney, Bruns worked in both TV and film.
His best-known works include "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" & "Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)." Bruns' famous Davy Crockett tune (first recorded in 1955 and written for Walt's Disneyland series about the famous frontiersman) was co-written with lyricist Tom W. Blackburn. His Pirate anthem (originally used for the park attraction and later the feature film) was co-written with Xavier Atencio. Bruns also wrote the song "Love" for the animated Robin Hood as well as music for The Jungle Book, The Absent-minded Professor, Babes in Toyland, The Aristocats and Herbie the Love Bug. In his spare time, he also played tuba and trombone for Ward Kimball's Dixieland jazz band The Firehouse Five Plus Two. In all, Bruns contributed to over an amazing 200 motion pictures and television shows (which also included Zorro and Mickey Mouse Club).
He retired in 1975 and moved back to Oregon where he conducted, played, composed, and taught music. He passed away in March 1983.

"Walt was always good to me personally. He pretty much let me go my own way, trusting my own musical sense of what was right." -George Bruns

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June 28: A Tribute

On this day in 1975, screenwriter and TV producer Rodman Edward Serling passed away at age 50. Better known as simply Rod Serling, he was the creator and narrator of The Twilight Zone, a CBS-TV series which first aired in 1959.
Born on Christmas Day 1924 in Syracuse, New York, Serling was raised in Binghamton, a city located in the southern tier of the Empire State. Even after his "Hollywood success," Serling kept a summer home on Cayuga Lake, in New York's Finger Lakes region (which inspired the name "Cayuga Productions" for use on his Twilight Zone productions).
Originally a U.S. Army paratrooper and demolition specialist (he was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star), Serling broke into television in 1951. He wrote scripts for such early series as The Doctor, Fireside Theater, Hallmark Hall of Fame, Lux Video Theater, Kraft Television Theatre, and Studio One. One script in particular in 1955 for Kraft Television Theatre propelled Serling into the limelight. His episode titled Patterns became a hit and was re-aired a week after its original showing (unheard of in the early days of TV). It established Serling as a television playwright.
Although successful, he was tired of seeing his scripts censored and so decided to create his own show. The Twilight Zone, an anthology series, first premiered on October 2, 1959. It ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964 (and remains syndicated to this day). Serling served as executive producer/head writer and wrote 92 of the show's 156 episodes. He also served as the show's host, delivering on-and-off-screen monologues at the beginning and end of each episode. While having a loyal fan base, the program never had huge ratings and was surprisingly canceled twice ... only to be revived. But after 5 years, Serling decided to let the third cancellation be final. (Today even Disney fans who were born years after the show ended know of Serling's supernatural series through the popular park attraction The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.)
Serling went on to have success in the early 1970s with another similar TV series called Night Gallery. It focused more on Gothic horror and the occult (while The Twilight Zone had a more paranormal/futuristic theme). Over his professional career, Serling won 6 Emmy Awards, 3 Hugo Awards, 2 Sylvania Awards, and a Golden Globe. He was also a communications professor at Ithaca College in New York.
A chain smoker, Serling had survived two heart attacks prior to entering Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester for heart bypass surgery on June 27, 1975. Sadly he had a third heart attack during the operation and died the following day, June 28. He is interred at the cemetery in Interlaken, New York.

"Imagination... its limits are only those of the mind itself." -Rod Serling

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June 24: Not That Phil Harris!

These days the name Phil Harris is recognized by fans of the TV series Deadliest Catch, but years before Discovery Channel made a star out of the fishing boat captain, there was another Phil Harris ... one that Disney fans might recall.
On this day in 1904 Phil Harris - a singer, songwriter, musician, comedian and actor - was born in Linton, Indiana. Though successful as an orchestra leader, Harris is remembered today for his recordings as a vocalist, the radio comedy series in which he co-starred with his second wife, singer-actress Alice Faye, his countless TV appearances, and of course for his voice work in animation.
His first Disney animated feature was the 1967 The Jungle Book, in which he voiced the easygoing and fun-loving bear Baloo. As Baloo, Harris sang "The Bare Necessities," a performance that introduced him to a new generation of young fans who had no awareness of his versatility. He also joined Louis Prima (the voice of King Louie) in "I Wanna Be Like You," delivering a memorable scat-singing performance. (In fact it was record producer & Disney Legend Tutti Camarata who encouraged Harris and Prima to take part in the animated feature.)
The 1970 The Aristocats featured Harris as alley cat Thomas O'Malley. Harris sang the signature tune "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat," with Scatman Crothers - the voice of Scat Cat. (Harris and Crothers had known each other since the 1940s!) A few years after the release of the The Aristocats, the two reunited on a Disney television special to sing that very same feline number.
Harris voiced another bear in 1973, this time named Little John in the animated Robin Hood. He sang the popular anti-Prince John tune "The Phony King of England" (written by the legendary Johnny Mercer).
In 1989, Harris briefly returned to Disney to once again voice Baloo, this time for the cartoon series TaleSpin.
A long time resident and benefactor of Palm Springs, California, Phil Harris passes away in that very town at age 91 in 1995.

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June 17: The Man Behind "The Bare Necessities"

On this day in 1916, singer-songwriter Terry Gilkyson was born in Pennsylvania. His name may not sound familiar to you - but there's a good chance you've heard his music.
Gilkyson formed a folk group called The Easy Riders with songwriting friends Rick Dehr and Frank Miller in the mid-1950s. Unlike most folk groups, they avoided political controversy and wrote and chose songs with commercial appeal. Their version of the calypso standard "Marianne" went to number 4 on the U.S. charts. One of the group's earliest penned hits was "Memories Are Made of This," made wildly popular in 1956 by Dean Martin (with The Easy Riders providing backup). The group had a few more years of commercial success including scoring the feature film The Windjammer in 1958.
As he preferred to be a songwriter over a performer, Gilkyson left the group and spent the 1960s writing ... mostly for Disney-oriented projects. (The Easy Riders continued through the decade without him.)
Gilkyson composed the song "My Heart Was An Island" for the 1960 Swiss Family Robinson, the theme for The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh (first shown on Disney's television series in 1963), "The Moon-Spinners" for the 1964 feature The Moon-Spinners, and "Thomas O'Malley Cat" for the 1970 The Aristocats.
But Gilkyson will always be remembered by Disney fans for his song "The Bare Necessities" from the 1967 classic animated feature The Jungle Book. The only song from the feature not written by the Sherman Brothers, it was nominated for an Academy Award. The song is first sung in the film by Phil Harris as Baloo and Bruce Reitherman as Mowgli, and later by Sebastian Cabot as Bagheera. Supposedly "The Bare Necessities" was originally rejected for the film but later kept ... on the request of the Sherman Brothers!
Since then, many artists have recorded their own version of Gilkyson's "The Bare Necessities," including Louis Armstrong, Julie Andrews, and Bowling for Soup.
By the 1970s, Gilkyson was at a loss with the music of the day and so retired to New Mexico - living on the royalties from over 300 published songs. (His children went on to have success in the music business as well.) Terry Gilkyson passed in October 1999.

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June 13: A Great Big Day of Disney Birthdays

Born today June 13 -

1892: British actor Basil Rathbone - one of the narrators of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Best remembered for his movie roles of Sherlock Holmes and various swashbuckling villains. A Tony-Award winner (for his Broadway performance in The Heiress), Rathbone was considered the greatest swordsman in Hollywood! Disney's The Great Mouse Detective features a cameo of the character of Sherlock Holmes - using an early voice recording of Rathbone.

1910: Character actress Mary Wickes - known for her comedic roles on TV and in feature films. She portrayed the jocular maid Katie in the Mickey Mouse Club serial "Annette," was the animators' live-action model for Cruella De Vil in One Hundred and One Dalmatians, appeared as Miss Wigginton in the live-action comedy Snowball Express, and provided the voice for the wise-cracking gargoyle Laverne in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. You may also recognize Wickes for her role of Sister Mary Lazarus in Touchstone's
Sister Act and Sister Act 2.

1920: Film and musical theater actor Rex Everhart - the voice of Maurice,
Belle's father in Disney's 1991 animated feature Beauty and the Beast. He is known to fans of the horror flicks Friday the 13th and Friday the 13th Part 2 as Enos the truck driver. Everhart's stage credits include 1776, Anything Goes, and Chicago.

1926: Comedian and actor Paul Lynde - who had a small role in Disney's 1963 Son of Flubber as a sportscaster. A noted character actor, fans of classic TV will know him from the series Bewitched, The Munsters, I Dream of Jeannie and as a regular on the game show Hollywood Squares. He also appeared in both the Broadway stage version and the feature adaptation of the musical Bye Bye Birdie.

1948: Film executive, producer, and film director Joe Roth - who was chairman of Walt Disney Studios between 1994-2000. First beginning as a production assistant in the 1970s, Roth replaced Jeffery Katzenberg as Disney's CEO in September 1994.

1949: English actor, writer, and theater director Simon Callow - the voice of the Grasshopper in Disney's musical fantasy James and the Giant Peach. Film fans will recognize Callow from such features as Amadeus, Howards End, and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.

1953: Comedian & actor Tim Allen - the voice of Buzz Lightyear for Disney/Pixar's
Toy Story films. Known to fans of the hit sitcom Home Improvement as Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor (which ran between 1991-1999), Allen stars in The Santa Clause series of feature films. His Disney credits also include Jungle 2 Jungle and The Shaggy Dog.

Click HERE for more June 13 Disney History.