The Wizard of Oz 80th Anniversary!

“There’s a philosophy in The Wizard of Oz the speaks to us all. Everyone has a heart, a brain, and courage. If used properly, they lead to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The gold, when found, is those people who love you.” – Ray Bolger

The Skeleton Dance 90th Anniversary!

The Skeleton Dance

While on a trip in mid-1928 to New York to arrange for a distribution deal for Walt Disney’s new Mickey Mouse cartoons idea and to also record his first sound cartoon,  Steamboat Willie. When there, one of his old acquaintances Carl Stalling, had proposed to Disney an idea for a new series of cartoons of “musical novelty” combining both music and animation. This would then be the basis that would become the Silly Symphony series, and the first idea was about skeletons dancing in a graveyard.

Happy Haunts Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Haunted Mansion!

The idea for the Haunted Mansion actually precedes both Disneyland and WED Enterprise. When the concept for a theme park was being developed the idea was for it to be across the street from the Studios lot. The first known concept drawing is from 1951 and depicts an early looking version of the park with what appears to be the main street setting, green fields, a western village, and a carnival. Disney Legend Harper Goff is the man responsible for the first design of this iconic ride — a black and white sketch depicting a crooked roadway leading away from main street passing by a peaceful looking church and graveyard, leading up to a run-down manor sitting perched high up on a hilltop which overlooks Main Street.