Cuban Sculptor Carves Furniture for Disneyland's Haunted Mansion

  Sculptor Santana busy at work on furniture for Haunted Mansion.

02.17.11 - For Ciro Rolando Santana y Arrite, a soft-spoken, wiry little Cuban sculptor of extraordinary talent, a temporary position at Disneyland has become a springboard to the fulfillment of a longtime dream — to bring his family from an adopted home in Puerto Rico to the United States and continue his career as a sculptor.

Rolando Santana came to this country early in 1969. He had been at Disneyland for only a few weeks when the word went out from WED that new projects required the talents of an additional sculptor.

Rolando went to WED for an interview, presented his credentials, and was promptly made a member of the WED Imagineering staff.

The sculptor's work has been exhibited in many countries throughout the Americas and in Spain. For two decades, art and educational publications have featured articles on his works.

Rolando received his formal art training as a student for seven years at Havana's St. Alexander's National School of Fine Arts and two years at the Havana Center of Fine Arts.

Adept in sculpturing all media, Rolando has begun the resumption of his career at WED by carving wooden furniture and ornamentation for Disneyland's Haunted Mansion.

While one part of Rolando's dream became a reality, the other part came true in May when his wife and three children joined him in their new home in the United States.

From Disney News, Fall 1969

Robert A. Iger Short Biography

Robert A. Iger
President and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company

Robert A. Iger is President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. Mr. Iger, the sixth CEO in The Walt Disney Company's 86-year history, was appointed to this post on October 1, 2005 after the company's board of directors elected him to succeed Michael D. Eisner in March, 2005. 

Previously, Mr. Iger served as President and Chief Operating Officer of The Walt Disney Company, a position he had held since January, 2000. In this role, he partnered with Mr. Eisner in overseeing all aspects of the company's worldwide operations including its filmed entertainment, theme parks and resorts, media networks and consumer products businesses. Mr. Iger also became a member of Disney's board of directors at this time. 

Mr. Iger began his career at ABC in 1974. Throughout his tenure at the company, Mr. Iger has held a series of increasingly responsible senior management positions, including serving as President and Chief Operating Officer of Capital Cities/ABC, where he guided the complex merger of ABC with The Walt Disney Company. During Mr. Iger's years with ABC, he oversaw its broadcast television network and station, cable television, radio and publishing businesses, which includes the market leading brands of ABC, ESPN, Lifetime and The History Channel.

He officially joined the Disney senior management team in 1996 as Chairman of the Disney-owned ABC Group and in 1999, was given the additional responsibility of President, Walt Disney International.

Mr. Iger is a member of the board of directors for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. He serves on the Executive Advisory Board of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

About 1982's TRON

The First Electronic Gunslinger

02.09.11 - Long a fan of the mythic heroes of the Old West, Bruce Boxleitner finds himself playing the hero in a different kind of mythology. He is a computer programmer fighting to save his electronic world in Walt Disney Productions' futuristic adventure, "TRON."

Powerful Programmer… Bruce Boxleitner stars as a computer expert whose alter-ego is the most powerful game warrior in an electronic universe in Walt Disney Productions' futuristic adventure, "TRON."

"TRON" combines state-of-the-art computer graphics with special techniques in live-action photography to create a fantasy world never before seen on a motion picture screen. It is a world where energy lives and breathes, where laws of logic are defied, where an electronic civilization thrives.

All of which is quite a departure for Boxleitner, a tall and athletic actor whose career is rooted in roles as rawboned types who helped tame the West. Collector of frontier art, reader of historical fiction, Boxleitner relished such vehicles as the television series "How the West Was Won" and the telefilm "I Married Wyatt Earp." "I loved the idea of reliving history," he says. "Playing a Western hero you sense how strong those people must have been. Let me tell you it's a thrill."

Expectedly, he was not enthralled with the notion of starring in an effects-laden picture like "TRON.' "I was really feeling my oats," he says today. "I had just finished doing a Western movie-of-the-week and was still thinking of myself as the gunfighter hero. When I got the script for "TRON" I rejected it. I didn't want to spend that time cooped up on sound stages.

"Then Kitty (his wife, actress Kathryn Holcomb) read the script and told me I'd better reconsider. She thought it was something special. When I reread it, I realized that Tron, my character in the film, was not so different from a traditional Western hero."

Boxleitner's Tron character is the only being who can save his electronic world from domination by a huge and despotic master computer program. Ironically, while the completed film portrays an epic battle set in a fantastic landscape of light and electricity, the actors performed against sets that were practically bare. The live-action was mated with computer-generated settings in post-production.

"We looked at storyboards (rough drawings of each shot in the movie) before each scene. Then it was up to the imagination. And when you realize that what we are seeing in 'TRON's' world can't possibly exist — then you know how difficult a job the actors had. 'TRON' is the most difficult movie I've ever done." Boxleitner may have had it a bit easier than the others, however. Faced with a duel on the video game grid, chased by a Recognizer or a data pirate, or confronted by any of the electronic world's myriad dangers, he could always ask himself, "What would Wyatt Earp do?" The settings may change but the heroes remain the same.

In color by Technicolor, "TRON" also stars Jeff Bridges, David Warner, Cindy Morgan and Barnard Hughes. The film was written and directed by Steven Lisberger for producer Donald Kushner and executive producer Ron Miller. Buena Vista releases. Filmed in Super Panavision ® 70.

From the original 1982 Tron press materials.

 

 

Lisberger Breaks with Convention

02.09.11 - In 1976 he stretched a $10,000 American Film Institute grant into a multi-million dollar animated film. Today, Steve Lisberger is the guiding creative force behind "TRON," a motion picture that is not only unconventional, but the first of its kind.

Writer-Director Steven Lisberger is the mastermind behind "TRON," Walt Disney Productions futuristic adventure about an electronic world in which video games come to life through state-of-the-art computer imaging.

Writer-director Steven Lisberger is not one to settle for the conventional. As a college student in Boston he formed his own film production company. In 1976 he stretched a $10,000 American Film Institute grant into a multi-million dollar animated film. Today, Lisberger is the guiding creative force behind "TRON," a motion picture that is not only unconventional, but the first of its kind.

"TRON" combines live action with computer-generated imagery to create a fantasy world where video games are arenas of life and death. Long a devotee of video games, the filmmaker first conceived the project in 1978.

"Everyone's looking for new fantasies in the movies," he says. "Outer space has been done to death. They've gone inside the body and under the sea. We've created this world in 'TRON' by taking video games and just blowing them out to the point where they are a reality. At the point where the games met computer graphics, something came alive that hadn't been alive before. Video games were the basis for the fantasy; the computer imagery was the means to create it."

Lisberger and his partner, producer Donald Kushner, brought their project to Disney in mid-1980 and a deal was quickly struck. "They first gave us money to do a demonstration, to prove that we could create the effects we claimed were possible," Lisberger says. "It's to Disney's credit that they didn't say, 'Call us when the computers can do a dog.' We were interested in creating objects and environments that couldn't exist in the physical world. That's something computer-generated images can do very well."

With the boundless enthusiasm of the first boy out to recess, Lisberger began, in early 1981, to choose his creative team for "TRON." French comics artist Moebius — one of the founders of Heavy Metal — was lured from his Pyrenees mountain home to work on character styling and storyboarding. Futurist Syd Mead was called to design vehicles that would later be computer-generated. High-tech artist Peter Lloyd was hired for color styling and background design. Richard Taylor, currently manager of the Movie Technology Division of Information International, Inc. (Triple-I) and an art director whose glowing designs gained him fame in the 1970s with his commercials for Levi and Seven-Up, joined the group to oversee the computer imaging and optical effects. Harrison Ellenshaw, matte painter for "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back," signed on as co-director (with Taylor) of special effects and associate producer.

The Mathematical Applications Group, Inc. (MAGI), Triple-I, Digital Effects Inc. and Robert Abel and Associates were hired to execute computer images choreographed by animators Bill Kroyer and Jerry Rees. Matched with the live action, those computer scenarios bring Lisberger's world to life.

"We're taking risks with this film," admits the director who spends his days buzzing through the production like a low-flying plane looking for fires to put out. "But that's what got this place (Disney) rolling in the first place. They broke with convention. Computer imagery is never going to replace actors. Actors are what I call the ultimate special effect. And it won't challenge the hand-crafted animation for which Disney is famous. But for this particular fantasy in "TRON" it's the perfect artists' tool."

In color by Technicolor, "TRON" stars Jeff Bridges, David Warner, Bruce Boxleitner, Cindy Morgan and Barnard Hughes. The film was written and directed by Steven Lisberger for producer Donald Kushner and executive producer Ron Miller. Buena Vista releases. Filmed in Super Panavision® 70.

From the original 1982 Tron press materials.  

This Day in Disney History - Disney California Adventure Park Opens

A Decade of Fun at Disney California Adventure Park: Top Attractions, 552,000 Points, 236 Doors and More

posted on February 8th, 2011 by Michele Himmelberg, Public Relations Director, Disneyland Resort

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At the Disneyland Resort, there is one anniversary date we set aside as unique: July 17. On that day in 1955, Walt Disney’s big dream became reality with a theme park that was clean, safe and a magical playground for families.

While July 17 launched it all with Disneyland park, there are special milestones that deserve recognition – like today! February 8, 2011, is the 10th birthday for Disney California Adventure park in Anaheim, Calif. 

To thank all the guests who have enjoyed visiting Disney California Adventure park, we collected some fun bits of trivia that capture the excitement of the past 10 years. I hope you enjoy! 

1. Six of the most popular attractions at the Disneyland Resort are at Disney California Adventure park: The Twilight Zone™ Tower of Terror*, California Screamin’, Soarin’ Over California, “World of Color,” Toy Story Mania! and “Disney’s Aladdin – A Musical Spectacular.”
2. The interactive attraction Toy Story Midway Mania! invites guests to take aim at moving targets. The highest recorded score by a guest is 552,000. (For perspective, beginners are happy to score 25,000.) ©Disney/Pixar
3. In Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!, you’ll see 236 doors in the door vault scene. This attraction is the first at a Disney park that takes guests through the middle of a restroom (the Monsters, Inc. employee restroom). ©Disney/Pixar
4. Mickey’s Fun Wheel takes riders for an exhilarating spin that rises up nearly 150 feet above Paradise Bay. It’s a full-size replica of the original “Wonder Wheel” Ferris wheel, which was built in 1920 and still operates in Coney Island, New York.
5. At Flik’s Fun Fair, in A Bug’s Land, there are 75 clovers – one of which is a four-leaf clover. ©Disney/Pixar
6. Which attraction is known for this phrase: “Launch in five, four, three, two, ONE!” You probably guessed it – California Screamin’. The fastest and longest roller coaster at the Disneyland Resort, it takes guests on an adventure that’s nearly 1 ⅛-miles long.
7. You might know that Twilight Zone™ Tower of Terror* is the tallest attraction in the Disneyland Resort, at 183 feet. Did you know that it also extends 40 feet underground?

8. Phew! At “It’s Tough to Be a Bug!,” it takes 70,000 “perfume” pellets to create the “stink bug” effect. This show won the 1999 Themed Entertainment Association’s “THEA Award” in the category of “Outstanding Achievement, Attraction.” ©Disney/Pixar
9. Since opening in 2001, the Food and Beverage team has served guests plenty of delicious things to eat. Here’s the total for a few favorites: 10.9 million bowls of chowder and 9.6 million rolls (at Pacific Wharf Café), and 2.3 million tacos (at Cocina Cucamonga Grill).
10. “World of Color” celebrated its 500th performance on January 25, 2011. More than 2 million guests have enjoyed this nighttime water spectacular since it premiered on June 11, 2010.

And there’s more. The expansion of Disney California Adventure park continues this summer with the opening of The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure.

So much to celebrate already, and so much to anticipate. What are your favorite things to see or do at DIsney California Adventure park?

*The Twilight Zone® is a registered trademark of CBS, Inc., and is used with permission pursuant to a license from CBS, Inc. ©Disney/CBS, Inc.

This Day in Disney History - January 1st

1 year without Roy E. Disney

A Message from Bob: Roy E. Disney Passes Away

Dear Cast Members,

It is with great sadness that I inform you of the passing of our friend and colleague Roy E. Disney. After a courageous year-long fight with stomach cancer, he passed away peacefully this morning at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, surrounded by his loving family.

Roy played an important role in our lives here at Disney, and in the success of our Company over many years. Along the way, he touched many of us in a personal way. During his 56-year association with the Company, his true passion and focus was preserving and building upon the amazing legacy of Disney animation that was started by his father and uncle. His commitment to the art of animation was unparalleled and will always remain his personal legacy and one of the greatest contributions to Disney's past, present and future.

Roy not only helped to keep the legacy alive, but he also embraced new technologies, and gave the filmmakers the tools they needed to tell their stories in new and exciting ways. He encouraged talent, and loved working with the creative community. And they loved working with him.

Roy was a Disney Legend in every sense of the word, and his contributions to this great Company have been profound and will always be remembered. For the next week we will be flying the Disney flag at half mast here at the Studio and at our parks, and I know you join me in sending thoughts and prayers to Roy's wife, Leslie, his four children, and his 16 grandchildren. For those who wish to pay their respects, the family has requested that donations be made in Roy's name to the California International Sailing Association (CISA) to benefit youth sailing.

Bob Iger

On Safari [1962] Expansion of Adventureland

The password is "Safari," and Summertime visitors to Disneyland will be validating their passports, stepping aboard tropical steamers and sailing off on a brand new tropical adventure that may set jungle exploration back to the days of "Dr. Livingston, I presume." 

Marc Davis concept art for the Jungle Cruise

For Disneyland's brand new Jungle River Cruise — part of another $7 million expansion at Walt Disney's Anaheim wonderland — has been designed as a combination "you are there" exploration and fun-filled laugh provoking adventure whose "actors" are elephants, tigers and many more beasts of the jungle. 

Starting with a proven success — the true-life jungle cruise has been one of Disneyland's most popular attractions since opening — Walt Disney is adding a jungle-full of animated animals — startlingly life-like — and making the explorer's voyage longer and full of humor. 

Top highlight is sure to be the Indian elephants — big ones and "little squirts" — who will frolic, splash and swim in a unique "elephant bathing pool." Their trunks loaded with watery surprises (for unwary animalsand explorers), nearly two dozen of the full-size elephants will eventually call Disneyland "home," all brought to life through the marvels of Disneyland animation. 

The emphasis in new attractions is on Adventureland, with (1) the "world's largest" Tree House, (2) a "Big Game Safari" shooting gallery, (3) a colorful African motif for portions of the bazaar shops and stores in Adventureland, and (4) the fabulous "Stouffer's in Disneyland" dinner-show restaurants. 

The Swiss Family Tree House will tower 70 feet above the jungle. Spreading its branches 80 feet in width, it will include three separate "homes" at different levels — the living room, parents' room and boy's room, all inspired by Walt Disney's motion picture "Swiss Family Robinson." 

For the youngsters, "the climb's the thing," but adults are sure to enjoy the "never before" panoramic view over much of Disneyland offered by this "species Disneydendron giganteum" of 150,000 leaves and 50,000 blooms. 

Walt Disney's "Enchanted Tiki Room," one of three new restaurants at "Stouffer's in Disneyland" and Disney's first "by reservation only" dining spa, may steal the spotlight from the other new attractions. For Walt Disney is bringing together all the talents of his "imagineers" to create a complete dinner show performed by an exotic collection of birds, flowers and Polynesian Tikis that actually sing, talk and act! 

Many new animation techniques, developed exclusively for Disneyland, will "bring to life" the birds, idols and flowers. And, lest you should think it's not possible for inanimate objects to sing and act, just remember that this dinner-show is based upon legends and myths treasured for centuries by the natives of the South Pacific. 

Stouffer's, one of America's foremost restaurateurs, will also open European and American Kitchens in its Plaza Pavilion (facing Main Street) and a Tahitian Terrace overlooking Adventureland. The latter will feature nightly dancing and South Seas entertainment. 

If you're a marksman, the new "Big Game Safari" is for you. While it's based on a time-tested shooting gallery tradition, this jungle hunt is an authentic Disney creation — a one-of-a-kind rapid-fire adventure where you'll shoot at all kinds of jungle animals and birds, each handcrafted for Disneyland. 

So it all adds up to another big "bonus" in entertainment this Summer at Disneyland� where the new adventures Walt Disney adds each year are the frosting on a $40 million entertainment "cake!" 

From the Summer 1962 edition of Vacationland magazine, published by Disneyland.

Christmas Memories at Disney Parks

In this video you'll see the Christmas Parades and Decorations in 1960 and 1970!

At the end, testimonials from 2009 EPCOT's Candlelight Processional Narrators.

Disneyland Presents The Walt Disney Story

What Walt Disney and his staff did was to create for the world a realm of wonder and make believe never before experienced — and that fabulous world has become a part of our lives, a part of our culture. 

Walt Disney shown in his "formal" office at the Disney Studio in Burbank.

Most Americans and much of the world have grown up with pleasant memories of Dumbo, the Three Little Pigs, Cinderella and dozens of other characters of fact and legend as they were pictured by Disney. A whole generation watched television's Mouseketeers and thrilled to the exploits of Davy Crockett and Zorro. Millions of people have visited Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in Florida. 

The man behind it all, Walt Disney, received nearly 1,000 plaques, scrolls, Emmys and Academy Awards for his work. The Walt Disney Story at Disneyland's Main Street Opera House exhibits many of these awards in honor of the man who always remembered that "it all started with a mouse." 

The exhibit is presented free by the Gulf Oil Corporation, and features Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln in the Opera House's 500-seat auditorium. 

One of the most intriguing displays of The Walt Disney Story concerns Disneyland. Surrounded by photographs taken during the building of the Park, a small viewing screen shows a speeded-up movie of the actual construction. Thus, the one-year-plus-one-day construction project, which turned an orange grove into a Magic Kingdom, is seen in only three minutes. 

The highlight of the attraction for many is a capsule history of Walt Disney's career. The short film features Disney himself as he tells the story in his own words. 

Guests see film clips from the earliest Disney cartoons (the "Alice" series), Mickey Mouse's first appearance in "Steamboat Willie," and how Disney advanced the art of film animation, beginning with his "Silly Symphony" series right up to "Mary Poppins." He also explains the philosophy behind the "Audio-Animatronics" figures developed by Walt Disney Productions for use at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. 

From the beginning, people began to collect anything bearing the imprint of Mickey Mouse or the other Disney characters — watches, toothbrushes, games, cups, bracelets, soap, candy. 

A few of these rare and valuable collector's items are displayed in a glass case towards the back of the exhibit area. There is an original Mickey Mouse watch, manufactured by Ingersoll in 1933, plus the five millionth and 25 millionth Mickey Mouse watches produced. 

On view also are books, clocks, dolls, glasses, plates, a toy stove, Christmas lights, an Emerson Mickey Mouse radio (circa 1933), records, a tea set — most of all of them manufactured in the 1930s or '40s. Today they are eagerly sought by dedicated collectors of Disneyana. 

Disney supervised his operations from two offices at the Disney Studio in Burbank, about 35 miles from Disneyland. They have been re-created as part of The Walt Disney Story, authentically furnished with pieces used during his lifetime. 

His "working" office was used for conferences with directors, writers, artists, and almost anyone involved in creating Disney projects. Behind his desk are a few of his favorite awards: a 1938 award for "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" from the International Film Festival in Venice, Italy; the very special Irving Thalberg Award, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1942 for consistent high quality of Disney films; and an Oscar, symbolic of the 51 Academy Awards received by Walt Disney and his staff throughout the years. 

The other office, also re-created for The Walt Disney Story, is the "formal" office. It was used for appointments with special guests visiting the Studio and contained a baby grand piano. Leopold Stokowski played some of the music for "Fantasia" on it more than 39 years ago, and Richard M. and Robert D. Sherman used it to play songs from "Mary Poppins" in the 1960s. 

Behind the desk are two sketches of Disney's daughters, drawn by Norman Rockwell. Between them is a portion of Disney's miniature collection — animals, dolls and small figures gathered from around the world. 

The Walt Disney Story also includes a section on Disney's famous television creations: the Zorro and Davy Crockett series and the Mickey Mouse Club. Featured are Zorro's cape, sword and mask, an original Mouseketeer hat, and two Emmys, on for Best Variety Series (1955) and the other for Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming (1964). 

One award that held a special place in Walt Disney's heart was the Oscar presented to him in 1932. This special award was given to him for the creation of Mickey Mouse, who, in a few short years, had become famous the world over. The Oscar presented to Disney now stands in a place of honor in The Walt Disney Story, surrounded by photographs from some of the early Mickey Mouse cartoons. 

A third film, shown in an area designed as an old-fashioned schoolroom, is devoted to Walt Disney, the Naturalist. The short movie, narrated by the "Audio-Animatronics" figure Y. Zol Owl, contains film clips from several of Disney's True-Life Adventure series. 

Launched in 1948 with the release of "Seal Island," the films are a continuing reminder of Disney's deep interest in ecology, the environment and the condition of man. 

Also on display in this area are various international awards and three Oscars, representative of the eight Academy Awards won by the 13 True-Life Adventure films. 

There is more: other international awards, pictures and posters of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, honorary degrees. 

The Walt Disney Story pays fitting tribute to a man whose genius made dreams come true — for himself, and for the world. 

From the Spring 1976 edition of Vacationland magazine, published by Disneyland.

An Original Walt E. Disney Check