"There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you'll be free if you truly wish to be." - Willy Wonka, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"
She lucked into eternal film fame when her sister, who was slated to play the part, became too old-looking by the time her scenes in Gone with the Wind were ready to be filmed. So Cammie King ended up with the role of a lifetime, that of Bonnie Blue Butler, beloved but doomed daughter of Rhett and Scarlett in the Academy Award winning film from 1939. Incidentally, she also played the young Faline in the Disney classic Bambi. Read the rest of this entry »
Yes, as ridiculous as it sounds, Bob and I took a special drive all the way to Palm Springs to meet up with a monkey on Monday, February 12. That morning we left Las Vegas after a hearty breakfast buffet at the hotel and headed back to his place in San Bernardino. On the way, we made a pit stop at Hadley’s, where he bought me my first date shake. It was much, much tastier than it sounds. After another brief stop at his house, and then running a red light and nearly getting creamed by a passing car, we headed to Palm Springs to see a monkey. Read the rest of this entry »
Continuing with our incredible tour of the Disney tours – as begun here:
Following our walking tour of Dave’s work area, we continued along our interweaving path through the Disney buildings. We next came upon the building in which models are crafted for film and animatronic characters. There was one lone worker in there, toiling away at some project, sawdust flying every which way. Dave asked if it would be okay if we looked around and he said “Sure. No problem.” So we spent the next fifteen minutes or so gaping at the marvels of the Disney imagineers. Above left is me posing with some head models for the animatronics in The Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the most interesting things I saw during my California trip was the Walt Disney Studios – and it was virtually the first item on the docket. After Jimmy and I killed a couple of hours in Santa Monica, we headed to Burbank to find the Walt Disney Studios and meet our friend David Rodriguez for lunch. When we drove up to the gate, I immediately recognized the surroundings as seen in several Disney documentaries, as well as in the 1941 Disney feature The Reluctant Dragon. David works as a colorist for the studios and had given the front guard our names as visiting guests. Read the rest of this entry »
I decided to throw caution to the wind on the evening of Thursday, February 8, and meet up with my friend Jason Heaton to participate in the tournament of champions trivia contest at MacGillicutty’s in Kettering – despite the ridiculously early flight I had to catch the next morning…and the fact that I was not completely packed (and I had just been to trivia at Cadillac Jack’s the night before). The net result of this is that I only got at most three hours of sleep before I had to get up at 3am and do my last minute packing. Read the rest of this entry »