Hi. Its been a while. No, I haven’t forgotten about you – trust me, I haven’t. I’ve been busy — very busy. I’ve been working on some exciting new things in my professional life and I’m getting closer to a point where I can unveil what I’ve been working on, but not quite yet.

I just wanted to let you all know that I’m still around, doing well, and will be back in some capacity to the whole “Netcot” thing. It might not be as regularly as it used to be (at least for a while) but it will be just as much fun. So stay tuned, stop in from time to time and I’ll try to give you all some fun updates whenever possible. In the mean time, I post something on Twitter just about every day – so feel free to follow me there.

So that’s my story at the moment. How are you?

Roy Edward Disney was born to Roy Oliver Disney and Edna Francis Disney in Los Angeles on January 10, 1930 (and is their sole child). As a child, he traveled to the Studio where he viewed the films the animators were working on (i.e. “Snow White”, “Pinocchio”) and acted as a sounging board to his father’s (and his uncle’s) workers. He graduated in 1951 from Pomona College with a Bachelor’s degree in English. Once out of college, he returned to the entertainment industry as an assistant film director on “Dragnet” before returning to the Walt Disney Studios in 1954.

Once back at the Studios, he worked on “The Living Desert” and “The Vanishing Prarie” (two True-Life Adventure films that won Academy Awards) as an assistant editor. He continued writing and working on television series like “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color” as well as “Zorro”.

He formed his own production unit in 1964 to write, produce, and direct other television and theatrical productions (i.e. “Varda, the Peregrine Falcon”, “Mustang!”, “The Owl That Didn’t Give a Hoot”) before joining the Company’s Board of Directors in 1967.

He left the company in 1977 (after 23 years with the Studios) to become an independent producer/investor because he didn’t agree with the direction of the company. However, he still retained his seat on the board of directors.

In 1984, Roy used his swagger on the Board to oust his cousin’s husband (Ron Miller) and brought in Michael Eisner as CEO and Frank Wells as COO. In this same year, he became the Vice Chairman and head of the animation department (where he oversaw “The Little Mermaid”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “The Lion King”, and most of the Golden Age films). His favorite movie ever to oversee was Fantasia 2000-the long awaited sequel to his uncle’s Fantasia.

While Disney was head of animation, his department was extremely successful. He also had enormous power over most of his colleagues (even Eisner) which allowed his department to have some artistic freedom.
Towards the end of Eisner’s reign, Disney’s influence started to wane as Eisner appointed high posts to “Suits” that were more loyal to him, not the Disney family. On November 30, 2003, Disney resigned from the company (after the board of directors rejected his request for an extenstion of his term as a board member) based on differences of opinion about the management style and direction within the company.
After his resignation, Disney continued to actively work on forcing out Eisner as CEO (he and Stanley Gold created SaveDisney.com). In 2004, 43% of Disney shareholders voted to oppose the re-election of Eisner to the corporate board of directors, but he retained the CEO title (much to Disney and Gold’s dismay). As criticism against him increased (especially for being dissatisfied with PIXAR), Eisner annouced his resignation from the company on September 30, 2005. To this day, Eisner still holds 1.7% of Disney stock (2nd largest owner) while Roy Disney holds 1% (the 3rd largest owner).

Roy Disney and Stanley Gold have become the Chair and CEO (respectively) of Shamrock Holdings which manages Disney’s personal investments. Disney is also a well known sailor (he set the monohull time record from Los Angeles to Honolulu with 7 days, 11 hours, 41 minutes, 27 seconds) and produced the film “Morning Light”.

Roy E. Disney was named a Disney Legend in 1998 and lost his battle with cancer on Dec. 16, 2009.

{Author’s Note: Upon the news that Roy E. Disney had passed away, I found it only appropriate to learn more about his life. We’ll resume our look at some comic strip artists next week}

Floyd Gottfredson was born in 1905 in Kaysville, Utah (in a railroad station where his parents lived). His father would regularly take him on hunting trips. After one of these trips left him severely injured, Gottfredson took up cartooning through correspondance courses.

By the 1920s, he was drawing comic strips for several Utah newspapers while also working for a small movie theater chain as a projectionist and advertising artist. After winning several awards for his cartoons, Gottfredson moved to southern California in hopes of breaking into the newspaper industry, but couldn’t find a job and ended up working at another theater as a projectionist. When the theater was torn down a year later, Gottfredson found himself out of a job until he heard about a potential opening at the Walt Disney Studios.

In 1929, he was hired by Walt to work as an in-between to help with the “Silly Symphony” shorts. When Ub Iwerks and Win Smith left the Studios, they left no one in charge of the “Mickey Mouse” daily/Sunday comic strips. Walt, knowing Gottfredson’s knack for comics, asked him to take over temporarily until it was permanently filled. Gottfredson held this position from 1930 until 1975.

After a few months of inking the “Mickey Mouse” strip, Gottfredson was promoted to head of the Walt Disney Comic Strip Department. Under him, the department grew to include the “Mickey Mouse” daily and Sunday strips, the “Donald Duck” daily and Sunday strips, and the “Silly Symphony” Sunday strip. A few years into the strip, he started to pull back and let others ink the strips while he penciled them so that he could oversee the department better.

He introduced a number of well-known Disney characters in his “Mickey Mouse” strips such as Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse (Mickey’s nephews), Eli Squinch, Sylvester Shyster, Captain Doberman and Gloomy, and The Phantom Blot.

Floyd Gottfredson died July 22, 1986, was named a Disney Legend in 2003, and was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.

Here is an example of one of his earliest strips while you can find one of Gottfredson’s later strips here.

• Tony Anselmo: voice of Donald Duck since 1985
• Harry Archinal: former president of Buena Vista International (which distributed Disney movies worldwide)
• Beatrice Arthur: Dorothy Zbornak in The Golden Girls (1985-1992) [Awarded  posthumously]
• Bill Farmer: voice of Goofy since 1986 (he’s also voiced Pluto and Horace Horsecollar)
• Estelle Getty: Sophia Petrillo in The Golden Girls (1985-1992) [awarded posthumously]
• Don Iwerks: son of Ub Iwerks, helped revolutionize several film processes (traveling matte-Mary Poppins; CircleVision 360; Star Tours)
• Rue McClanahan: Blanche Devereaux in The Golden Girls (1985-1992).
• Leota Toombs Thomas: worked at WED Enterprises and served as a model for Madame Leota in The Haunted Mansion [awarded posthumously]
• Betty White: Rose Nylund in The Golden Girls; The Mary Tyler Moore Show; The Golden Palace; The Practice, The Betty White Show.
• Robin Williams: Flubber; voice of Genie in Aladdin; Good Morning, Vietnam, Dead Poets Society.

The honorees will receive their awards on September 10th at 11am at the D23 expo.

Russi Taylor

Surely enough, Taylor’s dreams came true when she beat out over 200 people for the voice of Minnie Mouse in 1986. The next year, she met her future husband, Wayne Allwine, while taping Totally Minnie. Over the years, Taylor has voiced

• Huey, Duey, Louie, and Webbigail Vanderquack (DuckTales)
• Daisy Duck (Fantasia 2000)
• Aquata (The Little Mermaid TV series)
• Baby Gonzo (Muppet Babies)
• Nurse Mouse (The Rescuers Down Under)
• Martin Prince, Sherri and Terri, and Üter Zörker (The Simpsons)
• Strawberry Shortcake
• Duchess the Cat (Babe)

Russi Taylor is still working at The Disney Studios and was named a Disney Legend in 2008.

Edna Francis Disney was born in Reece, Kansas, on January 16, 1890, the third of six children. At a young age, she took many jobs to help support her family. It was during her stint at the Kansas City Times that Edna’s younger brother introduced her to one of his co-workers (who went by the name of Roy O. Disney). Roy won over Edna’s heart at a dance, even though he didn’t know how to dance very well. From that point forward, nothing would separate the pair–even distance.

While Roy recovered from World War I (he was diagnosed with tubercurlosis), Edna and the Francis family served as Walt’s surrogate family as his parents had moved to Oregon (it was during this time that he was struggling with Laugh-O-Gram Studios). When he decided to move out to Hollywood to start a new studio, Roy (who would help with the finances) chose not to be away from his childhood sweetheart anymore and proposed to Edna Francis. The two were married in 1923.

Once the Disney Brothers Studio (later to be known as the Walt Disney Studios) opened, Edna, along with Lillian Bounds Disney (Walt’s wife), became one of the studio’s first “ink girls” in the Ink and Paint Department. In 1930, Roy and Edna had their one and only child-Roy E. Disney.

Edna Francis Disney died December 18, 1984, and was named a Disney Legend in 2003.

[AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the last in the This Week in Disney History series for a while (as history will repeat itself. To check out the older posts, visit them on the forums, here.]

Welcome to this week’s installment of Disney’s Magic Makers where we’re taking a look at the third voice of Mickey Mouse: Wayne Allwine.

Wayne Allwine was born on February 7, 1947, in Glendale, California. He started performing at an early age with his first televised appearance at age 7 on Art Linkletter’s “House Party” show. During his teenage years, Allwine formed “The International Singers”, an acoustic group, which performed in venues throughout California. He continued his musical career, which culminated in being a member of The Arrows (which was put together by Mike Curb). Wanting to have a normal life, Allwine decided to take a job opening in the mail room at the Walt Disney Studios in 1966, quickly moving up through the ranks (Mail room to Wardrobe to Audio Post Production to Sound Effects) until he became Jimmy Macdonald’s apprentice. 

In 1977, he decided to go to an open audition Disney was having to find the next voice for Mickey Mouse and Allwine walked away with the part. His debut as the Mouse came with the premiere of “The New Mickey Mouse Club” and provided Mickey’s voice until his death (the longest voice of the Mouse in Disney history), working on such titles as The Prince and the Pauper, Mickey’s Christmas Carol, The Three Musketeers, House of Mouse, Mickey’s Mouse Works, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

In the 1980s, Allwine worked on sound effects for Splash, Three Men and a Baby; as well as on movies for other studios (Innerspace, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier). He earned an Emmy and a Golden Reel for his work on Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories as well as another Golden Reel for his contributions to The Great Mouse Detective.

Allwine married Russi Taylor (voice of Minnie Mouse) in 1991 and share four children from separate marriages as well as a production company: Taylor-Allwine Associates.

Wayne Allwine, a Disney Legend since 2008, passed away on May 18, 2009 at the age of 62.