Wally Cox hated the role that made him famous. After beginning his career as a stand-up comedian, he starred for three seasons as mild-mannered science teacher Robinson Peepers in “Mr. Peepers”, an early sitcom that co-starred Tony Randall, Jack Warden and Marion Lorne. In interviews, Wally constantly argued unsuccessfully that he was nothing like the shy and timid character he …
Remember Saturday afternoon kiddie matinees at the movies? Thank K. Gordon Murray. Murray, an entrepreneur as early as his teen years, set up a makeshift bingo game in one of his funeral director father’s cemetery tents. He took his game on the road with a carnival, eventually becoming the traveling show’s manager. In the late …
Elvia Allman had a long and productive career and, most likely, you never heard of her. Elvia made her debut on Bob Hope’s radio show in the late 1930s, portraying the man-crazy character Cobina, a parody of Cobina Wright, a society debutante of the time. Wright sued over the portrayal. The case was settled out …
This week’s challenge word on the Illustration Friday website is “strong”. “Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.” — Ronald Reagan On a recent trip to Walt Disney World, my wife and I witnessed something we found very unsettling. To alleviate the effects of the central Florida humidity, …
The word of inspiration on Inspire Me Thursday is “cupcake”. As mentioned many, many times on this blog, I love going to Disney theme parks. I went to Walt Disney World for the first time when I was nineteen. My wife and I went to Walt Disney World on our honeymoon. We took our son …
This week’s illustrationfriday.com challenge is “impatience”. There was nobody that ever lived that was as impatient as my father. Perhaps it started when he was a child. He and his parents lived at eight different addresses on West 52nd Street in Philadelphia. They kept moving up the block. My father told me it was because each …
Bobby Driscoll was Walt Disney’s Golden Child. He was the typical cute, scrappy All-American boy and Disney Studios milked that image for all they could. Bobby starred in a string of classic live-action pictures for Disney, including Song of the South, So Dear to My Heart and Treasure Island. He was also provided the voice for …
What started out as a black and white sketch of a crooked street leading to a peaceful graveyard, with a run-down manor perched high on a hill that loomed over Main Street evolved into one of the greatest and most beloved attractions in Disneyland — The Haunted Mansion. A short time after the opening of …
In 1919, eighteen year-old Ub Iwerks was working for the Pesman Art Studio in Kansas City, Missouri. It was here he met another eighteen year-old, a fellow artist named Walt Disney, who would become his oldest and best friend. Disney and Iwerks moved on to work as illustrators for The Kansas City Film Ad Company. …
This week, the challenge word on the Illustration Friday website is “parade”. It has been made clear that I am a big fan of Disney theme parks. I’ve been to Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California many, many times. I have written about and illustrated many of my adventures in ol’ Walt’s entertainment …
