Mickey Mouse Club

Fun Fact:

On this day in 1955 The Mickey Mouse Club made its original debut on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).  The show originally aired from 1955-1959.

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Walt Disney's Multi Place Camera

My husband just came across this video on one of his 'nerd' websites.  We are both heavily into photography and videography so we found it fascinating.

The video shows Walt Disney explaining how a traditional cartoon was filmed and how the MultiPlane Camera works.  It transforms a 2-D background into one that appears almost 3-D.  Pretty incredible for it's time.  If you've ever watch Bambi then you've seen it in action (BTW I've never seen Bambi).

Anyway, here is Disney himself...

Pirates!

After watching the newest Pirates of the Caribbean movie I got to thinking about pirate history...

After just a quick search I learned something that should have been fairly obvious.

Pirates did not actually look like Captain Jack Sparrow...wait?!?!  What?!?  o.O

Ok, all joking aside.  I didn't really believe that historical pirates dressed like the Hollywood version of pirates...but it is really fun for the movies.  *Side note- I was the theatre costumer in college so I was loving that aspect of the film* 

I did a google search and found this website.  After a quick look around it seems like it has some pretty good info.  It's 11:30 p.m. and I need to head to bed...so when it's day time I'll be reading up more about pirates and what they really wore...and other pirate-y things :)

Norma

Ever wondered about the singers and actors you hear in old cartoons?

Champagne Lady Norma Zimmer from the Lawrence Welk Show provided the singing voice for the White Rose in Disney’s 1951 release of Alice in Wonderland.

Norma had a successful career including a small role in a Bing Crosby film, but was most remembered for her 22 years on the Lawrence Welk Show.

 

As a Lawrence Welk fan I was sad to hear that Norma passed away on May 10, 2011, at the age of 87. I had the pleasure of meeting

Norma at a Lawrence Welk reunion show in 2004. I picked up her biography simply titled Norma a while back and have been meaning to read it.

By the way, I wrote my high school senior paper about Lawrence Welk…chose the topic willingly after years of watching reruns on OETA and attending the reunion show. I got to interview Welk star Tom Netherton for the paper- my first and most memorable interview!

I’m sure I’ll cover more Lawrence Welk topics along my history journey :)

Putting on the Gloves

My husband recently bought me the Mickey Mania game for SEGA GENESIS. *Yes, the game from the early 90s* The player plays through several of the original Mickey Mouse cartoons starting at Steamboat Willie.

I have yet to make it through the first full level (I'm really bad at video games unless it's Sonic).

But the game got me thinking about Mickey. After a quick google search I found some fun info.

Mickey first appeared in Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho. Both failed due to lack of distribution. It was Steamboat Willie, in 1928, that is considered to be the first 'real' appearance of Mickey Mouse.

In Steamboat Willie it was hard for viewers to see Mickey's black hands against his black body. A couple of cartoon shorts later in 1929, Mickey was given his classic white gloves. The white gloves stayed, even after the switch to color in 1935.



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