News New Parade: Magic Happens

brb1006

brb1006

Well-Known Member
Darkbeer1 said:
FYI, Aylene Lewis was the actress (Face Character) chosen by the Quaker Oats Company, owner of the Aunt Jemina Company, to portray Aunt Jemina at Disneyland for over a Decade. She was chosen as she closely matched the original "image". She ended up finding a close friendship with Walt Disney.

https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/question/2019/april_may.htm

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Living Trademarks: The Women Behind The Faces Of Aunt Jemima

Nancy Green was born on Novermber 17, 1834. She was a Black storyteller and one of the first black corporate models in the United States. The world knew her as
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I remember hearing a story about her and Walt's relationship from an episode of Jim Hill's podcast giving a retrospective of Disneyland during it's 60th Anniversary year. Apparently when Aunt Jemina got retired at Disneyland. Walt had to explain to her that "times have changed" and felt bad for Aylene Lewis since she really enjoyed playing the character at the park.
 
brb1006

brb1006

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
And she makes darn good pancakes. I still use her boxed mix about once a week for Pancake Morning. Much better than Bisquick. Pick up a box of her mix next time you're at the store and you'll thank me later! Delicious!

GUEST_7c6f6eb3-324d-42e9-82b3-29f42ed447fa


Although the lady on the box doesn't look old-timey like she did in the 1950's. She's lost her kerchief and her plaid blouse. Probably a bit too "plantation" looking for modern eyes. But her pancakes remain the same, thank goodness!



Good for you for asking him that! I doubt anyone in his daily work team/entourage has the guts to say that to him.

Steve Davidson was such a breath of fresh air when he created the new fireworks for Disneyland's 45th anniversary in 2000, and it was nothing less than confirmation that Disneyland was going to be okay after the Light Magic debacle and in the depths of the Pressler Era. He continued to do wonderful, memorable work for Disneyland's 50th in '05. But ever since about 2010 things have become stagnant and predictable from Davidson's creative organization. The same characters, the same floats, the same songs, the same villains, the same story arc, same, same, same.

And when Mr. Davidson tried something new, like "Lil' Sprite" in World of Color, it wasn't fleshed out enough creatively to make it to the final product. The remake of the Electrical Parade around that same time, with all those Tinkerbell swoopy things nailed onto the floats, also didn't live up to the pre-opening hype and promise.

Either his touch has dulled with age, or his new found Big Shot status as a WDW senior executive has just made him lazy and sloppy, or he's become calcified in corporate bureaucracy. Probably a bit of both, phoning it in for whichever park orders a new parade or fireworks. Perhaps its time for Mr. Davidson to pass the torch and keep his weakening reputation intact?
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Does anybody know the team who composed the "Share A Dream Come True Parade" at WDW during the 100 Years Of Magic Celebration? Because I hope we could find somebody who is able to capture that Disney charm and feeling as that parade did in the future. That parade along with Disneyland's 50th Anniversary Parade might had been the last of the daytime parades that had that charm and didn't need any Disney Channel styled music.




For those that hadn't seen Share A Dream Come True Parade, the parade featured floats dedicated to Disney's films starting with Snow White and Pinocchio up till the Renaissance Era.
 
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TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
brb1006 said:
I remember hearing a story about her and Walt's relationship from an episode of Jim Hill's podcast giving a retrospective of Disneyland during it's 60th Anniversary year. Apparently when Aunt Jemina got retired at Disneyland. Walt had to explain to her that "times have changed" and felt bad for Aylene Lewis since she really enjoyed playing the character at the park.
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Oh, I hadn't heard that. That's sweet of Walt.
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
brb1006 said:
Does anybody know the team who composed the "Share A Dream Come True Parade" at WDW during the 100 Years Of Magic Celebration? Because I hope we could find somebody who is able to capture that Disney charm and feeling as that parade did in the future. That parade along with Disneyland's 50th Anniversary Parade might had been the last of the daytime parades that had that charm and didn't need any Disney Channel styled music.
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You know, that's a great question for several reasons.

Steve Davidson was the golden boy in Anaheim around the turn of the century. But we never really heard about anyone who worked in WDW back then (or even now). WDW was still in the business of parades for all their parks back then, compared to now when they just have one day parade and their recent night parade was borrowed from Disneyland.

There's such an ability to create a cult of personality around Disneyland over the last few decades; from mixed bags like Cynthia Harriss and Steve Davidson, to sparklers like Matt Ouimet and Josh Damaro, to even relative duds like Ed Grier and Michael Colglazier. But out at WDW they seem to just toil away anonymously. And we have no idea who the creative person was behind stuff like that 100 Years Of Magic parade.

A really good example of the differences between the personality and trend-driven Disneyland and the corporate blandness and anonymity of Walt Disney World.
 
brb1006

brb1006

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
You know, that's a great question for several reasons.

Steve Davidson was the golden boy in Anaheim around the turn of the century. But we never really heard about anyone who worked in WDW back then (or even now). WDW was still in the business of parades for all their parks back then, compared to now when they just have one day parade and their recent night parade was borrowed from Disneyland.

There's such an ability to create a cult of personality around Disneyland over the last few decades; from mixed bags like Cynthia Harriss and Steve Davidson, to sparklers like Matt Ouimet and Josh Damaro, to even relative duds like Ed Grier and Michael Colglazier. But out at WDW they seem to just toil away anonymously. And we have no idea who the creative person was behind stuff like that 100 Years Of Magic parade.

A really good example of the differences between the personality and trend-driven Disneyland and the corporate blandness and anonymity of Walt Disney World.
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Alright, I did some research on the Share A Dream Come True Parade. The parade was actually composed by Gavin Greenaway while conducted by David T. Clydesdale and recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Looks like that parade might had been the last daytime parade at the U.S. Disney Parks that was fully orchestrated (Spectromagic was the only electrical parade that was fully orchestrated). There's something about a fully orchestrated soundtrack at any Disney Theme Park that has that "Disney Charm, Magic" that makes it more memorable and stick out to guests more.

That parade is definitely not a Steve Davidson production.
 
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180º

180º

Well-Known Member
brb1006 said:
Does anybody know the team who composed the "Share A Dream Come True Parade" at WDW during the 100 Years Of Magic Celebration? Because I hope we could find somebody who is able to capture that Disney charm and feeling as that parade did in the future. That parade along with Disneyland's 50th Anniversary Parade might had been the last of the daytime parades that had that charm and didn't need any Disney Channel styled music.




For those that hadn't seen Share A Dream Come True Parade, the parade featured floats dedicated to Disney's films starting with Snow White and Pinocchio up till the Renaissance Era.
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Gavin Greenaway wrote the music for Share a Dream Come True as well as the Millennium Celebration and BraviSEAmo. He’s the only composer I can think of who has given us greater music for the parks’ live entertainment than Bruce Healy or George Wilkins.
 
brb1006

brb1006

Well-Known Member
180º said:
Gavin Greenaway wrote the music for Share a Dream Come True as well as the Millennium Celebration and BraviSEAmo. He’s the only composer I can think of who has given us greater music for the parks’ live entertainment than Bruce Healy or George Wilkins.
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I honesty prefer Gavin Greenaway's music for the parades and shows over a Steve Davidson production any day. Gavin's style had much more charm, a sense of relaxation and amazement, and gave that old school Disney feeling that's missing in modern Disney Parade. Davidson's music could either be a hit or miss. I seriously wish Gavin Greenaway would had been the main person to compose modern music for the parks. If WDW gained a new daytime parade created in honor of the park's 50th Anniversary. Then Gavin Greenaway is the perfect composer to do it.

Also which parade music did Bruce Healy and George Wilkins compose in the past?
 
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180º

180º

Well-Known Member
brb1006 said:
I honesty prefer Gavin Greenaway's music for the parades and shows over a Steve Davidson production any day. Gavin's style had much more charm, a sense of relation and amazement, and gave that old school Disney feeling that's missing in modern Disney Parade. Davidson's music could either be a hit or miss. I seriously wish Gavin Greenaway would had been the main person to compose modern music for the parks. If WDW gained a new daytime parade created in honor of the park's 50th Anniversary. Then Gavin Greenaway is the perfect composer to do it.

Also which parade music did Bruce Healy and George Wilkins compose in the past?
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Off the top of my head, Bruce Healy gave us the music for Fantasmic and A Christmas Fantasy. George Wilkins did the music for Wishes, but he has a prolific history with Disney parks beyond that. He wrote New Horizons, California Screamin’, and the theme song for WDW’s Space Mountain during its RCA sponsorship that still partially plays today.

Steve Davison’s not a composer, it’s just that his shows are a little choppy and unoriginal. RDCT recycled the theme song from Wishes. Magical recycled the theme song from Splashtacular, of all things. Soundsational recycled the theme song from a parade in one of the overseas parks. These days, even outside of Davison’s work, Disney’s trending toward a poppier sound. Why couldn’t Richard Sherman’s “A Kiss Goodnight” have carried Disneyland Forever instead of the blandest pop arrangements of “Live the Magic” (whose post-show ballad version is very nice, btw)? Why does the American Adventure show now have tired-sounding percussion apologetically beating quarter notes over the finale?

/rant
 
brb1006

brb1006

Well-Known Member
180º said:
Off the top of my head, Bruce Healy gave us the music for Fantasmic and A Christmas Fantasy. George Wilkins did the music for Wishes, but he has a prolific history with Disney parks beyond that. He wrote New Horizons, California Screamin’, and the theme song for WDW’s Space Mountain during its RCA sponsorship that still partially plays today.

Steve Davison’s not a composer, it’s just that his shows are a little choppy and unoriginal. RDCT recycled the theme song from Wishes. Magical recycled the theme song from Splashtacular, of all things. Soundsational recycled the theme song from a parade in one of the overseas parks. These days, even outside of Davison’s work, Disney’s trending toward a poppier sound. Why couldn’t Richard Sherman’s “A Kiss Goodnight” have carried Disneyland Forever instead of the blandest pop arrangements of “Live the Magic” (whose post-show ballad version is very nice, btw)? Why does the American Adventure show now have tired-sounding percussion apologetically beating quarter notes over the finale?

/rant
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The updated Fantasmic also reused some elements and music from the Tokyo Disneysea version. Mainly the very last scene where "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" song is played when Mickey says "Some Imagination huh?". I also enjoy the ballad version of "Live the Magic" as guests were leaving. There is also one version of "Live the Magic" that was played once for the park opening of Disneyland on the exact day of it's original 55 opening. Also yeah, Steve Davidson really loves reusing parade/show themes from the other parks but giving them different lyrics for the U.S. Parks. You get the opposite for Bruce Healy, George Wilkins, and Gavin Greenway since their music are much more timeless and aim for every demographic young and old. Disney's recent poppier style music for the parades appear to only be aimed at the teen and young adult demographic (the Millennial generation).
 
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VJ

VJ

Well-Known Member
brb1006 said:
Does anybody know the team who composed the "Share A Dream Come True Parade" at WDW during the 100 Years Of Magic Celebration? Because I hope we could find somebody who is able to capture that Disney charm and feeling as that parade did in the future. That parade along with Disneyland's 50th Anniversary Parade might had been the last of the daytime parades that had that charm and didn't need any Disney Channel styled music.




For those that hadn't seen Share A Dream Come True Parade, the parade featured floats dedicated to Disney's films starting with Snow White and Pinocchio up till the Renaissance Era.
Click to expand...

Gavin Greenaway arranged Share A Dream Come True Parade and Mark Hammond arranged Parade of Dreams.
 

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