When going to this kind of event, you never know what you will learn or who you will meet. More often than not, if you are a Disney aficionado, something always turns up as a nice little surprise, a little something extra. So it was when the gentleman sitting next to me introduced himself as David and we started talking about the Golden Horseshoe Revue. Turned out, David is Don Defore's son. Who, you may ask, is Don DeFore, and what's he got to do with the Golden Horseshoe? Well, Don DeFore was an actor (he played "Thorny" Thornberry, Ozzie and Harriet's next door neighbor in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet which ran on ABC from 1952 to 1966), and one of Walt Disney's friends.

Shortly after Disneyland opened, Walt invited Don to be a part of the park, and since Don had been a chef in his college years, he decided to open a restaurant. He tried out a few names, finally settling on The Silver Banjo Barbecue for his restaurant (in a tribute to a banjo he received as a kid after a trip to Louisiana) and along with his brother Verne, who served as manager of the restaurant, Don opened for business in 1957. Located roughly in the vicinity of where River Belle Terrace sits today, the Silver Banjo served barbecue, fish and chips, and assorted sandwiches.

David remembered his dad's restaurant fondly as he told me stories of being Disneyland's youngest employee (at age 12 he came to work with his dad and bussed tables), getting to run around Disneyland all day (Can you imagine getting to do that? It must have been kid-heaven), and "testing" the flying saucers for the old attraction in Tomorrowland when the Imagineers were working on the concept (basically the test consisted of whooshing around on plywood circles and David described it as loads of fun).

Most of all though, David DeFore remembered watching The Golden Horseshoe Revue and how entertaining it was to see Wally Boag and the rest of the Horseshoe gang run through their paces. So, it was no surprise to hear him humming along with the tunes as the Golden Horseshoe Celebration started and we all watched old footage of the show.

The evening's first tribute to Wally Boag and the Revue came from Executive Vice President of Walt Disney Imagineering, Marty Sklar, who remembered that Wally boag was, "Probably the most popular traveling salesman who ever traveled. And you know," he continued with a list of the Revue's cast, "Donald Novis, Betty Taylor, Fulton Burley, and the Golden Horseshoe Girls, and the boagaloons, Slue Foot Sue, and all the golden-throated tenors, and all the Wally aliases, Jose in the Enchanted Tiki Room (Wally Boag is the voice of Jose)." At this point Wally couldn't resist and interrupted Marty with Jose squawking noises which drew huge applause and delighted laughter from the room.

Marty's response to the Jose squawk ... "I still can't understand you!" And then he went on in his tribute, "By the way, he was also the voice of the Barker Bird (who used to sit outside the Enchanted Tiki Room), remember that?" "And of course," he continued, " (he was) the early inspiration for Steve Martin, and (he has) a window on Main Street, (he was made) a Disney Legend in 1995."

Mr. Sklar introduced a gentleman named Gene Sands, a friend of Wally's who is writing a biography of Wally entitled The Crown Prince of Disneyland, "It will come out, I believe in the fall," Sklar said, "so everybody watch for that, that's going to be great."

"The thing I remember so much, "Sklar continued, "is how much Walt loved Wally. He was the biggest fan of Wally Boag. Walt loved Wally. While we were working on the Tiki Room, he used to have Wally come up to the studio. He'd set up a bird and he'd bring in the President of General Electric and he'd always say to Wally, 'Tell 'em what a bird does on the bottom of his birdcage,' Wally (who was hidden behind the bird) would always say, 'Grit, grit.' Well, Walt loved that line. I don't think Wally thought it was funny after a while, but ..."

"Anyway," Sklar wound up his tribute, "This is so great to honor you and the whole Golden Horseshoe show and it's so special and it meant so much in establishing Disneyland in so many ways. So, Wally, congratulations. This is really special, thank you."

Imagineer Bob Gurr took a turn at telling stories, "Wally, you're missing an awful lot of beans," he started out, "because back in the sixties and seventies, Marty Sklar would set up a lot of corporate visits and I got to host a lot of corporate people that we worked with. He had a secret way of putting them in the front row and we'd slip a little signal to a couple of people on the stage and Wally seemed to always know who was going to get the most beans and who was going to get the wettest from all those little squirt guns. Anyway, we had a lot of corporate people who could never explain to their wives why their pockets were full of little white lima beans. Wally, you gave so much to our corporate visitors who, sometimes are not like Disneyland guests. We'd show them the park, but every time I took them over to Slue Foot Sue's, I don't even call it the Horseshoe, I call it Slue Foot Sue's, we'd sit in that front row and I was waiting for the moment you would come out and I would watch the faces. You changed corporate America and sent them home full of beans!"

The evening's emcee, John Eaden, who was a cast member of the second version of the show, the Golden Horseshoe Jamboree Show, which ran from November 1, 1986 to December 18, 1994, and can still be seen performing at Disneyland as part of Billy Hill and the Hillbillies and also as a member of Laughing Stock (he's a mighty fine Sally Mae), asked Disney artist Charles Boyer to follow Bob Gurr and say a few words about Wally. Charles told a story about making a sculpture of Wally for his retirement. He remembered Wally being very kind and loving the sculpture he'd done. Ten years later, when an earthquake had smashed the sculpture, Wally asked Charles to mend it. Charles remembered Wally being so nice and appreciating the work he'd done.

"It's still there," Wally spoke up, letting Charles know he still loved the sculpture.

"I think they should make a full-sized version," Mr. Boyer shot right back, "and put it at the Golden Horseshoe."

The Golden Horseshoe cancan Girls danced, we saw a film clip of Betty Taylor, the show's leading lady, who couldn't be there (sadly a family illness prevented her from attending as she had planned), and then the evening's tributes went on. We heard stories from some of the cast members who subbed for Wally ... Jim Adams (who performed some of his act for us), Kirk Wall (current Billy Hill and the Hillbillies cast member) who came out and entertained everyone as Elvis, and lastly, Dana Daniels (who performed the Golden Horseshoe Variety Show, throwing in a few jokes he wasn't allowed to tell at Disneyland).

When the Golden Horseshoe Jamboree (which followed Revue) ended its run at Disneyland it was replaced in turn by the Golden Horseshoe Variety Show which starred Daniels. The premise of the show was that Daniels was the janitor, the cast didn't show up, and so the janitor was forced to carry on and do the whole show all by himself. He played Clem the Hillbilly Juggler and Waldo the Magnificent who performed tricks with Luigi the Psychic Parrot. "It's A Bird!!!" The Variety Show ended its run on October 8, 2003, with Wally Boag sitting in the audience, and Dana Daniels remembered it as a special day in his life to have Wally there watching him perform.

Winding up the evening, Wally's son Laurence Boag had a few words to say about his dad. Laurence, who clearly inherited his dad's sense of humor, started his tribute with "It was February, 1949, when I first met Wally Boag. I don't really remember it, but I've got the paperwork to prove it."

Laurence remembered all the orange trees that used to surround Disneyland back in the early days and how as a 7-year-old he wondered about navel oranges and that led to wondering about belly buttons. "There's actually a screw in there," Wally told Laurence, "and if you find it and you turn it, it adjusts your butt. You know, you don't want to turn it the wrong way or else your butt will fall off."

"This was pretty intriguing for a seven-year-old," Laurence said, "So I tried it. And I tried it. I couldn't find it. I got mighty sore looking for it. And I told my dad, I said, 'Look, this is a problem,' and he said, 'Laurence, I was kidding! The truth is, this is to hold salt. You put salt in there for when you're in bed and you want some celery' ... "Well, I tried that," Laurence laughed, "and it hurt like hell."

I'll end this tale about the Golden Horseshoe Celebration with a thought from Laurence Boag, describing his experience as a kid, hanging out with his dad at his dad's work. Laurence was speaking about Disneyland, but I think the last sentence applies to the Golden Horseshoe Revue as well. He said, "You have to understand, the park for me was ... it was my back yard. It was glorious. I'd stay the night in Dad's dressing room, wake up to the Mark Twain ... I never understood it's something special, but I sure do now."

© 2008 Sue Kruse