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This week I'm concentrating on the two biggest upcoming Disney events, the D23 Expo and the Walt Disney Family Museum.

In the interest of planning, in order for you to get the most out of your D23 Expo experience, the D23 folks have released a downloadable PDF with the all expo's scheduled events and various experiences. It's got maps, it's got times, it's got people!

I know you want to download this because not only can you plot out the whos, the whats, and the wheres of your D23 Expo experience, you can also plot out your plans to drop by the MiceAge/MiceChat booth and say hi to your favorite MiceAge, MiceChat, Yesterland, and Gay Days Anaheim personalities. We'll all be there in the Collectors Forum, which is located on the ground floor of the Expo, booth C209.

See? I told you that you needed this thing and I was right, wasn't I? Download it at this link.

Now -- speaking of the D23 Expo, those of you attending have the opportunity to see the latest Disney Legends ceremony. Which, having seen one of these, I can tell you, is a pretty exciting thing to behold ... and special too, because they are not usually open to the public.

The first Disney Legend was given out in 1987 to actor Fred MacMurray. Remember him from The Shaggy Dog, The Absent-Minded Professor, The Happiest Millionaire? In all total, 237 Disney Legends have been named, including this year's honorees. Some of the past recipients of this award have been Tim Allen, Julie Andrews, Howard Ashman, Annette Funicello, Peter Jennings, Angela Lansbury, Steve Martin, Alan Menken, Hayley Mills, Fess Parker, Sir Tim Rice, Dick Van Dyke and Barbara Walters.

The Awards are a 22-year tradition with the Disney Company and the ceremony, which will be hosted by ABC's Tom Bergeron, will take place at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 10, in the Anaheim Convention Center Arena. Each honoree will be presented with a two-foot-tall bronze Disney Legends sculpture and in addition to that, they also get to make a set of hand prints, Grauman's Chinese Theatre-style, which are then bronzed and displayed in the Disney Legends Plaza at the Company's Burbank headquarters.

The 2009 Disney Legends Award honorees are:

TONY ANSELMO - a Disney animator who, since 1985, has provided the voice of Donald Duck, and BILL FARMER - the voice of Goofy, Pluto and Horace Horsecollar for many Disney productions.

HARRY ARCHINAL - the former president of Buena Vista International, and the late LEOTA TOOMBS THOMAS from Imagineering who became world-famous as the Haunted Mansion's disembodied Madame Leota. DON IWERKS - the son of Walt Disney's longtime friend and animator Ub Iwerks. Don created film systems that were used in movies like Mary Poppins and park attractions such as "CircleVision 360" and "Star Tours."

BEATRICE ARTHUR - the late Tony Award-winning stage actress, also known for TV shows such as The Golden Girls and Maude; the late ESTELLE GETTY who was, in fact, younger than Arthur but portrayed her mother in The Golden Girls. RUE McCLANAHAN who not only did The Golden Girls, with Arthur but also Maude, as well as co-starred in Mama's Family, and BETTY WHITE - also in The Golden Girls The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and The Practice among many others.

ROBIN WILLIAMS - who for Disney was the voice of Genie in Aladdin and starred in Good Morning, Vietnam, and Dead Poets Society.

For a complete list of all the Disney Legends honorees (not all famous names but certainly all worthy of such an award), visit this link to learn their stories and what they did for the Walt Disney Company.

Now, on to The Walt Disney Family Museum's Gallery Number 8.


Gallery 8 artist rendering

With the museum's October 1st opening day less than a month away now, we're winding down on our previews of the various galleries you'll get to see when you visit. You are planning your visits aren't you, Dear Readers? I know I am.

From the press release:

Gallery 8 - Walt and the Natural World: Walt--who had a love of nature since his youth in Marceline--also ventured into live-action documentaries during the '40s and early '50s. The first of these was a nature documentary, Seal Island, a 27-minute account of the seasonal habits of seals that won the 1949 Academy Awardª for best two-reel documentary. Later documentaries in the series, "True-Life Adventures" continued to focus on nature, while "People and Places" highlighted peoples and destinations around the world.

I remember well watching the True-Life Adventures while in grade school and when I think back to those times now, I realize that the teachers probably loved those films as much as we kiddies did. We got to avoid schoolwork and see exciting films about animals and their lives, and the teachers? They got a break from the probably rowdy kiddies (I'm remembering we were all perfectly behaved little kiddies but you know that memory just isn't so). Exhibits in gallery 8 will include some of the specialized equipment used in the production of the "True-Life Adventures" series so it should be a very interesting gallery, indeed.

If you're planning a trip up to San Francisco to see the museum, The Walt Disney Family Museum's website is up so you can take a look for all the pertinent information including ticketing info, prices, how to get there, etc. and -- you can now order your tickets for a visit: http://www.waltdisney.org You can also follow the Walt Disney Family Museum on Facebook and Twitter for the latest scoop, and of course discuss it all to your heart's content at MiceChat's forum for it.

And that should do it for this week's...

If you'd like to submit something to be considered for the column, please send it to both Sue and Al at the following email addresses: [email protected] and [email protected] with the words "Pressing Matters" in the subject line. Due to our already extensive email loads we won't be able to acknowledge each submission, but those under consideration may get a note from us asking for more details. Representatives from the items chosen are invited to answer questions from readers at the forum linked at the end of each column.

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© 2009 Sue Kruse

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