OK, so I had always liked the Mickey Mouse Club, but it wasn't until recently buying Walt Disney Treasures: Annette that I knew what a special and amazing actress Annette Funicello is. The Annette serial was just plain awesome, and we watched the entire thing over two nights recently when we rented a cabin for a week.

Herbert Ryman was working on Disneyland projects right up to the time of Walt’s death in 1966, doing quite a bit of artwork for both the New Orleans Square and New Tomorrowland expansions. It seems only natural, then, that Herb would begin work on Walt Disney World when development began on the new resort. Much of Walt’s attention before his passing was devoted not to the Magic Kingdom park, but rather to his city of the future – EPCOT.

In my most recent piece about Imagineer Herb Ryman, I mentioned how Ryman initially designed the “Mighty Microscope” of Monsanto’s Adventures Thru Inner Space to resemble an antique microscope that had belonged to his father. Ryman’s father, also named Herbert

Sure is taking a long time to get around Tom Sawyer’s Island, isn’t it? Today's post starts out in a blaze of glory, as we view the Burning Cabin. The sicko inside of me has to zoom in for a glory closeup of the settler with an arrow through his chest.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DISNEYLAND!

* Foxxfur at Passport2Dreams takes us back to the early 1970s for gander at some early lodging choices.
* Designing Disney looks at the inspirations for the Market House Deli in Disneyland Paris.
* Michael Sporn takes a look at a new Mary Blair book from Japan.