Walt Disney

Los Angeles -- Songwriters Robert and Richard Sherman were having one of their traditional Friday afternoon scotch mists with Walt Disney in his office when the studio head turned to the younger brother at the piano and said, "Play it."Without having to ask, Dick Sherman began playing "Feed the Birds," a touching song about the poor and homeless written by the brothers for the 1964 Disney hit, "Mary Poppins.""Disney often got tears in his eyes when he heard that," Dick Sherman, 63, said. "It was his favorite song.

Five former ESPN Zone employees filed a class action lawsuit Monday against the company, alleging it had violated federal standards for notifying and paying workers who lost their jobs when the Inner Harbor location closed in June. The federal lawsuit claims that ESPN Zone, owned by Walt Disney Co., did not provide laid-off workers the mandated 60 days' notice of termination under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, Act. The company has previously stated that it followed the federal regulations.

Walt Disney Co.'s designers, artists and engineers aren't usually for hire. But occasionally they'll work for an outside client if they like the project and aren't too busy.Disney's interest in Baltimore's children's museum was sparked by a combination of personal contacts and excitement about the attraction's possibilities, officials said yesterday."Children's museums have been successful throughout the country, and this is going to be the state-of-the-art children's museum," said Douglas Becker, museum chairman and president of Sylvan Learning Systems Inc. of Columbia.

ROY DISNEY, 79 Nephew of Walt Disney Roy E. Disney, the nephew of Walt Disney who became a powerful behind-the-scenes influence on the family business, died Wednesday in Newport Beach, Calif., of stomach cancer. His father, Roy O. Disney, and uncle, Walt, founded The Walt Disney Co. in the 1920s. Walt Disney was the company's creative genius but Roy Disney's father played a vital role as head of its financial side. The younger Disney, born in 1930, worked for the company as a writer and producer.

The family of Walt Disney opens its archives and shares recollections of the entertainment legend in a recent release from Disney Interactive, "Walt Disney: An Intimate History of the Man and His Magic."Hours of home movies and multimedia presentations take you into the private life of the Disney family. Interactive activities are fun and educational, and there's a vast collection of photos, animation art, drawings, and letters for the curious to peruse.The journey begins in the Main Hall, where visitors meet Disney's daughter, Diane Disney Miller, and her family.

It's no fairy tale. Your coach -- or monorail or boat or bus -- will whisk you to the ball -- or theme park -- and it won't turn into a pumpkin at midnight. The ride is convenient, clean and friendly. Talk about a magic kingdom.This transit utopia, of course, is Walt Disney World, where, for 25 years, more than 100 million people have come to find the extraordinary is routine and the fantastic is to be expected."I love this job," says John, the monorail driver. "Everywhere I look I see a picture postcard scene."

This month marks the 40th anniversary of Walt Disney's death from lung cancer, a long time by most measures and an eternity for figures in the popular culture, who usually evaporate quickly from our memories. To a surprising degree, however, he has managed to survive in the national consciousness, not just as a corporate logo but as a kind of cultural barometer. Ask just about anyone how he or she feels about Disney, and you are likely to get either a beaming tribute from those who recall him fondly and enjoy his animations and theme parks, or a scowling denunciation from those who see him as the great Satan of modern mass culture.

"Fantasia 2000" is what Walt Disney had in mind all along. In the late 1930s, when he and maestro Leopold Stokowski began formulating plans for what would become the original "Fantasia," Disney's thought was to create a marriage of animation and music that would be updated annually, with new pieces replacing old. If nothing else, he thought, such an effort would introduce more and more of the public to more and more of the music Disney so loved....

THANKS TO the Kids Wish Network, 17-year-old Phillip Gray of Ellicott City got to meet Mickey Mouse as part of a six-day trip to Orlando, Fla. Phillip was born with a rare blood disorder that causes mental retardation and skeletal disorders. About two years ago, his spine was damaged during surgery to correct a curvature, said his mother, Maria. Since then, he has used a wheelchair. Phillip's elder brother, 18-year-old Sean, has mild cerebral palsy. Mrs. Gray said she is asked repeatedly how she takes care of two disabled children.

The way some Walt Disney Co. shareholders see it, if Michael D. Eisner were given an executive evaluation he would likely get a D minus. Hundreds were expressing their negative opinions of him in no uncertain terms yesterday in Philadelphia near the site of the company's annual meeting today. "The current way the company is run, they have lost touch," said Cheryl Lowe, a 54-year-old naval architect from Maple Shade, N.J. "I am looking for the board of directors to wake up and realize they have to throw Eisner out."

Nov. 6 Disney's A Christmas Carol: (Walt Disney Pictures) Director Robert Zemeckis distills the classic Dickens tale with a 3-D twist. With Jim Carrey and Gary Oldman. The Fourth Kind: (Universal Pictures) A psychologist investigates an extraordinary number of disappearances around a small Alaskan town. With Milla Jovovich and Elias Koteas. Men Who Stare At Goats: (Overture Films) A reporter in Iraq just might have the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady, a guy who claims to be a former member of the Army's First Earth Battalion, a unit that employs paranormal powers.

VIRGINIA DAVIS, 90 Walt Disney's first star Virginia Davis, who appeared in Walt Disney's pioneering "Alice" films, has died at age 90. The Walt Disney Co. said Ms. Davis died at her home Saturday in Corona, Calif., of natural causes. Ms. Davis was hired by Disney in 1923 when he was a struggling filmmaker in Kansas City, Mo., and later worked with him in Hollywood. She was the first of several girls to have the title role in the series of "Alice" comedies that ran from 1923 to 1927.

T. Rowe Price opens exhibit at Walt Disney World Baltimore money manager T. Rowe Price Group's new financial education and interactive exhibit opens Tuesday at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. The Great Piggy Bank Adventure at Epcot's Innoventions will feature personal finance lessons for families on saving, spending wisely and diversifying investments, among others. This exhibit is the first of its kind for Price, which was approached by Disney three years ago. The exhibit also features a companion online game and a related Web site at www.greatpiggybankadventure.

Beverly Hills -Stan Lee sits in his Santa Monica Boulevard office, surrounded by images of his creations: A life-size statue of the Amazing Spider-Man, a poster of the Incredible Hulk, a desktop figure of Ben Grimm, aka The Thing. And then there's his Dell desktop computer. He has yet to master it (give the man a break, he's 86 years old). But he embraces it as a creative tool - and sees it as the next frontier for the comic books he helped turn from a kids' amusement to one of the world's most fertile and influential entertainment media.

Walt Disney World Resort in Florida will feature a new financial education and interactive exhibit thanks to a partnership with Baltimore money manager T. Rowe Price Group. The Great Piggy Bank Adventure is set to open May 19 at Epcot's Innoventions, whose exhibits focus on ideas and innovations, Price announced yesterday. Financial details of the sponsorship agreement were not disclosed, but money for the project will come from Price's advertising and promotions budget, Price said. The exhibit, designed in collaboration with Walt Disney Imagineering, will offer lessons on four financial issues: setting goals; saving and spending smartly; staying ahead of inflation; and diversifying your investments.

MidAmerican continues to reduce Constellation stake MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., which failed to buy Constellation Energy Group last year, continues to reduce its stake in the Baltimore-based company, according to a regulatory filing made public last night. MidAmerican, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, owned 7.45 percent of Constellation as of yesterday, down from 8.65 percent late last month and down from 10 percent in December. Buffett received the stake as part of a consolation prize when Constellation rejected his offer and instead agreed to accept an investment from Electricite de France.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- OK, boys and girls, including all you chiffon-wearing princesses - it's time to go to your rooms and close your eyes and dream of whatever it is little darlings dream about these days. They gone? Good. Fellow adults, we're going to spend the next couple of pages talking about Walt Disney World for grown-ups. There are people, and you know who you are, who only come to Disney World hauling kids with them. Nothing wrong with that. I've done Disney with kids and lived.

I've never been to the tiny town of Marceline, in northern Missouri, but the moment I set foot on Kansas Avenue, I'm hit with a dizzying sense of familiarity. The street is lined with two-story brick buildings, some fronted with candy-striped awnings. American flags wave from cast-iron street lamps. There's a movie theater and a corner cafe serving fried chicken and ice cream sundaes. The only thing missing is a costumed mouse. It's said that Marceline, childhood home of Walt Disney, helped inspire Main Street U.S.A.

Buy 4 nights, get 3 free at Walt Disney World What's the deal?: Book a four-night Walt Disney World Value Resort vacation package and receive an additional three nights free. Package starts at about $1,271 and includes seven nights of accommodations for a family of four, including two adults, one junior and one child. The package also includes theme-park tickets. What's the savings?: Guests receive a seven-night package for the price of four nights. Guests who travel Jan. 4-March 29 also receive a $200 Disney gift card.

[Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment] Featuring the voices of Mary Costa, Bill Shirley, Eleanor Audley. Directed by Clyde Geronimi $29.99 (Blu-ray $35.99) *** 1/2 dvds The success of Disney's Enchanted helped revive the fortunes of its earlier Sleeping Beauty. Released in 1959, Sleeping Beauty was the last of the studio's classic fairy tale adaptations and, to many, the last film of the studio's vaunted Golden Age (though some argue that benchmark belongs to 1967's The Jungle Book, the last animated film Walt Disney actually worked on before his death in 1966)