Disneyland Celebrates Walt's 100th
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Disneyland Resort President Cynthia Harriss waves to the gathered crowd as she approaches the podium.
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Ms. Harriss' entrance is accompanied by the gentle ballad, A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes.

Cynthia Harriss
Thank you, Doina. Well good morning everyone. We're having a beautiful day aren't we? This is a Walt day wouldn't you say. This is a beautiful day! (crowd cheers)

Well it is a joy for us to be able to be here with you to share this memorable and historic occasion. For today on December 5th, 100 years ago a dreamer named Walter Elias Disney was born. Raised in the Midwest his childhood was a portrait of America . It was a simple life that embraced those things like family, hard work, ingenuity, pursuit of dreams, patriotism and just ol' fashioned fun. All of these values throughout his entire life were the things that he cherished. And with his incredible creativity and his steadfast resolve he innovated the world of entertainment and changed the face of American culture.

The legendary journalist Eric Severeid was really the one who captured the essence of Walt Disney when he said, "He was an original. Not an American original, but an original, period." Walt Disney was one of those persons who realized there is very little grownup in every child but there's an awful lot of child in every grownup.

Cynthia Harriss describes the remarkable achievement and legacy of Walt Disney.
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Clip 1: Cynthia Harriss speech (3 minutes, 21 seconds)
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Here at the Disneyland Resort, all of us as cast members are devoted to carrying on that magical legacy that Walt Disney himself began. And today here at the Resort we are honor to join the rest of the Walt Disney Company in starting officially, the beginning of a yearlong program celebrating the life of Walt Disney. Throughout the next twelve months we will celebrate the life and accomplishments of the most remarkable storyteller in the entire world, Walt Disney and we'll do that by presenting nostalgic photographs, featuring his favorite items on our menus, and sharing with you special anniversary memorabilia that those of us who are admirers of Walt Disney can take home to treasure and treasure forever.

In addition to that today at the Disney Animation Screening Room inside Disney's California Adventure we will premiere a brand new film, Walt: One Man's Dream. It was specially developed and created for this centennial celebration and I hope you'll all go over there and see it. It is a wonderful film.

Clip 2: Harriss' introduction of Richard Sherman (2 minutes, 53 seconds)
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In remembering many of Walt's successes I believe his absolute most wonderful gift is that he shared with us was his imagination and optimism. And in doing that he put together these incredible teams of creative geniuses that collaborated to bring to us and create those new realms of fantasy, beautiful music, and that ever-growing beloved family of our characters.

Well two of those gentleman are with us this morning. And its my extreme honored that I get to introduce these wonderful individuals. Our first gentleman is not only a great friend of Walt Disney but he truly was and is, magic at the keyboard. (applause) It sounds like you already know who he is.

Well, along with his brother Robert he collaborated on so many of Walt Disney’s special projects with his beautiful songs and music. And over the course of their collaboration, over 200 Disney songs, for Disney’s films, television, theme parks and albums were penned by this incredible team. And millions around the world including the entire entertainment industry has grown to love and cherish their music. The song Chim Chim Cheree and the score of Mary Poppins earned the Brothers Academy Awards for Best Song and Best Musical Score.

And today just steps away, you know, we can hear their wonderful collaboration as we hear the guests singing along to the Enchanted Tiki Room and it’s a small world.

Most recently they collaborated in developing the songs and score for the Tigger Movie and right now they are working on an incredible project, which is to take the classic 1969 film musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and bring it to a stage musical which will premiere at the London Palladium in 2002.

But it is my great honor to welcome the marvelous songwriter, a dear friend of Walt Disney and a beloved Disney Legend, the enchanting and delightful Richard Sherman.

The familiar tune it's a small world plays as Richard Sherman walks to the stage.