Roy E. Disney: Life Celebration
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Richard Sherman, Dick Van Dyke and Ashley Brown
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Richard Sherman, Academy Award winner and songwriter of songs from Jungle Book, Winnie the Pooh, It’s A Small World and Mary Poppins to name just a few of his hits said ”It’s a great joy to be here to pay tribute to a wonderful wonderful fellow, a wonderful friend of mine, whom I’ve known so many years. I’ve known him for sixty years and I must say that the one predominant thing about Roy Jr was that he was a very generous soul… I would like to play this in honor of …Roy E Disney.” Richard then sang and played the famous song from Mary Poppins called Feed the Birds. Then he introduced Ashley Brown, star of the Broadway and National Touring Company of Mary Poppins and her accompanist, who then sang and played Feed the Birds for the audience. At the end to the glee of the audience, Don Hahn introduced Dick Van Dyke (Bert from the original Mary Poppins film), who joined them on stage. Dick said “The first cartoon (I saw) was Steamboat Willie and…I made up my mind right then and there that I was going to be an animator….. I drew and I drew and I got to the place where I could draw them pretty good but little did I know that I was going to grow up and be one of those characters….I like to think of myself as growing up in a Disney family…. I came today to thank Roy Disney for bringing back the kind of films that captivated me as a kid and for that, he belongs in Paradise.” The three left the stage together after describing Roy as supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
Morning Light Crew on stage with Don Hahn and picture of Roy and Leslie Disney on screen
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Don Hahn introduced another chapter in Roy’s life, that of sailing and said “I think in some ways he was never happier than being out with his crew on Pyewacket…..I brought a clip along from Roy’s wife, Leslie DeMeuse, now Leslie is a well known film maker in her own right and this is a clip she made when Roy retired from sailing. It’s a tribute from his crew members to Roy and it seemed really appropriate to share it with you today.” The clip showed the camaraderie between Roy and his crew from Pyewacket. Don then introduced a couple of crew members, Rick Brent and Jerry Kirby, who shared a few experiences with Roy. The only way anyone could get on the Pyewacket would be for someone to expire so being a kind man, Roy built a larger boat so there could be more crew members. They talked about how Roy was just one of the guys and shared in all the same chores, such as cooking. They ended by saying “Roy, it’s been an honor, it’s been an honor to sail on her, to win on her, it’s an honor to be with you, Roy, we love you, Happy Birthday Roy! We’ll see you every time we’re on the water.”
Roy and Leslie had made a film called Morning Light, which was a documentary about a real-life crew training and competing in the 44th Transpacific Yacht Race aboard a TP52 class yacht. Don Hahn introduced Jesse Fielding and the crew of Morning Light, who talked about Roy, saying that he wasn’t only their benefactor but their friend and that after the race, he had become family.
Don Hahn then discussed Roy, the businessman. He showed a clip of Waking Sleeping Beauty, which is a film he had just completed that highlights Roy’s return to the Disney Company in 1984. It starts with a reporter reporting the resignation of Roy Disney from the company and the result afterwards. It discussed the fact that a corporate raider was trying to take over the company and Roy was the one voice of dissent ion on how to handle the situation so he resigned. Roy gathered around him Michael Eisner and Frank Wells, as a team to save Disney, which was successful. Don then introduced Roy’s long time business partner from Shamrock Holdings, Stanley Gold. Stanley said about Roy “Wisdom,…curious… trusting, fair and understated, who else could get us to come to a memorial service in shirts that look like we’re going to the Tiki Tiki Bar. He was an amazing person who had many facets in his life.” Two things that he said he will always remember Roy for are first Travel all over the world and then Curiosity for new ideas
Next Don Han told the audience that Roy was a film maker. Roy had worked as an editor on Dragnet, which may have led to his job in the Disney nature films as a producer, director and writer. Then a film clip was shown showing his career in that field. Talking about the film Perri, Roy said that you could have no idea of how tiring it was working with squirrels. Working on the nature films gave Roy an appreciation of the endangered species. The senior vice president of environmental affairs for Disney, Dr. Beth Stevens, discussed the fact that it was after his work on a film about falcons that led him to give 22 years of service to the Peregrine Fund helping them to get off the endangered species.