The Fabulous Disney Babe
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The cocktail party started at 6:45, and we arrived on the dot - after a three hour drive, I was ready for something to drink. We stopped and said hi to some friends in the queue, then went inside. Our names were checked off the list, they looked at my invitation letter, and we were given pink tickets and went into the party. We met Alice Davis, who is responsible for the exisitance of these lectures, and she finally met my dad. They have a common bond in my daughter - godchild to one, grandchild to the other, so chatted a little, then we grabbed some drinks. Dad had a Grey Goose Mandarin martini, and I was a good girl with mineral water and lemon. We ate - they had chicken and veggie skewers, a quesadilla station with all sorts of toppings and fillings, cheese and barbecue chicken thick crust pizza, a salad bar, and around the corner by the stairs, warm chocolate chip cookies, coffee, and crepes filled with ice cream, strawberries and bananas, topped with chocolate, whipped cream and almonds. Dr. Atkins would not approve - I'll have to really work out this week.

We met a ton of people - dad even met up with a golfing buddy of his from 20 years ago - it IS a small world, after all. I finally, FINALLY got to meet one of the greatest voice talents on earth, June Foray, and I filled her in on what had happened to my late brother, who had her as a client when he was in the financial business. She suggested I go back into doing voice work. Nice! A complete fan geek moment.

Bill and Kim Justice were there, with some dear friends of mine accompanying them. Howard Greene, who put the whole evening together, was there of course, as was his wife and writing partner (the incredible "Remembering Walt" - go buy it now) Sam McKim was there, and John Lasseter  (Me: "So, I hear Monsters Inc. is going into SuperStar Limo at DCA!" Him: (raises eyebrows and nods) "..it's going to be WONDERFUL!" - he also says Finding Nemo is "just incredible. Go see it." Opening day, I'm there, babe. You haven't disappointed me yet.),

Tony Baxter, James Baxter (who drew a picture of Spirit for Alice's friend the Birthday Girl, who is crazy about Spirit), and didn't remember drawing me back in 87-88. He's working on a CGI project, he says. That should be interesting...his boss, Jeffrey Katzenberg, was there as well.
"Can I interview you?"
"Sure! Call Fumi!"
"Okay!"
(He has a link to Discovery Bay - you'll read about it later, and think he's a cool guy for it.)

So, I've got a ton of pics from the cocktail party, right? Nope. One, I don't think they would have allowed it, and two, I didn't want to bug people while they were eating. So you only get this one picture, of James Baxter drawing Spirit. I did ask Bob Gurr why he wasn't having a Blue Martini - and he razzed me but good in front of my Dad. Bob Gurr is SO cool!

The always gracious and beautiful Katherine Beaumont was there - she was the voice of Alice in Wonderland and Wendy, and a real gem - she stayed tirelessly afterward to sign autographs for fans - and it was after midnight at that point.

Marty Sklar was there, Michael and Sharon Broggie - I was kind of hoping Michael would speak, but the program was absolutely PACKED. It was great to see Tim O'Day, too, Tom Sito (I'm working on a future article about the Animation Union), Eric Goldberg, and so many more people - Leonard Maltin remarked that if he introduced every famous person there, half the audience would be standing - and he was absolutely right. I had Tom Sito in front of me, Andreas Deja to my left and Eric Goldberg to my right. "I'm surrounded by GODS!" I thought. Fangirl.

We went inside the auditorium, and sat right behind and to the left of the soundboard, to see the panel clearly for my photos - I took over 250 - here's why:  I didn't want to use a flash and be distracting, and for the lecture, the auditorium was movie-theatre dark. There was no spotlight at all on Glen Keane and Andreas Deja when they gave their overhead projector presentation - so I was shooting blind, then bringing up the photos' brightness, contrast and gamma in Photoshop all day today.  (It's 3:07 am on the 11th) So, please forgive the quality of the photos - I did the best I could with what I had.

There were presentations by the President of AMPAS, Leonard Maltin (who also moderated the evening's panel discussions and worked as emcee), Jeffrey Katzenberg, whose annual Holiday visit to Hawaii includes a read of Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life, and a nice letter from Diane Disney Miller. Howard Green and Charles Solomon were thanked for their hard work in putting the evening together, and Alice Davis received a well-deserved standing ovation. Peter Bain, who provided the voice of Thumper, surprised Frank and Ollie, flying out all the way from Vermont to honor them. Other famous Disney voices in the audience were announced - but not all - Bob Newhart, Bernard in The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under was in attendance.