05/24/2025
I remember watching this at 11 years old, staying up at 11:30 pm to catch it. I can tell you that I had to beg my parents to stay up that late! It only aired once and have been looking for years to see if still existed to be able to view it again. Now many, many years later, 50 + years in fact, it finally showed up on you tube. This is the ABC Wide World Of Entertainment episode; Walt Disney: A Golden Anniversary Salute from 1973.
I remember this running a full hour and a half and caught every minute of it. Fortunately most of the commercials are missing, bringing this down to a cool 59 minutes. It was pretty much the way I remembered it, with Dean Jones formally dressed, walking around Main Street at Disneyland after hours. Jones hosts and features a few Disney Legends, Card Walker, Woolie Reitherman, Fred MacMurray, Ward Kimball and Annette Funicello, who talk about Walt. It even features a section of animation from their 'upcoming' animated feature, Robin Hood, that features a section of the film in various stages; storyboard to rough pencil animation to full color. Although the special is rough around the edges and not as slick as documentaries today go, it's still a fascinating insight with some of Disneys key players at the time. I figured some of you might really enjoy this.
Brian Mitchell
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Tribute to Walt Disney Productions' 50th anniversary on ABC's Wide World of Entertainment; aired on October 23rd, 1973. Hosted by Dean Jones with appearance...