Thanks, Wayne Allwine.

For some reason, this is really turning into a Disney-centric week on the Beach. I was sad to hear this morning that Wayne Allwine has died from complications related to diabetes at the age of 62. That name will not be familiar to most of you, but for the past 32 years, Wayne had been the voice of Mickey Mouse - only the third man in history to voice the role, after Jimmy McDonald and Mickey's creator, Walt Disney.

Wayne was also a sound editor and foley artist at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, as well as the voice of several other animated characters, but you can bet his obits will barely mention any of that.



I had the good fortune of meeting Wayne probably a half-dozen times, at various Disney media events. He and his wife, Russi Taylor, would stop by the WMAL broadcast table and spend a few minutes in character being interviewed by our hosts. Russi is the voice of Minnie Mouse, and she and Wayne were married after years of working together in the recording booth. It was a great love story for them both!



The Allwines were special because they were always friendly, always flexible in terms of working around our broadcast clock, and they would always remember us as well. Wayne would carry his ukelele with him and serenade us on the air as Mickey and off the air as himself. When the mic was open, though, he was always careful to be Mickey - there was no betrayal of the toon universe, and we were always strictly interviewing Mickey and Minnie Mouse!


Can you imagine having a better job - or a bigger responsibility - than being the voice of an American icon? Thanks, Wayne!

It's Honeydew Time...

... Or perhaps that would be more accurately spelled "honey-do" time, as in "Honey, do this..." or "Honey, do that..." With my recent run of work at WMAL and at ABC News coming to an end, the Missus is after me to get my domestic responsibilities in gear - in this case, getting up the holiday lights.

We're not talking about a string of lights flung around the nearest evergreen. No, Christmas at the Matthews is something more akin to Walt Disney World meets the Las Vegas strip. It is a multi-day multi-media experience... Something that drives my electric bill up by 30% each December, and quite frankly, something that is getting to be a bigger pain in the ass every year... Not that the Missus cares!

So if anyone needs me today, I'll be the one outside getting my fingers stuck by pine needles, climbing the ladder to hang homemade Mickey heads, and stringing enough electric cable to send men to the moon and back! I'll post pictures when I'm done... or you can just drive up Georgia Avenue through Olney, and I guarantee you'll find us!

Feliz Freakin' Navidad!

Happy Birthday, Mickey Mouse!

I would be remiss in letting this day go by without wishing a great big happy 80th birthday to my personal friend, Mickey Mouse! "Born" on November 18, 1928, when his film, "Steamboat Willie", the world's first cartoon with sound, made its debut at the Colony Theater in New York. Mickey's creator, Walt Disney, had created Mickey after an unscrupulous film distributor pulled a fast one on Walt, and retained the rights to Walt's earlier creation, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Oswald remained the property of Universal pictures until just a couple of years ago, when NBC/Universal traded Oswald back to Disney in exchange for agreeing to release "Monday Night Football" host Al Michaels out of his contract with ABC Sports in order to join NBC's new primetime football broadcast team. Oddly enough (or not), Oswald bore a striking resemblance to Mickey, with long ears instead of round ones, but no matter. The rest, as they say, is history.

To celebrate Mickey's milestone, we present his greatest film role - as the Sorcerer's Apprentice in 1940's Disney classic, "Fantasia".

Many Thanks To The Mouse!

By the title of this blog entry, friends and former colleagues must think I am referring, of course, to my old pal, Mickey Mouse... However, my hand-drawn friend is not the rodent I offer plaudits to this morning.

No, the mouse I am indebted to was about 3 inches long and brown, and I saw it for only a second or two. Robin and I were just finishing our dinners at a fine barbecue restaurant in our area last night when I spied a little critter scattering across the floor about 20 feet away from me. Thankfully, I had finished eating, and thankfully, we had enjoyed our food - otherwise the sighting might have been a bit more disturbing.

Since it was late - about 10 pm - there were just a couple of other patrons in the restaurant, and I didn't want to make a scene. At Robin's encouragement, I asked our waiter to get me the manager. When the manager arrived, I motioned for her to sit down, then in a soft voice, told her she had a pest problem.

The young woman was horrified. She apologized profusely, and explained that the exterminators had just been in the restaurant a few days earlier. She then grabbed the check folder off of the table, took the cash inside of it and handed it back to me. I explained that we had enjoyed our meal and were not looking for a freebie, but she refused to accept our money.

Sweet! I saved 46 dollars! And the food was delicious! Thanks, Mouse!