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Lou: If you’re a frequent listener to the show, you know that last week Nathan and I were down in Walt Disney World. A little business, a little pleasure. I went down to do some research, but primarily my trip was to go to the NFFC Disneyana Show and Sale over at Celebration. Had a great time, and what we’re going to do is play a little clip. I did a couple of interviews, a little walking around, try to give you an idea of what was going on there.

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Lou: I am at the NFFC Strictly Disneyana Show and Sale. It’s the weekend of March 11, 2006, and we are at the Celebration Middle School gym. I’m standing here with Kendra Trahan, the president of the national NFFC. Good morning, Kendra.

Kendra: Good morning!

Lou: So, tell us a little about the show. I’ve been here for the past two days, but why don’t you tell us about the show and what’s been going on?

Kendra: Oh, it’s very exciting! We have over thirty vendors here today, who have vintage Disney memorabilia. We have the Disney Liquidation Team with new merchandise and awesome deals. And this is quite the place to be, including yourself where you’re signing your book, where you can come and see all this great merchandise all collected in one place. So, it’s a blast!

Lou: Yeah, I’m having fun, not only sitting here meeting people and signing books, but walking around and, I think I’m spending more than I’m actually making (both laugh) but it’s a lot of fun. There’s a lot of great stuff here.

Kendra: Yeah, absolutely. We have a special guest, hopefully you’ll get a chance to talk to Tony West, who is the movie producer of the film Dream On Silly Dreamer. We have some toy vendors, pin vendors, it’s just - this is the place to be!

Lou: Definitely. Now for people who couldn’t make it down to this event, can you tell us a little about some of the upcoming events the NFFC has?

Kendra: Yeah, fortunately we’re really excited because in July, surrounding the birthday or anniversary of Disneyland Resort, we’re having a huge show and sale in Anaheim, California. So I really encourage - that’s our biggest event of the year. We also have a convention surrounding that. We’re going to have some amazing things where you can get your items appraised, and some Disney workshops. Disney’s actually working with us. Last year they let us go on the Space Mountain attraction before it opened for everyone else. So, it’s really a very good value. We had Roy Disney speak there, some Disney Legends, so it’s always a place you’ll get in touch, get to meet those people, that’s what NFFC, National Fantasy Fan Club, is known for.

Lou: What weekend is that?

Kendra: That will be the weekend of July 17th, the birthday is on a Monday this year, so it will be like the 15th and 16th. Watch our website at www.nffc.orgto find out more about that. In addition, we’re going to have another presence, another program here in Florida, for those people on the east coast. We’re going to have a mini-convention on September 29 and 30 and October first. We’re going to try to partner in with the anniversary of the Magic Kingdom and Walt Disney World. And we’re going to have a mini-convention with workshops and seminars, as well as a show and sale, and great fun there, too. One of the things that is particularly special that was started by a friend of mine, we’ve called it a Be Our Guest dinner, we’ve called it A Part of Your World dinner, but basically we bring in somebody really big, we bring in lots of somebodies big, the VIP Disney people. And we have eight guests sit at the table with this one VIP. For example, I got to sit at Sam McKim’s table one year, and just hear his stories about working with Walt, designing Frontierland, and wonderful things like that. It’s really a wonderful place to be. You’ll want to be looking at our website for future events like that.

Lou: Great. That sounds like a lot of fun. I’m going to walk around, I’m going to try to meet some of the vendors we have here. Thank you very much for your time.

Kendra: Thank you, and thank you for interviewing me. Have a great day!

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Lou:I’d like you to meet Tony West, he’s a former Disney animator and he’s also the producer of the Dream On Silly Dreamer animation DVD. Tony, welcome to the podcast.

Tony: Hi. How are you doing? Thanks.

Lou: Good. Why don’t you tell us a little about the DVD you produced.

Tony: Well, I was an animator for Disney for fifteen years, and one day they told us all that we were going to be laid off. So we decided to make a movie about it and tell the world what happened to all the traditional artists at Disney.

Lou: So it’s an animated movie? or is it a documentary?

Tony: It’s a documentary. We interview a lot of our coworkers, but it also has some original animation that we created specifically for the DVD.

Lou: Wow, that’s great. It sounds like it’s a lot of fun. Now is this your first NFFC convention?

Tony: I’ve visited one before, but this is my first as an exhibitor, yeah.

Lou: And what did you think?

Tony: I loved it. It’s great. It’s a lot of great people coming by, and talking about the film, and had a lot of interest.

Lou: I see, I’m standing here by your table, and it looks like last week in Entertainment Weekly your Dream On Silly Dreamer DVD was featured as Entertainment Weekly’s Documentary Pick. That’s really got to be great, to get that kind of coverage, and that kind of a review.

Tony: Yeah, we were pretty happy about that, and the fact that they gave us a B+. You know, you never know when you get a review, whether it’s going to be good or bad, but when I saw that I thought that’s a really good deal.

Lou: And a B+ is just like an A-. That’s what I used to tell my parents: a D+ is just like a C-. (laughs) So that’s great. If people are interested in the DVD, where can they go to learn more about it or to pick it up?

Tony: We have a website, it’s called DreamOnSillyDreamer.com. We sell the DVD there and there is a lot of information about the film and some of the filmmakers there.

Lou: Great. And if people are planning on coming to any of the additional NFFC events coming up in the future, are you going to be, hopefully, attending again?

Tony: Yeah, we’ll be at the big one in July. And then we’re also going to do ComicCon [unclear]... don’t know if I should pitch that (laughs). But, yeah, we’re going to do that and I believe there’s another one back here in Florida in October. We’re going to do that one as well.

Lou: Great! I hope to be back here as well. Thanks a lot for coming on the show, and good luck with the DVD.

Tony: Thanks a lot Lou.

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Lou: The next vendor we’re going to talk to is Scott from “The Magic of Pixie Dust,” who has a great array of a lot of Disneyland merchandise and a lot of very cool things that I’m interested in, like some old tickets and things like that. Scott, welcome to the MouseTunes podcast.

Scott: Thank you very much.

Lou: Why don’t you tell us a bit about some of the great merchandise you have here?

Scott: Well, I’ve got some of the signed Mousekeeter autographs from their 50th event, some of the Disneyland 50th guide maps, other Tinker Bell items, and that. Just an array of Disneyland stuff.

Lou: And you’re from the west coast, correct?

Scott: Yes, I am. I’m from Anaheim.

Lou: You have attraction posters, you have stuff from Disney’s twenty-fifth anniversary, theater posters from Mary Poppins, and like I said a lot of great old guides from the sixties to Disneyland. What would you say are some of your favorites or some really special merchandise you have?

Scott: I like the guide books, they’re some of my favorites. I have an actual 1955 scarf which is in pristine condition which I really like.

Lou: Do you find it hard to sometimes let go or sell things that you’d rather keep for yourself?

Scott: No, usually if I find something and I don’ t have it, it stays in my collection. Basically anything that I’m selling is a duplicate, triplicate, and that, so I don’t get rid of things that mean something to me, or even if someone gives me something as a gift. It stays in my collection permanently, I won’t sell it, trade it, whatever. It just means too much to me.

Lou: Just in case someone is listening who gave you a gift (laughs). And will you be back in October for the NFFC event?

Scott: Yes, I’ll be back in October to do the event. This is the second one they’ve held, and it’s slowly growing. So, hopefully, they’ll get bigger over the years, just like the event in California, and we’ll bring a whole new Disney collectible market to the Orlando area!

Lou: Definitely. If you’re interested in Disneyland merchandise, definitely stop by Scott’s booth, and hopefully you can join us back here in October. Scott, thanks very much!

Scott: Thank you.

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Lou: Walking along through the gymnasium here at the Celebration Middle School, we come up to Will’s table. He’s got a lot of Mickey Mouse merchandise, as well as some old things from Epcot, collectibles, watches, and things like that. Will, welcome to the MouseTunes podcast.

Will: Hey, Lou.

Lou: Tell us a little about some of the great stuff you’ve got here.

Will: Well I’ve been collecting all through high school, middle school, now I just finished grad school, moving on to new phases. I live in the city, don’t have a lot of space for things, so my goal today is to get things in the hands of people that can appreciate it.

Lou: You have a lot of very cool, very unique stuff here. Why don’t you tell us about a couple of things on here of note or that you think are interesting?

Will: Well, I’ve always liked this early Mickey Mouse bobble-head. A guy came by yesterday, I never knew any of the history about it, I just always thought it was kind of fun, he said they were little cake toppers. So, early bobble-head cake toppers, a whole little set. So that’s one of my favorites. Another one is this little Mickey Mouse brush. I don’t know if it was a shoe brush or a lint brush, but I like kind of the art-deco 1930’s type lines on it, and the little decal there. I would say those are my two top ones.

Lou: What’s this movie, motion, what’s this zoetrope over here?

Will: This was an exclusive for the Disney Stores. There are all these inserts of little animated scenes. You just put them in, turn the wheel, and you watch the little animation. It’s a reproduction of some of those early animation techniques. But this one was done for the Disney Store and it has a lot of little Disney scenes you can put in it.

Lou: Very cool. Great stuff. Will, thanks very much.

Will: Thanks, Lou.

Lou: Nice meeting you.

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Lou: The next vendor we’re coming up to is D.J. Johnson who has some really unique things. He has a lot of Stitch plushes which look like they’re from overseas, as well as some other autographed merchandise. D.J., welcome to the MouseTunes podcast.

D.J.: Thank you.

Lou: Why don’t you tell us a little about some of the great and very unique items you have on your table?

D.J.: Well, my most unique item is I have two checks signed by Walt Disney. That’s what I personally collect. I have a few checks in my own collection. And I have a lot of plush and pins from either Hong Kong or Japan, I go every six weeks to one of the parks.

Lou: Very nice. I see you have a couple of Johnny Depp signed pictures that I know some of our, especially some of our female listeners would probably want to get their hands on. So, you’ve been to Hong Kong, you’ve been to Japan?

D.J.: Matter of fact I’m the second person ever to go into Hong Kong.

Lou: No kidding! Really? You beat the rush of people climbing over the fences? (laughs)

D.J.: Yeah. It was one other guy from Florida and myself. He was number one, and I was number two, from California.

Lou: Which park do you like better? Do you like Hong Kong or Tokyo?

D.J.: By far it’s Tokyo.

Lou: I hope to get out there one day myself, too.

D.J.: Shanghi is coming now. Shanghi’s next.

Lou: How do you think they compare in size and attractions to, for example, Walt Disney World?

D.J.: Oh, Walt Disney World is definitely bigger, because they have more room. Tokyo is extremely clean, and Hong Kong there are no scary rides. It’s pretty much a visual park.

Lou: Interesting. Definitely have to figure out a way to make a trip out there. D.J., thank you very much for your time. Good luck. Are you going to be at upcoming shows for the NFFC?

D.J.: Yes, I do all the NFFC shows.

Lou: Excellent. Hope to see you back here then in October.

D.J.: I will definitely be here in October. I’m a DVC member so I come out here all the time.

Lou: Great. Thanks very much.

D.J.: Thank you.

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Lou: The table next to D.J.’s is that of the world famous Arlen Miller, who is the president of the local World chapter of the NFFC. Arlen, always a pleasure.

Arlen: Hey, good to see you, too, Lou.

Lou: Are you enjoying the meet this year?

Arlen: Yeah! I’m having a good time, meeting a lot of people, talking to fans, and hopefully selling a little Disney product at the same time.

Lou: Yes, I have been a supporter of the Arlen foundation for quite some time. (laughs) Why don’t you tell us about some of the stuff you have and some of the really unique and special items that you’ve got here?

Arlen: Okay, let’s go in the front of the table, and we’ll go through some of it. Okay, let’s see here. Well, we first have here a magazine called ‘Persistence of Vision,’ which was written by Paul Anderson. This particular issue was a double issue that Paul wrote, and it deals with Walt’s involvement with the 1964-65 World’s Fair. It’s a very comprehensive magazine, it’s wonderful to read. Anyone who is a big fan of the four attractions that were at the fair will love it. Also, I have on the table ‘Spotlight’ - ‘Spotlight’ Magazine. These were magazines that were done pre-Michael Eisner. They were done by the Disney University, and they were done in the same vein as Mad Magazine, making fun at Disney in a nice way, not a mean-spirited way. But when Eisner came in, he looked at all the different departments and what they were doing, took one look at the magazine, and said, “You people need to take yourselves seriously. We need to cut this out.” I’ve got all the issues and they are just wonderful to read. Also, here’s a little tidbit. This is The Little Mermaid Postcard Book. But anybody who has this, the images were taken directly from the film. So if you have, do you have the video at home? The Little Mermaid?

Lou: Sure.

Arlen: I want you to take a look at the particular scene where King Triton is being pulled in by the two dolphins. Look between the two dolphins’ noses, and see if you see anybody in the crowd you might recognize.

Lou: I’m blind as a... Oh! It’s Goofy!

Arlen: It’s Goofy! Right! And Mickey is there, too, see the ears right there?

Lou: No kidding!

Arlen: Mickey, Goofy, and Donald is there, they appear, that’s again one of those hidden little things that the animators stuck in the film because they knew nobody would really see it on a big screen. So that’s really kind of a cool item. Oh, also we have assorted license plates. Here’s a really neat item: this is a promotional poster that was given out at the theaters for the opening of Pirates of the Caribbean. It opens up once, it opens up twice, it opens up three times, and it’s this gorgeous poster of the four main characters of Pirates of the Caribbean. That’s kind of a neat item that the theaters gave away during the premiere of it.

Lou: You have a lot of very, very interesting, unique stuff.

Arlen: Yes, yes I do.

Lou: And I know that you come to all the NFFC events, obviously, since you are the president. If people want to see some of the things you have, do you have a website or a store or anything like that?

Arlen: Yes, I do on Yahoo! Auctions. If you go on Yahoo! Auctions and do a search by sellers. Just do a search on Dreamfinder1982, and my whole list of items will come up and you’re welcome to buy anything there.

Lou: Great. You’ve got a lot of good stuff and a lot of good stories.

Arlen: Thanks. And if you buy one more item I can make that trip to the Caribbean next month. (both laugh) Thanks a lot, Lou.

Lou: Thanks, Arlen.

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Lou: Let’s head on over to my next-door neighbor here to the right. This is Barbara. Good morning!

Barbara: Good morning! How are you?

Lou: Good! I’m doing great. This is a lot of fun. Barbara, you have a lot of very, very unique stuff. Why don’t you tell us about some of your favorite items here?

Barbara: One of my favorite items is a Disneyana Convention dinner gift that we got. It’s Donald Duck with the gong from the Mickey Mouse Club. It’s just great and colorful, and because Mickey Mouse Club is one of my favorite things. There’s always joy when I look at it. There’s no doubt about it. Another one is the Alice in Wonderland Tea Set by Cardew. That’s just absolutely gorgeous. Even though the illustrations are not the Disney illustrations, it’s more like the original from the Lewis Carroll book, it’s just a gorgeous tea set.

Lou: Yeah, you have a range of things. Everything from plushes to dishes to cups, watches, pin sets, a beautiful Radko mistletoe Mickey Mouse ornament. I really like your villains, your Maleficent...

Barbara: Another Disneyana Convention gift.

Lou: And you know, one thing about the convention, and your table is a good example of this, is that you don’t have to be a hard-core Disney collector. There are items here that range in price from as little as twenty-five cents each for things like pins, and bumper stickers you have here. You have watches, twenty-fifth anniversary watches, figures, all kinds of collectables.

Barbara: Phone cards.

Lou: Phone cards! I mean, it really runs the gamut. You don’t have to come and spend a lot of money to have a great time. You could come in and just look and enjoy all this great stuff and still have a lot of fun.

Barbara: And learn.

Lou: And learn, exactly.

Barbara: Right. That’s one of the things about doing these things, you get to talk Disney all day long!

Lou: And some people here have such great stories. Either their own experiences, or people that they know.

Barbara: Right. We have a former Disney animator sitting right here, who worked for fifteen years here in Florida. Worked on Lilo and Stitch, worked on Brother Bear. I mean....

Lou: Great guy, and very personable. Everybody’s very, very friendly here.

Barbara: Yes.

Lou: So I’m going to walk around and talk to some more people. Thank you very much.

Barbara: Thank you, I loved it!

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Lou: Some of the other vendors here... there are people set up who are doing pin trading, not even selling anything. So you can come by and just do pin trading, as well as other vendors that are selling pins. We’re talking one vendor has looks to be about six tables filled with cases and boxes of pins, as well as some really wonderful old movie posters, from Peter Pan, Pinocchio, The Lion King, Cinderella, the original attraction posters. There’s another vendor here who has wonderful, wonderful old toys, as well as some relatively recent and collectible toys. Everything from Dick Tracy, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Pinocchio books autographed by Dick Jones, original music from Pinocchio and Snow White, a lot of things back from the thirties and forties. There are people who have t-shirts, pins, collectables, anything you can think of. And again, it runs the gamut from items as low as twenty-five cents or people who just want to trade pins, up to some of the more very rare, very very collectible items. The Special Events people from Disney are even here, and they have a ton of great stuff. Everything from jumbo limited edition pins that are fifty percent off, to lots of Walt Disney Classics Collection sculptures. They also have, if you’re a Disney watch collector, they have probably two dozen watches that are seventy percent off the original price. They have Armani figures that retail for five hundred dollars on sale for a hundred and fifty. You definitely have to make sure you come by and check out a future NFFC event. And if you want to learn more, go to www.NFFC.org. You can also go to the DisneyWorldTrivia.com website and I’ll have some pictures of the event in our galleries or in one of our article sections. Don’t forget to come to the event in Anaheim in July, as well as the Orlando convention in October. See you there!

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Lou: That just gives you a little bit of an idea of the different kinds of vendors and things that were going on at the event. From what I understand, the October event, coinciding with Walt Disney World’s birthday, is really going to be something special. There are going to be some more special guests there, some Disney artists and things like that. I know I will definitely be back for the event.

Nathan: And yeah, I’ll be there too.

Lou: Good. Should be a good time. And, hopefully, you guys, anybody who’s listening, come on over to the show and sale. Just so you know - Nathan, I don’t know if you were there for this - it was really, really nice and it really meant a lot to me that people came over and said “Hey, Lou. I know you from the MouseTunes podcasts. That’s the reason why we came out here. We like the show...” stuff like that. That really, the fact that you guys take the time to come over and say hello and say you enjoy the show, and came to the event is really something great. I know I had a great time. Nathan, I know you did, too. So I am definitely looking forward to the event in October. And for more information don’t forget to go to www.NFFC.org.

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