from 2008
LARRY BILLMAN
talks about Disney on Parade, Disney on Ice and Tokyo Disney Resort

by Scott Wolf

I find it interesting that there is very little written about the Disney resorts' live entertainment. There's plenty of information about the history of the parks and the attractions, but ever since Disneyland's opening day, live entertainment has been an integral part of the experience. Some of the most talented people in the entertainment industry have been involved in Disney's productions. I've had many goose bump moments seeing a parade at Disneyland, and at Tokyo Disneyland I was literally moved to tears by some of their amazing stage productions. Larry Billman is a foremost authority on dance in America and for over forty years was a key figure in some of Disney's greatest live productions. I'm thrilled to be able to share our conversations with you! 

SW: You were involved with Disney on Parade, right?

LB: It was produced in 1969. Bob Jani was the director of entertainment at Disneyland at the time and executive producer of Disney on Parade (DOP) which was something completely new for the Disney Company.

It was a live show, an arena show. It was one of the most extravagant live arena shows ever produced, and sadly on opening night, NBC took control of the show from Disney and cut many set pieces to make it economically feasible. It was huge. And I believe created the template for all the touring arena shows to follow.

Disney had not been in the arena business and didn’t know that when you budget, you have to budget for let’s say x-amount of trucks, taking x-amount of days to get to the next location. And the set up needs to be done as quickly as possible. I think there was something like 17 trucks which took too long to set up. You can’t afford that. You’re renting that space. It’s how we get what’s called the "road companies" of shows like Phantom of the Opera. It’s all scaled down so that it can move economically. Neither the Disney Company nor Disneyland itself knew those details. So the show was quite beautiful to look at. It was every Disney classic that you ever would want to see in lavish detail.

The idea of being on a wooden floor… we used to call it Holiday on Wood because the cast would have to run. Every number began with, “…and go!” and the entire cast would have to run their hearts out to get all the way down to whatever that distance was… the length of an ice rink.

In many ways, it worked better than ice does because you could actually dance on it, you just couldn’t travel on it. But it was a lavish, lavish show.

After NBC took it over, it must have been personally defeating to Bob Jani, but he never let on. A new company called “Nawal” then started producing it and brought on people like Marc Breaux, Dee Dee Wood, and Onna White and that level of Broadway and film choreographers to direct and choreograph it. It eventually ended up in Australia from where it was then sent out around the world, Asia and everywhere for at least a decade. There’s still pieces of costumes in their warehouse down there from all the editions of Disney on Parade.

They did several editions of it. Patrick Swayze was in one of them and he used his nickname “Buddy.” He was one of the dancers. Everybody talks about what a wonderful, nice kid he was. Deedee Bozikis was in that show as well as many other people who have gone on to some interesting careers. But it was the first of the large scale arena Disney productions which was used as the prototype for Disney on Ice.

SW: You were a choreographer for it?

LB: I was one of the assistant choreographers. At the first meeting with Bob Jani, he gave out assignments. As he went around the room, he got to me, and he said, “…and Larry, you’re going to work with the Circus people.” In those days, as a struggling performer, you never say no. Little did I know that was a key that he gave me which would serve me well because I then worked with a troupe of ladies who did an act called Iron Jaw in which they hung by their teeth. They bit onto a metal piece and dangled in the air. The girls were performing in a really third-rate Shrine Circus circuit in Texas and I was asked to be with them for at least six weeks, because between their shows, I would then rehearse their numbers. Now obviously, I did not rehearse what they did in the air. That was all created by an incredible man named Barbette, who’s a circus and show business legend.

As a young kid, Barbette (his eventual stage name) used to walk his mother's clothesline. When a circus came to his hometown in Round Rock, Texas, near the turn of the century, there was an act that had an injury in it, and they had auditions and hired him. The only thing was it was an all girl act. So he then started as maybe a 13, 14 year old boy performing as a woman. He later created a solo act in which he did quite exquisite aerial work and was the “Toast of Europe.” He worked on a trapeze and at the end of his act, he came down and pulled off his wig and the audience would gasp because they thought he was the most beautiful woman in the world. He’s also in show business history. He was in the musical Jumbo at the Hippodrome Theater and Jimmy Durante actually sang the song, “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” to him as he came down the stairs in a feathered headdress and everything. So now you fast forward at least 40 years. He was 65 years old and very crippled by the time I met him. He’d taken a fall in the mid ‘30s and broken his back and legs, so he walked like a glass man. After recovering, he created “The Barbettes,” a group of female aerialists and he also staged the aerial ballets for Ringling Bros. So here I arrive to work with him and all of these athletic girls in this backwoods Texas area.

After rehearsals, he would invite me to a local French restaurant and reminisce about his incredible career. Listening to his stories about Andre Gide, Jean-Paul Sartre, Josephine Baker, Sarah Bernhard and Orson Welles, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I had the best time.

For my job, I knew what the floor work was. I had watched Miriam Nelson and the other two choreographers, Leslie Bouchet and Phil Phillips, create all the floor patterns. So I knew that when the girls came into a number where they were, when they went up in the air they were Barbette’s business, but when they came back down, I then had to segue them into the floor work. There was one routine that they did in the air during the Alice in Wonderland sequence which was quite beautiful... hanging by their teeth fluttering huge butterfly wings. They were on what we called a carousel. It was a circular steel structure which lifted high above the arena and rotated, three of them on each of the carousels… it was gorgeous in the air, but then when they’d come down, they’d have to then make their way through the at least 70 dancers with these wings and make floor patterns.

The "butterfly wings" rehearsals are one of my favorite memories. Like I said, they were playing some really funky, dingy arenas. So between shows, we would go out into the lobby, it was the only space big enough that was open, and I would try to help the girls learn how to run and move with their butterfly wings. The wings contained yards and yards of parachute silk and they had to work very hard to get them in the air and moving. So here we all are with these girls rehearsing in their wings and just as I said, “…and go!” I see one girl start running full-speed ahead just as one of the tough working men comes out of the restroom and I see it coming and can’t stop it. She connects with him. They roll in the ball of yards of butterfly wings. Him yelling and saying, “What happened to me?” He didn’t see it coming. I love that memory.

By the time we were finished rehearsing in Texas, we had some time in a rehearsal hall in Hollywood with the full cast and then the show previewed in Long Beach. After opening night in Chicago, it was taken away from all of us and the original people had nothing ever again to do with it. But it ran quite a long time, had a lot of people in it, and it was a beautiful, beautiful show. Beautifully produced. Beautiful costumes, designed by Jack Muhs. So that’s Disney on Parade.

SW: How did you become involved with Tokyo Disneyland?

LB: In 1978 Japan Airlines came to Disney and wanted to do a tour of Japan called Come to America to encourage Japanese people to visit America, particularly Disneyland. A group came to Disneyland to propose the idea. Well, the Japanese people from JAL, Dentsu and Toshiba EMI who were involved with it were really wonderful, talented men. To this day, members of that team are still among my best friends. I felt so comfortable with them I said to another eventual best friend, Norm Elder, who was representing Marketing, “Yeah, let’s do this.” So we did it and it toured 17 cities in Japan, all-American cast, and was a huge success. The demands were so great that tickets were on a lottery system and we would fill theaters that seated 3,000 people.

It was about 1979 that the negotiations were going on between the Disney Company and the Oriental Land Company. It was at that time it was announced that Tokyo Disneyland would be built, so I kind of segued into the Japanese Disney side because of my experiences.

We then did a second Japan Airlines tour in 1981, which was to announce the opening of Tokyo Disneyland. I then moved with my wife and two daughters to Tokyo, the park opened in 1983 and I worked and lived there until 1985.

I opened the park as director of entertainment and sort-of creative producer. I didn't do any hands-on work. People much smarter than I did: Barnette Ricci, Forrest Bahruth, Jim Christensen, Tony Peluso, John Ludin, Sonny Anderson... all of the pros came and put those shows together. By now Dennis Despie was the director of entertainment and he gave us full support.

We had the (Diamond) Horseshoe, we had a Polynesian review, and we had versions of what had existed here at the time. The Opening Day cast, that first cast was absolutely amazing. They brought Disney literally to Japan. They just glowed, they were just fantastic.

So it opened and I’d been there and done that so I came back to Disneyland and they’d put somebody in my chair. That was the one thing; Disney didn’t know how to work internationally. They’d be, “Got a great job for you.” And you’d be gone and return four years later, and they’re “Oh, we forgot, well, we don’t have any room for you.” So a lot of people were just “kept on.” I was put into special events, which I knew was like you’re on your way out the door. So I was looking for work. And that’s when I started working with Kenneth Feld on Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus and Disney on Ice.

SW: Did you know Kenneth already before that?

LB: When we did the first production of Disney on Ice in 1980, that’s the first time I met him. Then I went to Japan in 1981 and lived there for four years, where I always used to put in the Disney on Ice shows in Japan when they were there to help them with those cultural transitions.

SW: So you were still with Disney then when you did the Disney on Ice?

LB: When I first did Disney on Ice, I was assigned by Disney to help Irvin and Kenneth Feld with the concept. Bob Jani was originally supposed to coordinate with the Felds. He had some misunderstanding with them in Madison Square Garden or something so he said, “Can you go in and do it?” And so I was this very fortunate bull in the china shop that went in and started discussions about the show.

Irvin Feld, Kenneth’s father, was just this wonderful, wonderful looking Damon Runyon character with a cigar and a big pinky ring and he had glasses that magnified his eyes. I loved Irvin. I loved him so much.

We had a great time, and I tried to help them toward a more seamless Disney type of show. They were programmed with a “Holiday on Ice” format: just suddenly stop and have an act come out and do that. I said, “No, let’s keep it all going. Let one of the Disney characters be the act.” We tried very hard to incorporate good skating into the shows because that was the point, or you just have Disney on Parade with people running around on ice.

When I returned to Disneyland from TDL, and in special events, somebody asked, “What are we going to do this summer?” I said, “Let's partner with Ringling Bros. I know Kenneth and the colorful circus costumes and performers he might share. Let’s ask if we can borrow all of his animals and costumes and so forth, but let’s put the characters in. We can have Mickey and Minnie riding on elephants.” Eventually titled “Circus Fantasy – The Greatest Show at the Happiest Place” the event had clowns, animals, acts, and thrills all the over the park. Barnette created an incredible stage show at Videopolis and there was a spectacular parade.

There were some bad feelings about “circus” at Disneyland. Evidently in the early years, Mr. Disney put up a tent and did a little circus (Mickey Mouse Club Circus) and nobody wanted to see it. Well, our concept of this wasn’t going to be in a sad, little tent. It was going to be everywhere you went. You were going to see aerialists, somebody on a motorcycle riding over Tomorrowland or the parade was going to come through. It was going to immerse you rather than you having to go to it. So we had great fun and a great success with that.

Then one day after a meeting, Kenneth turned to me and said, “Have you ever thought of working for me?” And I said, “No, make me think of it.” He did. So I ran away and joined the circus.

I wrote and directed six editions of Ringling Bros. and Barnum Bailey Circus and since I had already been working on Disney on Ice that was always something people misunderstood. They’d say, “Oh, I thought you weren’t with Disney anymore.” I wasn’t. Disney doesn’t own Disney on Ice. Feld Entertainment does. So I worked on lots of those editions from its very inception. We co-created a character training program because skaters had no idea how Mickey or Goofy skated or Minnie or Snow White gestured and so forth. John Ludin went on the road with the show for several seasons specializing on training the characters. Now to look at them, they’re absolutely brilliant. They could teach us something. But with those first shows we all wanted to be certain, and the Felds, father and son, too, that it was Disney standard. Kenneth and his daughters now continue the legacy.

The Ice Capades in the ‘50s used to have Disney numbers in it. They actually got franchised from Mr. Disney himself so they could use characters, music and costumes from Snow White or Cinderella with one of the show’s stars (Donna Atwood) playing the roles. They first did all of those Disney pieces on ice, which people have forgotten about. Mr. Disney himself was always interested about synergy or things that you could take your product to in other areas.

So Disney on Ice was a great success, terrific people, and again, I got to meet some fascinating new people in entertainment because I was now immersed in the ice world as well as the circus world. But when I would go in and talk to some of these old Ringling Bros. people and I could say, “I worked with Barbette.” “You did?” They’d look at me like I was some kind of circus icon. My circus life was wonderful. The Moscow circus actually hosted me in Russia to come and see all of their venues and talk about a project that Radio City Music Hall had approached them about. I loved my circus life. And thinking about Kenneth Feld, his father and his family, makes me smile.

So I did that and by then Imagineering was starting the design phase of Tokyo DisneySea. I was invited back to what I consider the most enjoyable times of my Disney career: working at Imagineering with all of the architects, designers and artists on the design of the park. I had a miraculous time with some of the most passionate, innovative and talented people within the company.

Imagineering just went out of their way for Entertainment. To be able to use the levels of the SS Columbia as a backdrop... I would see an architectural design and was able to say, “Could we have a stage in front of that?” They’d simply say, “That’s a good idea!” We didn’t have to recreate anything that had been done before, this park was all original. Another innovative opportunity was the Hangar Stage in Lost River Delta which presents the show, Mystic Rhythms. It’s a wonderful, atmospheric ram-shackle tin-roofed airplane hangar in the deepest jungles. And you don’t expect when you go in there that this mind boggling thing is going to happen before your very eyes.

Steve Bass and Sylvia Hase created the Little Mermaid show which is a revelation. But that’s Imagineering. They were originally going to do a revised version of the Little Mermaid show at WDW. When Steve Bass presented his concept for the show, Steve Kirk told everyone to throw all their work out and go in this new and inventive direction. That sense of adventure, wonder and daring came from Marty Sklar and surged all the way down. Even to us Entertainment jerks.

I then left the project for a while and I got a late night call from Jim Cora that they were in “trouble," and would I come back? So I did. I’d do anything for Jim Cora. I came back as creative director about a year before the park opened to lead the shows to opening.

I was asked to stay again. Shame on me, I’m always the guy that says “no” but I had two parents who were quite old and ill and needed me, so I came back to America. Graciously, my parents died peacefully and allowed me then to do my grand finale, to go back to Tokyo and be the director of entertainment for both Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea.

I was also the creative producer, if you will. I would suggest and advise as most of the shows were now being done by the Oriental Land Company’s Japanese creative team. When it was long range - and big bucks, Legend of Mythica or that kind of thing, the big creative guns came from America, the wizards: Steve Davison, Yves Pepin, Bruce Healey - and all of those masterful artists who came and put the spectacles in. But they do so many shows at Tokyo Disney Resort. Every three months, there’s a whole new special event which needs a parade or stage show. You can’t crank that amount out with foreign creative people.

The creative team of Oriental Land Company was led by Watarumi San, an excellent man who was there from the beginning and just retired, so we’ll see where they go. But I’ve watched most of those people grow. Some of the creative staff had been Kids of the Kingdom or Horseshoe girls when Tokyo Disneyland opened. I’ve known them for 25 years. That was one of my jobs when the park opened was to look around and see who are the smarty pants here? Who are the Marilyn Magness’? I selected at least five choreographers who are still there or who have gone on into the Japanese industry, music directors, designers... because the Oriental Land Company was not a show business company. They didn’t understand who actually was doing it, who did the input, so I’m very, very proud of our Japanese partners. They now do a sensational job.

SW: I love the Tokyo shows, and it doesn’t matter that I don’t speak the language, they’re just incredible. The dancing and the costumes and the colors… all of that is overwhelming. It literally brings a tear to my eye.

LB: This so-called “bring Disney up to Broadway level” is backwards. I think Broadway is now Disney level. If you look at the top shows, Spamalot is a theme park show only a bit dirtier. Momma Mia’s a theme park show. We're not doing My Fair Lady anymore, we're doing popular entertainments which go by fast and what you said about the dancing and the colors and the fireworks and the confetti. The end. We loved it.

I think we've changed the face of today’s contemporary entertainment. Musical theater now is in a new phase which is very exciting. It’s going to go somewhere else, but right now, Disney rules Broadway and the Disney style of show rules Broadway and it exceeds your expectations. We all have expectations when we go there. It must not only meet, but it must exceed your expectations.

Always my rule of thumb in Japan was to look around me. None of these shows were for me; they were for the people around me... the thousands, the millions of people who came. If they were standing, listening, smiling, crying, you know what? It was working.

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