Comments on: Tiki Research Adventure: Disney Studios & Pago Pago

By: Sheila Corrigan

Sheila Corrigan — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 08:47:16 +0000

Hi I grew up not far from Disney Studios (age 63). I am writing a sort of Autobiography and one of my earliest memories is being taken to the PagoPago by my Mom and her sister when her sister got off the night nursing shift.
I was thrilled to find your site to know approx. when the PagoPago disappeared (Disney expansion). I absolutely loved it. It was dark and in my three year old mind totally exotic with comfortable leather booths. It was open all day, I know that.
I went again when I was 28 (that was in 1972). It seemed the same. It was even for a bar kept pretty dark. I can’t say for sure how polynesian- not overly so anyway, but then it was also very small- 3-4 booths at the most and a big red juke box.

Sheila COrrigan

By: Humuhumu

Humuhumu — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 22:26:08 +0000

Thanks a ton, TikiMama! As suspected, it doesn’t shed any more light on the Pago Pago story, but it’s a nice little read nonetheless.

GatorRob, I am familiar with the Reimagineering blog, and actually know a couple of the folks who write for it, but it’s not my bag. Some talented and accurate voices there, but it’s just too bitter & cranky for me to want to actually read it on a regular basis. Too much “waaah!,” too little “and here’s what we’re going to do about it.” Since I found the blog such a turn-off, I haven’t kept up with it, perhaps its tone has improved.

By: Tikimama

Tikimama — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 19:01:25 +0000

Here is the full text (librarians (even future ones) don’t PAY!):

(Copyright, The Times Mirror Company; Los Angeles Times 1994all Rights reserved)

Dave and Debbie Spafford’s neighbors have gotten used to the noise and the laughter and even the occasional limo. They know that every Friday night, a corner of their quiet neighborhood becomes the center of the world-well, the animation world.

For the past five years, the Spaffords’ Friday night house party (or “animation roadhouse” in Debbie’s words), has drawn animators from all over the city, with W.O.M. spreading as far as Europe and Australia. Recent guests have included “Nightmare Before Christmas” director Henry Selick, Ralph (“Fritz the Cat,” “Cool World”) Bakshi and John Kricfalusi, creator of “Ren & Stimpy.”

A sign in the back yard reading “Pago Pago” offers a clue to the party’s origins. “It used to hang outside this bar across from the Disney studios, in Burbank, where the old-time animators met and drank,” says Dave Spafford, a Disney vet himself before forming Spaff Animation with Debbie in 1989. Among their credits: “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and Woody Woodpecker’s Oscar presentation for Best Animated Short Film of 1990.

The idea for the parties came out of the Spaffords’ experience in England, when they were working on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” (Dave drew the piano duel between Donald Duck and Daffy Duck.) There, animators socialized at a local pub after work, connecting with the film-and each other.

Back home though, animation get-togethers didn’t seem to work. “We tried sitting over margaritas at this Mexican restaurant, but it wasn’t the same,” Dave says. So the Spaffords decided to do it at home-with its Alice-meets-Haight-Ashbury decor, a cartoon fantasy of weird fiberglass horses, spinning mirror disco balls, four pinball machines, a pool table and a ’30s-era jukebox.

“This is no football bar,” says Dave. “After a few beers, we put out grease pencils and draw on the table, so our whole bar ends up being one big cartoon! We’re all freaks. Who else wants to do cartoons?” Byline: Judy Raphael

By: GatorRob

GatorRob — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 15:05:47 +0000

Slightly off-topic, but with you being such a big Disney fan, I thought I’d share this blog with you in case you haven’t seen it: imagineerebirth.blogspot.com/. It is TERRIFIC. In their own words, it is “A forum for Pixar and Disney professionals passionate about the Disney Theme Parks to catalog past Imagineering missteps and offer tenable practical solutions in hopes that a new wave of creative management at Imagineering can restore some of the wonder and magic that’s been missing from the parks for decades.”

Apologies if you’re already aware of it.