Click here to view the embedded video.
Before television encouraged Americans to spend so much time on their collective rear ends, it was very common for folks to spend their free time honing multiple creative talents to entertain themselves and others at parties and gatherings. Walt Disney’s animators were no different… the men who spent much of their lives bringing iconic Disney films to life chose to blow off steam by assembling a surprisingly tight seven-piece Dixieland band they called the Firehouse Five Plus Two.
According to Disney legend Ward Kimball, who led the band and also played trombone, Walt was fine with their group hobby as long as the quality of their work didn’t suffer. Apparently they juggled their workloads just fine: the band stayed together for nearly 30 years, released over a dozen records, and toured various clubs, jazz fests, fairs and colleges until the early 1970s.
