Firehouse Five Plus Two

In the mid-1940s, a group of Walt Disney animators, artists, writers and musicians who loved jazz and collected records would gather around a phonograph at the studio during lunch breaks and play along with the records. "Then one day the phonograph broke down right in the middle of 'Royal Garden Blues.' Undaunted, we kept right on playing and found to our amazement that we sounded pretty good all by ourselves!" remembered band chief Ward Kimball. Walt always liked music and he was very proud of us. He couldn't get over the fact that some of the guys who worked for him as animators and artists were all of a sudden the toast of the music world. He didn't get mad if we took some time off once in awhile but we made it a rule not to take advantage of the situation. The band played for Bing Crosby at his annual Pebble Beach Golf Tournament which led to four appearances on his radio show. Television also welcomed the firemen and they appeared on The Ed Wynn Show, The Milton Berle Show, the Make Believe Ballroom and the very first Disney television special, One Hour in Wonderland in 1950. They also appeared in two feature films, Hit Parade of 1951, a B musical from Republic and Grounds for Marriage, a 1951 MGM comedy, where Van Johnson and Kathryn Grayson go to the Firehouse Club to hear the band play "Tiger Rag". In 1950 they did The Lawrence Welk Show and made a memorable appearance on Bobby Troup's Stars of Jazz show in 1958. On opening day of Disneyland on July 17, 1955, the band appeared at the firehouse on Main Street for the ceremonies. "Walt told us to wander around the park and play wherever there was a crowd. We were the first mobile band at Disneyland," remembered Kimball in a 1984 interview. 1956 the band appeared on the original Mickey Mouse Club where the band joined the Mouseketeers for "I Want To Be a Fireman" and "Tiger Rag" with Mousketeer Cubby O'Brien sitting in on drums. Firehouse Five Plus Two recorded 150 tunes for a dozen albums that fortunately are available on CD. The band appealed to the general public, but they were also a huge hit with jazz fans, playing to large crowds at the Frank Bull-Gene Norman "Dixieland Jubilees" at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.