Mega Movie Stars March Exercise Challenge

[sophy1996]

Welcome to our March Exercise Challenge. This month, we'll feature actors who have made multiple appearances in Disney live-action movies (for purposes of our March Challenge, Disney's "Mega Movie Stars").

If you’re returning, we’re excited to have you back. If you’re new, welcome to the team. Here’s how the exercise tracking works:

Each person chooses a time goal and posts minutes towards that goal as they exercise. You decide what movement counts towards your goal. It can be a set monthly number or calculated based on a target number of minutes per day. Since March has 31 days, here are some common conversions:

15 minutes/day = 465
20 minutes/day = 620
30 minutes/day = 930
45 minutes/day = 1,395
1 hour/day = 1,860

One of the special motivations of our Disney challenge is color changing. Page one will be updated with individual and team color changes as we make more and more progress. This month, we have:

Brilliant Blue - 10%
Outstanding Orange - 25%
Popular Purple - 50%
Plucky Pink - 75%
Resilient Red - 90%
Gleeful Green - 100%

We’re officially starting this challenge on March 1, but if you don’t find this thread until later in the month, you’re still welcome to join. Just post your goal and I’ll add you to the list. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions, and check out old threads to see what’s been going on.

Team Members:

2manypets 1073/930
Elizabeth Smith 680/660
lovesmurfs 2261/2200
piglet1979 595/930
PollyannaMom 400/400
sophy1996 1210/1200
Twilight Sparkle 2195/1200

Team Total: 8414/7520 111.8%

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

I'm going to aim a little bit higher this month and shoot for 1200. Thanks for hosting!!!

 

[lovesmurfs]

Thanks so much! I'm in! I'll shoot for 2,200 minutes in March.

 

[piglet1979]

I am in. My goal is 1395. This might be high for me for March but I am going to really try to hit this. I am just not sure how activities for the kids will work out. DD will be taking 2 riding classes a week for this month to make all her missed lessons in February from her broken arm. Plus she decided to play soccer and I am not sure when that will start and DS will be playing soccer too. I might need to get creative with my active minutes this month.

 

[2manypets]

It's been a few months, but I'm back in for March. I hurt my hip earlier this year and am very slowly getting back into the exercising (mostly walking to start with.) I'll aim for 930 minutes for March. Thanks for hosting Sophy1996!

 

[sophy1996]

Let's kick off on this first day of March with the actor named Disney's very first Disney Legend--Fred MacMurray (1908-1991). His seven Disney films (The Shaggy Dog, The Absent-Minded Professor, Bon Voyage!, Son of Flubber, Follow Me, Boys!, The Happiest Millionaire, and Charley and the Angel) spanned the late 1950s to the early 1970s.

MacMurray was born in Illinois and raised in Wisconsin. Early in his career he was a saxophonist and vocalist. After moving to Los Angeles, he signed with Paramount and became a star in 1935's The Gilded Lily with Claudette Colbert. By 1943, he was America's highest-paid actor, making about $420,000 that year.

Although he generally played the nice guy, some of his most memorable roles were not quite so nice, including a murderer in Double Indemnity and a philanderer in The Apartment. In all he appeared in approximately 80 movies, as well as starring in the TV show My Three Sons from 1960 to 1972. (His contract for the show specified that all his scenes were shot first and in two month-long blocks, giving him time to work on films and to spend time at his Northern California ranch, which continues as a winery.) By the time he died, MacMurray was one of the wealthiest stars in Hollywood, due to smart investments and frugal ways (including bringing his lunch to the film set). He died of pneumonia, though he had been suffering with several other ailments in the last decade of his life.

According to D23, "Walt Disney personally cast Fred in the Studio's first live-action comedy, The Shaggy Dog. Released in 1959, it was one of the biggest and most unexpected film successes in Disney history." MacMurray's career had been waning in the late 1950s, so The Shaggy Dog came at a great time, leading to the other Disney films as well as My Three Sons. During a 1973 television special for Walt's golden anniversary, MacMurray said, "I will say the seven pictures I made at the Disney Studio were the pleasantest times I've had in the picture business--and I've been around quite a while."

Reportedly, C.C. Beck, the creator of Captain America, said he modeled the character after Fred MacMurray.

Do you have a favorite of MacMurray's Disney films? I've said before that I love, love, love Follow Me, Boys!

 

[piglet1979]

I am going to say Shaggy Dog. I remember watching this as a kid.

 

[2manypets]

The absent minded professor was and still is my all time favorite. Loved him in My three sons also.

 

[Elizabeth Smith]

I'm going to join in this month with 660 minutes.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I love the new theme (and it goes so well with March because it's Oscar month!)

I can't decide between The Absent-Minded Professor and Follow Me Boys. - I love them both!

I'm going back to my usual 400, as I have no trip plans for March, and seem to have irritated my ankle, but I did manage 10 minutes to start off yesterday.

10/400

 

[sophy1996]

Next up, one of America's favorite Mouseketeers, Annette Funicello (1942-2013). She was the last Mouseketeer cast, having been discovered (at age 12) by Walt Disney dancing in a recital of Swan Lake in Burbank. As The Mickey Mouse Club came to an end in the late 1950s, Walt offered her other television roles and a movie contract. In addition to finding success as a singer, she went on to appear in The Shaggy Dog (1959), Babes in Toyland (1961), The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964), and The Monkey's Uncle (1965). But as a film star, she is probably better known for the Beach Party movies she did with Frankie Avalon when Disney loaned her to American International Pictures.

In 1987, she learned she had multiple sclerosis, but did not announce it publicly until 1992 (doing so then only because she was afraid the symptoms would be interpreted as drunkenness). She also was named a Disney Legend in the 1992 class. In 1995, she released her autobiography, A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes. Sadly, MS gradually robbed her of her abilities, and she ultimately died of complications from the disease in 2013. Soon after her death, Soundstage 1 at The Walt Disney Studios Lot was rededicated as the "Annette Funicello Stage."

 

[sophy1996]

I love the new theme (and it goes so well with March because it's Oscar month!)

Thanks! I hadn't thought about it being Oscar month but that does fit!

 

[piglet1979]

So yesterday was not a great day. I was feeling off and had a bad headache. After work I went home and just rested. I am feeling better today so I should do better. Plus our nice winter storm has passed. we were supposed to get 7-13 inches of snow last night with 45-50 mph winds. Well we only got about 2 inches of snow but we got the wind. Lots of downed trees and power lines. Though a good portion of my town lost power we did not.

0/1395

 

[2manypets]

I only had time for 21 minutes of walking (according to fitbit) Crazy busy days are these!

21/930

 

[Elizabeth Smith]

+60 minutes. 30 from yesterday and 30 from today.

60/660

 

[sophy1996]

Looks like most of us are off to a slow start this month, though Elizabeth Smith is *this close* to turning Brilliant Blue. That's OK, there's most of the month yet before us!

For the weekend, here's a look at father-and-son Disney Mega Movie Stars: Ed Wynn and Keenan Wynn.

Ed Wynn (1886-1966), born Isaiah Edwin Leopold, started his career in vaudeville, including the Ziegield Follies. The comedic talent moved into radio then into television, hosting one of the first network comedy-variety shows. After the end of his third comedy show at the end of the 1950s, his son Keenan encouraged him to try dramatic acting instead of retiring. Although he was terrified of "straight" acting and kept messing up in rehearsals, he pulled it together and demonstrated had a flair for dramatic acting as well, garnering an Oscar nomination for The Diary of Anne Frank in 1959 and impressing in other roles.

For Disney, Ed voiced the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland (1951) and appeared in Babes in Toyland (1961), The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), Son of Flubber (1963), That Darn Cat! (1965), Those Calloways (1965), and The Gnome-Mobile (1967) (his final role, released after his death). His most memorable Disney role, however, is probably as Uncle Albert in Mary Poppins (1964), floating and singing "I Love to Laugh" (I can hear it in my head right now!).

Ed died of throat cancer in 1966. Walt Disney, then in the last months of his own life, was one of his casket bearers. Ed was named a Disney Legend in the class of 2013. And if King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph brings Ed to mind, it's because Alan Tudyk imitated his distinct voice.

Even that brief summary shows that Keenan Wynn (1916-1986) had a lot to live up to when he went into acting! But he was up to the challenge.

Born Francis Xavier Aloysius James Jeremiah Keenan Wynn, Keenan started in theater and radio and then appeared in hundreds of television shows and movies, often playing the villain. Initially he was contracted to MGM, but later resigned to be free to take on meatier roles. When his father suffered career setbacks, Keenan encouraged Ed to take up dramatic roles, and appeared with him in television and on film. Keenan appeared in many notable films, including Annie Get Your Gun, Kiss Me Kate, Dr. Strangelove, and The Great Race. What I will probably most remember him for, however, is voicing the Winter Warlock in the animated Santa Claus is Comin' to Town (1970).

For Disney, Keenan was the villain in The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), Son of Flubber (1963), Snowball Express (1972), Herbie Rides Again (1974), and The Shaggy D.A. (1976).

Keenan enjoyed racing just about anything on land or water, which (due to loud unmuffled motors) sadly led later in life to suffering tinnitus (a chronic ringing in the ears). He died of pancreatic cancer in 1986.

 

[sophy1996]

20-minute walk Friday

20/1200

 

[sophy1996]

So yesterday was not a great day. I was feeling off and had a bad headache. After work I went home and just rested. I am feeling better today so I should do better. Plus our nice winter storm has passed. we were supposed to get 7-13 inches of snow last night with 45-50 mph winds. Well we only got about 2 inches of snow but we got the wind. Lots of downed trees and power lines. Though a good portion of my town lost power we did not.

0/1395

Hope you keep feeling better and get through the weather!

 

[PollyannaMom]

Looks like most of us are off to a slow start this month...

I definitely am! Just 10 minutes since my last post, for 20/400.

 

[sophy1996]

+100 this weekend

120/1200