Walt Disney

December 5th 1901 is the birthday of Walt Disney the American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, ­ he introduced several developments in the production of ­ cartoons. As a film producer, he holds the record for most Academy Awards­ earned and nominations by an individual, having won 22 Oscars from 59 nominations. He was presented with two ­ Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards among other honours. Several of his films are included in the ­National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Disney was the first person to be nominated for Academy Awards in 6 different categories.

Born in Chicago in 1901, Disney developed an early interest in drawing. He took art classes as a boy and got a job as a commercial illustrator at the age of 18. He moved to California in the early 1920s and set up the Disney Brothers Studio with his brother Roy. With Ub Iwerks, he developed the character Mickey Mouse in 1928, his first highly popular success

Growing up we had a lot of fun watching movies in the outdoors. We would drive to the location, drive to the booth to make payment, before finding a parking spot that you could see the screen. Hook the strange looking speaker over the front or back window. Payment should have been made according to the amount of people in the car, but in the days of no seatbelts and lax rules about how many people you can fit in your vehicle, there were often heads shoved under the blanket or in parts of the vehicle that were hidden from the man in the booth. Drive-ins, as they were called are a thing of the past, but we can still enjoy a movie outdoors in your local park, piazza or rooftop.

Mundaring had an open-air cinema called Mundaring Gardens in Jacoby Street. It was opened in the 1940s by Mr Lew Punch on his block which spanned between Craig and Jacoby Streets. It had deck chairs set out for patrons and a screen at the front. The shop next door supplied ice-creams and drinks for sale during the interval. There were often two movies shown on the night. This cinema closed in the 1960s but Mundaring still has an outdoor theatre near the Mundaring Weir. it is called "The Kookaburra".