Yes I was on the first episode of Hazel in the very last scene in the park. I'm one of Harold's football buddies. I got some of my friends to join in including Dick Van Dyke's youngest son, Barry.

To pursue other interests, particularly a show where he could star or co-star as he did in "Hazel" in 1961. He left O&H in 1957 the year he opened his own restaurant in Disneyland - "Don DeFore's Silver Banjo Barbecue" in Frontierland 1957-1962.

Or was it kearth had A.P network news

Go to www.growingupindisneyland.com

Mom had once dated David Rose who, at that time, was Judy Garland's husband.

Another good example of: Don't believe everything you see on the Internet!

Mr & Mrs DeFore seemed like wonderful people and parents! They exemplified a good Christian family.

All I know is neither owned cats but did own dogs. Shirley brought hers to the studio every day.

@@rhd4444 some are allergic to cats. Cats are more popular today than back then.

@@rhd4444 BTW- Lucille Ball liked cats

Ryan--thank you so much. I've been discussing a documentary--as recent as last night but need appropriate director and, of course, financing. Interested? Ron

​@@rhd4444 - I can give you endless advice. I am in Detroit. I am still working on my documentary about my record mogul pal. My first doc subject and I shot his life story twice over a couple years. The second time, he wrote down his life story, chapter by chapter, on legal pads. He memorized his life story and would recite it on camera, bit by bit. This second doc is more of an anthology that I will turn into a documentary. You look like you already have a video anthology collection of your father's life. I would recommend breaking his life up into every possible chapter, kind of how Stanley Kubrick Dewey Decimal'ed the life of Napoleon in preparation for his never-made Napoleon film. You get to draw targets around your shot arrows at this point. That is, you pick the best moments that seem to flow, and you arrange them chronologically (or not in order if there are a few separate strong currents that intertwined and flowed throughout his life) You then get three shots at perfecting your doc from there Write a narrative Shoot extra footage narrating over objects and pictures and intercutting any interviews with living contemporaries of his. Then you edit that to be more seamless. And I guess you get a fourth shot at shaping the narrative in how you release and market the film. If I may be rude: it seems even the best folks are forgotten unless someone makes a singular effort to keep alive the memory of that deceased person. You have to be the ultimate auteur to see it through to a proper finish and dissemination into the world and into the culture and history. You are your own best friend when it comes down to it (well, and family and friends of your dear father) in making a proper doc about him. Again, start with the forest and then look through the trees and transplant the best ones that go well together into a new, better laid out forest. Then write down that narrative; chase living peers to praise him; edit that into your existing footage. Then market it to death and try to give your father his proper place in history and culture. I am in a real pickle with my current doc. Some folks in Detroit have most of the best photographs with huge celebrities that my doc subject had and gave to these folks in Detroit They have evaded my calls to meet up for over a year now, and so I am having to do without the very best pictures to show what Lee is telling. You are very blessed to have so many fantastic personal effects from your dad. Try to document those for use as cutaways for your documentary

@@ryanellis4474 i will reply in more length when im back home on my computer, but FYI- I will be St.Claire & st claire shores in early august to visit in-laws.

​@@rhd4444 I live RIGHT by there. Hahaha! Perfect! I am trying to get Third Man Records in midtown Detroit to let me celebrate Lee's 88th birthday at the record store (Jack White's store), since it is the coolest record store in the city and Lee used to run an even cooler record store down the road for twenty-five years. This is certainly kismet!

@@ryanellis4474 im going to see my brother in law's concert---he is Captain Fantastic Detroit.

There's no date on the record, but knowing my parents' history fairly well I would guess it was around 1940.

Oops...i thought it was XPRS..its XERF!!! 😆

@@bqkmg2037 I remember XPRS that played oldies in the 80s. It sounded very distant from Culver City California.

@@fredjimenez4208It was XTRA. Los Angeles...i was wrong it wasn't XPRS.

I feel the exact same way!

Some of Dad's autobiography is incorporated into my book but was never published on its own.

Yes, I know. Left me wanting more.

@@willardarmbruster8111 I could publish more, and am currently testing the waters to gauge the interest in a sequel.

@Ron Defore. I, for one, would love it. As my screen name implies, I’m a big fan.