Pheaturing Sean Marshall

"Petey! Where'd he go?"

Hey, kids, welcome to the Phile from Walt Disney World! How are you? For your safety, I recommend you remain seated during your entire visit to the park. Please note that Steampunk Land is closing because steampunk is so over. Welcome, new summer Cast Members! Start mopping up vomit! If you see any characters in the parks, it's selfie season! At the parks you can meet some princesses and princes. Speaking of princes...
Sunday was a big Father's Day for royal gossip. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex presented the world with an adorable glimpse at Baby Archie's tiny fingers. And on an extremely less wholesome note, British tabloids published pieces on the scuttlebutt amongst the aristocracy, who definitely call gossip "scuttlebutt." The Daily Mail published a lengthy piece about the state of Prince William's alleged mistress Rose Hanbury's marriage. Earlier this month, Queen Elizabeth II hosted a state banquet for Donald Trump at Buckingham Palace, and the Royal Family got in the Trumpian spirit by having an alleged mistress there. People noticed that the marchioness/mistress wasn't wearing her wedding ring, which suggests that there's trouble in paradise for the esteemed Cholmondeleys of Houghton Hall. Hanbury's husband, 58-year-old David Rocksavage, has reportedly been spending a lot of time in Paris since the rumors of the affair began circulating, "while Rose is left alone to run their magnificent country seat, 106-room Houghton Hall with its 1,000-acre estate bordering Sandringham." Sad? "Royal sources" have spoken to The Daily Mail about the ordeal and have hammered home the narrative about how unfair the rumors are for the poor aristocrats. One royal source insisted the whole saga was simply "malicious gossip" from someone "who appears to have an agenda to discredit William and Kate." "David and Rose have been real victims in all of this too. They are not public figures and it is very unfair. It has all got completely out of hand," the source added. "It's just really upsetting for everyone." A spokesman for the Cholmondeleys said, 'There is no foundation to any of the tabloid articles that have appeared. There is nothing else to say whatsoever." The Sun is also reporting that Hanbury has been advised by official royal aides to "say nothing" about the affair, after previously publishing-and-deleting a comment from her brother. An old post on The Sun said that somebody said that Hanbury said of the Rose and William rumors, “It seems to have started because she had one or two suppers with William in Norfolk when Kate was away.” “But it was hardly as if they were meeting behind Kate’s back... of course she knew they were getting together. And Kate was grateful that a good friend and neighbour like Rose was there to entertain William.” But as Celebitchy.com notes, those lines were deleted, likely because an "unsupervised dinner" could be read as a euphemism for banging. I don't think that the Palace's strategy of trying to get us to shut up about a sex scandal by presenting an aristocrat who allegedly banged the future king as sympathetic is going to work out so well.
While the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mobilized many survivors to fight for gun safety and begin the March For Our Lives, at least one student's takeaway was that America needs more guns, and his name is Kyle Kashuv. Kyle Kashuv's outlier status among the Parkland teens made him a conservative media darling, and he became BFFs with Fox News and their most famous employee, President Trump. Kashuv was such a staple of the conservative movement that it was revealed he used racial slurs, calling black student athletes "nigger-jocks" and spamming an AP U.S. History study guide with the N-word. A month after his racists notes and texts were revealed, Harvard University rescinded his admission. It turns out that racial slurs can get you kicked out of Harvard when they're precisely what gets you invited to Princeton. Many a racist has gone to Harvard, but they either didn't get caught being racist before they became Secretary of State or had rich enough parents to buy and keep their slot. Kashuv's fellow conservative pundits are absolutely AGHAST at this turn of events, like Ben Shapiro, who fears for a future in which people are held to the impossible standard of not using racial slurs. First of all, Mr. Shapiro, why would you call this an "auto-da-fe" when the pun "N-word-quisition" is RIGHT THERE? Secondly, it's interesting to see Shapiro's take on which teenagers are worthy of sympathy. It's racists all the way down.
Another day in Trump's America, where the main debate between members of Congress is whether or not the kids concentrated in camps at the border are indeed in concentration camps. Rep. Liz Cheney, third-ranking Republican in the House and spawn of Dick, is absolutely AGHAST that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez compared the detention camps to migrant children to those made famous by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Immigrant children and families are being held in detention facilities on the southern border, and are even being transferred to an Oklahoma army base that was used as an internment camp for Japanese Americans during World War II, so yeah, comparisons to the 1940s are not out of nowhere. "The U.S. is running concentration camps on our southern border, and that is exactly what they are," Ocasio-Cortez said on Instagram. "The fact that concentration camps are now an institutionalized practice in the home of the free is extraordinarily disturbing, and we need to do something about it." Cheney, a self-proclaimed authority on Jewish history and memory, accused AOC of "demeaning" the memory of Holocaust victims, whom Cheney herself dehumanized by describing them as having been "exterminated" like vermin. AOC explained "to the shrieking Republicans" that her use of the phrase concentration camps "is not hyperbole. It is the conclusion of expert analysis." Andrea Pitzer, author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps, defined concentration camps to Esquire as "mass detention of civilians without trial," which is precisely what's going on. AOC also asked Chiz Leney for her take on the semantics. Jewish people, whom Dick Cheney's daughter claims to speak for, are speaking up to her. Good job, Liz.
This is a savage ratio of world-historical proportions. DNC hack tweets is the new DNC hack, and it spells bad news for 2020.

The levels of "how do you do, fellow kids?" is a weird way to pump up people who just the white supremacist guy gone and access to healthcare. There has got to be a better way to win.
Pakistani regional minister Shaukat Yousafzai was streaming a press conference on Facebook Live and accidentally activated the adorable cat filter. Yousafzai never looked more adorable while talking about the goings on of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwest Pakistan. Check it out...

Look's like that cat is out of the bag.
Man, if I had a TARDIS I would go to Walt Disney World in the 70s and see this float in a parade...

We would come to WDW every year growing up and saw every parade but I don't remember seeing this. I was thinking of getting a new tattoo but someone had the same idea I had.

Don't look, kids. Moving on... do you guys like the Beast? Well, if you wondering where they came up with the character here's how...

Ha! Brow of a gorilla. Hahaha. Did you know Gaston was supposed to be a female? No? Take a look...

I bet her name wouldn't be Gaston though. Ever watch a Disney movie on DVD or Blu-ray and pause it? It's a fun game to play. Check this out...

I always thought Disney animated movies looked "unreal." This is the way Snow White should've looked...

So, if you ever wondered what Alice did after she went to Wonderland I will show you...

Poor thing. Did you see the new live action Aladdin? I didn't, but after seeing this screen shot I want to...

That looks nothing like Will Smith. That is so stupid. That's as stupid as...

You know Walt Disney World is in Florida, right? There's stuff that happen in this state that happen no where else in the Universe. So once again here is...

Congratulations to Abigain Carlson and Zachary Fuit, a newly wedded couple who got a free honeymoon in the county jail! The 21-year-old bride and 26-year-old groom reportedly snuck into an abandoned elementary school in the city of Milton, Florida, as part of an after party with four of their guests. The Pensacola News Journal reports that the wedding party were charged with " burglary, criminal mischief and theft." Fuit, as well as his buddies, are former marines, and they broke into the old school by pulling off wooden boards and climbing through a broken window. A man heard noises and reported the license plate numbers to the police, and the happy couple were stopped by cops in the parking lot of a Pic-N-Sav. To paraphrase Game of Thrones, a Florida wedding without at least three arrests is considered a dull affair.

After filming a scene for John Wick 3 with a bunch of child actors, Keanu stuck around to meet and take pictures with all the kids.

There's a friend of the Phile who tends to get into a fight wherever he goes. He was at Epcot earlier and got into a fight and wanted to come here and tell us what happened. Please welcome back to the Phile...

Me: Hey, Eddie, what are you doing getting into a fight at Disney?

Pork Chop Eddie: The bastard started it.

Me: Okay, so what happened?

Pork Chop Eddie: I told my friend Vanilla Ice ripped off Queen with "Ice, Ice, Baby." He proceeded to punch me in the mouth.

Me: So, he hit you?

Pork Chop Eddie: Well, I carried on as if nothing happened... until I punched him out. He also told me that Will Smith was a better Genie than Robin Williams.

Me: Eddie, you have to stop fighting.

Pork Chop Eddie: Bud, I've been fighting ever since Kindergarten.

Me: You got into a fight in Kindergarten?

Pork Chop Eddie: Yeah. One of my best friends wouldn't share the paste, so I threw him on the floor and bit him in the face.

Me: Sheesh. Pork Chop Eddie, kids. Now from the home office in Port Jefferson, here is...

Top Phive Things Summer College Program Cast Members Should Know
5. How to Pretend to Speak a Guest's foreign language.
4. How to kick annoying kids without guilt.
3. How to stall while we fix the rides because Russia hacked us again.
2. How to never get paid for overtime.
And the number one thing a summer CP Cast Member should know...
1. How to best serve me at Star Tours.

Hahahaha. If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. Okay, before we continue I have an idea for the Phile. A lot of people at work over the years asked me for advice on allllll kinds of things. So, I thought I can pull a "Steve Harvey" and help my readers on different stuff. So, if you have a question or a situation you want me to help with then email me at thepeverettphile@gmail.com and I will answer it on the Phile hopefully. I CAN help you, my friends.

Gloria Vanderbilt
February 20th, 1924 — June 17th, 2019
The only "Crime of the Century" is how this self-absorbed socialite got famous in the first place.

The 100th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club is...

I'm so excited. Roger will be the guest on the Phile on July 1st.

Geppetto said, “I just can't seem to finish this woodworking project, but it's not for lacquer trying.”

This is bloody cool... today's guest is an American former actor and singer who started acting in 1971 at the age of 6. He was in more than ten movies including The Deadly Trackers, The New Adventures of Heidi and the Disney animated short film The Small One, but he is most commonly known for playing the protagonist Pete in the 1977 Disney movie Pete's Dragon for which he earned a gold record. Please welcome to the Phile... Sean Marshall.

Me: Hey, Sean, welcome to the Phile. It's so cool to have you here! How are you doing?

Sean: Well, I'm great to be here and I appreciate that.

Me: So, I have to tell you that Pete's Dragon is one of my favorite Disney movies. I saw the premier at Radio City Music Hall in New York, and used to play the album on vinyl over and over again. When I saw the movie at Radio City you were there and some of the cast and I remember saying to my parents and sister, "I wish the dragon was there" and my dad replied, "It's just a cartoon." Haha. 

Sean: That's cool. We must be about the same age then.

Me: Yeah, and we looked similar as kids. I could've been Pete easily. Haha. So, how did you get the part of Pete?

Sean: Well, it's just like any other interview. Well, I don't want to say it's like any interview. They contact my agent and they arranged the interview. Actually this was a HUGE massive interview, they had hundreds of kids trying out for the part. The interview process actually took a long time, there were numerous call backs. I went back, oh, man, about twenty or thirty times in the course of several months til they widdled it down to just two if us. Then at that point we did a screen test and obviously they gave me the part.

Me: Do you know who the other kid was?

Sean: It was Shane Sinutko, another child actor at the time. It was kind of funny because frequently we would go out for parts in series and movies it would come down to us two. It was weird because we didn't look anything alike. I had red hair and blue eyes and he had dark eyes and dark hair. But it frequently came down to the two of us.

Me: Were your personalities similar?

Sean: Some what. Perhaps. My dad for awhile used to race cars and work on tracks and I think his father did too so... We were kind off raised in similar way in the Valley there.

Me: Cool. So, I heard you really cried on camera, and it wasn't acting. What was that about?

Sean: Ummm... I'm not exactly sure what you are talking about. I know in my final interview when we did kind of like the live screen test Sean and I did a similar soliloquy to the camera at the time. It wasn't really set up to film, it was kind of at the end of the interview process. They had those huge lights, those light during lights they use on set and I was literally staring into the lights. The tears in that sense came pretty naturally.

Me: Ha. Do you think that was the thing that got you the part?

Sean: To a certain extent because we see supposed to be staring up and looking at the dragon and the director at the time had his and up there saying this was where the dragon's head was going to be but I was starring directly into that light. During that whole time I was literally blinded. Those lights are so, so hot those tears were streaming down my face. I think very well it had something to do with it. 

Me: What kind of techniques and eye line did they give you when you were filming the movie?

Sean: They used various technique Don Chaffey, who was the director, used to hold his hand up and say this is where the dragon's head is going to be. However they also had a couple of castings, fiber glass castings of Elliott's head. It was fully sculpted that looked like him and everything. Some were even painted, and sometimes they would hold those up, especially if their were numerous people in the scene at the same time, so that everyone could be looking at the same thing.

Me: Did you get to keep anything from the movie? Take anything from the set?

Sean: Yeah, I got so much stuff after the movie like story boards and stuff like that. But I would love to have one of those fiber glass heads.

Me: What kind of stuff do you have?

Sean: I have pictures and autographs, animation cells and like I said I have a bunch of the original story boards. Those kind of things.

Me: I wish there was a lot of merchandise and stuff from the movie when it came out. I have the record book, and I wish I still had the program that I got at the premier. Maybe it's packed away in a box somewhere. I do have a stuffed animal of Elliott though, which you sent me. That was nice of you.

Sean: Yeah, Disney is really good at archives. They have a huge archive department on the original Disney lot that anyone could go through, I suspect they probably saved a lot of that and put it in there.

Me: So, I heard a rumor that after they were done filming they wanted to move the lighthouse into Disneyland. Have you heard that?

Sean: Yeah, it actually was going to be Disney World. They built an actual lighthouse, it was a real lighthouse up in Morro Bay on private property and that's where we filmed all the exterior scenes, including the dancing scenes like "Brazzle Dazzle Day." They had plan to ship it over to Disney World and I think it was gone to be similar to or replace the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, so I'm not exactly sure how that worked out but they said no, the Treehouse is kind of permanent.

Me: That's a shame. I don't like that Treehouse thing. Would you have liked it to be at the park instead of the stupid tree?

Sean: Well... being a real lighthouse it's not meant to have a lot of people in it. The lighthouse only had one or two people in it and that was it so it wasn't really geared up to be an attraction for large crowds.

Me: Still... So, ever see the Elliott float in the Main Street Electric Light parade? It's gone now if you haven't see it... I think it is anyway.

Sean: Yeah, I rode that dragon when they first came out with it before they put it in the park, when we did the tour for the opening. So I rode that all over the country, down Fifth Avenue in New York for the opening there, in a couple of half times shows... It's funny, Katy Perry did that half time show I think it was just a few years ago, it was very, very similar what we have done too. It gave me nostalgic memories. Of course when they finally did it to the park I did ride on it in the park parades for a long time. Probably a couple of months anyway.

Me: Holy shit! I have to look through my photos... I might have a pic of you in the parade back then. I have worked for Disney for 31 years but we used to come down pretty much every year from '74ish til '84. What was it like doing that?

Sean: It was really cool, I didn't do all of them but I did it in a lot of them, It was really cool, I did enjoy it.

Me: What did you think about working at Disney, Sean?

Sean: It was so surreal, everything about it. Disney was a great place to work. I heard it still is, but back then it was still owned by the Disney family. The lot itself is almost like an extension of Disneyland, it's just so gorgeous. The grass is really green, the plants are shaped, all the streets are named after Disney characters like Mickey Mouse Road and Donald Duck Lane and all that kind of stuff. Everyone there is just so super, so friendly, it was just a really family friendly place obviously. It was really great, it was really, really cool.

Me: One of my favorite scenes in the movie was when you and Elliott arrived in Passamaquoddy and the whole town was going crazy. Was that a hard scene to shoot?

Sean: It was. It took at least a week, it may have taken more. There were so many obviously principals and tons and tons of extras and then lots and lots of special effects, which was fantastic for me, I was ten at the time. It was great to see all that stuff in action. It was a lot of fun and there as a lot pf people there, it was almost like a big party. Obviously we were working, and the only one who didn't have fun was Jim Bakkus who played the Mayor. It got to the point where they dropped the crates of eggs on him and he gets soaked in all the raw eggs and he has the broken cigar in his mouth, he had to sit around for DAYS in the hot sun with those those eggs and cigars as they shot it from different angles and everything. Poor Jim, but everyone else had a fantastic time.

Me: For the longest time I thought the movie was filmed on the East Coast, but it was filmed in California, right?

Sean: Right. Actually it was on the backlot of Disney in California, and they took months. During the time we all prepped, which was getting the dance routines down, the whole choreography down, and actually singing the songs, recording them and going through all that, they were on the backlot building that to make it look like Maine. So they built almost an outdoor world, that was supposed to be an ocean. They dug out put, they filled it up with water, built the whole town and everything else, it was really amazing.

Me: Wow. So, what was the hardest scene you guys shot?

Sean: Ummm, some of the dance scenes, the dance scene on the lighthouse was difficult again because it was cramped. It was hard to hear, they had helicopters flying around to do some of the shots, so that was kind of difficult but fun. Mickey and Helen were also there so we had lots and lots of fun together. I would say that that might of been the hardest thing, There was a lot of singing obviously that could be challenging.

Me: You worked with a huge cast, a lot of famous people in the movie, what was that like?

Sean: There were tons and tons of stars, there were Academy Award winning people. They were all just so funny, so friendly. Mickey, Red Buttons, Jim Dale, they were all just hilarious. They kept me in stitches the whole time.

Me: You look kinda like Mickey Rooney now, Sean. Hahaha. I was trying to get him on the Phile before he passed. What was he like?

Sean: He was fantastic.

Me: Okay, so, disclosure time... I had a crush on Helen Reddy back then, but my patents did not like her. Haha. I am trying to get her on the Phile. What was she like?

Sean: She was great too. I loved Helen, Helen loved me. She had a son that was just slightly younger than me at the time so she was very, very paternal. I believe this might've been her first movie so she was kind of really into the whole thing. We spent a lot of time together, we did a lot of singing together. She and Jim Dale used to shower me with gifts all the time, so that was fantastic for me as a kid of that age.

Me: Did you know who she was beforehand? I didn't I don't think.

Sean: Yeah, I knew who she was, my mom listened to all her old music and I knew all her music so to me she was a real big star.

Me: What kind of stuff did they have you do to make you look like you were acting with Elliott? 

Sean: Okay, like I said they had this fiber glass head. When we did the things like throwing the apples, eating the apples that were fried, they actually built and stand that was Elliott's stomach. We didn't shoot in blue green, we shot in yellow screen, which was an experimental process at that point. I guess in the long run didn't work out because now they use blue or green screens. They built the belly of Elliott on this stand and they had it exactly like his belly would be but on that yellowish color, so that was one way that they did it. When I actually got the part, we were talking about that scene where I was crying before, they asked Don Chaffey at the time why did he ended up giving it to me, and Don said, "Because he was the only one who could really see the dragon." So, it came down to they relied more on a sting than other kind of props and stuff.

Me: Did you have a lot of time backstage to see what was going on with the animation and stuff? 

Sean: Yeah, I knew what was going on the whole time because the animators provided constant drawings and story boards to give me the feel how it was supposed to look. It worked great, if Don Chaffey changed his mind and wanted something else they would just sit right on set and draw out the new ones. It was really cool, we spent a lot of time in the animation department.

Me: Did you guys have a lot of meetings and get to know the animators and stuff?

Sean: Yeah, we had meetings the whole time. They would have meetings in the animation department, they were talking to the animators and all of the main cast would go down there with the director and producers. We'd see everything in process. Disney at that time was just so family oriented, there were tons of buildings, or were tons of buildings, I don't know if they still shoot there, on the Disney lot that are different things like animation and archives or what have you, and we spent tons of time in those buildings and go to know everyone, It was really a great work environment.

Me: Man, I'm so jealous. So, after Pete's Dragon what did you do?

Sean: After Pete's Dragon I did a couple of series. I did "The MacKenzies of Paradise Cove" that filmed in Hawaii for awhile. Then I kind of came of age, I was graduating from 8th grade and so was going to go to high school. We went to Roman Catholic schools, so everyone was going to different Roman Catholic high schools and I chose Notre Dame which was in Sherman Oaks at the time. I got accepted in the accelerated class which is and they wouldn't let me miss more than three days at at time. And of course at this point of time I was filming movies and series and all that stuff so I was gone for months at a time so I I had to make a choice... the school or continue filming so I chose the schooling and kind of quit the business.

Me: Do you even get the urge to try something?

Sean: You know, every now and then someone will ask me to do something. I'm really not much into it, I do the interviews obviously, I do stuff when the movie is rereleased but that's pretty much about it. Sometimes I go to autograph signing things but I live out in rural New Mexico so there's not much opportunity for that.

Me: Did people make fun of you for being on a big movie in school?

Sean: No. First of all I didn't go to public schools, I went to private schools. At Notre Dame there were several actors that came before me, there were several actors and singers that came after me, to certain extent they are kind of used to that, the staff. In college it was a little bit different, I went to the United States Military Academy, so they took it kid of different. It was a different atmosphere. I remember one point in time they tied me up to a chair and forced me to watch the movie with them. I didn't have much problems.

Me: Haha. I would of used being in the film as leverage to get girls. Haha. Did you try that?

Sean: No, I never advertised it, but for some reason all the girls at the Academy knew I was in Pete's Dragon. I'm not sure why, I think one of them knew and told all the rest.

Me: So, what do you do nowadays?

Sean: Well, after I graduated from the Military Academy I sailed with the Navy for a while. I got out and went into banking, into the trust department of a big bank for a while. Then I went into a hospital where I was in charge of networks, support for desk tops, in IT. These days I am kind of retired, I stay at home, taking care of my wife who has been ill, and play guitar and do that kind of stuff.

Me: Cool. Sean, thanks for being on the Phile. I hope this was fun.

Sean: Thank you very much. If you ever need anything else, invite me back.

Me: I will. Take care, Sean, and thanks for Elliott.

That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to Sean Marshall for a great interview. The Phile will be back in a few weeks on July 1st as I kick of summer with the great Roger Daltrey. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.

I don't want you, cook my bread, I don't want you, make my bed, I don't want your money too, I just want to make love to you. - Willie Dixon