Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1535880
Hole (1979) and was slated to contribute to the Tokyo and Florida versions of Splash Mountain at the time of his passing. Jimmy Macdonald died in 1991 at the age of 84. He was posthumously named a Disney Legend in 1993. His legacy resonates daily in every Disney park. Toontown at Disneyland is full of his distinctive sounds. His legendary brake drum chimes echo in the Haunted Mansion as you board the Doombuggies, and the train circling Big Thunder Mountain still uses his original "train track" prop. The Disney Sound Effects Library—meticulously archived and cataloged by Jimmy himself— was closely guarded for many years. But in 1991, Mark Mangini and I were fortunate to comb through the collection while working on Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. One of the very first sounds in Beauty and the Beast—birds tweeting as they fly by the castle—was originally performed by Jimmy for Cinderella. I made a point of including more of his effects in A Goofy Movie. "As a 19-year-old sound editor at Hanna-Barbera Studios, the Saturday- morning cartoon factory, Jimmy was my first idol. Long before there were sound 'designers,' there was Jimmy, always inventing ways for sound to tell a story, always creating new sounds when library might do, and building props that didn't exist to create sounds that didn't either." –Mark Mangini (sound designer: Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Mad: Max Fury Road, Dune) Listening to the raw recordings is a real education—especially the ones Jimmy performed live, conducting other artists as they worked the props. That collaborative, performative quality is part of what made Disney's sound so unique. Personally, I'm reminded of Jimmy's genius every time my cellphone alerts me to a message—it plays the sound of the bulb horns he recorded for Tweedledee and Tweedledum in Alice in Wonderland. Many sandblasted, then I had to tune them." These chimes can be heard as Big Ben in Peter Pan and for the midnight toll in Cinderella. Many of Macdonald's original props are still housed at Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale, where they're maintained under the watchful eye of Joe Herrington. In addition to his sound effects wizardry, Jimmy was frequently called upon for vocal effects. He was the voice of Jaq and Gus in Cinderella, the Dormouse in Alice in Wonderland, and, famously, Chip n' Dale— whose voices were sped up to increase their squeakiness. He performed the exasperated grunts and gasps of Humphrey the Bear, barked for Pluto, and howled for the pound dogs in Lady and the Tramp. In Snow White, he voiced Dopey's hiccups and gagging, and even cried when the princess fell asleep. For A Silly Song, Jimmy yodeled the temp track—later replaced by Hannes Schroll (who would also yodel for Goofy in The Art of Skiing). He even hummed the tune to "Whale of a Tale" for Kirk Douglas's message-in-a-bottle moment in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. In 1946, Walt Disney personally tapped Jimmy to take over the voice of Mickey Mouse when he no longer had time to do it himself. Beginning with the Mickey and the Beanstalk segment of Fun and Fancy Free, Jimmy was the voice of Mickey until 1976. When Mickey spoke again in 1983, sound editor Wayne Allwine—who had worked closely with Macdonald—stepped in. Outside the studio, Jimmy was also the drummer for Firehouse Five Plus Two, a Dixieland jazz band made up of Disney animators. They were a hit in the 1950s and often performed at Disneyland. He also made several appearances on Disney TV shows, including The Mickey Mouse Club, and can be spotted briefly as the tympani player in Fantasia. In 1977, Jimmy came out of retirement to perform the voice of Evinrude the dragonfly in The Rescuers, using a new gizmo he built that produced the buzzing sound by blowing through a tube into a wire spool … which was covered with a condom (although many Disney publications state it was simply "a balloon"). He also returned to help with the sound effects for Disney's The Black of the sound effects Jimmy created can be heard on the Cartoon Trax CD Library released by Hollywood Edge in the early '90s, though sadly, their historical context wasn't preserved in the logs. Some selections from that collection are now part of The Hollywood Sound Museum's in-house digital reference library, available at our listening stations—complete with their proper historical context. These were featured in the Museum's temporary installation in Glendale, next door to Monkeyland Audio. We're also proud to have one of Jimmy's original sound effects props in our permanent collection. With most of the Disney film library now available on Disney+, new generations are experiencing the magic of Jimmy Macdonald's work— whether they realize it or not. His sounds, both whimsical and deeply expressive, remain an essential part of what makes those films feel alive. Long before digital libraries and sound design plug-ins, Jimmy crafted emotion and story from wood, metal, breath, and imagination. His legacy isn't just preserved in archives or museum displays—it's in the laughter, the surprise, and the wonder that still echo every time a child hears the squeak of a chipmunk, the tick of a crocodile, or the distant clackety- clack of a cartoon train rolling across the screen. For information on the Museum's upcoming installations, please visit HollywoodSoundMuseum.org. Keep Listening.