Ike Turner Jr., the son of Ike and Tina Turner who won a Grammy for traditional blues album in 2007 as a producer on his father’s album “Risin’ With the Blues,” has died. He was 67.
Turner died Saturday at a Los Angeles hospital from kidney failure, family member Jacqueline Bullock told TMZ. She said the musician had been battling heart issues for years and had a stroke last month.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of my cousin, Ike Turner, Jr.,” Bullock said in a statement to the New York Post. ‘”Junior’ was more than a cousin to me, but rather a brother, as we grew up in the same famed household together.”
“As the son of Tina and Ike Turner, from an early age, his talents were evident as there wasn’t an instrument he did not want to play,” the statement continued. “Eventually, Junior would end up helping to run Bolic Sound Studios, the recording studios founded by his father, Ike Turner.”
Ike Turner Jr., and friend Mary Ellis at a memorial service for his father in 2007.
(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
A musician, producer and sound engineer, Turner was pulled into the music business by his father when he was 13.
“My father took me out of [the] house and out of school and I traveled [with them],” Turner said in a 2017 interview on “The Bobby Eaton Show.” “That wasn’t no easy work.”
In that same interview, he also shared the role his mother Tina played in the instruments he picked up in his youth.
“My first instrument was drums, until my mother started making me break my drums down every day,” he said. “The piano was always there in the family room, so I started playing piano. I play guitar and bass. Everything except horn because horn used to make me dizzy from blowing air.”
Turner was one of four children associated with Ike Sr. and Tina Turner’s famed union, which ended with the latter filing for divorce in 1974 (finalized in 1978). The couple performed together from 1960 to 1976 as the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, but their musical achievements were often overshadowed by the former’s abuse.
Born in 1958 to Ike Turner Sr. and Lorraine Taylor, Ike Jr. and his brother Michael were adopted by the “What’s Love Got to Do With It” singer upon her marriage in 1962 to their father. Their siblings also included Ronnie and Craig.
“Tina raised me from the age of 2,” Ike Jr. told the Mail on Sunday in 2018. “She’s the only mother I’ve ever known.”
Over the years Turner had commented a number of times on his estrangement from his mother since his parents’ divorce. In 2018 he said he had not spoken to her in nearly 20 years.
Turner was preceded in death by both of his parents and two of his siblings. His father died in 2007 of a cocaine overdose and Tina died in 2023 after a long illness. Craig Turner died by suicide in 2018 and Ronnie Turner of complications related to late-stage cancer in 2022.
Los Angeles County agreed to pay $20 million Tuesday to the family of Noah Cuatro, a 4-year-old Palmdale boy who was tortured to death by his parents in 2019.
The case brought intense scrutiny of the county’s child welfare system after it was revealed that the Department of Children and Family Services had failed to remove Noah from his parents despite a court order.
DCFS had been given 10 days to get Noah away from his parents and seen by a doctor after multiple reports of neglect and abuse, The Times previously reported. The department ignored the order.
He died less than two months later, right before his fifth birthday. His parents later pleaded no contest to murder and torture charges.
“He always begged me not to send him to his parents,” said Eva Hernandez, Noah’s great-grandmother. “I tried to explain to him so many times, but he didn’t understand. He’d take his little hands and look into my eyes and say, ‘Don’t make me go there.’”
Eva Hernandez cries while remembering her great-grandson Noah Cuatro as the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors prepares to approve a $20-million settlement to his family.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Hernandez sued DCFS in 2020, alleging the department had failed her grandson and should have intervened to keep him safe. Cuatro had been under the supervision of the agency from the time he was born because his mother had been accused of fracturing his half sister’s skull.
The child welfare department said since Noah’s death they’ve hired thousands of social workers to decrease caseloads and retrained social workers on interviewing techniques and use of forensic exams.
“It is DCFS’ hope that this resolution gives Noah’s family a sense of peace,” the department said in a statement. “DCFS remains committed to learning from the past, improving its work, and operating with transparency.”
At the time of his death, Noah remained under supervision by DCFS despite more than a dozen reports to the child abuse hotline and police from callers who believed that he and his siblings were being abused.
Attorney Brian Claypool, who represented Cuatro’s family in the lawsuit, said Noah’s death was a direct result of the county failing to follow the court order to remove him from his parents. A Superior Court judge had agreed to remove him after a social worker filed a 26-page request with the court, citing evidence of abuse.
“The county really blew it with the removal order. There’s no excuse for them not to have picked up Noah,” Claypool said. “The most shocking, upsetting part of this case is when I took the deposition of the social worker in the case and the two supervisors, none of the individuals read the petition of all the abuse that was submitted to the court. That was inexcusable.”
Eva Hernandez holds a photo of her great-grandson Noah Cuatro.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Noah’s parents initially called 911 on July 5, 2019, saying their son had drowned in a swimming pool of their apartment complex, but authorities grew suspicious after finding the boy unconscious and dry in the apartment. Doctors later found bruises across his body and signs of “mottling” around his neck.
County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose district includes Palmdale, called his death a “heartbreaking tragedy.”
“While nothing can undo the harm he suffered, today’s $20 million settlement awarded to his surviving siblings and grandmother provides some measure of support as they continue to heal,” she said in a statement. “Noah’s life was not in vain. His case has reinforced the need for ongoing review of child welfare cases, stronger partnerships with our schools, and a stabilized DCFS workforce to better protect children in the Antelope Valley. Noah leaves behind a legacy — he will not be forgotten.”
His great-grandmother, Hernandez, said she still thinks of him every day.
“I know that he’s not suffering anymore,” she said.
FROM competitiveness to narcissism – if Noel and Liam have what it takes to patch things up, you have no excuse!
WITH the whole world watching, the Gallagher brothers have been taking to the stage for the Oasis reunion tour – and off the back of their 16-year feud, have proven sibling reconciliation is possible for anyone (though the jury is still out on Princes William and Harry. . .).
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Just because you have the same parents, it doesn’t mean you had the same experience growing up
One of the most impactful relationships you will ever have is with a sibling, who can be a best friend and confidante from day one to the end.
But the dynamic is complex.
Just because you have the same parents, it doesn’t mean you had the same experience growing up.
Likewise, you can share DNA, but not the same outlook on life or values.
Fallouts will occur, and that can lead to long-held feuds.
In fact, one study found 28% of people had experienced at least one estrangement episode with a sibling.*
“Our siblings have known us in our formative years in deeply intimate ways, sharing baths, bedrooms, road trips and battles over broccoli,” says Ali Ross from the UK Council for Psychotherapy.
“During this time, there’s a tension between them being your closest allies and greatest threats.”
How do you navigate tensions when they reach boiling point, or bring up long-standing resentments that are now having a big impact?
“Those conversations can be painful and difficult, especially if this is unprecedented for you in your relationship,” says Ali.
Rhasidat Adeleke teases ‘brother-sister duo’ for 2028 Olympics in exciting training video
“But they can also be helpful to establish a new way of relating as siblings. It can also be a relief to name the elephant in the room, or to expose that you’ve been misinterpreting something and dispel long-held assumptions.”
But sometimes forgiveness feels impossible, and the healthiest thing to do is to walk away.
Exhausting, right? Often it’s just light-hearted banter, but if micro-aggressions are thrown around by your sibling, it can put a strain on your relationship.
“The truth is, people like to be in charge of their narrative and identity – and the way people see themselves within the family, or when compared to siblings, can challenge both those things,” says Ali.
“It is how much you want to buy into that game.”
WHAT NEXT?
When you feel the competitive urge, acknowledge it’s just a reflex, then redirect your energy.
“If you’re casting judgements about a sibling without attempting to understand what it’s like to live their life, challenge yourself to genuinely, compassionately understand them better, then do this for yourself,” says Ali.
He suggests imagining a version of yourself that doesn’t have a sibling to compete with. What would you care about?
“Once you understand the context, the desire to compare and compete diminishes,” he says.
Fallouts will occur, and that can lead to long-held feuds
The Narcissistic Sibling
However much you want to forge a stronger relationship with your sibling, the reality is that sometimes it’s near-impossible.
Does it feel like they won’t take any responsibility for their actions, and don’t seem to be capable of any empathy for you or your viewpoint?
“These are signs of narcissistic behaviour,” says Ali.
“But rather than writing your sibling off as a narcissist and trying to change this other person’s way of being, it is more empowering to understand what you are encountering, what that means for you, and to consider how you are going to navigate that.”
“If they don’t, do you really want to have a relationship with them?
“The answer may be hard and upsetting, but it means you can move forward from a more informed position,” says Ali.
There’s a tension between them being your closest allies and greatest threats
Ali Ross
The Peter Pan Sibling
Some people might describe your sibling as a “free spirit”, but you only see them as a big kid.
Ali suggests thinking about why your sibling’s Peter Pan energy irritates you so much.
“Do you feel like you got too old, too soon, or took on more responsibility and feel resentment?” says Ali.
Perhaps you took on caring responsibilities for other family members.
“Ask yourself honestly if there are feelings of being a martyr on your part,” says Ali.
“Have you rushed straight in to put out the fire before anybody else smelled something was burning?”
WHAT NEXT?
Try telling your sibling how much you are struggling.
“Say something like: ‘This is the burden I’m carrying, and you’re not helping,’ and follow it up with some actual strategising to prompt a practical shift,” Ali says.
Our siblings have known us in our formative years in deeply intimate ways, sharing baths, bedrooms, road trips and battles over broccoli
Ali Ross
The Controlling Sibling
Is your sibling overbearing or dictatorial? It’s likely to come from a fear of being vulnerable, says Ali.
“They’re taking power in a situation because they can’t bear the idea of not being in control. However, this feeling is often buried so deep that your sibling won’t recognise it for what it is.”
People under control can end up feeling resentment, but may be too oppressed to express their true feelings.
WHAT NEXT?
“Be aware that calling it out is a threat to their control in itself,” Ali warns.
“It is why they are likely to double-down on their control, or find another insidious way to try to resume or re-establish control.
“It is much better if the controlling person is left to try to figure it out for themselves, and you spend as little time as you can in their orbit.”
It can also be a relief to name the elephant in the room, or to expose that you’ve been misinterpreting something and dispel long-held assumptions
Ali Ross
The Disengaged Sibling
Of course, not all siblings are close.
Or perhaps you once were, but can’t make sense of how your friendship fizzled out.
“Too often, we draw conclusions too early, then base our response on that,” says Ali. There can be a multitude of reasons why your sibling is being elusive.
“Let’s say someone has been abused or neglected in some way [by the family], and they just want out. You cannot force someone to confront something if they do not want to, and you need to respect their space.”
Maybe you’re their problem, in which case, are you ready for some criticism?
“It might be that you are both very different people, and they’re just not that interested in having a relationship with you.
“This will hurt, but at least you’ll hear it for what it is and know what you are dealing with.”
WHAT NEXT?
It’s a tricky conversation, especially if it comes after years of distance.
“Say to them: ‘I feel sad that we don’t have much of a relationship, as far as I see it, and I don’t know why that is. Do you want to feel closer, because I do?’” says Ali.
“You can then try to suggest ways you can bridge that gap or, even better, leave it with them.”
LAS VEGAS — Wearing horn-rimmed glasses, a light blue suit with a UCLA lapel pin and tan wingtips, Nico Iamaleava settled into his seat on an elevated platform in front of about 30 reporters.
“How’s everybody doing?” the new Bruins quarterback asked casually inside the convention center hall late Thursday afternoon, giving no hint that this was the most pressure he had faced since an attacking Ohio State defense sacked him four times in the opening round of the College Football Playoff.
These reporters were almost as relentless. For more than 25 minutes during the final Big Ten media day, they peppered Iamaleava with questions about his decision to leave Tennessee on the eve of its spring game for a program with a lesser pedigree, prompting UCLA quarterback Joey Aguilar to take Iamaleava’s spot in what essentially amounted to a college football trade.
What was Iamaleava’s motivation in making his move? Was his dissatisfaction with Tennessee’s name, image and likeness package a factor? Did he have to take a pay cut to come to UCLA? What was it like dealing with the fallout from jilted Tennessee fans?
While failing to offer many specifics, Iamaleava patiently engaged every question, the Southern California native saying he was driven by a desire to play for a top program closer to his family in Long Beach.
“Ultimately,” the 6-foot-6 quarterback had told a small group of Los Angeles-based reporters earlier in the afternoon, “it came down to me wanting to be back home, you know, be back home next to my family while still competing at the highest level.”
In an exclusive interview with local media, Nico Iamaleava said he’s “never been pushed like this by a staff before,” in response to my question about his best moments at #UCLA so far. pic.twitter.com/ZEFITAg0Or
Iamaleava pinned the timing of his departure from Tennessee on “false reports” about financial demands that “made me not feel comfortable in the position I was in. But, you know, in the back of my head, I always wanted to come back home and be closer to my mom, be closer to my dad.” Tennessee was reportedly set to pay Iamaleava more than $2 million to play for the Volunteers this season.
Declining to discuss his new NIL deal at UCLA, Iamaleava said he was focused on football and academics while trying to revive a program that has not won a conference championship since 1998.
“The realistic expectation for us,” Iamaleava said, “is to bring championships back to Westwood, and, you know, the first day I stepped into the locker room, I felt that from every guy in there, that they’ve got a chip on their shoulder and that they want to go out there and prove people wrong.”
Iamaleava will have to do it wearing a new number after attempts to get his preferred No. 8 — retired in honor of Troy Aikman — failed, leaving him with No. 9. He said he’ll proudly wear the number to represent his seven siblings and two parents whom he credited for his humble nature.
One of those siblings is now a teammate. Freshman quarterback Madden Iamaleava, who verbally committed to UCLA before signing with Arkansas, flipped his allegiance back to the Bruins in the spring after his older brother decided to come home. Depending on how he fares in training camp, Madden could become Nico’s top backup.
“I think he’s ready, man,” Nico said of his sibling. “My little brother was a bonus from me, you know, for him to come home with me. And just being a helping hand to him in anything he needs, I think, was the biggest thing for me.”
If everything goes as planned, Nico acknowledged, his stay at UCLA will be a short one. Should the Bruins win a lot of games and Iamaleava further establish himself as a top NFL prospect, the redshirt sophomore will move on after this final college season.
“This is a year where, you know, I’m really trying to get out after,” Iamaleava said. “So, you know, I’m going to give my all to UCLA, and, you know, if I have the year I want, you know, I want to get out.”
Everything about Iamaleava’s stay might have an accelerated feel. He said he received the offensive playbook after signing in April and has participated in player-run practices since arriving on campus in June, quickly impressing his new teammates with not just his talent but also his savvy.
“He’s good at looking off people,” linebacker JonJon Vaughns said of Iamaleava’s ability to deceive a defense, “and his arm is big, it’s powerful.”
There will be no easing into a training camp that starts next Wednesday in Costa Mesa given that UCLA opens the season exactly one month later against Utah on Aug. 30 at the Rose Bowl. The strength staff has already provided Iamaleava an indication of the high expectations he’ll face on the field.
“I’ve never been pushed like this by a staff before,” Iamaleava said, “so I’m excited to go to work for these guys.”
Calling it “a fun challenge,” Iamaleava said he was trying to quickly absorb a pro-style offense that he described as “a little more condensed formations” than what he ran at Tennessee. The chance to play for offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri, who has a history of immediate success with new quarterbacks, has invigorated Iamaleava.
“He’s a high-energy guy,” Iamaleava said of Sunseri, “and I wanted to go play for him the first day I met him.”
Praising his entire wide receiving corps, Iamaleava said he had already developed good chemistry with Kwazi Gilmer, Mikey Matthews, Ezavier Staples and Titus Mokiao-Atimalala. He’s gotten to know the offensive linemen through a bowling outing that also included the quarterbacks.
“He’s a great person,” right tackle Garrett DiGiorgio said. “He’s got a good heart, and he really cares.”
Not always. Iamaleava said he tuned out social media during his departure from Tennessee, shielding himself from the vitriol. He found solace in video games such as NBA 2K25 and UFC.
“I was playing a lot of video games with my friends and my cousins, man, and, you know, really paid no mind to it,” he said. “Sometimes I had no idea [what was happening]; my cousins would come and tell me about stuff they would see and I was like, ‘I don’t care.’ So, you know, I think a lot of that just comes with, you know, protecting your peace.”
Later, as he rose from the platform and thanked reporters, Iamaleava appeared fully zen. After all the speculation about his future, he’ll have the final say on the field.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Randolph Bracy and LaVon Bracy Davis are taking sibling rivalry to a new level as the brother and sister run against each other in a race for a Florida state Senate seat on Tuesday.
Not only that, one of their opponents for the Democratic nomination in the district representing parts of metro Orlando is Alan Grayson, a combative former Democratic U.S. congressman who drew national attention in 2009 when he said in a House floor speech that the Republican health care plan was to “die quickly.”
The headline-grabbing candidates are running in the special primary election for the seat that had been held by Geraldine Thompson, a trailblazing veteran lawmaker who died earlier this year following complications from knee-replacement surgery. A fourth candidate also is running in the Democratic primary — personal injury attorney Coretta Anthony-Smith.
The winner will face Republican Willie Montague in September for the general election in the Democratic-dominant district. Black voters make up more than half registered Democrats in the district.
Florida Sen. Randolph Bracy, rear, makes a point during a Senate Committee on Reapportionment hearing in a legislative session, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, in Tallahassee, Fla.
(Phelan M. Ebenhack / Associated Press)
Both siblings have experience in the state legislature. Bracy Davis was a state representative, and Bracy was a former state senator. Adding to the family dynamics was the fact that the siblings’ mother, civil rights activist Lavon Wright Bracy, was the maid of honor at Thompson’s wedding and was one of her oldest friends. She has endorsed her daughter over her son.
The siblings’ family has been active in Orlando’s civic life for decades. Their father, Randolph Bracy Jr., was a local NAACP president, a founder of a Baptist church in Orlando and director of the religion department at Bethune-Cookman University.
It wasn’t the first time the family has been caught up in competing endorsements. When Bracy and Thompson ran against each other for the Democratic primary in a state senate race last year, Bracy Davis endorsed Thompson over her brother. Campaign fliers sent out recently by a Republican political operative start with “Bracy Yourself!”
Bracy, 48, who one time played professional basketball in Turkey, told the Orlando Sentinel that it was “disappointing and hurtful” for his sister to run after he had announced his bid. But Bracy Davis, 45, an attorney by training, said she was running for the people in state senate District 15, not against any of the other candidates. She said that she intended to continue Thompson’s legacy of pushing for voters’ rights and increasing pay for public schoolteachers. Thompson’s family has endorsed Bracy Davis.
Grayson was elected to Congress in 2008 and voted out in 2010. Voters sent him back to Congress in 2012, but he gave up his seat for an unsuccessful 2016 Senate run.
Joanna Miller was 10 — no, “10 and three-quarters,” she clarifies — when she lost her grandfather. Even then, in December 1966, she shared him with the world.
For Miller’s grandad was Walt Disney, a name that would emblazen one of the largest entertainment conglomerates in the world, and come to signify uniquely American storytelling, family-friendly optimism and the creation of the modern theme park. Front-page stories across the globe announced his death, hailing him as a “world enchanter,” “amusement king” and “wizard of fantasy.”
But to Miller, he was just “grampa.”
She peppers stories about Disney in her conversations, often going down tangents as she recalls heartwarming moments. Such as the Christmas season when Disney, despite having access to Hollywood’s most renown artists, put Miller’s drawings on a holiday card. “The bad art we were doing when we were 6 years old? He treated them like they were great works,” she says.
She pauses, a tear forming in her eye. “He was just the greatest guy. The best guy.”
Jennifer Goff, from left, Tammy Miller, Joanna Miller, Walter Miller and Chris Miller speak onstage during the Walt Disney Family Museum’s second annual gala at Disney’s Grand Californian in November 2016 in Anaheim. Joanna has become vocal that her grandfather, Walt Disney, never wanted to be immortalized as a robotic figurine.
(Joe Scarnici / Getty Images for the Walt Disney Family Museum)
Miller is, to put it mildly, protective of Disney. So is the Walt Disney Co., and as Disneyland Resort’s 70th anniversary in July approaches, both share a goal — to remind audiences of the man behind the corporate name. Last fall the company announced that an audio-animatronic of Disney would grace the opera house on Main Street, U.S.A., long home to “Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln.” The new show, “Walt Disney — A Magical Life,” will give parkgoers a sense of “what it would have been like to be in Walt’s presence,” Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro explained at the announcement.
The way Miller sees it, it’s an abomination.
“Dehumanizing,” she wrote in a Facebook post that went viral among Disney’s vast fandom. Calling the figure a “robotic grampa,” she wrote, “People are not replaceable. You could never get the casualness of his talking.” She also argued staunchly that Disney was against such mechanical immortalization.
Interior of the Illinois Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair, May 15, 1964, where an animatronic of Abraham Lincoln was unveiled.
(Bob Goldberg / Associated Press)
She stands by the post — she’s one of the few, she says, to have seen the animatronic in the fake flesh — but also nervously laughs as she reflects on the attention it has brought her. Miller has long lived a private life, noting she considers herself shy — she declined to be photographed for this story — and says repeatedly it pains her to take a stand against the Walt Disney Co. She frets that the company will take away her access to the park, granted as part of an agreement when her father, the late Ron W. Miller, stepped down as CEO in 1984.
Roy Disney, left, and Ron Miller check over film strips in the editing room in 1967 at Disney’s film studio in Burbank. The family sold naming and portrait rights of Walt Disney in 1981 to the company.
(Associated Press)
But as Miller sees it, she has to speak up. “He’s ours,” Miller says of Disney. “We’re his family.”
Most robotic figures in Disney parks represent fictional characters or overly-saturated political personalities, such as those in Florida’s Hall of Presidents, which includes President Trump and living former presidents. Few speak and most are limited to statuesque movements. And unlike an attraction in which the company has full narrative control, such as a Pirates of the Caribbean, “Walt Disney — A Magical Life” represents real life and a person who happens to have living, vocal descendants.
And real life is complicated.
“When you get older,” Miller says, sometimes when things go wrong in life, “you just start to get pissed off. And you get tired of being quiet. So I spoke up on Facebook. Like that was going to do anything? The fact that it got back to the company is pretty funny.”
Get back to the company it did, as Miller soon found herself having an audience with Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger.
These days, Miller is in the midst of remodeling Disney’s first L.A. home in Los Feliz, a craftsman bungalow owned in the 1920s by his uncle Robert and aunt Charlotte, who let Disney stay with them when he came from the Midwest. Miller envisions the house hosting events, perhaps workshops and artist talks for arts education nonprofit Ryman Arts.
Its feel is of a mini museum. In the garage sits a Mercedes Benz, the last vehicle Disney owned. Black-and-white images of Disney furnish the walls, decorative “Fantasia” dishware shares space with vintage toys in a glass-doored cabinet, and animation artwork, waiting to be framed, is laid out on one of the beds.
“I have been thinking a lot about this house and what it means,” Miller says. “I wouldn’t be here. Grampa wouldn’t have met granny. This all started because people were helping out grampa. Aunt Charlotte was making peanut brittle in this house that they sold at Disneyland. So this house, there would not be Disney company if it weren’t for this house.”
Miller’s relationship with the company has wavered over the decades. She’s more excited to share memories of Disney than recall the tumultuous corporate period when her father oversaw the behemoth company. On Saturdays, Disney would often bring her and her siblings to the studio. There, they had the run of the place, cruising around the backlot in their very own mini-cars designed for Disneyland’s Autopia ride. Those visits largely ended when Disney died, as her father dedicated his weekends to golf.
Championing Disney, and preserving his legacy, runs in her family. Her mother, Diane, who died in 2013, was the guiding force behind the foundation of San Francisco’s Walt Disney Family Museum. Miller, who long sat on the board, said the idea of creating an animatronic of Disney is not new, and was once considered for the museum.
“When we started the museum, someone said, ‘Hey, let’s do Walt as an animatronic,’” Miller recalls. “And my mom: ‘No. No. No. No.’ Grampa deserves new technology for this museum, but not to be a robot himself.” Her mother, says Miller, “wanted to show him as a real human.”
As American film producer and studio executive Walt Disney talks on the telephone, his wife, Lillian,, plays with three of their grandchildren, Joanna, Tamara and Jennifer in January 1962 in Anaheim. The couple are in their apartment above the Disneyland fire station.
(Tom Nebbia / Corbis via Getty Images)
Miller says she first heard of Disneyland’s animatronic last summer, a few weeks before D’Amaro announced the attraction at the fan convention D23. The show will follow a similar format to the Lincoln attraction, in which a film plays before the animatronic is revealed. Lincoln, for instance, stands and gives highlight’s of the president’s speeches, doing so with subtle, realistic movements. Disney, promises the company, will be even more lifelike, with dialogue taken from his own speeches. D’Amaro said “A Magical Life” had the support of the Disney family, singling out Disney’s grandnephew Roy P. Disney, who was in the audience.
Miller stresses that she does not speak for her five siblings or other descendants, but as she wrote in a letter to Iger, “I do speak for my grandfather and my mother.” Shortly after her Facebook post, Miller was invited to see the figure and meet with Iger and members of Walt Disney Imagineering, the secretive creative team responsible for theme park experiences.
“He was very kind,” Miller says of Iger. “He let me do my spiel.”
But she wasn’t swayed. She says she asked him to create a set of guidelines on how the company would portray Disney, and Iger promised to protect his legacy. “But I don’t think he has. They’re different people. He’s a businessman, grampa was an artist.”
Imagineering and Disneyland discussed the project at a media event in April, but the animatronic was not shown, nor were pictures revealed. Imagineering did display an early sculpt used in modeling the robot to show the care taken in crafting Disney. The sculpt depicts Disney in 1963, when he was 62. One could detect age spots on Disney’s hands and weariness around his eyes.
Miller recalls her reaction when she saw the figure.
“I think I started crying,” Miller says. “It didn’t look like him, to me.”
There are at least two Walt Disneys. There’s the company founder, Mickey Mouse designer and Disneyland creator who, later in life, visited millions of Americans via their television sets on the weekly “Disneyland” show and became known as “Uncle Walt.” Then there’s the man Miller knew, a grandfather who exists to the rest of us only via stories.
Sometimes these public-private personalities overlapped, such as the moments Disney would be paraded down Disneyland’s Main Street with Miller and her siblings in tow. Miller pulls out a photo showing her face buried in her lap as she tried to hide from Disney’s adoring fans. Or the times fans caught Miller looking out from Disney’s Main Street apartment, a place where she spent many nights as a child and that still stands today.
She recalls Disney stopping to talk to people at the park. “It was the dearest thing,” she says. He would take photos with fans and sign autographs. “I never ever saw him not be less than tickled and honored that people loved him so much.”
Imagineers argue that the two Walt Disneys are being lost to history.
“Why are we doing this now?” said longtime Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald. He cited two reasons, the first being Disneyland’s 70th anniversary. “The other: I grew up watching Walt Disney on television. I guess I’m the old man. He came into our living room every week and chatted and it was very casual and you felt like you knew the man. But a lot of people today don’t know Walt Disney was an individual.” The company also says that animatronic technology has advanced to a point it can do Disney justice.
Miller is sympathetic to Imagineering’s arguments. It’s clear she holds tremendous respect for the division, believed to have been the aspect of the company Disney held dearest to his heart. She gushes about Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the most recent major addition to Disney’s original park. “It’s amazing,” Miller says.
Yet she doesn’t buy into the theory that the company is simply out to preserve Disney’s legacy. If that were the case, she argues, then episodes of his weekly “Disneyland” show would be available on streaming service Disney+.
Worse, she worries an animatronic will turn Disney into a caricature. The robotic Lincoln works, says Miller, because we lack filmed footage of him. She wishes the company had abandoned the animatronic and created an immersive exhibit that could have depicted Disney in his park.
“I strongly feel the last two minutes with the robot will do much more harm than good to Grampa’s legacy,” Miller wrote in her letter to Iger. “They will remember the robot, and not the man.”
Portrait of American movie producer, artist and animator Walt Disney as he sits on a bench in the 1950s in his Disneyland in Anaheim.
(Gene Lester / Getty Images)
Miller has a number of letters and emails of support, some from former Imagineers, but has crossed out their names before handing them to a journalist. Most contacted for this story didn’t return calls or emails, or declined to speak on the record, noting their current business relationships with the Walt Disney Co. The legacy of Disney is “precious yet vulnerable,” said one such source, refusing to give a name because they still work with the company. “Isn’t it honorable when a granddaughter defends her grandfather? There’s nothing in it for her.”
Miller says she simply wants the company to respect Disney’s wishes — that he never be turned into a robot.
“In all our research, we never found any documentation of Walt saying that,” Imagineer Jeff Shaver-Moskowitz said in April. “We know that it’s anecdotal and we can’t speak to what was told to people in private.”
And therein lies a major hurdle Miller faces. Those who Miller says knew of Disney’s preferences — her mother, her father and Imagineers he was closest to, including confidant and former Imagineering chief Marty Sklar — are all dead. That leaves, unless someone else comes forward, only her.
Miller, however, is realistic. Her family’s biggest mistake, she argues, was selling the rights to Disney’s name, likeness and portrait to the company in 1981 for $46.2 million in stock.
It leaves the family little to zero say in how Disney is preserved in the park, although Imagineering says it has worked closely with the Walt Disney Family Museum and those descendants who are currently on the museum board in constructing the animatronic show.
But there’s one thing the Walt Disney Co. can’t control, and that’s Miller’s voice — and her memories.
On their trips to Disneyland, Miller’s grandfather was happy to stop for autographs, but he also signed — in advance — the pages of an office pad. When the crowds became a bit much, he would hand a park-goer an inscribed piece of paper.
“After 10-15 minutes,” Miller recalls, “he would say, ‘Hey, I’m with the grandkids today, and we have things to do.’”
The Chargers will seek approval to sell an 8% stake in the franchise to private investment firm Arctos at next week’s NFL team owners meetings.
The approval request was sent in a memo to NFL team owners, according to a person with knowledge of the memo not authorized to speak publicly about it.
If approved, Chargers owner Dean Spanos and siblings Michael Spanos and Alexis Spanos Ruhl would still own approximately 61% of the franchise.
The NFL spring meeting will be held Tuesday and Wednesday in Eagan, Minn.
It is the second major change for the Chargers ownership group in the last year after Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores bought a 27% stake in the team in September. That transaction resolved a long-running dispute between Dea Spanos Berberian and her siblings as Gores and his wife bought Spanos Berberian’s share of the franchise.
Players recently ranked Spanos and the ownership’s contribution to the Chargers’ success fifth-best out of 32 teams, according to an annual survey conducted by the NFL Players Assn. It was a stark improvement from the previous year’s rankings that placed ownership 24th in the league.
The jump can be attributed to the team’s new $250-million facility in El Segundo, which opened last July. Spanos also brought in coach Jim Harbaugh, who led the team to an 11-6 regular-season record in his first season.
The team entered free agency with the second-highest salary-cap space in the NFL, according to Overthecap.com, but did not make many splashy signings. The biggest contract of the offseason went to free agent offensive lineman Mekhi Becton, who signed a two-year deal worth $20 million after winning the Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles.
