Disney Characters

Philadelphia's Thanksgiving Day Parade always provides a good time for the participants, and for viewers both in person and on television. But this year's parade, the 81st, could not have come about without a considerable amount of work by a large number of people. Set to appear at today's procession, which is scheduled to start at 9 a.m., were Disney characters, soap-opera stars, floats, balloons, Mayor Street and Santa Claus. The parade will be telecast on WPVI (Channel 6).

Gone are the pink and green walls and the glass window displays at the front of the store featuring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and other well-known Disney characters. Walt Disney Co. will open a redesigned Disney store - brighter, and with more merchandise and a modular design - at the Cherry Hill Mall on Saturday. Company executives hope such overhauls will catapult sales in Disney's lagging consumer products division. The revamped Cherry Hill store is a prototype, one of two in the country, for what the entertainment giant plans as a major retooling of 350 to 500 stores in North America over the next several years.

The nation's capital earlier this year revised its parking rules for drivers with disabilities, and they took effect Aug. 20. The district estimated that 29 percent of its parking spaces were being taken up all day by vehicles bearing handicapped placards. For out-of-towners, a key element is this: Disabled drivers from outside the district states must obtain a D.C.-issued placard from the Department of Motor Vehicles to take advantage of free on-street parking. Otherwise, posted time limits or meter fees apply.

There is something compelling about "The Prince and the Pauper," Mark Twain's tale of a prince and a poor peasant who switch places, then decide that the lives they dreamed of may not be all they had imagined. In this animated version (Disney Home Video), which is populated by Disney characters, Mickey Mouse plays both the poor peasant and the prince. When the prince and the peasant discover their remarkable resemblance, they manage to switch places. The prince, it turns out, longs to eat junk food like a normal person, and the peasant has always wondered what goes on behind the castle walls.

Just when you thought the look kids were taking back to school this year was all a throwback to yesterday, along comes the revolutionary Generra T- shirt. Called Hypercolor, the T-shirt, a type of mood-ring for the '90s, changes color with the temperature of your body and the environment. It's been somewhat of a blessing for retailers, whose back-to-school sales have been lagging. Richard Ameisen, Strawbridge & Clothier division merchandise manager, estimated that the retailer's young men's departments have sold between 5,000 and 10,000 of the Generra shirts in the past six months.

There is no doubt about it: The new weapon of choice in the holiday gift-giving wars is the DVD - small, popular, and with plenty of choices on the cheap. For the price of that green, embroidered-snowflake sweater little Jimmy usually gets, Grandma could easily find at least one volume of the trendy skateboarding series Skate Maps! ($14.98 each) and be treated to an exclamatory "Grandma, you rock!" upon receipt. With deeper pockets come even greater spoils for the whole family.

CONFIRM YOUR WORST SUSPICIONS . . . about our town's Mickey Mouse politics. No one's ever confused Philadelphia with the Magic Kingdom. For one thing, our streets are nowhere near as clean, and our grape drink doesn't cost $12.75 a cup. But our central castle, like theirs, now waves the Disney flag. Twenty-five Mickey Mouse "Toontown" banners are now hanging outside City Hall to trumpet the eminent rodent's imminent arrival for a road show at Wanamaker's next week. The flags' appearance here would seem to beg some obvious questions: Is this the ultimate in privatization, with the enchanted castle's bureaucrats coming in to take over for ours?

Whether or not you are celebrating the holiday, there is no reason whatsoever to celebrate television - at least not today. How bad is it? It's so bad that, to fill this column, I'll have to treat it as an essay test. "Today's television is very bad. It's very, very, very bad. And when I say 'bad,' I mean it's so bad, it's almost wholly without merit. . . . " DAYTIME HIGHLIGHT WALT DISNEY WORLD'S VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS PARADE (10 a.m., Ch. 6) - Because the festivities are broadcast live from Orlando, Fla., you can be sure it won't snow on their parade.

The ghosts and goblins lurked in the dingy and dark police station's basement yesterday as borough residents looked around in wonder and amazement. A Halloween haunted house? Think again. The ghosts were accompanied by dogs, swans, ducks, Easter bunnies, snowmen, reindeer, Santas and Disney characters - all part of a recent recovery of stolen lawn ornaments. "I can't believe this - I've had this stuff for 15 years," said Ridley Park resident Michael Tokash, as he identified his wooden Santa Claus and reindeer, which were decked out in colorful lights.

George Reiger is no mathematician, but he does have some statistics memorized: Number of visits he's made to Disney World in Florida: 152. Number of visits to Disneyland in California: 97. To Disneyland Paris: 26. To Tokyo Disneyland: 7. Number of interviews he has given (294) and talk shows he has been on (28). Wives who have left him because of his obsession with Disney: 5. And the most important number: 840. That's how many Disney characters are tattoed on his body - including all 101 Dalmatians bunched at the bottom of his back.

TATTLE DISCLAIMER: We like Disney World. We like the rides (That new "Expedition Everest" roller coaster rocks), how friendly everyone is, the cleanliness, the design, the amazing attention to detail and the kitsch. We like the whole thing - even the food is surprisingly decent. For years, we wanted to work at Disney World or Disneyland or Disneywhatever, running the monorail, imagineering some nail-biting ride or perhaps dressing up as Tigger, before the groping scandal sent him to furry purgatory.

There is no doubt about it: The new weapon of choice in the holiday gift-giving wars is the DVD - small, popular, and with plenty of choices on the cheap. For the price of that green, embroidered-snowflake sweater little Jimmy usually gets, Grandma could easily find at least one volume of the trendy skateboarding series Skate Maps! ($14.98 each) and be treated to an exclamatory "Grandma, you rock!" upon receipt. With deeper pockets come even greater spoils for the whole family.

The U.S. Postal Service promoted friendship through stamps Wednesday with the issuance of a block of four commemoratives featuring Mickey Mouse and other characters from Walt Disney. "The Art of Disney: Friendship" is the theme of the 37-cent stamps and other postal items that the Postal Service hopes will be conveyed by Mickey and his friends. In addition, the Postal Service is reproducing the stamp images on 37-cent stamped stationery and 23-cent stamped postal cards. The Postal Service particularly hopes the stamps are a hit with children.

David Bollar has played chickens. Women. Italians. Disney characters. The South Jersey native and Philadelphia actor, 31, is funny, animated and engaging. But Bollar, 6-foot-6 with short dreadlocks and playful eyes, has had few opportunities to play an African American man, so he risked his career for the opportunity to just be. Starting next week, Bollar will play Walter Lee Younger, the lead character, in the Ritz Theatre's production of the landmark A Raisin in the Sun. Yesterday, he was at Cherry Hill High School East talking with students about the questions the play raises.

The nation's capital earlier this year revised its parking rules for drivers with disabilities, and they took effect Aug. 20. The district estimated that 29 percent of its parking spaces were being taken up all day by vehicles bearing handicapped placards. For out-of-towners, a key element is this: Disabled drivers from outside the district states must obtain a D.C.-issued placard from the Department of Motor Vehicles to take advantage of free on-street parking. Otherwise, posted time limits or meter fees apply.

Philadelphia's Thanksgiving Day Parade always provides a good time for the participants, and for viewers both in person and on television. But this year's parade, the 81st, could not have come about without a considerable amount of work by a large number of people. Set to appear at today's procession, which is scheduled to start at 9 a.m., were Disney characters, soap-opera stars, floats, balloons, Mayor Street and Santa Claus. The parade will be telecast on WPVI (Channel 6).

Gone are the pink and green walls and the glass window displays at the front of the store featuring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and other well-known Disney characters. Walt Disney Co. will open a redesigned Disney store - brighter, and with more merchandise and a modular design - at the Cherry Hill Mall on Saturday. Company executives hope such overhauls will catapult sales in Disney's lagging consumer products division. The revamped Cherry Hill store is a prototype, one of two in the country, for what the entertainment giant plans as a major retooling of 350 to 500 stores in North America over the next several years.

This is not meant to be a commercial for Disney. For one thing, they don't need yet another ad; for another, they hire professionals who can do that much better than I can. Last month, I went to Disney World for the first time, and it was better than I ever could have imagined. I found out firsthand why Orlando, Fla, is now the number-one vacation spot in the nation. My motivation for going was a 9-year-old girl who was delighted to meet Mickey, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Tinkerbell and all of the Disney characters in the Magic Kingdom.

George Reiger is no mathematician, but he does have some statistics memorized: Number of visits he's made to Disney World in Florida: 152. Number of visits to Disneyland in California: 97. To Disneyland Paris: 26. To Tokyo Disneyland: 7. Number of interviews he has given (294) and talk shows he has been on (28). Wives who have left him because of his obsession with Disney: 5. And the most important number: 840. That's how many Disney characters are tattoed on his body - including all 101 Dalmatians bunched at the bottom of his back.

It seems like only yesterday we were frolicking in the warm surf, the sand squishing between our toes, the sun beating on our shoulders. It was yesterday. We were in the Caribbean. But seriously. It's late fall. December is three days away. Winter is knocking at our door. And today, the day after Thanksgiving, the Blue Cross RiverRink opens for another season of ice-skating on Penn's Landing. The highlight of the rink's ribbon-cutting ceremony at 12:30 this afternoon will be a daytime fireworks extravaganza.