Alice Davis, a longtime Disney costume designer who worked on some of the company’s most beloved theme park rides, died Friday at the age of 93. 

Davis’s costume design work at Disney began with the 1960 film “Toby Tyler.” The wife of longtime Disney Imagineer Marc Davis, she was recruited by Walt Disney to create the costumes for the animatronic children inside the It’s a Small World ride that opened at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. She later designed clothing for Pirates of the Caribbean and the Flight to the Moon attractions at Disneyland before leaving Disney in 1978. 

“It was the best job I ever had because there were no class distinctions,” Davis said in an interview with D23, the official Disney fan club. “Everybody had a job to do. None of us had titles. We all went by first names. And we all worked for the same thing: putting on the best show possible.”

She was named a Disney Legend in 2004 and received the rare honor of having her name appear on a window at Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A., right next to a window honoring her husband. 

PNE Playland opening Canada’s fastest launch coaster

Vancouver’s PNE Playland announced Friday that it will debut Canada’s fastest launch coaster in 2024 with a $9 million ride built by Italian manufacturer Zamperla. 

The coaster firm is most famous for its rides at Luna Park at New York’s Coney Island. The unnamed PNE Playland coaster will be its first launch coaster, going 45 miles per hour over its 1,246 feet of track and standing 59 feet tall. 

“This is an incredibly exciting day,” PNE president and CEO Shelley Frost said in a press release. “Despite the financial effects of the COVID pandemic, the PNE has displayed its resiliency and innovation by not only surviving the pandemic, but by pivoting our business throughout it to emerge in a place to invest in this spectacular ride and into Playland’s future. We know that the new coaster will be an impressive addition to Playland’s ride roster, and we look forward to introducing it to our guests in 2024.”

The new coaster will take over the plot formerly occupied by Corkscrew, which closed in 2018, and will be the park’s fourth coaster overall.  

Marching band refused to cover up Indian mascot for Disney World performance

The marching band for Florida’s Venice High School will not be performing at Walt Disney World because of the school’s mascot.

Sarasota County’s Venice High uses the name “Indians” as its mascot. As reported by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Venice High Principal Zoltan Kerestely claimed the band’s performance at the Magic Kingdom was canceled by Disney because he refused to cover up the school’s Indian logo, as Disney requested. The marching band will get a trip to the resort, however. 

Depictions of Native Americans by school bands have previously caused headaches for Disney. Earlier this year, a Texas high school cheer team performance in the Magic Kingdom included chants of “scalp ’em, Indians, scalp ’em.” Disney apologized afterwards, claiming the school’s routine “did not reflect the audition tape that was submitted.”