As we all know, Walt Disney cast Richard Todd in three of his films – made here in England. 

The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men,  The Sword and The Rose and Rob Roy The Highland Rogue – the first one doing very well at the Box Office with next one quite good although Rob Roy didn’t fare that well.

The picture ABOVE and BELOW – has Richard Todd and Walt Disney on the ‘big dipper’ on Colney Island, New York in August 1953. 

Richard Todd was over there to promote  The Sword and The Rose and with that in mind  during his visit he did 26 Radio and TV appearance in the space of 23 days.   Only a few years before Elton Hayes had done the same promotional tour for The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men – in fact I am pretty sure that his was a larger and longer promotional visit – and it seems a very successful one.

Richard Todd recalled that the trip over to the USA was on the new Boeing Stratocruiser – and that the trip which was funded by Walt Disney stayed initially in an apartment at the Waldorf Towers.   However although this was luxurious,  there was no Air Conditioning – and the weather was VERY hot indeed so he said that one night he even thought of somehow getting g into the fridge for a while !!

After three weeks there, Richard’s wife Kitty joined him in New York but the very next day they flew on to California where they were booked into the Beverley Hills Hotel.

The next day, Walt Disney visited to welcome them and was just as kind and genial as ever. He then asked the two of them to join him and his family at their home in the Holmby Hills – where they saw his large rambling house set in large and beautifully kept gardens.

He had in the grounds a Barn resembling the one his family had somewhere in the mid-west of America when he was growing up – and of course he also had in the grounds  his own miniature railway

Not many actors who worked for Walt Disney were ever invited to his home but Richard Todd was one of those – I think that a few years later John Mills and his family went there also.

Walt Disney seemed to be , at that time, fascinated with the English and Richard Todd , for reasons I do not know, seemed very well connected at quite high levels in society of the time.