from 2008
BILL ROGERS
talks about the Disneyland "voice"

by Scott Wolf

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls..." is a phrase that Bill Rogers has repeated hundreds of thousands of times. Succeeding his hero, Jack Wagner, as the "voice of Disneyland," since 1991, Bill is the one who welcomes you to Disneyland, lets you know the fireworks are about to begin, that the latest parade has just stepped off, or that "Disneyland has now concluded its normal operating day." He literally records hundreds of new announcements every month, from park announcements to private events, never heard by the public.  It gives me great pleasure to say, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, please welcome Bill Rogers!

My six year old son is a big fan of Bill's work, and wanted to join me on my interview. Because Bill is a friend, and I happen to know he loves kids, I knew he would not mind. So I told Arnie to prepare some questions for the interview, and below are a couple of those questions from Arnie.  

NOTE: You may click below to actually HEAR a portion of this interview, which I think is helpful in Bill's response.


AW: Do you change your voice for the announcements or is it your regular voice?

BR: Now, that is an interesting question because right at the moment you’re hearing me, you’ve heard me over the phone a couple of times, but basically this is the first time you’ve ever heard me in person and yet you hear that voice in the park. It’s different, because, yes, I do change it.

Understand that the guy that did it before, a fellow by the name of Jack Wagner, he sounded kind of like what I try to sound like when I change my voice. You’ve heard Jack’s voice. He’s the guy that goes, “Your attention please! The Disneyland Railroad, now leaving for parts unknown… boarrrrrrrrrd!” That’s Jack. That’s the guy who was there before I was. And he’s the guy who basically, what he did, you’ve been to the circus, right?

AW: Yeah, once.

BR: You know the ringmaster? The guy with the red suit and the big black top hat? He said, from day one, his whole thing was, “(Extremely upbeat) Ladies and gentlemen, and boys and girls!” That was the way he got you to pay attention to him. Jack took that phrase and he said, “The problem with the circus is it’s always too overboard. It’s too exciting. We want it to be exciting, but we want you to know that we want you to be safe and have fun and enjoy yourself. That’s the whole idea, and Jack toned it down so he went to, “(more casual) Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. This is a nice way to talk to people, and it’s a very special place where we talk to you. It’s called Disneyland and it’s The Happiest Place on Earth, so we don’t shout at you, but we do get loud sometimes, just ‘cause we get excited, too.” That’s the way it works.

AW: Do you do anything live or is it all recordings?

Bill Rogers: I do quite a bit of stuff live, Arnie, and it’s one of the funnest things of all of the things that I do because I get a chance to get out there and do some things that most of the other announcers who work at theme parks don’t get a chance to do.

When it comes to doing things live, The Candlelight (Ceremony) rehearsal is my turn to be the narrator. We do it with the orchestra and the Disney chorus, just not all the schools. This is the non-dress rehearsal. They do dress rehearsals both days with the (annual special guest) talent.

Other live stuff, these days I’ve done almost every opening of something new for the past maybe as many as ten years. Oodles and oodles of live stuff for the 50th.

Scott Wolf: I remember seeing you do a live announcement a few years ago for an event announcing the launch of a new U.S. postal stamp, and they even put your name in the program.

BR: It was, that just blew me away. That day was amazing. I signed 27 autographs that day! It felt amazing, I was kind of blown away by the whole thing. I’m one of these people who gets emotional about stuff like that, because when somebody thinks enough of you to ask for an autograph, even though I’m not Laurence Olivier, and I’m suitably honored when somebody asks me for it.

One of the fun payoffs is being able to do live things for the studio because they’ve dragged me all over the country which is really fun. We did Mulan at the Hollywood Bowl.

SW: You mean the film’s premiere?

BR: Yeah, we did Hercules in New York, we did Pocahontas in New York. We did Hunchback in New Orleans, and of course all of the stuff for Pirates (of the Caribbeanmovie premieres) at the park.

The first year we did Pirates, I did the Disneyland voice, the Jack voice and it was a lot of fun. Everybody had a great time and I got lots of slaps on the back and Barnette (Ricci) gave me a big kiss on the cheek and sent me a lovely note afterwards as she always does.

Three days before the premiere of number two, I’m sitting up there overlooking the grand screen and there’s all the wonderful seating they brought in for this thing. I said, “You know, Geoffrey Rush got me an ad on British radio and television.” Barnette goes, “Really?” I said, “Yeah, this is so cool. I ripped him off badly!” She said, “What’s it for?” I said, “(imitating Geoffrey Rush as the character Barbossa) It’s for a thing called Pusser’s British rum. It’s been around since the late 1600s, and it really is quite a lovely drink,” and she goes, “You’ve got to use that voice this year!”
(HEAR BILL)


So we did the whole thing in the Geoffrey Rush, Captain Barbossa voice. All the announces that night were done in that voice. I have a lot of really wonderful friends at the park who allow me to stretch and to do weird things.

More from Bill:
His start with Disney

See other interviews

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in the interviews are solely those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mouse Clubhouse. Mouse Clubhouse accepts no legal liability or responsibility for any claims made or opinions expressed within.