Peninsula In Passage

David Carr Glover, Jr. Some of the happiest music from the movies might have been heard from a rambling white cottage tucked in a wooded setting just off Bridge Road in Bennett’s Creek. David Carr Glover, Jr., a well-known Hampton Roads musician - pianist, composer, arranger, and educator – moved his Music Village there in the latter part of his career. Glover is best remembered for helping to create and arrange music for Disney feature films including “Peter Pan,” “Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier,” and “Sleeping Beauty” as well as the classic “Mickey Mouse March” from the original Mickey Mouse Club. Dana Dickens, former mayor of Suffolk who bought the property from Glover in 1985, remembers that the bathroom was wallpapered with sheet music from Glover’s work. “There was also a weathervane – a filly - on the roof. He said it was a gift from Walt Disney because Glover’s first work with Disney was called “The Frisky Filly,” Dickens says. However, Rebecca Cline, Director of the Walt Disney Archives at the Walt Disney Studios in California, disagrees with some of the claims to fame. “We did extensive research into his contributions at the request of Walt Disney Music Company in 1989. The conclusion at that time, according to his file in our Legal Department and in Disney Music Publishing, is that he did not compose the song “Mickey Mouse Club March”, write the words “M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E” or arrange music for Sleeping Beauty, Davy Crockett or Peter Pan as reported in his 1988 obituary by USA Today.”

David Carr Glover, Jr.

“We do have agreements between Walt Disney Music Company and David Carr Glover for writing and/or composing the following compositions: “On Your Mark, Pluto” (1956), “Pluto Barks” (1956), “Pluto on Parade” (1956), “Pluto the Acrobat” (1956), “Pluto’s Bone” (1956), “Pluto’s Lullaby”

(1956), “Shake Hands, Pluto, Boy!” (1956). “The Frisky Filly” was written by Mr. Glover in 1949 and was originally published February 5, 1950 by Schroeder and Gunther, Inc. of Rhinebeck NY. That song does not appear in the Disney catalog of songs, so I can’t confirm that it was written at the behest of Walt Disney himself or ever used by Walt Disney Productions.” Born in 1925, Glover opened his Glover School of Music in the early 1950s in Portsmouth and published numerous original piano solos as sheet music, including a large number of boogie-woogie and jazz pieces. He developed and published a widely accepted series of student keyboard method books, some of which are still used today. Glover also founded the Tidewater Music Teachers Forum of Virginia in 1964. After Glover’s death in 1988 the music may have stopped at the Music Village but his presence was still felt. Sammy Copeland, co-owner of

Sammy Copeland

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