Firehouse Five Plus Two

[1] Leader and trombonist Ward Kimball was inspired to form the band[1] after spending time with members of the Disney animation and sound department and finding that they had a lot in common as jazz aficionados.

The "Firehouse" motif came from a 1916 American LaFrance fire engine that Kimball restored for the local Horseless Carriage Club, and the "Plus Two" was from the fact the band had seven people.

Walt Disney was approving of the band, letting them play at the company's Christmas parties, at Disneyland, and other social functions, on the single condition that they never fully leave their jobs at the studio.

(* also released as a 4-record album) In early Pogo comic strips, former Disney animator Walt Kelly featured a band called "The Firehouse Five Glee and Pilau Society".

The band received an homage in the ending of the 2009 Disney film The Princess and the Frog, with the jazz-playing alligator Louis now belonging to a group called "The Firefly Five Plus Lou".