D23 Recap: Harrison Ford, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kelly Ripa honored as Disney legends

Dancer Derek Hough introduced Martha Blanding, the first Black VIP Tour Guide and first Black female leader at the Disneyland Resort, as the next Disney Legend.

The Dapper Dans and Disneyland Band performed, "You've Got a Friend In Me," as Hough walked over to escort Blanding to the stage.

Blanding started her speech with, "Picture this, it's 1969 in South Central Los Angeles."

Right before her high school graduation, she and her mother talked to her counselor about what's next. He then told her she "needed to learn to do something with my hands because I would never make it to corporate America."

After going home and crying, she said her mother came to her and told her "to never let other people determine your future."

Blanding said she was speechless when she was given the news about being a Disney Legend.

"I am never speechless," she said.

Blanding went on to thank her family and twin sister Mary.

Pointing at her sister she said, "Hey Mary, we are now Disney Legends!"

Disney Legends Award Ceremony host Ryan Seacrest introduced the next person to be inducted, his former co-host Kelly Ripa.

"Kelly Ripa, you truly are the definition of a legend."

Ripa got on stage and started out with a joke, telling Seacrest, "Ryan, I'm so glad you finally found something else to host."

She then said that to be employed by the same company for 34 years "is my great fortune. I owe everything to Disney."

Ripa shared an emotional story of when, as a child, her dad drove their family to Walt Disney World and that they still talk about that trip like it was yesterday. And now, to take her parents back to Disney with their grandchildren, "has been the privilege of our lifetime."

"Freaky Friday" costar Lindsay Lohan introduced her coworker and dear friend Jamie Lee Curtis at the Disney Legends Award Ceremony on Sunday at the Honda Center.

Jodie Foster later came on stage to tell stories about her best friend.

She shared that the actress eats dinner at 4 p.m. in the afternoon because she's in bed at 7:30 p.m. and that she loves her joyful laugh. Foster went on to say her best friend is a great mother, shows up for strangers, cries at insurance commercials, loves boba drinks and Halloween candy.

"I'm going to present you with the real prize,"Foster said, before bringing Curtis on stage. "I got you old school mouse ears with your name on it. Take that. I love you, Jamie."

Curtis bounded up the stairs and shared that, "The truth is legends aren't born, they're created. You are the legends because without you none of this is possible."

Before he was the captain of the Millennium Falcon or a globetrotting archaeologist, Harrison Ford worked as a self-taught carpenter to pay the bills.

Disney CEO Bob Iger introduced actor Harrison Ford as the first of 14 to be honored at the Disney Legends Award Ceremony.

"The charisma you see on the screen is real and that's just who he is," Iger said. "That dry wit isn't scripted either."

After a montage from his films, Ford made his way onto the stage.

As fans screamed, "I love you!" the actor held up a finger, paused and said, "I love you, too. I love the life you've given me and the people I've had the opportunity to work with."

He went on to say, "Disney is a giant ship, but a giant ship needs an able captain," and looked back at Iger.