2000:
Carl Barks, the cartoonist who drew Donald Duck comic books for three
decades, passes at the age of 99 at his home in Grants Pass, Oregon. (From
1943 to 1966 Carl Barks, often referred to as "The Duck Man," wrote and drew hundreds of Disney's
Donald Duck comics.)
Touchstone Pictures releases The Crew starring Burt Reynolds, Richard
Dreyfuss, Dan Hedaya, Jennifer Tilly and Seymour Cassel.
"In like a dimwit, out like a light."
-Cartoonist Walt Kelly (born This Day in Disney History 1913)
1923:
Walt Disney (now residing in California) writes a letter to film distributor
M. J. Winkler of New York City informing her that he is no longer
connected with the Laugh-O-Gram Films in Kansas City, Missouri. Walt writes that "I am
establishing a studio in Los Angeles for the purpose of producing the new and novel series of cartoons I have
previously written you about." (The novel series will be called Alice Comedies.)
1930:
Actor Sean Connery, who appears in Disney's 1959 Darby O'Gill and the Little
People, is born in Scotland. (James Bond creator Ian Fleming will see Connery in the film and
later cast him as Secret Agent 007 in the 1962 feature Dr. No.)
1933:
Regis Philbin, the original host of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire and Live with Regis & Kathie Lee, is born in New York City. He will go on to co-host many of Disney's Christmas Day parades. (Live with Regis & Kathie Lee was the first daytime television talk show ever produced by Disney.)
Actor Tom Skerritt is born in Detroit, Michigan. His Disney credits include the live-action feature Those Calloways and the TV episode The Further Adventures of Gallegher: The Daily Press vs. City Hall. (The Emmy Award-Winning actor has appeared in over 40 films and more than 200 TV episodes.)
1958:
Tim Burton, filmmaker, writer and producer of such joint Disney
films as James and the Giant Peach, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Alice in
Wonderland is born in Burbank, California. As a youngster he won a Disney scholarship to attend
the California Institute of the Arts and was later hired by the Walt Disney Studios as an animator apprentice.
1985:
Three-year old Brooks Arthur Charles Burr is welcomed as Disneyland's 250-millionth visitor!
1989:
The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular attraction opens at the Disney-MGM Studios in Florida. It is the first theme park attraction to use a computer based show control system in conjunction with a programmable logic controller system to trigger, control and sequence complex live events in real time ... in many cases controlled by the actors!
1998:
Disney's Pocahontas: Journey to the New World is released direct-to-video.
Siren Records releases the theme park album Chris Calabrese: Ragtime At The Magical Kingdoms. Calabrese has performed as the Main Street pianist in Disney theme parks from America to Japan.
1961:
Award-winning singer & actor Billy Ray Cyrus - Robbie Stewart on Disney Channel's Hannah Montana - is born in Flatwoods, Kentucky. The father of Miley Cyrus, he is best known for his 1992 hit single "Achy Breaky Heart."
2006:
Disney's live-action feature Invincible - based on real-life football hero Vince Papale and starring Mark Wahlberg & Greg Kinnear - opens in theaters.
In response to the news on August 24 that a team of astronomers have demoted
Pluto to "dwarf planet" status, the Seven Dwarfs themselves take time to issue a statement, via their friends at the Walt Disney World Resort:
Although we think it's Dopey that Pluto has been downgraded to a dwarf planet,
which has made some people Grumpy and others just Sleepy, we are not
Bashful in saying we would be Happy if Disney's Pluto would join us as an eighth
dwarf. We think this is just what the Doc ordered and is nothing to Sneeze at.
Disney Channel's The Cheetah Girls 2 airs. An amazing 7.8 million viewers tune in to watch the
original movie which features Disney star Raven-Symone (of That's So Raven) as a member of an all-girl band
that travels to Spain.
The Disneyland television series moved from ABC to NBC in 1961 to take advantage of that network's ability to broadcast in color.
1992:
The Party (a pop group made up of Disney Channel Mouseketeers)
release their third album Free on Hollywood Records.
2007:
Disney Legend Armand Bigle passes away at age 89 in Paris, France. Often
refered to as Disney's "Godfather of Europe," he first joined Disney in 1949, when Roy O. Disney tapped him to serve as Disney's premier European sales representative.
"At the time, we had no significant merchandising business in Europe. Once Armand accepted the position, however, the business grew rather wildly." - Roy E. Disney
2005:
Beauty and the Beast wins the 2005 Broadway Show League softball championship at New York City's Central Park, beating three-time victors The Producers, 13-3!
2008:
It is reported that Pixar has hired actor Michael Keaton as the voice of
Ken (Barbie's boyfriend) for the new Toy Story 3 (scheduled for a
summer 2010 release).
Disney announces it has sold 298 acres of Florida land to Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts for a hotel and golf course to anchor a previously announced luxury development on the northeast border of Walt Disney World Resort.
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AUGUST 25
THIS DAY
MADE IN
THE USA
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AUGUST 25
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Actor Sean Connery born
After many years at NBC, the
series moved to CBS for a short
time. It ultimately made its way
back to the now Disney-owned ABC.
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1913:
Actor Don DeFore, who appears on the TV programs
Disneyland '59 and Dateline: Disneyland is born in
Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Walt Disney and DeFore will become friends while DeFore serves as the president of
the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences (1954 & 1955). As president DeFore, along with Ed Sullivan, will sell
the first live nationally-broadcast Emmy Awards to NBC. An impressed Walt Disney will later want to meet "the guy
that was able to do that." Beginning in 1957, DeFore and his brother Verne will operate Don Defore's Silver Banjo Barbecue restaurant located in Disneyland's Frontierland - the only concession in the park with the name of a real living person! (Fans of classic TV will remember Don DeFore as "Thorny" Thornberry on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriett and as George Baxter on Hazel.)
Cartoonist Walt Kelly, best known for his comic strip Pogo, is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Between 1936-1941 he will work for the Walt Disney Studios as a story man and animator on such features as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Fantasia. During the 1941 animators strike, Kelly will not picket the studio but instead take a leave of absence.
