2005:
The Walt Disney World Resort's animal care team welcomes a
233-pound baby elephant early in the morning. The female African elephant calf is born at Disney's Animal Kingdom Park.
The December 19 issue of The New Yorker includes an article
by Caitlin Flanagan titled "Becoming Mary Poppins: P. L. Travers, Walt Disney, and the Making of the Myth."
1925:
Walt Disney's 28th Alice Comedy film Alice's Orphan is completed.
Academy Award-winning songwriter & Disney Legend Robert B. Sherman is born in Manhattan, New York. He and his younger brother Richard will go on to write countless songs for many Disney features and park attractions. Among their best known tunes - "Feed the Birds" & "Chim-Chim-Cheree" from Mary Poppins and the park attraction "It's A Small World (after all)".
1929:
Floyd Gottfredson is hired as an apprentice animator at Disney. (In April 1930
he will start working on the 4-month-old Mickey Mouse comic strip.)
1936:
Disney's Silly Symphony cartoon More Kittens, directed by David
Hand, is released. A sequel to Disney's 1935 Oscar winning Three Orphan Kittens, it features the animated work of Frank Thomas and Fred Moore.
1955:
The Mickey Mouse Club airs on ABC-TV. Today is Fun With Music Day.
1956:
The ABC-TV series Disneyland airs the episode "A Present for Donald."
1958:
ABC-TV airs the Walt Disney Presents episode "From All of Us to All of You."
1960:
Actor Tom Tryon, the star of the 1958-59 Disneyland television serial "Texas John Slaughter," records excerpts from Abraham Lincoln's speeches as a test. Disney is in the midst of preparing Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln for the 1964 World's Fair.
1962:
The Disney cartoon short A Symposium on Popular Songs, featuring Ludwig Von
Drake, is released. (It will be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cartoon Short Subject.)
1971:
NBC-TV airs The Wonderful World of Disney episode "Disney on Parade."
1972:
Actress Alyssa Milano, the voice of Angel in Disney's 2001 Lady and the Tramp
II: Scamp's Adventure, is born in Brooklyn, New York. (TV fans will recognize
her from such series as "Who's the Boss?" and "Charmed.")
1984:
Disney World's Country Bear Jamboree Country Bear Christmas Special runs for the first time. (It will become a seasonal event.)
1998:
Test Track opens at Disney World's Epcot. (It will be dedicated in March 1999.)
1999:
Disney World's Tomorrowland Speedway (originally called Grand Prix Raceway) is renamed Tomorrowland Indy Speedway.
2003:
The Disney Channel debuts the That's So Raven episode "Separation Anxiety."
1868:
Novelist Eleanor H. Porter is born in Littleton, New Hampshire. Her novel
Pollyanna (1913) will later be made into a Disney live-action feature.
The Disneyland tradition of a giant Christmas tree towering over Main Street, U.S.A. began in 1955. Disneyland was the last
Disney park in the world to
still utilize a real live tree as
its holiday centerpiece in
Town Square! For the first time in 53 years an artificial tree was used in 2008.
DEC
1914:
Animator, story man and Disney Legend Mel Shaw is born in Brooklyn, New York. He will work on such classics as Fantasia, Bambi, The Rescuers, and The Lion King.
2007:
High School Musical's Ashley Tisdale and Corbin Bleu take part in Starlight
Starbright Children's Foundation Winter Wonderland. They are joined by actresses Kay
Panabaker and Lauren Storm at Studio 33 at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California.
2008:
It is announced that the Chicago Film Critics Association has named
Pixar's Wall-E as its Best Picture of the Year.
DECEMBER 19
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Today is Look for an Evergreen Day
THIS DAY MADE
IN THE
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DECEMBER 19
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1843:
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is first published in London by Chapman & Hall. Illustrated by John Leech, it will quickly meet with commercial success and critical acclaim. Dickens' tale will be credited with returning the holiday to one of merriment and festivity in Britain and America after a period of sobriety and sombreness. In 2009 Disney will release a 3D feature film version of A Christmas Carol.
