JULY 07 Disney History

2004:

Radio Disney debuts on the Music Choice network, which allows digital cable

and satellite TV homes and cable-modem subscribers to hear the popular

family station in digital quality.

"Iwerks is Screwy spelled backwards"

- animator Chuck Jones

(who as a youth worked for Ub Iwerks' studio)

1898:

Paul Winkler, the first to establish Disney's presence in

France through publishing, is born in Budapest, Hungary.

1931:

Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey Steps Out is released. Directed by Burt Gillett, Mickey and his pal Pluto are all dressed up to call on Minnie ... but an alley cat disrupts their afternoon of music.

1940:

Drummer-singer & actor Ringo Starr (the oldest Beatle) is born in Liverpool, England. His recording of "When You Wish Upon A Star" can be heard on the 1988 release STAY AWAKE Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films. Starr's 1974 hit "You're Sixteen" was written by Robert B. Sherman & Richard M. Sherman (of Disney songwriting fame).

1971:

Animator and technical genius Ubbe Ert Iwwerks (also known as Ub

Iwerks), who first met Walt Disney in 1919, passes away in Burbank,

California. He contributed to many of Disney's early Mickey Mouse classics like Plane Crazy, Steamboat Willie, and Gallopin' Gaucho. He also invented the first multiplane

camera in 1933, a device that used four layers of flat artwork before a horizontal camera to give animation depth. Iwerks built the device out of parts from an old Chevrolet automobile!

1980:

Olympic ice skating champion Michelle Kwan is born in Torrance, California. Her Disney credits include the television specials Reflections on Ice: Michelle Kwan Skates to the Music of Disney's Mulan, Disney's Greatest Hits on Ice, and Michelle Kwan: Princess on Ice. She also supplies the voice of the Shopkeeper in Disney's animated Mulan II and appears as herself in the 2005 live-action film Ice Princess.

1997:

Disneyland's monorail begins operating in one direction only - due to the construction of Disney's California Adventure.

1998:

Disney's Beauty and the Beast plays its 1,762 performance on Broadway.

This breaks the previous record, making it the longest running show ever at the Palace Theater in

New York City!

2000:

Voice actresses June Foray, the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Tweety Bird's Granny, and many Disney animated characters - such as Lucifer in Cinderella - receives her star on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame.

The Disney Ambassador Hotel (located at The Tokyo Disney Resort) opens.

Disney's The Kid starring Bruce Willis, Spencer Breslin, and Lily Tomlin is released.

2003:

Disneyland foreman and attractions host Chuck Abbott passes away in Utah. A 36-year veteran of the park (and a member of Club 55 - a group of original Disneyland Cast Members), he worked directly with Walt Disney during the planning and construction of Pirates of the Caribbean. In 1987, he conceived and initiated the Cast Member seeing-eye dog fund, which became a highly successful volunteer group. Abbott will be named a Disney Legend in 2005 (a first for an hourly theme park Cast Member).

2006:

Disney's newest feature film Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest opens in theaters the same day the attraction Pirates of the Caribbean re-opens at Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Captain Jack Sparrow and Barbosa (characters from the Pirates of the Caribbean feature films) have been added to the popular attraction. Disney Imagineers have also enhanced the attraction experience with an all-new dynamic digital sound design.

1953:

Disney's animated feature Peter Pan is released in Argentina.

Disneyland's

Sailing Ship Columbia

was modeled after the

first vessel to successfully circumnavigate the globe.

1976:

Disney's live-action comedy feature Gus - starring Edward Asner, Don Knotts, Gary Grimes, Tim Conway, Dick Van Patten, Bob Crane, Tom Bosley, and football great Johnny Unitas - is released.

1963:

Summer Magic, a live-action Disney feature starring Hayley Mills, Burl Ives, and Dorothy McGuire, is released. Set in the early 20th century, the film centers around middle-aged widow Margaret Carey (played by McGuire) and her three children, who must bid farewell to their life of luxury in the big city and move to a small country town. (Mills will receive a Golden Globe nomination for her role of Nancy.)

1937:

Disney sound engineer William Garity films activities in the Disney Studio as

publicity for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (to be used by RKO).

1951:

Actress Roz Ryan - the voice of Thalia, Muse of Comedy in Disney's animated

Hercules - is born in Detroit, Michigan. Her Disney credits also include episodes

of Kim Possible and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.

1984:

The Promenade Gifts shop and Restaurant Hokusai both open in Tokyo Disneyland.

1989:

The Disney Channel airs the comedy Ernest Goes to Splash Mountain starring

Jim Varney. Ernest Goes To Splash Mountain chronicles the adventures of Ernest P. Worrell who trains as America's first "Splashtranaut" destined to become the very first person to conquer the Disneyland mountain.