1972:
Legendary singer-songwriter Mel Tormé performs the first of a 13-day engagement at the Top of the World, located atop Disney World's Contemporary Resort.
Top of the World dinner show seatings are at 6:30 and 9:30 with a $5 cover charge. Best known as the
co-writer of "The Christmas Song," jazz singer Tormé also composed the song "County Fair" for Disney's
1948 live-action So Dear to My Heart.
2000:
The Kansas City Star reports that the Walt Disney heirs have pledged funds to refurbish the original animation studio of Walt Disney (located in Kansas City).
For nearly a decade, Thank You, Walt Disney Inc. has been fighting to set up a Disney Museum in Kansas City, the birthplace of Mickey Mouse and other early Disney characters. The $450,000 pledge by the Walt and Lily Disney Foundation is contingent on whether the Thank You organization can match the amount.
1981:
Disney's animated The Fox and the Hound premieres in U.S. theaters. It
features the voices of Jack Alberston, Pearl Bailey, Sandy Duncan, Corey Feldman, Kurt Russell, Paul
Winchell and Mickey Rooney. Loosely based on the novel of the same name by Daniel Mannix, two
childhood animal friends find themselves forced to become enemies. The Fox and the Hound marks the
premiere effort of a new generation of Disney animators, who in a few years will create The
Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast.
1999:
The Backstreet Boys perform in an hour-long Disney Channel special, Backstreet Boys In Concert. The concert had been taped 2 months earlier at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York City, home of Disney's The Lion King.
1987:
Disney's The Brave Little Toaster is released in theaters. Set in a world where household appliances and other electronics have the ability to speak and move, pretending to be lifeless in the presence of humans, the story focuses on five appliances; a toaster, a desk lamp, an electric blanket, a vacuum tube radio, and a vacuum cleaner, who go on a quest to search for their original owner. The Brave Little Toaster, produced by Hyperion Pictures and adapted from the 1980 novel of the same name by Thomas Disch, features the voices of Jon Lovitz and Phil Hartman (known for their performances on Saturday Night Live), Deanna Oliver, Timothy E. Day and veteran voice actor Thurl Ravenscroft. Co-written by Joe Ranft (who in a few years will go on to work for Pixar) The Brave Little Toaster will receive an Emmy nomination for Best Animated Program. Ranft also supplies the voice of Elmo St. Peters, one of the major antagonists of the film.
"We're gonna kick
ourselves for not buying
everything within a radius
of ten miles around here."
-Walt Disney (after the
opening of Disneyland)
2007:
Disney College Program Cast Member Paul Sherrer (a former U.S. soldier) is honored for saving the life of a 4-year-old guest who had fallen into the marina at the Port Orleans Riverside in Florida. Vice President of Resort Operations and Transportation Kevin Myers presents Paul with a letter from Meg Crofton, president of the Walt Disney World Resort,
commending him for his bravery.
Insomniatic, the second studio album from the teen pop duo Aly & AJ, is released on Hollywood Records (a label owned by Disney). Featuring
the single "Potential Breakup Song," the album will sell 39,000 copies in the U.S. in its first week.
Tom Higgenson, lead singer of the rock group Plain White T's, visits the Magic Kingdom in Florida. The band's current single, "Hey There Delilah" (released on Disney's Hollywood records label) is currently #1 on Billboard's "Hot Digital Songs" chart and #3 on Billboard's "Hot 100" chart.
Two friends that didn't know they were supposed to be enemies.
1992:
Disney's Beauty and the Beast is widely released in theaters in Brazil.
JULY
JULY 10
JULY 10
THIS SITE MADE
IN THE
USA
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The Fox and the Hound premieres
"This is really the place where all of the Hollywood animation pioneers... that means Walt Disney, Ub Iwerks, the guys who started Warner Brothers and Looney Tunes... all of these were a bunch of young guys working around the corner of 31st and Troost, or 31st and Forest."
-Butch Rigsby (founder of Thank You Walt Disney, Inc.)
1931:
Composer and lyricist Jerry Herman, known for his work in Broadway musical
theater, is born in New York City. He is best known for the hit musicals Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La
Cage aux Folles. Many of Herman's show tunes have become pop standards, and two of his tunes - "Put On
Your Sunday Clothes" and "It Only Takes a Moment" can be heard in the Disney/Pixar 2008 release Wall-E.
"I immediately said yes (when Disney asked for the rights to use these two songs in the film), but I had no idea
that (‘Put On Your Sunday Clothes’ and ‘It Only Takes a Moment’ were) going be that instrumental in the message
of the (movie). So I'm absolutely thrilled." -Jerry Herman
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1979:
Disney releases the live-action feature film The Spaceman and King Arthur in
England. Loosely based on Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, an astronaut
and his android double travel back to the time of King Arthur. When released in U.S. theaters later in the month, the
film be will titled Unidentified Flying Oddball.
1941:
Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, a pioneer ragtime and jazz pianist, dies at age 55 in
Louisiana. Also a bandleader and composer, Morton is perhaps most notable as jazz's first arranger.
Jellyrolls at Disney's BoardWalk Area at Walt Disney World Resort (a lively piano bar with dueling pianos and
audience sing-alongs) is named in tribute to Morton.
July 10
