2004:
Starting today, Star Wars characters come to life at Disney’s MGM Studios for 5 consecutive weekends.
Disney's "Blast to the Past: A Celebration of Walt Disney Art Classics" begins its 3-day run at Disneyland.
1944:
Filmmaker George Lucas is born in Modesto, California. His popular Star Wars and Indiana Jones adventure movies will be the inspiration for Disney attractions.
2005:
Sadly, a 26-year-old African elephant whose calf died in its womb last month at Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom, dies from a uterine infection.
The creative teams behind three Disney Channel series, Walt Disney Television Animation's Kim Possible and Brandy & Mr. Whiskers and the Playhouse Disney hit from William Joyce and Nelvana Ltd., Rolie Polie Olie, win Daytime Emmy Awards at the 32nd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards creative arts ceremony in Beverly Hills, California.
1921:
Character actor Richard Deacon is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His Disney credits include Blackbeard's Ghost, The Gnome-Mobile, Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N., and That Darn Cat!. (TV fans know him as Mel Cooley on The Dick Van Dyke Show and as Lumpy's father Fred on Leave It To Beaver.)
1923:
Walt Disney (at this time living & working in Kansas City) writes to New York
film distributor Margaret J. Winkler. He is looking for a distributor for his new
Alice's Wonderland film (a pilot for a possible series of shorts).
1925:
Actor Alvin Epstein - the voice of the Bookseller in Disney's 1991 classic Beauty and the Beast - is born in New York City.
1958:
The Walt Disney Presents TV series features episode 99 - "Magic Highway U.S.A." written and produced by Ward Kimball. The first 45 minutes of the show teaches viewers about highway development, through archival footage. (Only recently have Americans been introduced to the Interstate road system.) The last 15 minutes of the episode features a sleek and stylized presentation of future America. Informally titled “The Road Ahead,” and using limited animation, the segment demonstrates futuristic transportation concepts.
Disney's 1953 animated feature Peter Pan is re-released in theaters.
1961:
The TV series Walt Disney Presents airs part 2 of "Andrew's Raiders."
1972:
In Los Angeles, Sotheby's holds the first auction devoted to Disneyana.
1977:
Disney's made-for-TV movie A Child of Glass first airs. Based on a novel by Richard Peck, the movie centers on a family who moves into a spooky old Louisiana mansion that was once the home of a notorious river pirate.
1992:
CBS This Morning broadcasts segments from Disneyland. Weatherman Mark McEwen plugs various attractions at Disneyland, such as "Fantasmic!," and then delivers the nation's weather forecast. Disney's popular barbershop harmony group, the Dapper Dans open a segment of the show by entering on a fire truck, and singing and playing the CBS This Morning theme song: "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" (from Oklahoma!).
1999:
Walt Disney Pictures' 1982 landmark computer-animated feature Tron returns for a special one-week limited engagement at The El Capitan Theatre in California.
The Disney film Endurance (which depicts the true story of Ethiopian long-distance runner Haile Gebrselassie) is released.
2001:
Disney Online and Compaq Computer Corporation unveil an all-new high-tech exhibit at Disney's Internet Zone at INNOVENTIONS (located at Walt Disney World's Epcot). Disney's Internet Zone features the Mission: SPACE Launch Center exhibit. The experience is a precursor to the Mission: SPACE attraction which is scheduled to open in 2003.
2002:
Disney's 1988 Oliver and Company (inspired by the classic Charles Dickens novel "Oliver Twist") is released on DVD and VHS.
Disney Interactive announces their newest 3D action
role-playing game, KINGDOM HEARTS.
1952:
Academy Award-winning movie director, producer and writer Robert Zemeckis is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will be known for his innovative use of special effects, especially in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (in which he will direct the live-action sequences) and Disney's 2009 A Christmas Carol.
The animation studio Pixar was
founded as the Graphics Group, one
third of the Computer Division of
Lucasfilm (a production company
founded by George Lucas in 1971).
Pixar's early computer graphics research resulted in groundbreaking effects in
films such as Star Trek II: The Wrath of
Khan and Young Sherlock Holmes. The
group was purchased in 1986 by Steve
Jobs shortly after he left Apple. Disney
acquired Pixar from Jobs in 2006.
2007:
Disney announces the donation of $12.5 million to the city of Orlando, Florida for a
new performing arts center, the same day Walt Disney World officials unveil the
rededicated Walt Disney Amphitheater at Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando.
1948:
Director, writer, and co-creator of Hannah Montana, Richard Correll is born in Los Angeles, California. His Disney Channel credits also include The Suite Life of Zak and Cody, Cory in the House, and That's So Raven.
"The secret to film is that it's an illusion." -George Lucas
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MAY
MAY 14
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MAY 14
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
1942:
Academy Award-winning composer and songwriter Frank Churchill passes away in California. In December 1930, he joined The Walt Disney Studios where he scored nearly 65 animated shorts and wrote such timeless tunes as "Whistle While You Work," "Heigh-Ho" and "Someday My Prince Will Come."
Star Wars creator George Lucas born
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1971:
Walt Disney Productions releases The Aristocats (the twentieth
animated feature in the Disney animated features canon) in Argentina.
2008:
Slapstick Studios opens at Innoventions West in Epcot. Guests participate in a wacky game show and discover creative ways to solve problems.
2009:
Three characters from the new Disney-Pixar animated comedy Up make a surprise
visit to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida. Russell - the eight-year-old wilderness explorer, Dug the dog, and Carl Fredricksen - a 78-year-old balloon salesman, meet guests inside the theme park’s Magic
of Disney Animation attraction.
1978:
TV Guide features an article on The New Mickey Mouse Club.
