1991:
Disney's Port Orleans Resort, a re-creation of the streets and rowhouses of New
Orleans' French Quarter, opens at 2201 Orleans Drive in Walt Disney World. The
Downtown Disney area resort offers 432 guest rooms in 3 buildings (the room count will increased to 1,008
when construction on the remaining 4 buildings is completed). Also opening is the Sassagoula Floatworks and
Food Factory food court, Jackson Square Gifts and Desires shop, and Bonfamille's Cafe restaurant. (In 2001 it
will be renamed Port Orleans Resort French Quarter.)
Also opening on the Florida property is the Disney Vacation Club Resort (Disney's
first attempt at a timeshare resort). It will later be re-named Disney's Old Key West Resort.
Touchstone Pictures release the comedy What About Bob? directed by Frank Oz
and starring Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss.
2005:
Walt Disney Records releases "Best of The Muppets featuring The
Muppets' Wizard of Oz" from the upcoming The Muppets' Wizard of Oz television movie. (This is the Muppets' first major album release since the franchise was purchased by The Walt Disney Company in 2004.)
It is announced on this day that Roy and Patricia Disney have pledged $10 million
to Providence Saint Joseph Foundation to build the San Fernando Valley's first and most comprehensive free-standing cancer center. In recognition of their generosity and
commitment, the California cancer facility, the largest provider of cancer services in the valley, will be named
"The Roy and Patricia Disney Cancer Center."
Actor and impressionist Frank Gorshin passes away at age 72 at Providence Saint
Joseph Medical Center in California. He played the role of Iggy the bank-robber in
Disney's 1965 live-action film That Darn Cat! Television fans will remember him best for his role of the Riddler on the 1960s Batman series.
1909:
Science expert, author, world-wide lecturer and television guest & host, Julius Sumner Miller (a student & friend of Albert Einstein's) is born in Bellerica, Massachusetts. He will go on to portray Professor Wonderful on the TV series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1955-1959. (He is best known in Canada for his "mad professor" work on the short-lived 1971 TV series The Hilarious House of Frightenstein.)
1925:
Disney's Alice Comedy Alice's Egg Plant, featuring Dawn O'Day as Alice, debuts in New York City at the Rivoli Theater.
1935:
French composer Paul Dukas passes away in Paris, France. His most popular piece L'apprenti sorcier, better known under its English title The Sorcere's Apprentice, will be heard in the 1940 Disney film Fantasia.
1940:
Disney's Donald Duck cartoon Billposters is released.
American computer scientist Alan Kay is born in Massachusetts. In the mid-1980s he will join Walt Disney Imagineering as vice president of research and development before going on to work for Hewlett-Packard.
1950:
Disney Legend Howard Ashman, playwright & award-winning lyricist for such
Disney films as Oliver & Company, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast,
and Aladdin, is born in Baltimore, Maryland.
1955:
Actor Bill Paxton, the director of Disney's 2005
The Greatest Game Ever Played, is born in Fort Worth, Texas.
1962:
Disney's live-action feature film Bon Voyage - starring Fred MacMurray, Jane Wyman and Tommy Kirk - is released.
1964:
Disney's Wonderful World of Color TV show airs the
episode "Disneyland Goes to the World's Fair." Walt is shown
working on a scene from the Progressland show along with
Wathel Rogers, his principal Audio-Animatronics programmer.
Although Disney hasn't built the fair's Kodak Pavilion, Walt explains to millions
of viewers about how the development of Kodak cameras make it possible for
people to record their World's Fair memories ... and actually plugs the Kodak
Pavilion! Kodak's structure is located next to Pepsi's "It's a Small World"
attraction and the Tower of the Four Winds - the only place where visitors can
get a picture taken with Disney characters.
1986:
"American Journeys," a CircleVision 360 film, debuts at Tokyo Disneyland.
1987:
The Wonderful World of Disney airs the movie "Spot Marks the X."
1989:
Disney Channel airs episode 18 of MMC. Today is Anything Can Happen Day!
1997:
Disneyland's Mike Fink Keelboats re-closes for the second time in the attraction's history.
1998:
At the Drama Desk Awards, Disney's stage musical The Lion King wins the most awards with Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (Tsidii Le Loka), Outstanding Director of a Musical, Outstanding Choreography, Outstanding Set Design of a Musical, Outstanding Costume Design, Outstanding Lighting Design, Outstanding Sound Design, and Outstanding Puppet Design.
The Wonderful World of Disney airs the television movie "Miracle at Midnight."
2002:
The 29th Daytime Emmy Awards are presented at New York City's Madison Square Garden. Disney Channel's Madeline wins for Outstanding Children's Animated Program and Disney's Teacher's Pet takes home an award for Outstanding Special Class Children's Animated Program.
The Lizzie McGuire episode "The Longest Yard" debuts on Disney Channel.
2004:
Phase 1 of Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa (the 5th Disney Vacation Club built in Walt Disney World) welcomes its first guests. Jodi Benson (best known as the voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid) takes part in the opening festivities singing "Part of Your World" and other Disney classics. The resort (inspired by the city of Saratoga Springs, New York) is situated on the former site of the Disney Institute at 1960 Broadway.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that the Disney theme park ride Jungle Cruise will be turned into a live-action feature film.
Comedic actor Tony Randall, who hosted the 1987 television special
Walt Disney World Celebrity Circus, passes away in his sleep of complications from heart surgery. (TV fans will remember Randall for his classic role of
Felix Unger on the series The Odd Couple.)
2006:
The late Sam McKim, the man who drew the first Disneyland map, receives a Window on Main Street at Disneyland. Hired in 1954 as Walt's Master Map Maker, McKim's sketches were also used to help design the park, especially Main Street and Frontierland.
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Instead of Disney's California
Adventure, Disney originally
considered building a
West Coast version of Epcot!
WestCOT was announced to
the public in 1991 ...
but scrapped in 1995.
1908:
Disney writer Ralph Wright, the gloomy voice of loveable Eeyore in such classics as Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree and Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery
Day, is born in St. Paul, Minnesota. His story credits include Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too!, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and The Aristocats.
"There's only one thing worse than a man who doesn't have strong likes and dislikes, and that's a man who has strong likes and dislikes without the courage to voice them."
-Tony Randall
1946:
The National Council of the Boy Scouts of America awards Walt Disney and eight other recipients the prestigious Silver Buffalo during a ceremony in St. Louis, Missouri. The Silver Buffalo, Scouting's highest commendation, is awarded annually for "distinguished service to boyhood."
1954:
Tony Award-winning musical theatre lyricist David Zippel is born in Easton, Pennsylvania. His Disney credits include Mulan and Hercules.
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MAY
MAY 17
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MAY 17
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
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"If you can't find Disney, look for Kodak... and if you can't find Kodak, just look for Disney... " -Walt Disney
2000:
The Field Museum in Chicago unveils Sue, the largest, most complete, and best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex fossil yet discovered. A replica of Sue stands in Disney's Animal Kingdom. Visit Sue on your travels to the Dino Institute in Dinoland USA. (The dinosaur is named after Sue Hendrickson - an American paleontologist, who along with her team in August 1990 discovered the bones of this huge Tyrannosaurus rex in South Dakota.)
