NOV 12 Disney History

1908:

Disney animator Shamus Culhane is born in Ware, Massachusetts. His most notable work for Disney will include the classic sequence with Pluto and the crab in Hawaiian Holiday and the dwarfs' "Heigh

Ho" number in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

2004:

Florida's Downtown Disney hosts the 3-day Festival of the Masters

(a display of more than 150 award-winning national and local artists).

Disney Channel airs the sixteenth Phil of the Future episode - "Age Before Beauty" for the first time. Guest stars include veteran actor Ronnie Schell (who portrays a 75-year-old Phil).

1916:

Actor Liam Dunn is born in New Jersey. His Disney credits include The Shaggy D.A., Gus, Herbie Rides Again, and The World's Greatest Athlete.

1932:

Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoons The Wayward Canary and The Klondike Kid

are both released.

1939:

Actor Bela Lugosi (best known for his Dracula roles) spends the day

at the Disney Studios posing for animators. It is the intent that Lugosi will be

the model for the demon Chernabog in the "Night on Bald Mountain" segment of Fantasia.

(However, Bill Tytla, the animator in charge of Chernobog, will later be dissatisfied with Lugosi's performace, and will have sequence director Wilfred Jackson pose for the cameras. Thus it willl be Jackson, not Lugosi, who "appears" on-screen as Chernabog!)

1943:

Character actor Wallace Shawn is born in New York City. His Disney credits include

The Haunted Mansion, Monsters, Inc., Toy Story, Toy Story 2, The Incredibles, and Chicken Little.

1946:

Walt Disney's Song of the South is released by RKO and debuts at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, Georgia. The film, based on the books by Joel Chandler Harris, is Walt's first major plunge into live-action filmmaking (although it also contains animated segments). The premiere is sponsored jointly by the Atlanta Junior League and the Uncle Remus Memorial Association. (The film & its songs will later provide the inspiration for the Splash Mountain attractions at Disney theme parks.)

1954:

Disney's Donald Duck animated short The Flying Squirrel is released.

1957:

Disney stock is first listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

1961:

The NBC-TV series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Colorairs part 1 of "The Light

in the Forest."

Prime Minister Nehru of India visits Disneyland. He is taken on a personal tour of the

park by Walt Disney himself. (The Indian leader is in Southern California for a 3-day visit.)

1962:

The Firehouse Five Plus Two (a musical group made up of writers, animators, producers and directors at the Walt Disney Studios) perform on the stage of the Golden Horseshoe Saloon in Disneyland.

1980:

Actor Ryan Gosling, a member of Disney Channel's

The All New Mickey Mouse Club, is born in Ontario, Canada.

1982:

Actress Anne Hathaway, co-star of Disney's The Princess Dairies and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, is born in Brooklyn, New York. She also appeared in the 2004 Ella Enchanted (distributed by Miramax Films, the art-house/independent film division of The Walt Disney Company).

1993:

Disney's The Three Musketeers, starring Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Chris O'Donnell, Tim Curry, and Rebecca De Mornay, is released.

1999:

The Disney musical Aida debuts at Chicago's Palace Theatre.

2002:

Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year is released on video.

2006:

Singer Jon Secada brings down the curtain on the 2006 Eat to the Beat! concert series at Epcot when he performs his final show of a 4-day engagement.

The first annual American Teacher Awards (honoring exemplary American teachers) was hosted by Disney in 1990. The very first recipient was

Sylvia Anne Washburn.

2007:

Walt Disney World kicks off the holiday season with this year's

debut of Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at the Magic Kingdom.

Also at the MK, a dazzling new lighting spectacle which transforms the iconic Cinderella Castle into a glimmering, shimmering ice palace, debuts. Over at Disney-MGM, The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights (presented by Sylvania) returns to light up The Streets of America Backlot, while Mickey's Jingle Jungle Parade steps off at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

At the beginning of the Chinese Dance segment of Fantasia's "The Nutcracker Suite", Hop Low, the tiny mushroom, does a little jump while criss-crossing his legs. Animator Art Babbit supposedly got the idea from The Three Stooges - it's one of Curly Howard's signature moves!

FANTASIA

FUN FACT

FANTASIA

FUN FACT

1942:

Disney's animated feature Pinocchio is released in Egypt.

1969:

Twenty-year-old Cathy Birk is chosen to be Disneyland's new Ambassador to the World. A Disneyland employee since April 1968, her initial duties as the new ambassador begins December 1.