1949:
Disney's 11th animated feature film The Adventures of Ichabod
and Mr. Toad is released. The film features the voices of Bing Crosby, who
narrates Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", and Basil
Rathbone, who narrates Kenneth Grahame's tale "The Wind in the Willows."
2004:
Disney's Aladdin Special Edition DVD is released.
The New York City Disney Store (located at 711 5th Ave) is
rechristened The World of Disney with a special grand opening
celebration. Actress Christy Carlson Romano (from Disney's Kim
Possible, Even Stevens, and formerly Belle of Broadway's Beauty
and the Beast) is on hand to meet customers and sign autographs.
1922:
The Laugh-O-Gram animated short Goldie Locks and the Three Bears, directed & co-animated by Walt Disney, is released.
1923:
Actress Glynis Johns is born in Pretoria, South Africa. She will be best known to Disney fans as
Winifred Banks in the 1964 film Mary Poppins and Princess Mary Tudor in the 1953 The Sword and the Rose.
1935:
Disney's Silly Symphony cartoon Music Land is released.
1950:
Actor Jeff Conaway, who appears in Disney's 1977 Pete's Dragon as Willie, is born in New York City. (Fans will remember him for his roles of Bobby Wheeler on TV's Taxi and Kenickie in the hit feature film Grease.)
1955:
In Anaheim, California, the Disneyland Hotel opens opposite the main exit of
Disneyland. Owned by the Wrather Corporation, the hotel won't be purchased
by Disney until 1988.
The third episode of the Mickey Mouse Club airs on ABC-TV. Today
is Anything Can Happen Day. Jimmie Dodd leads the Mouseketeers in forming a
gadget band, using bottles, combs, wash tubs and other discarded junk for playing music.
The television series Disneyland airs its 25th episode - a compilation of many of the
"People and Places" movie shorts that had previouslybeen shown in theaters.
1975:
Actress Parminder Nagra, who appears as the flight director in Epcot's Mission:SPACE, is born in Leicester, England. (You may recognize her from the feature film Bend It Like Beckham and the TV series ER.)
1982:
EPCOT Center's World of Motion, a whimsical look at the development of
transportation from the human foot to a bustling futuristic city, is officially dedicated
(although it has been up and running since the park's grand debut on October 1). It
is sponsored by General Motors - the very first company to sign with Disney to
sponsor an EPCOT pavilion.
1992:
The Walt Disney Story (an attraction on Walt Disney World's Main Street USA) is shown for the last time when the Main Street Cinema closes. (The cinema will be refurbished and reopened as a merchandise location in 1998.)
Animation storyboard artist and voice actor Joe Ranft is hired at Pixar. After graduating from high school in 1978, Ranft began studying in the character animation program at the California Institute of the Arts. After two years, Ranft's student film Good Humor caught the attention of Disney animation executives, who offered him a job. During his years at Disney (which included training from Eric Larson - one of Walt's "Nine Old Men") Ranft did story work on animated features including The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast.
1996:
A star-studded group of television veterans are inducted into the Academy of
Television Arts & Sciences' Television Academy Hall of Fame in ceremonies at
Disney-MGM Studios. Edward Asner, Steven Bochco, Charles Kuralt, Angela Lansbury, Aaron
Spelling, Lew R. Wasserman and the producing team of Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner become the 78th
through 85th inductees.
Mary Gibbs, the voice of Boo in the Disney/Pixar 2001 release Monsters, Inc., is
born in Pasadena, California. Her father Rob Gibbs worked as a story artist on Toy Story 2 and
a story supervisor on Pocahontas.
1999:
Disney CEO Michael Eisner is interviewed for posterity at the Library of Congress by Walter Anderson, editor of Parade magazine.
2001:
Disney's comedy feature Max Keeble's Big Move opens in theaters.
Actress Melissa Joan Hart accompanied by children from Sharon Stone's
Planet Hope visit Disneyland for the Haunted Mansion Holiday opening.
Disney Channel debuts the Lizzie McGuire episode "Night of the Day of the Dead".
2002:
Walt Disney Pictures releases Tuck Everlasting, a film based on the children's book of the same title by Natalie Babbitt. Narrated by Elisabeth Shue, the cast includes Alexis Bledel, Jonathan Jackson, William Hurt, Sissy Spacek, Ben Kingsley, and Amy Irving.
Principal photography begins on Disney's Freaky Friday.
(The film will be released in August 2003.)
2003:
The 13th Annual CHOC/Disneyland Resort "Walk in the Park" takes place in
Anaheim, California. Approximately 14,000 participants venture through Disneyland and Disney's
California Adventure while raising over $740,000 for the Children's Hospital of Orange County.
1977:
Kikkoman's sponsorship of the Adventureland Veranda restaurant at
Disney World's Magic Kingdom begins. The restaurant, the first location that visitors to Adventureland via the bridge from Main Street encounter, serves fried chicken, hot sandwiches and soft drinks in a
Polynesian setting.
The Wonderful World of Water ski show
took place on the Seven Seas Lagoon at
WDW between 1972-1973. Viewed from
a "special" vantage point (the grassy
hillside between the Magic Kingdom
monorail station & the
lagoon) shows
were offered to
guests five
times daily.
1974:
Actress and singer Heather Headley is born in Trinidad, West Indies. In 1997 she will play Nala in The Lion King, the Broadway musical. Headley will later originate the title role in the Broadway adaptation of Disney's Aida, earning a Tony Award for Best Actress in 2000!
1941:
The Fight For Freedom Committee's stage play, It's Fun To Be Free, debuts in New York City at Madison Square Garden. The cover art for the show's program - which features a patriotic illustration of Mickey, Goofy, and Donald - has been designed by Disney artist Hank Porter. (The national Fight for Freedom Committee, formed in New York City in April, 1941, favors the immediate entry of the United States into World War II to aid in the defeat of Nazi Germany.)
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1902:
Entrepreneur Ray Kroc, famous for significantly expanding the McDonald's Corporation, is born in Oak Park, Illinois. In 1996, McDonalds will sign a ten year global marketing agreement with the Walt Disney Company to promote and help each other. Coincidentally, Ray Kroc and Walt Disney will first meet in an Army camp in Connecticut in 1918!
1829:
Chester A. Arthur, the twenty-first United States President, is born in
Fairfield, Vermont. The first president to take the Oath of Office in his own home, Arthur
did not deliver an Inaugural Address! Visit him and all the U.S. Chief Executives at Disney
World's The Hall of Presidents.
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"Don't try to figure out a plan. You can't reason with a headless man."
2005:
The Tomorrowland game area of Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom is made
available to players for the first time. The rest of Tomorrowland will "open"
in April 2006. (VMK is a multiplayer online game run by Disney.)
1997:
The Wonderful World of Disney airs "Toothless" starring Kirstie Alley.
2008:
Although her birthday isn't until November 23, Miley Cyrus celebrates her Sweet 16 at Disneyland with several celebrities, friends and about 5,000 fans (who paid $250 a ticket to attend). Celebs in attendance include Jennifer Love Hewitt, Cameron Mathison, Tyra Banks, Christián de la Fuente, Julianne & Derek Hough, David Archuleta, Demi Lovato, Miley's rumored new beau, Justin Gaston, and her dad, Billy Ray.
Ashley Brown and Gavin Lee, who created the roles of Mary Poppins and chimney sweep Bert in the Disney-Cameron Mackintosh Broadway production of Mary
Poppins, play their final performances at the New Amsterdam Theatre.
They are scheduled to reprise their roles for the upcoming North American tour of Poppins, which is expected to begin performances at Chicago's Cadillac Palace Theatre March 11, 2009.
OCTOBER 5
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THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
OCTOBER 05
Pixar hires Disney animator Joe Ranft
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"Come along! Hop up here! We'll go for a jolly ride! The open road! The dusty highway! Come! I'll show you the world! Travel! Scene! Excitement! Ha ha ha!" -Mr. Toad
2009:
The Walt Disney Company names Rich Ross (president of Disney Channels
Worldwide) as the new chairman of The Walt Disney Studios.He replaces Dick Cook,
who resigned last month.
Walt Disney World Resort welcomes a male calf to the giraffe herd at Disney’s
Animal Kingdom. The Disney Animal Programs team helps to deliver 166-pound baby giraffe Bruehler
from third-time mother Aibuni.
