1911:
Artist & Disney Legend Mary Blair is born Mary Browne Robinson in McAlester,
Oklahoma. She will be famous for her unique color stylings and design work on such Disney animated features
as Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella and Peter Pan. She will also help design the attraction It's A Small World,
create mural art for Disneyland's Tomorrowland Promenade, and design the 90-foot high ceramic tile mural for Walt
Disney World's Contemporary Resort. Blair will even appear as herself in Disney's 1942 Saludos Amigos.
1925:
Walt Disney's 25th Alice comedy film Alice in the Jungle is completed. The short will have a sneak preview 2 days later, but be generally released December 15.
1934:
Paul Winkler (a Frenchman of Hungarian origin) launches an official Disney
magazine called Le Journal de Mickey. (The popular weekly mag will become part of French
tradition and Winkler will be named a Disney Legend in 1997.)
1939:
An interoffice memo from Walt to his brother Roy and studio worker Gunther Lessing reads: "Everything we do in the future should include television rights. There might be a big angle on television for the shorts we have already produced."
1955:
The Mickey Mouse Club airs on ABC-TV. Today is Talent Round-Up Day.
1959:
Doctor Wernher Von Braun (who had helped Walt Disney produce a
series of space-related TV shows in the mid 1950s) arrives at NASA.
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order transferring the brilliant rocket
designer and his team from the U.S. Army to the newly created National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (which had begun operations October 1, 1958).
1962:
The NBC-TV series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color airs "Man is His Own Worst Enemy."
1965:
Walt Disney receives the final script for
Disneyland's latest project ... the Pirates of the
Caribbean attraction. Five days later dialog recording will begin with performers J. Pat O'Malley and Paul Frees.
An article by Emily Bavar titled Is Our "Mystery" Industry Disney? appears in the local Orlando, Florida paper The Sentinel-Star. Bavar, the editor of the newspaper's Sunday Florida Magazine, has been tracking the rumors that Walt Disney has been purchasing large plots of land in Orange County. Bavar believes the rumors are true!
1992:
The late Winston Hibler (a writer, producer, director and narrator) is
among those honored as a Disney Legend. His wide body of work includes Those
Calloways, the Disneyland TV series, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Sleeping Beauty.
1998:
President Bill Clinton signs the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998. This act extends the duration of U.S. copyrights by 20 years. Prior to this, copyrights lasted for the life of the author plus fifty years. This act allows copyrights to last the life of the author, plus seventy years in the case of individual works, or 75 to 95 years in the case of works of corporate authorship and works first published before January 1, 1978. As a result, many works including several characters owned by the Walt Disney Company will not become public domain for many years. (The act is named after the late Congressman Sonny Bono, who had favored this position as a songwriter and filmmaker even prior to his entry into politics.)
2001:
Disney Imagineer Tony Baxter appears as a special guest of the Carolwood
Pacific Historical Society at Walt Disney's Barn in Griffith Park, California. One of
the most influential and prolific of the "second generation" Disney Imagineers, Baxter played a key role in the
design and creation of many Disney attractions and theme parks in the last 25 years, including Big Thunder
Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain.
2003:
The soundtrack to Disney's Brother Bear
(featuring music by Phil Collins & Tina Turner) is released.
A two-day celebration of Disney's railroad legacy begins at
Walt Disney World. Members of the Carolwood Pacific Historical Society
and the Broggie family of California attend to rededicate the Roger E. Broggie
Steam Engine No. 3. The steam engine (named for the late Roger Broggie who
was Disney's original Imagineer) is one of four that puff around the Magic Kingdom.
Disney's George of the Jungle 2 swings onto DVD and video.
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1933:
The Warner Brothers musical feature Footlight Parade, starring James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, and Dick Powell, is released to theaters. (A scene from this film is represented in Disney's Hollywood Studios attraction The Great Movie Ride. It is also among the trailers shown in the ride's queue area.)
"Orange County's 30,000 acre mystery industry site may turn out to be an aircraft testing ground, an electronics research center or even a washing machine factory.
But I predict nothing so mundane for the mystery site.
I predict it will be an extension of Walt Disney's magic empire of fiction, fantasy and enormous wealth."
-Emily Bavar (Oct 21, 1965)
2004:
Angela To is named Honk Kong Disneyland’s very first Ambassador.
2007:
The Best of Both Worlds Tour, starring Miley Cyrus (as both herself and in character as Disney Channel's Hannah Montana) and featuring Jonas Brothers, perform at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The 2007 CHOC / Disneyland Resort Walk held in Anaheim, raises a record $1.6 million for Children's Hospital Orange County.
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OCTOBER 21
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THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
OCTOBER 21
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1941:
Fantasia closes its run of nearly a year with two final showings at the Broadway Theater in New York City. Dumbo will world premiere there 2 days later.
Pirates of the Caribbean was never
intended to be part of Disney World
out of fear that it would not be
exotic enough to Floridians, due to
its geographic proximity to the real
Caribbean. Instead, planners
intended to build a ride called the
Western River Expedition. Designed
by Marc Davis, it would've featured
Audio-Animatronic cowboys,
banditos and Native Indians.
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Fantasia closes in NY
1992 Disney Legends
