SEP 23 Disney History

2005:

Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, presents "Behind the Magic: 50 Years of Disneyland." The exhibit (in partnership with Walt Disney Imagineering) features 250 items, including artwork, hand-crafted models and marketing materials.

"Mickey actually reminds me of a simpler time to be a kid. Before MTV, double entendres, and a wink

at the audience, there was this little mouse that seemed to make children pretty darn happy.

So, I confess, I still feel a soft spot for the ole guy."

-Actor Jason Alexander (born on This Day in Disney History)

1920:

Actor Mickey Rooney, the voices of Sparky in the 2001 animated release Lady and the Tramp II: Scamps' Adventure, and Adult Tod in the 1981 The Fox and the Hound, is born Joe Yule, Jr. in Brooklyn, New York. He also portrays Lampie in the 1977 live action/animated musical Pete's Dragon. Rooney is even caricatured in the 1939 Donald Duck short The Autograph Hound.

(During his career, Rooney has won multiple awards, including an Oscar, a Golden Globe and an Emmy. Best known for his work as the Andy Hardy character, Rooney has one of the longest movie careers of any actor - entering the Guinness Book of Records as the actor with longest career on both stage and screen!)

1938:

Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon The Brave Little Tailor

is released. The most elaborate and expensive Mickey Mouse cartoon ever produced to date, it will be nominated for an Academy Award.

1945:

Original Mouseketeer Paul Petersen is born in Glendale, California. Besides appearing on The Mickey Mouse Club, he portrayed Jeff Stone on The Donna

Reed Show. In later years, he will become an author, spokesman, and child rights activist.

1949:

Disney's Goofy cartoon Goofy Gymnastics, directed by Jack Kinney, is released.

1955:

The LP record Firehouse Five Plus Two Plays for Lovers is released on the Good Time Jazz label. The group is led by animator Ward Kimball.

The Disney short Up a Tree, featuring Donald Duck and Chip 'n' Dale, is released. It is the 3rd and final short release of 1955.

1959:

Actor Jason Alexander, the voice of Hugo in Disney's 1996 release The Hunchback

of Notre Dame and its sequel The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, is born Jay Scott

Greenspan in Newark, New Jersey. He is also the voice of Abis Mal, a clumsy thief who accidentally

frees Jafar from his lamp, in The Return of Jafar - a 1994 animated direct-to-video sequel to the 1992 film Aladdin.

101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure, a direct-to-video sequel to the animated One Hundred and One

Dalmatians, features Alexander as the voice of Lil' Lightning. (A star of stage, film, and television, Alexander is

probably best known to TV fans for his role of George Costanza on the hit series Seinfeld.)

1961:

Actress Elizabeth Peña, the voice of Mirage in the 2004 Disney-Pixar animated feature The Incredibles, is born in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

1962:

The NBC-TV series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color airs "The Golden

Horseshoe Revue" (it is the first episode of Disney's ninth season on television).

The program features the 10,000th show of Disneyland's famous stage show!

1971:

The Dapper Dans (a barbershop quartet soon to be a staple at Disney World) perform their first set at the GAF Photo Shop on Main Street. Jerry Siggins, Bob Mathis, Dick Kneeland, and Bub Thomas sing for Cast Members and their families a week before the grand opening of Walt Disney World in Florida.

1980:

The Big Thunder Mountain Railroad attraction debuts at Walt

Disney World with a soft opening. Designed by Imagineer Tony

Baxter and ride design engineer Bill Watkins, it has been manufactured

by Arrow Dynamics (a roller coaster design company based in Clearfield, Utah).

1983:

All That Jazz (a 3-day event featuring a variety of jazz artists) takes place on the Castle Forecourt Stage at Tokyo Disneyland.

1984:

Michael Eisner and Frank Wells officially become Chairman and President of Walt Disney Productions.

Actress Anneliese van der Pol - Chelsea Daniels of Disney Channel's That's So Raven and the last actress to play Belle in Disney's Broadway musical Beauty and the Beast - is born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

1990:

The Magical World of Disney presents

"Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" on Disney Channel.

1999:

The large and small Horizons signs are removed from the closed Epcot attraction at Walt Disney World.

The Disney Stores begin to sell a series of pins counting down the last 101 days until the millenium.

2001:

President George W. Bush orders American Flags to be raised full staff on this day around the country for the first time since the tragedy of September 11th. A ceremony is held at noon at Disneyland's Time Square to raise the flag. Disneyland Resort President Cynthia Harriss and the CEO of the Walt Disney Company Michael Eisner are in attendance. Fifty white doves are released while the flag is raised.

Robert Abel, the computer animation and graphics guru who used multimedia to create award-winning commercials, films and classroom educational materials, dies at age 64 in Los Angeles. Abel used his techniques to create special effects for many motion pictures, including Disney's Tron.

A new attraction "Walt Disney: One Man's Dream," showing memorabilia about Walt Disney's career and heritage to the public for the first time, opens at Disney-MGM in Florida.

2004:

Hong Kong Disneyland holds a ceremony to celebrate the "topping off" of Sleeping Beauty Castle. A 'Topping Off' ceremony is traditionally celebrated when the last structural element is placed on a building.

(The park is scheduled to open in late 2005 or early 2006.)