1981:
Walt Disney (a new version of the popular long-running
series that first started out on ABC in 1954 as Disneyland) premieres on CBS
with part one of the 1969 hit The Love Bug. It is the first time the series airs on a
Saturday. (This makes Disney's show the first prime-time series to have appeared on all three major networks!)
2004:
Walt Disney World's theme parks close for the day as Hurricane Jeanne strikes Florida! Jeanne is the tenth named storm, the seventh hurricane, and the fifth major hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. (Millions in Florida will be left without electricity.)
1924:
Cartoonist Tony Sgroi is born in Massachusetts. He will go on to create such Disney comics for Dell Publishing as Robin Hood, Stormy the Thoroughbred, Young Davy Crockett, Man in Space, Mars and Beyond and Spin & Marty. (He will also work as a storyboard artist, layout and model designer for Hanna-Barbera, UPA, Warner Bros., and Filmation.)
1936:
Disney's Silly Symphony cartoon Three Blind Mousketeers, directed by David Hand, is released.
1948:
Singer-actress Olivia Newton-John, whose version of "Part of Your World"
appears on the CD Disney's Music From The Park, is born in Cambridge, England.
1953:
Walt Disney phones artist Herb Ryman at his home to inquire about the
possibility of Ryman drawing some overall concept sketches of a new
theme park. (Walt's brother Roy is to leave for New York in a few days to meet with possible investors.) The
work Walt and Herb will do together over the upcoming "lost weekend" will help define the look of Disneyland and
later hopefully intrigue investors. (Ryman, a master artist and teacher will have a career spanning more than fifty
years as a production designer, art director and illustrator at many top Hollywood studios.)
1956:
The Disneyland television series airs episode 50 - "Searching for Nature's Mysteries" (a part-preview, part-making-of the featurette Secrets of Life).
1967:
Compass East Corporation (the company responsible for purchasing the Florida land for the new Disney World theme park) is renamed Walt Disney World Company.
1984:
Disney World's Frontier Shooting Gallery changes its name to Frontierland Shootin' Arcade.
1986:
The Magic Eye Theater (presented by Kodak) opens at Disneyland's Tomorrowland.
2000:
Wild Life, a Disney animated feature originally to be released in 2002, is put into turnaround (or cancelled). Described as a retro-1960's New York version of My Fair Lady, some of the Disney staff believe the story is not strong enough.
Filming begins for the Lizzie McGuire episode "When Moms Attack" (which will air on Disney Channel January 26, 2001).
2001:
Disney's touring production of Beauty and the Beast opens at the Denver Center
for the Performing Arts in Colorado. (The show will run through October 7th.)
Disney World hosts the seventh annual Latin Rhythm Nights
Festival at Downtown Disney Pleasure Island.
It is reported that Richard W. Cook, chairman of The Walt Disney Motion Pictures
Group, has been elected (along with 4 others) to the Los Angeles Orthopedic
Hospital Foundation's board of trustees. The hospital is a recognized world leader in research,
teaching, and patient care in orthopedic medicine. (Cook began his career in 1970 as a ride operator at
Disneyland.)
1995:
Walt Disney Records releases The Music of Disney's Cinderella. Released in conjunction with the 1995 video release of Cinderella, this album is not the original soundtrack recording - but a contemporary version of the original music.
In its earliest stages of planning, Walt Disney World
was regarded as a top-secret project and was given
code names like
Project Winter and
Project X.
2006:
Acoustic Hearts of Winter, a Christmas album from Disney pop artists
Aly & AJ, is released on Hollywood Records. The first single from the album "Greatest Time Of Year" is being used as a promotion for the Tim Allen Disney feature The Santa Clause 3.
Also released on Hollywood Records is the album V, Vanessa Hudgens's debut album. The actress is the first High School Musical cast member to release an album.
1993:
Kraft ends its sponsorship of EPCOT's The Land pavilion. Nestle will take over the following day.
1962:
Actor Patrick Bristow is born in Los Angeles, California. Fans of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody know him for his role of Patrick the sarcastic maître d' for the Tipton Hotel's restaurant. Bristow also appeared in an episode of That's So Raven.
Almost Angels, a Disney film about a group of boys in the
Vienna Boys' Choir, is released.
2008:
The 13th annual Epcot International Food & Wine Festival begins a six-week run at Disney World. Big Bad Vood Doo Daddy kicks off the Eat to the Beat Concert Series.
Disney Channel's latest music-and-dance television movie hit Camp Rock premieres in New Zealand.
In the U.S., Disney Channel debuts The Suite Life on Deck
- a spinoff in which twins Zack and Cody Martin
are relocated to a cruise ship.
Actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, and auto racing enthusiast Paul Newman passes away at age 83 at his farmhouse near Westport, Connecticut, of complications arising from lung cancer. Disney/Pixar fans will know him as the voice of Doc Hudson
in the 2006 release Cars. (An Academy Award-winner, Newman will be remembered for his performances in such
features as The Long, Hot Summer, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, and The Color of
Money. Newman was also a co-founder of Newman's Own, a food company from which he donated all post-tax profits and royalties to charity.)
1927:
Disney's seventh Oswald the Lucky Rabbit film The Ocean Hop premieres at the Colony Theater in New York City.
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SEPTEMBER 26
THIS DAY MADE
IN THE
USA
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SEPTEMBER 26
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1930:
Disney's Silly Symphony Monkey Melodies, directed by Burt Gillett, is released.
"The embarrassing thing is that the salad dressing is outgrossing my films." -Paul Newman
