2004:
The Food Network airs "Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings" hosted by Sandra Pinckney.
1936:
Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoons Moving Day and Mickey's Rival
are both released. Moving Day, directed by Ben Sharpsteen, features the character Peg Leg Pete
as a sheriff (voiced by Billy Bletcher) who evicts Mickey and Donald from their home. Mickey's Rival,
directed by Wilfred Jackson, features Mickey's nemesis Mortimer Mouse who tries to ruin Minnie's picnic.
1941:
The Disney animated/live-action feature film The Reluctant Dragon - starring comedian Robert Benchley - debuts. Directed by Alfred Werker, it is Disney's 4th feature film. Released by RKO Radio Pictures, the first third of the film is in black-and-white and the remaining two-thirds are in Technicolor. Robert Benchley visits the Disney Studio in Burbank to sell Walt Disney on the idea of making a film of Kenneth Grahame’s book, "The Reluctant Dragon." After explorations of an art class, dialogue stage, sound effects stage, multiplane camera department, story and animation departments, he discovers Walt has already finished the cartoon version of his story! Cartoon segments also include Casey Jr, Old MacDonald Duck, and How to Ride a Horse. The premiere on this evening, held at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood, is disrupted by a mob of Walt's striking Disney cartoonists. The police actually cordon off Hollywood Blvd. around the theater for fear of what the rampaging cartoonists
might do. (This is the first Disney animated feature to incorporate extensive live-action footage and the only theatrical release to feature Walt himself.)
1944:
Actress Cheryl Holdridge is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. She auditioned for
Walt Disney's The Mickey Mouse Club in the spring of 1956, and was hired for the club's "Red Team"
— the most visible and popular of the Mouseketeers. Trained as a dancer, she remained with the show
through 1959. Holdridge appeared in some of the show's episodic serials, including "Boys of the
Western Sea" and the "Annette" series. After the show's run ended, she went on to play Wally
Cleaver's girlfriend, Julie Foster for two seasons of "Leave It to Beaver." Holdridge later appeared
on shows such as "The Rifleman," "Bachelor Father," "My Three Sons," "Bewitched" and "The Dick
Van Dyke Show." Although she retired from show business in 1964, Holdridge made appearances
over the years with the other former Mouseketeers. In 1980, she took part in the "Mouseketeer 25th Reunion Show," and in 1995, appeared in the TV special "Mickey Mouse Club." She was at Disneyland
in 2005 for the 50th Anniversary of the Mickey Mouse Club and the park. (Sadly she passed on
January 6, 2009 from lung cancer at only age 64.)
1947:
Disney's Donald Duck cartoon Clown of the Jungle is released. While attempting to
photograph wildlife, Donald (voiced by Clarence Nash) is aggravated by the "clown of the jungle", the
Aracuan Bird (voiced by Pinto Colvig).
1952:
Actor John Goodman is born in Affton, Missouri. His Disney voice credits include Sullivan
Truck in Cars, James P. Sullivan in Monsters, Inc. & Monsters University, Pacha in The Emperor's New Groove & The Emperor's New School, Baloo in The Jungle Book 2 and Eli "Big Daddy" La Bouff in The Princess and the Frog. His
live-action Touchstone credits include Stella, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Coyote Ugly, and Confessions of a
Shopaholic. TV fans will know Goodman as Dan Conner on the long-running ABC sitcom Roseanne.
1953:
Disney releases the animated Goofy short Father's Week-End. Goofy is an average "working joe" who demonstrates his mundane routine while going from work to home every weekday. On Saturday night, however, he parties it up and attempts to get some rest the next Sunday but with his son around, it's impossible. He insists Dad take him to the beach and, although Goofy refuses, he ends up going anyway where he gets into all sorts of trouble mainly as the result of frantically chasing his son all over the place. Pinto Colvig supplies the voice of Goody.
1971:
Actor Josh Lucas, who portrayed Coach Don Haskins in the Walt Disney Pictures 2006 release Glory Road, is born in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 2002 he appeared opposite Reese Witherspoon in Touchstone's romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama, playing the role of Jake Perry.
1976:
Walt Disney World's River Country (a water park adjacent to Disney's Fort
Wilderness Resort and Campground) opens. Inspired by Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, it is Disney's first attempt at a themed water park. Positioned on the shore of Bay
Lake near Discovery Island, River Country is filled with rocks and manmade boulders and features water slides and
an inner tube river. On this day, U.S. President Gerald Ford's daughter Susan helps with the official opening. (River
Country will close in November 2001, due in part to Florida Laws prohibiting the use of natural bodies of water for
water park use, but its success will later lead to Disney's Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach.)
1995:
The Walt Disney Company announces plans for a fourth theme park in Florida,
(at this time) called Disney's Wild Animal Kingdom.
The park is expected to cost $760 million to create.
The Walt Disney World attraction
ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter officially begins operation in Tomorrowland (replacing Flight to the Moon). A "theater-in-the-round" attraction, it is a darkly humorous science-fiction experience that used binaural sound to achieve many of its effects.
1999:
At Disneyland, the 20th Century Music Company opens on Main Street. The shop offers Disney CDs and videos, including ones featuring Disneyland entertainers.
2002:
The Recording Academy's Los Angeles Chapter honor Walt Disney Music President
Chris Montan, singer Janet Jackson, and film/TV composer Thomas Newman at its
annual Membership Awards Luncheon. Montan is responsible for overseeing music
for a wide variety of Disney projects including animated features, theatrical stage productions, video premieres,
musical event programming as well as other corporate and theme park-related shows.
2003:
The That's So Raven episode "A Dog by Any Other Name"
airs for the first time on Disney Channel.
2006:
Disney announces that actress Brittany Murphy will provide the voice for the fairy
Tinker Bell in an upcoming animated film. (The character of Tink has been silent
in the past.) Fans of the animated series King of the Hill will recognize Murphy
as the voice of Luanne Platter.
The Broadway company of Beauty and the Beast plays its 5,000th
performance! A celebration is held at Planet Hollywood following
the 8 PM show.
Ashley Tisdale and Miley Cyrus co-host this day's episode of MTV's TRL
(Total Request Live) with special guest Zac Efron.
JUNE
2008:
Some 8.9 million viewers watch the debut of the Disney Channel
Original Movie Camp Rock, starring the Jonas Brothers and Demi
Lovato. The film centers on Mitchie Torres, a teen girl who desperately wants to spend
her summer at a prestigious rock 'n' roll camp. But the only way she can attend the
expensive camp is by working in the kitchen. When a teen pop star overhears her singing,
he sets out to find the girl behind the voice. The Jonas Brothers (Joe, Nick & Kevin)
portray the popular music trio Connect 3, who have been assigned to be in charge. The
cast also includes Meaghan Martin, Alyson Stoner, Maria Canals-Barrera, and Julie Brown.
New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg visits Walt Disney World to take part in
the first annual "Excellence in Action" education reform summit, presented by The
Foundation for Excellence in Education and held at the Contemporary Resort.
The 35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards are held at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, and televised on ABC. Outstanding Performer In An Animated Program goes to Eartha Kitt
(for the second year in a row) for her role of Yzma on Disney's The Emperor's New School.
Disney's Hollywood Studios host the third (of 4) Star Wars Weekends. Celebrity guests
include Amy Allen and Matthew Wood.
1958:
Actor Chuck Wagner - "The Beast" in Beauty and the Beast, in both the
Broadway and Toronto productions - is born in Nashville, Tennessee.
1938:
Walt Disney and his wife Lillian arrive in Manhattan, New York, by train on this Monday
morning. They are on their way to New Haven, Connecticut and Cambridge, Massachusetts where Walt will receive honorary degrees from the universities of Yale (on June 22) and Harvard (on June 23). Actor Robert Taylor (who happens to also be on board the train) poses with Walt for the New York press after the two embark.
JUNE 20
JUNE 20
THIS DAY MADE
IN THE
USA
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1973:
Disney releases the live-action western One Little Indian starring James Garner, Vera
Miles, Pat Hingle, Jodie Foster, and Clay O'Brien. An Army deserter (Garner) flees by camel across the desert with a white boy (O'Brien) who was raised by Indians.
Walt Disney World's telephone system was the first totally electronic system to use
underground cable instead
of standard poles with
overhead lines.
Vista-United Telecommunications, the telecommunications company created to service all Disney resorts in Florida, was responsible for installing the nation’s first commercial fiber-optic phone cable!
The Reluctant Dragon debuts
"It was cool for a couple of weeks, but how much bad golf can you play?" -John Goodman
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1951:
Voice actress Tress MacNeille is born in Chicago, Illinois. Her Disney voice credits include
Anastasia Tremaine in many Cinderella video releases, Aunt Sarah in Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure, Hoonah in Brother Bear 2, Chip in Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, and Fang in Dave the Barbarian. (MacNeille's
voice credits also include The Simpsons, Futurama, Rugrats, All Grown Up!, and Tiny Toon Adventures.)
1983:
Singer-songwriter and musician Grace Potter is born in Vermont. Disney's Hollywood Records has released albums by Grace Potter
& The Nocturnals and Potter wrote and performed the song "Something That I
Want" for the Tangled soundtrack. Her first Christmas song "Naughty, Naughty,
Children" was used for a 2011 Prep & Landing television special (on which
Potter also voiced a character).
1975:
Noah Z. Jones, animator, writer and illustrator best known for creating Disney Channel's series Fish Hooks, is born in Fairport, New York.
2011:
In episode three of My Yard Goes Disney, a family wants to bring the
experience of a Disney cruise to their backyard with a Mickey-shaped pool.
June 20
This Day in Disney History - THE FIRST - THE ORIGINAL
Traveling in time since 1999!
2015:
The second season of the animated series Star Wars Rebels begins on Disney XD
with the episode "The Siege of Lothal".
2019:
Season 4 of the Disney Channel comedy Bunk'd kicks off with the episode
"Who da Boss? Lou da Boss!"
Actress Eva Longoria celebrates son Santiago Baston's first birthday at Disneyland.
1931:
Actress Olympia Dukakis is born in Lowell. Massachusetts. Her Disney credits include Touchstone Pictures' Mr. Holland's Opus (1995), and Hollywood Pictures' Mafia! (1998). Dukakis is best known for her appearances in Moonstruck and Steel Magnolias.
1940:
Actor John Mahoney is born in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. He voiced Preston B. Whitmore in both Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Atlantis: Milo's Return, Papi in Kronk's New Groove, and Tim Tim Tim in an episode of Teacher's Pet. He also appeared in the live-action features Dan in Real Life and Tin Men (both produced by Disney's Touchstone Pictures). Known for his roles as a character actor in such films as Moonstruck, Eight Men Out, Say Anything..., and Flipped, Mahoney was best known for playing the blue-collar patriarch Martin Crane in the NBC sitcom Frasier. He also provided the voice of General Shannon Rogard in the 1999 animated The Iron Giant. Winner of a Tony Award and a Screen Actor Guild Award, Charles John Mahoney passed at age 77 in 2018.
2016:
Season 2 of the animated series Miles From Tomorrowland debuts on Disney Junior.
Named after Tomorrowland in the Disney theme parks, the show centers on the Callisto family who live on a spaceship in the year 2501. The voice cast features Justin Felbinger, Fiona Bishop, Olivia Munn, and Tom Kenny.
2000:
A Goofy Movie and Fun and Fancy Free are released to VHS and DVD
under the Walt Disney Classic Collection banner.
1942:
Musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer Brian Wilson is born in Inglewood, California. Co-founding member of The Beach Boys (along with his brothers and cousin), he wrote or co-wrote more than two dozen Top 40 hits. The Beach Boys appeared in the 1965 Disney comedy The Monkey's Uncle, starring Tommy Kirk and Annette Funicello. The title song, written by the Sherman Brothers, was performed by Funicello, with the Beach Boys providing background vocals. Wilson sang backgrounds on "Disney Girls (1957)," a song written by band member Bruce Johnston. In 2011 Walt Disney Records released Wilson's solo album In the Key of Disney, the second release by Disney for Wilson, after Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin. Many of Wilson's songs can be heard in Disney theme parks all over the world. The songs "California Girls," "Good Vibrations," "Surfin' U.S.A.," "I Get Around," "You're So Good to Me," "All Summer Long," "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "Fun, Fun, Fun," and "Surfer Girl" were covered in a merry-go-round calliope style and used as part of the background music in Paradise Pier at Disney California Adventure from 2001 to 2012. The original version of "California Girls" was included in the background music for the park's entrance plaza, Sunshine Plaza, before it was redesigned as Buena Vista Street. The song "California Girls" was parodied as "California Bears" in Country Bear Vacation Hoedown, which operated at Disneyland from 1986 to 2001, at the Magic Kingdom from 1986 to 1992, and at Tokyo Disneyland from 1994 to present. Brian Wilson is one of popular music's most deeply revered figures, the main creative force behind some of the most cherished recordings in rock history. It is no exaggeration to call him one of the most influential composers of the last century.
