Tokyo Disney Resort's shopping,
dining, and entertainment complex
is called Ikspiari. Owned and
operated by The Oriental Land
Company, it is the Japanese
equivalent of the Downtown
Disney complexes in the U.S.
Disney parks. Featuring more than
100 shops, restaurants, cafes and
bars, as well as a 16-screen movie
theater, Ikspiari is located
between Maihama Station and
the Disney Ambassador Hotel.
2003:
The Orlando Business Journal reports that Walt Disney World has
received the Corporation of the Year Award from America's Blood Centers
in Washington, D.C. Disney World is recognized for outstanding contributions in blood
donations to the Central Florida Blood Bank. (America's Blood Centers is a national organization of
independent blood banks that supply nearly half of the nation's blood supply.)
Disney Channel receives 9 Daytime Emmy nominations, including 4 for
Bear in the Big Blue House, 2 each for Kim Possible and Even Stevens,
and 1 for Rolie Polie Olie.
1993:
The Cleveland radio station WMMS-FM/101.7 is purchased by Disney.
The film A Far Off Place, starring Reese Witherspoon and Ethan Embry, is released through Walt Disney Pictures & Amblin Entertainment. When an attack by an elephant poacher on
her African home leaves a teenage girl, Nonnie Parker, and her visiting friend, Harry Winslow, orphaned, the two teenagers set off to find the one man who can help them—Colonel Mopani Theron who leads an antipoaching squad. With the help of a native Bushman, Xhabbo, they set out on a 1,000-mile trek across the Kalahari desert.
Playing ahead of A Far Off Place is the animated short Trail Mix-Up featuring Baby
Herman and Roger Rabbit. During a picnic, Baby Herman follows a beaver into a
perilous sawmill - with Roger Rabbit in frantic pursuit.
2004:
St. Patrick's Day is celebrated today, tomorrow and on Wednesday the 17th at Disney World's Pleasure Island.
1948:
Grammy-award winning singer-songwriter James Taylor - whose version of "Second Star to the Right" appears on the 1988 CD STAY AWAKE Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films - is born in Boston, Massachusetts. Taylor also sang Randy Newman's Grammy Award-winning song "Our Town" for the Disney/Pixar Cars.
1958:
The Disneyland TV series airs "Saga of Andy Burnett: The Big Council." (It is the final episode of the Burnett serial.)
1961:
The TV series Walt Disney Presents airs "Daniel Boone: The
Wilderness Road." It is the third episode of a four-part mini-series.
1987:
Art academic and executive, entrepreneur and former politician Robert J. Fitzpatrick is named president of Euro Disneyland. (The resort will open in April 1992, and Fitzpatrick will leave the company the following year.)
1996:
Hazel Gilman, Disney Studio nurse and songwriter (under the pseudonym "Gil George"), passes away in Burbank, California. Born in 1904, she was not only the Disney Studio nurse, but also acted as Walt Disney's personal nurse. "Gil George" was the name under which she co-wrote songs for Disney films and television shows, including Mickey Mouse Club.
1964:
Disney's family film A Tiger Walks, starring Brian Keith and directed by Norman Tokar, is released. Based on a novel of the same name by Ian Niall, it tells the story of a mistreated Bengal Tiger who escapes from a traveling circus.
1938:
Disney's first full length animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is released in the United Kingdom.
MARCH 12
MARCH 12
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
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A Tiger Walks released
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1946:
Voice actor Frank Welker is born in Denver, Colorado. Often referred to as a "voice
acting god" in Hollywood, Welker started out as an impressionist. His vast Disney credits include
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams, Pocahontas, The Emperor's New School, Kim Possible, The Tigger Movie, Return to Neverland, Cinderella III: A Twist in Time, and Bambi II. He also supplied the voice of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for the video games Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion and Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two. (Welker's non-Disney credits include
Scooby-Doo and Curious George. He was also the voice of Crackle in Kellogg’s "Rice Krispies" TV advertisements for two decades!)
"I believe musicians have a duty, a responsibility to reach out, to share your love or pain with others."
-James Taylor
1943:
Disney's Donald Duck short The Flying Jalopy, directed by Dick Lundy and featuring the animation of Art Babbitt, is released. Donald (voiced by Clarence Nash) buys a dilapidated plane from crooked Ben Buzzard who tries to sabotage it in order to collect on a forged insurance policy. It is Dick Lundy's last short for Disney as he is going off to work for Walter Lantz
(and later Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer).
2011:
Kim Irvine, Disneyland's art director, is honored with a lifetime achievement award from the Themed Entertainment Association. The daughter of Disney animators Harvey and Leota Toombs, Kim first took a summer job at WED in 1970 at the age of 18. Since then she's played a key role in such Disneyland projects as producing the Haunted Mansion's holiday overlay, enhancing "it's a small world" and creating trash cans to fit in with the different lands.
1937:
Walt Disney is interviewed on radio by NBC radio veteran,
Elza Schallert (an entertainment correspondent). The interview touches on the production of Snow White and the character of Donald Duck.
MAR
MAR
2012:
The Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World unveils the first phase of the new
Storybook Circus area of Fantasyland with a "soft" opening. The Storybook Circus area
pays tribute to the traveling circuses of the 1950s and 1960s and features the first part of "Dumbo, the Flying
Elephant" (with Dumbo spinning clockwise for the first time in Magic Kingdom history), "The Barnstormer, Starring
The Great Goofini" (a family coaster attraction) and "The Fantasyland Train Station" (one of the three stops for
The Walt Disney World Railroad).
March 12
This Day in Disney History - THE FIRST - THE ORIGINAL
Traveling in time since 1999!
1954:
Stormy the Thoroughbred, a live-action featurette is released to theaters. It tells the
story of a scrawny young colt who grows up to be a highly-prized polo pony.
2013:
Mulan is released to Disney Blu-ray and HD Digital the same day Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment releases The Hunchback of Notre Dame on Blu-ray alongside its sequel in a Special Edition "2-Movie Collection," and Brother Bear on a Blu-ray special edition combined with its sequel, Brother Bear 2.
Made of by singer/actress Coco Jones is released by Hollywood Records. Jones first rose to prominence starring in the Disney Channel film Let It Shine and was featured on Radio Disney's Next Big Thing.
1962:
Animation director, film director, screenwriter, producer, illustrator and voice actor Chris Sanders is born in Colorado. He is best known for co-writing and directing Disney's Lilo & Stitch (2002) and for creating and voicing Stitch in every Western-produced work in its franchise. His Disney credits also include The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Mulan, Tarzan, and Leroy & Stitch.
2020:
The Walt Disney Company announces that it will close the Disneyland resort in Anaheim
for the first time since the September 11 attacks, and just the third time in its 65-year history, because of the coronavirus pandemic. Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure will close on the morning of Saturday March 14 through the end of the month. Disney’s hotels in Anaheim will remain open until Monday the 16th. The company will continue to pay its employees while the resort is closed.
For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration, a musical show based on Disney's 2013 animated film Frozen, temporarily closes. Located at Disney's Hollywood Studios, the show had been running since July 2014. Originally debuting at the Premiere Theater in the Streets of America section of the park during the "2014 Frozen Summer Fun" event, it later moved to the Hyperion Theater in Echo Lake. The show is scheduled to re-open in October 2020.
Rivers of Light: We Are One at Animal Kingdom and Fantasmic! at Hollywood Studios, both temporarily close. The nighttime shows are suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In July 2020, park officials will confirm rumors that Rivers of Light would be retired. That same month the Fantasmic! lagoon was drained.
1911:
Animator, special effects artist, animation director, and landscape painter Joshua Meador is born in Greenwood, Mississippi. Arriving at Disney in 1936, he went on to become a member of the team that created the special effects for the 1954 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (which won an Academy Award). Meador's credits also included Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, The Reluctant Dragon, Dumbo, Bambi, Saludos Amigos, Song of the South, Peter Pan, Cinderella, The Absent-Minded Professor, Son of Flubber, and Mary Poppins. In 1958, he was one of the four artists featured in the Disneyland
television episode, "An Adventure in Art." Meador was considered one of Disney Studio's most talented artists and has been called one of the five "most notable effects animators in history." His oil paintings of California scenes won many awards and fifty of his works were included in Walt Disney's personal collections.
2016:
The 29th Annual Kids' Choice Awards are held at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Among the winners:
-Favorite Movie: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
-Favorite TV Actor – Kids Show: Ross Lynch – Austin & Ally as Austin Moon
-Favorite TV Actress – Kids Show: Zendaya – K.C. Undercover as K.C. Cooper
-Favorite TV Show – Family Show: The Muppets
-Favorite TV Actress – Family Show: Sofía Vergara – Modern Family as Gloria Pritchett
1968:
Writer of comics, radio shows and animated films Ted Osborne passes away at age 68 in California. Originally hired by Disney in October 1931 to develop a Mickey Mouse radio show (that never materialized), Osborne was moved to the studio's Story Department. In 1933, he was moved again, this time to the comic strip department, to work with artist Floyd Gottfredson on the popular Mickey Mouse comic strip. Gottfredson drew the strip and wrote the plots; Osborne broke the plots down into strips and wrote the dialogue. Two years later, Osborne began working with artist Al Taliaferro on the Silly Symphony Sunday comic strip and later the Donald Duck comic strip. Osborne and Taliaferro introduced Donald's triplet nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie! Leaving Disney in 1940, Osborne managed a photographic studio in Hollywood for the rest of his career.
