2005:
The "Herbie and Friends Cruise America Tour," to celebrate Volkswagen's 50th anniversary and the release of Disney's Herbie: Fully Loaded, kicks off with a ceremony at the Santa Monica Pier in California.
The cross-country caravan tour (made up of all Air-cooled VWs) will make stops in over a dozen states.
1933:
Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon The Mail Pilot, directed by David Hand, is
released. When Mickey the mail pilot is entrusted with a chest of money, he must battle rain, snow,
and bandit Pete - who has a plane equipped with a machine gun and a harpoon cannon!
1971:
Singer-songwriter Elton John visits Disneyland for the very first time during his
second U.S. tour. He is to perform at the neighboring Anaheim Convention Center the following day.
1992:
Disneyland's Fantasmic! - a new night-time fireworks and visual hydrotechnic
show - is officially dedicated in Frontierland. The 22-minute presentation, featuring fireworks, live
actors, water effects, fire, music, boats, decorated rafts and projections onto large mist screens, takes place over
the Rivers of America. (A second Fantasmic! will debut in 1998 at Disney-MGM in Florida.)
1997:
The London production of Disney's "Beauty and
the Beast" premieres at the Dominion Theatre.
Disneyland's Light Magic has its first dress rehearsal at a special
premiere party for Annual Passholders. (Unfortunately Light Magic
will be short-lived and only play until Labor Day 1997.)
2000:
The Disney Channel original movie Miracle in Lane Two, featuring Frankie Muniz and Patrick Levis (who will win a Young Artist Award for his performance), airs. The film is based on the life of Justin Yoder (portrayed by Muniz), who was the first person with a disability to compete in the All American Soapbox Derby.
2001:
The Wonderful World of Disney airs "Child Stars: The Shirley Temple Story."
2002:
For security reasons, Walt Disney World no longer allows guests to
bring water coolers into the water parks.
2004:
The New York City Disney Store (located at 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan)
closes for renovations. (It will re-open in October as World of Disney.)
Disney congratulates this year's winners of the Jiminy Cricket Environmentality
Challenge - a fifth grade class from West Gate Elementary School in West
Palm Beach, Florida!
2006:
Disney's Animal Kingdom celebrates International Migratory Bird Day, an annual event to celebrate and support migratory bird conservation.
Disney's animated short The Little Match Girl (based on Hans Christian Andersen's 1846 tale The Little Girl with Matchsticks) is released. The last of the works to utilize the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS), it is directed by Roger Allers and produced by Don Hahn. The Little Match Girl will receive an Academy Award® nomination in 2007.
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Herbie, also known as The Love Bug, is an L87 pearl
white 1963 Volkswagen
Type 1 Deluxe Sunroof.
The car wears a yellow-on-black California license
plate OFP 857.
1924:
Director Bernard McEveety is born in New Rochelle, New York. His Disney credits include The Bears and I, Napoleon and Samantha (directing actress Jodie Foster in her film debut), One Little Indian, and the Disneyland 7-episode serial Donovan's Kid. Primarily known for his TV work, McEveety directed 31 episodes of the classic series Combat!, as well as various episodes of Rawhide, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, S.W.A.T., Eight is Enough, and Simon & Simon. (His brothers, Vincent McEveety and Joseph McEveety were also Hollywood directors and producers who worked on Disney films.) Bernard passed at age 79 in February 2004.
"It's the circle of life, and it moves us all, through despair and hope, through faith and love, 'till we find our place, on the path unwinding" -Elton John
2008:
Kerry Butler, currently the star of Broadway's Xanadu releases her debut solo
album entitled "Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust" - which features 12 Disney tracks.
(Butler also played the role of Belle on Broadway in Beauty and the Beast.) On this same day she is
nominated for a Tony Award - Best Performance By a Leading Actress in a Musical (read more below).
The 2007-2008 Tony Award nominations are announced by Tony Award
winners Sara Ramirez and David Hyde Pierce at the New York Public Library
for the Performing Arts in New York City. Disney Theatricals'
The Little Mermaid receives two Tony Nominations - Best Original Score (Music: Alan Menken and
Lyrics: Howard Ashman and Glenn Slater) and Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Natasha Katz).
Disney Press publishes Camp Rock: the Junior Novel, by Lucy Ruggles, the
novelization of the Disney Channel film.
1942:
Disney's animated feature Pinocchio is released in Switzerland.
1993:
Actress/singer Debby Ryan, first known for her role as Bailey Pickett on the Disney Channel Original Series The Suite Life on Deck, is born in Huntsville, Alabama. Discovered in a nationwide search by Disney Channel, from 2011–2015 Ryan starred as the titular nanny on the Disney Channel original series Jessie. Her Disney television credits also include Jonas Brothers: Living the Dream, Wizards of Waverly Place, Hannah Montana, 16 Wishes, The Suite Life Movie, Studio DC: Almost Live, Austin & Ally, Radio Rebel, and Girl Meets World. Ryan's film credits include the animated Secret of the Wings as the voice of Spike and the live-action
Muppets Most Wanted as Savana.
MAY 13
Bill Walsh, producer of The Love Bug,
came up with Herbie's
number 53 from Dodger
baseball player Don
Drysdale's uniform.
2012:
"Finishing the Hat," the final episode of ABC-TV's Desperate Housewives airs.
Promoted as Kiss Them Goodbye, this was the 8th (and final) season of the award-winning series.
1949:
The Firehouse Five Plus Two (a Dixieland jazz band made up of Disney Studio
employees) begin recording their very first album. The session takes place at Radio Engineers’
famous Studio B, in Hollywood, California with engineer Lowell Frank at the controls.
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MAY 13
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
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Disneyland's Fantasmic! dedicated
2010:
The Disney/ABC Television Group receive 59 nominations for the 37th Annual
Daytime Entertainment Emmy® Awards announced live from New York City.
Among the nominations are 4 for Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade and 4 for Disney Channel's Phineas and
Ferb. Winners of the 37th Annual Daytime Entertainment Creative Arts Emmy® Awards will be announced June 25
in Los Angeles, while The Daytime Emmy Awards will be presented on Sunday, June 27th from Las Vegas.
1935:
Screenwriter, animator, film director, and producer Burnett "Burny" Mattinson is born
in San Francisco, California. His earliest Disney credit goes back to the 1955 Lady and the Tramp, in which he was an "inbetweener" (a person who draws pictures to fill-in the key-frames). Mattinson worked as an assistant on Sleeping Beauty, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Sword and the Stone, Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book and The Aristocats. He then became a character animator on Robin Hood and Winnie the Pooh and a storyboard artist for The Rescuers. Mattinson also produced and directed Mickey's Christmas Carol and The Great Mouse Detective. In 2008, Mattinson was awarded the Disney Legends award.
1979:
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color airs the episode "Sky Trap," directed by
Jerome Courtland. A plane crash carrying a cargo of illegal narcotics leads to the mysterious disappearance
of an infamous drug smuggler called "The Hawk."
Herbie's Drive-In, once located near the entrance to Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show in Disney's Hollywood Studios, was a snack kiosk offering
corn dogs, pretzels and beverages. Named in honor of the famous movie volkswagon, Herbie The Love Bug actually appeared (for a short time in 2009) in Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show. Herbie's Drive-In closed in April 2016 to make way for construction of Toy Story Land and Star Wars Land.
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Photo by Bernie at Disney.Rocket9.net
MAY
May 13
2009:
The 62nd Cannes Film Festival kicks off with Disney-Pixar's newest 3D feature Up.
Theatre, film, and television actor Frank Aletter passes away at age 83 in California.
His Disney film credits included A Tiger Walks (1964), Now You See Him, Now You Don't (1972), and Run, Cougar, Run (1972).
1939:
Actor & producer Harvey Keitel is born in Brooklyn, New York. His Disney/Touchstone/Miramax film credits include Sister Act (1992), The Piano (1993), National Treasure (2004), and National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007). He also provided the voice for Drew Fitzsimmons in Disney's 2014 animated feature film Big Hero 6 and
in it's sequel television program Big Hero 6: The Series.
1909:
Grammy Award-winning composer, vocal arranger, lyricist, and conductor Ken Darby is born in Hebron, Nebraska. Best known for his work on The King and I, Porgy and Bess, Flower Drum Song, and The Wizard of Oz, Darby was also a composer and production supervisor for Walt Disney Studios. He was a choral and vocal director on the 1946 Disney film classic Song of the South. and wrote music for such shorts as Casey at the Bat, Once Upon a Wintertime, and The Brave Engineer. (His choral group, the Ken Darby Singers, sang backup for Bing Crosby on Crosby's original 78-RPM recording of "White Christmas," and Darby was the principal composer of the 1956 Elvis Presley hit "Love Me Tender.")
2021:
Disneyland begins to offer Cast Members who are both active and furloughed, along with their families, the single-shot Johnson & Johnson or the two-shot Pfizer vaccination (due to the pandemic). The vaccination clinic is held at the Disneyland hotel through May and June.
2015:
"Girl Meets the Secret of Life," the third episode of season 2 of Disney Channel's Girl Meets World airs for the first time. Lucas' old friend Zay from Texas transfers to John Quincy Adams Middle School, but the Lucas of the past isn't the Lucas whom the gang knows. Cory uses an unusual method to teach the kids about the meaning of life.
