this day in disney history

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6/26

1922:
Montgomery's Country Inn opens its doors for the first time in Los Angeles,
California. The restaurant will later be named the Tam O'Shanter Inn and become a regular hangout for Walt Disney and his animators. Walt will become friends with the owners - even suggesting they open a coffee shop in his Tomorrowland! Today the Tam O'Shanter is the oldest restaurant in Los Angeles still operated by the same family in the same location!
1952:
Disney's live-action adventure The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men - starring Richard Todd as Robin Hood, Joan Rice as Maid Marian, and Peter Finch as the Sheriff of Nottingham - is released through RKO Pictures. Also released, the True-Life Adventure film Water Birds (made in cooperation with the National Audubon Society & the Denver Museum of Natural History).

Walt Disney writes a letter to Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper:
Dear Vice-President Hopper –

You may not know it but you have just been elected Vice-President of the CAROLWOOD PACIFIC RAILROAD. The only obligation this office entails is, when you're in the vicinity of the 'Fair Weather Route', that you stop by for a ride and try your hand at the throttle.

The severe rains of the past winter did considerable damage to the railroad, such as causing slides, roadbed washouts and generally messing up the whole layout. However, repairs are now under way – good progress is being made and we're going to have a better and more interesting Road than ever.

Your Pass is enclosed and I hope we may have the pleasure of your company some sunny Sunday in the near future.

Sincerely,

Walt Disney
A passionate enthusiast of steam locomotives, Walt has built the Carolwood Pacific Rail Road, one of the most intricately detailed miniature live-steam home railroads ever created!
1956:
At Disneyland, the Mule Pack (one of the park's original attractions) is renamed the Rainbow Ridge Pack Mules.
1957:
Disneyland's Viewliner (a predecessor to the monorail) debuts. The system is made up of two separate narrow gauge, miniature trains that operate alongside portions of the Disneyland Railroad main line. Billed by Disneyland as "the fastest miniature train in the world," it is Walt's first attempt at "mass-transit" in the park. (The Viewliner will operate until September 1958.)
1959:
Disney's Donald Duck featurette Donald in Mathmagic Land is released in the U.S., along with the live-action feature film Darby O'Gill and the Little People. Donald in Mathmagic Land, directed by Hamilton Luske, features the voices of Paul Frees & Clarence Nash, and scientific expert Heinz Haber. Although set in Ireland, the bulk of Darby O'Gill was shot at Disney's ranch in Burbank, California. Second unit footage from Ireland, combined with matte paintings by Peter Ellenshaw, help present a seamless picture of 19th century Ireland.
1981:
Disney releases 12 more titles on VHS tape for the first time. Titles include Dumbo, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, Davy Crockett and the River Pirates, The Absent-Minded Professor, Gus, The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band, Snow White Live at Radio City Music Hall, and Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck Cartoon Collections Volumes 1-3.
1999:
Disneyland hosts a two-day celebration honoring the Haunted Mansion's 30th Anniversary. On this evening, over 1000 guests witness a panel discussion at the Fantasyland Theater with some of the people who brought the mansion to life. The Dapper Dans (the park's popular singing group) materialize as the Hitchhiking Ghosts and the Grave Digger to sing a rendition of the attraction's theme song, "Grim Grinning Ghosts." Released on this same day is The Haunted Mansion: 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Compact Disc.

The Disney Channel Original Movie Smart House, about a young computer whiz (played by Ryan Merriman), his widowed father, & little sister, who win a computerized house that begins to take on a life of its own, debuts. The film stars Katey Segal as Pat the homes' virtual housemaid.
2002:
Walt Disney World (and other Orlando, Florida attractions) are featured on Family Vacations in Orlando - broadcast on the Travel Channel.
2006:
Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean officially re-opens to guests. Captain Jack Sparrow and Barbosa (characters from the Pirates of the Caribbean feature films) have been added to the popular attraction. Disney Imagineers have also enhanced the attraction experience with an all-new dynamic digital sound design.
2009:
The Disney Channel Original Movie Princess Protection Program starring
Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez debuts. It draws 8.5 million viewers - the third best showing for a Disney Channel movie ever!

The 3-day The Museum of Pin-tiquities begins at Epcot's World ShowPlace.

 

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6/27

1889:
Moroni Olsen, the voice of the Magic Mirror in Disney's 1937 classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, is born in Ogden, Utah. (He is also the voice of the senior angel in the 1946 holiday classic It's a Wonderful Life.)
1927:
Robert Keeshan, famously known to children as Captain Kangaroo, is born in Lynbrook, New York. He is the voice of Aesop in a 1998 episode of Disney's Hercules television series.
1938:
Actress and Disney Legend Kathryn Beaumont is born in London, England. Her Disney credits include Alice in Wonderland - as the voice of Alice, and Peter Pan - as the voice of Wendy
1955:
Disney's press release for this day includes:An advanced motion picture development, Circarama, consisting of a continuous image focused on a 360-degree screen, will be introduced at Disneyland Park on July 17 by American Motors Corporation, producer of Hudson, Nash and Rambler automobiles and Kelvinator appliances.
1979:
Disney's comedy The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, starring Tim Conway,
Don Knotts, Tim Matheson, Harry Morgan and Ruth Buzzi, is released. A sequel to the 1975 The Apple Dumpling Gang, the film centers on two bumbling outlaw wannabees who try to make it on their own ... without the help of their gang.
1985:
Disney and MGM/UA sign a 31-page, 20-year agreement, giving Disney the exclusive rights to use most of the MGM/UA film studio's movies.
1986:
Buena Vista Pictures' Ruthless People, starring Danny De Vito, Bette Midler, Judge Reinhold, and Helen Slater, is released through Touchstone Pictures.
1991:
Mickey's Mart - a Walt Disney World souvenir shop in Tomorrowland - closes. It will later be known as Mickey's Star Traders.
1995:
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Chairman of the Board Mari Hulman George takes part in a groundbreaking ceremony for the Walt Disney World Speedway. The track, located in Bay Lake on the grounds of the resort, will be a three-turn tri-oval, designed by Indianapolis Motor Speedway chief engineer Kevin Forbes.
1997:
Disney's 35th animated feature film Hercules is officially released in the U.S.
and Canada, the same day Disneyland's Hercules Victory Parade debuts.
Based on the legendary Greek mythology hero Heracles (known in the film by his Roman name, Hercules) it is directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. The all-star voice cast includes Tate Donovan as Hercules, James Woods as Hades, Susan Egan as Megara, Danny DeVito as Philoctetes, Rip Torn as Zeus, Bobcat Goldthwait as Pain, Wayne Knight as Demetrius, and Hal Holbrook as Amphitryon. (The film will earn 4 Annie Awards.)
2006:
Buena Vista Games, Inc. (the interactive entertainment arm of The Walt
Disney Company) releases handheld video games based on the feature film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
2008:
The El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood hosts a special NASA space exploration display, including imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope, on the same day as the release of Disney-Pixar’s new movie, WALL-E. Released along with WALL-E is the Pixar short Presto - about a magician and his apprentice rabbit.
2009:
A lucky group of Disny fans (including the webmaster of WDW Daily News) attend the first ever D23 Walt Disney Studio & Archive Tour in Burbank, California. Normally-off-limits to the general public, the special event is led by Dave Smith, Disney's official archivist.

 

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6/28

1910:
Artist, Imagineer (the third employee of WED Enterprises) and Disney Legend Herbert Dickens Ryman is born in Vernon, Illinois. An on-and-off member of Disney from the days of Fantasia, Herb Ryman contributed the iconic first rendering of Disneyland in 1953. He also painted the first official rendering for WDW’s Cinderella Castle, and worked on both Tokyo & Euro Disneylands and Epcot Center. Ryman’s beautiful paintings of Epcot were an essential tool in selling the park’s concept to potential corporate sponsors, as well as helping Walt Disney Productions plan the unique Florida park.
1926:
Director, writer, producer, and actor Mel Brooks is born Melvin Kaminsky in
Brooklyn, New York. In 1989 he co-write a short-lived comedy series called The Nutt House for Touchstone/Disney. The same year Brooks met with Michael Eisner and Disney Imagneers to design a theme park attraction for Disney-MGM. A Castle Young Frankenstein attraction (based on Brooks' 1974
comedy feature Young Frankenstein) eventually was scrapped for ... The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror!
1932:
Actor Pat Morita - the voice of the Emperor in Disney's 1998 feature Mulan - is born in Isleton, California. (Best known from The Karate Kid movies, TV fans may also remember him for his role as Arnold on the ABC hit sitcom Happy Days.)
1955:
Walt Disney writes a letter from the Disney Studios to his employees and others who assisted on the creation of his new Anaheim park. He wishes to invite them all to attend the grand debut on July 17. Walt is concerned that there won’t be enough people scattered throughout the park for the television cameras.
As we come down the homestretch in the building of Disneyland, I knew you are as happy as I am with the way in which this dream of ours is coming to full life. Your contribution to the construction, the development and the details of the park has made it possible for us to foresee that we will open Disneyland, virtually completed.

The few days remaining before our television preview on Sunday, July 17th, will be all important to us, but I know that we can count on you and every one of your fellow employees to do your utmost to meet our schedule.

I would like to cordially invite you and your family to participate with us in the thrill of the Disneyland premiere. Within the next few days, we will have your preview tickets available. They will be distributed to you at Disneyland and will assure you and your family of a wonderful afternoon, as our guests, on all the rides and amusements in Disneyland.

I am sure your family will be as proud of your effort as all of us are.

Sincerely, Walt Disney
1971:
Walt Disney World announces their plans for an airstrip to be built on the Florida property. The Lake Buena Vista STOLport (located not too far from the Contemporary Resort) will consist of a 2000-foot runway and a terminal building. STOLport will be open only to commercial air traffic, with a second
airport for corporate and private flights to be built later. (Neither the terminal or the second airport will ever be built and STOLport will only be in business for about one year.)
1975:
Writer Rod Serling, best known for creating & hosting TV's Twilight Zone series, dies at age 50 after open-heart surgery at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York.
1988:
The opening of Disney's Grand Floridian Beach Resort ushers in an era of accelerated hotel building at WDW during which 10 new resort hotels have been added to date. The Grand Floridian, located at 4401 Floridian Way, is the third Magic Kingdom monorail resort located on the beaches of the Seven Seas Lagoon between the Polynesian Resort and the Magic Kingdom. The luxurious hotel - the crown jewel of the Walt Disney World resorts - is themed to be reminiscent of turn-of-the-century Victorian Florida. Also opening in the hotel is Flagler's restaurant, 1900 Park Fare restaurant, M. Mouse Mercantile shop, Narcoossee's restaurant, Victoria and Albert's restaurant, and the Grand Floridian Cafe restaurant. (In 1997 the hotel's name will be changed to The Grand Floridian Resort & Spa when a top-of-the-line facility spa and health club is added.)
1999:
At Disneyland, a Main Street Window is dedicated to the formerChairman of the Walt Disney Attractions, D ick Nunis. (Receiving a window on Main Street is the highest honor any Cast Member can achieve.) Mr. Nunis and Mickey Mouse ride out from the gate beside the Mad Hatter in a little blue motorcar while the Disneyland Band plays Zip A Dee Do Dah.
2004:
It is announced that after years of research and testing, Walt Disney Imagineering has perfected a new innovation in fireworks launch
technology. The new technology uses compressed air to lift fireworks, virtually eliminating the need for smoke-producing black powder and other materials at launch. This significantly reduces ground-level smoke and noise while continuing to provide an entertaining show.
2008:
It is reported that Walt Disney World is shutting down the six nightclubs at Pleasure Island to make its party district at Downtown Disney more family friendly. Such clubs as BET SoundStage Club, Mannequins Dance Palace, and 8Trax will close after September 27. During the next few years, Disney will reopen the Pleasure Island venues with a broader mix of restaurants and shops.

A baby elephant is born at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Twenty-six-year-old Moyo gives birth to a 327-pound male elephant after 21 months gestation. This newest addition is the heaviest elephant calf ever born at the theme park. (The baby will be named Tsavo - pronounced sah-vo - a few weeks later.)

Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa turns 20!
2009:
Annual Passholders get a sneak preview of Disney World's updated attraction The Hall of Presidents (which has been closed since late 2008). Now featuring 44th U.S. President Barack Obama, it is scheduled for a July 4th weekend grand reopening.

The Art Directors Guild Film Society and American Cinematheque honor the late Production Designer and Special Effects designer Peter Ellenshaw with a screening of Disney’s 1974 feature The Island at the Top of the World.

 

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6/29

1908:
Disney Legend & artist John Hench is born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He made pioneering contributions to such Disney films as Fantasia and Dumbo, and became senior vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering. One of Hench's most recognizable works is the well known Olympic Torch. Nearly all of the most recent versions were modeled after his design for the 1960 Winter Olympics (which Disney participated in). Hench was also be the "official portrait artist" of Mickey Mouse, painting the company's official portraits for Mickey's 25th, 50th, 60th, 70th, and 75th birthdays.
1915:
Actress Ruth Warrick, who portrays Sally in Disney's 1946 Song of the South, is born in St. Joseph, Missouri. (Long time All My Children fans know her as Phoebe Tyler Wallingford.)
1919:
Actor Slim Pickens is born Louis Burton Lindley, Jr. in Kingsburg, California. A rodeo performer and film and television actor who epitomized the profane, tough, sardonic cowboy, Pickens' Disney film credits include The Great Locomotive Chase, Never a Dull Moment, and The Apple Dumpling Gang. He also appeared in two Disney TV serials - Swamp Fox and Daniel Boone. (Pickens is best remembered for his comic roles in Dr. Strangelove, 1941, and Blazing Saddles.)
1974:
At Disneyland, the America Sings attraction officially opens to the public in
Tomorrowland's Carousel Theater. A special press preview is held with invited guests receiving a promotional version of the soon-to-be released LP record and a painted casting of Eagle Sam. Sam - voiced by Burl Ives - guides visitors through 4 big musical acts, each with a medley of period tunes. The attraction, featuring over 110 Audio-Animatronics animal characters, replaces the General Electric Carousel of Progress (which has moved to Walt Disney World).
2000:
The renovated Chevron Autopia opens at Disneyland.

Disneyland's Mickey & Friends, a 6-story parking structure off of Disneyland Drive, is completed. One of the largest structures in the United States, it can hold over ten thousand cars!
2007:
Ratatouille, the eighth animated feature film produced by Pixar, is released by Walt Disney Pictures. The plot follows Remy, a rat who dreams of becoming a chef. Directed by Brad Bird (creator of The Incredibles), Ratatouille features the voices of Patton Oswalt (as Remy), Lou Romano (as Linguini), Brian Dennehy (as Django), Brad Garrett (as Gusteau), Janeane Garofalo (as Colette), and John Ratzenberger (as Mustafa).
2010:
Disney opens the first of its 300 planned revamped Disney stores in Montebello, California. Inspired by the same team that designed Apple's retail outlets, the 4,800 square foot store features multimedia technology and interactive storytelling.

 

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6/30

1931:
Disney's Silly Symphony cartoon Busy Beavers, directed by Wilfred Jackson, is released. A group of cheerful beavers come up with inventive ways to build a dam. But when a storm causes a flood and debris destroys their dam, a clever little beaver saves the day when he topples a large tree, forming a new dam to block the flood!
1950:
The Goofy short Motor Mania (the very first of Goofy's car safety cartoons) is released. Goofy plays Mr. Walker a kind hearted soul who changes into nasty Mr. Wheeler when he gets behind the wheel of his car (like Dr. Jekyll turning into Mr. Hyde)! Directed by Jack Kinney, it features the voices of Pinto Colvig (as Goofy) and John McLeish (as the narrator).
1962:
Meet Me at Disneyland (a limited TV series broadcast live on KTTV directly from the Anaheim park) airs episode 4 "Swingin’ Through Space." Tomorrowland is the setting for this episode, which begins as host Johnny Jacobs greets the night’s guests, who arrive in the miniature cars from the Autopia. One of the guests is Annette Funicello, who helps host the evening’s festivities. Music from The Space Men provides a backdrop to scenes of dancers and the crowds throughout Tomorrowland. Special guests include the Four Freshmen, Richard "________ St. John" Gasling, astronaut John Glenn, Jimmy Dodd, and Cubby O’Brien. Meet Me at Disneyland is designed to boost park attendance during the summer weeknights.
1971:
Disney's live-action comedy The Million Dollar Duck, starring Dean Jones, Sandy Duncan, and Joe Flynn is released. The film centers on a scientist named Professor Albert Dooley (Dean Jones) and his family who posses a duck that lays golden eggs!
1993:
Disney acquires the independent film production house Miramax Films. From the deal, Disney will gain the rights to Miramax's library of more than 200 films and agree to finance all future Miramax productions.
2008:
The Innoventions Dream Home opens to the public at Disneyland. First revealed last June 17 for a limited time, the Tomorrowland attraction is a peek into the future of a state-of-the-art technological home.
2010:
Captain EO returns to Tokyo Disneyland.

 

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7/1

1911:
Entertainer Charles David Thomas is born in Lewistown, Montana. Better known as "Bub," he was one of the original singing Dapper Dans of Walt Disney World.
1932:
Walt Disney signs a merchandising arrangement with Herman Kay Kamen. This makes Kamen the sole representative for Walt's company.
1935:
As of this date, any employee who has been with the Disney Studio a full year is granted a two-week vacation.

Also on this day, 34-year-old Helen Josephine Ludwig begins work at the Disney Studio as Disney's very first librarian. A divorced mother, Helen had graduated in 1929 from the Los Angeles Public Libraries accredited Library School. In 1937 she will marry legendary layout artist Hugh Hennesy.
Disneyland's original Tinker Bell
1952:
Walt and Lillian Disney, their daughters, Sharon and Diane and Lillian's niece, Marjorie Sewell Bowers, set sail from New York aboard the Queen Elizabeth. They are headed to London as Walt will be working on his new British feature film, The Sword and the Rose.
1959:
Disney's Donald Duck film How to Have an Accident at Work is released.

Popular Mechanics runs the article "Disneyland Adds Submarine and Monorail."
1966:
Primeval World debuts at Disneyland. Originally featured as part of the Ford Magic Skyway attraction for the 1964-1965 World's Fair, guests aboard the Disneyland Railroad travel through a diorama featuring animatronic dinosaurs
1975:
At Walt Disney World, the WEDway PeopleMover, a futuristic way of shuttling people around Tomorrowland, opens. It is located at Rockettower Plaza, where passengers enter and exit onto a circular moving platform. The ride is based on Disneyland's PeopleMover.
1986:
Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom celebrates Bub Thomas - of the popular Dapper Dans barbershop quartet - turning 75 years young!
1988:
The Norway Pavilion opens at EPCOT.
1994:
The Lion King Celebration Parade debuts at Disneyland. Moving down the street to the music of "I Just Can't Wait to be King," the parade features detailed floats that depict artist interpretations of various African landscapes, and stars all the characters from the hit The Lion King. It is the first parade to include an Animatronic character on a moving float!

At Disney World's EPCOT park, Innoventions East and West open replacing the outdated CommuniCore with all new exhibits. Innoventions is a showcase of new products and ideas covering 100,000 square feet
1996:
At Walt Disney World, the last of the Epcot resorts planned
around Crescent Lake, Disney's BoardWalk Inn opens at 2101 N. Epcot Resorts Blvd. The resort re-creates the vacation charm of the Mid-Atlantic coastal cottages of the 1930s. It is located on a small lake on the Epcot-Studio waterway, visible to and just across from the Yacht and Beach Club Resorts. The resort's Atlantic Dance Nightclub, ESPN Club, BoardWalk Bakery, and Spoodles Restaurant all debut as well. The BoardWalk Villas (a Disney Vacation Club property) opens on this day too.
1997:
The sound effects demonstration attraction ABC Sound Studio opens at the Disney-MGM Studios Park in Florida.
1999:
The Dapper Dans are invited to perform a set on the SPEBSQSA International Convention contest stage after the quartet semi-finals. After a warm reception from the audience, Mickey Mouse enters to greet over 10,000 barbershoppers who have come to Anaheim. The Dapper Dans then officially receive the Charter and Resolution for the Honorary Main Street U.S.A. Disneyland Chapter from SPEBSQSA President Ed Waesche. (SPEBSQSA stands for Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America.)
2003:
The Florida Indoor Clean Air Act takes effect at Walt Disney World. It requires all enclosed indoor workplaces (including resort lobbies, convention spaces, common areas, dining locations and enclosed backstage areas) to be designated as non-smoking.

At Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Goofy's New Country Dance Party premiers at The Diamond Horseshoe.
2007:
Jambo House Villas, the first phase of the new timeshare resort Animal Kingdom Villas, opens at Walt Disney World. The Villas are located on the 5th and 6th floors of Animal Kingdom Lodge's main building. (The second phase, an extended string of buildings called Kidani Village, will open in May 2009 and the lodge's main building will be renamed Jambo House.)
2010:
Disney Legend Ilene Woods, who spoke and sang the voice of Cinderella,
passes away at age 81 in California. Born in 1929, she first appeared on radio at the age of 14 where she met the songwriters whose songs would later make her the star of Disney's 1950 Cinderella.
"I did the discs for them, in a studio with a piano — 'Bibbidi-Bobbidi Boo,' 'So This Is Love,' 'A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes.' Two days later, Walt called. He wanted me to come over and have an interview. I gladly said, 'Yes, anytime you say.' We met and talked for awhile, and he said, 'How would you like to be Cinderella?" -Ilene Woods

Betty Lawyer Kimball, who joined the Walt Disney Studios in the Ink & Paint
Department where she later met and married animator Ward Kimball (one of Walt's Nine Old Men), passes away at age 97. She was first hired in 1935 at Walt Disney Productions and a year later married Kimball (their marriage lasted 66 years until Ward’s death in 2002). Betty worked her way up the ranks at Disney and her duties expanded from painting cels to also choosing colors and creating color models to guide the work of other painters. She left the studio in 1938 to raise a family.

Disney announces the purchase of Tapulous, Inc., a leading developer of music games for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.
2011:
Goofy’s Sky School officially opens at Disney California Adventure.
The roller coaster is themed on the 1940 cartoon Goofy’s Glider, in which Goofy attempt to build and successfully launch a glider. Riders are taken on a winding journey past signs giving lessons from Goofy on how to fly.

 

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7/2

1935:
Artist John Lounsbery, originally from Ohio, is hired by the Disney Studio. As his starting salary is only twelve dollars a week, he must take a second job at night in store decorations at Sears. He will go on to become one of Walt's famous "Nine Old Men" and work at Walt Disney Productions until 1976.
1956:
The Rainbow Caverns Mine Train attraction begins operation in Disneyland’s new Living Desert. (In 1960, the Mine Train attraction will be upgraded to become the Mine Train through Nature’s Wonderland.)
1959:
Disney files a lawsuit against ABC. The network had advised Disney that they would not televise Zorro or Mickey Mouse Club next season. ABC also informs Disney that these TV shows cannot be offered to other networks. Disney asks the court to invalidate the contracts between the two companies under provisions of the federal anti-trust laws.
1964:
Walt Disney Pictures premieres The Moon-Spinners, starring Hayley Mills, Eli Wallach, and Peter McEnery. Based on a novel by Mary Stewart, an English woman and her young niece, Nikky, stumble into the midst of intrigue while on vacation in Greece. The film will be generally released 6 days later.
1967:
Disneyland's Rocket Jets, Peoplemover, the General Electric Carousel of Progress, and the Tomorrowland Terrace Restaurant all open in the park's updated Tomorrowland. The Rocket Jets (a 12 two-person spinning rocket attraction) sits above the PeopleMover in the Tomorrowland plaza area. The Peoplemover, a family friendly attraction, offers a leisurely ride over Tomorrowland. Due to its success at the 1964-65 World's Fair, General Electric continues its sponsorship of the Carousel of Progress. Sponsored by Coca-Cola, the Tomorrowland Terrace features a stage for live entertainment.
1972:
Although it has been up and running since June 5, Walt Disney World's If You Had Wings attraction is formally unveiled during a dedication ceremony in Tomorrowland. Sponsored by Eastern Airlines (the official airline of the Disney resort) it will be the last Omnimover ride Disney will build for over ten years.
1986:
Disney's animated film The Great Mouse Detective (based on the children's book series by Eve Titus, Basil of Baker Street) is released in U.S. theaters. The score is written by composer Henry Mancini who also collaborated on two of the three featured songs with lyricists Larry Grossman and Ellen Fitzhugh. The film's voice cast include Barrie Ingham, Val Bettin, Vincent Price, Candy Candido, Alan Young, Wayne Allwine, and Tony Anselmo. This is the first film directed by John Musker and Ron Clements - the duo who will go on to direct The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, and Treasure Planet.

Actress Lindsay Lohan is born in New York City. Her Disney credits include the 1998 The Parent Trap, the 2003 remake of Freaky Friday, the 2004 Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen and the 2005 Herbie: Fully Loaded.
1997:
AMC Theatres Pleasure Island 24 has a grand opening in Florida. Newly expanded from 10 screens to two dozen, the theatres also host a fund-raiser for Give Kids the World.
2005:
"Hollywood Bowl Celebrates 50 Years of Disneyland" is performed for the first of 3 nights at the famous California concert venue by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

Disney announces that they have given 20,000 free tickets to poor families and the disabled to visit Hong Kong Disneyland on the last 2 days of August (before the new park officially opens to the public September 12).
2010:
Captain EO returns to Epcot. It's been 16 years since the 3-D sci-fi movie featuring Michael Jackson played at WDW, and today's ribbon-cutting ceremony includes cast members who were working at EO when it closed back in 1994!

 

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7/3

1908:
Author, journalist & newspaper editor Joel Chandler Harris, famous for his collection of Uncle Remus stories, passes away in Atlanta, Georgia. His stories, based on the African-American oral storytelling tradition, were revolutionary in their use of dialect. In 1946 Disney will release Song of the South - a live-action/animated feature based on his work.
1910:
Marcellite Garner, the original voice of Minnie Mouse (between 1929-1939),
is born in Redlands, California. She will begin her career in Disney's ink & paint department before lending her voice to such Mickey shorts as The Barn Dance, Ye Olden Days, and Mickey's Surprise Party
1947:
Disney's 1946 feature Song of the South is released in Australia.
1956:
After flying in to the Kansas City airport, Walt and Roy Disney and their wives take a 3-hour drive in a Cadillac Sedan in order to reach Marceline by evening. After freshening up, the Disneys drive to the Santa Fe Country Club around 10 p.m. - where they are greeted by hundreds of residents. (They will all attend a special dedication the following day.)
1964:
The White House announces that Walt Disney will be a recipient of the Medal of Freedom (on September 14).
1998:
A second Innoventions debuts ... this time in Disneyland's Tomorrowland. Visitors climb aboard a carousel theater (once home to Carousel of Progress) to experience 5 different "pods" of technology. (The first Innoventions opened in Epcot.)
2008:
The very first guests board the new Mark VII monorail, Red, at Disneyland’s Tomorrowland station. The monorail features red sides, blue glass windows, and blue-lighted floors and seat backs. A new island seating configuration (with one row of inward-facing seating at the front and rear ends of each car) allows for a capacity of 22 passengers in the main cabins.

A surprise preview for Walt Disney World park guests of the Fourth of July fireworks show entitled, “Disney’s Celebrate America - A Fourth of July Concert in the Sky” takes place at the Magic Kingdom.
2009:
At a special early morning ceremony, more than 1,000 immigrants (including 25 Cast Members) are sworn in as U.S. citizens at Disney World's Magic Kingdom. The naturalization ceremony features keynote speaker actor Andy Garcia, performances by Voices of Liberty and appearances by the Spirit of America Fife and Drum Corps. The group then attends a premiere of Disney's revamped Hall of Presidents attraction (which will officially open the next day).

 

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7/4

1862:
A mathematics professor named Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and Reverend Robinson Duckworth go rowing up the River Thames with 10-year-old Alice Liddell (the young daughter of a friend) and her sisters Lorina (age 13) and Edith (8). Dodgson creates a story on the spot to amuse Alice and her sisters. Much of the story he invents is based on a picnic a couple of weeks earlier in which they had been caught in the rain. The girls love it, and Alice asks Dodgson to write it down for her. After much delay, he will eventually write his tale down and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland will be published 3 years later under Dodgson's pen name - Lewis Carroll. (In 1951, Disney will release an animated feature based on this popular story - Alice in Wonderland.)
1898:
Actor and singer Johnny Lee, the voice of Br'er Rabbit in Disney's 1946 Song of the South, is born in Los Angeles, California. First starting out in show business as a dancer, today Lee is best remembered as the shyster lawyer Algonquin J. Calhoun on the Amos 'n' Andy 1950s sitcom.
1955:
A special pre-opening party is held at the Disneyland for employees. (The park will debut in just 13 days.)
1956:
Disneyland's Indian War Canoes attraction debuts in Critter Country.

Walt Disney and his brother Roy (along with their wives) visit Marceline, Missouri - their boyhood home and inspiration for Main Street USA. That evening, approximately 6,000 persons from Marceline and surrounding communities gather at the new Walt Disney Municipal Park (located just south
of the Marceline Country Club) to witness the dedication of a $78,500 swimming pool.
1975:
Disney's live-action comedy feature The Apple Dumpling Gang is released. Three orphaned children find a large gold nugget worth tens of thousands of dollars. But when their newfound wealth causes problems, they agree to "give" the gold to two bumbling outlaws. But there's one catch - the only way they can get the gold is to steal it from the bank vault where it's being held for safe keeping! The film features Tim Conway, Don Knotts, Harry Morgan, and Bill Bixby.
1979:
The first baby is born at Disneyland, California. Six-pound, 10-ounce Teresa Salcedo is born to Rosa and Elias Salcedo on a bench behind Plaza Inn. Mickey Mouse will later honor the Los Angeles family with a "Disneyland Birth Certificate No.1"!
1984:
World Premiere Circle-Vision (located in Disneyland's Tomorrowland) begins alternating two Circle-Vision 360° films - Wonders of China (in the morning) and American Journeys (in the afternoon & evening).
1987:
Tokyo Disneyland's version of Big Thunder Mountain sends its first run-away mine train flying over the tracks in Westernland.

Over 87,000 guests visit Disneyland on this holiday - an all-time record up to this time!
1992:
CBS-TV airs Celebrate the Spirit! Disney's All-Star 4th of July Spectacular. Hosted by John Ritter, the 2-hour show features musical acts like Mary Chapin Carpenter, Billy Ray Cyrus, and Celine Dion. The program switches back and forth from the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, Epcot Center, Disney-MGM Studios and Disneyland. The new nighttime spectacular, Fantasmic! is also highlighted.
1996:
Although established in 1994, "Phase One" of Disney's newest Florida community, Celebration, has its grand opening.
1998:
Many towns across Florida including Walt Disney World cancel firework celebrations due to risk of setting additional forest fires in that state's worst fire disaster in fifty years.
2000:
At Walt Disney World, a giant 1 and a half-ton, 24 by 13 foot cherry cobbler - that resembles the Star-Spangled Banner - is dished out to guests
2001:
Disney's Electrical Parade returns to Anaheim, California, with nightly performances at Disney's California Adventure. Disney's Electrical Parade (formerly called the Main Street Electrical Parade) originated at Disneyland back in 1972.
2002:
At Walt Disney World, 500 immigrants from 89 countries are sworn in as U.S. citizens
2007:
At Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, a July 4th swearing-in of 1,000 new Americans take place. The ceremony features the presentation of the colors, a keynote address by U.S. Senator Mel Martinez of Florida, and Gloria Estefan singing the national anthem.
2009:
Disney World's revamped Hall of Presidents opens. Among the changes to the classic attraction (which first opened with the park in 1971) is the additon of an Audio-Animatronics figure of U.S. President Barack Obama. The new Obama figure was created by Director of Sculpture Valerie Edwards
(who has taken over for Disney Legend Blaine Gibson).
2011:
The night skies over Walt Disney World Resort light up with special patriotic
pyrotechnic shows on this Independence Day. Magic Kingdom presents "Disney’s Celebrate America! A Fourth of July Concert in the Sky" paying homage to the hopes and dreams of America’s forefathers.
At Disney’s Hollywood Studios Fireworks, lighting and special effects – backed by the driving live rock and roll of Mulch, Sweat, and Shears – combine to bring a new twist to celebrating the Fourth. At Epcot, sky-watchers
check out "IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth" enhanced by "The Heartbeat of Freedom," an overture of traditional Americana themes displayed in a pyrotechnic and laser light event.

 

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7/5

1912:
Lyricist and songwriter Mack David (older brother of lyricist & songwriter Hal David) is born in New York City. Mack is best known for his work with movies and television in the 1960s, particularly his work on the Disney films Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland. Along with Jerry Livingstone and Al Hoffman, Mack wrote "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes" and "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo."
1928:
Actress Katherine Helmond, the voice of Lizzie in the animated feature Cars, is born in Galveston, Texas. TV fans know her from the hit series Soap, Who's the Boss?, and Everybody Loves Raymond.
1944:
The United Seamen's Service, Inc. of Los Angeles, California, asks Walt Disney Studios to produce a patch for the Merchant Marine. An exhibition of wartime art of merchant seamen of the United Nations is scheduled at the Los Angeles County Museum from July 16 to August 13. In connection with this exhibition, The United Seamen's Service, Inc. wants to display this new Merchant Marine patch art at a public ceremony on Sunday, July 23. (Disney will have his artists create a patch for the U.S. Merchant Marine, recognizing their efforts in the conduct of World War II. Using one of their colorful characters, Battlin' Pete, the patch will show Pete knocking out a humanized torpedo!)
1963:
The Disney finance department opens a new account labeled "Music and Lyrics for Pepsi-Cola Exhibit." Discussions about music for the Pepsi-Cola Pavilion (for the 1964/65 New York World's Fair) had revolved around the idea of children from many nations singing their respective national anthems. Walt Disney himself has suggested the Sherman Brothers write one simple tune that can be sung by all the children. The tune has to be simple and catchy, but also has to have enough variety so as not to become redundant over the course of the ride. (The Sherman Brothers will come up "It's A Small World.")
1978:
Disney's live-action feature Hot Lead and Cold Feet is released in theaters.
The comedy - about a tough father who is out to take control of a small western town with the help of his twin sons: one a gunfighter, the other a mild-mannered coward - features Jim Dale, Karen Valentine, Don Knotts, Jack Elam, and Darren McGavin.
1988:
Epcot's Maelstrom, at the recently opened Norway Pavilion, opens to guests. Visitors ride boats that are patterned after Viking ships and pass through various scenes with audio-animatronic figures.
1998:
Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon compilation The Spirit of Mickey is released.
2007:
Epcot Vice President Jim MacPhee announces that the 257-foot-tall Mickey Mouse arm, glove and wand logo structure at Epcot is coming down. The structure (up since Disney World's 2000 millennium celebration) leans on Epcot's previous and future iconic figure, the Spaceship Earth Pavilion.

It is reported that Jim Carrey is set to star in A Christmas Carol movie directed by Robert Zemeckis. The Disney movie will be a motion capture animation with Carrey playing Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob Hoskins as Mr. Fezziwig.

 

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7/6

1911:
Laverne Andrews, one-third of the popular singing trio The Andrews Sisters, is born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Aside from frequently playing themselves in movies, the sisters sold over 60 million records and lent their singing voices to Disney's Make Mine Music (1946) and Melody Time (1948). The trio also cut a version of "I've Got No Strings" (a song first heard in Pinocchio) with the Glenn Miller Orchestra in 1940.
1918:
Actor Sebastian Cabot, the narrator of Disney's 1968 Winnie The Pooh and the Blustery Day, the 1974 Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, and the 1977 The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, is born in London England. He also lent his voice to Disney's The Jungle Book (as Bagheera) and The Sword in the Stone (as Sir Eric). TV fans may remember him for his role as Mr. French on the 1960s series Family Affair.
1925:
Walt and Roy Disney put down a $400 deposit on a lot at 2719 Hyperion Ave., in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles, California. They plan to build a new animation studio. (The single-story building will serve as the Disney's base for the next fifteen years.)
1938:
Actress Luana Pattern, one of the first two contract players for Disney, is born in Long Beach, California. She made her debut in Disney's 1946 Song of the South (playing the role of Ginny). Pattern's Disney credits also include Fun and Fancy Free, Pecos Bill, Johnny Tremain, and So Dear to My Heart.
She and fellow child actor Bobby Driscoll accompanied Walt Disney himself to Indianapolis, Columbus and Cincinnati to promote So Dear to My Heart in January 1949.
1952:
Walt and Lillian Disney, their daughters, Sharon and Diane and Lillian's niece,
Marjorie Sewell Bowers, arrive in Southhampton, England aboard the Queen
Elizabeth. They head to the Dorchester Hotel in London as Walt will be Working on his new British feature film, The Sword and the Rose.
1971:
Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, passes away in New York City at the age of 69. Armstrong had recorded an album titled "Disney Songs the Satchmo Way" in the mid 1960s, and appeared as a guest on the 1962 TV special "Disneyland After Dark." He performed live many times at the Anaheim park with his band as part of the seasonal Dixieland at Disneyland.
1994:
Captain EO, a 3-D, 70mm, Sci-fi, fantasy, musical movie attraction
starring Michael Jackson, closes at EPCOT after nearly an 8-year
run. The first Disney park to offer the film, EPCOT is the first to close it down.
2004:
A 230-pound female African elephant calf is born in Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Disney's 1978 The Cat From Outer Space is released on DVD
2006:
The World of Disney in New York City host Pirates in the Big Apple,
an event to celebrate the opening of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Curse.

 

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7/7

1931:
Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey Steps Out is released. Directed by Burt Gillett, Mickey and his pal Pluto are all dressed up to call on Minnie ... but an alley cat disrupts their afternoon of music.
1940:
Drummer-singer & actor Ringo Starr (the oldest Beatle) is born in Liverpool, England. His recording of "When You Wish Upon A Star" can be heard on the 1988 release STAY AWAKE Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films. Starr's 1974 hit "You're Sixteen" was written by Robert B. Sherman & Richard M. Sherman (of Disney songwriting fame).
1951:
Actress Roz Ryan - the voice of Thalia, Muse of Comedy in Disney's animated
Hercules - is born in Detroit, Michigan. Her Disney credits also include episodes of Kim Possible and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command
1962:
Meet Me at Disneyland (a limited TV series broadcast live on KTTV directly from the Anaheim park) airs episode 5 "There’s Something about a Band." The show opens with scenes of Disneyland to tunes performed by the Disneyland Band. Several musical and comedy segments follow as host Johnny Jacobs mingles with the crowd and talks to park guests about their home towns. Special celebrity guests include The Osmond Brothers, Owen Pope, "Big Fred", and The Vonnair Sisters. Meet Me at Disneyland is designed to boost park attendance during the summer weeknights.
1971:
Animator and technical genius Ubbe Ert Iwwerks (also known as Ub Iwerks), passes away at age 70 in Burbank, California. First meeting Walt Disney in 1919, Iwerks contributed to many of the early Mickey Mouse classics like Plane Crazy, Steamboat Willie, and Gallopin' Gaucho. He also invented the first multiplane camera in 1933, a device that used four layers of flat artwork before a horizontal camera to give animation depth. Iwerks built the device out of parts from an old Chevrolet automobile!
1976:
Disney's live-action comedy feature Gus - starring Edward Asner, Don Knotts, Gary Grimes, Tim Conway, ________ Van Patten, Bob Crane, Tom Bosley, and football great Johnny Unitas - is released.
1989:
The Disney Channel airs the comedy Ernest Goes to Splash Mountain starring
Jim Varney. Ernest Goes To Splash Mountain chronicles the adventures of Ernest P. Worrell who trains as America's first "Splashtranaut" destined to become the very first person to conquer the Disneyland mountain.
1997:
Disneyland's monorail begins operating in one direction only - due to the construction of Disney's California Adventure
2000:
Voice actresses June Foray, the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Tweety Bird's Granny, and many Disney animated characters - such as Lucifer in Cinderella - receives her star on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame.
2003:
Disneyland foreman and attractions host Chuck Abbott passes away in Utah. A 36-year veteran of the park (and a member of Club 55 - a group of original Disneyland Cast Members), he worked directly with Walt Disney during the planning and construction of Pirates of the Caribbean. In 1987, he conceived and initiated the Cast Member seeing-eye dog fund, which became a highly successful volunteer group. Abbott will be named a Disney Legend in 2005 (a first for an hourly theme park Cast Member).
2006:
Disney's newest feature film Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest opens in theaters the same day the attraction Pirates of the Caribbean re-opens at Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Captain Jack Sparrow and Barbosa (characters from the Pirates of the Caribbean feature films) have been added to the popular attraction. Disney Imagineers have also enhanced the attraction experience with an all-new dynamic digital sound design.

 

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7/8

1776:
According to tradtion, the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is one of many bells rung to summon citizens for the reading of the Declaration of Independence (which had been adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4). Today a replica of the Liberty Bell sits on display in Walt Disney World's Liberty Square. The replica was cast from the mold of the actual Liberty Bell! (In 1976, 50 replicas were cast and molded in honor of the 200th birthday of the USA. Each state received one and placed it in a spot of their choice. As Pennsylvania now had two Liberty Bells, Disney asked if they could have one for their Liberty Square.)
1913:
Radio & voice actor Bill Thompson, the voices of Mr. Smee in Peter Pan, King Hubert in Sleeping Beauty, and Uncle Waldo in The Aristocats, is born in Terre Haute, Indiana. His Disney credits also include Alice in Wonderland, Melody, Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom, Hooked Bear and The Story of Anyburg U.S.A. (Thompson's most famous voice creation is the mush-mouthed cartoon hound, Droopy.)
1956:
The Disney animated short How to Have an Accident in the Home, featuring Donald Duck and J.J. Fate (an imaginary personification of Donald's bad "luck"), is released.
2002:
Academy Award-winning Disney animator/director Ward Kimball passes
away of natural causes at Arcadia Methodist Hospital in Arcadia,
California. He is 88. (A Disney Legend & one of Walt's "Nine Old Men," Kimball first joined the Disney Studios in 1934.)
2005:
A joint statement from The Walt Disney Company and Roy E. Disney & Stanley P. Gold announces that they have agreed to put aside their differences. Roy E. Disney rejoins the company as a consultant with the title of Director Emeritus.
2008:
Tokyo Disneyland Hotel has its grand opening. The new Victorian-style hotel stands in front of the main entrance of Tokyo Disneyland Park.

Walt Disney Records releases "Country Sings Disney" featuring such artist as Billy Ray Cyrus, Rascal Flatts, Martina McBride, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, SHeDAISY, and Brad Paisley

 

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7/9

1894:
Disney Legend Joseph Fowler is born Lewiston, Maine. After retiring from the U.S. Navy in 1948, Fowler oversaw construction of Disneyland, and later as Chairman of the Board of WED and Director of Buena Vista Construction Company - helped build Walt Disney World. Disney World's original steam ship (which opened October 2, 1971) was named the Admiral Joe Fowler Riverboat. The dock at Disneyland's Rivers of America is known as Fowler's Harbor.
1928:
Disney's 24th Oswald the Lucky Rabbit short Tall Timber is released.
1934:
Architect-designer (and one of the leaders of the postmodernist movement)
Michael Graves is born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He and his firm designed the
Dolphin and Swan Hotels for Walt Disney World, the post office for Disney's Florida community Celebration, and the Team Disney Building in Burbank, California - which feature the seven dwarfs.
1955:
Business Week runs the article "Mouse That Turned To Gold." It tells readers - "In some ways, the $17-million Disneyland amusement park that opens in Anaheim, Calif., July 18, is a far cry from the little rodent that first scampered accross the movie screen in 1927."

The New York Times runs "Disneyland Gets Its Last Touches" - an article
about the new Anaheim park, which will open in 8 days.
1956:
Actor Tom Hanks, the voice of Sherrif Woody for Disney/Pixar's Toy Story movies, is born in Concord, California. He also appeared on the 1994 TV special The Wonderful World of Disney: 40 Years of Television Magic. Hanks co-starred in the 1984 fantasy/comedy feature Splash, the very first film released by Disney's Touchstone Films.
1976:
Actor-director-producer Fred Savage, best known for his role as Kevin Arnold on the long-running TV series The Wonder Years, is born in Chicago, Illinois. He lent his voice to Disney Channel's Kim Possible and narrated the 1998 The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story. Savage has also directed episodes of Phil of the Future, That's So Raven, and Hannah Montana
1982:
Walt Disney's Tron, one of the first films from a major studio to use computer graphics extensively, premieres. It stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn (and his counterpart inside the electronic world, Clu), Bruce Boxleitner as Alan Bradley (and Tron), Cindy Morgan as Lora Baines (and Yori) and Dan Shor as Ram. Tron features the music of Wendy Carlos and Journey. (Despite earning $33 million in North America on its original release, it's "poor box office performance" will earn Ron Miller, then Disney CEO and Walt's son-in-law, the unaffectionate nickname of "Tron" Miller.)
1991:
Actor/singer Mitchel Musso - Oliver Oken on Disney Channel's Hanna Montana - is born in Garland, Texas. He's also the voice of Jeremy for Disney Channel's animated series Phineas and Ferb and starred in the 2005 Disney Channel Original Movie Life Is Ruff.He is also known for his role as King Brady in the Disney XD series Pair of Kings. He is also the host of Disney Channel's latest reality series, PrankStars In 2009 Musso released his debut album on Walt Disney Records.
1998:
Walt Disney World auctions off a limousine, 2 costume sewing machines, a sofa from the Empress Lilly riverboat, and a 4-foot tall beer stein. Four times a year since 1985, Walt Disney World has been holding auctions to unload items it no longer wants.
1999:
At Walt Disney World, Discovery Island (an 11-acre zoo whose attendance has been hurt by the 1998 opening of Disney's 500-acre Animal Kingdom) closes 25 years after it opened. The closure of Discovery Island means an end to Disney's second-oldest Central Florida attraction and marks the first time the company has closed one of its ticketed attractions.
2004:
Sam McKim, the legendary Disney Imagineer who drew the first souvenir maps of Disneyland in 1954, passes away of heart failure at age 79. McKim joined WED Enterprises (now Walt Disney Imagineering) as an illustrator, six months before the opening of Disneyland. He created many of the sketches used in the original design of Disneyland, including Main Street and Frontierland. McKim also worked on Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and the Haunted Mansion.
2007:
Deconstruction of the 50-ton Mickey Mouse arm and wand, leaning on Epcot's Spaceship Earth, begins. Also coming down are the 36-foot-high "Epcot" letters and colored stars splashing across the sphere.
2010:
The Taste of Africa Street Party starts this day at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
Running until July 24, Taste of Africa brings music and dance parties to the Africa section of the park, along with outdoor food and beverage vendors, authentic merchandise for sale and animal education experiences.

 

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7/10

1931:
Composer and lyricist Jerry Herman, known for his work in Broadway musical theater, is born in New York City. He is best known for the hit musicals Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage aux Folles. Many of Herman's show tunes have become pop standards, and two of his tunes - "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" and "It Only Takes a Moment" can be heard in the Disney/Pixar 2008 release Wall-E.
1972:
Legendary singer-songwriter Mel Tormé performs the first of a 13-day engagement at the Top of the World, located atop Disney World's Contemporary Resort. Jazz singer Tormé is probably best known as the co-writer of "The Christmas Song." Top of the World dinner show seatings are at 6:30 and 9:30 with a $5 cover charge. (Tormé also wrote the song "County
Fair" for Disney's 1948 live-action So Dear to My Heart.)
1981:
Disney's animated The Fox and the Hound premieres in U.S. theaters. It features the voices of Jack Alberston, Pearl Bailey, Sandy Duncan, Corey Feldman, Kurt Russell, Paul Winchell and Mickey Rooney. The storyline is based on the novel of the same name by Daniel Mannix. This film marks the premiere effort of a new generation of Disney animators (who in a few years will create The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast).
1987:
Disney's The Brave Little Toaster is released in theaters. The animated film - produced by Hyperion Pictures - features the voices of Jon Lovitz and Phil Hartman (known for their performances on Saturday Night Live) and veteran voice actor Thurl Ravenscroft. Co-written by Joe Ranft (who in a few years will go on to work for Pixar) The Brave Little Toaster will receive an Emmy nomination for Best Animated Program.
2000:
The Kansas City Star reports that the Walt Disney heirs have pledged funds to refurbish the original animation studio of Walt Disney (located in Kansas City). For nearly a decade, Thank You, Walt Disney Inc. has been fighting to set up a Disney Museum in Kansas City, the birthplace of Mickey Mouse and other early Disney characters. The $450,000 pledge by the Walt and Lily Disney Foundation is contingent on whether the Thank You organization can match the amount.
2007:
Disney College Program Cast Member Paul Sherrer (a former U.S. soldier) is honored for saving the life of a 4-year-old guest who had fallen into the marina at the Port Orleans Riverside in Florida. Vice President of Resort Operations and Transportation Kevin Myers presents Paul with a letter from Meg Crofton, president of the Walt Disney World Resort, commending him for his bravery.

 

[trr1]

7/11

1933:
Singer and host Bob McGrath, a fixture on TV's Sesame Street for over
38 years, is born in Ottawa, Illinois. During the summers in the mid-1980s, Epcot hosted the All-American College Orchestra. McGrath appeared many times as one of the celebrity guests on the America Gardens Stage with the orchestra.
1953:
Disney releases the animated short How to Dance starring Goofy. The likenesses and sounds of the Firehouse Five Plus Two (Ward Kimball's Dixieland band) are featured as well.

Actress Mindy Lee Sterling is born in Paterson, New Jersey. Her Disney credits include the 2011 Mars Needs Moms, episodes of Disney Channel's The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and That's So Raven, the animated TV series American Dragon Jake Long, the animated feature The Brave Little Toaster, and even a bit part in the live-action The Devil and Max Devlin.
1956:
The Barstow Family of Wethersfield, Connecticut, leave for a week-long California vacation. They are the winners of a nationwide contest (originally won by the youngest son Danny) sponsored by the 3M Scotch Tape Company. The prize ... a family vacation to Disneyland, including airfare, 4 days worth of Disneyland tickets and hotel accommodations in Pasadena!
In 2008, their home movies (titled Disneyland Dream) will be selected for preservation in the Library of Congress National Film Registry.In March 2010, the film will be released to DVD!

Walt Disney visits the Pike Forest Fossil Beds (today known as Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument) in Florissant, Colorado. Walt purchases a petrified stump for Disneyland
1984:
Nearly 400 Cast Members stand before Sleeping Beauty Castle to celebrate
Disneyland's 30th anniversary ... a year early. The Cast Members have volunteered their time on this day to be photographed as part of a marketing campaign to publicize the milestone anniversary.
1991:
Disney announces it will enter into a distribution deal with a Bay area digital studio named Pixar. (Together they will make such films as Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bugs Life, and Finding Nemo.)
1998:
Jodi Benson (the voice of Disney's Little Mermaid) appears at Walt Disney World for the first of a 2-day visit. She makes a special appearance in the morning at The Art of Disney (located in Downtown Disney Marketplace) to meet fans and sign "Mermaid" artwork purchased at the shop. In the evening she performs a concert backed by an orchestra at the open-air America Gardens Theater in Epcot's World Showcase. The scheduled 2nd show of the evening is cancelled due to a thunderstorm.
2001:
Magic Masters, the nation's largest chain of retail magic emporiums, opens its largest store in Downtown Disney West Side, Florida. (Based in Georgia, Magic Masters opened its first store back in 1978.)

 

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7/12

1895:
Richard Buckminster Fuller - visionary, designer, architect, futurist, and inventor - is born in Milton, Massachusetts. It is widely believed he developed and named the geodesic dome first - from field experiments with Kenneth Snelson and others at Black Mountain College (in North Carolina) in the late 1940s. (The invention of the geodesic dome was a solution to the pressing housing problem at the time.) More than 500,000 geodesic domes have been built around the world since then, including the 265-foot wide Spaceship Earth at Epcot! Fuller actually coined the phrase "Spaceship Earth" - to express concern over the use of limited resources available on our planet.
1948:
Four time Academy Award-winning sound designer and sound editor Ben Burtt is born in Jamesville, New York. Best known for his work on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Burtt is responisble for the voices of WALL-E, M-O, and other robots in the 2008 Disney/Pixar computer-animated feature WALL-E. (Most of the characters do not have human voices, but communicate with sounds which resemble voices.)
1972:
Disney's live-action comedy Now You See Him, Now You Don't starring Kurt Russell, Cesar Romero, Joe Flynn, and Jim Backus, is released. A chemistry student named Dexter Riley (played by Russell) invents a spray that makes its wearer invisible. Now You See him, Now You Don't is a sequel to the 1969 film The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes.
1989:
Star Tours (sponsored by Panasonic) opens at Tokyo Disneyland. It is the second Star Tours attraction in existence (the first opened at Disneyland in 1987).
1998:
Disney opens its first ESPN Zone (a sports themed restaurant, bar, and sports arena) in Baltimore, Maryland.
2005:
Today's Disney DVD releases include: Disneyland - The Secrets, Stories and Magic of the Happiest Place on Earth, The Best of the Original Mickey Mouse Club, Mickey Mouse Club: The Best of Britney, Justin and Christina, and Vintage Mickey. Also released is the audio CD Walt Disney Takes You to Disneyland, the album that marked the beginning of Disneyland Records in 1956.
2006:
Hong Kong Disneyland unveils 3 new Tomorrowland attractions - Stitch Encounter, Autopia and UFO Zone. They will officially open to visitors the next day.
2011:
Disney have today announced that this fall, construction will begin on Splitsville, a 50,000-square-foot upscale entertainment center that combines bowling with billiards, dining, music and nightlife. To make way for this experience, RIDEMAKERZ, currently located on the West Side in the former Virign Megastore building, will move to the Marketplace.

 

[trr1]

7/13

1925:
Walt Disney marries Lillian Bounds (one of his first employees) at her brother's home in Lewiston, Idaho.
1928:
Actor Bob Crane is born in Waterbury, Connecticut. Famously known as Colonel Hogan on the classic TV sitcom Hogan's Heroes, Crane appeared in the live-action Disney films Superdad (as Charlie McCready) and Gus (as Pepper).
1940:
Actor Patrick Stewart, the voice of Mr. Woolensworth in the 2005 animated
feature Chicken Little, is born in England. (Science fiction fans will recognize him as Captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek films & television series and as Professor Charles Xavier from X-Men films.)
1946:
Actor/comedian Cheech Marin (best known as half the comedic duo of Cheech and Chong) is born in Los Angeles, California. His Disney voice credits include Cars and Cars 2 as Ramone, The Lion King as Banzai the Hyena, Oliver & Company as Tito, and Beverly Hills Chihuahua as Manuel. (Fans of TV's Nash Bridges may remember Marin for his role of Joe Dominguez.)
1953:
Legendary animator Chuck Jones (already well know for his animation at Warner Brothers) begins working at the Disney Studios. He will only stay for 4 months before returning to Warner. Despite the fact that his brief tenure at Disney will not be satisfying for either himself or Walt Disney, Jones will still hold the Disney Studios and Walt in the highest regard for the rest of his life.
1955:
Eighteen-year-old Bob Penfield begins working at Disneyland four days before the park's grand opening. He is attending an orientation for Cast Members. Bob will earn $1.65 an hour. (He will go on to work for Disneyland for the next 42 years, making him the longest working Cast Member in history!)
"The Pre-Opening Report from Disneyland," the final

progress report on Disneyland's construction airs on the ABC series
Disneyland just four days before the theme park's grand opening. Guest stars
include Ronald Reagan, Art Linkletter, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra and Fess Parker (as Davy Crockett).

Walt and Lillian Disney celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary at the not-yet-open Disneyland. Lillian Disney invites guests to a "Tempus Fugit
Celebration," at six o'clock in the evening. As the guests arrive, they are transported down Main Street and into Frontierland via horse-drawn surreys. From there, everyone takes a ride around the Rivers of America aboard the
Mark Twain Riverboat while sipping mint juleps. Although they are already engaged, Roy E. Disney (Walt's nephew) presents a ring to his fiance Patty. Afterwards guests head to the Golden Horseshoe Saloon for dinner and the very first (although unofficial) performance of a show called the Golden Horseshoe Revue, created by Wally Boag, the original Pecos Bill. (The record-breaking stage show will play an amazing 47,250 performances through 1986!)
1957:
A petrified tree stump is installed at Disneyland on the Rivers of America riverbank in Frontierland. Walt Disney had bought the 5-ton, 10-foot high stump himself last year during a trip to Pike's Petrified Forest in Colorado.
1962:
Comedian-actor Tom Kenny is born in East Syracuse, New York. Best known as the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, Kenny appears in Disney's 2005 Sky High as Mr. Timmerman and supplies the voice for Mr. Willerstein in the Disney 2007 animated feature Meet the Robinsons. Kenny is also the voice of Rabbit for Winnie the Pooh - a new traditionally animated feature by Walt Disney Animation Studios - released in 2011.
1992:
Jim Henson Productions and Disney Channel announce a distribution agreement for "Fraggle Rock" and other Henson properties.
2002:
The Beach Boys kick off Disney's Rockin' the Bay (a six-week summer music series featuring 18 famed recording groups) at Disney's California Adventure.
2006:
Comedian/actor Red Buttons passes away at his home in California at age 87. Disney fans will remember him as the cowardly Hoagy who assisted Doc Terminus in Disney's 1977 Pete's Dragon. An Academy Award-winning character actor, Buttons enjoyed a career that spanned more than seven decades!
2007:
Disney-MGM's 13-story Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction marks its
13th anniversary on this Friday the 13th! (Actually the popular attraction
first debuted thirteen years ago on July 22.)
2009:
Evie Coats, one of the unsung heroines of animation’s past and the wife of Disney Legend Claude Coats, passes away at age 99. First hired by Disney as an “inker” to trace animators’ drawings of cartoon characters onto clear sheets of celluloid, Evelyn Henry joined the small staff in 1932 at the Hyperion Avenue studio in East Hollywood. (More than mere tracing, inkers like Evie were true artists whose work required an ability to translate the emotion and movement of the animators’ characters.) She worked on the Silly Symphony shorts before being promoted to department head during the production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. During a brief break in the Snow White schedule, she married studio background painter Claude Coats.
2010:
Disneyland Resort is a featured locale in the MLB All-Star Game parade, which kicks off on this day at 11:30 a.m. The parade route moves along Convention Way and Harbor Blvd. to Disney Way, where the parade’s public portion ends. The parade then continues, through Main Street, U.S.A. in Disneyland theme park, allowing guests an opportunity to watch the parade from a close viewing spot. (Later in the day, the National League beats the American League in the 81st MLB All-Star Game at Angel Stadium, 3-1.)

 

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1913:
Gerald Rudolph Ford, the 38th president and 40th vice president of the United States, is born in Omaha, Nebraska. Raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he visited Disney World in 1979. Visit Mr. Ford and all the presidents at Disney World's classic attraction The Hall of Presidents.
1919:
Animator and teacher Walt Stanchfield is born in Los Angeles, California. He began his career in animation in 1937 at the Charles Mintz Studio and then later at the Walter Lantz Studio prior to his lengthy tenure at The Walt Disney Studios. In the 1970s, Stanchfield focused his efforts on establishing a training program for new animators along with veteran animator and director Eric Larson. Stanchfield worked on every full-length animated feature from the 1948 The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad through the 1986 The Great Mouse Detective. In the mid-1980s, he also taught weekly gesture drawing classes for the entire studio. His weekly lecture notes and drawings are now gathered and published in a two-volume collection entitled Drawn to
Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes by animator/producer Don Hahn.
1946:
Original Mouseketeer - and the youngest male to audition to be a Mouseketeer - Carl "Cubby" O'Brien is born in Burbank, California.
The youngest of three sons of Haskell "Hack" O'Brien, a well-known professional drummer, young Carl got his nickname "Cubby" from his mom. At age five, he began playing drums while attending the Carl Babcock Music
School in Sherman Oaks, California. (Cubby will later become a professional drummer performing with acts like The Carpenters, Debbie Reynolds, and Andy Williams and on the hit TV variety series The Carol Burnett Show.
Years later he will perform on Broadway for such productions as The Producers, Gypsy, and Chicago.)
1955:
Final construction and preparation take place in Anaheim on Walt's new theme park (just 3 days before Disneyland's grand debut). During a test ride, Disneyland's Casey Jr. Circus Train almost tips backward while traveling uphill! Lead weights will be added to the front, allowing it to temporarily run on the park's grand opening day. (On July 18 the attraction will close allowing the steep uphill grade to be reduced.) Over in Tomorrowland, final details are added to the Disneyland Moonliner Rocket. A worker suspended from a crane 76 feet above the ground places the pointed silver top of the rocket in place.
1965:
Disney's live-action feature film The Monkey's Uncle, starring Tommy Kirk (his last Disney film) and Annette Funicello, is generally released. College whiz-kid Merlin Jones (Kirk) concocts a method for teaching advanced information to a chimpanzee, then creates a flying machine of his own design, ultimately raising havoc on the campus. The film features the motion picture debut of the Beach Boys, who back Funicello on the title song - written by the Sherman Brothers. (The Monkey's Uncle is a sequel to the 1964 feature The Misadventures of Merlin Jones.)
1975:
The Disney company announces plans to build an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (or EPCOT) in Florida.
1978:
The American Egg House opens on Main Street in Disneyland. Howard Helmer (a demonstrating cook with the American Egg Board) breaks the world record for omelet preparation. Easily passing the old record of 188 omelets, Howard produces 217 two-egg omelets in only 30 minutes, assuring himself a spot in
Guinness's next edition of its famous record book!
2003:
Walt Disney World introduces new lightweight language translation headsets. The headsets incorporate wireless technology that provides synchronized narration in five languages.
2008:
Napster, the pioneer in digital music, announces a partnership with Walt Disney Records that includes an exclusive commercial-free "Best of Disney" radio station featuring music from Disney’s catalog.
2009:
Actor Dallas R. McKennon (often credited as Dal McKennon) passes away just 5 days short of his 90th birthday in Washington. Known primarily as a voice actor, his Disney credits include Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Mary Poppins, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. McKennon also provided the voices for many Disney attractions such as the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad safety announcement, Ben Franklin's voice in Epcot's American Adventure, and the voice of Zeke in the Country Bear Jamboree. (McKennon was also the original voice of Gumby for Art Clokey's 1950s stop motion clay animation. Although not a Disney production, his best-known live action role was that of the innkeeper, Cincinnatus, in the Daniel Boone TV series starring Fess Parker.)
2010:
Walt Disney Pictures releases the fantasy adventure film The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the story (although very different) is loosely based on the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment in Disney's Fantasia. Balthazar Blake (played by Nicolas Cage) is a master sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan trying to defend the city from his arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina). Unable to do it alone, Blake recruits Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel), a seemingly average guy who demonstrates hidden potential, as his reluctant apprentice.
2011:
Disneyland Paris celebrates Bastille Day with colorful parades and spectacular air displays. Known in France as Fête Nationale, Bastille Day officially commemorates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, which was held on the one-year anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, a Parisian prison that at the time housed only a handful of inmates but which had come to symbolize the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs.

 

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1912:
Imagineer and writer Al Bertino, who helped design such Disneyland attractions as Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, the Haunted Mansion, and the Country Bear Jamboree, is born in California. First joining Disney in 1935, he worked on Pinocchio and Fantasia, before writing for Disney's television series. Big Al, the most familiar face in Frontierland's Grizzly Hall, is a loving tribute to Bertino!
1955:
Two days before the grand opening of Disneyland, the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the Santa Ana Register and other Southern California newspapers include an advertising supplement for Disneyland in their papers. It highlights all the "wonderous attractions" that guests will find, and ads from Disneyland’s sponsors - such as the Richfield Oil Corporation.

On this same day, a young California woman named Rima Bruce is called in for an interview at Disneyland. Bruce decided to apply for a job at Disneyland when she and her mother were looking for a place to picnic as they drove on Harbor Boulevard and noticed the park under construction. She will start her new job the next day, July 16, thus becoming one of the original Disneyland employees. Bruce will work at Disneyland for the next 32 years, starting as a secretary to the food liaison and ending (in 1987) as an executive assistant to the vice president!
1975:
Construction begins on Disneyland's Space Mountain. The idea for Anaheim's ride originated in the mid 1960s, during Walt Disney's lifetime, as a way to energize the aging Tomorrowland. The project was shelved until the success of Space Mountain at Walt Disney World. (Disneyland's version will open in May 1977.)
1995:
In Florida, Disney's Wedding Pavilion - located south of the Grand Floridian Beach Resort - opens. Built on a private island surrounded by the Seven Seas Lagoon, it is a glass-enclosed Victorian-style non-denominational chapel. Available for weddings, vow renewals and commitment ceremonies, the chapel can seat up to 300 guests. Walt Disney Imagineering has designed the site so that Cinderella Castle (in the nearby Magic Kingdom) is framed in two views: through a window behind the indoor altar where ceremonies are held, and through a hedge arch outside the chapel.
1998:
Building a Company: Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empire by author Bob Thomas is published by Hyperion Press.

The Disney Magic arrives at Port Canaveral, Florida for the first time.
2005:
Disneyland's Space Mountain reopens after a two-year refurbishment.
Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, takes part in the opening ceremony.

Disney's California Adventure opens its newest attraction - Turtle Talk with Crush - in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot. Designed by Walt Disney Imagineering in collaboration with Pixar, the attraction consists of an unscripted, real-time conversation with Crush, the sea turtle from the Disney/Pixar film Finding Nemo. (It is the 2nd "Crush" attraction to open, as one debuted in Epcot in 2004.)

The Anaheim park also announces that the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage will be built on the site of the old Submarine Voyage attraction.
(Nemo will debut in June 2007.)
2011:
Winnie the Pooh, a new animated film, is released by Walt Disney Pictures. Winnie the Pooh sets out to find some honey, but when he misinterprets a note from Christopher Robin, Pooh convinces Tigger, Rabbit, Piglet, Owl, Kanga, Roo, and Eeyore that their young friend has been captured by a creature named "Backson"! Inspired by the stories of A. A. Milne, the film is a continuation of Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise, and marks the first time a Pooh film has hit theaters since the 2005 Pooh's Heffalump Movie. Burny Mattinson, a Disney veteran who worked as the key animator on Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, served as lead storyboard artist for the film. Winnie the Pooh is preceded by an animated short called The Ballad of Nessie about a friendly Loch Ness Monster named Nessie and how she and her best friend MacQuack, the rubber duck, came to live in the moor they now call home.