this day in disney history

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11/13 and fact for the day

In 1990,
Hollywood Records was established by Disney to release mainstream music.
Among Hollywood Records' recording artists ... Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato, Breaking Benjamin, and Plain White T's

2010:

Disney's landmark musical event, The Lion King celebrates 13 years on Broadway!

The show continues to reign as a cultural phenomenon and one of the most popular stage musicals in the world. Since its 1997 Broadway premiere, 17 global productions have been seen by more than 54 million people.
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2011:

The Tony Award-winning Disney musical The Lion King celebrates 14 years on Broadway. Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions (under the direction of Thomas Schumacher), The Lion King is the seventh longest-running musical in Broadway history and one of only six productions in theatre history to play for ten years or more both on Broadway and in the West End.

 

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11/14 and fact for the day

The Walt Disney Company started the Disney Legends program in 1987,
to honor those whose contributions have made an important impact on its history.
2010:

Disney Channel debuts "Meatball It Up" the second episode of Shake It Up.

The new sitcom, created by Chris Thompson, chronicles the misadventures of two young background dancers on a local show, Shake It Up Chicago.

 

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11/15 and fact for the day

Walt Disney World's Wedding Pavilion is located on a private island on The Seven Seas Lagoon between The Grand Floridian and Polynesian Resorts.

2011:

The Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) announces the winners of the 18th Annual Thea Awards, recognizing excellence in the creation of extraordinary visitor experiences, attractions, exhibits and places.

Among the winners are 4 for Disney.

Star Tours – The Adventures Continue at Disneyland park and Disney’s Hollywood Studios is honored with the Award for Outstanding Achievement – Attraction Refresh.

"The Magic, The Memories & You!" show at Magic Kingdom Park is honored with the Award for Outstanding Achievement – Show Spectacular.

Animation Magic in the Animator’s Palate Restaurant aboard Disney Cruise Line's ship – Disney Fantasy is honored with the Award for Outstanding Achievement – Ingenious Use of Technology.

Disney Imagineer Joe Rohde is honored with The Buzz Price Thea Award – Recognizing a Lifetime of Distinguished Achievements, including his work as executive designer on both Disney’s Animal Kingdom and the recently-opened Aulani.

All will be honored at the Thea Awards ceremony, a black-tie gala to be held March 17, 2012, at the Disneyland Hotel.



Apple announces that Bob Iger, president and CEO of the Walt Disney Co.,

is joining its board of directors (and will serve on the audit committee).

 

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11/16 and fact for the day

RCA Victor rushed out a soundtrack album (consisting of 3 records) early in 1938 for the successful Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was the first movie album ever to be produced that featured the actual soundtracks recorded from the movie.

2010:

Walt Disney Records releases a soundtrack album to the upcoming animated movie Tangled. Featured are both the film’s songs and score written by Alan Menken

(with lyrics by Glenn Slater).



The annual Thea Awards, presented by the Themed Entertainment Association recognizing and honoring excellence in the creation of extraordinary visitor experiences, attractions, exhibits and places, are announced.

Among the winners:

The Buzz Price Award - Recognizing a Lifetime of Distinguished Achievements - Kim Irvine, Art Director, Disneyland

Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement (Museum) - The Walt Disney Family Museum, San Francisco

Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement (Nighttime Spectacular) - World of Color, Disney California Adventure

(The 17th Annual Thea Awards will be formally presented March 12, 2011 in Hollywood, California.)

 

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11/17 and fact for the day

Raised on a farm in Marceline, Missouri, Walt Disney became interested in drawing at an early age. He sold his first sketches to neighbors when he was only seven years old! Today Marceline is referred to as the "Boyhood Home of Walt Disney."

 

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11/18 and fact for the day

The Buster Keaton 1924 film The Navigator and his 1928
Steamboat Bill, Jr. were the inspiration for Disney's Steamboat Willie.

2011:

Award-winning television icon and Disney Legend Regis Philbin hosts LIVE! with Regis and Kelly (on ABC-TV) for the last time. He is retiring from the long-running talk show, which first launched into national syndication in 1988 as LIVE! with Regis and Kathie Lee.
Mickey Mouse turns 80!

 

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11/19 and fact for the day

Disney's 1928 Steamboat Willie is the first cartoon released with
synchronized sound to attract widespread public notice and
popularity - it is not the first cartoon with sound. Other
cartoons with soundtracks had been exhibited before, notably
Max Fleischer's My Old Kentucky Home (in 1926).

2011:

Disney Cruise Line kicks off its holiday season on this day with the first of three Thanksgiving voyages. All three ships (Magic, Wonder and Dream) will offer traditional Turkey Day activities with feasts and football games broadcast live on the outdoor jumbo screens by the pools. Mickey, Minnie
and friends will also appear in their Thanksgiving attire.

 

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11/20 and fact for the day

While Disney World's Haunted Mansion boasts '999 Happy Haunts,' it also has one 'mouse' - a Hidden Mickey formed by an arrangement of dishes on
the table in the attraction's banquet scene.

 

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11/21 and fact for the day

Upon its release, the New York Times called Disney's Steamboat Willie
"an ingenious piece of work with a good deal of fun."

 

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11/22 and fact for the day

Voice actor Sterling Holloway grew up at 301 S. College Street in Cedartown, Georgia.The street which formed the corner on which Holloway's
house was located is now known as Sterling Holloway Place.

 

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11/23 and fact for the day

Disney animator Fred Moore is credited with developing the technique of "squash and stretch." Moore realized that when people walked, their bodies would stretch a bit on one step and then squash down a bit with the next. He incorporated this for the first time in The Three Little Pigs.

2011:

Disney The Muppets (the first Muppets theatrical release in 12 years) opens in theaters in North America. Walter (a new character performed by Peter Linz), the world's biggest Muppet fan, and his brother Gary (Jason Segel) and friend Mary (Amy Adams) must raise $10 million to save the Muppet Theater from Tex Richman (Chris Cooper), a businessman who plans to demolish the theater to drill for oil. Written by Segel and Nicholas Stoller, the film features six new musical numbers and three classic Muppet songs.

 

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11/24 and fact for the day

Pinocchio is Italian for "pine eye." Pino means pine, and occhio means eye.
Writer Carlo Collodi originally had not intended his novel as children's
literature, for in the original version ... Pinocchio dies a
gruesome death! He later added the part in which the Fairy with
Turquoise Hair (or "Blue Fairy" as the Disney version names her)
rescues Pinocchio and transforms him into a real boy.
2011:

Thanksgiving Day

The 85th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade takes place in New York City.

Disney’s balloon participants include Kermit the Frog, Sailor Mickey, and Buzz Lightyear. Disney

Channel's China Anne McClain (A.N.T. Farm) and Zendaya (Shake It Up!), both perform on various

floats. Musical numbers from the Broadway version of Sister Act and Disney's newest stage show

Newsies (which will open on Broadway next March) are featured. The parade's newest balloon

is a Tim Burton character (from next year's Frankenweenie) named B. (also known as B. Boy).

 

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11/25 and fact for the day

Radio Disney is a radio network with on air studios in Burbank, California. The network primarily uses AM stations, but it is also available on XM
Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio, as well as via
Music Choice on most digital cable-TV systems.
2010:

Thanksgiving Day

Mickey Mouse and Buzz Lightyear return to New York City for the

84th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.



It is reported that Disney's milestone 50th animated feature Tangled earned $11.5 million on its first day of release (Wednesday Nov. 24), earning the highest Thanksgiving holiday opening day grosses ever.
1949:

The Disney short Slide, Donald, Slide is released. Directed by Jack Hannah, Donald Duck wants to listen to the World Series on the radio, but Spike the bee wants to listen to classical music.
1982:

Thanksgiving Day

The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New

York City features a large balloon of Mickey Mouse.
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1993:

Thanksgiving Day

For the second year in a row, a Santa Goofy balloon takes part

in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.
The Toontown Railroad Station, located outside of Toontown next to the Fantasyland Theater, opens in Disneyland.
Voice cast:

Scott Weinger - Aladdin

Robin Williams - Genie

Linda Larkin - Jasmine

Jonathan Freeman - Jafar

Frank Welker - Abu

Gilbert Gottfried - Iago

Corey Burton - Prince Achmed

Jim Cummings - Razoul

Douglas Seale - Sultan
2011:

Disney announces that they have canceled plans to build a Disney-branded hotel

near Washington, D.C., less than three years after spending $11 million to buy

land for the project. Disney acquired the property (15 acres in a development called National Harbor)

just outside the District of Columbia, in May 2009.
"Given the full slate of expansion currently underway at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, the timing isn't right to proceed with another new project of this scale." -Disney spokeswoman Kristin Nolt Wingard

 

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11/26 and fact for the day

A Mickey Mouse balloon was first added to Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (then called the Macy's Christmas Parade) in New York City in 1934.

2010:

As many as as 130 Disney stores across the nation open at midnight on "Magical

Friday" – Disney’s answer to Black Friday.



The first Candlelight Processional of the season takes place at Epcot. Disney World's

long-running telling of the Christmas story features a live orchestra and a massive choir performing traditional

holiday songs. Tonight's first guest narrator is actress Isabella Rossellini

 

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11/27 and fact for the day

Walt Disney World guests consume 300,000 cookies and
1,200 gallons of hot coco each night at
Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

2010:

The word famous Harlem Globetrotters bring their mix of hoops and hijinks to Disney World when they play two games at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.

 

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11/27 and fact for the day

Stormalong Bay, Disney World's Beach Club Resort swimming area,
holds 750,000 gallons of water ... making it possibly the largest
sand-bottom pool in the world.

2010:

Leslie Nielsen, the 84-year-old funnyman, who Roger Ebert
once referred to as the "Laurence Olivier of spoofs," passes
away in Florida after suffering complications from pneumonia.
Nielsen starred in The Swamp Fox, a television series produced by Walt Disney that ran between 1959-1961. The series encompassed eight episodes, running as part of the Disney anthology television series. Although Nielsen's acting career crossed a variety of genres in both television and films, his deadpan delivery as a doctor in the 1980 Airplane! marked a turning point in his career. He will probably be best remembered for his classic comedic roles in The Naked Gun films and Police Squad! sitcom. Nielsen's credits also include a guest spot on an episode of The Golden Girls (a Touchstone production) and the television movie Santa Who? (although not a Disney production - often aired on ABC and ABC Family networks).
Nielsen at Disneyland (1961)



2011:

It is reported that a lost Walt Disney cartoon (that pre-dates Mickey Mouse) has been discovered in a British film archive and will be offered for auction in Los Angeles on December 14. Hungry Hobos was one of 26 episodes featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit ... a character widely considered a prototype to the more famous Mickey Mouse!

 

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11/29 and fact for the day

A mechanical bird in a New Orleans antique shop in 1949 supposedly sparked Walt Disney's imagination to create a 3-D animated figure ...
later to be known as Audio-Animatronics technology.

 

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11/30 and fact for the day

The "Liberty Oak," which is the focal point of the Liberty Square area in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, is the proud parent of more than 500 young trees. They all started out as acorns harvested from the single oak!

2010:

The much anticipated video game Epic Mickey is released in North America. Designed by Warren Spector, with 2D cinemas by Powerhouse Animation Studios, Inc., and developed by Junction Point Studios for the Wii console, Epic Mickey is part of an effort by The Walt Disney Company to re-brand the Mickey Mouse character.



In New York City, actress Jennifer Grey celebrates her recent Dancing With The Stars victory along with fellow contestant Kyle Massey at a special celebration for the launch of Disney Epic Mickey at the new Disney Store in Times Square. The store opens at 7:00 a.m., allowing fans an opportunity to meet both Grey and Massey as they hand-deliver the game to the first several hundred fans that have lined up to purchase it!



Waking Sleeping Beauty is released to DVD. A 2009 documentary film directed by Disney film producer Don Hahn and produced by Hahn and former Disney executive Peter Schneider, it reveals the history of Walt Disney Feature Animation from the making of The Fox and the Hound in 1980 to the release of The Lion King in 1994.

 

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12/1 and fact for the day

Rod Serling's introduction to Disney World's Tower of Terror attraction (as viewed in the library) was taken in part from a 1961 Twilight Zone
episode called "It's A Good Life
2010:

Disney Weddings launches its own blog called Ever After.



The International Press Academy announces the 2010 nominations for the 15th Annual Satellite Awards. Alice in Wonderland and Toy Story 3 are both nominated for Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media. The team of Michael Arndt, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich and John Lasseter are nominated for Screenplay, Original for their work on Toy Story 3. Writer-performer Avril Lavigne's song "Alice" (from Alice in Wonderland) is nominated for Original Song. The team of Ken Ralston, Dave Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Philips are nominated for Visual Effects for their work on Alice in Wonderland. Kami Asgar, Sean McCormack, David Daniel, Kevin O'Connell and Beau Borders are nominated for Sound (Editing and Mixing) for their work on Secretariat. Robert Stromberg and Stefan Dechant are nominated for Art Direction & Production Design for their work on Alice in Wonderland. Colleen Atwood is nominated for Costume Design for her work on Alice in Wonderland. Winners will be announced December 19.

 

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12/2 and fact for the day

Walt Disney was so passionate about trains ... that he built
a 1/8-scale railroad running through his backyard and
among the rose gardens of his California home!

2010:

Toy Story 3 is named Best Animated Feature by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. This is Pixar's fifth consecutive win in the category, and seventh since the NBR established the category a decade ago.
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2011:

It is reported that Disney fanatics Clinton and Lynette Hamblin of Petaluma, California have purchased the house in Utah modeled after the colorful home featured in the animated movie Up. They initially looked in California until they saw news reports about the house (officially recognized as the Up house by Disney last summer) located in the Salt Lake City suburb of Herriman. With a price tag of $400,000, the Hamblins plan on moving into the home after closing January 4.