this day in disney history

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5/29 and fact for the day

Grauman's Chinese Theater - the replica that has been standing in Disney's Hollywood Studios since opening day, was built from the original blueprints of the real thing in Hollywood. The copy is so good that the owners of the original theater asked Disney to borrow molds and other fabrication tools to be used in the restoration of the real theater.

 

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5/30 and fact for the day

Walt Disney's plane - the one he flew in while scouting locations for
Walt Disney World during the mid-1960s, is on display at Disney's Hollywood
Studios' Backlot Tour. Getting the Gulfstream into the park was no easy
feat. The resort had to close one of its main thoroughfares, World Drive,
for the plane to make its final landing on the street back in October 1992.

2012:

Disney announces that the "C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A" statues that originally stood in front of

Disney California Adventure will soon welcome visitors to the state fair. Disney donated the

statues that spell out "California" to the Friends of the California State Fair, which plans to place them in front of Cal Expo

in Sacramento, where the fair is held.

 

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5/31 and fact for the day

The Great Movie Ride (an original opening day attraction at Disney's Hollywood Studios), features a scene from Fantasia that includes swirling winds. Why the wind? That portion of the ride was originally designed to be the tornado scene from The Wizard of Oz, but was changed to
feature Sorcerer Mickey at the last minute.

2012:

Today is the final day of operation for Walt Disney World's Snow

White's Scary Adventures. An opening-day Magic Kingdom dark ride, Snow White is being replaced

with Princess Fairytale Hall, a royal meet-and-greet area set to debut in 2013 as part of the redesigned Fantasyland.

(Snow White isn't leaving WDW ... a new ride based on Disney's first animated feature film is coming to Florida.

The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, a "mine cart" style steel roller coaster ride, is scheduled to open in 2014.)



The first phase of Disney's Art of Animation Resort opens at Walt Disney World. The value

resort will eventually feature 1,120 family suites and 864 standard rooms in sections themed to four of the most

popular Disney and Disney-Pixar films of the last 25 years. The first phase opening on this day features a theme

based on the Pixar film Finding Nemo which includes 320 "family suites" with room for as many as six people each. All

the rooms at Disney's Art of Animation are keyless ... instead of inserting room cards into a slot, guests merely hold the

cards within a few inches of an electronic reader to unlock their doors!

 

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6/1 and fact for the day

Eastern Airline wings were distributed free of
charge during the 1970s to guests of Walt Disney World's
If You Had Wings attraction.

 

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6/2 and fact for the day

The Disney Magazine began life as the Disney News in 1965. The publication changed its name to the Disney Magazine
in 1994 and unfortunately ceased to exist by 2005.


2011:

Disneyland Resort celebrates the opening of The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s

Undersea Adventure with a special ceremony at Disney California Adventure

park. Jodi Benson, the original voice of Ariel, performs "Part of Your World," one of the memorable songs

from the film’s Academy Award-winning score. (She and actress Pat Carroll - the voice of Ursula - had taken

there first ride the day before.) The attraction opens to the general public June 3.

 

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6/3 and fact for the day

Disneyland's Space Mountain is actually sunk 17 feet into the
ground so it won't dwarf the Sleeping Beauty Castle
SM was designed by Bill Watkins of Walt Disney
Imagineering.


2011:

Disneyland officially launched Star Tours – The Adventures Continue with a gala

ceremony in Tomorrowland. (The force is now strong on both coasts as Star Tours opened at

Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida just a few weeks ago.)

The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure makes it official public debut on this same day at Disney

California Adventure. (Another Little Mermaid-themed attraction at Magic Kingdom Park in Florida will debut in

a few years when the Fantasyland expansion at Walt Disney World Resort is completed.)



Sadly on this same day, Disney Legend Wally Boag passes at the age of 90 in

California. Born in Oregon in September 1920, Boag became an important part of Disneyland's live

entertainment in 1955 when he became a leading man at the park's Golden Horseshoe Revue. As Pecos Bill, he

entertained Disneyland park guests five days a week, three times a day, for nearly 27 years. Boag also provided

the voice of the Audio-Animatronics parrot, Jose, in the Enchanted Tiki Room, and opened the Diamond

Horseshoe Revue at Walt Disney World in 1971. (In 1981, he appeared on an episode of The Muppet Show.)

 

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6/4 and fact for the day

Disney World's "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh"
attraction is built on the former location of "Mr. Toad's Wild
Ride." It contains a picture of Mr.Toad presenting the Toad Hall
deed to Owl (look to the left behind the car immediately
after the ride begins).

2011:

Betty Taylor, who played Slue-Foot Sue in Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe Revue, passes away at the age of 91 at her home in Washington (one day after the death of Wally Boag, her longtime performing partner in the show). Taylor began playing the role in 1956, one year after Boag started, and continued until the show ended almost 31 years later. Born in October 1919, she was inducted a Disney Legend (alongside Boag and tenor Fulton Burley) in 1995, 8 years after her retirement.
"We are deeply saddened by the loss of a second Disney Legend in just two days – Betty Taylor. Betty’s role as leading lady in Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe Revue helped turn it into the longest-running stage show in entertainment history. It is a tragic coincidence that her

passing comes just one day after the death of longtime co-star Wally Boag." -Disneyland Resort President George A. Kalogridis

 

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6/5 and fact for the day

To finance Disneyland, Walt Disney sold a vacation
home and even borrowed
against his life insurance.

2012:

Science fiction author and Disney fan Ray Bradbury, who helped design Epcot's

Spaceship Earth (and pen the original story of the attraction), passes away at

the age of 91 in Los Angeles. Born in 1920, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated among 20th

century American writers of speculative fiction. The 1998 film The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, released by

Touchstone Pictures and co-produced by Roy E. Disney, was written by Bradbury. In a career spanning

more than seventy years, he inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create.

Bradbury loved to tell the story of his lunch with Walt Disney when he asked him to run for Mayor of Los

Angeles. Walt's reply: "Why should I run for Mayor when I’m already King of Disneyland?"

 

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6/6 and fact for the day

In Disneyland, there is a plaque at the base of the flagpole in
Frontierland's stockade that reads:
"To Walt Disney, in recognition of outstanding assistance and
cooperation in extending humane ideals to peoples throughout the
world." It was presented by the American Humane Association
in 1955.

 

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6/7 and fact for the day


Celebration, Florida (the town that Disney built) is located on the south side of Route 192, five miles south of Walt Disney World at the intersection of I-4 and
U.S. Highway 192 East.

 

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6/8 and fact for the day

The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, is the only major film/animation studio not ​

Designed primarily by Kem Weber under the supervision of Walt & Roy Disney, the Burbank Disney Studio buildings are the only studios to survive from the Golden Age of film. to run backlot tours.

2011:
It is announced that Victoria & Albert's at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa has been awarded the AAA Five-Diamond Award, the highest AAA honor for a restaurant​

 

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6/9 and fact for the day
Donald Duck is the only popular film and television cartoon character to appear as a mascot for a major American university: a licensing agreement between Disney and the University of Oregon allows the school's sports teams to use Donald's image as its "Fighting Duck" mascot. In 1984, Donald Duck was named an honorary alumnus of the University of Oregon during his 50th birthday celebration.

2011:
Starting at 7AM, Disney Channel celebrates the birthday of Donald Duck all day long by airing special episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse starring Donald! In addition, the channel will premiere Donald's solo performance on a special song, created exclusively for his 77th birthday.

Disney announces that the opening for Cars Land, the largest portion of Disney’s
$1-billion expansion of Disney California Adventure, has been set for the summer
of 2012. Cars Land is a re-creation of the fictional town of Radiator Springs from the 2006 Pixar film Cars.

 

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6/10 and fact for the day

Walt Disney World's Cinderella Castle is larger and more ornate than Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle ​

Cinderella Castle was completed in July 1971, after about 18 months of construction. ​

It is 189 feet tall - more than twice the size of Sleeping Beauty Castle!​

 

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6/11 and fact for the day​

In 2000 the United States Library of Congress deemed Disney's 1953 The Living​

Desert(co-written by James Algar) "culturally significant" and selected it for​

preservation in the National Film Registry.​

The Living Desert won an
Academy Award for Best Documentary and a Special
Golden Globe for Artisitc Merit.​

 

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6/12 and fact for the day​

Riding in the very first sled down Disneyland's Matterhorn in June 1959, were Walt Disney, his wife Lilly, their daughters ... and U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon When Vice President Nixon and Walt

were waiting for the official first
ride on the Disneyland Monorail, an
empty train came by. In his excitement, Walt couldn't wait. He
grabbed Nixon and jumped on board, leaving Nixon's Secret
Service agents standing, stunned, on the platform!
2011:
At Epcot, the Sounds Like Summer Concert Series kicks off with performances by Hotel California - A Salute to the Eagles.




2011:
At Epcot, the Sounds Like Summer Concert Series kicks off with performances by Hotel California - A Salute to the Eagles.

 

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6/13 and fact for the day​

Actor Basil Rathbone (born on this day in 1892) can be heard in​

Disney's 1986 animated The Great Mouse Detective. Though he hadpassed in 1967, a 25-second dialogue taken from one of ​

Rathbone's old Sherlock Holmes radio shows was used in the​

animated feature as the voice of... Sherlock Holmes!​

​

2012:
An expanded and spruced-up Carnation Café debuts on Main Street, U.S.A.,
in Disneyland park.

A 4.1 earthquake in Yorba Linda that shake parts of Southern California on this
evening adds a little extra unexpected excitement to the star-studded red carpet opening of the new Cars Land at the Disneyland Resort. Some of the actors and singers behind the scenes of Cars and stars of the ABC network and Disney Channel walk the red carpet for the premiere party for Cars Land at Disney California Adventure. Cars Land is a major part of the $1 billion makeover designed to create an excitement and allure of a comparable caliber to that of the theme park's sibling, Disneyland Park. The new and expansive attraction will open to the public Friday, June 15. (A 2.4 magnitude aftershock is reported a few minutes after the main quake.)

 

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6/14 and fact for the day​

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers named​

the Disneyland Monorail anHistoric Mechanical Engineering Landmark in 1986​

​

In the United States, Flag Day is celebrated on June 14. It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened that day by resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1777.

2012:​

Although it had a red carpet premiere last night, Cars Land at Disney California​

Adventure remains closed to the general public. On this day Disney invites the media to​

experience the 12-acre expansion inspired by the 2006 Disney·Pixar film, Cars. Cars Land will open to all​

Disneyland Resort guests tomorrow June 15.​

 

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6/15 and fact for the day​

The Lion King originally started as a project called ​

"King of ​

the Jungle."​

The Lion King was the first Disney animated feature to be an original story, rather than being based on an already-existing story.​

2012:
Disneyland Resort caps off its $1 billion renovation of Disney California Adventure
with the public opening of Cars Land. Based on the Disney-Pixar movie Cars, it is the largest piece ofa five-year expansion at Disney California Adventure Park, adding 12 acres of new attractions to the theme park.
Cars Land is a recreation of the fictional town of Radiator Springs, featuring Luigi's Flying Tires, which flies riders
over what looks like a giant air hockey table; Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, which swings riders in trailers in a "tow-
si-do" square dance; and Radiator Springs Racers, which takes riders through a race through a mountain range.

 

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6/16 and fact for the day
Disney's 1969 hit movie The Love Bug is based on Gordon Buford's story "Car-Boy-Girl."

In The Love Bug, the car is named by mechanic Tennessee Steinmetz​

(played by Buddy Hackett) after his uncle "Herb," who was a​

middleweight boxer.​

​

2011:
It is announced that the 2011 Disney Legends Awards will be given out during the
first day of the D23 EXPO on Friday, August 19, in the Anaheim Convention Center
Arena. A 24-year tradition of The Walt Disney Company, no honorees were actually awarded in 2010. The
2011 honorees will include Jodi Benson, Barton "Bo" Boyd, Jim Henson, Linda Larkin, Paige O'Hara, Regis
Philbin, Jack and Bonita Wrather, Anika Noni Rose, Lea Salonga, Ray Watson and Guy
The Lion King North American Tour opens on this evening at the Benjamin & Marian
Schuster Performing Arts Center in Dayton, Ohio.

​

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6/17 and fact for the day
Songwriter Sammy Fain's contribution to Peter Pan include the songs
"The Second Star to the Right," "You Can Fly!," "What Makes the Red Man Red?,"
"Your Mother and Mine," and "The Elegant Captain Hook."