this day in disney history

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7/28 and fact for the day
When New Orleans Square was added in Disneyland, Walt Disney wanted to put in a private club at which he and other dues-paying members could entertain. Unfortunately he was not able to see it completed, but the club was finished and is now a members-only club that occupies much of the second floor of New Orleans Square. It is called Club 33 for its address, 33 Rue Royale.

 

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7/29 and fact for the day
The Tipton Hotel is a fictional
apartment hotel set in Boston,
from Disney Channel's
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
The Tipton Building itself doesn't
exist; shots of the building's
exterior are pictures of the
Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver,
British Columbia.
2011:
At approximately 6:30 a.m. Hawai'i time the doors to the Maka'ala
lobby of Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, open and the first guests
enter. Disney's first resort in Hawaii, it is a built-from-scratch complex designed to provide
a unique mix of mouse-inspired "imagineering" and Native Hawaiian culture. Located in the
Ko Olima resort area, 20 miles west of downtown Honolulu, Aulani sits at the southern end of Oahu’s Waianae or Leeward Coast.

It is announced that Disney Channel has ordered a third season of
its hit kid and family sitcom, Good Luck Charlie

 

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7/30 and fact for the day
To commemorate the 40th
anniversary of Disneyland, Disney
created a series of collector
cards, one for each year the park had been open. A card for each
year represented an event or an
attraction. The cards were handed out to visitors to the park starting with the "1955" card on January
21, 1995 and ending March 2, 1995
with the "1995" card.

 

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7/31 and fact for the day
From the late 1950s to 1968 Los
Angeles Airways provided regularly
scheduled helicopter passenger
service between Disneyland and Los
Angeles International Airport (LAX)
and other cities in the area. The
helicopters first operated from
Anaheim/Disneyland Heliport, located
behind Tomorrowland. Service later
moved, in 1960, to a new heliport
north of the Disneyland Hotel.
Arriving guests were then
transported to the
Disneyland Hotel
via tram.

 

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8/1 and fact for the day
In August 1965 Walt Disney met
with Brian Epstein - manager of
The Beatles - to discuss the
possibility of the popular Fab
Four performing songs for the
upcoming film The Jungle Book.
Later band member John Lennon
nixed the idea so Walt ended up
using semi-soundalikes to
voice the vultures in the film.

 

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8/2 and fact for the day

The August 1963
issue of National
Geographicfeatured "The Magic Worlds of Walt Disney," a
49-page article by Robert De Roos.
It also featured a rare photo (taken by
Thomas Nebbia) of Walt, his wife, & their
grandchildren in the Disneyland Fire Station apartment ...
a photography first!

2012:
The newest "American Idol," Phillip Phillips, surprises a theater full of park guests
when he makes an appearance on-stage at "The American Idol Experience" at
Disney's Hollywood Studios. In central Florida for a performance of the "American Idol Live!" concert
tour, Phillips also tapes a series of short videos that Walt Disney Entertainment will use in the future during the
attraction experience.

 

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8/3 and fact for the day

Most cast member name tags are worn on the left side of the
costume, with a few exceptions. All Walt Disney World bus drivers
wear their nametags on the right side, so it is clearly visible
to passengers as they board or disembark. Security cast
members also where their name tags on the right (as the
left is reserved for the silver badge).

2011:
Chiquita Brands International and Walt Disney World Resort announce an agreement that will bring premium, healthy fresh Chiquita and Fresh Express products to a
number of retail points at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. and the
Disney Cruise Line. As part of the agreement, Chiquita will serve as the sponsor of both the "Crush ‘n’ Gusher" at Typhoon Lagoon, themed around a tropical fruit processing center, and the "Living with the Land" attraction, where Chiquita will join forces with Disney to help teach guests about nutrition.

 

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8/4 and fact for the day
Chewing gum cannot be purchased anywhere at Walt Disney World ... or at the Orlando International Airport (thus cutting down the chances of actually stepping in some).
Perhaps the busiest airport in the state of Florida, Floridians joke that MCO (the airport's code) stands for "Mickeys Corporate Office." The airport code MCO actually stands for the airport's former name, McCoy Air Force Base.

 

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8/5 and fact for the day

Walt Disney World begins to decorate for Christmas
around November 15th ... so the property will be
ready in time for the Thanksgiving holiday!
In 2008, Disney World converted 430,000 incandescent holiday
lights to LEDs, saving an estimated 1.1 million kilowatt hours
throughout the holiday season, which is enough to power 61
homes annually!

2011:
Disney Channel's TV movie Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension,
an offshoot from the channel's successful series, debuts. The much-anticipated animated special draws 7.6 million viewers.

Radio Disney celebrates 15 years on the air with a Radio Disney Birthday Jam
at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City. Radio Disney was launched on November 18, 1996 at
5:58 A.M. EST with the song "Get Ready For This" (by Belgium-Holland dance group 2 Unlimited).

 

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8/6 and fact for the day

Disney composer & conductor Oliver Wallace (born this day in 1887) voiced the
character Mr. Winky for the 1949 animated
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

2011:
A Princess Convention takes place at the Rochester Opera House (in
Rochester, NY) with every Disney princess imaginable welcoming hundreds of
girls and their families.

A train and related artifacts that was once part of the main entrance of Disney
California Adventure arrives at the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola,
California. Disney has donated the cab of the California Zephyr train (that most recently served as the
location for Bur-r-Bank Ice Cream and Baker’s Field Bakery) to become part of the
museum's Zephyr Project collection.

 

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8/7 and fact for the day
In Disneyland's Haunted Mansion you descend in the stretch room. But in Walt Disney World's Mansion, you remain still while the ceiling rises above you!

2012:
The Walt Disney Co. reports the largest quarterly earnings in its history. Disney has
turned a profit of more than $1.8 billion during its fiscal third quarter, up 24 percent from the same period a year ago. (The following day Disney President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger will call for corporate tax changes.)

 

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8/8 and fact for the day
The U.S. Forest Service
originally used Bambi - with limited permission from Disney - as their charismatic
anti-fire mascot ... before the now-famous Smokey the Bear was created.

 

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8/9 and fact for the day
"Castle Thunder" - a thunderclap originally recorded for the 1931 film Frankenstein, has been featured in countless movies & TV shows. The famous sound effect can also be heard every day at Disneyland and Walt Disney World ... in the Haunted Mansion!

 

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8/10 and fact for the day
In 1987, Disneyland veteran Chuck Abbott conceived and initiated the Cast Member seeing-eye dog fund, which became a highly successful volunteer group.
2011:
At dawn prior to the park opening, the annual Cast Canoe Races at Disneyland (a tradition since 1963) takes place. Twelve teams in three divisions row around the Rivers of America in canoes from Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes. Employees of the Davey Crockett’s Explorer Canoes sweep the divisions, taking first in the men’s, women’s and co-ed divisions.

The Help, distributed by Touchstone Pictures, is released. A film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's 2009 novel of the same name about a young white woman, Skeeter Phelan, and her relationship with two black maids during Civil Rights era America in early 1960, the film stars Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain, Sissy Spacek, Mike Vogel and Allison Janney.

 

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8/11 and fact for the day
In 2004, Walt Disney World recycled 18,322,000 pounds
of paper products! WDW has made many visible steps in order to be environmentally responsible. They have shown that they are serious when it comes to
being "Green".

 

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8/12 and fact for the day
Nine photographers
spent almost 3 years gathering material in Alberta, Canada, for Disney's 1958 White Wildernessnature documentary.It later won the Academy
Award for Best Documentary Feature.

2011:
Del Connell, known for his many contributions as a Western Publishing Company
comic book writer and editor, a Mickey Mouse newspaper comic strip writer for more
than 20 years, and the creator of dozens of characters, including Disney’s April, May,
and June (Daisy Duck’s nieces to complement Donald’s nephews), passes away at
the age of 93 in California. Born in June 1918, Connell joined the Disney Studios on Hyperion Ave. in 1939, first working in the Character Model Department. Connell served in the military during Wordl War II, but returned to Disney in 1945 as a screenwriter, contributing to The Three Caballeros, Alice In Wonderland and numerous shorts. In the 1950s, he started a thirty-year run at Western Publishing where he wrote and edited thousands of Dell and Gold Key comics featuring cartoon characters from Disney (as well as Warner Bros., Walter Lantz, Hanna-Barbera, and MGM).

 

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8/13 and fact for the day
Former American Idol judge Kara
DioGuardi has written songs for such Disney recording acts as
Hilary Duff, Raven-Symoné,
Ashley Tisdale, Miley Cyrus, and Demi Lovato. Her songs
also appear on both Camp Rock
soundtracks.
"What I’ve learned about
writing pop music is that, despite
all the changes in technology, the
art of crafting a great song hasn’t
really changed." -DioGuardi

 

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8/14 and fact for the day
Walt Disney World's Liberty Belle riverboat, which cruises around
Tom Sawyer Island, runs on tracks. Guests can't see the tracks
because the water is a murky green color ... intentionally dyed
to hide them!The Magic Kingdom's original
boat was an authentic sternwheeler steamboat called
the Admiral Joe Fowler. It was retired in 1980


2011:
After months of closure and years of "Under New Management," birds and flowers once again spring to life at Walt Disney World when Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room has a soft opening. The Adventureland staple will officially reopen tomorrow.

 

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8/15 and fact for the day
The Horizons logo, in homage to the Epcot attraction
replaced by Mission: SPACE, is on display at the center of
the rotating "gravity wheel"in the queue.

2012:
Walt Disney Pictures releases The Odd Life of Timothy Green, a fantasy drama
directed by Peter Hedges. A childless couple (played by Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton) bury a box in their backyard, containing all of their wishes for a child. After a stormy night, a 10-year-old arrives at their doorstep, claiming to be their son. Soon they realize that the child, named Timothy (played by Cameron "CJ" Adams), is far more special than they originally thought.

Disney’s blockbuster musical The Lion King becomes the fifth longest-running
Broadway show in history following this day's matinee performance at the Minskoff
Theatre in New York City. With performance #6,138, The Lion Kingsurpasses the original Broadway production of A Chorus Line to enter the top five. Based on the popular Disney film, The Lion Kingfirst opened on Broadway on November 13, 1997 at the New Amsterdam Theater, before transferring to the Minskoff in 2006.

 

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8/16 and fact for the day
The Disney Wonder was built at Fincantieri Shipyards in
Venice, Italy (the largest shipyard/naval engineering complex in the Mediterranean).

2012:
Disney Post, the official blog of The Walt Disney Company, debuts.