this day in disney history

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12/11

1949:
Actress Teri Garr - who appears in the 1991 TV special The Best of Disney:
50 Years of Magic - is born in Lakewood, Ohio. A Disneyland Cast Member in her younger
days, Garr appeared in the 1994 Miramax Films comedy Ready to Wear. (Movie fans will recognize her from
such classics as Young Frankenstein, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Oh, God, Mr. Mom and Tootsie.
1976:
Disney airs the 1966 comedy Lt. Robinson Crusoe U.S.N. on television
1992:
Walt Disney Pictures releases The Muppet Christmas Carol - the fourth
feature film to star The Muppets, the first distributed by Disney, and the
first produced after the death of Muppets creator Jim Henson. The film is directed by Jim
Henson's son Brian and stars Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge.
1995:
The Disneyland Pacific Hotel - formerly the Pan Pacific Hotel - opens in Anaheim. (In December 2000 it will be renamed the Paradise Pier Hotel.)
2007:
Actor Lucas Grabeel appears on Live with Regis and Kelly to promote today's release of High School Musical 2 on DVD.

Walt Disney Home Entertainment also releases three new 2-Disc DVD volumes -
The Adventures of Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, Chronological Donald, Volume 3, and Disneyland: Secrets, Stories and Magic.

Travel Channel airs Disney Holiday Magic with Samantha Brown for the first time.
Brown explores the holiday celebrations at Walt Disney World in Florida.
2009:
The Princess and the Frog, produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and loosely based on E.D. Baker's novel "The Frog Princess" and and the Grimm brothers' "The Frog Prince," is generally released. The 49th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics and the first theatrically released 2D animated movie by Disney since 2004's Home on the Range, The Princess and the Frog features the voice of Tony Award-winning singer and actress Anika Noni Rose as Princess Tiana.

 

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12/12

1927:
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Disney's Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit short Empty Socks is released.
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The silent black & white cartoon - featuring Oswald as Santa - is the first ever Disney
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Christmas themed short. Directed by Walt Disney himself, the animation credits include Ub
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Iwerks, Rollin "Ham" Hamilton, and Hugh Harman.
1937:

Disney's Sunday color newspaper strip features the first glimpse of the characters
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from the upcoming film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The strip, written by Merrill de
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Maris and drawn by Hank Porter, features a different storyline from the animated film (set to debut December 21[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]).[/FONT]​

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1941:

Disney's animated educational short 7 Wise Dwarfs is released.

The short is made for the National Film Board of Canada to promote the purchase of Canadian War Bonds. The film

shows the dwarfs mining for gemstones, and later investing them in Canadian War Savings Certificates, all the while

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]singing a variant of the song "Heigh-Ho."[/FONT]
[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] 1954:
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Clarence C. Nash (the voice of Donald Duck) appears as a guest on the television game show [FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]What' My Line?[/FONT]
1981:

CBS-TV airs the two-hour documentary Walt Disney ... One Man's Dream.
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Co-starring Michael Landon and ________ Van as presenters (at Disneyland and WDW respectively), various entertainers and artists look at Disney's influence through his work.[/FONT]
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2000:

The Disneyland Pacific Hotel re-opens as Disney's

Paradise Pier Hotel. The 502-room hotel has been

brightly painted and decorated to reflect the new beachfront theme,

and offers hotel guests a private entrance into Paradise Pier and the

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]rest of the new Disney's California Adventure theme park.
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2006:

Emmy Award-winning actor Peter Boyle passes away at a New York City hospital. Best known as Frank Barone on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, Boyle had a role in all three of Disney's The Santa Clause films. In The Santa Clause, he plays Scott Calvin's boss. In The Santa Clause 2 and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, he plays Father Time. (Movie fans will remember him as the monster in the 1974 Mel Brooks comedy classic Young Frankenstein[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif].)
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12/13

1925:

Emmy Award-winning actor ________ Van , best known as Bert the

Cockney chimney sweep in Disney's 1964 musical feature Mary Poppins,

is born in West Plains, Missouri. He hosted such TV specials as Florida's Disney Decade

(1981), Donald Duck's 50th Birthday (1984), and Walt: The Man Behind the Myth (2001). Van 's Disney

credits also include the features ________ Tracy, Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N., and Never a Dull Moment. He has also

taken part in Disneyland's annual Christmas Candlelight Procession - in particular Disneyland's 1965 version ...

the last Candlelight ceremony that Walt Disney himself attended. (With a career spanning 6 decades, fans know Van as Rob Petrie on the 1960's TV comedy series The ________ Van Show, Caractacus Potts in the 1968

feature film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and as Dr. Mark Sloan on the television series Diagnosis Murder[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif].)

1940:
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Disney's Donald Duck cartoon Fire Chief, directed by Jack King, is released. Donald's fire
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]department, consisting of himself and his nephews, are unable to cope when their own building goes up in flames!

1959:

Child-actor Johnny Whitaker, who starred in Disney's 1972 Napoleon and Samantha with Jodie Foster, and Snowball Express with Dean Jones, is born in

Van Nuys, California. (TV fans may remember Whitaker for his roles on the 1960s series Family

Affair and the 1970s series Sigmund and the Sea Monsters[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif].)

1966:
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Walt's wife Lily writes his annual birthday letter to sister Ruth. Her opening words include: "As
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you have probably surmised things have been a little irregular around here with Walt being ill and so your birthday
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remembrance from him is a little late. I know it comes with his best wishes that your day was a nice one and the
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hope that you will find something special to get for yourself with this check." Lily writes of her daughters and
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grandchildren and assures Ruth that her brother will write as soon as he is back in the office. (Walt will
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]pass two days later.)[/FONT]​

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1971:

Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks, starring Angela Lansbury, David Tomlinson,

and Roddy McDowall opens in major U.S. theaters. An apprentice witch, 3 kids and a

cynical con-man search for the missing component to a magic spell useful to the defense of Britain during

World War II. A musical shot entirely on the Disney Studio lot in Burbank, California, the film features live-

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]action and animation. (It will win an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.)
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1975:
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D[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]isney announces it will begin construction of EPCOT in 1976, instead of 1977 as originally planned.
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2004:

Nominations are announced for the 62nd annual Golden Globe Awards.
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The Disney/Pixar feature The Incredibles earns one for Best Motion
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Picture - Musical or Comedy. It is also announced that Robin Williams (best known
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to Disney fans as the voice of the Blue Genie in the 1992 Aladdin) will receive the
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Cecil B. DeMille Award. (Winners will be announced in January 2005.)
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11/14

1935:

The Silly Symphony short Broken Toys, directed by Ben Sharpsteen, is released to theaters. [FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Discarded toys at the city dump, led by a toy sailor, decide to repair themselves!

1961:
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Disney's first live-action musical feature film Babes in Toyland, starring
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Ray Bolger, Tommy Sands, Annette Funicello, and Ed Wynn is released.
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Directed by Jack Donohue, the film is based upon Victor Herbert's popular 1903 operetta Babes in Toyland
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif](and adapted by Disney songwriter George Bruns specifically for this production).

1966:
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Lilly Disney visits her husband Walt at St. Joseph's Hospital (across from his studio)
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in Burbank, California. Although Walt is very ill, she is encouraged by the strength he shows. His brother
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Roy pays him a visit at night and they talk about company matters, EPCOT, and Disney
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World. Walt looks at the ceiling and points out the design of the new Florida park to a teary-eyed Roy. After he
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leaves, Walt asks to have his bed raised so he can look toward the nearby Disney Studios. At Roy's
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]orders, every one of the studio's lights is left on to shine through the night.

1984:
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Disney releaes the animated featurette Frankenweenie, directed by Tim Burton.
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A parody of and a homage to the 1931 film Frankenstein[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif], this time Victor Frankenstein is a young boy who brings his pet dog back to life!

1997:

The second official "Toad In" takes place at Walt Disney World's Fantasyland. Supporters of the ill-fated Mr. Toad attraction pass out "Save Mr. Toad" buttons.
2003:

After many delays, the first phase of Walt Disney
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World's Pop Century Resort (the Classic Years 1950s-90s) finally opens for business. Located at 1050
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Century Drive, the resort is adjacent to the Wide World
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of Sports Complex and near Disney-MGM Studios.

2006:

Toon Disney kicks off its very first "12 Days of Christmas" event.



The Hong Kong Disneyland Resort announces an expansion plan

which will add 3 new attractions for 2007 and 2008. It's A Small World for early 2008, a brand

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]new parade for Summer 2007, and a New Animation Academy on Mainstreet USA.
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11/15

1933:
Comedic actor Tim Conway is born Thomas Daniel Conway in Willoughby, Ohio. He co-starred in Disney's Apple Dumpling Gang movies, the 1973 The World's Greatest Athlete, and the 1987 TV special Walt Disney World Celebrity Circus. His voice credits include Disney's Hercules animated TV series and the 2009 Santa Buddies (as Sniffer). (Conway is best known from his appearances on TV's "The Carol Burnett Show," his series of satirical how-to videos in which he plays a diminutive, dark-haired Scandinavian known as Dorf, and as the voice of Barnacle Boy on the animated series "SpongeBob SquarePants.")
1937:
An extended story session for Bambi takes place at the Disney Studio between producer-director Sidney Franklin and Walt Disney. (It is a week before the debut of Snow White and Bambi is the next scheduled project.) Franklin is eager to get the film into production, but Walt feels the studio isn't ready for such a sensitive re-telling of Felix Salten's novel. Later this day Walt announces to the press that Bambi is being postponed and Pinocchio will be the next feature.
1939:
The new Sugar Bowl Lodge at Sugar Bowl, a ski area in northern Placer County near Norden, California along the Donner Pass of the Sierra Nevada, opens. Founded in 1938 by a group of investors, including Walt Disney, it is the first ski area in California to install a chairlift (and later the first in the U.S. to install a gondola lift). Walt will vacation at Sugar Bowl in early 1941 with wife Lillian and daughter Diane. (The lodge will be the inspiration for the Goofy short, The Art of Skiing - released in Novemebr 1941.)
1966:
Thursday
Walter Elias Disney passes away at St. Joseph's Hospital of acute circulatory collapse (caused by lung cancer) just ten days after his 65th birthday. When the news of Walt's death reaches Disneyland in Anaheim, consideration is given to closing the park for the day, but instead it is kept open (as Walt would have wanted), but the flags on Main Street USA are lowered to half-mast. Disney will be cremated two days later.
(His 74-year-old brother Roy O. Disney will postpone his planned retirement and start construction in Florida on Walt's latest project, Disney World.)
1972:
Construction begins on Space Mountain at Walt Disney World.
1973:
The Pirates of the Caribbean attraction opens in Walt
Disney World. Housed in a golden Spanish fort called
Castillo Del Morro, it is located in the Caribbean Plaza of
Magic Kingdom's Adventureland. Featuring 125 Audio-Anamatronics (65 pirates & villagers and
60 animals), guests ride in flumes through 155,000 gallons of water (which includes one 14-foot drop).
1989:
Star Tours opens at the Disney-MGM Park. It is the first attraction to
open in the park's new backlot annex area. Based on the successful Star Wars franchise of movies, it is Disney's 3rd version of the attraction (Disneyland's Star Tours opened in 1986 and Tokyo Disneyland's in July 1989.)
2004:
On the 50th anniversary of his debut as "king of the wild frontier," the man
known to millions of baby-boomers as legendary frontiersman Davy Crockett
receives the highest honor Disneyland bestows, when the Anaheim park
unveils a tribute window on Main Street to actor Fess Parker.

 

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12/16

1859:
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Writer and linguist Wilhelm Grimm passes away in Berlin, Germany. He and his brother Jacob were the first to write down such classic tales as Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty.
1929:

The Walt Disney Studios is incorporated as a partnership and replaced by 4
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companies: Walt Disney Productions, Ltd.; Walt Disney Enterprises; Liled
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Realty and Investment Company; and the Disney Film Recording Company
1952:

WED Enterprises is founded as a private company owned solely

by Walt Disney to design and create Disneyland and to manage

Disney's personal assets. WED stands for Walter Elias Disney. (In 1986, WED

will be renamed Walt Disney Imagineering.) Already hard at work on the theme park

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]project are Walt's first 3 Imagineers ... Harriet Burns, Fred Joerger and Wathel Rogers.

1966:
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At 5:00 p.m. on this Friday, a private service is held for Walt Disney's immediate
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family at Little Church of the Flowers of Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale,
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California. No announcements of the funeral are made until after it has taken place.
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The New York Times runs "Walt Disney, 65, Dies on Coast; Founded an Empire
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on a Mouse" the day after his passing. The obituary includes these words:
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Los Angeles, Dec. 15--Walt Disney, who built his whimsical cartoon world of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck
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and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs into a $100-million-a-year entertainment empire, died in St.
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Joseph's Hospital here this morning. He was 65 years old.

1977:
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The Disney live-action feature Candleshoe - starring Jodie Foster as Casey Brown, Helen Hayes as Lady St. Edmund (in her last screen appearance), and David Niven playing 3 roles including the part of Priory - is released
1994:

After extensive renovations, Walt Disney World's Snow White's
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Adventures reopens as Snow White's Scary Adventures.
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Meanwhile over in Tomorrowland, the new ExtraTERRORestrial Alien
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Encounter offers a soft opening.

1997:
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Ninety-eight-year-old Lillian Bounds Disney dies peacefully in her sleep at her home in West Los Angeles, after suffering a stroke the day before.
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif](Her husband Walt had died thirty-one years ago and a day in the early morning of December 15, 1966.)

2009:
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Roy E. Disney, son of Disney Studios co-founder Roy O. Disney, and
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nephew of Walt Disney, passes away at the age of 79 at Hoag Memorial
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Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, California (following a
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year-long battle with stomach cancer). A successful businessman, philanthropist, filmmaker, and
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award-winning sailor, he played a key role in the revitalization of The Walt Disney Company and Disney's animation
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legacy (his influence led to the departure of former chief Michael Eisner). Roy Edward Disney was associated with
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the Company over a 56-year period, and from 1984–2003, served as vice chairman of the Company's board of
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directors, and chairman of the Studio's Animation Department. In recent years, he held the title of director emeritus
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and consultant for the Company​

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11/17

1931:
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Disney's Silly Symphony cartoon The Ugly Duckling, directed by Wilfred Jackson
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and loosely based on the popular Hans Christian Anderson story, is released
1935:

Actor George Lindsey, the voice of Lafayette the Basset Hound in Disney's 1970 The Aristocats, is born in Alabama. Lindsey's Disney credits also include an episode of the 1982 TV series Herbie, The Love Bug, and the feature films The Rescuers - as the voice of Rabbit, and Snowball Express - playing the role of Double L. Dingman.(Fans of classic TV know Lindsey as
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Goober Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif].)

1966:
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R[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]oy O. Disney announces to Disney management and the Imagineering team that the company will continue to be run according to Walt's wishes. (Walt Disney passed away two days ago.) He states that Walt's first name will be added to the title of the Florida theme park project.[/FONT]​

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1971:

Roy O. Disney (Walt's brother & the builder of Walt Disney World) decides not to attend the Disneyland Christmas Parade with his wife, son and grandchildren. Although he is not feeling well, he insists that they go on without him. [FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif](Sadly he will slip into a coma and 3 days later pass away.)
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1976:
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Walt Disney Productions releases The gy D.A. - a sequel to the 1959 The gy
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Dog. Wilby Daniels (the focus of the 1959 film) is now an adult (played by Dean Jones) who is a successful
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attorney. Unfortunately for Wilby, he can still transform into an English sheepdog! The film's all-star comic cast
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includes Tim Conway, Suzanne Pleshette, Keenan Wynn, Jo Anne Worley, ________ Van Patten, and Vic Tayback. This is the last of 19 films Robert Stevenson directed at Disney over a 20 year period.
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Buena Vista premieres Freaky Friday in a few select cities. A comedy starring Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris as a daughter and mother who switch personalities, the cast includes John Astin, ________ Van Patten, Ruth Buzzi and Charlene Tilton (making her feature film debut). Based on the novel of the same name by Mary Rodgers, Freaky Friday will be generally released in January 1977[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif].

1994:
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In Florida, Planet Hollywood opens at 1506 E. Buena Vista Drive, adjacent
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to Disney's Pleasure Island at Walt Disney World

1999:

Disney's animated feature film Fantasia/2000 debuts

at Carnegie Hall in New York City.



Western entertainer and Disney Legend Rex Allen (known for his work on many Disney films and theme park attractions) dies in Tucson, Arizona, two weeks before his 79th birthday. He narrated over 80 films for Disney and was the original voice of the "father" character in Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress attraction. A film actor, singer, and songwriter, Allen starred in 19 cowboy movies between 1950-1954 and had a 35 year recording career with Decca Records.



Touchstone Pictures and Columbia Pictures release the drama-science fiction film Bicentennial Man[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] starring Robin Williams.

2010:
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Profiles in History’s Hollywood Auction 43 begins (for the next two days) at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, California. Included is an assortment of unique Disney collectibles from film and theme parks, including an original stretching room oil painting from The Haunted Mansion, and an original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937 production cel.
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TRON: Legacy, a science fiction film produced by Walt Disney Pictures, is released in U.S. theaters. It is a sequel to Disney's 1982 film Tron. Jeff Bridges reprises his role as Kevin Flynn, and Bruce Boxleitner reprises his roles as Alan Bradley and Tron, while Garrett Hedlund portrays Flynn's now-adult son, Sam. Electronic music duo Daft Punk has composed the film score​

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11/18

1933:
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During a ceremony at the studio in which he is receiving an award from
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The Parents Magazine, Walt Disney gets word that his pregnant wife Lilly is
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about to deliver. He dashes off to the hospital and arrives just in time to see
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Diane Marie Disney born!

1941:
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W[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]alt Disney is called to Washington, D.C. to meet with the Treasury Department and the IRS. He is asked to provide a film to promote paying taxes - to be completed by the end of February 1942.

1966:

The television series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color [FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]airs "Disneyland Around the Seasons." As this is the first episode to air after the December 15th death of Walt Disney, a portion of Walt’s narrative is substituted by a brief tribute from ________ Van and NBC newsman Chet Huntley. The episode features Bob Cummings, Ronald Reagan and Paul Frees.[/FONT]​

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1979:

The Walt Disney Productions live-action feature film,
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The Black Hole, featuring Maximilian Schell, Anthony
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Perkins, Ernest Borgnine, and Roddy McDowall premieres
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]in London. (It will be released in the U.S. three days later.)
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1984:

Edna Francis Disney, mother of Roy E. Disney, passes at the age of 94

2004:

Body Wars, Cranium Command and The Making of Me

reopen at Epcot for the holiday season.



D[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]isney Cruise Line sets sail on its first 10-night holiday cruise from Port Canaveral, Florida.
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2008:

The premiere of Walt Disney Pictures' Bedtime Stories takes place at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California. The adventure comedy stars Adam Sandler as Skeeter Bronson, a hotel handyman whose life is changed forever when the bedtime stories he tells his niece and nephew start to mysteriously come true.

2009:
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The Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln attraction returns to Disneyland.
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Using first-time technology, Lincoln’s head is electronic, allowing the robot to make more realistic facial movements.
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Also on this day, Disney announces that "Captain EO," the 3D film starring the late "King of Pop" Michael Jackson, will be returning to Disneyland for a limited time starting in February 2010. [FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]The 17-minute film will return to its original home at the theater inside Tomorrowland, replacing "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience."
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12/19

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]1914:
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]A[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]nimator, story man and [/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Disney Legend[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] Mel Shaw is born in Brooklyn, New York. [/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Personally recruited by Walt Disney, Shaw will work on such classics as[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] Fantasia[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif], [/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Bambi[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif], and [/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]The Wind in the Willows[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] (which later became a segment in [/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]).[/FONT]​

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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]1925[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]:
[/FONT]
[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]W[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]alt Disney's 28th [/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Alice Comedy[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] film [/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Alice's Orphan[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] is completed.
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]A[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]cademy Award-winning songwriter & Disney [/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Legend[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] Robert B. Sherman is born in Manhattan, New York. [/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]He and his younger brother Richard have written countless songs for many Disney features and park attractions. Among their best known tunes - "Feed the Birds" & "Chim-Chim-Cheree" from [/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Mary Poppins[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] and the park attraction "It's A Small World (after all)."
[/FONT]
[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]1960:
[/FONT]
[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]A[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]ctor Tom Tryon, the star of the 1958-59 [/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Disneyland[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] television serial "Texas John Slaughter," records excerpts from Abraham Lincoln's speeches as a test. [/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Disney is in the midst of preparing Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln for the 1964 [/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]World's Fair[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif].
[/FONT]
[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]1972:
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]A[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]ctress Alyssa Milano, the voice of Angel in Disney's 2001 [/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Lady and the Tramp
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]II: Scamp's Adventure[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif], is born in Brooklyn, New York. [/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif](TV fans will recognize
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]her from such series as "Who's the Boss?" and "Charmed.")
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]1998:
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]T[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]est Track opens at Disney World's Epcot. [/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif](It will be dedicated in March 1999.)
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]1999:
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]D[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]isney World's Tomorrowland Speedway (originally called Grand Prix Raceway) is renamed Tomorrowland Indy Speedway[/FONT]

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]2005:
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]T[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]he Walt Disney World Resort's animal care team welcomes a
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]233-pound baby elephant early in the morning. The female African elephant calf is born at Disney's Animal Kingdom Park.
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]2008:
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]I[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]t is announced that the Chicago Film Critics Association has named
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Disney-Pixar's [/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Wall-E[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] as its Best Picture of the Year.[/FONT]
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12/20

1907:
Singer-songwriter Al Rinker is born in Tekoa, Washington. Originally a member of the Rhythm Boys vocal trio (with Bing Crosby & Harry Barris) Rinker wrote the song "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat" (along with Floyd Huddleston) for Disney's 1970 animated feature The Aristocats.
1909:
Animator Ambrozi "Amby" Paliwoda is born in Cleveland, Ohio. He worked for Walt Disney Studios from 1935 to 1960. While at Disney he helped organize the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists, Local 839 IATSE. (After leaving Disney he worked for many other studios, including Hanna-Barbera, and Filmation.) In 1985, Paliwoda received the Animation Guild's Golden Award - for his lifetime of work in the animation field.
1937:
Walt Disney is interviewed on the radio by film legend Cecil B. DeMille. They discuss the upcoming Los Angeles premiere of Snow White.
1968:
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day is released along with the live-action feature The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit in New York City. Disney's 2nd Pooh short - and the first appearance of Tigger, it will win an Academy Award. The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit, a comedy directed by Norman Tokar, stars Dean Jones as an ad executive who is under pressure from his boss to come up with a new campaign for a wealthy client. The cast includes Morey Amsterdam, Kurt Russell, Lloyd Bochner, and Diane Baker
1971:
Roy O. Disney, (one of) Walt's older brothers, business partner, and co-founder
of The Walt Disney Company, passes away at the age of 78 of a cerebral
hemorrhage in Burbank, California. Roy served as the company's chief executive officer
(1929–1971) and president (1945–1971). While Walt was the creative man, Roy was the one who made sure the
company was financially stable - and it was Roy who made sure Walt Disney World was built. With both Disney
brothers gone, the board of directors for the first time will have to turn outside the Disney family for leadership.
(Donn Tatum will become chairman and Card Walker president of Walt Disney Productions.)
1972:
Disney debuts the documentary film The Magic of Walt Disney World on NBC-TV the same day it releases the live-action feature film Snowball Express to theaters.
1974:
Disney releases Winnie the Pooh & Tigger Too along with the live-action The Island at the Top of the World. It is Disney's third animated short featuring Pooh (and will be nominated for an Oscar). The Island at the Top of the World tells the story of four turn of the century explorers who embark on an airship expedition to the high arctic to find a lost colony of Vikings. The film features the brilliant work of production designer and special effects designer Peter Ellenshaw
(who will be nominated for an Academy Award® for Art Direction).
1980:
Starting on this day, classic Disney cartoons are shown at Walt Disney World's
Fantasy Theater (one time home to the Mickey Mouse Revue attraction)
1988:
A ceremony is held at the Main Street Train Station to dedicate a new poster representing Delta's participation as the official airline of Walt Disney World.
1991:
The Disney Vacation Club opens at Walt Disney World.

Touchstone Pictures (a film division of The Walt Disney Company) releases the
comedy Father of the Bride starring Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Kimberly Williams,
and Martin Short. Martin plays George Banks an upper-middle-class owner of an athletic shoe company
whose 22-year-old daughter Annie (played by Williams) has decided to marry a man from an upper-class family,
despite knowing each other only three months. Short's role of Franck Eggelhoffer the eccentric wedding planner
will be the insperation for the Walt Disney World Wedding Pavilion shop Franck's.

Disney's animated feature Beauty and the Beast is released in the Philippines
and Mexico
2007:
At Disneyland, a 75-foot-tall crane hoists the first of the new Mark VII monorails from a flatbed truck onto the beam way track. The five-car burnt-burgundy train is the first of three new monorails expected to go into service at the Anaheim park starting in February 2008. Three years in the making, the all-new bullet-nosed monorails were designed by Disney, built in Rhode Island and
assembled in Vancouver, Canada.

 

[trr1]

12/21

1913:

Imagineer and Disney Legend Fred Joerger is born in Pekin, Illinois. He helped realize Walt Disney's visions by crafting three-dimensional miniature models of Disney theme park attractions, as well as motion picture sets and props - before they were brought to full-scale life. Joerger also designed and constructed most all rockwork at Disney World for its 1971 opening, including the atrium waterfall featured in the Polynesian Resort. The Haunted Mansion tombstone that reads: HERE LIES GOOD OLD FRED A GREAT BIG ROCK FELL ON HIS HEAD R.I.P.[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] is a tribute to Joerger!

1914:
​

Eustace Lycett, designer of special effects for Disney movies, is born in
​

Straffordshire, England. His 43-year career with Disney began in 1937 as a protégé of Ub Iwerks (a pioneer of animation and special effects). Lycett worked on more than 30 films, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Babes in Toyland, and Mary Poppins.
1936:

A[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] baby girl named Sharon Mae is born. Less than two weeks later she will be adopted by Walt Disney and his wife Lillian.

1937:
​

Tuesday
​

Disney's first feature-length animated film, Snow White
​

and the Seven Dwarfs premieres at the Carthay Circle
​

Theater in Los Angeles, California. The film features
​

the voices of Adriana Caselotti (as Snow White) and Harry Stockwell (as the Prince). Workers at the
​

studio present Walt with a backyard playhouse for his two daughters, a child size copy of the dwarfs' cottage
​

from the film. In attendance at the opening of the first American feature-length animated film are such stars as
​

Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Judy Garland, Carole Lombard, John Barrymore, Marlene Dietrich, and
​

future Disney Legend Fred McMurray. Also attending the premiere is Adriana Caselotti, Snow White director
​

David Hand[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif], and a teenager named Marjorie Belcher (later known as Marge Champion) - the animator's live-action model for Snow White! (The Carthay will later be razed and replaced by an office building.)[/FONT]​

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]

1944:

Disney's 7th animated feature The Three Caballeros [FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]world premieres in Mexico City. It will be released in the U.S. the following February.
[/FONT]
1960:
​

Disney's live-action Swiss Family Robinson (based on the book by Johann Wyss) is released along with The Horse with the Flying Tail. Filmed on the Caribbean island of Tobago (the smaller of the two main islands that make up the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago), Swiss Family's lavish pre-production planning and on-location shooting resulted in a budget that exceeded $4 million! The plot centers on Mother and Father Robinson (Dorothy McGuire and John Mills) and their three sons Fritz (James MacArthur), Ernst (Tommy Kirk) and Francis (Kevin Corcoran) who find themselves stranded on a deserted island with no rescue in sight.

The Horse with the Flying Tail[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] is a documentary film about the palomino horse, Nautical, who won the team gold medal at the 1959 Pan American Games. (It will win the Best Documentary award at the 33rd Academy Awards.)[/FONT]​

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]

1966:

W[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]alt Disney's Last Will and Testament is filed.[/FONT]​

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]

1979:

The Walt Disney Productions live-action science fiction

feature, The Black Hole is generally released in theaters

in the U.S. It is directed by Gary Nelson and stars Maximilian Schell,

Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, Anthony Perkins, and

Ernest Borgnine. The voices of the main robot characters in the film are

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]provided by Roddy McDowall and Slim Pickens. A bold experiment for Disney, the film's budget climbed to $20 million and is the first PG-rated release in Disney history! It will be nominated for Academy Awards for Cinematogry and Visual Effects - Peter Ellenshaw, the acclaimed matte artist and Disney effects veteran was lured out of retirement to oversee the production. James Macdonald (the second voice of Mickey Mouse) has helped create the amazing sound effects.[/FONT]​

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]

1999:

Disney's Fantasia 2000[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] has its London premiere at the Royal Albert Hall.

2007:

On Snow White's 70th anniversary, Epcot's iconic Spaceship Earth (closed for nearly six months) reopens to the public with a new story line and digital enhancements. (The attraction will formally reopen in February 2008.)



Ratatouille wins Best Animated Film at the Florida Film Critics Circle Awards.



The Goofy short How To Hook Up Your Home Theater is released with the

Walt Disney Pictures feature National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif].
[/FONT]​

​

[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

 

[trr1]

12/22

1936:

Another Snow White conference is held at the Disney Studio's Hyperion sound

stage in California. Twenty-nine employees (mostly animators and animation directors) discuss the

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]dwarf's personalities and listen to Walt's detailed shot-by-shot description of the movie.

1937:
​

Animator Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman runs into Walt
​

Disney at the studio the morning after the wildly successful opening of
​

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Instead of talking about how he can now take a little rest after
​

all the tensions he'd gone through during the four years it took to make Snow White, Walt talks about the next
​

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]animated feature and how he wants to get started right away!

1959:
​

D[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]isneyland's largest Candlelight choir to ever sing at the park ushers in the holiday season. The choir is made up of 2,574 singers!

1982:

At 4:34 in the afternoon, all power to Disneyland (and Anaheim) is cut due to winds knocking over a northern California powerline.
1984:

Disneyland's Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln is updated to incorporate the latest innovations in Audio-Animatronics, technology and the inclusion of a new finale song - "Golden Dream." A new audio-animatronic Lincoln has been created with enhanced movements and facial expressions, new skin, a new costume, and even the ability
​

to hold a piece of paper in his hand for his speech!

1995:

Writer, Imagineer and Disney Legend Bill Cottrell passes away in Burbank, California. Brother-in-law of Lillian & Walt Disney, Cottrell was the first president of what is today known as Walt Disney Imagineering. First working cameras at The Walt

Disney Studios in 1929, Cottrell eventually moved into the Story department where he contributed ideas to

shorts, including Who Killed ________ Robin? He went on to direct the wicked witch and evil queen sequences in

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and contribute to story on Pinocchio.



Walt Disney Pictures releases Tom and Huck. Based on Mark Twain's novel "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," the film stars Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Brad Renfro, Joey Stinson, and Rachael Leigh Cook.



Chef Mickey's opens at WDW's Contemporary Resort. A spot for character meals, the restaurant offers a buffet breakfast and a buffet dinner.

2007:

T[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]he Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Walt Disney Studios Park (the second theme park of Disneyland Paris) opens to guests.
[/FONT]​

[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

 

[trr1]

11/23

1887:

Comic actor Eric Blore - the voice of Mr. Toad in Disney's 1949 The
​

Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad - is born in London, England.
​

Often cast as a snide gentleman's gentleman or dissipated nobleman, Blore was a fixture in
​

Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals and appeared alongside such comedy greats as Laurel
​

& Hardy, the Marx Brothers and Bob Hope​

1931:
​

Comedian-actor Ronnie Schell is born in Richmond, California. His Disney credits include the 1981 The Devil and Max Devlin, the 1978 The Cat From Outer Space as the voice of Jake the cat, the 1977 TV special The Mouseketeers at Walt Disney World, the 1976 feature The gy D.A., and even an episode of Disney Channel's Phil of the Future. (Schell will always be best remembered for playing Private Duke Slater on the series Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif].)

1943:

Actor-writer Harry Shearer, the voice of Dog Announcer in the 2005 animated feature Chicken Little, is born Los Angeles, California. His Disney credits also include the 1987 TV "duckumentary" Down and out with Donald Duck. (A Saturday Night Live alumni, Shearer provides many of the voices for TV's The Simpsons and appeared in such features as A Mighty Wind, The Truman Show, and This Is Spinal Tap[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif].)

1954:
​

The Disney live-action film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (based on the
​

classic story by Jules Verne) starring Kirk Douglas, James Mason, & Peter
​

Lorre, is released. It is only the sixth film to ever be shot in CinemaScope (a widescreen movie
​

format) and the first science fiction feature produced by Disney. The film will be enormously popular at the
​

box-office, grossing $6.8 million on its first release. It however will not make a profit ... because it is one of
​

the most expensive movies produced up to this time, costing over $9 million! The film will also be highly
​

praised for the performances of the leading actors ... the first time that major Hollywood stars have
​

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]appeared in a Disney film.[/FONT]​

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]

1982:

Electronic Forum (an attraction where guests view film

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]clips focusing on current events) debuts at EPCOT's Future World.
[/FONT]
1987:
​

Disney's Touchstone Pictures releases the comedy-drama Good Morning
​

Vietnam[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] starring Robin Williams.
​

[/FONT]

2000:

Refurbishment of Walt Disney World's Grand Floridian Resort wraps
​

up. All guestrooms and suites in the hotel have been redone, and all
​

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]of the public areas have received a face-lift.
​

[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

 

[trr1]

12/24

1925:
​

AlanAlexander Milne's "In Which We Are Introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh
​

and Some Bees, and the Stories Begin" is published in the London Evening
​

News. (The following year, Methuen Publishing Ltd. will put it out in book
​

form, along with 9 more Pooh stories, under the title Winnie-the-Pooh[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif].)

1937:
​

The Disney short Lonesome Ghosts, featuring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck & Goofy,
​

is released. Mickey and his pals become ghosts exterminators when they are lured to a haunted house by
​

some funny ghosts in this classic short directed by Bert Gillett

1939:

Disney staff begin the move from the old studio at Hyperion Avenue in Silver Lake to a new one in Burbank. The success of the 1937 Snow White[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] has allowed Disney to build the new modern campus on some 51 acres of land. It is designed around the animation process, with the large animation building in the center of the campus, and adjacent buildings for the story department, the music department, the ink-and-paint departments, and the other various functions of the studio.

1942:
​

The cover of this day's issue of HAB"IT" (an official newsletter for men stationed at the U.S. Naval Reserve Aviation Base in Hutchinson, Kansas) features a Disney-designed insignia. [FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]This issue marks the first appearance of the station’s new emblem - Jiminy Cricket in an airplane with an anchor trailing behind it.

1944:
​

Musician, record company executive, race car owner, and politician Mike Curb is born in Savannah, Georgia. [FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]In 1969, his group the Mike Curb Congregation will score a Top 10 hit on the Adult Contemporary charts with a version of "It's a Small World." The song will be chosen by Disneyland as the ride's official theme song and the group will be considered the official Disneyland and Disney World singers.

1970:
​

Disney's 20th animated feature The Aristocats is generally released. The story
​

revolves around a family of aristocratic cats, and an alley cat who helps prevent a butler from kidnapping
​

them to gain his mistress' fortune. (This film is noted for being the last to be approved by Walt Disney
​

himself - he died in 1966 while the film was still in early production.) The all-star cast includes Phil Harris as
​

Thomas O'Malley the orange cat, Eva Gabor as Duchess the white cat, Sterling Holloway as Roquefort the
​

Mouse, Paul Wincell as Shun Gon the Chinese cat, Thurl Ravenscroft as Billy Boss the German cat, and
​

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Scatman Crothers as Scat Cat the panther Persian.

1971:

Disney World's Flight to the Moon attraction opens in Tomorrowland, just in time for the busy Christmas week. [FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif](It will close in the spring of 1975 and later house Alien Encounter and ultimately Stitch’s Great Escape.) The Magic Kingdom stays open on this Christmas Eve until 6 pm.

2000:

Disney's Night Before Christmas[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif], a 2-hour special tracking the globe-circling flight of Santa, airs on ABC-TV.
[/FONT]​

[/FONT]​

​

[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]​

[/FONT]

 

[trr1]

12/25 Merry Christmas

1913:
Candy Candido, the voice of Fidget in Disney's 1986 animated feature The
Great Mouse Detective, is born Jonathan Joseph Candido, in New Orleans,
Louisiana. His distinctive deep voice can also be heard as the Indian Chief in Peter Pan, the
Tournament Crocodile in Robin Hood, and the Graveyard Executioner in the Haunted Mansion attraction!
A radio performer, musician, and vocalist, Candido provided the "voice" for TV's Gentle Ben!
1924:
Screenwriter Rod Serling is born Edwin Rodman Serling in
Syracuse, New York. His popular Twilight Zone TV series will be the
inspiration for Disney's Tower of Terror theme park attractions
1950:
Walt Disney's first television special, One Hour in Wonderland airs on NBC at
4 P.M. Sponsored by the Coca-Cola Company and hosted by Walt himself, it is watched by about 20
million people (an amazing feat considering only 10.5 million TV sets exist in the U.S.). Guests include Edgar Bergen and his dummies Charlie McCarthy & Mortimer Snerd, Walt's daughters Diane & Sharon, Kathryn Beaumont (the voice of Disney's upcoming newest animated feature Alice in Wonderland) and Bobby Driscoll (the voice of Peter Pan). The Firehouse Five Plus Two - a Dixieland ensemble made up of Disney employees - also performs.
1955:
Disneyland's Mike Fink Keelboats (a Southern-style cruise through the back waterways of the Rivers of America) opens in Frontierland.
1957:
Disney's Old Yeller is released. The film stars Dorothy McGuire, Fess Parker, Chuck Connors,
Tommy Kirk, Kevin Corcoran, Beverly Washburn, and a yellow Black Mouth Cur named Spike in the title
role. Directed by Robert Stevenson, Old Yeller was shot at the 700 acre Golden Oak Ranch in the Santa
Clarita Valley, thirty miles north of Disney. (Spike will go on to appear in 20th-Century-Fox’s 1960 remake
of A Dog of Flanders, as well as on the short-lived NBC series The Westerner , and sire two more
generations of animal actors!)
1963:
Disney's 18th animated film The Sword In The Stone is released. Merlin the
Magician (voiced by Karl Swenson) teaches a young boy (voiced by Rickie Sorensen) who is destined to
be King Arthur. The film marks Wolfgang Reitherman's first solo directional effort for a feature film.
1971:
Christmas Day is celebrated for the first time at Walt Disney World with
the Magic Kingdom operating from 10am to 6pm.
1983:
Walt Disney World Very Merry Christmas Parade is broadcast live from the Magic Kingdom for the very first time. The 90-minute telecast is hosted by Joan Lunden (of Good Morning America) and popular talk-show host Mike Douglas (the singing voice of Prince Charming in Cinderella).
1984:
Joan Lunden and former track & field athlete Bruce Jenner host Walt Disney
World Very Merry Christmas Parade from the Magic Kingdom. The 90-minute telecast
features Regis Philbin (future parade host) for the first time and greetings from U.S. President Reagan
1986:
Joan Lunden and Ben Vereen return as hosts of Walt Disney World Very Merry
Christmas Parade. Regis Philbin hosts a segment celebrating Disney World's 15th birthday (and
takes a ride in the Ear-Force One hot air balloon) and Snow White leads the parade as its Grand Marshal
1987:
Walt Disney World Very Merry Christmas Parade airs on television. Hosted by Joan Lunden and actor Alan Thicke, the special also features Regis Philbin (giving a "hard hat" tour of such new WDW structures as the Grand Floridian and the Disney-MGM Studios) and film critic Leonard Maltin.
1988:
Joan Lunden and Alan Thicke return as hosts of Walt Disney World Christmas Day
Parade. The 2-hour telecast (a first for the parade) includes Regis Philbin giving a sneak preview of Disney-
MGM Studios and Sarah Purcell & Scott Valentine reporting from Disneyland (a first time simulcast from Anaheim)
1989:
Joan Lunden and Alan Thicke once again return as hosts of Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade. Stars from the current hit sitcoms Growing Pains, Family Ties, and Major Dad make appearances and Regis Philbin interviews Kermit the Frog about joining the Disney family.
1992:
The team of Joan Lunden and Regis Philbin return as hosts of Walt Disney
World Very Merry Christmas Parade. Special guests include Ed McMahon, Miss America
Leanza Cornette, John Davidson, and Al & Wilson from ABC's Home Improvement.
1993:
Joan Lunden and Regis Philbin return to host Disney World's Christmas Day Parade television special. Guests include Kathy Lee Gifford, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and Robby Benson.
1994:
Disney World's Christmas Day Parade is broadcast on ABC-TV. Hosted by Joan Lunden and Regis Philbin, the special features comic Margaret Cho, skater Nancy Kerrigan and Jonathan Taylor Thomas (reporting from Disneyland)
1997:
A Magical Walt Disney World Christmas, hosted by Melisa Joan Hart and Ben Savage, airs on television. Musical guests include Paige O'Hara, Jodi Benson and The Backstreet Boys
1998:
The world famous Harlem Globetrotters slam-dunk into Disney's Wide World of
Sports Complex in Florida for a series of performances through the New Year.

Walt Disney World's Very Merry Christmas Parade hosted by Caroline Rhea and
Richard Kind, airs on ABC. Wayne Brady makes his first appearance and Donny Osmond sings a Mulan
medley including "True to Your Heart" and "I'll Make a Man Out of You."

Touchstone Pictures releases the feature A Civil Action, a drama starring John
Travolta and Robert Duvall.
2000:
Disneyland closes its gates from 3PM to 6PM due to a high number of visitors!
2003:
The 20th Annual Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade, hosted by Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa, airs on ABC-TV. (Philbin has hosted more Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parades than anyone!) Guests include American Idol favorite Clay Aiken, Disney Channel star Raven, actress-singer Andrea McArdle, and entertainer Wayne Brady.
2004:
Touchstone Pictures releases The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. An off-beat comedy
directed by Wes Anderson, the film stars Bill Murray as Steve Zissou, an eccentric oceanographer.
2005:
It is reported that Disney's theme parks have made a list of the top 25 best-attended North American amusement parks in 2005. At the #1 spot is the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Orlando with 16.1 million visitors. Other Disney parks include Disneyland at #2, Epcot at #3, Disney-MGM Studios at #4, Animal Kingdom at #5. and Disney's California Adventure at the #7 position.
2006:
At Disney World, the Magic Kingdom shuts down for 55 minutes due to
capacity crowds.
2008:
Disney's annual holiday TV special Walt Disney World Christmas
Day Parade airs on ABC. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the program is once
again hosted by Regis Philbin, Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. Special guests include
Billy Ray Cyrus, Miley Cyrus, Jose Feliciano, Corbin Bleu, Jonas Brothers, David Cook, David Archuleta, the Imagination Movers and Sarah Brightman.

Walt Disney Pictures Bedtime Stories opens in theaters. The adventure comedy stars Adam Sandler as a hotel handyman whose bedtime stories he tells his niece and nephew mysteriously come true. Directed by Adam Shankman (known for such features as Hairspray and The Wedding Planner), Bedtime Stories also features former-Mouseketeer Keri Russell, Guy Pearce, and Courtney .

Actress-singer Eartha Kitt passes away at age 81 in New York City. Best known as a cabaret star and for her 1953 Christmas song "Santa Baby," Kitt was featured in many Disney projects. Her award-winning
voice credits include Yzma for TV's The Emperor's New Groove and the features The Emperor's New Groove and
The Emperor's New Groove 2: Kronk's New Groove, and Bagheera the Panther for The Jungle Book: Mowgli's
Story. Kitt also appeared in the live-action feature Holes as Madame Zeroni.
some may remember her also as Catwoman on the Batman show in the 1967-1968 season
2010:
The 27th year of the Emmy Award-winning Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade airs
on ABC-TV. Hosted by Ryan Seacrest (at Walt Disney World) and Nick Cannon (at Disneyland), guests include Mariah Carey; country-music chart-topper Darius Rucker; Amber Riley (who plays Mercedes on Glee); Disney
Channel stars Selena Gomez and Debby Ryan; young soprano sensation Jackie Evancho (of America’s Got Talent fame); American Idol Lee DeWyze, swing band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy; professional dancers from ABC-TV’s
Dancing with the Stars and R&B singer Sean Kingston

 

[trr1]

12/26

1923:
Walt Disney receives a telegram from New York cartoon distributor Margaret Winkler stating that she has received his Alice Comedy Alice's Day at Sea.
1932:
Newsman Dave MacPherson is born in Ithaca, New York. In July 1955 he will make Disneyland history when he becomes the first paying customer to enter the Anaheim park!
1953:
Disney's animated Peter Pan is released in Denmark and Norway
1973:
Paul and Linda McCartney host an episode of Disney Time. Disney Time is a UK holiday
television series running on the BBC since 1970
1995:
Disney's TV pilot "Family Values" airs.
2001:
Julie Andrews (of Disney's Mary Poppins fame) and other actors are
hailed on CBS-TV's "The Kennedy Center Honors."

Sir Nigel Hawthorne, the voice of Professor Porter in Disney's Tarzan,
dies at age 72 after battling cancer for a year-and-a-half

1938:
Lux Radio Theater with the cooperation
of Walt Disney Productions presents an adaptation of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." The show is presented live from the Music Box Theatre in Hollywood, California. Walt himself is interviewed twice during the hour-long radio presentation.
2005:
Character actor Vincent Schiavelli passes away in Sicily, Italy. During his career he made over 120 film and television appearances including the 1995 remake of Disney's Escape to Witch Mountain. (You may recognize him from such feature films as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Amadeus, and Ghost.)

 

[trr1]

12/27

1936:
While flying in rain and poor visibility south of Newhall, California, a United Airlines twin-engine Boeing airliner crashes in the Santa Susana Mountains. All 12 persons aboard the aircraft (9 passengers & 3 crew members) including H. S. Teague, 28, a cartoonist at Walt Disney Studios, perish.
1937:
Walt Disney appears on the cover of TIME. The publication profiles Disney the week Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs is released, calling the film "the most ambitious animated cartoon ever attempted."
1954:
Walt Disney appears on the cover of TIME magazine (for the second time). The issue
features an article titled "Father Goose," and this quote from artist Salvador Dalí: "Disney is innocence in action. He
has the innocence and unselfconsciousness of a child. He still looks at the world with uncontaminated wonder, and
with all living things, he has a terrific sympathy. It was the most natural thing in the world for him to imagine that mice
and squirrels might have feelings just like his."
1972:
Disney World is visited by 71,328 holiday visitors on this day!
2006:
Holiday crowds are so thick at Walt Disney World this afternoon that three parks close or divert traffic at various times. Because they have reached capacity, Magic Kingdom and Disney's Animal Kingdom both close by 1:15 p.m. At Disney-MGM Studios there are parking issues, and traffic is diverted away from the main parking lots for a couple of hours after 3 p.m.

 

[trr1]

12/28

1856:
​

Thomas Woodrow Wilson, the twenty-eighth United States
​

President, is born in Staunton, Virginia. Visit him and all the
​

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]U.S. Chief Executives at Disney World's The Hall of Presidents.[/FONT]​

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]

1971:
F[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]or the second day in a row, the parking lot of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World reaches capacity. Entry is restricted for several hours.

1977:
​

An amazing 82,938 guests visit Walt Disney World on this day!
​

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif](Keep in mind - at this time there is just 1 theme park, the Magic Kingdom.)

1982:

A[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]ttendance at Walt Disney World (now with two parks) reaches a high of 123,000!

2000:

Holiday crowds force Disneyland to suspended ticket sales for about 5 hours
​

[/FONT]​

​

[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

 

[trr1]

12/29

1791:
​

Andrew Johnson, the seventeenth United States President,
​

is born in Raleigh, North Carolina. Johnson was the first vice president to
​

succeed to the presidency upon the assassination of a president (Abraham Lincoln in 1865)
​

and the third vice president to become a president upon the death of a sitting president.
​

Visit him and all the U.S. Chief Executives at Disney World's The Hall of Presidents
1865:

Hollywood character actor Otis Harlan is born in Zanesville, Ohio. He will go on to supply the voice for Happy in Disney's classic 1937 film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif].[/FONT]​

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]

1971:

A[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]n amazing 69,458 guests visit Disney World on this day!
[/FONT]
1974:
​

Attendance at Walt Disney World in Florida hits a record 74,597...
​

forcing the Magic Kingdom to close to outside visitors for 4 hours.
​

​

It is believed that John Lennon signs the paperwork that officially breaks up The
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Beatles while at the Polynesian Resort. He, along with his son Julian and friend May Pang are
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spending the Christmas holiday in Florida. (Although the Beatles had stopped exisiting as a band in 1970, it
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]has taken some 4 years to draw up legal paperwork to divide their massive earnings.)
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2006:

Donny Osmond appears at Disney Outfitters - a shop in Disney's Animal
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Kingdom. Osmond signs copies of Disney's Mulan DVD and Soundtrack (for which he is the singing
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]voice of Shang) and his latest CD "What I Meant to Say" (his 54th studio album).
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1865:
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British author & poet Rudyard Kipling is born in Bombay, British
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India. One of the most popular writers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his best
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known work - the 1894 children's novel The Jungle Book, was released as a Disney
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]animated feature in 1967.[/FONT]​

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1917:

Country singer/movie star Wesley Tuttle is born in Lamar, Colorado. He yodeled as Dopey in Disney's 1937 classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif].
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1956:

Walt Disney appears on TV's The Ed Sullivan Show (along with

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Sid Caesar and Edward R. Murrow).
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1980:
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The longest-running series in prime-time television history, The Wonderful World of
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Disney, is canceled (on NBC) after more than 25 years on the air.
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The Selective Service System, in the midst of reminding 18-year-olds to register for
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the draft, send a warning to Mickey Mouse at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]The Selective Service says that Mickey is in violation of registration compliance.
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1993:

New York City Deputy Mayor Barry Sullivan and the Walt Disney Company sign a "memorandum of understanding" for the renovation of the New Amsterdam Theatre and renewal of the Times Square area.
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(The New Amsterdam will officially be unveiled on April 2, 1997[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif].)
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1997:

As of this day, Disney holds eight of the top ten spots on the All Time Movie Video Sales Chart with The Lion King (1); Aladdin (2); Cinderella (3); Beauty and The Beast (4); Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (5); Toy Story (7); 101 Dalmatians (8); and Pocahontas[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] (10).

2008:
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Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announces the
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names of 25 important motion pictures (classics and genres
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from every era of American filmmaking) to the National Film
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Registry of the Library of Congress. Among the 25 chosen is a
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1956 home movie titled Disneyland Dream. The film features the
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Barstow family (from Connecticut) who were among 25 families to win a free trip to the
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newly opened Disneyland as part of a "Scotch Brand Cellophane Tape" contest
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sponsored by 3M. (The 25 films were chosen for there cultural, historical or aesthetical significance - they are not selected as the "best" American films of all time.)
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Ironically a few weeks later, actor/director Steve Martin (a self-described "Disneyland
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[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]junkie") will discover himself in the film![/FONT]
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