1887:
Character actor Christian Rub - the voice & physical likeness for
Geppetto in Disney's 1940 Pinocchio - is born in Austria. (Ironically Rub is featured in a 1940
version of Swiss Family Robinson - the exact version Disney bought up the rights to when planning its remake!)
2002:
Lucky Disney World fans get an opportunity to see
Chester & Hester's Dino-Rama!, the newest area of
Animal Kingdom. The after-hours event features 17 limited edition pins and pin sets; a private
dinner in DinoLand U.S.A.; access to the theme park's newest attractions, TriceraTop Spin and
Primeval Whirl and a special performance of the "Tarzan Rocks" stage show. The special event, which runs from 7 to 10 p.m., is at a cost of $125 per person.
Soap opera fans get to meet their favorite stars from One Life to Live at
Disney's California Adventure.
2004:
Animator Floyd Norman discusses his life in the animation industry through satirical sketches created during his illustrious career at Walt Disney Studio (as well as Hanna-Barbera, Pixar and Cartoon Network) at the Glendale Public Library in California. He also promotes his new book Son of Faster Cheaper, a humorous look at the cartoon business.
A tribute concert for composer Henry Mancini is held at the new Walt Disney Concert Hall. Hosting the celebration are Julie Andrews (of Disney's Mary Poppins) and Senator John Glenn (the third American in space). The late Henry Mancini, best known for his jazz-idiom theme to The Pink Panther film series, also wrote the music for Disney's 1986 animated feature The Great Mouse Detective.
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On the front page of the Hunstville Times is the headline:
"Walt Disney Makes Pledge to Aid Space". Walt is quoted as saying
"If I can help through my TV shows ... to wake people up to the fact we've got to keep exploring, I'll do it."
Von Braun's daily journal entry for this day indicates his hope that Walt's visit "may easily result in a Disney picture about manned space flight."
1935:
The Walt Disney Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey's Kangaroo, directed by David Hand, is released. The last Disney cartoon produced in black and white, a friend in Australia sends Mickey a kangaroo named Hoppy, who with her pesky son drives Pluto completely crazy!
1954:
Winsor McCay Award-winning animator, storyboard artist and author Glen Keane is born
in Arbington, Pennyslvania. Joining Disney in 1974, his interest in art had developed as a child by observing his father's work as a cartoonist. Keane's long list of Disney credits include such features as The Rescuers, The Black Cauldron, Treasure Planet, Pocahontas, Aladdin, Tarzan, Tangled and the 4-D film park attraction Mickey's PhilharMagic. (Glen is the son of Bil Keane, creator of the popular newspaper comic Family Circus.)
1965:
Walt Disney, his brother Roy, and other Disney executives visit the Marshall Space Flight Center
in Huntsville, Alabama. Walt had become friendly with Wernher von Braun, the director of the center and technical advisor on three space-related television films that Disney produced in the 1950s. (Wernher will go on to help NASA land men on the moon!)
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Alice Davis (wife of animator
& Imagineer Marc Davis)
worked on the
"It's A Small World"
attraction for
the 1964-65
2007:
The Disney Honors National Concert Band & Orchestra and Choral
Invitationals (a non-competitive, non-ranked festival featuring premier high school concert bands, orchestras and choral ensembles in the United States) kicks off for 4 days at Disney World.
2001:
The Disney Channel Original Movie Hounded, featuring Tahj Mowry, Craig Kirkwood, and Shia LaBeouf, debuts. A teenager ends up being hounded by a well-groomed and seemingly cute and tiny dog that actually turns out to be a nightmare of a beast!
The 7th Grammy Awards are held at the Beverly Hilton.
Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television
Show goes to composers Richard M. Sherman and
Robert B. Sherman for their work on Disney's Mary Poppins.
(Best New Artist for 1964 is awarded to The Beatles.)
"It was the early nineties and I decided to stop in Pasadena's Old Town on my way home from the studio. I had just parked on Green Street when I noticed a car pull up directly behind me. A tall young man stepped out of the vehicle and called my name. Though I had not seen him in months I immediately recognized my old friend, Joe Ranft. "Floyd," Joe shouted. "You've got to come up north. We've got some great things going at our studio."
I had just signed a contract with Disney Feature Animation and purchased a town home in Pasadena, so I reluctantly begged off. It was a decision I came to regret, because the project Ranft was excited about was a little film called Toy Story." -Floyd Norman
1743:
Thomas Jefferson, the third United States President (and author of the
Declaration of Independence), is born in Albemarle County, Virginia.
Major events during his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark
Expedition. Visit him and all the U.S. Chief Executives at Disney World's The Hall of Presidents.
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APRIL 13
APRIL 13
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
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A
P
R
"Honesty is the first chapter of the
book of wisdom." -Thomas Jefferson
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Walt visits Huntsville, Alabama
Mickey's Kangaroo released
While promoting Earth the first full-length theatrical film launched under its Disneynature documentary label, the Walt Disney company offered to plant a tree for
every U.S. ticket it sold during the movie’s first week of release. Some 2.7 million trees from the movie’s premiere were planted in the Atlantic Forest region of Brazil.
1964:
The 36th Academy Awards are held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in
Santa Monica, California. Although composer George Bruns is nominated for Best Music, Scoring
of Music, Adaptation or Treatment (for his work on Disney's The Sword in the Stone), Irma la Douce (music
by Andre Previn) takes home Oscar.
Stand-up comedian and actress Caroline Rhea is born in Montreal, Quebec,
Canada. She is the voice of Linda Flynn-Fletcher, Phineas and Candace's mother, and stepmother to
Ferb, on Disney Channel's animated series Phineas and Ferb. Her Disney credits also include episodes of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Fillmore! (Rhea was the original host of the reality television show The Biggest Loser on NBC.)
1943:
Original Mouseketeer Doreen Tracey is born to American parents
in London, England. (Tracy's parents are a vaudeville dance team performing for
Allied soldiers during Word War II.) Besides appearing on TV's Mickey Mouse Club
(from 1955-1959), she played Bobo Stephen in Disney's 1956 live-action movie Westward Ho the Wagons!
2005:
Salvador "Tutti" Camarata, who helped establish and run Disneyland Records for nearly
20 years, passes away at age 91 in Burbank, California. Starting in 1956, he played an important
role in building up the Disney studio's already well-known library of original music and provided some significant
additions to the studio's casts. Camarata introduced Sterling Holloway, who became the voice of Winnie the Pooh, and
helped convince Louis Prima and Phil Harris to provide the voices for King Louie the Ape and Baloo the Bear in The
Jungle Book. Camarata also produced records for such early Disney stars as Annette Funicello and Hayley Mills. Over
the course of his time with Disney, Camarata's 300-plus recordings earned a total of 8 Grammy Award nominations.
(During his diverse career, Camarata arranged music and played trumpet for a wide range of artists, including Bing
Crosby, Jimmy Dorsey, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman and Billie Holiday. He also started Sunset Sound Recorders,
one of the leading recording studios in Hollywood, which has been used by artists such as Van Halen, Prince and the
Rolling Stones.)
1950:
Television, film and voice over actor Ron Perlman, the voice of Stabbington Brother
in Disney's 2010 animated Tangled, is born in New York City. His Disney voice credits also
include episodes of Kim Possible. (Perlman's breakthrough role was Vincent in the TV series Beauty and the Beast
opposite Linda Hamilton from 1987 to 1990. Not a Disney production, it earned him a Golden Globe.)
2011:
Stars of Disney’s newest feature film PROM, Aimee Teegarden and Thomas McDonell, appear at Macy’s Union Square in San Francisco. The first 250 customers in line receive their autographs! (PROM hits theaters April 29.)
1931:
Disney officially announces its film distribution contract with United Artists. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, United Artists will eventually lose their deal to RKO (who will distribute Disney's first full-length animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937).
