2004:
The US Civil Engineering Research Foundation announces the addition of Dr. Ben Schwegler Jr, vice president and chief scientist of Walt Disney Imagineering, to its board of directors. (Schwegler has been involved in nearly all of Disney’s construction projects over the past 21 years and directs the environment, materials and infrastructure group for the theme park operator.)
1902:
Singer-actor Harry Stockwell (father of actor Dean Stockwell) is born in Kansas
City, Missouri. He will go on to supply the singing voice for the Prince in Disney's 1937 classic
animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
1932:
Announcer and voice actor Casey Kasem is born in Detroit, Michigan.
In 1969, he and Paul Frees will record a series of comedic radio ads promoting the debut of
Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. (Kasem is best known for his syndicated radio show American Top 40
and as the voice of Shaggy for the animated Scooby Doo.)
1956:
Disney's animated short Hooked Bear, featuring Humphrey the Bear, is released. Directed by Jack Hannah, the cartoon features the voices of Jim Macdonald (as Humphrey) and Bill Thompson (as Ranger J. Audubon Woodlore).
1964:
Walt Disney writes a letter to Robert Moses, the president of the New York
World's Fair, 6 days after the fair's opening day. Walt explains the technical
problems plaguing his "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" exhibit (which hasn't
opened with the rest of the fair). He is confident that the bugs will be worked out very soon. (The exhibit will open May 2.)
1989:
The Disney Channel airs the 4th episode of MMC. Today is Party Day!
1992:
American Express Travelport, located in Epcot's CommuniCore West, closes.
1999:
At the ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) 14th Annual Film and Television Music Awards, songwriters Matthew Wilder and
David Zippel win for their work on Disney's Mulan.
2001:
Disneyland's Rocket Rods, a ride that was the brash new star of Tomorrowland when the aging fun zone got a $100-million face lift in 1998, closes forever. Although shuttered since September 2000 for a refurbishment that was to last until Spring 2001 ... no work was ever actually seen on the attraction. Despite efforts by designers and mechanics, the Rocket Rods was plagued with problems. Essentially a faster version of the PeopleMover, Rocket Rods took riders through the building housing Star Tours, the Star Trader, and the Starcade, offering views of all three through glass panes in a tunnel.
The Lizzie McGuire episode "I Do, I Don't" airs for the first
time on Disney Channel.
2006:
Cast members from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Broadway musical kick off the U. S. Postal Service’s commemorative stamp dedication celebrating The Art of Disney: Romance stamp featuring Belle and the Beast from the Disney animated film. The dedication ceremony takes place at the
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York City.
There are more than 4 million
trees, plants, shrubs, ground-covers, vines, epiphytes and
grasses from from every
continent (except Antarctica)
at Walt Disney World's
Animal Kingdom!
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2007:
The second annual Disney's California Food and Wine Weekends at
Disneyland Resort kicks off in Anaheim. The four extended weekends
(running though May 20) will feature culinary demonstrations, cooking and wine-tasting seminars and a "Taste of California" Marketplace.
Disney Channel airs the Hanna Montana episode
"I Am Hannah, Hear Me Croak" for the first time.
Disney's Hollywood Pictures releases The Invisible, a supernatural thriller teen
film starring Justin Chatwin, Margarita Levieva, Chris Marquette, Marcia Gay
Harden, and Callum Keith Rennie.
2002:
Disney's stage production of The Lion King kicks off its first national tour in
Denver, Colorado.
2005:
The ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards are presented
at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, California. Among the
winners for Top Box Office Films is The Incredibles.
"Anytime in radio that you can reach somebody on an emotional level, you're really connecting." -Casey Kasem
1822:
Ulysses S. Grant, the eighteenth United States President, is born in Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio. A military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods, Grant helped the Union Army defeat the Confederate military and end the Confederate States of America. Visit him and all the U.S. Chief Executives at Disney World's
The Hall of Presidents.
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2008:
A massive crowd of teens turn out in Long Beach, California for the first open casting call for ABC's new summer reality TV series (tentatively titled),
Disney's "High School Musical: Summer Session."
1962:
Actor and playwright Patrick Page - who played the role of Lumiere in 1999 and 2003 in Disney's Broadway hit Beauty and the Beast - is born in Oregon. He also played the role of Scar in the Broadway production of The Lion King. (Page is married to Paige Davis - best known as a host of the reality television series Trading Spaces.)
APRIL 27
APRIL 27
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
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2009:
"Milt Kahl: The Animation Michelangelo, A Centennial Celebration" is held in the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Samuel Goldwyn Theater. A
celebration of the life and career of animator Milt Kahl, one of the famous "Nine Old Men," the event is hosted by
animator Andreas Deja with special guests animators Floyd Norman, Ron Clements, and John Musker.
"I started at the studio about 1974. I was 20 when I started. Milt was very frightening. He intimidated a lot of people. He was like
the Simon Cowell of animation. I was working on a Cruella De Vil animation test. I showed him my test and he was relatively kind.
He gave me some advice and made a few drawings for me." -animator Ron Clements
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DCA Food & Wine Weekend
Rocket Rods closes
1958:
Disneyland's first "Zorro Days" wraps up with live performances by the
cast of the popular ABC-TV series.
In 2002 the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund contributed more than $750,000 to help fund the global work of scientists whose work focuses on protecting wildlife and wild places. The nearly 50 projects funded involve protecting and studying endangered species and their habitats in more than 25 countries. In addition, most programs include educational or community components to ensure long-term conservation success.
1990:
Touchstone Pictures releases the science fiction comedy Spaced Invaders.
Directed by Patrick Read Johnson, the film stars Douglas Barr, Ariana Richards and Royal Dano (the voice
of Abraham Lincoln for Walt Disney's Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln). As the armed forces of the planet Mars
fight a vast interstellar war, the idiotic & incompetent crew of a small Martian spaceship intercept a rebroadcast of
Orson Welles' 1938 The War of the Worlds radio dramatization. Mistaking this for the real thing, they land the
ship in a podunk, drought-stricken farming community in Illinois and ineptly attempt to conquer Earth.
1951:
Disney's Goofy short Cold War, directed by Jack Kinney, is released. Goofy
learns that a cold is nothing to be sneezed at.
"Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars."
2010:
The Angels' newest addtion to their Anaheim baseball team, Hideki Matsui visits
Disneyland for the very first time. Prior to his debut against the Cleveland Indians, Matsui poses for a picture
with Mickey Mouse in a baseball uniform and experiences It's A Small World with a few Angels fans. Originally signing with
the NY Yankees in 2002, he became an Angel last December when he signed a one-year deal with the Anaheim club.
1960:
Disney's 17th (and final) People & Places short The Danube is released in CinemaScope. The people who live along the Danube (Europe's second longest river) are the focus of this film.
