1919:
Disney Legend Dodie Roberts is born in Plainview, Nebraska. Starting in 1939, she created
colors and mixed paints for the Disney Studios and later served as supervisor of the paint lab. (In the pre-computer
days when cel paints were mixed and matched by hand, animation paint mixing was a demanding job requiring both
technical and artistic skills.) Disney kept their cel paint mixtures a secret, and mixers were only given partial color information for each batch, without knowing what colors the others were adding. It wasn't until Roberts was
promoted to department supervisor in 1972 that she was trusted with the complete formulas for over 500 paints
and hues. Roberts mixed paints for virtually every Disney animated project in her 42 years at the company!
"I love puzzles and mixing paint was like putting together a puzzle." -Dodie Roberts
1929:
Walt Disney is granted a trademark for the use of the image of Mickey Mouse in motion pictures.
1951:
Actor Ronald Reagan (future U.S. president) and ventriloquist Paul Winchell take
part in a celebrity race at the Soap Box Derby in Akron, Ohio. Paul and his dummy Jerry
Mahoney beat Reagan in the competition! (Reagan will go on to co-host the opening of Disneyland and Winchell
will voice the character of Tigger in countless Winnie the Pooh features.)
1958:
Disney's stunning True-Life Adventure White Wilderness
- directed and written by James Algar - is released. The 72-minute film, narrated by Disney
producer-writer-actor Winston Hibler, tells the story of the animal inhabitants of Canada's subarctic and Alaska's
arctic wilds. (White Wilderness will be nominated for 2 Academy Awards and in 1959 be awarded an Oscar for
Best Documentary Feature as well as a Golden Bear at the 1959 Berlin International Film Festival.)
1965:
Mary Adams (of Solano Beach, CA) becomes the 50-millionth Disneyland guest!
1969:
Disneyland televises the historic Apollo 11 moon landing (which had occurred the month before) on the Tomorrowland Stage.
2000:
The Disney Magic embarks on its first seven-day cruise. The luxury liner has previously only offered three- and four-day cruises.
2003:
Disney's The Lizzie McGuire Movie is released to DVD. A comedy film based on the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire, it was originally released to theaters in May 2003.
Walt Disney Records releases the soundtrack to The Cheetah Girls.
2004:
Manatees, dolphins, and turtles are evacuated from Mote Marine in Sarasota to Epcot’s Living Seas (and to SeaWorld) as Central Florida braces for Hurricane Charley - the third named storm, the second hurricane, and the second major hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season.
On August 11, Florida governor Jeb Bush had issued a state of emergency declaration - due to the impending threat Charley presented to the state while the storm was still located south of Jamaica. Property damage from Charley in the U.S. will be estimated to be $15 billion ... making Charley the second costliest hurricane in United States history.
2005:
Christy Carlson Romano, the voice of Kim Possible and the star of the
hit show Even Stevens, greets guests at the World of Disney store on
Fifth Avenue in New York City. On display at the store are nine of the 75 unique,
700-pound, 6-foot-tall Mickey statues, created in celebration of Mickey's 75th Anniversary.
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Nine photographers
spent almost 3 years gathering material in Alberta, Canada, for Disney's 1958 White Wilderness nature documentary.
2006:
Disney Channel airs the Hannah Montana episode "You're So Vain, You Probably Think This Zit Is About You" for the first time. It is the thirteenth episode of the hit series starring Miley Cyrus.
2008:
Disneyland Resort Paris welcomes its 200-millionth visitor!
"Get Back," the first single from Demi Lovato's debut album
Don't Forget, is released on Hollywood Records.
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It later won the Academy
Award for Best
Documentary Feature.
"See, food I can talk about. I'm Italian, I know the food." -Christy Carlson Romano
From The Top Of The World!
A fabulous new adventure in exciting entertainment.
1994:
Disney's Hollywood Pictures releases the comedy feature In the Army Now starring Pauly Shore, Andy Dick and David Alan Grier.
White Wilderness released
Disneyland welcomes 50-millionth guest
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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.
