1938:
Walt and Roy Disney place a $10,000 deposit on a 51-acre tract on
Buena Vista Street in Burbank, California. They will use this land to build a
new modern studio. The success of Snow White has enabled the Disney brothers to purchase the
$100,000 property from the Burbank Dept. of Water and Power. (Construction will begin in 1939.)
2005:
The Walt Disney Company announces it will pledge $2.5 million to aid relief and rebuilding in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
1834:
Italian composer Amilcare Ponchielli is born Paderno Fasolaro, Italy. His ballet Dance of the Hours - from his opera La Gioconda - is featured in Disney's 1940 Fantasia. The Dance of the Hours includes animated ostriches, hippos, elephants, & alligators all attempting to perform the actual ballet! (The segment is animated with an energy and franticness rarely seen in Disney films.) Although in his lifetime Ponchielli was very popular and influential in introducing an enlarged orchestra and more complex orchestration, the only one of his operas regularly performed today is La Gioconda.
1903:
One of the great pioneers of animation, Hugh Harman is born in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. He started at Walt Disney's studio (in Kansas City) in 1922, working on the Alice Comedies and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit films. Harman, a self-taught animator, went on to start the Warner Brothers and in 1939 the MGM animation studios with early Disney animator Rudolf Ising.
1924:
born Leonard Hacker in Brooklyn, New York. He portrayed Tennessee Steinmetz in the 1969 live-
action feature The Love Bug and supplied the voice for Scuttle the seagull in both the 1989 The Little Mermaid and
the 2000 direct-to-video sequel The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea. (Fans know Hackett from such films as
The Music Man, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and Scrooged and from countless television appearances on
variety shows and prime time sitcoms.)
1928:
Academy Award-winning actor James Coburn, the voice of Henry J. Waternoose in the 2001 Monsters, Inc. is born in Laurel, Nebraska. He also appeared in the 2002 live-action feature Snow Dogs as James 'Thunder Jack' Johnson.
Film fans will know him from such action classics as The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape.
1935:
The Disney cartoon Pluto's Judgement Day, directed by David Hand, is released.
When Mickey catches Pluto chasing a kitten, he punishes his dog, who falls asleep by the fire and dreams that he is put on trial in Hell by a judge and jury of vindictive cats.
1948:
Walt Disney circulates a memo in his studio describing ideas for an amusement park, which he calls "Mickey Mouse Park." He and Ward Kimball have recently returned from a trip to the Chicago Railroad Fair and Henry Ford's Greenfield Village ... and Walt has many ideas.
1964:
The Dapper Dans - Disneyland's barbershop harmony group - sing at the
ground-breaking ceremony for the 24-million dollar Anaheim Stadium (the new home
for baseball's California Angels). In front of 4,000 guests and dignitaries, the Dapper Dans sing "Take
Me Out To The Ball Game" with Mrs. Jack Norworth, the widow (Jack's 5th wife) of the composer.
The stadium will be ready for the 1966 season.
1973:
1998:
The syndicated show Disney's Hercules premieres on TV with the episode "Hercules and the Apollo Mission."
2001:
The Lizzie McGuire episode "Lizzie Strikes Out" debuts on Disney Channel.
2004:
Disney's The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride Special Edition DVD is released.
A direct-to-video sequel to the 1994 Disney animated film The Lion King, it was first released in October 1998.
"Disney's Swim with the Stars" tour kicks off at Walt Disney World. America's
first-ever eight-time medalist Michael Phelps and his gold medalist teammates Lenny Krayzelburg and Ian
Crocker meet and swim with young American swimming stars of tomorrow. (After a 12-city run, the tour will
finish up at the Disneyland Resort in California.)
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1985:
At 5:00 PM, the Walt Disney World Resort closes, due to advancing Hurricane Elena. The eye of Elena will remain essentially stationary this day off the Florida coast (near the town of Cedar Key) but will continue to intensify. The fifth tropical storm, fourth hurricane, and first major hurricane of the season, Elena first developed near Cuba from a tropical wave.
Buena Vista means
"pleasant view" in Spanish.
It has been frequently used
as a name for
divisions of
The Walt Disney Company.
1970:
Singer/songwriter & actress Deborah Gibson, who in 1997-1998 played Belle in the Broadway musical Beauty and the Beast for nine months, is born in Brooklyn, New York (though she will grow up on Long Island). As a teen pop icon in the 1980s, Gibson was the youngest person to write, produce, and perform a Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit single (in the U.S.) with her song "Foolish Beat."
1990:
Disney's Hollywood Records releases the debut album from a new pop group
called The Party. The group consists of Albert Fields, Tiffini Hale, Chase Hampton, Deedee Magno, and
Damon Pampolina ... all cast members of Disney Channel's The All New Mickey Mouse Club. The name "The
Party" is an acronym for "Positive Attitude Reflecting Today's Youth."
2007:
L’Originale Alfredo di Roma Ristorante, located in the Italy Pavilion in Epcot's World Showcase, closes. (The restaurant will later re-open as Tutto Italia.)
L' Originale Alfredo di Roma Ristorante was created by the direct descendants
of Alfredo di Lelio, the inventor of Fettuccini Alfredo!
Epcot's new "O Canada" film has a soft-preview.
Disney's High School Musical: The Ice Tour opens in Lakeland, Florida. Based on the plot of both High School Musical and its sequel High School Musical 2, it is co-produced by Kenny Ortega.
1965:
The U.S. Forest Service announces it has received six bids to develop a ski resort on Mineral King in California. A $35 million proposal from Disney is one of two leading candidates. Disney's
proposal includes up to 27 chair lifts (with capacity for 11,400 seats per hour), hotels for up
to 3,000 guests, and ten-story underground parking for 3,600 cars. (The resort will never be built.)
2008:
John Lucas of Eugene, Oregon, wins the Third Annual Disneyland Half Marathon. Lucas, a marketing specialist for a sports apparel company, crosses the finish line first with a Disneyland Half Marathon record time of 1:08:05 (exactly two minutes faster
than the 2007 winning time), leading the field of an estimated 13,500 participants.
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AUGUST 31
THIS DAY
MADE IN
THE USA
AUGUST 31
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"My mother's menu consisted of two choices: Take it or leave it." -Buddy Hackett
Buddy Hackett born
Deborah Gibson born
2009:
The Walt Disney Company announces that it is buying
Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. Marvel Entertainment, Inc. is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a library of over 5,000 characters featured in a variety of media over seventy years. Publisher Martin Goodman founded the company later known as "Marvel Comics" under the name "Timely Publications" back in 1939.
"This transaction combines Marvel's strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney's creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories." -Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company
1951:
The Goofy cartoon Get Rich Quick is released. Directed by Jack Kinney, Goofy tries his
hand at gambling ... a habit his wife has a problem with until he starts to win!
1962:
Artist Josh Agle, better known by the nickname Shag, is born. (Agle's nickname is derived from the last two letters of his first name, and the first two letters of his last name.) To help celebrate the 40th anniversary of Walt Disney World, Shag designed artwork, merchandise and apparel and even appeared at the Magic Kingdom and Downtown Disney to sign his work in June 2011.
Voice actor Dee Bradley Baker is born in Indiana. He is the voice of Perry the Platypus for Disney Channel's Phineas and Ferb. Baker's Disney credits also include The Replacements, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Lilo & Stitch: The Series, Higglytown Heroes and The Emperor's New School. (He is noted for his long-running-role as Squilliam Fancyson and other various characters in the hit TV series SpongeBob SquarePants.)
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1994:
Disney executive Ron Dominguez, who started as a Disneyland Cast Member on opening day in July 1955, retires after 39 years. Vice President of Walt Disney Attractions, his family originally owned and lived on 10 acres of the orange grove-covered property which was purchased by Walt Disney for his Anaheim theme park in 1954. Dominguez will be inducted a Disney Legend in 2000.
