2005:
The Walt Disney World Resort's animal care team welcomes a
233-pound baby elephant early in the morning. The female African elephant calf is born at Disney's Animal Kingdom Park.
The December 19 issue of The New Yorker includes an article
by Caitlin Flanagan titled "Becoming Mary Poppins: P. L. Travers, Walt Disney, and the Making of the Myth."
1925:
Walt Disney's 28th Alice Comedy film Alice's Orphan is completed.
Academy Award-winning songwriter & Disney Legend Robert B. Sherman is born in Manhattan, New York. 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 Mary Poppins and the park attraction "It's A Small World (after all)."
1929:
Floyd Gottfredson is hired as an apprentice animator at Disney. (In April 1930
he will start working on the 4-month-old Mickey Mouse comic strip.)
1936:
Disney's Silly Symphony cartoon More Kittens, directed by David
Hand, is released. A sequel to Disney's 1935 Oscar winning Three Orphan Kittens, it features the animated work of Frank Thomas and Fred Moore.
1955:
Mickey Mouse Club airs on ABC-TV. Today is Fun With Music Day.
1956:
The ABC-TV series Disneyland airs the episode "A Present for Donald."
1958:
ABC-TV airs the Walt Disney Presents episode "From All of Us to All of You"
for the very first time. Hosted by Jiminy Cricket along with Mickey Mouse and Tinkerbell, the
special combines newly-produced animation with clips from vintage animated shorts and feature films,
presented to the viewer as "Christmas cards" from the various characters starring in each one.
The show begins with Jiminy Cricket singing "From All of Us to All of You," written by Disney lyricist Gil George
(the pen name for the Disney Studio's nurse, Hazel George) and veteran Disney composer Paul Smith.
1960:
Actor Tom Tryon, the star of the 1958-59 Disneyland television serial "Texas John Slaughter," records excerpts from Abraham Lincoln's speeches as a test. Disney is in the midst of preparing Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln for the 1964 World's Fair.
1962:
The Disney cartoon short A Symposium on Popular Songs,
hosted by the "expert on everything" Ludwig Von Drake, is
released. Headed by Disney artists Bill Justice (who has directed) and
X. Atencio (who has written and styled the short), it also features the animation of
Eric Larson, Cliff Nordberg, Art Stevens, Ward Kimball, Les Clark and Julius
Svendsen. Voiced by Paul Frees, this is Von Drake's feature film debut. With songs
written by the Sherman Brothers and music arrangements by Tutti Camarata, it will
be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cartoon Short Subject.
1971:
NBC-TV airs The Wonderful World of Disney episode "Disney on Parade."
For the second evening in a row, film star Rock Hudson narrates Disney World's very first Candlelight Processional at the Magic Kingdom.
1972:
Actress Alyssa Milano, the voice of Angel in Disney's 2001 Lady and the Tramp
II: Scamp's Adventure, is born in Brooklyn, New York. (TV fans will recognize
her from such series as "Who's the Boss?" and "Charmed.")
1984:
Disney World's Country Bear Jamboree Country Bear Christmas Special runs for the first time. (It will become a seasonal event.)
1998:
Test Track opens at Disney World's Epcot. (It will be dedicated in March 1999.)
1999:
Disney World's Tomorrowland Speedway (originally called Grand Prix Raceway) is renamed Tomorrowland Indy Speedway.
2003:
The Disney Channel debuts the That's So Raven episode "Separation Anxiety."
Disney releases Destino to theaters (although it had already premiered back in
June at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival). Featuring the work of surrealist
artist Salvador Dalí, the short was first conceived 57 years ago when Walt invited Dalí to the Studio to work on
a film project along with Disney artist John Hench. But after filming 18 seconds of this animation, the project
was unfortunately canceled. In 2003, Roy E. Disney helped resurrect Destino with the help of producer Baker
Bloodworth and director Dominique Monfrey. (It will be nominated for an Oscar.)
1868:
Novelist Eleanor H. Porter is born in Littleton, New Hampshire. Her novel Pollyanna
(published in 1913) was released as a live-action feature by Disney in 1960.
The Disneyland tradition of a giant Christmas tree towering over Main Street, U.S.A. began in 1955. Disneyland was the last
Disney park in the world to
still utilize a real live tree as
its holiday centerpiece in
Town Square! For the first time in 53 years an artificial tree was used in 2008.
1914:
Animator, story man and Disney Legend Mel Shaw is born in Brooklyn, New York. Personally recruited by Walt Disney, Shaw worked on such classics as Fantasia, Bambi, and The Wind in the Willows (which later became a segment in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad).
2007:
High School Musical's Ashley Tisdale and Corbin Bleu take part in Starlight
Starbright Children's Foundation Winter Wonderland. They are joined by actresses Kay
Panabaker and Lauren Storm at Studio 33 at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California.
2008:
It is announced that the Chicago Film Critics Association has named
Disney-Pixar's Wall-E as its Best Picture of the Year.
DECEMBER 19
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Today is Look for an Evergreen Day
THIS DAY MADE
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DECEMBER 19
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1843:
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is first published in London by Chapman & Hall. Illustrated by John Leech, it will quickly meet with commercial success and critical acclaim. Dickens' tale will be credited with returning the holiday to one of merriment and festivity in Britain and America after a period of sobriety and somberness. In 2009 Disney released a 3D feature film version of A Christmas Carol (Disney's third retelling of the tale).
DEC
"Money is not my motivation. Money is a means to my creative end. Mondey doesn’t excite me—my ideas excite me. Somewhere, there’s a spark of creativity in everyone mentally sound. And yet, there are guys who don’t want to work. They seem to lack this desire, this drive. I envy them. I envy the guy who doesn’t want to do a thing in life but go fishing. I don’t believe in people getting things for nothing. We’ve reached the point where we can’t get people to do all kinds of jobs any more. I washed dishes. I carried parcels. I delivered newspapers. It didn’t hurt me." -Walt Disney
1957:
The ABC-TV series Zorro debuts the episode "Double Trouble for Zorro."
2010:
Disney World's 19th and final Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party
of the 2010 holiday season takes place at the Magic Kingdom.
The International Press Academy hands out the trophies for their 15th annual
Satellite Awards at a gala awards ceremony at the Intercontinental Hotel in
Century City. The Best Animated Feature award goes to Toy Story 3 while Colleen Atwood receives
an award for Best Costume Design for her work on Alice in Wonderland.
2002:
Touchstone Pictures releases the drama 25th Hour directed by Spike Lee.
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1937:
Two days before the grand debut of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in California, the cast of Disney's first animated feature film appear on radio during The Chase and Sanborn Hour. The umbrella title for a series of comedy and variety radio shows, sponsored by Standard Brands' Chase and Sanborn Coffee, it is currently being hosted by ventriloquist Edgar Bergen, his sidekick dummy Charlie McCarthy and announcer Don Ameche. The voices of Grumpy, Sneezy, Doc, The Snow Queen, The Snow Witch, The Magic Mirror and Snow White sing and chat with Bergen and Charlie.
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"This special holiday program has been made possible by the combined talents of the entire Walt Disney Studios. It is our way of saying 'Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you'."
