2005:
The 2004 Thea Awards are presented at the 11th Annual Thea Awards Gala at
the Disneyland Hotel, Anaheim, California. Winners include Walt Disney
World's Mission: SPACE (for Attraction with Technological Breakthrough), Walt
Disney Imagineering's Lucky the Dinosaur (for Technology), and Disneyland's
Aladdin (for Live Show).
"During his prolific 65-year-career with Disney, John Hench made major contributions to every area of the entertainment spectrum, and helped my uncle Walt put the magic into the Magic Kingdom. He was one of the most versatile and talented artists to ever work at the Studio, and his vision helped to create and popularize Disney theme parks." -Roy E. Disney
1919:
Red Buttons, who appeared in Disney's 1977
Pete's Dragon as Hoagy, is born Aaron Chwatt in New York City.
1934:
The U.S. Patent Office grants a patent to the Ingersoll-Waterbury Clock Company, of Connecticut, for the first Mickey Mouse watch.
1953:
Disney's 14th animated film, Peter Pan (based on James M. Barrie's 1904
story) opens at the Roxy Theatre in New York City. The film features the voices
of Bobby Driscoll (as the boy who won't grow up) and Kathryn Beaumont (as Wendy Darling). This will be the
final Disney animated feature released through RKO, as Walt Disney will establish his own distribution
company, Buena Vista Distribution, by the end of 1953.
Released along with Peter Pan is A True-Life Adventure: Bear Country, directed by James Algar and
narrated by Winston Hibler. The live-action short follows the life of black bears from one winter to another.
1960:
The TV series Walt Disney Presents airs the episode "Two Happy Amigos."
1961:
Walt Disney Presents airs "Texas John Slaughter: A Holster Full of Law," the 15th episode of the western mini-series starring Tom Tryon.
1976:
The Disney live-action film No Deposit, No Return (starring David Niven, Darren McGavin and Don Knotts) is released.
1992:
Disney's Beauty and the Beast is nominated for six
Academy Awards. Among the nominations is one for Best
Picture. It is the first time in the history of the Motion Picture Academy
that an animated feature is nominated in this category.
Winners will be announced March 30, 1992.
2004:
Imagineer, artist and Disney Legend John Hench passes away at the age of 95 in
Burbank, California. An employee of the Walt Disney Company for more than 60 years, Hench began as a story artist in 1939. He made his way through the animation department doing everything including backgrounds,
layout and art direction, and even effects animation and special effects. Walt Disney respected Hench as one of the
studio's most gifted artists and teamed him with Salvador Dalí on the animated short Destino (a project begun in
1945 but completed and released in 2003). Hench won a special effects Oscar for his work in the 1955 film 20,000
Leagues Under the Sea before moving to WED Enterprises to spend the rest of his career helping to design Disney
theme parks all over the world. He was also the official corporate portrait artist for Mickey Mouse.
2006:
Pittsburgh Steelers' wide receiver Hines Ward is named Most Valuable Player at Super Bowl XL upon his team's 21-10 win over the Seattle Seahawks. Immediately following the game in Detroit, Ward is videotaped for the latest "I'm Going to Disney World!" TV commercial, adding "...and I'm taking The Bus!" - a reference to teammate Jerome "The Bus" Bettis.
1937:
A memo to Disney cartoonist Al Taliaferro from the animation story department reads, "Inasmuch as we have decided to actually put a story crew to work on "Donald's Nephews," we would like to recognize the source from which the original idea of these new characters sprang ... Thanks."
Taliaferro has recently created Donald's nephews, Huey, Dewey & Louie for his comic strip.
1991:
Good Time Jazz Records releases Firehouse Five Plus Two: At Disneyland - a live recording taken of the group's performances at The Golden Horseshoe back in July 1962.
1936:
The United Artists film Modern Times starring Charlie Chaplin is
released. In a short sequence actress Paulette Goddard picks up a Mickey
Mouse doll in a department store and holds it up in front of Chaplin!
2000:
Mickey Mouse Works airs on ABC-TV with the shorts "Donald's Dynamite: Magic Act," "Survival of the Woodchucks," "Mickey's Rival Returns," and "Mickey and the Seagull."
The Disney Channel Original Movie The Color of Friendship, based on a true story about the friendship between two girls from different worlds who learn to overcome their differences, debuts. (It will earn an Emmy Award.)
Jordan Nagai - the voice of Russell in the 2009 Pixar film Up - is born in Los Angeles, California. Director Peter Docter auditioned 400 boys in a nationwide casting call for the part. Nagai actually showed up to an audition with his brother, who was really the one auditioning. However, Docter, who had passed on other potential voices that sounded too artificial, realized that 7-year-old Nagai behaved and spoke non-stop like Russell ... and chose him for the part!
2007:
Disney announces that they have started a new company called ImageMovers
Digital with the producers of Polar Express to make animated films based in part on the movements of actors. Producer-director Robert Zemeckis, along with Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey, will make films that Disney will market and distribute.
Peter Pan was the final Disney
animated feature released
through RKO and the final Disney
film in which all members of
Walt's Nine Old Men worked
together as directing animators.
FEB
1907:
Novelist, scriptwriter and historian Samuel W. Taylor is born in Provo, Utah. His short story A Situation of Gravity will be the inspiration for Disney's 1961 live-action The Absent-Minded Professor and later Son of Flubber.
Second star to the right and straight on till morning!
1964:
The live-action Disney feature The Misadventures of Merlin Jones - starring Tommy Kirk, Annette Funicello, and Leon Ames - premieres in St. Louis, Missouri.
1982:
The Disney live-action film Night Crossing starring John Hurt and Beau
Bridges is released. It is based on the true story of the Strelzyk and Wetzel families, who on
September 16, 1979 escaped from East Germany to West Germany in a homemade hot air balloon.
FEBRUARY 5
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Peter Pan debuts
FEBRUARY 05
THIS
SITE MADE
IN THE USA
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1950:
Tony-nominated actor Jonathan Freeman, known for voicing the villainous Jafar in
Disney's Aladdin and its sequel The Return of Jafar, is born in Bay Village, Ohio. His
Broadway credits include The Little Mermaid as the original Grimsby, Beauty and the Beast as Cogsworth, and
as of 2009 - Mary Poppins as Admiral Bloom and Bank Chairman.
In Memory of John Hench (1908-2004)
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"Other than Walt Disney himself, no one symbolizes The Walt Disney Company more than John Hench." -Marty Sklar
A celebration for the upcoming Disneyland production "Snow White - An Enchanting
New Musical," takes place with a handprint ceremony at Grauman's Chinese
Theatre. Snow White and all the dwarfs take part with Honorary Mayor of Hollywood Johnny Grant officiating.
"I always admired Walt's optimism. He seemed to know the direction he was going to. When I was at the studio, I remember he kept driving
all of us back down to a more fundamental level all the time." -John Hench
1935:
Academy Award nominations are announced with Disney's animated
The Tortoise and the Hare being considered for an Oscar in the category Short Subjects, Cartoons. Oscar night will be held February 27, 1935.
-Best Picture
-Best Sound
-Best Music, Original Score
-Best Music, Original Song ("Beauty and the Beast")
-Best Music, Original Song ("Belle")
-Best Music, Original Song ("Be Our Guest")
