This Day in Disney History: FEB 10

1929:

Legendary film composer Jerry Goldsmith - whose musical scores can be

heard in the Disney film attraction Soarin' Over California and the 1998

animated feature Mulan - is born in Los Angeles, California. (His

enormous and diverse body of work includes such films as Air Force

One, Star Trek: Voyager, Total Recall, Gremlins, and Planet of the Apes.)

1935:

Donald Duck makes his first appearance in the Mickey Mouse Sunday edition comic strip (by Ted Osbourne and Floyd Gottfredson).

2005:

Dream On Silly Dreamer, a live action/animated documentary, screens for free in Minneapolis for shareholders one day prior to the Walt Disney Company Annual Meeting. The film, about the creative forces behind the classic hand-drawn animated films of Walt Disney Feature Animation's modern era, is shown at the Crown Theater (about 6 blocks from where Disney will hold its meeting).

1870:

The California city of Anaheim is incorporated. Its name is a blend of "Ana" (after the Santa Ana River) and "heim" (which means home in German).

1927:

The Alice Comedy Alice at the Carnival is released.

1934:

Disney's Silly Symphony cartoon The Grasshopper and the Ants is released.

The grasshopper is voiced by Pinto Colvig (also the voice of Goofy).

Actor Barrie Ingham, the voice of Basil of Baker Street for Disney's 1986 animated The Great Mouse Detective, is born in Halifax, Yorkshire, England.

1949:

Disney's Mickey and the Seal, Tea for Two Hundred, and

Seal Island are all nominated for Academy Awards.

1956:

A memorial service is held for author A.A. Milne (creator of Winnie-the- Pooh) at All Hallows-by-the-Tower in London. Milne had passed away on January 31. Milne's son Christopher, who has grown to resent his father and has seldom visited his parents, attends the service. It is the last time Christopher will ever see his mother.

1958:

The "Annette" serial (starring Annette Funicello) begins on

ABC-TV's Mickey Mouse Club.

1960:

Disneyland's Stagecoach Line attraction is retired. A guest could ride shotgun

up top or inside the coach to view such Frontierland sights as Elephant Rock,

Horse Thief Canyon, Dead Man's Spring and the Rivers of America.

1963:

The TV series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color

airs "Inside Outer Space."

1978:

Disney releases the live-action Candleshoe, starring Helen Hayes (in her last screen appearance), David Niven, and Jodie Foster.

2000:

Actor Jim Varney, famous for his "Ernest P. Worrell" character, dies of lung cancer in Tennessee. Varney lent his voice to such classic animated Disney films as Atlantis: The Lost Empire (still in production at the time of his passing), Toy Story, and Toy Story 2 (as the voice of Slinky Dog). At one time Epcot's Cranium Command attraction used his Ernest character in its preshow as an example of a "lovable but not the brightest person on the planet" type of person.

2001:

Disney's House of Mouse airs episode 4 "Goofy's Valentine Date." Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck feel sorry for Goofy because he doesn't have a date for Valentine's date so they plan a "blind date" for him that ends with unexpected results!

1951:

Robert Iger is born in Oceanside, New York. After finishing his undergraduate studies at Ithaca College, Iger will begin his career in entertainment media at the American Broadcasting Company, where he will work from 1974 to 1999. In 2005 he will be named President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company.