2002:
An improved version of Disney's Beauty and the Beast is
released to IMAX and other giant screen theaters.
The Lizzie McGuire episode "Gordo's Video" debuts on
Disney Channel.
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1966:
Walt Disney serves as Grand Marshal of the Tournament of the Roses
Parade in Pasadena, California. He and Mickey Mouse (portrayed by Paul Castle) ride together in a white Chrysler Imperial. Sitting curbside with his parents watching the parade is a young John Lasseter - future Jungle Cruise ride operator and Toy Story filmmaker! Also sitting curbside is the Burke family - watching their very first Rose Parade. When Walt's vehicle stops to make a corner turn, teen Pat Burke runs up and shakes Mr. Disney's hand. Six years later Pat will begin work at WED ... becoming one of Disney's top Imagineers!
1943:
Disney's anti-Nazi propaganda piece Der Fuehrer's Face (also titled Donald Duck in Nutziland) is released. Donald Duck has a nightmare that he is living in Nazi Germany, envisioning bayonet discipline, starvation, hard work on the munitions assembly line, and "heiling Hitler." He awakens to find himself in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty and glad to be a U.S. citizen. Directed by Jack Kinney, it will win the 1943 Academy Award for Animated Short Film and be voted #22 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time!
1926:
Disney's Alice Comedy Alice on the Farm is released. Alice (played by Virginia Davis) and her cat Julius are farmhands.
1925:
Disney's Alice Comedy Alice Cans the Cannibals, starring Virginia Davis, is released. Alice and her cat Julius drive their car into the sea where they become stranded on an island occupied by cannibals!
1888:
Elias Disney (an Irish Canadian) and Flora Call (a German American) are married in Acron, Florida - a town in eastern Lake County. They will later move to Chicago, Illinois in 1890 and in 1901 Flora will give birth to their 4th son Walter. (Although no longer in existence - Acron was located 40 miles due north of where Walt Disney World stands today!)
1996:
Delta Airlines discontinues its sponsorship of Disney World's
Delta Dreamflight attraction (located in Tomorrowland).
HAPPY NEW "EARS"!
1944:
Mouseketeer Billie Jean Beanblossom is born in Fort Worth,
Texas. She will be a member of TV's Mickey Mouse Club from 1955 to 1956.
1958:
The Disneyland TV show airs episode 87 - "Faraway Places: High, Hot, and Wet." Herbert and Trudie Knapp, the husband-wife photography team (who are largely responsible for the Disney theatrical-short series "People and Places"), are the focus of this episode.
1959:
The Fantasyland Autopia - sponsored by the Richfield Oil Company - opens in Disneyland.
1960:
The TV series Walt Disney Presents airs the episode "Swamp Fox:
Tory Vengeance," starring Leslie Nielson as Revolutionary War hero
Francis Marion (a.ka. Swamp Fox). It is the third installment of an 8-part
mini-series also featuring Tim Considine as Marion's nephew Gabe Marion and Slim Pickens
as Plunkett, one of the Swamp Fox's men. In this episode, Marion must pretend to despise his
sweetheart, Mary Videaux (played by Barbara Eiler), lest anyone suspects she is really one of Francis' most valuable allies against the Redcoats!
1961:
Walt Disney Presents airs "Zorro: The Postponed Wedding."
1977:
Bob Allen - originally a ride operator at Disneyland in 1955 - is named vice president of Walt Disney World. He will be inducted a Disney Legend in 1996.
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2000:
Walt Disney's nephew Roy serves as Grand Marshal of the
Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California.
Disney's Fantasia/2000 is released to IMAX theaters.
2001:
Rip Van Winkles, a landmark motel near Disneyland in California, closes its doors after a half century in business. The motel will be destroyed sometime later in the year to make way for Pointe Anaheim, a roughly $545 million retail-and-hotel complex that will front Harbor Boulevard and Katella Avenue. The Rip Van Winkles deal, a long-term land lease, destroys one of the last mom-and-pop motels that have housed Disney visitors, convention-goers and other guests for five decades.
The Villas at Wilderness Lodge, a Disney Vacation Club Resort property, opens in Walt Disney World.
2003:
Disney Channel airs the Lizzie McGuire episode
"Lizzie's Eleven" for the first time.
2004:
The Disneyland Resort presents a parade float inspired by the park's new attraction "The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror," at the 115th Rose Parade in California. Standing at nearly 100 feet, "A Sudden Drop in Pitch" is the tallest float in Rose Parade history.
2005:
Mickey Mouse serves as the Grand Marshal for the 116th Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California. A TV spot called "Coming Home" - part of the global ad campaign for Disneyland's 50th anniversary - runs for the first time during the multi-network broadcast of the parade.
Disney Channel debuts "Double Trouble," the eighteenth Phil of the Future episode. Guest stars include actress Yeardley Smith (best known as the voice of Lisa Simpson).
1901:
Disney Legend Grace Bailey is born Elizabeth Grace Randall in Willoughby,
Ohio. In 1932 she began working for the Disney Studios in the Ink and Paint department. Bailey worked her
way up through the ranks of the department from painting supervisor to inking supervisor - where she trained new
artists to ink the animators' drawings. In 1954, she was selected as head of the entire Ink and Paint department, a
position she held until her retirement in 1972.
2007:
Adonis Reeves and Garnett Schoonover begin their tenure
as 2007 Disneyland Resort Ambassadors. As Ambassadors,
they will represent the Disneyland Resort and its 20,000 Cast Members
during the "Year of a Million Dreams," a first-of-a-kind event celebration where
Cast Members will award a million dreams; both large and small; to randomly
selected guests. They will also be the official hosts of the Disneyland Resort
for visiting dignitaries and government officials.
The City of Anaheim, California shares the celebration of its 150th birthday at the
2007 Tournament of Roses Parade. Anaheim’s float is themed with the City’s sesquicentennial celebration
motto, "Always Fresh & Never Grows Old" and features the City’s historical agricultural roots and its contemporary
landmarks. Disneyland’s monorail and the Angel Stadium of Anaheim’s haloed "Big A" tower over the top of the float.
Disney Channel airs the Hannah Montana episode "My Boyfriend's
Jackson and There's Gonna Be Trouble" for the first time.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow: Silver, the sixth in the series of young
reader books written by Rob Kidd about the early life of Jack Sparrow, is released.
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JAN
1955:
The publication McCalls features an article on Disneyland. Readers are informed that - "This July, Walt Disney will realize a lifelong dream, when the fabulous wonderland he is raising out of the dust of a 160-acre tract in the heart of California's orange-growing country opens to the public."
The 66th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade kicks off in California.
Debuting is the very first Disneyland themed float with 7,000 pink roses (although Disney
had a Snow White float in the 1938 parade). Sponsored by Helms Bakery (a notable
industrial bakery of Southern California) the Disneyland float features Disney
characters and attractions from the not-yet-opened Anaheim park. Appearing in the parade on this rainy day
is the Firehouse Five Plus Two, a Dixieland jazz band made up of Disney Studio employees.
1956:
An article titled "Through The Jungles of Disneyland" appears in the publication American Forests. It tells of Walt's new Anaheim theme park.
ALICE
Cinderella's Golden Carousel (located in Disney World) came from Olympic Park, a defunct New Jersey amusement park.
JANUARY 1
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1995:
At Epcot, Symbiosis (the last of the three original attractions in The Land pavilion) closes. Symbiosis was a cinematic presentation that discussed both the positive and negative aspects of human relationship with the land. (It will re-open a few weeks later as Circle of Life: An Environmental Fable.)
Another year over ...
... and a new one just begun.
1998:
Movie Surfers, a Disney Channel mini-show featuring behind the scenes of Disney-related films, debuts. The program features 4 teenagers - Mischa, Lindsay, Alexis, and Marcus - who surf the Internet to go behind the scenes of upcoming movies.
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advertisement
1938:
The Tournament of Roses Parade takes place in Pasadena, California. This year's theme is Playland Fantasies. Coming immediately on the heels of the film's December 1937 premiere is a parade float featuring Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The entire Disney family comes together to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of Flaura and Elias (Walt's mom and dad).
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Disney Imagineers rescued the carousel from destruction and replaced many of its wooden horses with
ones constructed of
fiberglass. No two
horses are alike!
2009:
At 7:31 a.m., Andrew DaCosta (from Seattle, Washington), becomes the first person in the nation to receive free admission to a Disney theme park on his birthday as part of Disney’s “What Will You Celebrate?” campaign.
DaCosta, who turns 49 today, is visiting Disney World's Magic Kingdom with his wife and two children.
1980:
Disneyland Park presents a special 25th Anniversary pre-parade show as
part of the 92nd Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade. Taking part in the festivities is the
Firehouse Five Plus Two, a Dixieland jazz band led by Ward Kimball. The group has come out of retirement to
make one last appearance! They had performed 33 years earlier as the first jazz band ever to be in the parade.
JANUARY 01
THIS DAY MADE
IN THE
USA
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Today is New Year's Day
1978:
Disney's Main Street Electrical Parade makes a rare appearance outside of a
theme park, when it entertains fans during the halftime show of the annual
Orange Bowl college football game in Miami, Florida.
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2010:
Disney Parks kicks off "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day," a national program designed
to boost philanthropic outreach. The program has been created to inspire 1 million people to lend a
helping hand and give back to communities in need. In return for their volunteer service, Disney will award these 1
million people with a free one-day admission ticket to a Walt Disney World Resort or Disneyland Resort theme park.
"Of all the things I've done in my lifetime, that to me was my biggest day. Just Walt and me, January 1, 1966." -Paul Castle
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1957:
Today is Guest Star Day on ABC-TV's Mickey Mouse Club. Ice skaters Cathy Steele and Phil Romayne (two of the most illustrious stars of Ice Capades) perform.
1997:
At Epcot both musical groups Off Kilter and The British Invasion debut. A Celtic rock
band, Off Kilter performs on a stage in between the United Kingdom and Canada Pavilions in Epcot. A quartet, The
British Invasion plays 1960s British songs in the garden tucked away in the United Kingdom pavilion.
JAN
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