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2006:
In observance with the Tournament of Roses “Never on Sunday”
tradition, the 117th Rose Parade in Pasadena, California takes
place on a Monday. Disney takes part in the event with a float
featuring recreations of all 5 castles from each of its theme parks.
1898:
Animator, story director, writer & Disney Legend Dick Huemer
is born in New York City. He will first begin his career in animation at the Raoul Barré cartoon studio in 1916, before joining the Fleischer Studio in 1923 where he will develop the Koko clown character. Later he will move to Hollywood as an animator and director for the Charles Mintz studio, and then to the Disney Studio, where he will remain for the duration of his career. His vast Disney credits will include The Wise Little Hen, The Reluctant Dragon, Peter and the Wolf, Dumbo, Fantasia, Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom and Alice in Wonderland.
1937:
Disney's Mickey Mouse film The Worm Turns - featuring the voices of Walt Disney as Mickey and Billy Bletcher as the dog catcher - is released.
1938:
The Mickey Mouse Theater of the Air debuts coast-to-coast on the NBC
radio network. Sponsored by Pepsodent Toothpaste, the series stars Walt Disney as the voice of
Mickey Mouse, Thelma Boardman as Minnie, Stuart Buchanan as Goofy and Clarence Nash as Donald
Duck. Mickey and the gang travel through time - thanks to the Magic Mirror (from Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs) - and meet up with Robin Hood. (After a few weeks, the studio will be inundated with
requests for tickets to the live broadcasts! Originally scheduled for 13 programs, the series will be
extended to 20.)
Conductor Leopold Stokowski arrives in Los Angeles for a
session for Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice.
1941:
Original Mouseketeer Bonni Lou Kern - who appears for the entire first season of The Mickey Mouse Club - is born in Los Angeles, California.
1967:
Actress Tia Carrere - the voice of Nani in Disney's 2002 Lilo & Stitch - is born in Honolulu, Hawaii.
1977:
At Disneyland's Frontierland, the Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland attraction closes. (It will later be replaced by Big Thunder Mountain.)
1979:
Disney World's Dumbo's Circus Parade kicks off down Main Street, USA.
1984:
The Astuter Computer Revue, a show in EPCOT Center's CommunCore East, closes. The attraction took place on a second-floor terraced theater that overlooked a large room housing some of the computers used to operate the park. It was hosted by a projected host who sang and danced his way across computer banks in the foreground of the room in an attempt to explain the role of computers at Walt Disney World. The Astuter Computer Revue will be the first attraction ever to be removed from EPCOT. It will be replaced in February 1984 by Backstage Magic.
1996:
attraction, visitors traveled on Omniover vehicles through humorous technology-themed scenes. (Test Track will eventually take its place.)
2001:
Disney unveils its Grand Californian Hotel, offering a few hundred guests a preview of the high-end rooms and service the company hopes will transform the updated Anaheim vacation spot. The hotel is the first in the U.S. to be located inside a Disney theme park. The Grand Californian Hotel features 2 full-service restaurants (Storytellers Cafe & Napa Rose) and a snack bar (Whitewater Snacks). Although its grand opening will be in February, the first paying guests are welcomed today.
2002:
Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa tape their TV program Live! With Regis and Kelly from Disney's California Adventure.
1963:
Julie Piekarski is born in St. Louis, Missouri. A member of Disney's 70s TV
series The New Mickey Mouse Club, Piekarski also appeared on such hit
shows as The Facts of Life, Diff'rent Strokes, and Three's Company.
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JAN
The work Disney did for the
1964 New York World's Fair was
of tremendous use to him for
planning a second theme park.
The fair proved that people on
the East Coast were receptive
to Disney-style attractions.
JANUARY 2
2008:
Disney Legend & Imagineer Joyce Carlson passes away in Florida. She is 84. Retired since February 2000, Carlson helped create the original It's A Small World attraction (for the 1964-65 World's Fair & later for its Disneyland refitting). She also helped create a new version of the attraction for Disney World in 1971 and Tokyo Disneyland in 1983.
"I always wanted to be in the creative end and I got my dream." -Joyce Carlson
Sadly on this same day, Brice Harvey Mack, who painted backgrounds for such classic Disney features as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio, passes away in Hollywood, California at the age of 90. Spanning the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, Mack’s career at Disney also included work on Fantasia, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Song of the South and Lady and the Tramp, in addition to the Oscar-winning 1942 short film Lend a Paw. Mack also worked as a writer in the story department at Disney and created illustrations for children’s books based on the studio’s films.
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2009:
Opening night of "Disney on Ice: 100 Years of Magic" begins at 7 p.m.
at the First Arena in Elmira, New York.
JANUARY 02
THIS DAY MADE
IN THE
USA
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EPCOT's Astuter Computer Revue closes
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Grand Californian Hotel unveiled
"Dick Huemer was a jack of all trades. He was an animator, and I loved his animation. It was always funny. Remember the Duck in "The Band Concert" with those goddamn whistles? He was a director. He was a story man. And he was a very important sequence story man on Fantasia. In fact, we owe it most to Dick Huemer for the fact that Walt Disney was weaned away from John Phillips Sousa and introduced to the classics! Walt learned all about Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky through Dick Huemer's tutelage." -Ward Kimball (1978)
1958:
"The Fall of Monastario," the first new Zorro episode of 1958 debuts on ABC-TV.
2010:
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra performs a concert of symphonic arrangements
from the Walt Disney Studio archives at Powell Symphony Hall in Grand Center. The
concert is synchronized with images from such Disney classics as The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Mary
Poppins and Tarzan.
It is reported that The United Way of Palm Beach County, Florida is offering a
program in which volunteers can earn a day at a Disney park.
Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram visits the Disneyland Resort. (Later that week, his
team the Alabama Crimson Tide will win college football's national championship at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.)
