1924:
Walt Disney ships his 2nd Alice Comedy, Alice Hunting in Africa,
to M.J. Winkler Productions - a distributor in New York.
2005:
The new animated series American Dragon: Jake Long debuts on Disney Channel
with the episode "Old School Training." Dante Basco supplies the voice for Jake Long.
1925:
Actor Charles Aidman, who portrays Mark Twain in the 1981 TV
special Walt Disney: One Man's Dream, is born in Indiana.
1930:
While Walt is in New York, animator Ub Iwerks informs Roy Disney that he wishes to leave the Disney Company as soon as possible. Roy is stunned, but offers Ub $5,000 for his 20% share of the company. Unbeknownst to Roy at this time, is the fact that Iwerks has been lured away by film distributor Pat Powers. Powers wants Iwerks to start an animation studio of his own. Meanwhile Walt is in New York actually confronting Powers over royalty money for Mickey shorts due to the Disney Studios!
1933:
Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon The Mad Doctor is released. A spoof
of the horror films made by Universal, it will be considered too frightening by the British censors!
1935:
Animator Ollie Johnston is hired at $17 a week by the Disney Studio. He will start work 2 days later as an in-betweener and eventually go on to become one of Walt's "Nine Old Men".
1938:
Disney animators begin work on "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"
(a segment that will be used for the feature Fantasia).
1956:
Actor Robby Benson - the voice of the Beast in Disney's
Beauty and The Beast - is born in Dallas, Texas.
The Dairy Bar in Tomorrowland, sponsored by The American Dairy Association, opens in Disneyland.
1959:
Actor Michael Wincott, the voice of Skroopf in Disney's 2002 animated
feature Treasure Planet, is born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
1960:
Disney's animated short Goliath II is released. It is the first Disney film to be fully animated using the new Xerox process for transferring the pencil drawings to cels (a few scenes of Sleeping Beauty had also used this technique). It will earn an Academy Award nomination.
Also released in theaters is the live-action Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks With a Circus and the short Gala Day at Disneyland.
1962:
The NBC-TV series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color
airs part 1 of "Sancho, the Homing Steer."
1968:
"Disneyland: From the Pirates of the Caribbean to the World of Tomorrow" airs on the NBC-TV series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.
1973:
The television special "Fifty Happy Years" (to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of The Walt Disney Company) airs.
1979:
Ilana Miller, a member of the 90's TV show
The All New Mickey Mouse Club, is born in Ontario, Canada.
1988:
The Walt Disney Company acquires the Wrather Corporation, whose assets include the Disneyland Hotel, near Disneyland.
1995:
The 52nd Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television for 1994, are presented at the Beverly Hills Hotel in California. The Lion King is awarded for Best Picture - Comedy/Musical. The animated feature also wins for Best Original Score (by Hans Zimmer) and for Best Original Song "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" (written by Elton John & Time Rice).
Disney World's Epcot movie Symbiosis is replaced with the live action/ animated movie Circle of Life: An Environmental Fable at the Harvest Theater (located in The Land pavilion). The new film explains the many dangers facing the environment, as well as people's responsibility for preserving it.
Disneyland's 40th Anniversary Collector Series Cards are handed out for the very first time at the Anaheim park. The card "1955 - Disneyland Park Opening Day" is distributed to all visitors. (Over the next 40 days, 40 different cards will be handed out, each representing a different Disneyland event.)
1998:
The huge parking lot directly in front of Disneyland's Main Street entrance (in use
since 1955) closes permanently. Now most guests will park in a massive new parking structure.
2000:
Due to rotting wood, the original entrance of the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland is removed.
2002:
Singing legend Peggy Lee who wrote the lyrics (along with Sonny Burke)
and supplied many of the voices for Disney's Lady and the Tramp passes
away at the age 81 at her Bel Air, California home.
2003:
Disney releases 101 Dalmatians II - Patch's London Adventure to home video and DVD. It features the voices of Barry Bostwick, Jason Alexander, and Martin Short.
1991:
ABC-TV airs the special
New Kids on the Block at Walt Disney World - Wildest Dreams.
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1976:
Disney's original Freaky Friday, starring Barbara Harris, Jodie Foster, and
John Astin is released.
Freaky Friday has been adapted
three times by the Walt Disney
Company into films with similar
plots. The original 1976 version
was released on this day. A
Disney television version was
made in 1995, starring Shelley
Long and Gaby Hoffmann. The
2003 remake starred Jamie Lee
Curtis and Lindsay Lohan.
JANUARY 21
JAN
1996:
Although nominated for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical at the Golden Globe Awards, Toy Story is edged out by Babe. "Colors of the Wind," written by Alan Menken & Stephen Schwartz from Pocahontas wins Best Original Song - Motion Picture (beating out Randy Newman's "You Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story).
2001:
At the Golden Globe Awards, "My Funny Friend and Me" (written by Sting & David Hartley for The Emperor's New Groove) loses to Bob Dylan's "Things Have Changed" (from Wonder Boys) for Best Original Song - Motion Picture.
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The Lion King wins 3 Golden Globes
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JANUARY 21
THIS DAY MADE
IN THE
USA
"Colors of the Wind" wins Golden Globe
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1955:
The formal announcement of the new $10,000 Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim is disclosed to the press nationwide. The hotel will be developed by Wrather-Alvarez Hotels, Inc., and designed by the architectual firm of Pereira and Luckman. (Although it is hoped the hotel will be ready for an
August 15 opening ... due to labor strikes the Disneyland Hotel will open October 5, 1955 instead.)
