JUN 13 Disney History

2005:

Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex in Florida welcomes

its one-millionth athlete Desirre Wilkerson, a 13-year-old girls'

volleyball player from the Kentucky Indiana Volleyball Academy.

1892:

Actor Basil Rathbone is born to English parents in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the narrator of the "The Wind in the Willows" segment of Disney's 1949 The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. (Movie fans know him best for his role of Sherlock Holmes in countless mystery features produced during the 1940s.)

1910:

Veteran character actress Mary Wickes is born in St. Louis, Missouri. She is the animators' live-action model for Cruella DeVil in Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmatians and the voice of wisecracking gargoyle Laverne in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (her last film). Wickes also appears in the live-action Disney features Snowball Express and Napoleon and Samantha. She is Sister Mary Lazarus in the 1992 Touchstone Pictures comedy Sister Act and the 1993 follow-up Sister Act 2.

1920:

Actor Rex Everhart, the voice of Maurice in Disney's 1991

classic Beauty and the Beast, is born in Watseka, Illinois.

(Fans of Friday the 13th know him as Enos the truck driver.)

1926:

Actor Paul Lynde, who plays the sportscaster in Disney's 1963 Son of Flubber, is born in Mount Vernon, Ohio. (TV fans may remember him for his many TV appearances on "Bewitched" and "The Hollywood Squares.")

1931:

Disney's 8-minute Mickey Mouse cartoon The Delivery Boy, directed by

Burt Gillett, is released.

1949:

Stage, film, and television actor Simon Callow, the voice of the Grasshopper in Disney's 1996 James and the Giant Peach, is born in London, England.

1953:

Comedian/actor and Disney Legend Tim Allen is born in Denver, Colorado. First famous

for his role of Tim Taylor on the Disney/ABC-TV sitcom Home Improvement, Allen is also well-known as the voice

of Buzz Lightyear in all of Pixar's Toy Story animated features. He also starred in all 3 of Walt Disney Pictures

The Santa Clause films, as well as Jungle 2 Jungle and The Shaggy Dog.

1963:

Disney's live-action short Yellowstone Cubs, narrated by Rex Allen, is released.

1989:

Comedic actress Betty White appears on Disney Channel's MMC. Today is Guest Day!

2000:

The Broadway cast album of Disney's "Aida" is released. (It will win best

Musical Show Album in 2001 at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards.)

2002:

Academy Award-winning singer-songwriter Randy Newman (who wrote the music for Disney's Monsters, Inc. and the song "You've Got a Friend in Me" for the 1995 classic Toy Story) is inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame during a dinner and ceremony in New York City. Other inductees include Sting, Ashford & Simpson, and Barry Manilow.

President Bush assembles corporate America heavyweights (including Disney Chairman Michael Eisner) at the White House to encourage businesses that foster volunteerism among their workers. Eisner tells Bush: "We're all committed to showing what corporate America can do to lead and show by example that not only it is good business, it's good for the community, it's fun, it's rewarding and it is unbelievably helpful to the country."

2003:

Bering Strait (the Grammy-nominated Russian group) kick off a lineup of global performers for the Epcot World Music Concert Series.

The Lizzie McGuire episode "The Gordo Shuffle" debuts on the Disney Channel.

The series Even Stevens concludes with the Disney Channel Original Movie The Even Stevens Movie.

2006:

Disney's Broadway hit The Lion King reopens at the Minskoff Theater a week after leaving the New Amsterdam Theater (the show's original home). The New Amsterdam will be the home to Mary Poppins next fall.

Actor Basil Rathbone (born on this

day in 1892) can be heard in

Disney's 1986 animated The Great Mouse Detective. Though he had

passed in 1967, a 25-second

dialogue taken from one of

Rathbone's old Sherlock Holmes

radio shows was used in the

animated

feature as

the voice of ...

Sherlock

Holmes!