2004:
The Food Network airs "Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings" hosted by Sandra Pinckney.
1936:
Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoons Moving Day and Mickey's Rival
are both released. Moving Day, directed by Ben Sharpsteen, features the character Peg Leg Pete (voiced by Billy Bletcher). Mickey's Rival, directed by Wilfred Jackson, features Mickey's rival Mortimer Mouse.
1941:
The Disney animated/live-action feature film The Reluctant Dragon - starring
comedian Robert Benchley - debuts. Released by RKO Radio Pictures, the first third of the film is in
black-and-white and the remaining two-thirds are in Technicolor. The premiere, held at the Pantages Theater in
Hollywood, is disrupted by a mob of Walt's striking Disney cartoonists. The police actually cordon off Hollywood
Blvd. around the theater for fear of what the rampaging cartoonists might do. (This is the first Disney animated
feature to incorporate extensive live-action footage and the only theatrical release to feature Walt Disney himself.)
1944:
Original Mouseketeer Cheryl Holdridge is born in New Orleans,
Louisiana. Besides appearing on Mickey Mouse Club from 1955-1959, she also portrayed
Julie Foster on the classic sitcom Leave It to Beaver.
1947:
Disney's Donald Duck cartoon Clown of the Jungle is released. While attempting to photograph wildlife, Donald (voiced by Clarence Nash) is aggravated by the "clown of the jungle", the Aracuan Bird (voiced by Pinto Colvig).
1952:
Actor John Goodman is born in Affton, Missouri. His Disney voice credits include Sullivan
Truck in Cars, James P. Sullivan in Monsters, Inc., Pacha in The Emperor's New Groove, Baloo in The
Jungle Book 2 and Eli "Big Daddy" La Bouff in The Princess and the Frog. (TV fans will
know Goodman as Dan Conner on the long-running sitcom Roseanne and for his roles in such features as Confessions of a Shopaholic, Evan Almighty, Beyond the Sea, and Sea of Love.)
1953:
Disney releases the animated Goofy short Father's Weekend.
1971:
Actor Josh Lucas, who portrays Coach Don Haskins in the Walt Disney Pictures 2006 release Glory Road, is born in Little Rock, Arkansas.
1976:
Walt Disney World's River Country (a water park adjacent to Disney's Fort
Wilderness Resort and Campground) opens. Inspired by Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, it is Disney's first attempt at a themed water park. Positioned on the shore of Bay
Lake near Discovery Island, River Country is filled with rocks and manmade boulders and features water slides and
an inner tube river. On this day, U.S. President Gerald Ford's daughter Susan helps with the official opening. (River
Country will close in September 2001, due in part to Florida Laws prohibiting the use of natural bodies of water for
water park use, but its success will later lead to Disney's Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach.)
1995:
The Walt Disney Company announces plans for a fourth theme park in Florida, called Disney's Wild Animal Kingdom.
The park is expected to cost $760 million to create.
The Walt Disney World attraction
ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter officially begins operation in Tomorrowland (replacing Flight to the Moon). A "theater-in-the-round" attraction, it is a darkly humorous science-fiction experience that used binaural sound to achieve many of its effects.
1999:
At Disneyland, the 20th Century Music Company opens on Main Street. The shop offers Disney CDs and videos, including ones featuring Disneyland entertainers.
2002:
The Recording Academy's Los Angeles Chapter honor Walt Disney Music President
Chris Montan, singer Janet Jackson, and film/TV composer Thomas Newman at its
annual Membership Awards Luncheon. Montan is responsible for overseeing music
for a wide variety of Disney projects including animated features, theatrical stage productions, video premieres,
musical event programming as well as other corporate and theme park-related shows.
2003:
The That's So Raven episode "A Dog by Any Other Name"
airs for the first time on Disney Channel.
2006:
Disney announces that actress Brittany Murphy will provide the voice for the fairy
Tinker Bell in an upcoming animated film. (The character of Tink has been silent
in the past.) Fans of the animated series King of the Hill will recognize Murphy
as the voice of Luanne Platter.
The Broadway company of Beauty and the Beast plays its 5,000th
performance! A celebration is held at Planet Hollywood following
the 8 PM show.
Ashley Tisdale and Miley Cyrus co-host this day's episode of MTV's TRL
(Total Request Live) with special guest Zac Efron.
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JUNE
2008:
Some 8.9 million viewers watch the debut of the Disney Channel Original Movie Camp Rock, starring the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato. The film centers on a teen girl who desperately wants to spend her summer at a prestigious rock 'n' roll camp.
New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg visits Walt Disney World to take part in the first annual "Excellence in Action" education reform summit, presented by The Foundation for Excellence in Education and held at the Contemporary Resort.
The 35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards are held at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, and televised on ABC. Outstanding Performer In An Animated Program goes to Eartha Kitt (for the second year in a row) for her role of Yzma on Disney's The Emperor's New School.
Disney's Hollywood Studios host the third (of 4) Star Wars Weekends. Celebrity guests include Amy Allen and Matthew Wood.
1958:
Actor Chuck Wagner - "The Beast" in Beauty and the Beast, in both the
Broadway and Toronto productions - is born in Nashville, Tennessee.
1938:
Walt Disney and his wife Lillian arrive in Manhattan, New York by train on this Monday morning. They are on their way to New Haven, Connecticut and Cambridge, Massachusetts where Walt will receive honorary degrees from the universities of Yale (on June 22) and Harvard (on June 23).
Actor Robert Taylor (who happens to also be on board the train) later poses with Walt for the New York press.
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JUNE 20
JUNE 20
THIS DAY MADE
IN THE
USA
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1973:
Disney releases the live-action western One Little Indian starring
James Garner, Vera Miles, Pat Hingle, and Jodie Foster.
Walt Disney World's telephone system was the first totally electronic system to use
underground cable instead
of standard poles with
overhead lines.
Vista-United Telecommunications, the telecommunications company created to service all Disney resorts in Florida, was responsible for installing the nation’s first commercial fiber-optic phone cable!
The Reluctant Dragon debuts
"It was cool for a couple of weeks, but how much bad golf can you play?" -John Goodman
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1951:
Voice actress Tress MacNeille is born in Chicago, Illinois. Her Disney voice credits include Anastasia Tremaine in many Cinderella video releases, Aunt Sarah in Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure, Hoonah in Brother Bear 2, Chip in Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, and Fang in Dave the Barbarian. (MacNeille's voice credits also include The Simpsons, Futurama, Rugrats, All Grown Up!, and Tiny Toon Adventures.)
1983:
Singer-songwriter and musician Grace Potter is born in Vermont. Disney's Hollywood Records has released albums by Grace Potter & The Nocturnals and Potter wrote and performed the song "Something That I Want" for the Tangled soundtrack. Her first Christmas song "Naughty, Naughty, Children" was used for a 2011 Prep& Landing television special (on which Potter also voiced a character).
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1975:
Noah Z. Jones, animator, writer and illustrator best known for creating Disney Channel's series Fish Hooks, is born in Fairport, New York.
2011:
In episode three of My Yard Goes Disney, a family wants to bring the
experience of a Disney cruise to their backyard with a Mickey-shaped pool.
