2004:
Walt Disney Records releases America's Heart & Soul soundtrack from the Buena Vista documentary film (featuring artists such as John Hiatt, George Woodard and Joel McNeely).
Disney's Hollywood Records releases We Are Not Alone, the second studio album by American rock band Breaking Benjamin.
"What's our success formula? Well, it's attention to infinite detail … the little things, the minor picky points that other companies just don't want to take the time, the money, the effort, to do right. As far as our Disney organization is concerned…it's the only way we've ever done it…it's been our success formula in the past and it will be applied to our future projects, as well. We'll probably still be explaining this to outsiders at the end of our next two decades in this business." -Imagineer John Hench
1901:
Singer-actor Nelson Eddy, who can be heard Disney's
1946 film Make Mine Music, is born in Providence,
Rhode Island. He provided all the singing and speaking voices
for the film's final segment, "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met,"
later released as the short, Willie, the Operatic. (A classically trained
baritone, Eddy is best remembered for the eight films in which he
costarred with soprano Jeanette MacDonald. During his 40-year career,
he earned three stars on theHollywood Walk of Fame, left his footprints
in the wet cement at Grauman's Chinese Theater and earned three Gold records.)
1908:
Disney Legend & artist John Hench is born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He made pioneering contributions to such Disney films as Fantasia, Dumbo, and Make Mine Music, and later became senior vice
president of Walt Disney Imagineering. One of Hench's most recognizable works is the well known Olympic
Torch. Nearly all of the most recent versions were modeled after his design for the 1960 Winter Olympics
(which Disney participated in). Hench was also the "official portrait artist" of Mickey Mouse, painting the
company's official portraits for Mickey's 25th, 50th, 60th, 70th, and 75th birthdays. It was Hench who originally
collaborated with Salvador Dalí in 1946 on the short Destino (which was finally released in 2003).
1915:
Actress Ruth Warrick, who portrayed Sally in Disney's 1946 Song of the South, is
born in St. Joseph, Missouri. (Long time All My Children fans knew her as Phoebe Tyler Wallingford.)
1935:
Disney's Silly Symphony cartoon Who Killed Cock Robin?, directed by David
Hand and featuring the voice of Billy Bletcher, is generally released. A new twist
on an old English nursery rhyme, the criminal bird court attempts to determine who killed Cock Robin as he
wooed his love, Jenny Wren. But Robin, it turns out, is not dead, but merely wounded by Cupid's arrow.
1957:
The Dave Brubeck Quartet record tracks for a Disney-themed
record album to be titled Dave Digs Disney. The album, which will be
released in December 1957, is inspired by a Brubeck family visit to Disneyland. The
first modern jazz group to take Disney music seriously, Dave Digs Disney will later be
released to compact disc in 1994.
1966:
Disney's live-action short film Run, Appaloosa, Run debuts in Los Angeles. Set against the
majestic backdrop of the Pacific Northwest, the films tells the story of Mary Blackfeather, a young Native American
horse trainer, who adopts an Appaloosa colt she names Holy Smoke.
1974:
At Disneyland, the America Sings attraction officially opens to the public in
Tomorrowland's Carousel Theater. A special press preview is held with invited guests receiving a
promotional version of the soon-to-be released LP record and a painted casting of Eagle Sam. Sam - voiced by Burl Ives - guides visitors through 4 big musical acts, each with a medley of period tunes. The attraction, featuring over
110 Audio-Animatronics animal characters, replaces the General Electric Carousel of Progress (which has moved to Walt Disney World).
2000:
The renovated Chevron Autopia opens at Disneyland.
Disneyland's Mickey & Friends, a 6-story parking structure off of Disneyland Drive,
is completed. One of the largest structures in the United States, it can hold over ten thousand cars!
2001:
The Lizzie McGuire episode "Obsession" debuts on Disney Channel.
Touchstone Pictures releases the drama Crazy/Beautiful. Two high school students
from opposite ends of the social spectrum, played by Kirsten Dunst and Jay Hernandez, fall for each other. Nicole
Oakley (Dunst), the troubled daughter of a wealthy congressman, attends a public school in the upscale community
of Pacific Palisades. As an act of defiance, she makes a play for the attentions of Carlos Nuñez (Hernandez), a
straight-A student who takes a two-hour bus ride to attend Nicole's school. Her self-destructive tendencies threaten
his ambitions. The cast includes Bruce Davison, Herman Osorio, and Miguel Castro.
2002:
Mickey's Star Spangled Pin Event takes place at
Disney World's Contemporary Resort.
1965:
Stan Kenton and his orchestra perform at Disneyland for the first of a six-day
engagement. The Stan Kenton Orchestra was one of the most popular big bands of the 1940s and Kenton,
a pianist, arranger and composer, was famous for his experimental "wall of sound."
2007:
Ratatouille, the eighth animated feature film produced by Pixar,
is released by Walt Disney Pictures. Reffering to the French dish
ratatouille (which is served at the end of the film) and also referencing the animal
type of the main character (a rat), it is written and directed by Brad Bird. The
plot follows Remy, a rat who dream of becoming a chef. Ratatouille features
the voices of Patton Oswalt (as Remy), Lou Romano (as Linguini), Brian Dennehy
(as Django), Brad Garrett (as Gusteau), Janeane Garofalo (as Colette),
John Ratzenberger (as Mustafa), and Brad Bird (as Ambrister Minion).
Playing in front of Ratatouille is the Pixar computer-animated short film Lifted (first
released in October 2006). Directed by Gary Rydstrom, things go horribly
awry for a young alien named Stu who must snatch a sleeping farmer named Ernie
under the watchful eye of his impassive examiner, a gelatinous blob named Mr. B.
The Secret of the Magic Gourd, a live-action/CGI animation
movie, premieres in Beijing (the first Disney co-production in
China, in the Mandarin language). Adapted from a 1958 novel by Zhang
Tian Yi, a boy learns the meaning of work after a magic gourd grants him anything he wants. (The film will be released on DVD in the U.S. in 2009.)
Disney Legend & artist
John Hench was an employee of The Walt Disney Company for more than sixty five years.
His exceptionally long tenure (which began in 1939) saw
the rise of nearly every
classic Disney animated
feature and
theme park!
1981:
The Broadway at the Top show opens in the Top of the World supper club at Disney
World's Contemporary Resort. A lively show highlighting the spectacular best of Broadway's past 30 years,
it is a fast-paced nightclub review of musicals from the days of Cole Porter to "Chorus Line" and "Evita."
(Today the spot is occupied by the California Grill - since 1995, and there is a
Top of the World Lounge now located next door atop of the Bay Lake Tower resort.)
1951:
Comic book writer & illustrator Don Rosa is born Gioachino 'Keno' Don Hugo Rosa in
Louisville, Kentucky. He is best known for his stories about Scrooge McDuck, Donald
Duck and other Disney characters.
1945:
The Donald Duck short Donald's Crime is released. Donald (voiced by Clarence Nash) raids his nephews' piggy bank ... only to have his guilty conscience catch up with him!
1997:
Grammy Award-winning singing star Kathy Mattea performs at the Disney Institute
Performance Center in Florida. Her show is recorded for "The Big Bang from Walt Disney World Resort" concert
series and airs on the Premier Radio Networks.
JUNE
JUNE 29
JUNE 29
THIS DAY MADE
IN THE
USA
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Ratatouille released
1970:
Musical theater actress and singer Emily Skinner is born in Richmond, Virginia.
Fans of Disney's On The Record will remember her as the pop diva Diane.
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2010:
Disney opens the first of its 300 planned revamped Disney stores in Montebello, California. Inspired by the same team that designed Apple's retail outlets, the 4,800 square foot store features multimedia technology and interactive storytelling.
Character actor and voice-over artist, Ron Gans passes at age 78 in California. Known for portraying Q.T. the Orangutan on The Disney Channel's Dumbo's Circus, he was also the voice of Eeyore on the television series Welcome to Pooh Corner.
1919:
Actor Slim Pickens is born Louis Burton Lindley, Jr. in Kingsburg, California. A rodeo
performer and film and television actor who epitomized the profane, tough, sardonic cowboy, Pickens' Disney film
credits include The Great Locomotive Chase, Never a Dull Moment, and The Apple Dumpling Gang. He also
appeared in two Disney TV serials - Swamp Fox and Daniel Boone. (Pickens is best remembered for his comic
roles in Dr. Strangelove, 1941, and Blazing Saddles.)
"I think our pleasure comes from survival. The first thing we strive for as an infant is this kind of life experience,
and it's the last thing we want to give up. We strive for the experience of being alive." -John Hench
1959:
Gary Roger Rydstrom, an award-winning sound designer and director, is born in
Chicago, Illinois. Beginning his career at Skywalker Sound in 1983, Rydstrom got to work with his
mentor, Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt. After gaining invaluable experience as a sound technician
on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, he went on to do sound design for the comedy Spaceballs. His
work on Terminator 2: Judgment Day is arguably his career crowning achievement in which he pioneered
original techniques still used to this day for creating realistic sound effects.
Disney/Pixar fans know his work from such features as Finding Nemo, Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life and
Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Rydstrom directed the North American version of the Japanese
animated feature The Secret World of Arrietty.
1976:
Comedian, actor, musician and producer Brett McKenzie is born in Wellington, New
Zealand. Best known for being one half of the Grammy Award winning musical comedy duo Flight of the
Conchords, McKenzie served as music supervisor for the 2011 film The Muppets, for which he won an Academy
Award for Best Original Song for the song "Man or Muppet."
1932:
Walt Disney signs a merchandising arrangement with Herman Kay Kamen. The twelve-
page agreement between Walt Disney Enterprises and Kamen-Blair (signed and dated on this day) contracts Kay
Kamen and Streeter Blair to be the company's merchandising representatives.
Korean-American actor Soon Tek Oh, best known as the voice of Fa Zhou in Disney's Mulan and the direct-to-video sequel Mulan II, is born in Mokpo, Korea
(today known as South Korea).
1998:
Disney's Touchstone Pictures premieres Armageddon
at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Featuring an
all-star cast headed by Bruce Willis, the film follows a group of blue-
collar deep-core drillers sent by NASA to stop a gigantic asteroid on a
collision course with Earth. Legendary rockers Aerosmith, who have 4
songs on the film's soundtrack, perform "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" at the giant premiere. The screening takes
place in a special state-of-the-art theater, which has been constructed by Disney's technical wizards, outside NASA's Apollo/Saturn V Center. Armageddon will be generally released July 1, 1998.
2012:
Gravity Falls officially premieres on Disney Channel. An animated television series
created by Alex Hirsch, the show centers on the adventures of 12 year-old twin brother and sister
Dipper and Mabel Pines who are sent to live with their Great Uncle Stan in Gravity Falls, Oregon. The
voice cast includes Jason Ritter (son of actor John Ritter) as Dipper and comedian Kristen Schaal as Mabel.
Creator Hirsch supplies the voices for Grunkle Stan and Soos the handyman.
Season 2 of the series My Babysitter's a Vampire kicks off on Disney Channel.
Teen Ethan Morgan, his beautiful half-vampire babysitter, and pals battle against creatures from their nightmares.
The drama People Like Us, released by DreamWorks Pictures and distributed by
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, hits theaters. On the day his latest deal collapses, fast-
talking-salesman Sam (played by Chris Pine) receives the news that his father has died. Reluctantly, Sam returns
home to settle the estate of his father. In the course of carrying out the man's last wishes, Sam is surprised to learn
of the existence of a 30-year-old sister, named Frankie (Elizabeth Banks). As the sister and brother get to know
each other, Sam must re-examine both his perceptions about his family and the life choices that he has made.
June 29
This Day in Disney History - THE FIRST - THE ORIGINAL
Traveling in time since 1999!
1994:
The romantic comedy I Love Trouble is released by Touchstone Pictures. Worn-down Peter Brackett (played by Nick Nolte) and ambitious Sabrina Peterson (Julia Roberts) are reporters working for rival newspapers. Assigned to cover a train derailment, the two journalists meet at the scene and immediately can't stand each other. But when they suspect a deadly government conspiracy behind the crash, the two rivals work together to break the story.
1949:
Film director, screenwriter, storyboard artist, animator and playwright Roger Allers is born in Rye, New York. He is best known for co-directing the highest-grossing 2D animated film of all time, Walt Disney Animation Studios' The Lion King, and for writing the Broadway adaptation, The Lion King. Allers also served as a storyboard artist on The Little Mermaid, The Prince and the Pauper, and The Rescuers Down Under before being appointed as Head of Story on Beauty and the Beast. His credits also include Lilo & Stitch, Return to Never Land,
Brother Bear, and The Little Matchgirl.
1978:
Actor Bob Crane, known for starring in the CBS situation comedy Hogan's Heroes, passes unexpectedly at age 49 in Scottsdale, Arizona (he is on tour for a dinner theater production of "Beginner's Luck"). Born in Connecticut in 1928, Crane was also a drummer, radio personality, and disc jockey. Following the cancellation of Hogan's Heroes in 1971, Crane appeared in two Disney comedy films: Superdad (1973), in the title role, and Gus (1976) as Pepper - his last film role.
Singer, songwriter, dancer, actress and television personality Nicole Scherzinger is born Nicole Prescovia Elikolani Valiente in Hawaii. First rising to fame as the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, she later became a judge on both US and UK versions of The X Factor. She also voiced Sina in
the 2016 animated feature Moana, and had a voice cameo in the 2018 Ralph Breaks the Internet.
1977:
Screenwriter Lillie Hayward passes away at age 85 in Hollywood, California. With a career beginning during the silent era and continuing well into the age of television, she wrote for more than 70 films and TV shows including the Disney films Tonka and The Shaggy Dog and television series The Mickey Mouse Club and Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.
2018:
Toy Story Land at Disney's Hollywood Studios (Walt Disney World) is officially dedicated.
Bob Chapek, Chairman, Disney Parks Experiences and Consumer Products, leads the ceremony with special guest Tim Allen (the voice of Buzz Lightyear). The 11-acres addition will open to the public the next day.
2020:
Comedian, actor, director, screenwriter, and publisher Carl Reiner passes away at age 98 in Beverly Hills, California. With a career spanning seven decades, he started out in the early years of television comedy from 1950 to 1957, co-writing and acting on Caesar's Hour and Your Show of Shows. Reiner is most famous for his comedy duo with Mel Brooks in "2000 Year Old Man" and acting in films such as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World (1963), The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966) and the Ocean's film series (2001–2007). His Disney credits include the voice of Prometheus in Hercules: The Animated Series, a guest appearance in Jake and the Never Land Pirates as the voice of Captain Treasure Tooth, playing Mel Fellini in
Mickey's 60th Birthday, and voicing Carl Reinoceros in Toy Story 4.
Songwriter & arranger Johnny Mandel passes away in California, at age 94. Known for his film and television compositions, he contributed to Disney's Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) and Freaky Friday
(1976). Winner of 5 Grammy Awards, he co-wrote "The Shadow of Your Smile" and "Suicide Is Painless" (the
theme to M*A*S*H). Mandel composed and arranged for some of the leading big bands of the 1940s and ’50s before establishing himself as a writer of memorable movie scores and television themes (which began with Sid Caesar’s groundbreaking 1950s television series Your Show of Shows.)
1920:
Artist, designer, visual effects creator, writer and producer Ray Harryhausen is born in Los Angeles, California. Creator of a form of stop motion model animation known as "Dynamation," his works include the animation for such films as Mighty Joe Young (1949), with his mentor Willis H. O'Brien, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects; his first color film, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958); and Jason and the Argonauts (1963), which featured a sword fight with seven skeleton warriors. Harryhausen appeared in small comedic cameo role in the 1998 Disney remake of Mighty Joe Young.
1953:
Singer, songwriter, and actor Colin Hay is born Colin James Hay in Scotland. Emigrating to Australia in his youth, he later became famous as the lead vocalist of the band Men at Work and as a solo artist. His singing voice can be heard in Disney's 2002 The Country Bears. He later voiced Fergus, an American flamingo, in the 2006 animated The Wild and in 2014 he appeared in an episode of ABC's Modern Family. In May 2019 he performed at Epcot as part of the Garden Rocks Concert Series.
2019:
Actress Katie Holmes visits Disneyland.
2022:
The Disney Wish, the fifth and newest ship in the Disney Cruise Line fleet, is officially christened in Port Canaveral, Florida.
