1940:
A rare instance of Walt Disney's praise occurs at a "Bambi" screening
of two minutes of test animation by Frank Thomas and Milt Kahl. After
seeing the footage, Disney turns to the two animators with tears in his eyes and says "Thanks, fellows.
That's great stuff, no kidding. Those personalities are pure gold." Walt seldom gives a direct compliment.
(When "Bambi" is completed it will have the fewest lines of dialogue of any Disney animated feature.)
1954:
Film director, producer, and actor Ron Howard is born Ronald William Howard in Duncan, Oklahoma. First known to TV fans as Opie on The Andy Griffith Show, Howard appeared in Disney's 1970 feature The Wild Country. He can also be heard on Disneyland Records' 1969 album release The Story and Song From The Haunted Mansion - playing the role of Mike, one of two teens who gets trapped in the mansion! In 1978 he appeared on NBC Salutes the 25th Anniversary of the Wonderful World of Disney.
As a young director, Howard made the 1984 film Splash, Disney's first release under its Touchstone Pictures
label - then known as Touchstone Films. (TV fans also know him for his role of Richie Cunningham on the sitcom Happy Days.)
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2005:
Disney releases its 1942 classic Bambi for the first time on
a special 2-disc DVD. The original soundtrack is also released on CD.
The premiere of Disney's live-action film The Pacifier takes place at the
El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, California.
1910:
Legendary actor and novelist David Niven is born James David
Graham Niven in London, England. His Disney credits include the 1977 Candleshoe in which he
played the multiple roles of Mr. Priory, Mr. Gipping, Colonel Dennis and John. Niven also appeared in the
1976 comedy No Deposit, No Return as J.W. Osborne. (Film fans will know Niven best from Around the World
in Eighty Days, The Guns Of Navarone, The Pink Panther and as Sir James Bond in the unofficial spoof
Casino Royale. Niven also wrote four books in his lifetime including his 1971 autobiography, The Moon's a
Balloon, which sold over five million copies.)
1924:
Disney's first Alice Comedy Alice's Day at Sea debuts in a handful
of east coast theaters. The combination live-action and animated
film features young Virginia Davis as Alice, and has been created
almost entirely by Walt himself (with assistance from brother Roy).
1930:
Disney animator & techincal genius Ub Iwerks, the first animator of Mickey Mouse, officially leaves Disney to set up his own animation studio. (His
character Flip the Frog will eventually fail and he will later return to Disney.)
1941:
Walt Disney's speech "Our American Culture," is broadcast
during an intermission of the Metropolitan Opera.
Walt's words include:
Once a man has tasted freedom he will never be content to be a slave. That is why I believe that this frightfulness we see everywhere today is only temporary. Tomorrow will be better for as long as America keeps alive the ideals of freedom and a better life. All men will want to be free and share our way of life. There must be so much that I should have said, but haven't. What I will say now is just what most
of us are probably thinking every day. I thank God and
America for the right to live and raise my family under the
flag of tolerance, democracy and freedom.
(These words will be echoed some 60 years later by Disney President Michael Eisner after the terrorist
attacks of September 2001.)
1994:
At the 36th Annual Grammy Awards, the song "A Whole New World" from
Disney's Aladdin wins multiple times! Song of the Year goes to the song's composers Alan
Menken and Tim Rice. Singers Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle win for Best Pop Performance by a
Duo or Group with Vocal. Menken and Rice also win for Best Song Written Specifically For A Motion
Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture
or for Television goes to composer Alan Menken for Aladdin performed by various artists.
Best Musical Album for Children is awarded to producers Alan Menken & Tim Rice and various artists
for Aladdin - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.
1996:
The Hilton Head Resort in South Carolina, a Disney Vacation Club resort property,
opens. A 5-hour drive from Disney World, the resort is fashioned after a 1940s hunting and fishing lodge.
1998:
Bug Juice, a documentary series about a group of kids that attend summer camp, officially premieres on The Disney Channel.
1999:
At Disney-MGM, a third drop is added to the drop sequence for the Tower of Terror attraction. Also, Doug Live (a stage show) opens replacing Superstar TV.
Kali River Rapids (a whitewater rafting adventure) and Maharajah Jungle Trek both open in the Asia section of Animal Kingdom.
2002:
The Atlanta Braves take on the Florida Marlins in their first
big-league preseason game of the year at Disney's
Wide World of Sports in Florida.
2003:
Epcot features the final performances of Tapestry of Dreams, coinciding with the end of the 100 Years of Magic celebration.
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1971:
Actor Jack Davenport - known for his role of Norrington in both Disney
features Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - is born in Suffolk, England.
2006:
The soundtrack to Disney's High School Musical reaches the
number one spot on the Billboard 200 for the first time.
MAR
2007:
Meg Crofton, president of Walt Disney World announces that two large tracts of land on different areas of its 43-square mile property ar being developed. The first, a 900-acre golf community, will replace the existing Eagle Pines golf course at the Bonnet Creek Golf Club with a Four Seasons hotel. The second project, also unnamed, is located on 450 acres near the new Western Beltway that Disney plans to sell to an as-yet-unnamed developer or group of developers.
The Atlanta Braves play their first home spring training game against a Major League team at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex in Florida.
The Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-2.
MARCH 1
1995:
The Lion roars at the 37th Grammy Awards, held at the Shrine Auditorium. Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male is awarded to Elton John for his "Can You Feel the Love Tonight."
Best Instrumental Arrangement With Accompanying Vocal goes to "Circle of Life," arranged by
Lebo Morake & Hans Zimmer and performed by Carmen Twillie. The Lion King—Original
Motion Picture Soundtrack wins Best Musical Album for Children. Best Spoken Word
Album for Children is awarded to The Lion King Read-Along.
1963:
Actor Bryan Batt - who in 2001 played the role of Lumiere in Disney's Broadway hit Beauty and the Beast - is born in in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Fans of TV's Mad Men know Batt for his role of Salvatore.)
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Today is Peanut Butter Lovers' Day
MARCH 01
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
Aladdin wins Grammys
Walt Disney received 32 Academy Awards personally
over his lifetime.
Along with members of his
staff, more than 950 honors
and citations from every
nation in the world (including
7 Emmys) were received
during Walt's 65 years.
2009:
New York Yankees pitchers C.C. Sabathia and Joba Chamberlain take a spin on the Toy Story Mania! 3-D attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The two hurlers are at Walt Disney World Resort for ESPN The Weekend.
"He knew anatomy. On 'Bambi,' they studied real deer, real rabbits and owls. He was the best at applying what he saw in the real thing and how that would work for an animated character, maintaining the realism but making it work so you have flexibility and the range of emotions and expressions. The way he put that down, nobody could ever touch it." -animator Andreas Deja on Milt Kahl
The March 1 issue of The Saturday Evening Post features this
Norman Rockwell painting. A bimonthly American magazine, it publishes
current event articles, editorials, human interest pieces, humor, illustrations, a letter
column, poetry, single-panel cartoons, stories ... and the work of painter/illustrator
Norman Rockwell. (Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life
scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post.) Rockwell will later give this
cover painting to his friend Walt Disney in 1943. He will inscribed the painting:
"To Walt Disney one of the really great artists - from an admirer Norman Rockwell."
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"One of the great things about being a director as a life choice is that it can never be mastered. Every story is its own kind of expedition, with its own set of challenges." -Ron Howard
"It really is amazing. Can you imagine being wonderfully overpaid for dressing up
and playing games? It's like being Peter Pan." -David Niven
1991:
Walt Disney Pictures releases the action-adventure Shipwrecked. Produced by a consortium of Scandinavian companies and released in the U.S. in a dubbed English-language version by Walt Disney Pictures, it tells the story of a young Norwegian boy in the 1850s who becomes the sole support of his family as a cabin boy on a ship. (Shipwrecked will be nominated for three Young Artist Awards the following year.)
1997:
The #5 locomotive, the "Ward Kimball" (named for the great Disney animator), is dedicated at the Magic Kingdom park at Walt Disney World. In 1995, Southern California railroad enthusiast Bill Norred traded his 1927 Davenport locomotive to Disneyland in exchange for the five retired clerestory-roofed "Retlaw One" coaches. The locomotive was instead sent to Walt Disney World after deemed too large to operate in California and was dedicated as #5 "Ward Kimball". Unfortunately, the locomotive will never pull a public train on the Walt Disney World Railroad as it is found to be far too small for operation. It will be put on display at Epcot and later returned to the Disney World engine house. In 1999 it will be traded to Cedar Point for a smaller Forney locomotive which (after restoration) will become the Disneyland Railroad #5 "Ward Kimball" in 2005.
1928:
Walt Disney is visiting New York with the intent to re-negotiate a deal with Charles Mintz of Winkler Productions for the next series of Oswald cartoons. Mintz only offers $1400 per film and 50 percent of the profits. (Secretly Mintz wants control of Oswald and wants Disney as his employee.)
2010:
Disneyland Dream, a true-life story of a 1956 trip to Disneyland,
California, by the Barstow family from Wethersfield, Connecticut, as
winners in a nationwide contest by "Scotch" Brand Cellophane Tape, is
released on DVD. Filmed, edited, and narrated by Robbins Barstow, with his wife Margaret
and their three children, it was named to the National Film Registry at the Library of
Congress in December 2008. The DVD includes an added, 20-minute Special Feature on The
Making of Disneyland Dream, with family recollections some 53 years later.
1977:
Episode 32 of The New Mickey Mouse Club airs on television. Jiminy Cricket discusses food in You and the Living Machine and episode 9 of the serial "Mystery at Rustler's Cave" is shown.
MAR
