2005:
The Disney Channel Original Movie Buffalo Dreams debuts.
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1889:
The California legislature divides Los Angeles County and creates
Orange County (the future home of Disneyland) as a separate political
entity. It is named for its most famous product ... the orange.
1933:
Disney's Silly Symphony cartoon Birds in the Spring is released.
1938:
Disney's Donald Duck cartoon Donald's Better Self, directed by Jack King and written by Carl Barks, is released. In this 8-minute short, schoolboy Donald (voiced by Clarence Nash) is torn between his angel and devil sides.
1950:
Bruce Healey, composer/arranger/conductor and music director for Walt Disney Attractions, is born in St. Louis, Missouri. His Disney work includes Fantasmic!, One Man's Dream, and Disney's Fantillusion (at Tokyo Disneyland). Healey also produced such Disney CDs as the 1997 Official Album of Disneyland/Walt Disney World and the 1996 Mickey's Sports Songs.
1956:
Voice actor Rob Paulsen is born in Detroit, Michigan. Best known for his extensive roles as the voices of animated characters (such as Pinky from Pinky and the Brain), his Disney credits include Little Mermaid III, Fox and the Hound II, Kingdom Hearts II, Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas, Mulan II, Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, Teacher's Pet, Stitch! The Movie, and Cinderella II: Dreams Come True.
1960:
The Walt Disney Presents TV series features the episode
"This is Your Life, Donald Duck."
1962:
The NBC-TV series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color
airs part 1 of "The Prince and the Pauper."
1966:
Several landowners (all fully-owned subsidiaries of the Walt Disney Company) petition the Circuit Court of the Ninth Judicial Circuit, which serves Orange County, Florida, for the creation of the Reedy Creek Drainage District. The Drainage District will be incorporated May 13 as a public corporation. (The land within Disney World will become part of the Reedy Creek Improvement District - which will allow Disney to exercise quasi-governmental powers over the area.)
1977:
The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh is released. It is a compilation
consisting of Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, Wiinie the Pooh and
the Honey Tree, and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too.
2000:
Christina Aguilera hosts "2 Hour Tour" on the Disney Channel. The new series (hosted by a different pop star) hopes to help young musicians break into the industry.
2001:
The Wonderful World of Disney airs "Princess of Thieves"
(a coming-of-age story about Robin Hood's daughter) on ABC-TV.
The Mulan Parade makes its final trip down Hollywood Blvd at the
Disney-MGM Studios in Florida.
2003:
Disney's Inspector Gadget 2 is released directly to DVD and video.
2006:
The NFFC Strictly Disneyana Show and Sale kicks off at the Celebration Middle School Gymnasium in Celebration, Florida.
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1983:
The featurette Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore is released to theaters
along with a reissue of the 1963 feature The Sword in the Stone. Winnie the Pooh and
a Day for Eeyore has been animated by Rick Reinert Productions, making it the first animated Disney film
since 1938 to be completely produced outside the company.
Also released is the live-action detective spoof Trenchcoat, distributed by Buena
Vista Distribution. Actress Margot Kidder plays an aspiring mystery writer who travels to Malta to
research her next novel and falls in love with a handsome, mysterious American - played by Robert Hayes.
"Animation is not a question of drawing, it’s a question of timing."
-Jules Engel (born This Day in Disney History 1909)
Brooklyn-born architect Robert A.M. Stern designed Disney's Boardwalk, the Yacht and Beach Club Resorts, and the Casting Center building. Along with Jaquelin Robertson, he was also the master planner for the Florida community, Celebration.
1909:
Jules Engel, filmmaker, animator, painter, sculptor, and teacher, is born in Budapest, Hungary. His family moved to America and he grew up in Illinois. In 1938, Engel was hired by Walt Disney Studios to work on Disney's Fantasia and later Bambi. Starting in 1944, he was a founding member of the innovative studio United Productions of America. Along with Robert Cannon, Engel created Mr. Magoo, Gerlad McBoing Boing, and Madeline. Engel is best remembered as the founding director of the Experimental Animation Program at the California Institute of the Arts - where he taught until his death, serving as mentor to several generations of animators.
2007:
The Disney stage production Tarzan celebrates 350 performances on Broadway.
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1964:
The Golden Globe Awards are presented at the Cocoanut Grove, Ambassador Hotel
in Los Angeles, California. Although Hayley Mills is nominated for Best Motion
Picture Actress - Musical/Comedy (for her performance in Disney's Summer Magic), the award goes to Shirley
MacLaine (for her role in Irma la Douce).
1994:
The New York Times runs a letter to the editor titled "Disney Can
Make American History Fun" by David Verbraska of Valatie, New York.
Mr. Verbraska's words include:
For the first time in a long time, I disagree with the premise of one of your editorials -- "Virginia, Say No to the Mouse" (Feb. 24), on the proposed Disney theme park in Virginia's Prince William County, "a region of natural beauty and historical importance, flanked by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Civil War
shrines of Manassas."
Your shrill characterization of Disney's America as merely a "business venture" and appropriate only to "10-year-old, television-nurtured sensibilities" slights the enormous economic and, yes, the educational potential of the attraction.
Disney's America will not cheapen our history, but will enliven it and bring it to more Americans, young and old. In the way that Epcot Center in Florida teaches children about science and world cultures, Disney's America seems poised to offer instructional fun in American history.
His letter ends with:
As a history enthusiast, not an adolescent in search of mindless entertainment, I'm excited about Disney's America. I can only hope that you will be too.
MARCH 11
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MARCH 11
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
Animator Jules Engel born
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2009:
Ashley Brown and Gavin Lee reprise their roles from the Broadway production of Mary Poppins in Chicago, Illinois. A national tour of the musical kicks off this evening at the Cadillac Palace Theatre.
1969:
Actor and singer Terrence Howard is born in Chicago, Illinois (though he was raised in Cleveland, Ohio). He is the voice of James (Tiana's father) in Disney's 2009 The Princess and the Frog.
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Musician Bruce Healey born
2010:
The Academy Award-winning composers of the music from It’s a Small World
and The Enchanted Tiki Room, as well as Mary Poppins - Richard M. Sherman
and Robert B. Sherman - receive a tribute window on Disneyland's Main Street.
2011:
Mars Needs Moms, a 3D computer-animated sci-fi film based on the book by Berkeley Breathed, is released by Walt Disney Pictures. A young boy named Milo (Seth Green) gains a deeper appreciation for his mom (Joan Cusack) after Martians come to Earth to take her away.
Strong earthquakes hit the Tohoku Region of Japan on this afternoon, triggering several meter high tsunami waves that cause massive destruction and loss of human lives in areas along the Pacific coast, especially in Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima Prefectures. The 9.0-magnitude earthquake itself causes major damage in areas close to the epicenter, as well as scattered fires and damage across the Tohoku and eastern Kanto area. Disney’s Disneyland Resort in Tokyo and Tokyo DisneySea will later temporarily close. Although damage and injuries are minimal at both parks, operator Oriental Land Co. will choose to close the parks in the wake of rolling blackouts and other safety concerns.
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