2001:
Seventy mile-per-hour winds shut down five rides at Disney's California Adventure.
2005:
Walt Disney Records celebrates the 50th Anniversary
of Disneyland with 4 new CDs to honor the event:
"50th Anniversary: A Musical History of Disneyland," "Julie Andrews Selects Her Favorite Disney Songs," "The Official Album of the Disneyland Resort: The Happiest Homecoming on Earth" and "Walt Disney Records Presents: Wishes!"
Disney releases 6 classics from the past to DVD. They include
Pocahontas: 10th Anniversary Edition (a 2-disc package), National Treasure (starring Nicolas Cage), In Search of the Castaways (featuring Hayley Mills), Summer Magic (also featuring Mills), Heidi (starring Jason Robards), and That Darn Cat! (the first Disney film to star Dean Jones).
The media descends on Disneyland to prepare for the next day's party and schmoozefest. The Anaheim park will be closed to the public tomorrow as Disney puts the
finishing touches on their 50th Celebration event (which officially begins May 5).
1871:
Walter Robinson Parr, the Illinois-based preacher who Elias Disney named his fourth son Walter after, is born in Liverpool, England. The son of Alexander and Matilda (Richards) Parr, Walter graduated from the Beloit Academy in 1891, from Beloit College in 1895 and from the Chicago Theological Seminary in 1898. It was while serving as a pastor at St. Paul's Congregational Church in Chicago, that he befriended Elias Disney.
1896:
Novelist and playwright Dodie Smith is born Dorothy Gladys Smith in Lancashire, England. Her 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians was loosely adapted into a Disney animated feature and released in 1961. The Hundred and One Dalmatians was inspired by Dodie's own Dalmation pet named Pongo!
1903:
Legendary singer & actor Bing Crosby - one of the narrators of Disney's 1949
animated feature The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad - is born in Tacoma,
Washington. (The best-selling recording artist until well into the rock era, with over half a billion records in
circulation, Crosby's career stretched over more than half a century from 1926 until his death in 1977.
His biggest musical hit ... Irving Berlin's "White Christmas," first introduced in 1942.)
1926:
The El Capitan Theatre, "Hollywood's First Home of Spoken Drama," debuts with the live stage production Charlot's Revue. For the next ten years it will present live plays, with over 120 productions, before offering movies full-time starting in 1942.
(Decades later Disney will operate the theater, using it for many Walt Disney Pictures' movie premieres.)
1929:
Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon When the Cat's Away is released.
1931:
Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon The Moose Hunt is released. It is the first cartoon in which
Pluto is known by that name. The short also contains Pluto's first spoken line in a cartoon, "Kiss Me." (One of only
two times he will ever speak!)
1969:
Ground is officially broken for the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. Also known as CalArts, the school was founded by Walt Disney when the Chouinard School of Music and The Los Angeles Conservatory merged in the early 60s. (Although Disney had died a few years before this ground breaking, the CalArts student newspaper will still be called Walt.)
1987:
The Wonderful World of Disney airs the 1964 Disney classic
"Mary Poppins," starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.
1989:
The 8th episode of MMC airs on Disney Channel.
Today is Anything Can Happen Day!
1994:
Disney announces plans to create a cruise line.
1996:
The television sitcom Step by Step airs part 1 of "We're Going to Disney World."
2004:
An Associated Press article announces the Disney Cruise Line will begin offering cruises from the West coast in 2005 as part of the celebration for
Disneyland's 50th anniversary.
1973:
Original Disney World Dapper Dan Jerry Siggins puts in his last day of work
with the singing group. He will go to California to finish his studies at California
State at Long Beach and later sing with the Dapper Dans of Disneyland.
1933:
The German crime film M directed by Fritz Lang is released in the U.S. Already in release in Germany since 1931, the film features a drug store scene in which a few Mickey Mouse figurines can be seen.
2003:
James Brown (the Godfather of Soul) performs at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney, Florida on his 70th birthday. He will visit Disney World the following day.
Disney's stage production of The Lion King kicks off its second national tour in Chicago, Illinois.
2007:
Mickey Mouse, dressed as the Sorcerer's Apprentice, acts as grand marshal of the
2007 Pegasus Parade in Louisville, Kentucky. The parade - whose theme is "Wonders, Wizards
and Wands" - is part of the Kentucky Derby festivities.
Walter M. Schirra Jr., one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts and the only
man to fly on NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, passes away at
age 84. Over the years Schirra made appearances at Disney theme parks for such events as the 2003 debut of Epcot's Mission:SPACE and the unveiling of Disneyland's new Tomorrowland in 1998. In 2003 he appeared on
ABC-TV's broadcast of the 20th Annual Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade.
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1940:
The Disney Bulletin (volume 2, number 36) is issued. Along with stories about
employee birthdays and weddings being celebrated, is a short notice about the Ink & Paint Department's move
from the Hyperion Studio to their new building in Burbank.
"With the passing of Wally Schirra, we at NASA note with sorrow the loss of yet another of the pioneers of human spaceflight." -NASA Administrator Michael Griffin
2008:
Principal photography begins on Walt Disney Pictures’ upcoming theatrical production High School Musical 3: Senior Year. The all-new feature film is being shot on location in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is scheduled for release in theaters October 24, 2008.
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MAY
MAY 3
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MAY 03
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
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Bing Crosbyn born
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1997:
Disney's animated Nightmare Ned airs on ABC-TV with the episodes
"Monster Ned" and "The Ants."
The concept for Disney's Hollywood Studios (originally called Disney-MGM Studios) came from an idea to have a movie pavilion at Epcot. Once Imagineers realized that the range of possibilities were larger than just one attraction, the idea for a 3rd
theme park was born!
1991:
Disney's Hollywood Pictures releases the crime drama One Good Cop, starring Michael Keaton, Rene Russo, Anthony LaPaglia and Benjamin Bratt.
2010:
Almost 5 years to the day after launching at Orlando International Airport, Disney’s
Magical Express welcomes it’s 10,000,000th guest! Lori Ogurkis and her family from Hazelton,
Pennyslvania, receive a special reception at the airport, complete with a surprise visit and a gift basket from
Mickey Mouse. The Ogurkis family ride in their own private motor coach to Disney’s Polynesian Resort to begin
their WDW vacation. (Magical Express began running May 5, 2005.)
