1955:
The Disney film Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier, starring Fess Parker (as
Davy Crockett) and Buddy Ebsen (as Georgie Russel), is released. An edited
compilation of the first three episodes of the Davy Crockett Disney television serial, the film will greatly
influence the design of Disneyland's Frontierland. The U.S. is in the midst of a national "Davy Crockett craze," with
hundreds of coonskin caps being sold, as well as a hit record of the theme song "The Ballad of Davy Crockett."
Disney's live-action short Arizona Sheepdog, directed by Larry Lansburgh, is released.
2009:
Today is Memorial Day.
It is reported that Disney is readying a remake of the 1986
sci-fi adventure movie Flight of the Navigator.
The charming Audio-Animatronics show The Mickey Mouse Revue
closes at Tokyo Disneyland after nearly 26 years of delighting Japanese
guests. Originally flown in from Disney World, it will be replaced with Mickey’s PhilharMagic (the same
show that replaced The Mickey Mouse Revue at WDW).
2003:
Mickey's All-American Pin Festival (a 2-month event) kicks off at Disneyland.
1908:
Actress & radio performer Barbara Luddy, the voice of many Disney animated characters, is born in Great Falls, Montana. She was the voice of Kanga in 3 Pooh
featurettes including The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Rover in One Hundred and
One Dalmatians, Merryweather in Sleeping Beauty and Lady in Lady and the Tramp.
1935:
Disney's Silly Symphony cartoon The Cookie Carnival, directed by Ben
Sharpsteen, is released. A Cinderella story involving a cookie girl who wishes to be queen of the Cookie Carnival, Pinto Colvig provides the voice of the gingerbread man.
1936:
The New York Journal prints some outspoken opinions expressed by Jerome Kern (composer of such classics as The Song Is You and
Old Man River). Kern's words include:
"Cartoonist Walt Disney has made the 20th century's only important contribution to music. Disney has made use of music as language."
1944:
Puppeteer, actor and film director Frank Oz is born Richard Frank Oznowicz in Hereford, England. Oz began his behind-the-camera work when he co-directed the fantasy film The Dark Crystal with long-time collaborator Jim Henson. He also directed the 1991 Touchstone release What About Bob?, and was the voice of Fungus in the 2001 animated release Monsters, Inc. (Star Wars fans know Oz as the Jedi Master Yoda while Muppet/Sesame Street fans know him as the voices of Fozzie Bear, Sam the Eagle, Bert, and Grover!)
1970:
Actor, producer & writer Jamie Kennedy, the evil ice cream man in Disney's 2001 Max Keeble's Big Move, is born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. (Fans of TV's Ghost Whisperer know Kennedy for his role of Eli James.)
1975:
David Kater, a member of The All New Mickey Mouse Club in 1989 (and the Broadway musical "Phantom of the Opera") is born in La Puente, California.
1985:
The first Disney film of the Eisner-Wells regime, Jerry Saved from
Drowning begins filming. (It will later be re-titled Down and Out in Beverly Hills.)
1986:
Today is the last day EPCOT guests will hear the original narration
of the Spaceship Earth attraction. It will be replaced with a new narration by
legendary newsman Walter Cronkite.
1989:
Actor Josh Saviano (of The Wonder Years television series) appears as a special guest on the Disney Channel series MMC. Today is Party Day!
1990:
"Here Come the Muppets," a live action and puppet stage show based on the
Muppets, opens at the Disney-MGM Studios park in Florida. (It will be replaced by the Voyage
of the Little Mermaid in 1992.)
Touchstone Pictures releases Fire Birds, starring Nicolas Cage, Tommy Lee Jones
and Sean Young.
1998:
The newly expanded Disney Orlando Animation Studio opens at Disney World. The new "Magic of Disney Animation" tour includes an expanded viewing area where guests are able to meet Disney animation artists and see the ongoing work on future animated releases.
2000:
Songwriters Tim Rice and Elton John receive an Ivor Novello Award (presented by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters) for International Achievement in Musical Theatre for Disney's The Lion King.
1981:
The Kindercare Center child-care facility opens at Walt Disney World.
There is a radio studio located in
Disney's Hollywood Studios. It originally
housed the first children's radio
network Radio Aahs (in the days when
the park was called Disney-MGM) - but
was replaced with Radio Disney in 1996.
Disney later moved Radio Disney to new headquarters in Dallas, Texas. The once
bustling Disney Studios Florida radio
studios are now used as remote studios
for radio shows that are visiting
Disney or the Orlando
area and need a
broadcast facility.
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2007:
Radio Disney holds the Planet Premiere of "What Time Is It", the first single from High School Musical 2 (written by Matthew Gerrard and Robbie Nevil).
Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End opens worldwide.
The third film in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, the plot follows Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann and the crew of the Black Pearl rescuing Jack Sparrow from Davy Jones's Locker, and then preparing to fight the East India Trading Company - who wish to extinguish piracy.
Over at Disneyland, Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island officially opens. An artificial island surrounded by the Rivers of America, it contains caves with references to Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean films, as well as the traditional Mark Twain characters from the novel
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
1947:
Emmy Award-winning actress Karen Valentine is born in Sebastopol, California. Her Disney live-action credits include the 1979 The North Avenue Irregulars and the 1978 Hot Lead and Cold Feet. (Fans of classic TV know Valentine as Alice Johnson on the series Room 222.)
1933:
The Silly Symphony short The Three Little Pigs premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City for one week. It is Disney's 36th Silly Symphony and the seventh in Technicolor. (A young man named Milt Kahl will later see this very short and be inspired to become a Disney animator.) The Three Little Pigs will be generally released two days later.
1983:
Pinocchio's Daring Journey officially opens to the general public as part of the New Fantasyland. Already running over the last few days with the rest of the overhauled Fantasyland, when Disneyland debuted in 1955 this location was home to the Mickey Mouse Club Theater. Based on the 1940 animated classic, Jiminy Cricket guides guests through various scenes from the movie. Pinocchio's Daring Journey is the first Disneyland attraction to have first appeared at Tokyo Disneyland (in April 1983) and the first attraction created by Disney to use holographic material.
1968:
Actor Kevin Heffernan, Ron Wilson the bus driver in Disney's 2005 Sky High,
is born in West Haven Connecticut.
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MAY
MAY 25
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Three Little Pigs premieres
"I haven't got a good voice to carry narration, got a nasal twang, I know. I'm not being immodest, just being practical." -Walt Disney
1973:
Walt Disney World's Country & Western Spectacular kicks off for the first of three
days at the Magic Kingdom. Featuring Anne Murray, Faron Young and Freddie Hart, the special event is
included in Magic Kingdom park admission.
1960:
Cartoonist Walt Kelly writes Walt Disney a friendly letter.
Best known for his classic funny animal comic strip Pogo, Kelly's words include:
Just in case I ever forgot to thank you, I'd like you to know that I, for one, have long appreciated the sort of training and atmosphere that you set up back there in the thirties. There were drawbacks as there are to everything, but it was an astounding experiment and experience as I look back on it. Certainly it was the only education I ever received and I hope of I'm living up to a few of your hopes for other people.
(Kelly worked at the Disney Studios from 1936-1941.)
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MAY 25
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY GOOFY!
Goofy debuts
1932:
The Mickey Mouse film Mickey's Revue, directed by Wilfred Jackson,
is released. Minnie, Pluto and Horace Horsecollar help Mickey put on a big show. Goofy
appears (as an audience member who annoyingly crunches on peanuts) for the very first time
- but with the name Dippy Dawg.
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2001:
Disney-MGM hosts the fourth (and final) Star Wars Weekends of the 2001 season. Celebrity guests include Mike Quinn (Nien Nunb) and Phil Brown (Uncle Owen).
CHands Across America, a benefit event and publicity
campaign, is staged on this day. Approximately 6.5 million people
hold hands in a human chain for fifteen minutes along a path across the
continental United States. From New York City's Battery Park to the RMS
Queen Mary pier in Long Beach, California, people join hands to form a line that
stretches 4,152 miles! Taking part in Hands Across America in Long Beach is
Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Reverend Robert Schuller, Kenny Loggins, and John
Stamos, backed by Papa Doo Run Run.
