2004:
Pitcher Curt Schilling of the World Champion Boston Red Sox
gets a hero's welcome at Disney World's Magic Kingdom.
Cary "Jay" Sharp, 37, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, attends his own midnight "burial" at Disneyland to become an honorary resident of the park's famous Haunted Mansion attraction. A doctor and health care attorney, Sharp paid $37,400 on eBay to become immortalized on a Haunted Mansion tombstone (the first member of the public to ever do so). His tombstone reads:
JAY
Doctor-Lawyer Legal Clerk
Forever Buried In His Work
(All proceeds from the auction will go to both the Anaheim and Baton Rouge chapters of the
Boys & Girls Clubs of America.)
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1902:
Character actress Elsa Lanchester is born in London,
England. Her Disney credits include the live-action features Rascal,
Blackbeard's Ghost, That Darn Cat! (as Mrs. MacDougall - pictured right),
and Mary Poppins (as the departing nanny, Katie Nanna). She also
appeared as Mrs. Formby in My Dog, The Thief (a 2-part episode of Walt
Disney's Wonderful World of Color in 1969). A character actress with a
long career in theatre, film and television, Lanchester may be best
remembered as the Monster's mate in the 1935 The Bride of Frankenstein.
1933:
Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon The Pet Store, directed by Wilfred Jackson, is
released. Pet shop owner Tony Dinero puts Mickey in charge while he's away at lunch. Unfortunately
Beppo the Gorilla escapes from his cage and uses Minnie as Fay Wray in a King Kong imitation!
1952:
Actress Annie Potts - the voice of Bo Peep in the first two Toy Story
films and the voice of Syrinx in Disney's TV series Hercules - is born in Franklin, Kentucky. (TV fans may remember her as Mary Jo on the hit series Designing Women.)
1955:
Mickey Mouse Club airs on ABC-TV. Today is Talent Round-Up Day.
1962:
The NBC-TV series Walt Disney's Wonderful World
of Color airs part 1 of "Sammy, the Way-Out Seal."
Directed by Norman Tokar, the film tells the story of two young brothers (played by Bill Mumy and Michael McGreevey) who secretly bring home a seal from their summer vacation and try to hide it from their Mom and Dad.
1971:
The Dapper Dans of Disney World (a barbershop quartet) perform their first show outside of WDW (an evening performance at a convention in
Cocoa Beach) since relocating to Florida from Disneyland, California.
1974:
Actor Joaquin Phoenix - the voice of Kenai in Disney's 2003 animated Brother Bear - is born in Puerto Rico. (He is best known for his role of Johnny Cash in the 2005 Walk the Line.)
1980:
Annette Funicello, Cubby O'Brien, Tommy Cole, Sherry Alberoni and Dickie Dodd join other Mouseketeers wearing black ears and white shirts on a sound stage in Burbank, California, to celebrating the 25th anniversary of the original Mickey Mouse Club.
1990:
The Magical World of Disney airs "Disney's Halloween Treat" on Disney Channel.
2001:
The Disneyana Fun Fairs Show & Sale takes place at the WestCoast Anaheim Hotel. The free event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Disney Collectibles Artist Robert Olszewski appears at the Limited Edition in Merrick, New York, to meet collectors and sign his sculptures.
Disney/Pixar's newest animated feature film, Monsters, Inc. premieres at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. Stars Billy Crystal, John Goodman, and Mary Gibbs are on hand for the event. (The film will open in U.S. theaters November 2.)
1999:
Disney World's Polynesian Resort officially changes the names of its longhouses:
Tahiti is renamed Aotearoa
Fiji remains Fiji
Samoa is now called Tuvalu
Bali Hai is renamed Tonga
(Maui) Maori is changed to Rarotonga
Bora Bora is renamed Niue
Hawaii is renamed Samoa
Tonga is now called Hawaii
Oahu is changed to Tokelau
Pago Pago is renamed Rapa Nui
Moorea is now called Tahiti
1898:
Animator Rollin "Ham" Hamilton is born in South Dakota. Starting in February 1924 as Walt's first animator, Hamilton worked on many of the Oswald shorts, and nearly all of the Alice Comedies. (Hamilton will go on to help originate the Warner Bros. cartoon studio with Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising - also former Disney animators!)
1923:
Mrs. Davis (mother of actress Virginia Davis) wires her acceptance of Walt Disney's offer of a $100 a month for her daughter to star in his new Alice films. Although the Davis family must move from Kansas City to California - Virginia's mother, a stage struck housewife, is excited at the idea of her young daughter being in show business.
The Haunted Mansion is the only
attraction to appear in a
different land at 4 of the 5
Disney resorts:
New Orleans Square at Disneyland,
Liberty Square at Disney World,
Frontierland at Disneyland Paris,
and Fantasyland at
Tokyo
Disneyland.
2005:
Disney Channel airs the Phil of the Future episode "Team Diffy" for the first time.
2008:
Jay Rasulo, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, is inducted into the Travel Industry Hall of Leaders at a ceremony in Portland, Oregon. An annual industry conference run by the Travel Industry Association, distinguished individuals are named to the Hall of Leaders for "sustained, noteworthy contributions that have positively impacted the travel industry, stimulated greater achievement, and raised industry-wide standards."
The Disney-owned Lyric Street releases Greatest Hits Volume 1, the first greatest hits album by the American country music group Rascal Flatts.
OCTOBER 28
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THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
OCTOBER 28
Here lies good ol' Fred. A great big rock fell on his head.
Monsters, Inc. debuts
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Mickey Mouse Club celebrates 25 years
Haunted Mansion tribute to set designer and model builder Fred Joerger - Imagineering's resident rock expert
2009:
Disney Interactive Studios officially announce the development of Disney Epic
Mickey, an adventure-platforming game with light role-playing elements for the
Wii home video game console.
The Walt Disney Company files plans to build a sprawling California soundstage
and production complex on the northwest corner of its Golden Oak Ranch in the
Santa Clarita Valley. The proposed Disney/ABC Studios at the Ranch would occupy 56 acres of the
sprawling, 890-acre ranch.
Comedian, writer, director, and banjo enthusiast Steve Martin performs to a near-
capacity audience at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Martin (who worked at Disneyland as a teen)
has turned serious intention to both playing and composing with his first full album of music, The Crow: New
Songs for the Five-String Banjo.
"My wife inspired the title for this next song - it's called 'When Are You Going to Stop Playing the Damned Banjo?' " -Steve Martin
1949:
Tragedy strikes when Kay Kamen (the Disney
Studios' licensing representative for the last 17
years) and his wife are killed in an Air France plane crash over the Azores. All eleven
crew members and 37 passengers are killed aboard the Lockheed L-749 aircraft which was headed from Paris to
New York with an intermediate stop at Santa Maria Airport, Azores. (The Azores is a Portuguese group of islands
in the Atlantic Ocean, about 930 miles west from Lisbon and about 2,400 miles east from the east coast of North
America.) This ends one of Walt Disney's happiest collaborations. Because of Kamen, the studio's profits from
merchandise are currently at an all-time new high.
"I was driving down Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles...in my dad's grey Oldsmobile convertible with the top down when I heard the news of the plane crash on the radio. I burst into tears. I knew well that Kay never flew anywhere because of his fears and found the irony extremely cruel. It was a great personal loss for
our... family and for many others." -Diane Disney Miller
2010:
Actor James MacArthur, best known for his role of Danny "Danno" Williams on the original Hawaii Five-O television series, passes away at age 72 in Jacksonville, Florida. Adopted as an infant by playwright Charles MacArthur and actress Helen Hayes, he grew up in Nyack, New York. During summer breaks from Harvard University, where he studied history, MacArthur made The Light in the Forest and Third Man on the Mountain for Walt Disney. Deciding to make acting his full-time career, he left Harvard in his sophomore year and appeared in two more Disney films, Kidnapped
and Swiss Family Robinson (followed by a 12-year run on Hawaii Five-O).
A 23-minute preview of Disney's TRON: Legacy is screened on many IMAX theaters all over the world. (The film will open in December.)
1913:
Animator Don Lusk is born in Los Angeles, California. Starting as an inbetweener at Disney in 1933, he became an animator in 1938 on Ferdinand The Bull. He is best known for his work on the Fish Dance in "The Nutcracker Suite" segment of Fantasia, Cleo the goldfish in Pinocchio, the title character in Alice in Wonderland, and Wendy in Peter Pan. (After leaving Disney he worked as a freelance animator on such classics as A Boy Named Charlie Brown, followed by a 23 year stint at Hanna-Barbera until his retirement in 1990.)
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