2005:
Gary Estrada rides Walt Disney World's Haunted Mansion ride for the 999th time! He's the first person (to Disney's knowledge) to hit that goal in just 10 months. Estrada began his marathon riding in January.
1912:
Animator Ollie Johnston, a Disney Legend & one of Walt's "Nine Old Men," is born in Palo Alto, California. His many contributions will include Bambi, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Mary Poppins, The AristoCats, The Jungle Book, The Rescuers, and The Fox and the Hound.
1927:
Disney's All Wet (an Oswald the Lucky Rabbit silent short) is released.
1939:
This is the date of the fateful "elevator accident" at the
Tower of Terror, Disney's scary attraction at its Hollywood Studios. This is also the date inscribed on the eviction notice that appears on the entrance gates and on the inspection notice in the elevators.
1936:
Disney's Silly Symphony cartoon The Country Cousin is released.
Co-directed by David Hand and Wilfred Jackson, this short will win an Academy Award for Best Cartoon.
1942:
Actor David Ogden Stiers, the voice of many Disney animated characters including Cogsworth in the 1991 Beauty and the Beast, and Jumba in the 2002 Lilo & Stitch, is born in Peoria, Illinois. (TV fans may remember him as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III on the hit series M*A*S*H.)
1950:
Funnyman John Candy, the voice of Albatross Wilbur in Disney's 1990 The Rescuers
Down Under, is born in Toronto, Canada. He also stars with Tom Hanks in the 1984
Walt Disney Productions/Touchstone Pictures feature Splash.
1955:
The Mickey Mouse Club airs on ABC-TV. Today is Fun With Music Day.
1957:
Disney's fourth Zorro episode "The Ghost of the Mission" airs on ABC-TV.
1958:
The TV series Walt Disney Presents airs the episode "Texas John Slaughter."
1966:
At Disneyland's New Orleans Square, the new Pirates of the Caribbean River
is filled with water for the first time (the attraction will open March 18, 1967).
1993:
The Disney Villain by veteran animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston (two of Walt's "Nine Old Men") is published by Disney Editions.
1996:
Ghost and goblins put on a happy face at Disney World's Magic Kingdom
for "Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party." Guests attend the party
dressed in costumes and enjoy special entertainment, hayrides down
Main Street, U.S.A., and trick-or-treating for children throughout the park.
2000:
To celebrate the first Disney store opening in Europe 10 years ago, a special Pooh beanie is released. The item features Pooh wearing a pointed hat with the words "The Disney Store Europe" on it.
2001:
The Disney Village (at Disneyland Paris) hosts a ticketed event on this Halloween night. Guests compete in a costume contest while enjoying the evening's lineup of concerts, parades and shows.
2002:
Dick Cook, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, and Steve Jobs, chairman and CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, announce that their newest feature Finding Nemo will be released May 30, 2003. The film, which is the 5th Walt Disney Pictures presentation of a Pixar Film, will be accompanied by the acclaimed 1989 John Lasseter-directed Pixar short, Knickknack.
2003:
A Disney multi-media Haunted Mansion display
greets travelers at Grand Central Terminal's
Vanderbilt Hall in New York City. The free exhibit celebrates the release of the new movie.
1977:
Director, writer, producer and narrator James "Jim" Algar retires after 43 years with the Walt Disney Studios. He produced live-action films about animals and nature, worked on 26 one-hour episodes for The Wonderful World of Disney television series, and contributed to theme park attractions such as
"Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" and "The Hall of Presidents." Algar will be named a Disney Legend in 1998.
2006:
Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party is held at the Magic Kingdom for the last time this season.
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1892:
Elias Disney (future father of Walt) pays $750 for a 25 x 125 corner lot on 2156 N.
Tripp Avenue, on the Northwest side of Chicago. The area was annexed into the city in 1889 and is now a desirable location for working-class families to buy lots and build homes of their own.
1952:
Two Weeks Vacation, a Disney short featuring Goofy, is released.
Doom Buggy is the show name for Disney's OmniMover system (used in their Haunted Mansion attraction). It was initially developed for the "Adventures in Inner Space" attraction. Disney World's Haunted Mansion has 160 cars with a guest capacity of 3,200 guests per hour.
When hinges creak in doorless chambers and strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls,
whenever candlelights flicker where the air is deathly still, that is the time when ghosts are present,
practicing their terror with ghoulish delight.
1951:
Animator Randy Cartwright is born Newsport News, Virginia. While attending UCLA, he will work at Disneyland in the character department - portraying such characters as Dopey and Pluto. A year after graduating he will accept a job at the Walt Disney Studios animation training program headed by the veteran Disney animator Eric Larson. Cartwright will begin his career as an inbetweener for Ollie Johnston on The Rescuers and progressed to full animator on Pete's Dragon. He will go on to animate Belle in Beauty and the Beast and become the directing animator for the Magic Carpet in Aladdin.
1953:
This week's issue of Saturday Evening Post features part 1 of the article "The
Amazing Story of Walt Disney" by Jack Alexander. It also features a series of color photos of Walt and his family & friends at their California home.
Disney's live-action feature The Wind in the Willows is released. Featuring members of Monty Python's Flying Circus (Eric Idle, John Cleese, Michael Palin, and Terry Jones) the film will get great reviews, but unfortuantley get lost in the shuffle of a legal battle with distributors. When released to DVD in 2004, the film's title will be changed to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
1956:
The Disneyland series airs episode 55 - "The Plausible Impossible" on ABC-TV. Walt himself explains a principle of Disney's style of animation called "the plausible impossible," in which things that cannot be done in reality can be done in animation ... if there is a plausible basis for it. He uses clips from several cartoons and features to demonstrate.
2008:
Disney World closes the 37-year-old Hall of Presidents attraction after today for an extended refurbishment. The show will stay shuttered for more than eight months so Disney can update the hall’s aging light, sound, mechanical, projection and show systems and make room for a new, robotic version of the 44th president of the United States.
The cast of the Disney Broadway musical "The Little Mermaid"
performs on this day's broadcast of NBC's Today Show.
OCTOBER 31
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Today is Carve a Pumpkin Day
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
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OCTOBER 31
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1994:
Disneyland and KIIS-FM Radio (featuring Rick Dees) host a special Halloween party from 6:00 a.m.to 10:00 a.m. Guests arriving at Disneyland in costume between 6:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. enter free of admission!
