1982:
At EPCOT Center, Canada, China, and France open around the World Showcase
between 4 p.m. and midnight for a soft opening in preparation for its grand debut.
Annual passports (special year-long admission passes)
are introduced at Walt Disney World.
2004:
Disney's Aladdin Special Edition Soundtrack is released.
The collection features all 21 original tracks plus recordings of two deleted songs
("Proud of Your Boy" and "High Adventure" written by the movie's Academy Award
winning songwriting team of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman).
AOL Music First View debuts Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey's
"A Whole New World" music video. The new version is from Disney's 2-disc special edition DVD of Aladdin (to be released October 5).
Disney's Hollywood Records releases Hilary Duff's new album, the self-titled Hilary Duff, on her 17th birthday.
The album will sell over 3 million copies worldwide.
The stage musical Mary Poppins begins regular performances at the Bristol Hippodrome in England. The show (produced by Disney and Cameron Macintosh) will later move to the Prince Edward Theatre in London.
Disney's Lyric Street releases Feels Like Today, the third album
from the American country music group Rascal Flatts.
It will sell over 5,100,000 copies in the U.S. alone.
"Music has to fit like the proverbial glove, as it has to complement so many factors: story, atmosphere and the action." -Disney Legend Buddy Baker
1934:
Actress Janet Munro is born in Blackpool, Lanacashire, England. She
starred in the live-action Disney films Swiss Family Robinson (portraying the "cabin boy"
Bertie), Third Man on the Mountain (as Lizbeth Hempel), and Darby O'Gill and the Little
People (as Katie O'Gill). Walt Disney himself selected Munro out of 300 candidates for
the female lead in Darby O'Gill.
1947:
Actor Jeffrey Jones, the voice of Chairman L.C. Clench of XS Technology in Disney World's now extinct Alien Encounter, is born in Buffalo, New York. (Movie fans may recognize him from such films as Beetle Juice, Stuart Little, Ed Wood, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.)
1953:
Artist Herb Ryman and Walt Disney continue to sketch out plans for an
amusement park to be built in California.
Meanwhile in New York, Walt's brother Roy meets with the 3 major TV networks,
seeking financing for Disneyland. Unfortunately CBS TV executives are not interested. NBC's
parent company RCA, stalls in making a commitment. But ABC's Leonard Goldenson eagerly agrees to
participate! (The final agreement - which won't be signed until April 1954 - will include a $500,000
investment from ABC-Paramount, guarantee for $4.5 million line of credit, in return for 35% interest in
Disneyland and a weekly one-hour TV program with Disney films and production for TV.)
1955:
The ABC television series Disneyland airs "Jiminy Cricket Present Bongo" - the first half of the animated 1947 film Fun and Fancy Free.
1961:
The live-action Disney film Greyfriars Bobby - based on a true story about a unique Skye terrier who affected a small town in Scotland - is released.
1963:
English teacher-turned-comic book & animation writer & producer Greg Weisman is born in Woodland Hills, California. Famous for creating the acclaimed animated television series, Gargoyles (a Walt Disney Television production), Weisman has also written episodes of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and Kim Possible.
1987:
Actress & recording artist Hilary Ann Duff, the star of Disney's Channel's Lizzie McGuire (between 2001-2004), is born in Houston, Texas. Her Disney credits include the 2002 Cadet Kelly (one of the highest rated Disney Channel movies) and the 2003 feature The Lizzie McGuire Movie. Duff's pop music albums are released through Disney's Hollywood Records. She also sang "The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room" on Disneymania, a compilation CD.
1996:
Walt Disney World's Grand Prix Raceway changes its name to Tomorrowland Speedway.
1997:
Disney's long-running series (which first aired in 1954 as Disneyland) returns
to ABC-TV after nearly a 7-year absence on television as The Wonderful World of Disney. The series will be hosted by CEO Michael Eisner. This first episode features the 1997 classic animated Pixar feature Toy Story.
2001:
Disney Channel debuts the Lizzie McGuire episode "Last Year's Model."
2003:
Over one hundred people attend a musical tribute at the University of California to honor Grammy and Oscar-nominated musician-composer Buddy Baker, a 28-year veteran at Disney (who passed in July 2002). From 1954 to 1983 he wrote or scored virtually every Disney TV program, numerous feature films, and beloved theme park attractions (including the Haunted Mansion and It's a Small World).
1964:
Comedian, actress, and writer Janeane Garofalo - the voices of
Collette in Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille and Bridget in The Wild - is
born in Newton, New Jersey. (An alumni of Saturday Night Live, she's also
appeared in episodes of such TV series as The West Wing, Seinfeld and King of Queens.)
Disney Legend Norman "Buddy"
Baker was originally the
Musical Director on Bob Hope's
radio show, before becoming
a big band arranger for the
Stan Kenton Orchestra. He
later was a professor at L.A.
City College in the early 1950s.
Among Buddy's early students
was famed film composer
Jerry Goldsmith (who went
on to score Disney's
Soarin' attraction)!
2007:
The 12th Annual Epcot International Food & Wine Festival kicks off in Florida.
Also, the America pavilion debuts National Treasures, an exhibit of significant artifacts from US history.
Disney's live-action comedy The Game Plan, starring Dwayne "The Rock"
Johnson, is released to theaters.
A second sneak preview of Phineas and Ferb (a new cartoon series) airs on Disney
Channel with the episode "Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Terror!" - following the
network debut of Disney's 2005 feature Sky High.
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1935:
The Mickey Mouse short On Ice, directed by Ben Sharpsteen, is released. Mickey shows off his skating talents for Minnie, but winds up rescuing Donald when he's nearly blown over a frozen waterfall. Meanwhile, Goofy tries a new form of ice fishing.
1938:
The Fantasound surround sound system to be used in theaters for Fantasia is first tested. It is an early stereophonic sound process developed by sound engineer William E. Garity and sound mixer John N.A. Hawkins. Garity has taken separate recordings of each orchestra section and mixed them to produce four distinct audio tracks, which are then recorded as optical tracks on a separate reel of film. The four tracks will drive some 54 different speakers positioned around a theater showing Fantasia.
(Fantasound will lead to the development of the 5.1 surround format of today.)
1962:
The Third Annual Dixieland at Disneyland event is held for the next two evenings from 8pm to 2am. Musical guests include the great Louis Armstrong, The Dukes of Dixieland,
Teddy Buckner, The Firehouse Five Plus 2, Young Men From New Orleans, New Orleans All-Stars,
Clara Ward Singers, and The Albert McNeil Choir.
1966:
Actress Maria Canals-Barrera is born in Miami, Florida. Fans of Disney Channel know her as Theresa Russo in Wizards of Waverly Place and Mitchie's mom Connie Torres in both Camp Rock films. (She is also the voice of Shayera Hol/Hawkgirl in the animated Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.)
2008:
In the early morning hours of this day, a baby giraffe is born at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Bonsu (a name inspired from the Akan language in Ghana and meaning biggest and strongest fish in the sea) enters the world at 6-feet tall and 155 pounds. He is the fourth male, and 11th giraffe overall to be born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom since the park opened in 1998. Amazingly, Bonsu is also the fourth giraffe to be born at the theme park in 2008.
Disney Channel presents a 3D experience for the first time on Indian television with the debut of Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds concert 3D movie.
At the National Movie Awards, Wall-E wins for Best Family Film. (It is a British movie award voted for by the public.)
1989:
Bambi becomes the ninth "Walt Disney Classic" to be released on video.
1933:
The Writers Club honor Walt Disney with a Hollywood party given to celebrate the creator of Mickey Mouse and the Silly Symphonies. Such notable guests attending include Will Rogers, Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard.
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SEPTEMBER 28
THIS DAY MADE
IN THE
USA
SEPTEMBER 28
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Janeane Garofalo born
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Hilary Duff born
1931:
Disney's Silly Symphony cartoon The Clock Store is released. Directed by Wilfred
Jackson, various clocks and watches in a clock store dance, ring alarms musically, and "fight" in an after
hours presentation. Among the animators who worked on The Clock Store is Hardie Gramatky, whose initials appear on a pocket watch during one of the scenes.
2009:
Disney launches Disney Parks Blog - their first official leap into the blogosphere.
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SEASON 2 EPISODE 3
1994:
Michael Eisner cancels the Disney’s America project.
"I have no intention of giving up on a historical park permanently." -M. Eisner
2010:
Disney opens an all new store in Chicago, Illinois. The Disney Store, located at 1 W. Randolph,
Space 150, underwent a total floor-to-ceiling transformation.
Disney Online, part of the Disney Interactive Media Group, debuts a second season
of "The Possibility Shop," an original web series produced by The Jim Henson
Company. The site will be updated every two to three weeks with content designed to inspire the imagination
of the entire family through creative projects, activities and games.
ABC Studios premieres its newest series No Ordinary Family on ABC-TV. The sci-fi
drama stars Michael Chiklis as Jim Powell whose family has gained special super abilities after their plane crash
landed in the Amazon River.
1965:
Gunther R. Lessing, a lawyer who became vice president and general counsel of Walt Disney Productions, passes away only a year after his retirement. Originally born in Germany in 1885, Walt Disney first hired Lessing to represent his company in 1929. This was during the early Mickey Mouse years, when Disney was batting with his states-rights distributor Patrick A. Powers.
Lessing stayed with the studio for 35 years.
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2006:
ABC-TV debuts the new comedy-drama Ugly Betty starring America Ferrera. The series revolves around Betty Suarez, an ordinary girl from Queens who tries to fit into the anything-but-ordinary world of high fashion, and is based on Fernando Gaitán's Colombian telenovela soap opera Yo soy Betty, la fea. The series will run for 4 seasons.
