2003:
The Lion King Special Edition Soundtrack is released.
It features a new song from Elton John and Tim Rice plus a remix of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight."
The Orlando Magic open their 2003-04 training camp at
Disney's Wide World of Sports.
Mickey's PhiiharMagic, a new computer-animated
3-D film attraction at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, opens to guests. (An official grand opening ceremony will be held October 8th.)
1961:
Legendary trumpet player & vocalist Louis Armstrong debuts at Disneyland
as part of the Second Annual Dixieland at Disneyland event. Also performing live at the
park on this evening - Kid Ory, Teddy Buckner, Matty Matlock, The Young Men From New Orleans, Firehouse
Five Plus Two and the Disneyland Strawhatters. Portions are filmed for an upcoming television episode -
Disneyland After Dark (to be broadcast in April 1962).
2005:
Disney's The Greatest Game Ever Played, starring
Shia LaBeouf, is released in theaters.
Today is Michael Eisner's final day as CEO of Disney. (The value of the company during Eisner's term rose from $3 billion to $60 billion.)
Haunted Mansion Holiday returns to the Disneyland Resort
for another frightening season.
Down at the Magic Kingdom in Florida, Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party is held for the first time this season.
Epcot's 10th Annual International Food and Wine Festival begins.
1913:
Writer/producer & Disney Legend Bill Walsh is born in New York City. Walsh first
joined Walt Disney Studios in 1943, working for both the Publicity and Story departments. His Disney
credits include Mary Poppins (for which he shared an Academy Award nomination), The Love Bug, That Darn Cat!, The Absent-Minded Professor, and Flubber. Walsh also scripted the Mickey Mouse daily comic
strip (drawn by Floyd Gottfredson) from 1944 until 1964.
1933:
The Mickey Mouse cartoon The Steeplechase, directed by Burt Gillet, is released.
Colonel Rolf Rolfe expects his horse, Thunderbolt, to win the big race. But when the horse discovers a gin
bottle and drinks it, Mickey has to costume two stable hands as a horse and ride them in the race instead!
In this day's edition of Film Pictorial, Walt Disney states "Mickey Mouse will be five
years old on Sunday. He was born on October 1, 1928. That was the date on which
his first picture started so we have allowed him to claim this day as his birthday."
(It won't be until the 1970s that the Disney Company officially claims November 18, 1928 as Mickey's birthday.)
1939:
Actor Len Carious - who portrayed Walt Disney in the 1995 TV movie A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story - is born in Canada. He is best known for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd in the original cast of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
1962:
The NBC-TV series Walt Disney's Wonderful World
of Color airs part 1 of "Escapade in Florence."
1963:
The Babes in Toyland Exhibit, located on Disneyland's
Main Street, closes after a near 2-year run.
1971:
Walt Disney World's Preview Center, located on Buena Vista Boulevard, closes. It featured displays of models and drawings of Disney's new Florida theme park - which will open the following day. (The boulevard will later be renamed Hotel Plaza and the Preview Center will become the headquarters for the Amateur Athletic Union.)
1973:
Television's Wonderful World of Disney airs the episode
"Fire on Kelly Mountain" starring Larry Wilcox.
1975:
One of Walt's "Nine Old Men," animator Les Clark retires from Walt
Disney Productions. An employee since February 1927, Clark's large body of work
includes Steamboat Willie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland, and Lady and the Tramp. He is the only one of the "Nine Old Men"
whose career spanned the silent-movie era and the age of TV!
1982:
Pepsi-Cola's sponsorship of Disneyland's Golden Horseshoe Revue ends. (A sponsor since July 1955, Pepsi's relation with Disney had been damaged in 1971 when Coca-Cola signed on for co-sponsorship of other attractions.) Eastman Kodak will take up the sponsorship of the Golden Horseshoe Revue the very next day.
1990:
The Magical World of Disney airs "Fantasia: The
Creation of a Disney Classic" on the Disney Channel.
1991:
U.S. President George Bush and his wife Barbara visit EPCOT Center.
The President speaks in the American Gardens.
1993:
General Electric's contract as sponsor of the Horizons Pavilion
at Disney World's Epcot runs out on this day. (Even though GE decides not to continue sponsorship of Horizons, Disney will continue to operate the attraction until its closing in late 1994.)
Top of the World (also known as the Top of the World Supper Club) closes at the Contemporary Resort Hotel at Walt Disney World. It featured celebrity entertainers, dancing, dinner, a lounge, and Sunday brunch.
(It will become the California Grill in May of 1995.)
The Dapper Dans (the popular Disney barbershop harmony group) are heard on a TV episode of The Simpsons. A clip includes the Dapper Dans (Shelby Grimm - lead, Mike Economou - tenor, Jim Campbell - bass, Dan Jordan - baritone) singing "Baby On Board" (which they arranged and co-wrote with Jeff Martin).
1999:
Reedy Creek Energy Services, Incorporated (originally known as Reedy Creek
Utilities Company, Incorporated) is merged into the Walt Disney World
Company. It provides electric power to the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which specifically
covers Walt Disney World outside of Orlando, Florida, by supplementing the public power grid.
2004:
Bob Iger, Disney’s President and Chief Operating Officer, speaks at the Merrill Lynch 2004 Media and Entertainment Conference.
2006:
Today marks the final day
of Disneyland's 50th anniversary celebration.
"Dream Along With Mickey" - a new live show debuts at Disney World.
It is part of the Year of a Million Dreams celebration and will be performed daily at the Castle Forecourt stage in the Magic Kingdom.
Christy Carlson Romano appears at the Disney Store in New York City to sign her new semi-autobiographical novel "Grace's Turn".
1928:
A second recording session for Steamboat Willie takes place in New
York with conductor Carl Edouarde and a 15-piece band. The first session
on September 15 had been a disaster as the musicians couldn't play in time with the animated
film. This time Walt is prepared to deal with the problem of synchronization. Ub Iwerks has made a special print of the film with an animated bouncing ball - on both the sound track and the film. The ball rises and falls to the accent of the beat, thus creating a visual signal and a soft audio click. Instead of being projected above the band, Iwerks' print is projected directly down onto Edouarde's printed score. The session takes place in just three hours and is a complete success! (The cartoon short will debut November 18.)
George Sherman, head of the Publications Department at the
Disney Studios, is born. After a stint in the U.S. Army, Sherman went to work at
Disney handling publicity for foreign markets. In the mid-1950s he left the studio to briefly
edit and publish the Baywood Press in Northern California, but returned to Disney becoming
head of the Publications Dept. where he was involved with its licensees both domestic and
foreign. In 1962 he established the Disney Studio Program, producing comic book stories for
the foreign market. Sherman provided editorial support to the Program plus authored (and
co-authored) the text for several illustrated children books adapting contemporary Disney
films, such as Babes in Toyland and The Absent-Minded Professor. (Sadly Sherman
passed away at age 45 in August 1974 after an extended illness.)
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"The day before the brand-new
Haunted Mansion opened at Walt
Disney World in 1971, the first
custodial crew cleaned out all
the cobwebs. The Imagineers had to go back in and reapply all the
cobwebs!" - Wayne Culver
(a fixture of Disney's clean team
in Orlando and Anaheim for 39
years)
1970:
The Disney theatrical feature Dad, Can I Borrow the Car? is released.
Directed by Ward Kimball, the live-action short (which uses avant-garde film techniques) looks at American car culture from the late 1960s. It is narrated by Kurt Russell. (It will later air on television on The Wonderful World of Disney.)
"On this eve of Walt Disney World's opening day, may I thank all of you for your spirit - your cooperation and the fine job all you have done in getting ready for our opening."
-Roy O. Disney (September 30, 1971)
10
2008:
Walt Disney Records unveils "Nightmare Revisited" featuring brand new covers of the Danny Elfman original soundtrack of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.
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SEPTEMBER 30
THIS DAY MADE
IN THE
USA
SEPTEMBER 30
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1984:
Country a film about the trials and tribulations of the Ivy family as they struggle
to hold onto their farm in trying economic times is released. Starring Sam Shepard
and Jessica Lange, it is Touchstone Pictures' second release. (Touchstone Pictures is an alternate film
label of The Walt Disney Company, established in 1984.)
1994:
Touchstone Pictures releases the comedy-drama Ed Wood in a limited amount of
cities. Directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, the film will be widely
released October 7.
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WDW Preview Center closes
Les Clark retires
"The day before, the whole company was so busy getting ready and it went down to the wire. I remember being at
the Contemporary around five or six in the evening and the sod hadn’t been laid. And several of us cast members
went out and helped. And people were calling out, ‘Remember to put the green side up!’ It was really just the
Disney family total immersion and you did whatever you could if someone needed help." -Debbie Dane, WDW's first
ambassador & former Preview Center hostess
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1966:
Latin-American Development and Management Corporation, Ayefour Corporation (a pun on Interstate 4), Tomahawk Properties, Incorporated, Reedy Creek Ranch, Incorporated, and Bay Lake Properties, Incorporated, all Florida corporations, are merged into Compass East Corporation. These companies were responsible for buying up the land that will become the Walt Disney World Resort.
1967:
The '67 Edition of Dixieland at
Disneyland takes place between 8pm
and 2am. The seventh presentation of "the world's
greatest jazz artists," groups appear throughout the
Magic Kingdom at various locations.
This evening's entertainment includes:
-Trumpet great Louis Armstrong and his band at the Tomorrowland Stage
-Guitarist Eddie Condon and his group at the Tomorrowland Terrace
-Doc Souchon and his New Orleans All-Stars at the French Market in Frontierland
-Resident trumpeter Teddy Buckner and his band at the Plaza Gardens on Main Street
-The Firehouse Five Plus Two led by animator Ward Kimball at the Golden Horseshoe in Frontierland
-The Young Men from New Orleans on the Mark Twain Riverboat
2001:
Alias, a new action television series created by J. J. Abrams, debuts on ABC. Starring Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow, a CIA agent, Alias is co-produced by Touchstone Television and Bad Robot Productions and is primarily shot at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. The series will run for 5 seasons.
2010:
The Walt Disney Company launches Disney Magic of Healthy Living; a national multimedia initiative designed to partner with parents in their quest to raise healthy, happy kids. Highlights of Disney Magic of Healthy Living will include a year-long series of inspirational television public service announcements featuring Mrs. Obama and Disney Channel stars, two new web sites (Disney.com/healthyfun and Family.com/healthymagic), and a national essay contest calling on kids to write about ideas for living a healthy life.
2011:
Walt Disney World hosts the 16th Epcot International Food & Wine Festival. The 45-day outdoor festival (running through November 13) serves up authentic cuisine; wine, beer and inventive new cocktails; entertainment; and cultural exhibits of more than 25 international regions. Singer Taylor Dayne kicks off the Eat to the Beat concert series with the first of a 3-day engagement at the America Gardens Theatre.
Jessie, a half-hour live-action comedy series, premieres on Disney Channel.
Jessie Prescott (played by Debby Ryan) is a small-town girl who leaves behind her Texas roots for a job in New York City as a nanny.
The Walt Disney World Employee Bulletin distributed on this day
features these words of encouragement:
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Tomorrow…we raise the curtain for the beginning of the October Preview Month of the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. Planning began in 1965. Now…$400 million and six years later and untold gallons of blood, sweat and tears, the public will visit this most ambitious creation in the history of the Disney organization…It will be a great and memorable day…for all of us. This does not mean that it won’t have its frantic…hectic…confusing moments. If your costume doesn’t fit…a tram breaks down, and other things don’t happen like they should, don’t get up tight. That, as they say….is show business.
"Everything here at EPCOT Center reminds us of the vision of the man who conceived this amazing place as an exploration of community. Walt Disney once said, "The greatest moments in life are not concerned with selfish
achievements, but rather with the things we do for the people." And he was absolutely right. That creed brings us
together in this extraordinary place, sharing this extraordinary day. We celebrate the American spirit, the greatest natural resource of this, the greatest Nation in the entire world. We celebrate it in front of this tableau of American heroes: our 575 Points of Light. We've honored them for showing "the better angels of our nature," for volunteering to help others in their own communities."
Later in the day the President speaks at a luncheon in the Grand Harbor Ballroom at the Yacht and Beach
Club Resort in Walt Disney World. The private event is for participants in the Daily Points of Light Celebration.
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