2003:
The Disneyland Resort unveils two new attractions: The Many Adventures of
Winnie the Pooh and Playhouse Disney - Live on Stage.
A dark ride based upon the 1977 film of the same name, The many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh replaces the Country Bear Jamboree at Disneyland. It is the second version of the attraction, as one opened in Florida in 1999. (Honk Kong Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland Park will eventually get versions as well.)
Playhouse Disney – Live on Stage opens at Disney California Adventure. Segments from Rolie Polie Olie, Stanley, The Book of Pooh, and Bear in the Big Blue House help provide life lessons to kids. (Already running at Disney-MGM since 2001, a version will later open at Walt Disney Studios Park in France.)
The That's So Raven episode "Dissin' Cousins"
airs for the first time on the Disney Channel.
Ghosts of the Abyss, a documentary film by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media,
is released to U.S. theaters. Veteran filmmaker James Cameron delves into the inspiration for his 1997
Oscar-winning film Titanic by traveling to the mammoth cruise liner's final resting spot. Accompanied by a team of historians and friend/actor Bill Paxton (who played Brock Lovett in the 1997 film), Cameron uses unprecedented technology to take the viewer on an unscripted tour of the famous 1912 wreckage. With the help of two small, purpose-built remotely operated vehicles, nicknamed "Jake" and "Elwood", the audience can see inside the Titanic. Paxton
narrates the 90-minute long documentary.
1980:
To help celebrate the 25th anniversary of Disneyland, the Dapper Dans
of Florida are flown in to assist their compatriots. Over the next 4 days,
both quartets perform on Main Street; one quartet working the day shift
and the other working in the evening.
1992:
A press preview day is held at Euro Disney. Everything to experience at the park
is free to all lucky visitors. (The park will open to the public the next day.)
Beauty and the Beast: Live on Stage! begins performances at the Videopolis
Stage in Disneyland. A similar show to the one already running at Disney-MGM in Florida, it will
"officially open" the following day. (The show will run for over 3 years and serve as a development platform
for an adaptation of the animated film for Broadway.)
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2006:
Winnie the Pooh celebrates his 80th birthday by receiving the 2,308th star on
the Hollywood Walk of Fame in California. Pooh is one of a select few animated characters to be
honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame - an honor that is perfectly timed to the global 18-month long
Pooh anniversary celebration Disney kicked off in December 2005. (The only other Disney characters to be given
a star - as of this day - is Mickey, Donald, and Snow White.) On the same day as the Walk of Fame ceremony,
Walt Disney Home Entertainment releases Pooh’s Grand Adventure -The Search for Christopher Robin, for the
first time ever on DVD.
Walt Disney Records releases The Wild Soundtrack from the newest computer-animated film, The Wild. The soundtrack features performances from Everlife, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy,
and Eric Idle & John Du Prez.
The Walt Disney Company Foundation makes a $1 million donation to UNICEF
at the Gala Dinner of the 6th Annual Global Travel & Tourism Summit in
Washington, DC (held by the World Travel & Tourism Council).
The Grand Canyon flight of the "Happiest Balloon on Earth" is conducted at 11:33
a.m. from a location called "Quartermaster" at Grand Canyon West, about 110 miles outside Las Vegas. Though several pilots have flown over the Grand Canyon and dropped below the rim,
this flight is a "first" from the Canyon floor. The Mickey-shaped balloon is in the midst of an 11-city tour.
Space Center Houston (the
official visitor's center of
NASA's Johnson
Space Center)
was designed by
Walt Disney
Imagineering.
Space Center Houston is
located at 1601
NASA Parkway in
Houston, Texas.
2007:
Emmy Award-winning actor Roscoe Lee Browne passes away at age 81. Browne's
Disney credits include the voice of Mr. Arrow in the 2002 Treasure Planet, the voice of Frances in the 1988
Oliver & Company, and the role of Gazenga in the 1973 live-action feature The World's Greatest Athlete.
(Movie fans will recognize his distinct voice as the narrator of such features as Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties
and Babe: Pig in the City. Browne's long list of TV credits include Falcon Crest, The Cosby Show, Magnum P.I.,
and Soap.)
"One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries."
-A. A. Milne (creator of Winnie the Pooh)
2008:
Euro Disney announces the nomination of Philippe Gas to the position of
President of Euro Disney. Philippe will take over the responsibilities in
September of Karl Holz who has been appointed President, New Vacation
Operations, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.
"I am pleased to return to Disneyland Resort Paris, where I started my Disney career to build on the solid foundation
which Karl and the leadership team have achieved." -Philippe Gas
Season of Disney: Samantha Brown’s Favorites, a four-part series hosted
by Samantha Brown, debuts on Travel Channel. In this opener,
she highlights her favorite Disney attractions.
Canadian animator, director and voice actor Andy Knight passes away at age 48 in France. He directed the 1997 direct-to-video Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.
1947:
Actor Meshach Taylor - who in 1998-1999 made his Broadway debut as Lumiere in
Disney's Beauty and the Beast - is born in Boston, Massachusetts.
(TV fans will recognize him from the sitcom Designing Women.)
APRIL 11
Today is Barbershop Quartet Day
APRIL 11
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
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1997:
For the first time in its history, the Disney Legends are inducted at a ceremony at
the Disneyland Hotel at Disneyland Paris (instead of Burbank, California).
The 18 international Disney Legends are honored at Disneyland Paris in part for the resort's fifth
anniversary. The 14-foot-tall, 2000-pound replica of the Legends Award is unveiled on this day as well in
front of the Disneyland Hotel. (This will give Roy E. Disney the idea for a second statue in Burbank.)
Disney's Hollywood Pictures releases the comedy Grosse Pointe Blank,
starring John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Alana Arkin and Dan Aykroyd. Cusack plays Martin
Blank, a professional assassin. When he is sent on a mission to a small Detroit suburb called Grosse Pointe, he
discovers that his ten-year high school reunion party is taking place there at the same time.
1925:
Roy Oliver Disney (Walt's brother & business partner) marries Edna Francis (from
Reece, Kansas) at Uncle Robert Disney's house on Kingswell Avenue in Los
Angeles, California. It is the same house where Walt lived and set up shop after first arriving in
Hollywood from Kansas. As Walt owns a motion picture camera, he shoots the day's events. (In 1930 Roy and
Edna will have a son named Roy Edward.)
1986:
The comedy feature Off Beat, starring Judge Reinhold, Meg Tilly, Cleavant
Derricks and Joe Mantegna is released. The 6th film by Disney's Touchstone Pictures, Reinhold plays
a librarian who impersonates a police officer.
2009:
Yamabuki restaurant, inside Disneyland's Paradise Pier Hotel closes. The upscale
restaurant (the only Japanese eatery on property) at 1717 S. Disneyland Dr., originally opened in 1996.
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Disney Legends 1997 inducted
Raised on a farm in Marceline , Missouri , Walt Disney spent hours beneath an old cottonwood tree (also known as Populus deltoides), studying the mice and bugs. He called it his "Dreaming Tree" and later said that his "belly botany" inspired Mickey Mouse and
Jiminy Cricket characters.
1983:
At the 55th Academy Awards, Disney's Tron, nominated for Best Costume Design
and Best Sound, is shut out. Best Costume goes to Ghandi ... and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial picks up
the Oscar for Best Sound.
2010:
"Baby Come Back," the second episode of Good Luck Charlie, debuts on Disney Channel.
2012:
The world premiere of The Avengers is held at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood,
California. When Thor's evil brother, Loki, gains access to the unlimited power of the energy cube called the
Tesseract, Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., initiates a superhero recruitment effort to defeat the unprecedented
threat to Earth. Joining Fury's "dream team" are Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Thor, the Black Widow and
Hawkeye. The cast includes Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson,
Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, and Samuel L. Jackson. The Avengers, distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, will
be generally released May 4.
2013:
Legendary comedian and actor Jonathan Winters passes away at the age of 87 in California. Born in November 1925, the wildly inventive funnyman appeared on the NBC-TV special
The Grand Opening of Walt Disney World as he attended the park's three-day opening festivities in October 1971.
Winters also starred in Disney's 1977 comedy television special Halloween Hall O' Fame, playing the dual role of a night watchman and a talking pumpkin. Winters supplied the voice for The Thief in the 1995 Miramax animated Arabian Knight (a film originally conceived in the 1960s and titled The Thief and the Cobbler). He also made guest appearances on The Mouse Factory and The Muppets. Winters voiced the role of the Magic Carnival Baker in Disney's MathQuest With Aladdin (a 1997 computer game). He released comedy albums on the Verve Records label for over 50 years, receiving 11 Grammy nominations, including eight for Best Comedy Album. With a career spanning more than six decades, Winters also appeared in hundreds of television shows and films - including the classic It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
April is 1964/65 New York World's Fair Month
1987:
Singer, songwriter, and actress Joss Stone is born in Dover, Kent, England. First rising to fame in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album The Soul Sessions, she and singer Patti LaBelle recorded a version of "Stir It Up" for the 2005 Chicken Little soundtrack. (The song was first recorded by LaBelle for the 1984 action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop,)
1932:
Actor, singer, dancer, and director Joel Grey is born Joel David Katz in Cleveland, Ohio. He supplied the voice of Beppo Brown in the Phineas and Ferb episode "Oil on Candace," appeared
on the ABC series Alias in 2005 (playing an imposter of the show's main villain, Mr. Sloane) and appeared on a 2009 episode of ABC's Grey's Anatomy. (Grey is best known for portraying the Master of Ceremonies in the
Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret on Broadway as well as in the 1972 film adaptation.)
1984:
Actress Kelli Garner is born in Bakersfield, California. She played Marcie in the 2009 feature G-Force.
