2004:
The 11th annual Epcot International Flower & Garden
Festival begins in Florida. (It will run through June 6.)
Christy Carlson Romano - the current Belle in Disney's Broadway show Beauty and the Beast - appears as a guest on the WB-11 "Morning News."
1921:
Actor Peter Ustinov, the voice of Prince John in Disney's 1973 Robin Hood, and
Captain Edward 'Blackbeard' Teach in Disney's live-action 1968 Blackbeard's Ghost,
is born in London, England. Also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer,
author and humorist, Ustinov was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits for much of his career.
1924:
Award-winning composer/arranger Henry Mancini - who wrote the music for
Disney's The Great Mouse Detective - is born in Cleveland, Ohio. His best-known
works include the jazz-idiom theme to The Pink Panther film series and the timeless song "Moon River."
Also born on this day - animator, painter, art director & writer Victor Haboush
in Indiana. His animation career at Disney began with Peter Pan in 1952 (via his former classmate
Eyvind Earle) and later included Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty
and 101 Dalmatians. (In the mid-1960s, Haboush left animation and shifted into live-action. Starting
his own studio, he directed and photographed over 1,500 award-winning commercials.)
1928:
Disney's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit short Ride 'Em Plow Boy is released.
1933:
Future Disney Legend & Winsor McCay Award-winner Dick Huemer (originally
from New York City) begins work at the Disney Studios. He will go on to animate,
direct and write for many feature films and shorts such as Fantasia, The Band Concert, Dumbo, and
Saludos Amigos. First beginning in animation at the Raoul Barré cartoon studio in 1916, Huemer will spend the rest of his career at Disney (except for a 3-year hiatus from 1948-51) ... retiring on
February 28, 1973!
1958:
The Disneyland TV series airs episode 97, "Four Tales of a Mouse." Walt takes viewers back in Mickey Mouse's photo album and tells us how Mickey's cartoons helped supporting players like Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto achieve individual stardom alongside him.
1961:
The TV series Walt Disney Presents airs episode 175, "Texas John Slaughter:
Trip to Tucson," the 16th of a 17-part Western mini-series starring Tom Tryon.
1964:
Disney's "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" exhibit passes testing at WED headquarters in California. It is now ready to be flown to New York for the World's Fair.
1997:
It is reported that although Disney's newest animated film, Hercules is still two
months away from debut in the U.S. theaters, a sequel is already in production.
2001:
Disney World's newest resort, Animal Kingdom Lodge opens at
2901 Osceola Parkway. The six-story resort (designed by renowned architect Peter Dominick) features deluxe
facilities and luxury suites with the feel of a South African game reserve lodge. Amidst a 33-acre wildlife preserve, guests
can gaze on any of more than 30 species of wildlife on display from the comfort of their balconies! The savannas are
special areas built specifically for the AKL and are separate from the nearby theme park Disney's Animal Kingdom.
1889:
Charles Spencer Chaplin, Jr. - better known as comedy actor
Charlie Chaplin, is born in London, England. A worldwide icon through
his screen persona, The Tramp, Chaplin was also a composer (his most famous song
"Smile" was originally written for his 1936 film Modern Times). One of the most
creative and influential personalities in the silent film era, Chaplin had a prolific relationship with Walt Disney. The Disney short Mickey's Gala Premiere (1933) features caricatures of roughly forty move star celebrities, including Chaplin, attending the premiere of a new Mickey Mouse cartoon at Grauman's Chinese Theater. Chaplin was also caricatured in the 1936 Disney short Mickey's Polo Team - which played in front of the premiere of Chaplin's Modern Times, the final silent screen appearance of his Little Tramp character. (It wasn't uncommon for Chaplin to ask that Mickey Mouse cartoons be shown prior to his live-action films.) Chaplin attended the Hollywood premiere of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 and assisted Walt with financial advice in helping to determine what kind of proceeds should be earned from RKO (the distributor of Snow White). Chaplin was also a founding member of United Artists - who for a short time in the early 1930s distributed Disney shorts. There was an intense mutual admiration between he and Walt, who both recognized similarities in each other’s work. With a career spanning more than 75 years, Charlie Chaplin is considered one of the most important figures in the history of the film industry.
“We felt that the public, and especially the children, like animals that are cute and little. I think we are
rather indebted to Charlie Chaplin for the idea. We wanted something appealing, and we thought of a tiny
bit of a mouse that would have something of the wistfulness of Chaplin - a little fellow trying to do the
best he could." -Walt Disney on the inspiration for Mickey Mouse
1999:
The 6th annual Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival kicks off.
When Walt Disney was thirteen
years-old he entered and won
a Charlie Chaplin look-alike
contest! (Legend has it that
Chaplin himself once entered
a similar contest in San
Francisco and actually lost!)
2007:
Disney announces that Disneyland's fleet of antique passenger
trains have been converted from diesel to biofuel. The switch saves
as much as 150,000 gallons of diesel fuel each year, while
potentially reducing carbon dioxide emissions by up to 80 percent.
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2008:
Disney Theatrical Productions presents a celebration of the work of composer Alan Menken at a cabaret performance at the Hudson Theatre (in New York City) hosted by Disney executive Thomas Schumacher. The host of Broadway stars paying homage to Menken include Ashley Brown, Sierra Boggess, Josh Strickland, Sean Palmer, and Donny Osmond.
APRIL 16
APRIL 16
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
Chaplin & Disney 1939
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Dick Huemer starts work at Disney
Because so many aspects of the Disney theme parks are simulated, some visitors mistakenly believe the plant life too is artificial. But with the exception of the Swiss Family Treehouse
in the Magic Kingdom, the plants are very real ... even the rows of hanging floral baskets
that line Main Street as you enter the park!
1948:
Disney releases the Donald Duck short Daddy Duck, directed by Jack Hannah.
Donald plays daddy to a baby kangaroo named Joey.
2010:
Disney's 5th California Food and Wine Festival kicks off at Disney’s California Adventure.
The event will run through May 31 and feature nearly 700 activities.
1931:
Disney's Silly Symphony short Mother Goose Melodies is released. Directed
by Bert Gillett, the Mother Goose characters come to life to entertain Old King Cole with their nursery rhymes.
1934:
Cartoonist and creator of Disney comics, Vicar is born Victor Arriagada Rios in Santiago, Chile. Entering the the comics field in 1966, Vicar started to draw Disney comics for the Danish publisher Gutenberghus (now Egmont) in 1971. His position in the Disney comic field grew over the years, and soon he had a studio with several artists and inkers working for him. Vicar is considered one of the most productive artists of
present-day Disney comics!
2006:
What About Brian, a new comedy-drama television series created by Dana Stevens and
co-produced by J.J. Abrams' company Bad Robot Productions, premieres on ABC. The
show centers on thirty-two-year-old Brian Davis, a single guy living in Venice Beach, who is the only bachelor left in his
group of friends.
"Walt was a great admirer of Chaplin. He was always showing us how Chaplin did a certain gag. We thought Walt was just as good as
Chaplin. Of course, if you asked Walt to do any acting, he'd get a little self-conscious, but when he would get carried away with a
story or a gag situation and start imitating something, he was just as great as Chaplin." -animator Ward Kimball
1950:
Voice actor, musician, and radio personality William Richard "Billy" West is born in
Detroit, Michigan. First known for his voice-work on The Ren & Stimpy Show and the Nickelodeon series
Doug, his Disney credits include The Proud Family, Recess, Jungle Junction, Timon & Pumbaa, Sofia the First, Star vs.
the Forces of Evil, The 7D, and Big City Greens. West also voices such established non-Disney characters as Bugs
Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Popeye, Shaggy Rogers, and Woody Woodpecker. He was a cast member on "The Howard Stern
Show," during which time he was noted for his impressions of Larry Fine (of The Three Stooges), baseball executive
Marge Schott, George Takei (from Star Trek), and comedian Jackie Martling.
1993:
Hollywood Pictures releases Blood In Blood Out, a crime-drama film directed by
Taylor Hackford. Prison, drugs and gang war touch three young men (played by Damian Chapa, Jesse Borrego, and Benjamin Bratt) in East Los Angeles from the 1970s to the 1990s.
2013:
The French-American nature documentary film Wings of Life, directed by Louis Schwartzberg, is released by Disneynature. Narrated by Meryl Streep, the film examines how
the Earth's food chain depends on bees, hummingbirds, bats and other creatures.
1984:
Film and television director Byron Haskin passes away at age 84 in California.
He directed the 1950 Treasure Island, one of Walt Disney's earliest live-action features.
2020:
Singers and actors perform their favorite Disney songs on the ABC special Disney Family Singalong. Recorded in the stars’ homes, the renditions will later be added to ABC's YouTube Channel. Hosted by
Ryan Seacrest, the hour-long broadcast features over 20 performances such as Derek Hough, Hayley Erbert and Julianne Hough singing "Be Our Guest," Little Big Town joining forces for "A Spoonful of Sugar," Auli'i Cravalho with "How Far I'll Go," Beyonce singing "When You Wish Upon a Star," Christina Aguilera performing "Can You Feel the Love Tonight,"
a duet of "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes" by Demi Lovato and Michael Bublé and
the Cast of High School Musical singing "We’re All In This Together."
2019:
Bless This Mess, a new sitcom created by actress/screenwriter Lake Bell and Elizabeth Meriwether for ABC, airs for the first time. Newlyweds Rio and Mike (played by Lake Bell & Dax Shepard) make the decision to change the course of their life together and move from the relentless pace of big city New York to what they think will be a more relaxed existence in rural Nebraska. But they soon realize that the simpler life isn't as easy as they had planned. The cast includes Pam Grier, Ed Begley Jr., and David Koechner.
1977:
Stand-up comedian, actor and writer Hayes MacArthur is born in Chicago, Illinois.
He played the role of Kyle Cooper in Disney's 2007 The Game Plan.
1994:
Actress Liliana Mumy is born to Eileen Joy & actor/musician Bill Mumy in San Marcos, California. Her Disney television voice credits include Lilo & Stitch: The Series (as Mertie), Higglytown Heroes (as Twinkle), American Dragon: Jake Long (as Olivia), and Sofia the First (as Amy & Jane). Mumy's Disney film credits include The Santa Clause 2 & The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (as Lucy), Stitch! The Movie (as Mertie), Mulan II (supplying additonal voices), and Snow Buddies, Space Buddies & Santa Buddies (as the voice of Rosebud). You may recall her as Jessica Baker in the Cheaper by the Dozen films. Her father, a musician and writer, was best known for his role on the CBS series Lost in Space and his appearances on two episodes of The Twilight Zone.
2021:
Pixar's Soul receives seven Annie Awards during the 48th virtual awards ceremony on this evening. It wins top honors for Best Feature, Character Animation (Michal Makarewicz), Music (Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste), Storyboarding (Trevor Jimenez), Writing (Pete Docter, Mike Jones, Kemp Powers), Best FX (Tolga Göktekin, Carl Kaphan, Hiroaki Narita, Enrique Vila, Kylie Wijsmuller) and Editorial (Kevin Nolting, Gregory Amundson, Robert Grahamjones, Amera Rizk).
Big Shot, a sports dramedy streaming television series created by David E. Kelley, Dean Lorey and Brad Garrett for Disney+ starring John Stamos in the lead role, premieres. The series follows a temperamental basketball coach who is fired from his current job and ends up in an elite girl's private high school.
Also premiering on Disney+ is Earth Moods. The film takes viewers on the ultimate retreat—transporting them to an array of colorful and calming corners of the world.
2015:
Disneyland's Star Wars Celebration begins.
