2004:
Buena Vista Home Entertainment releases the concert DVD
Hilary Duff: The Girl Can Rock.
In 1987, Disneyland veteran Chuck Abbott conceived and initiated the Cast Member seeing-eye dog fund, which became a highly successful volunteer group.
1914:
Known for the Walt Disney live-action adventures The Story of Robin Hood (1952), The Sword and the Rose
(1953) and Swiss Family Robinson (1960), he also directed the madcap comedy Those Magnificent Men in Their
Flying Machines and the World War II epic The Longest Day. Annakin, a friend of George Lucas, was used by
Lucas as the source of the name for Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars!
1951:
Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon R'coon Dawg, featuring James Macdonald as the voice of Mickey, is released. Directed by Charles Nichols, Mickey hunts for raccoons, with help from Pluto. But the raccoon outsmarts Pluto at every turn, with help from a vine, a stream, and ultimately grabbing Mickey's coonskin cap and puppeteering it as a baby coon.
1955:
Chuck Abbott begins work at Disneyland as a ride operator on the Autopia.
Abbott has to really pay attention - as there is no track on the attraction (at this
time) and drivers frequently crash into anything and everything - including Cast Members! He will go on to become a foreman at Disneyland for 36 years and be named a
Disney Legend in 2005 (two years after his death) - a first for an hourly theme park Cast Member.
1959:
Walt Disney reads an article in The New York Times about the upcoming
1964 World's Fair in New York. He immediately sees opportunities for his company.
1960:
Disney's True-Life Adventure documentary Jungle Cat, narrated by
Winston Hibler, is generally released. The film, written and directed by James Algar, chronicles the life of a female spotted jaguar in the South American jungle. Initially released last December 1959, it is the last of the True-Life Adventure series.
Actor Antonio Banderas is born José Antonio Domínguez Bandera in Spain.
He played Art Dodge in Touchstone's 1995 comedy Two Much, Ché in the 1996 Hollywood Pictures musical drama Evita, Ahmed ibn Fadlan in the 1999 Touchstone Pictures film The 13th Warrior and Cesar Dominguez in Touchstone's 1999 sports comedy-drama Play It to the Bone.
Television writer and producer Carl Binder is born in Ontario, Canada. Most noted for his contributions to the Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis series, he helped write the 1995 Disney animated movie Pocahontas.
1994:
The Concourse Steak House opens at Walt Disney World, on the site of
the former Concourse Grill. It is located next to the escalators to the monorail station at Disney's Contemporary Resort's Grand Concourse (4th floor). (It will close in May 2008 to make way
for the counter service Contempo Cafe.)
1999:
Doreen Tracey, an original Mouseketeer (from 1955-1958), appears as a chat guest at Disney.com.
2001:
The Lizzie McGuire episode "Rated Aargh" debuts on Disney Channel.
2007:
"Muppets, Music and Magic: Jim Henson’s Legacy," takes place at the Cinema Arts
Center in Huntington, New York (for the next 3 days). A traveling series of films, workshops and
discussions, “Muppets, Music and Magic: Jim Henson’s Legacy” also features special guest puppeteers.
Corbin Bleu from the Disney Channel's High School Musical, Jump In!, and
High School Musical 2 appears on ABC-TV's "Live! with Regis & Kelly."
High School Musical 2 debuts on iO's and Verizon FiOS's Disney on Demand. (This
much-anticipated sequel will premiere on Disney Channel seven days later.)
1934:
Walt and Lillian Disney sail for Hawaii from Los Angeles aboard the Matson Lines
vessel SS Lurline. It is their first visit to the islands. SS Lurline is the third Matson Lines vessel to hold that
name and the last of four fast and luxurious ocean liners that Matson built for the Hawaii and Australasia (Australia,
New Zealand, & the island of New Guinea) runs from the West Coast of the U.S.
1874:
Herbert Hoover, the thirty-first United States President, is born in West
Branch, Iowa (the first President to be born west of the Mississippi
River). Visit him and all the U.S. Chief Executives at Disney World's The Hall of Presidents.
AUGUST 10
Today is National S'mores Day
THIS DAY
MADE IN
THE USA
AUGUST 10
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"That’s one of the cool things that I really love about animation, that you know it’s all phony. You know it’s just
a bunch of drawings or in our case computer images, but when it’s done well, you totally get sucked into it. You
fall into it and fall into love with these characters. You cry. You laugh. There’s something really intriguing about
that duplicity, or whatever, of knowing that it’s fake and yet getting totally drawn into it."
-Pete Docter (film director, animator and screenwriter - best known for directing Monsters, Inc. and Up)
Disneys set sail for Hawaii
1945:
Disney's Donald Duck cartoon Duck Pimples is released. Directed by Jack Kinney, Donald's
over-active imagination is set-off by scary stories on the radio and in books, thus giving him goose pimples!
1929:
Director Vincent McEveety is born in New Rochelle, New York. His Disney credits include The Million Dollar Duck, The Biscuit Eater, Superdad, The Strongest Man in the World, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, and Herbie Goes Bananas. His two brothers Bernard and Joe directed films for Disney as well!
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2011:
At dawn prior to the park opening, the annual Cast Canoe Races at Disneyland
(a tradition since 1963) takes place. Twelve teams in three divisions row around the Rivers of
America in canoes from Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes. Employees of the Davey Crockett’s Explorer
Canoes sweep the divisions, taking first in the men’s, women’s and co-ed divisions.
The Help, a Touchstone/DreamWorks film, is released. A film adaptation of Kathryn
Stockett's 2009 novel of the same name about a young white woman, Skeeter Phelan, and her relationship with
two black maids during Civil Rights era America in early 1960, the film stars Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia
Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain, Sissy Spacek, Mike Vogel and Allison Janney.
Actor Jeremy Maguire is born. He is most known for playing Joe Pritchett on the ABC sitcom Modern Family.
2012:
Walt Disney World opens its "Lion King" wing at Disney's Art of
Animation Resort. Themed to the 1994 animated movie, the wing offers family
suites and completes the third phase of WDW's newest hotel. Featuring landscapes and
theming inspired by scenes from the Academy Award-winning movie, the resort places guests into African terrains, surrounded by vibrant trees and whimsical scenery.
(The fourth and final phase, themed after The Little Mermaid, will open in September.)
August 10
This Day in Disney History - THE FIRST - THE ORIGINAL
Traveling in time since 1999!
2013:
During a gathering of Disney fans at day 2 of 2013 D23 Expo, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Tom Staggs premieres a trailer from an upcoming movie that explores the past, present and future of Walt Disney Imagineering by noted documentary
filmmaker Leslie Iwerks. Iwerks comes from a family with deep Disney history — her grandfather Ub was an
early Disney animator and her father Don is a former Imagineer — and her previous work includes profiles of Pixar
Animation Studios and visual effects house Industrial Light & Magic. The film is due for release in 2016.
Other events on this day include:
-Inside the Ice: The Art of Disney’s Frozen
-Eight new Disney Legends are honored at the D23 Expo during a ceremony at 2:00 pm.
-Voices of the Disney Parks
-ABC’s Once Upon a Time: Behind the Fairy Tale
-Richard M. Sherman and Alan Menken: The Disney Songbook
2018:
The Disney musical television film Freaky Friday debuts on Disney Channel. Based on the
book "Freaky Friday" by Mary Rodgers and the Disney Theatrical Productions stage adaptation by Bridget Carpenter,
the film stars Cozi Zuehlsdorff and Heidi Blickenstaff. A woman and her rebellious 16-year-old daughter swap bodies
through the magical power of a treasured hourglass. When it accidentally shatters, they must search for a matching
hourglass so they can return to their own bodies.
Walt Disney Records releases Disney Junior Music: Nursery Rhymes, Volume 3.
1989:
Actor Brenton Thwaites is born in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. He portrayed Prince Phillip
in the 2014 Maleficent and Henry Turner in the 2017 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.
2010:
Disney Channel is launched in Russia. It replaces the children's television channel Jetix.
1990:
Actor Lucas Till is born in Fort Hood, Texas. He played the role of Travis Brody in the 2009 teen
musical comedy Hannah Montana: The Movie. (Till played Havok in the X-Men spin-off X-Men: First Class.)
2020:
Disney announces it is re-branding one of its TV studios, 20th Century Fox Television, as 20th Television. The new name cuts both the "Century" and the "Fox" from the studio's name. The move follows Disney dropping the Fox name from its 20th Century Fox film brand last January.
2014:
The 2014 Teen Choice Awards take place in California. Among the winners:
-Choice Movie: Animated: Frozen
-Choice Movie: Voice: Idina Menzel – Frozen
-Choice TV Actor: Comedy: Austin & Ally
-Choice TV: Male Breakout Star: Brett Dalton – Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
1935:
Ron Dominguez, vice-president of Disneyland from 1974 till 1990 and of Walt Disney Attractions from 1990 till his retirement in 1994, is born in Anaheim, California. His family originally owned and lived on 10 acres of the orange grove-covered property that was purchased by Walt Disney for his theme park in 1954. An emotional decision to sell, the family asked Disney if one rare Canary Island date palm could be spared when the land was flattened. (The tree had been a gift.) Disney agreed and the 15 ton tree was balled up and re-planted in what is now Adventureland (located between the entrances to Indiana Jones and the Jungle Cruise Boathouse). Just four days before Disneyland opened, 19-year-old Dominguez took a summer job as a ticket taker at the new park. In 1957, he became assistant supervisor of Frontierland and went on to supervise Adventureland and Frontierland before being named supervisor of Tomorrowland in 1962. That same year, he became general supervisor of the west side of the Park and was later promoted to its manager. By 1970, Dominguez was appointed director of operations, and, four years later, was named vice president of Disneyland and chairman of the park operating committee. In 1990, he was named executive vice president, Walt Disney Attractions, West Coast. After 39 years of service to The Walt Disney Company, Dominguez retired in August of 1994. (Dominguez passed in January 2021 at age 85.)
2021:
Although it's early August, today marks the official start of Halloween at Walt Disney World with Disney After Hours Boo Bash kicking off for the first time in the evening.
1984:
Gag cartoonist Virgil Partch, whose work appeared in magazines of the 1940s and 1950s, dies (along with his wife) in an auto accident in California. Born in Alaska, he later studied at the University of Arizona and the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. Partch worked for the Disney studios, where he was among those fired after taking part in the Disney animators' strike of 1941. During his career, he published 19 books of illustrations and drew art for children's books.
