2001:
Barbra Streisand, backed by a symphony orchestra, records "Some Day
My Prince Will Come," for Buena Vista Home Entertainment's DVD
edition of the 1937 Disney classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
2005:
West Coast Singers presents "The Beauty of Broadway: An Evening With Susan
Egan and the West Coast Singers," a benefit concert for the chorus which
includes a silent auction. The event takes place at the Barnsdall Art Park in Hollywood. (Egan's
Disney credits include Hercules, Lady and the Tramp II, the Disney Channel's Gotta Kick It Up and
Broadway's Beauty and the Beast.)
Disneyland Resort Paris kicks off the special season event
"Disney's Easter Festival".
After nearly a year of refurbishment, the Fantasyland attraction It's A Small
World reopens in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. The aging attraction
received a new sound system, paint, lighting, costumes for the dolls, and queue configuration.
For the second consecutive year, Raven-Symoné wins an NAACP Image Award
in the Outstanding Performance in the Youth/Children's Program category for
her starring role on Disney Channel's That's So Raven.
Seventy-five statues of Mickey Mouse (created to celebrate Mickey’s 75th
birthday) are unveiled at the Woodrow Wilson Plaza in front of the Ronald
Reagan Building and International Trade Center. The Washington, D.C. exhibition is the
only place, outside of Disneyland and Walt Disney World, where all 75 statues will be exhibited together.
1928:
Disney's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit black & white silent short
Bright Lights is released. It is directed by Walt Disney himself with Hugh Harman
and Rollin "Ham" Hamilton providing the animation. In this short, Oswald attempts to see
a female performer for free by sneaking backstage!
Actor Patrick McGoohan, the voice of Billy Bones in Disney's 2002 animated
feature Treasure Planet, is born in Astoria, New York. He also starred in the Disneyland 3-part
"The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh" as Dr. Christopher Syn / The Scarecrow. (Though born in America, McGoohan
rose to become the number-one British TV star in the 1950s & 1960s in such programs as "Danger Man" and
"The Prisoner.")
1941:
Lois Wilson is born in Ocala, Florida. She worked at Walt Disney World for 25 years as a wardrobe hostess at the Yacht and Beach Club Hotel and the Grand Floridian Resort.
1946:
Singer Ruth Pointer (of The Pointer Sisters) is born in East Oakland, California. She sang "Streets of Gold" for the 1988 Disney animated feature Oliver and Company.
1947:
Stage & screen actress Glenn Close - the voice of Kala in Disney's Tarzan and Tarzan
II - is born in Greenwich, Connecticut. She also played the role of Cruella de Vil in both live-action
features 101 Dalmatians and its sequel 102 Dalmatians. (Close is best known for her role as deranged stalker Alex
Forrest in the 1987 Fatal Attraction and more recently the FX TV series Damages.)
1950:
Author Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan and the heroic Mars
adventurer John Carter, passes away at age 74 in Encino, California.
He had always hoped that one day Disney would produce an animated feature about his jungle
hero. Burroughs wrote 24 novels about a man who was raised in the jungles by apes. Disney's
1999 animated Tarzan is based on Burroughs' 1912 story "Tarzan of the Apes." Tarzan remains
one of the most successful fictional characters to this day and is a cultural icon. Disney produced
2 more animated films, an animated television series, and a Broadway musical based on Burroughs' jungle hero. Walt Disney Pictures 2012 live-action John Carter is based on Burroughs' 1917 "A Princess of Mars," the first book in the "Barsoom" series of novels about an Earthling who is mysteriously transported to Mars.
1953:
Disney's True-Life Adventure short Water Birds wins an Oscar (Short Subjects, Two-Reel) at the 25th Academy Awards. Held at both the RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood and the Century Theater in New York, it is the first Academy Awards ceremony to be televised on national television. In Hollywood, the event is hosted by Bob Hope and the music awards are presented by Walt Disney himself.
1958:
The Disneyland TV series airs "Magic and Music" - the show's 95th episode.
1959:
Disney, Oklahoma ("The Island City") is officially incorporated.
The town is named for former Oklahoma Legislator Wesley E. Disney (who is of no relation to Walt Disney).
Walt Disney Productions releases The Shaggy Dog - the studio's first live-action comedy. The film centers around Wilby Daniels (played by Tommy Kirk), a teenage boy who is transformed into a sheep dog when he accidentally happens across a magical but cursed Borgia ring. Fred MacMurray (in his first of what will be 7 Disney films) plays Wilby's father Wilson Daniels. Also appearing are such familiar "Disney teens" as Annette Funicello, Tim Considine, and Kevin Corcoran. Veteran Disney voice actor Paul Frees has a rare on-screen appearance in the film as well! The film also features a sheepdog from California named Sam.
Also released - the fifteenth People and Places film Cruise of the Eagle and
the live-action short Nature's Strangest Creatures.
1961:
The TV series Walt Disney Presents airs "Daniel Boone: The Promised Land." It is the concluding episode of a 4-part mini-series.
1965:
Actor Billy "Pop" Attmore, a member of the 1970s TV series The New Mickey
Mouse Club, is born in Landstuhl, Germany. He also played the role of Thad in
Treasure of Matecumbe, a Walt Disney Productions family adventure film released in 1976.
Jeff Pidgeon, an animator, screenwriter, storyboard artist, and voice actor at
Pixar, is born in Vermont. Working for Pixar Animation Studios since 1991, his credits include all four Toy Story films, The Incredibles, and WALL-E.
1995:
The Penny Arcade, the Main Street Bookstore, and the House of Magic (all located on Main Street USA in Walt Disney World) close. The space will become part of the Main Street Athletic Company.
1999:
Elton John appears on TV's The Rosie O'Donnell Show, promoting Disney's new
stage musical Aida, for which he has written the music.
The Disney/Jumbo Pictures animated release Doug's 1st Movie has its premiere.
Based on the Nickelodeon television series Doug, the film is directed by Maurice Joyce, and stars the regular television cast of Tom McHugh, Fred Newman, Chris Phillips, Constance Shulman, Frank Welker, Alice Playten, Guy Hadley, and Doris Belack. Doug and his pal Skeeter set out to find the monster of Lucky Duck Lake. Doug's 1st Movie will be generally released in U.S. theaters March 26.
2002:
Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame II is released to video and DVD.
2004:
The Disney Channel Original Movie Going to the Mat premieres.
2007:
The trailer for Pirates 3: At World's End debuts to the general public during ABC-TV's Dancing with the Stars.
Disney's Grand Floridian
Resort & Spa is an elegant
Victorian-style resort (with
an amazing five-story grand
lobby) situated on the
shores of WDW's South Seas
Lagoon.
2006:
The Genesis Awards are handed out at the International Ballroom at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. The Higglytown Heroes episode "Kip's Shadow" wins for Best Children's Programming.
The stage musical Aida, presented jointly by Stage Entertainment and Disney Theatricals, debuts in Switzerland at the Musical Theatre in Basel.
(It is the first production of Aida ever staged in Switzerland.)
Animator and sequence director Brad Case passes away at age 93 in Oregon. Beginning his career as an animator on Bambi, his first screen credit was for the 1944 Donald Duck short The Plastics Inventor. He subsequently worked on additional feature films for Disney such as Pinocchio, Song of the South
and Make Mine Music, but gradually progressed to TV animation for studios such as Hanna-Barbbera, UPA, and Warner Brothers.
2008:
The 15th International Flower & Garden Festival kicks off at Epcot. This year's event has been expanded to 75 days.
After more than a year of negotiations, Disney Cruise Line and Port Canaveral strike a deal that will keep Disney ships sailing out of Brevard County, Florida for the next 15 years.
Walt Disney World Boys and Girls Club (located in Orlando's Pine Hills) opens.
Made possible in part from a $1 million contribution from Disney, the club offers educational programs.
MARCH 19
MARCH 19
THIS SITE MADE IN THE USA
 | ||||
| ||||
Water Birds wins Oscar
- The Funniest Shaggy Dog story ever told! Hello Dad ... the funniest thing happened! -
| ||||
1948:
Disney releases the Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey Down Under. Directed by Charles
Nichols, Mickey is in Australia - driving Pluto crazy with a boomerang and getting involved in chaos when he
encounters a giant emu and tries to steal her egg.
"I write to escape ... to escape poverty." -Edgar Rice Burroughs
2010:
The Alamo honors the life of actor Fess Parker, who played Davy Crockett in the Disney miniseries Davy Crockett King of The Wild Frontier, with a tribute at the Texas historical shrine. Parker passed away at his home in California, yesterday Thursday, March 18.
"You know when we called Walt Disney and asked him to present the music award tonight, we said, 'Walt with all the songs you've
commissioned for your pictures and what with Fantasia and all, you would be the right man to do it. After all, think about how much
you have done for music and Hollywood.' And his warm reply was 'I would have thought it was the other way around'. In any case
Walt fought his way through all the Oscars in his living room to our stage tonight. One of the great theatrical inventors of modern
times, Mr. Walt Disney." -Bob Hope
MAR
MAR
March 19
This Day in Disney History - THE FIRST - THE ORIGINAL
Traveling in time since 1999!
2018:
The musical show Minnie Oh! Minnie! plays for the last time at Tokyo Disneyland.
Located in Adventureland, it has been running since April 2004.
1955:
Actor Bruce Willis is born to a German mother and American father in Idar-Oberstein,
Germany (he moved to the United States with his family in 1957). His
Disney/Touchstone/Hollywood Pictures credits include The Kid, The Sixth Sense, Breakfast of Champions,
Color of Night, and Unbreakable. Willis was also one of the investors/promoters of the theme restaurant chain
Planet Hollywood when it debuted back in 1991.
1987:
Actress Josie Loren is born in Miami, Florida. She played the character Holly on Hannah Montana, working with the teen sensation Miley Cyrus on the episode “People Who Use People," before going on to appear on 48 episodes of the ABC Family series Make It or Break It.
1933:
Animator, voice actor, director, and writer Richard Williams is born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is best known for serving as animation director on Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), for which he won two Academy Awards. Williams also voiced Droopy in Disney's 1989 short Tummy Trouble (one of many Roger Rabbit shorts).
1969:
Writer, producer, director, actor & voice artist, and comic book creator Kevin Shinick is born in Merrick, New York. He served as showrunner and supervising producer for Disney XD's Emmy nominated animated series, Marvel's Spider-Man (which debuted in 2017).
1963:
Actress, comedian, screenwriter and producer Mary Scheer is born in Detroit, Michigan. First coming to prominence in the sketch comedy show Mad TV, she went on to appear in episodes of such Disney Channel shows as The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, Hannah Montana, and Good Luck Charlie. Starting in 2015 Scheer had a recurring role on the Disney series Bunk'd.
1967:
Animator and comic book artist Gil Turner passes away at age 53 in California. Born in Wisconsin, he worked as an ice cream salesman before starting as an animator at Disney Studios in January 1933. His stay was so brief that no credit known for his work there exists. Turner moved over to other studios, such as Hugh Harman's and Jam Handy in Detroit, Michigan. He also worked for Warner Bros. Cartoons in Hollywood during World War II and for Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio. Starting in 1947, he became a regular contributor to Dell's "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories," an anthology comic book series. Turner drew comics
starring Mickey Mouse, Bucky Bug, and Dumbo.
1989:
The 42nd British Film Awards, given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, are given out. Best Special Visual Effects is awarded to Who Framed Roger Rabbit (George Gibbs, Richard Williams, Ken Ralston and Edward Jones).
2021:
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a television miniseries created by Malcolm Spellman for the streaming service Disney+, premieres with the episode "New World Order." Based on the Marvel Comics characters Sam Wilson / Falcon and Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier, it is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, sharing continuity with the films of the franchise. Running for 6 episodes, the cast includes Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Wyatt Russell, Erin Kellyman, Don Cheadle, Emily VanCamp, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
