2001:
Seventy mile-per-hour winds shut down five rides at Disney's California Adventure.
2005:
Walt Disney Records celebrates the 50th Anniversary
of Disneyland with 4 new CDs to honor the event:
"50th Anniversary: A Musical History of Disneyland," "Julie Andrews Selects Her Favorite Disney Songs," "The Official Album of the Disneyland Resort: The Happiest Homecoming on Earth" and "Walt Disney Records Presents: Wishes!"
Disney releases 6 classics from the past to DVD. They include
Pocahontas: 10th Anniversary Edition (a 2-disc package), National Treasure (starring Nicolas Cage), In Search of the Castaways (featuring Hayley Mills), Summer Magic (also featuring Mills), Heidi (starring Jason Robards), and That Darn Cat! (the first Disney film to star Dean Jones).
The media descends on Disneyland to prepare for the next day's party and schmoozefest. The Anaheim park will be closed to the public tomorrow as Disney puts the
finishing touches on their 50th Celebration event (which officially begins May 5).
The 31st Saturn Awards, honoring the best in science fiction, fantasy and horror film and television in 2004, are held at the Universal City Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Among the winners:
-Best Animated Film: The Incredibles
-Best Network TV Series: Lost
-Best Supporting Television Actor: Terry O'Quinn – Lost
-Best DVD Movie Collection: The Star Wars Trilogy
1871:
Walter Robinson Parr, the Illinois-based preacher who Elias Disney named his
fourth son Walter after, is born in Liverpool, England. The son of Alexander and Matilda
(Richards) Parr, Walter graduated from the Beloit Academy in 1891, from Beloit College in 1895 and from
the Chicago Theological Seminary in 1898. It was while serving as a pastor at St. Paul's Congregational
Church in Chicago, that he befriended Elias Disney and his family.
1896:
Novelist and playwright Dodie Smith is born Dorothy Gladys Smith in Lancashire,
England. Her 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians was loosely adapted into a Disney animated
feature and released in 1961. The Hundred and One Dalmatians was inspired by one of Dodie's own Dalmation
pets named Pongo. Smith got the idea for her novel when a friend remarked: "Those dogs would make a lovely
fur coat!"
1903:
Legendary singer & actor Bing Crosby - one of the narrators of Disney's 1949
animated feature The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad - is born in Tacoma,
Washington. (The best-selling recording artist until well into the rock era, with over half a billion records in
circulation, Crosby's career stretched over more than half a century from 1926 until his death in 1977.
His biggest musical hit ... Irving Berlin's "White Christmas," first introduced in 1942.)
1926:
The El Capitan Theatre, "Hollywood's First Home of Spoken Drama," debuts with the
live stage production Charlot's Revue. For the next ten years it will present live plays, with over 120
productions, before offering movies full-time starting in 1942.
(Decades later Disney will operate the theater, using it for many Walt Disney Pictures' movie premieres.)
1929:
Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon When the Cat's Away is released.
The sixth toon in the Mickey Mouse series, the film is interesting because it is the first of
a handful which portray Mickey and Minnie as the size of mice.
1931:
Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon The Moose Hunt is released. It is the first cartoon in which
Pluto is known by that name. The short also contains Pluto's first spoken line in a cartoon, "Kiss Me." (One of only
two times he will ever speak!)
1969:
Ground is officially broken for the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California.
Also known as CalArts, the school was founded by Walt Disney when the Chouinard School of Music and The Los
Angeles Conservatory merged in the early 60s. (Although Disney had died a few years before this ground breaking,
the CalArts student newspaper will still be called Walt.)
Actress Amy Ryan is born Amy Beth Dziewiontkowski in New York City. She played the role of Eileeb Burns in the 2007 Dan in Real Life, starring Steve Carell. (The following year she began appearing with Carell on
the hit sitcom The Office.) In 2015, Ryan starred as Mary Donovan opposite Tom Hanks in the film Bridge of Spies.
1987:
The Wonderful World of Disney airs the 1964 Disney classic
"Mary Poppins," starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.
Animation art director, pioneer theme park designer, and illustrator of children's books Dick Kelsey passes away on his 82nd birthday. His credits included such classics as Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi, and Make Mine Music.
1989:
The 8th episode of MMC airs on Disney Channel.
Today is Anything Can Happen Day!
1994:
Disney announces plans to create a cruise line.
1996:
The television sitcom Step by Step airs part 1 of "We're Going to Disney World."
Touchstone Pictures releases the film Last Dance. About a woman waiting on death row for
a brutal double murder she committed in her teens, the film stars Sharon Stone, Rob Morrow, Randy Quaid
and Peter Gallagher.
2004:
An Associated Press article announces the Disney Cruise Line will begin offering cruises from the West coast in 2005 as part of the celebration for
Disneyland's 50th anniversary.
Animator Volos Jones passes away at age 90 in Texas. Starting his career at Disney, first as an
in-between artist before graduating to full animator status in the late 1930s, he became a specialist in animating Donald Duck, earning him the nickname "The Duck Man" from his colleagues. His credits included such shorts as Mr. Duck Steps Out, Donald's Vacation, Donald's Garden, Donald's Gold Mine and Canvas Back Duck. He also worked on such features as The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and Alice in Wonderland, before leaving Disney in 1956. Jones went on to amass credits at numerous other studios including Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Animation, Harman-Ising Productions,
Walter Lantz Productions, Format Films, Hanna-Barbera, Famous Studios and UPA.
1973:
Original Disney World Dapper Dan Jerry Siggins puts in his last day of work
with the singing group. He will go to California to finish his studies at California
State at Long Beach and later sing with the Dapper Dans of Disneyland.
1933:
The German crime film M directed by Fritz Lang is released in the U.S. Already in release in Germany since 1931, the film features a drug store scene in which a few Mickey Mouse figurines can be seen.
2003:
James Brown (the Godfather of Soul) performs at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney, Florida on his 70th birthday. He will visit Disney World the following day.
Disney's stage production of The Lion King kicks off its second national tour in Chicago, Illinois.
2007:
Mickey Mouse, dressed as the Sorcerer's Apprentice, acts as grand marshal of the
2007 Pegasus Parade in Louisville, Kentucky. The parade - whose theme is "Wonders, Wizards
and Wands" - is part of the Kentucky Derby festivities.
Walter M. Schirra Jr., one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts and the only
man to fly on NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, passes away at
age 84. Over the years Schirra made appearances at Disney theme parks for such events as the 2003 debut of Epcot's Mission: SPACE and the unveiling of Disneyland's new Tomorrowland in 1998. In 2003 he appeared on
ABC-TV's broadcast of the 20th Annual Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade.
1940:
The Disney Bulletin (volume 2, number 36) is issued. Along with stories about
employee birthdays and weddings being celebrated, is a short notice about the Ink & Paint Department's move
from the Hyperion Studio to their new building in Burbank.
"With the passing of Wally Schirra, we at NASA note with sorrow the loss of yet another of the pioneers of human spaceflight." -NASA Administrator Michael Griffin
2008:
Principal photography begins on Walt Disney Pictures’ upcoming theatrical
production High School Musical 3: Senior Year. The all-new feature film is being shot on
location in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is scheduled for release in theaters October 24, 2008.
MAY 3
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MAY 03
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
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Bing Crosbyn born
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1997:
Disney's animated Nightmare Ned airs on ABC-TV with the episodes
"Monster Ned" and "The Ants."
The concept for Disney's Hollywood
Studios (originally called Disney-MGM
Studios) came from an idea to have a
movie pavilion at Epcot. Once
Imagineers realized that the range of
possibilities were larger than just one
attraction, the idea for a 3rd theme park was born!
1991:
Disney's Hollywood Pictures releases the crime drama One Good Cop, starring
Michael Keaton, Rene Russo, Anthony LaPaglia and Benjamin Bratt. New York City police
lieutenant Artie Lewis faces a major dilemma in his life when his longtime partner, Stevie Diroma, is killed in the line
of duty. Artie and his wife, Rita, take in Stevie’s three orphaned daughters, but cannot make ends meet on a cop’s
salary. He soon finds himself straddling the fine line between his ethical code as a "good cop" or the temptation of
the corrupt ways of the street in order to keep his suddenly enlarged family together.
Steve Jobs accepts a deal for Pixar Animation Studios to make three feature films
for the Walt Disney Company for 12.5 percent of gross revenue of theater and
video sales.
2010:
Almost 5 years to the day after launching at Orlando International Airport, Disney’s
Magical Express welcomes it’s 10,000,000th guest! Lori Ogurkis and her family from Hazelton,
Pennyslvania, receive a special reception at the airport, complete with a surprise visit and a gift basket from
Mickey Mouse. The Ogurkis family ride in their own private motor coach to Disney’s Polynesian Resort to begin
their WDW vacation. (Magical Express began running May 5, 2005.)
Chérie, j'ai rétréci le public closes in Disneyland Paris. Known as Honey, I Shrunk the Audience! in U.S. Disney parks, it had been running since 1999.
The Monster Sound Show, an opening day attraction at Disney-MGM Studios (today called Disney's Hollywood Studios) taught guests the importance of
sound in the cinema through a film starring Chevy Chase and Martin Short. In July 1997 the format of the show was changed and the attraction was
renamed ABC Sound Studio. Less than 2 years later, ABC Sound Studio closed to make way for a show featuring Drew Carey called Sounds Dangerous.
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Photo by Bernie at Disney.Rocket9.net
2011:
Disney Wonder begins its first cruises from Vancouver, Canada, to Alaska.
MAY
May 3
2013:
Iron Man 3, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios
Motion Pictures, is generally released. The sequel to the 2008 Iron Man and 2010 Iron Man 2, and the
seventh film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the film stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man, alongside
Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley, and Rebecca Hall. Plagued with worry and insomnia since saving New York from destruction, Stark is now more dependent on the suits that give him his Iron Man persona ... so much so that every aspect of his life is affected, including his relationship with Pepper (Paltrow). After a malevolent enemy known as the Mandarin (Kingsley) reduces his personal world to rubble, Stark must rely solely on instinct and ingenuity to avenge his losses and protect the people he loves.
2019:
Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris reopens after a lengthy refurbishment.
1975:
Actress Christina Hendricks is born in Knoxville, Tennessee. Probably best recognized for her role on the hit series Mad Men, she supplied the voices for Zarina (the inquisitive pixie dust-keeper fairy) in the 2014
direct-to-video feature The Pirate Fairy and Gabby Gabby (a 1950s pullstring doll) for the 2019 Toy Story 4. In 2011 she appeared in an episode of the ABC medical drama Body of Proof, and in 2007 an episode of the ABC sitcom Notes from the Underbelly.
1986:
Actress Pom Klementieff is born in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. She is most known for playing the role of Mantis in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
1970:
Actor Bobby Cannavale is born in Union City, New Jersey. He played the role of Jim Paxton in both Ant-Man (2015) and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018). Cannavale also appeared in a 2012 episode of ABC's Modern Family (for which he was nominated for a Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series).
1902:
Walter Slezak, a character actor and singer, is born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary.
He portrayed Baron in Disney's 1964 film Emil and the Detectives.
1905:
Dick Kelsey, an animation art director, pioneer theme park designer, and illustrator of children's books, is born in Califronia. His career spanned several of the most beloved Disney films in the 1940s-1950s (such as Melody Time and So Dear to My Heart), after which he assisted in the design of Disneyland in 1955.
2020:
Actor John Ericson passes away at age 93 in New Mexico. He played the role of Col. Heller in Disney's 1971 Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
1888:
Character actress Beulah Bondi is born in Chicago, Illinois. Often playing eccentric mothers and later grandmothers and wives, she appeared in Disney's 1948 So Dear to My Heart as Granny Kincaid.
1992:
Actor Peter Bruni passes away in California. He starred in The Magical World of Disney episode
"Mr. Gridley" in 1970.
1982:
Actress Rebecca Hall is born in London, England. One of her earliest film roles was Touchstone's 2006 psychological thriller The Prestige, as Sarah Borden. She later played the role of geneticist Maya Hansen in the superhero film Iron Man 3 (which coincidentally was released on this day in U.S. theaters in 2013). In 2016, Hall portrayed Mary (Queen Elizabeth's maid and Sophie's mother) in the fantasy adventure The BFG. In 2020, she starred in the supernatural psychological horror film The Night House, playing the role of Beth Parchin.
