1995:
Winnie the Pooh's 70th Anniversary CD, Take My Hand: Songs From the 100 Acre Wood is released. The 13-track album features all-new original songs with some old favorites by artists like Maureen McGovern and Tyler Collins.
1996:
Disney World's Pleasure Island holds its fourth annual "Jazz Fest."
Top-name musicians headlining the event, include Jeff Kashiwa, Greg Karukas, Craig Chaquico and Keiko
Matsui. Performances are held on the West End Stage, Hub Video Stage and in the Jazz Company club.
1813:
It is believed by most historians that opera composer Giuseppe Verdi -
composer of Aida - is born in the village of Le Roncole, Duchy of Parma,
on this day. His story of Aida was the basis for Disney's Broadway hit musical.
2002:
The Walt Disney Company and Frito-Lay announce a new multi-year agreement
by which Frito-Lay snack products will be featured at both the Walt Disney World
and Disneyland Resorts.
1930:
The Mickey Mouse cartoon The Gorilla Mystery, directed by Burt Gillett, is released. When Beppo the Gorilla escapes from the zoo and captures Minnie ... it's Mickey to the rescue!
1931:
The Mickey Mouse short The Barnyard Broadcast, directed by Burt Gillett,
is released. A satire on radio broadcasting, Mickey and the gang take part in a wild musical show.
1936:
Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey's Elephant is released. Directed
by David Hand, it features Frank Thomas' first animation work for the Disney Studios.
Mickey makes a home for his new elephant Bobo, which makes Pluto very jealous!
1955:
The Mickey Mouse Club airs on ABC-TV. Today is Fun With Music Day.
1956:
The Disneyland television series airs part 2 of "Rob Roy."
1957:
Disney's third television series Zorro has its debut on ABC-TV with the
episode "Presenting Senor Zorro." The new adventure series stars Guy Williams in the
dual role of Zorro & Don Diego, Henry Calvin as Sgt. Demetrio Lopez Garcia, Gene Sheldon as
Bernardo, and George J. Lewis as Don Alejandro. Zorro, which is Spanish for "fox", is the story of a masked rider
who battles the unjust rulers of the pueblo of Los Angeles during the days of Spanish rule.
1958:
The TV series Walt Disney Presents airs the episode
"The Pigeon that Worked a Miracle."
1961:
Singer & actress Jodi Benson, best known as the voice
of Ariel in Disney's The Little Mermaid (1992) and The
Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (2000), is born Jodi
Marzorati in Rockford, Illinois. Her long list of Disney credits
include Flubber (1997), Hercules (1998), Hercules: Zero to Hero (1999),
Toy Story 2 (1999), Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure (2001),
Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse (2001),
101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure (2003), Enchanted (2007),
The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning (2008), Toy Story 3 (2010), Hawaiian Vacation (2011) and Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018). Benson was named a Disney Legend in 2011.
1998:
The Journey Into Imagination ride and the attraction Image Works, both located
in Epcot's Journey Into Imagination pavilion, close for renovation.
The eighteenth episode of Disney's Recess, "The Challenge/Wild Child"
premieres on ABC-TV. Episode guest stars include Martin Mull as Principal Paul Prickly and Alex McKenna as C.J. Rotweiler in "The Challenge", and Jane Curtin as Mrs. Klemperer in "Wild Child."
According to Kodak (one time
sponsor of Journey Into
Imagination) 4% of all
amateur photographs are
taken at Disneyland and
Walt Disney World.
 | ||||||
1947:
Tony Award-winning actor Gary Beach, the original Lumiere in Disney's
Broadway hit Beauty and the Beast, is born in Alexandria, Virginia.
(He is also known for the role of Roger De Bris in both the stage and film productions of The Producers.)
1952:
The Disney short Trick or Treat, directed by Jack Hannah, is released. After Donald
Duck (voiced by Clarence Nash) plays a cruel Halloween prank on his nephews, the 3 team-up with Hazel the Witch (voiced by June Foray) to teach him a lesson about 'tricks and treats'! (The following month a similar
"Trick or Treat" story by Carl Barks will appear in the Donald Duck #26 comic book.)
1941:
Disney's animated feature Pinocchio is released in Canada.
2008:
Harry S. Gold, executive director of business and legal affairs for Disney Theatrical Productions, passes away at age 50 in New York after a long battle with cancer. Gold first joined Disney in 1997, just as the company was solidifying its place on Broadway with The Lion King.
OCTOBER 10
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
OCTOBER 10
Jodi Benson born
Zorro TV debut
| ||||
| ||||
1900:
Legendary actress Helen Hayes is born in Washington, D.C. Her Disney credits include
the 1974 Herbie Rides Again (as Mrs. Steinmetz ) and the 1977 Candleshoe (playing Lady St. Edmund).
| ||||
"Little Mermaid was very challenging. The only way I knew how to approach it was like a play. All of us had stage
background, so this was the first time in Disney history for the whole cast to meet each other before the movie
actually came out. We sat down around the table like a play reading, and did a read-through. We started working
off of each other. That's the only way we knew how to approach it." -Jodi Benson
2009:
Mickey Mouse visits Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri (Walt Disney's
hometown between 1911-1923) to celebrate the unveiling of a traveling art
exhibit that pays homage to Walt Disney’s lifelong love of trains. Local preschoolers along
with representatives from the Kansas City Mayor’s office and hundreds of fans see Mickey before he departs from
Union Station bound for Los Angeles for a viewing party for the premier of the Disney Channel primetime
special, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Choo Choo Express (which will air Sunday October 25th). Radio Disney
and representatives from the United States Marines are also on hand to help Mickey kick off Disney’s annual
Toys for Tots campaign.
Nearly 300 Disney VoluntEARS take part in the Greater Orlando Start! Heart Walk at Loch Haven Park in Orlando, Florida. A three-mile trek, Disney Cast Members raise more than $8,000 for research and education to help fight heart disease and stroke.
1997:
The science fiction comedy feature RocketMan is released by Walt Disney Pictures.
Shot on location at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, the film stars Harland Williams as Fred Z.
Randall - a geeky and obnoxious spacecraft designer who gets the chance to travel to Mars.
SEASON 3 EPISODE 5
Out of the night, when the full moon is bright, comes the horseman known as Zorro!
1967:
Grammy-winning soundtrack composer Michael Giacchino is born in Riverside Township, New Jersey. First starting out writing music for video game adaptations of feature films, he eventually began composing for film and television. His first big feature film composition was the soundtrack for the Pixar
film, The Incredibles (which earned Giacchino two Grammy Award nominations). His Disney credits also include Sky High, Ratatouille (which won a Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack), Up (which earned him several awards in 2010 including 2 Grammys), Coco, and Incredibles 2. In addition to his long list of soundtracks, Giacchino collaborated with Walt Disney Imagineering in creating two new soundtracks for the updated versions of Space Mountain at Disneyland, Space Mountain: Mission 2 at Disneyland Paris, and Space Mountain at Hong Kong Disneyland.
2010:
Disney fans and collectors gather at Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club for a free event designed to kick off the second decade of pin trading at Disney World. (Pin trading at Disney, inspired by pin-swapping seen at Olympic Games, began as part of the company’s millennium celebration, originally to last just 15 months.)
1980:
Disney re-releases its 1946 film Song of the South to theaters, along with the
animated short Mickey Mouse Disco. (To this day, the complete version of Song of the South has
never been available on home video in the United States.)
1993:
KCAL-TV airs the special The Making of the NHL's Mighty Ducks.
(The new professional hockey team, at this time owned by Disney, debuted 2 days ago.)
1939:
Disney's Donald Duck cartoon Officer Duck is released. Directed by Clyde Geronimi,
Donald plays a police officer who must serve Pete with an eviction notice.
1917:
"A Princess of Mars," a science fiction novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, is first
published as a book. ("A Princess of Mars" was actually first published as a serial in the pulp magazine "All Story Magazine" in February-July 1912.) Burroughs' second novel (predating his Tarzan stories) it tells of John Carter, a Confederate American Civil War veteran, who is mysteriously transported to Mars. In March 2012 Walt Disney Pictures released the science fiction action adventure film "John Carter," directed by Andrew Stanton.
2011:
The Walt Disney World Resort and Walt Disney Imagineering announce the
projected opening dates for Walt Disney World's new Disney's Art of Animation
Resort, which will debut in phases beginning May 31, 2012. Located near Disney's Pop
Century Resort, the new resort will offer 1,120 family suites and 864 guest rooms.
| ||||
2012:
ABC-TV premieres the series Nashville. Starring Connie Britton as Rayna Jaymes, a legendary
country music superstar, whose stardom begins fading, and Hayden Panettiere as a rising country teen star named
Juliette Barnes, the show is distributed by Disney-ABC Domestic Television. The cast includes Clare Bowen, Eric Close, Charles Esten, and Jonathan Jackson. In May 2016, ABC will cancel the show after 4 seasons. In June 2016, Nashville will be picked up by CMT for a fifth & sixth season.
October 10
1959:
Actor Bradley Whitford is born in Madison, Wisconsin. He portrayed Disney screenwriter
Don DaGradi (co-writer of the feature film Mary Poppins) in
Disney's 2013 release Saving Mr. Banks.
2014:
Disney's family comedy film Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very
Bad Day is released in U.S. theaters. Starring Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner, and Ed Oxenbould, it
is loosely based on Judith Viorst’s 1972 children's book of the same name. Eleven-year-old Alexander's day begins
with gum stuck in his hair, followed by many more calamities. However, he finds little sympathy from his family and
begins to wonder if bad things only happen to him, his mom, dad, brother and sister - who all find themselves
living through their own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
1982:
Actor Dan Stevens is born Daniel Jonathan Stevens in Croydon, London, England.
He portrayed the Beast in Disney's 2017 live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast.
2013:
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, a fantasy-drama series and a spin-off of the
ABC series Once Upon a Time, premieres on ABC-TV. This new series is based around the
Lewis Carroll novels "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass" but with a different twist
from the other adaptations and takes place in the same universe as Once Upon a Time.
1974:
Professional stock car racing driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is born Ralph Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Son of the late Dale Earnhardt Sr. (who was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame), Earnhardt's success at Daytona International Speedway throughout his career earned him the nickname "Pied Piper" of Daytona. He voiced himself in Disney/Pixar's 2006 movie Cars as a No. 8 car (painted in resemblance to Earnhardt's actual car) named "Junior" with the DEI logo on the hood. Earnhardt's voice was also used for the character Chase Davis in an episode of the Disney Channel's Handy Manny, in which Chase helps Manny compete in the Wood Valley 500 auto race in "Handy Manny's Big Race."
2017:
The last StarJets attraction closes on this day, at Tokyo Disneyland. A rocket-spinner attraction (similar to that at Florida's Magic Kingdom), it opened together with the park on April 15, 1983. The attraction’s roots date back to March 1956 at Disneyland. There, the first ride of this sort went by the name Astro-Jets, and was stylized in a way that would feature heavily in Disneyland’s celebration of the Space Age. Over the years similar attractions opened and closed in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Disneyland Park in Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Shanghai Disneyland.
1985:
Legendary film director, actor, and writer Orson Welles passes away at age 70 in Los Angeles, California. He was the voice of Eastern Airlines commercials (the official airline of Walt Disney World in the 1970s) and was heard in the queue area of the now-extinct If You Had Wings, a Tomorrowland attraction originally sponsored by Eastern. Noted for his innovative dramatic productions as well as his distinctive voice and personality, Welles is widely acknowledged as one of the most accomplished dramatic artists of the
twentieth century.
1963:
Singer-songwriter, cabaret performer and film actress Édith Piaf passes away in France at age 47. Her most famous song "La Vie en rose" (which she wrote the lyrics for in 1945) was popularized in 1946, and released as a single in 1947. The song became very popular in the US in 1950 with no fewer than seven different versions reaching the Billboard charts. Louis Armstrong's version of it will be used in Disney's 2008 Wall-E.
1969:
Actress and comedienne Wendi McLendon-Covey is born Wendy Anne McLendon in Bellflower, California. Since 2013, McLendon-Covey has played the role of Beverly Goldberg, the family matriarch, on the ABC comedy series The Goldbergs, for which she was nominated for two Critics' Choice Television Awards for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. Since 2018, she has played the voice role of Nancy Green for Disney Channel's animated Big City Greens. She also appeared on episodes of Wizards of Waverly Place and Modern Family.
1960:
Comedian and film, theatre & television actress Carla Signoris is born in Genoa, Italy. As a dubber, she provided the Italian voice to Dory in Finding Nemo and Finding Dory.
2021:
Disney animator and artist Ruthie Tompson passes away at age 111 in California. Born in Maine, her family relocated to Los Angeles and their house was on the same block as the house of Robert Disney, uncle of Walt Disney. Tompson first met Walt while visiting her neighbor Robert. She was also one of many neighborhood children who appeared as extras in many of Disney's early Alice Comedies. Years later Walt offered 18-yea-old Tompson a job as an inker. Later transferred to the Paint Department, she helped with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. After working on several other Disney films (such as Pinocchio and Fantasia), Tompson was promoted to Final Checker position where she reviewed animation cels before they were photographed onto film. As Tompson grew increasingly skilled at camera movement within animation, in 1952 she became one of the first women asked to join the International Photographers Union, Local 659, of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Tompson retired in 1975 after working for The Walt Disney Company for almost 40 years. She was named a Disney Legend in 2000.
