2003:
A preview of the new Disney/Pixar feature The Incredibles airs during "The Wonderful
World of Disney" on ABC-TV.
The ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter at Walt Disney World
closes forever at the end of this day. A "theater-in-the-round" attraction in Tomorrowland, it was a darkly humorous science-fiction experience that used binaural sound to achieve many of its effects. Although only opened
since 1995, it had developed a cult following among Disney fans. (It will be replaced with Stitch's Great Escape.)
1955:
Ticket books (at a cost of $2.50 per adult, $2.00 per junior, & $1.50 per child) are
available for the very first time at the new Disneyland theme park. "A Day at Disneyland"
contains three A, two B, and three C tickets (D tickets won't be added until the following year and E tickets
in 1959).
Mickey Mouse Club airs on ABC-TV. Today is Guest Star Day with the Western singing group
Sons of the Pioneers.
1956:
The Muppets make their first network television appearance on "The Steve Allen Show." (Decades later, the Muppets will become part of the Disney family.)
Motion picture and television producer Debra Martin Chase is born in Great Lakes,
Illinois. She was one of the executive producers of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, which aired in November 1997 on ABC’s The Wonderful World of Disney. Her company, Martin Chase Productions was affiliated with the Walt Disney Company from 2001 to 2016. During that time her credits included The Princess Diaries, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, The Cheetah Girls, and the Disney Channel musical Lemonade Mouth.
1959:
The Rainbow Caverns Mine Train attraction closes in Disneyland's Frontierland.
1962:
Actress Joan Cusack, the voice of Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl in both Toy
Story 2 and Toy Story 3, is born in New York City. She won an Annie Award for Outstanding
Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Feature Production for her role in
the 1999 Toy Story 2. Cusack's Disney credits also include the 2005 live-action Ice Princess as Joan Carlyle, the
2005 animated feature Chicken Little as the voice of Abby Mallard and the 2011 Mars Needs Moms as Milo's
mom. (Sister of actor John Cusack, she has appeared in such features as Working Girl, In & Out, and School
of Rock.)
1985:
Actress Michelle Trachtenberg, the star of Disney's 2005 Ice Princess, is born in
New York City. She also appeared in the 1999 Inspector Gadget as Penny, for which she was nominated
for a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actress. (Fans of Gossip
Girl know Trachtenberg for her role of Georgina Sparks.)
1986:
Animator David Hand passes away in San Luis Obispo, California. He joined The Walt Disney Studios as its 21st animator in 1930 and later became production supervisor of the studio and director
of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Hand will be named a Disney Legend in 1994.
1987:
Part 2 of "The Journey of Natty Gann" airs on
The Wonderful World of Disney.
1998:
A benefit performance of the Disney stage musical Elaborate Lives: The Legend
Of Aida (for the Elton John Aids Foundation) takes place at the Alliance Theatre in
Atlanta, Georgia. For holders of tickets at $1,000 a piece, John (who wrote the show's music) is on hand
for a greet and meet at a pre-show VIP cocktail party/buffet at the Woodruff Arts Center.
2006:
Disney Vacation Club announces that it is building a new timeshare resort on
Walt Disney World property to meet ongoing demand for its unique vacation-ownership.
Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas (part of Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge and the 5th timeshare at WDW) will feature
intricate African-inspired details and home-like amenities. The first phase will open in summer 2007.
1995:
Delos Records releases the theme park album Beauty and the Beat!
- featuring Disney tunes performed in a steelband style.
Walt Disney World has the
largest working wardrobe on
Earth with more than 1.5
million operational garments
in use and over 7,000 different
garment types. In addition
there are over 2 million pieces
of entertainment costumes.
(That's a lot of dry cleaning!)
1968:
Apollo 7 (the first manned mission in the Apollo program) is launched
from Cape Canaveral, Florida for an 11-day earth-orbital mission. The
crew consists of Commander Wally Schirra, Command Module Pilot Donn Eisele, and Lunar
Module Pilot Walter Cunningham. Around the wrist of Schirra ... is a Mickey Mouse watch!
Actress & singer Jane Krakowski is born in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey. She played Claire's Mom in A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008) and appeared in multiple episodes of Modern Family. She also voiced Sizzle in Sofia the First and Aunt Willow in Tangled: The Series. In 2018 Krakowski played Mrs Potts in the Hollywood Bowl production of Beauty and the Beast. (She is best known for her starring role as Jenna Maroney in the NBC satirical comedy series 30 Rock, for which she received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.)
2005:
Walt Disney Records releases Cheetah-Licious Christmas, a holiday album by
The Cheetah Girls. The collection includes such holiday songs as "Santa Claus is Coming To Town,"
"Last Christmas," and "Feliz Navidad."
Also released is Disney's Princess Christmas Album.
2008:
A Russian-language version of the live Disney musical Beauty and the Beast opens
at Moscow's MDM Theatre. Heading Disney's first theatrical production in Russia, are Igor Ivanov as
The Prince and Natalia Bystrova and Ekaterina Guseva, who share the role of Belle. Ivanov landed his role via a
reality TV competition entitled "Find Your Prince."
OCTOBER 11
Today is Take Your Teddy Bear to Work Day
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
OCTOBER 11
WDW's Alien Encounter closes
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1991:
Touchstone Pictures releases the comedy Ernest Scared Stupid starring Jim Varney
and Eartha Kitt. After accidentally using a magic spell to revive a slimy troll Trantor (who was condemned
centuries before by a Worrell ancestor) bumbling Ernest P. Worrell enlists the aid of Old Lady Hackmore, the town
eccentric, to dispose of the creature, break the curse, and make the town safe for children once again.
It is the fifth film to feature Varney as Ernest P. Worrell.
1953:
Stage, television, and film actor David Morse, the voice of President George Washington in Disney World's updated The Hall of Presidents, is born in Hamilton, Massachusetts. He portrayed Washington in the HBO min-series John Adams - for which he received an Emmy nomination. (Morse first came to national attention as Dr. Jack Morrison in the medical drama St. Elsewhere from 1982 to 1988.)
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1989:
"A Frick Called Wanda," the third episode of the new sitcom The Nutt House
(co-created by Mel Brooks for Touchstone/Disney) debuts.
The series stars Cloris Leachman and Harvey Korman.
1964:
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color airs the episode "A Rag, a Bone, a Box
of Junk," in which Ludwig Von Drake (voiced by Paul Frees) gives a lesson on how to create stop-motion animation. "Noah's Ark" (1959) and "A Symposium on Popular Songs" (1962) are featured as examples of the medium. Filmed at the Walt Disney Studios, Walt himself and members of his staff make appearances.
1982:
At the newly opened EPCOT Center, The American Adventure pavilion has an
official opening ceremony. A single large building designed in the Colonial style, it contains the
American Adventure show and the Hall of Flags exhibit. The American Adventure show, narrated by
Audio-Animatronic figures of Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain, takes guests on a trip through America's history.
Across from the pavilion is the America Gardens Theatre, an outdoor amphitheater which hosts concerts.
1997:
The fifth episode of Disney's Recess, "King Gus/Big Brother Chad" airs for the
first time on ABC-TV.
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October 11
1988:
Actress Bonita Granville Wrather passes away at age 65 in Santa Monica, California. Nominated for an Academy Award for her supporting role in the film These Three (1936), she later married oil millionaire Jack Wrather. She became an executive in the Wrather Corp., builders of the original Disneyland Hotel. One of the DLH towers was first called the Bonita tower in her honor and her maiden name Granville was the namesake for Granville's Steakhouse at the DLH. Bonita later became first associate producer, then executive producer of the Lassie TV series. After Jack Wrather's death in 1984, she took over as chairman of the board. She will be named a Disney Legend, along with her husband, in 2011.
1948:
Director and screenwriter John R. Cherry III is born in Nashville, Tennessee. Most noted for creating the character of Ernest P. Worrell (portrayed for 15 years by Jim Varney), Cherry's Touchstone credits include Ernest Scared Stupid (1991), Ernest Goes to Jail (1990), Ernest Saves Christmas (1988), and
Ernest Goes to Camp (1987).
2019:
Gabby Duran & the Unsittables, a sci-fi comedy television series created by Mike Alber and Gabe Snyder, premieres on Disney Channel. Thirteen-year-old Gabby (played by Kylie Cantrall)
finally finds her moment to shine when she inadvertently lands an out-of-this-world job to baby-sit an unruly group of
very important extraterrestrial children who are hiding out on Earth with their families, disguised as everyday kids.
Disney Junior Music: Vampirina: HalloVeen Party is released by Walt Disney Records.
Robert Foster, who in 1970 had been named president of the Buena Vista Land Company, which developed the 4,000-acre community of Lake Buena Vista, passes away. First starting at Walt Disney Productions in 1956, whee he working in real property law and as a legal counsel for Disneyland, Foster later headed the property search and land acquisition for Walt Disney World and managed the legislative package that established the Reedy Creek Improvement District.
2011:
Fastlife, the debut solo studio album by American recording artist Joe Jonas, is
released on Hollywood Records.
1913:
Comic book writer, artist, editor, and publisher Joe Simon is born Hymie Simon in Rochester, New York. Serving as the first editor of Timely Comics, the company that would evolve into Marvel Comics, he along with artist Jack Kirby created the character Captain America.
2016:
The ABC sitcom American Housewife debuts. Chronicling the daily life of Katie Otto, a wife and mother who tries to maintain her sense of self and family while dealing with the wealthy, pretentious, arrogant housewives and their privileged children in her new hometown of Westport, Connecticut, the cast includes Katy Mixon, Diedrich Bader, Meg Donnelly, Daniel DiMaggio, and Julia Butters. The series will run for 5 seasons.
2022:
Actress & singer Angela Lansbury, who played various roles across film, stage, and television, passes away at age 96 in Los Angeles, California. Born in London, England in 1925, her career (much of it in the United States) spanned eight decades. Disney fans know Lansbury best as Miss Eglantine Price in Bedknobs and Broomsticks and as the voice of Mrs. Potts in the Beauty and the Beast franchise. She also played The Balloon Lady in Mary Poppins Returns. Lansbury was inducted a Disney Legend in 1995.
