2003:
Epcot's 8th International Food and Wine
Festival kicks off in Florida. The festival takes place around World
Showcase and includes a month-long concert series called "Eat to the Beat!" Sister Sledge opens the
series with three half-hour concerts daily (throught October 22) on the America Gardens Theatre stage.
Golf great Tiger Woods (a Florida resident) visits Walt Disney World and
takes his turn on Epcot's Mission:SPACE.
1913:
Evelyn Venable, the original model for the Columbia Pictures logo and the
voice of the Blue Fairy in Disney's Pinocchio, is born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1926:
Disney's Alice Comedy Alice the Fire Fighter is released. Alice (played by Margie Gay) and
Julius attempt to put out a fire at a local hotel.
Guitarist, singer-songwriter, and one of the early pioneers of rock'n'roll, Chuck Berry is born in St. Louis, Missouri. His rendition of "Route 66" appears on the soundtrack to the 2006 Cars. (There are 2 versions of the song on the soundtrack, the other being performed by John Mayer.) Disney's 2006 The Shaggy Dog features the song "Surfin' U.S.A.," performed by the Beach Boys and co-written by Berry. Nicknamed the "Father of Rock and Roll", Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958).
1927:
Actor George C. Scott, the voice of McLeach in Disney's 1990 film The Rescuers Down Under, is born in Wise, Virginia. (Scott is best remebered for his 1970 role of General George Patton in the Academy Award-winning Patton.)
1946:
Disney's animated educational film The Story of Menstruation is delivered to the
International Cellu-Cotton Company. It will be a popular Disney film for schoolgirls for several years.
1955:
Mickey Mouse Club airs on ABC-TV. Today is Guest Star Day with
comedian and Disney voice actor George Givot (the voice of Tony in Lady and the Tramp).
1964:
The World's Fair in Flushing, New York (which includes 4 Disney attractions)
closes for the 1964 season. It will re-open the following spring for its second and final season.
NBC airs Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, featuring part one of "The
Tenderfoot." A three-part comedy Western, "The Tenderfoot" stars Brian Keith and Brandon de Wilde
who search for buried treasure in 1865 Arizona.
1967:
Disney's 19th animated feature film The Jungle Book
has its general release. Rudyard Kipling's classic tale of
the jungle is the last animated feature personally supervised by Walt Disney
(who passed away during the film's production). Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, the film features the voices of Phil Harris as Baloo, Sebastian Cabot as Bagheera, Louis Prima as King Louie, George Sanders as Shere Khan, Sterling Holloway as Kaa, Bruce Reitherman as Mowgli and Clint Howard as Junior. The song "Bare Necesseties," written by Terry Gilkyson, will be nominated for an Academy Award.
Also released is the live-action feature film Charlie the Lonesome Cougar. About a cougar raised by a
group of loggers in the Pacific Northwest who reverts to its natural instincts, it is directed by Rex Allen
(who also narrates) and Winston Hibler.
Animator and cartoonist Alexander Williams is born in London, England. Joining the Disney-MGM Studio in Orlando, Florida in 1988, he worked on on the short film RollerCoaster Rabbit. This led to Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), The Lion King (1994), and Piglet's Big Movie (2003). Williams also worked on visual effects for the live-action films Underdog (2007) and Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008).
1971:
TIME magazine (Vol. 98, No. 16) features an article
on a newly opened theme park -
"Disney World: Pixie Dust Over Florida".
FIRST there was Disneyland, an elaborate $128.5 million, 70-acre
playground that erupted 16 years ago in the Southern California flatlands outside Anaheim. Its stunning success spawned a host of imitators, including amusement extravaganzas called Six Flags in Dallas, St. Louis and Atlanta.
U.S. President Nixon visits Walt Disney World for a special showing of The Hall of
Presidents, so he can view his Audio-Animatronic double. (Nixon had hoped to attend the
opening ceremonies of WDW later in the month, but due to the difficulty in getting the proper amount of security,
plans had to be canceled.)
1987:
Actor & singer Zac Efron, Troy Bolton in Disney Channel's 2006 High
School Musical, and its 2 sequels, is born in San Luis Obispo, California.
1990:
Imagineer Roger Broggie is among those honored at the Disney Legends Awards.
Company Chairman Michael Eisner states, "Any mechanical things you had to do, what you said was,
'Call Roger, he'll know how to fix it.' Without him, Disneyland wouldn't have happened." The Disney Legends
ceremony is held at the Disney Legends Promenade (sidewalk area in front of the Disney Studio Theatre).
2001:
Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party premieres in
Disney World for the first time this season.
2002:
The Disneyland Resort salutes the American League pennant-winning Anaheim Angels
with a pep rally at Downtown Disney.
2006:
The upcoming Disney World musical version of "Finding Nemo," receives a short preview presentation on the stage of Broadway’s Palace Theatre in New York City. Finding Nemo - The Musical is the first major musical produced for the Walt Disney World Resort by Disney Creative Entertainment.
Animator, cartoonist, illustrator, and writer Don R. Christensen passes away at age 90 in Nevada. Working as a sketch artist for Disney Studios from 1937 until 1941, his credits included Pinocchio (1940) and Dumbo (1941). Leaving Disney after the animators' strike, he later became an animation storyman at Warner Brothers and a writer/illustrator at Western Publishing, where he worked on numerous Dell and Gold Key comic books.
1935:
Emmy Award-winning actor Peter Boyle is born in Norristown, Pennsylvania. He
portrayed Mr. Whittle in Disney's live-action The Santa Clause, and Father Time in both The Santa Clause 2
and The Santa Clause 3. He also appeared in Disney's 1997 remake of That Darn Cat. (Some of Boyle's best
known roles include Frank Barone on the hit sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond and the Monster in Mel Brooks'
comedy feature Young Frankenstein.)
King Louie (the orangutan
voiced by Louis Prima) was
one of the characters created
especially for Disney's 1967
The Jungle Book.
Louie doesn't appear in
Rudyard Kipling's original
1894 story.
Bagheera: "You wouldn't marry a panther, would you?"
Baloo: "I don't know. Come to think of it, no panther ever asked me."
2007:
An annual holiday tradition kicks off at the El Capitan Theater with the re-release of
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. The El Capitan offers a special opening-night
filmmakers' panel with guests producer Don Hahn, feature producer Denise Di Novi, director Henry Selick and
supervising animator Mike Belzer. Nightmare will open to theaters in Disney Digital 3-D the following day
(and run through November 18).
The Best of Both Worlds Tour, a 54-date North American run starring Miley Cyrus
as both herself and in character as Hannah Montana, kicks off in St. Louis, Missouri. Hollywood Records recording artists Jonas Brothers also appear. (Tour tickets for each date
have sold out in record time.)
1995:
Final paving for the track at the new Walt Disney World Speedway takes place.
Despite 1995 being the wettest June-July in Orlando on record (75 inches of
rain), including Hurricane Erin, the construction has been completed on-time!
The Jungle is JUMPIN'!
1997:
The sixth episode of Recess, "My Fair Gretchen/Speedy, We Hardly Knew Ye"
premieres on ABC-TV.
Animator, toy designer and comics artist Milt Neil passes away at age 83 in New Jersey. Working for Disney Studios from 1935 to 1944, he contributed to such features as Fantasia,
Dumbo, Saludos Amigos, and The Three Caballeros, and such Donald Duck shorts as Donald Duck Visits Lake Titicaca, Donald's Double Trouble, and Drip Dippy Donald. (Neil later became involved with the children's show Howdy Doody, for whom he designed puppets and various other merchandising toys.
1965:
Pixar character designer, writer and art director Ralph Eggleston is born in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana. He directed the Academy Award-winning short For the Birds, which premiered alongside Monsters Inc. -which he also co-wrote. Eggleston's credits include Aladdin, WALL-E, Finding Nemo (which earned him an Annie Award), The Incredibles, the original Toy Story (which also won him an Annie Award for Best Art Direction), Ratatouille,
the short Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation, Up, The Princess and the Frog, Cars 2, Jake and the Never Land Pirates, Inside Out, and Incredibles 2.
2008:
Radio Disney hosts the "planet premiere" of the High School Musical 3: Senior Year
soundtrack. The album (to be released on October 21 in the U.S. - 3 days before the film's release) is played on
the air in its entirety. "Now or Never" the opening musical number had its world premiere on Radio Disney last July.
The first foreign-language production of Mary Poppins opens in Göteborg, Sweden
at the Göteborgs Operan.
OCTOBER 18
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
OCTOBER 18
 | ||||
| ||||
1979:
A production of Snow White Live! debuts at New York City's Radio City Music Hall.
A popular but limited-run stage show version of Disney's animated classic, it stars Mary Jo Salerno - in her
professional debut - as Snow White. "Snow White" is produced by Disney veteran Robert F. Jani (also the creative mind behind Disneyland’s original Main Street Electrical Parade). The musical will later embark on a national tour with stops in Washington D.C. (including a special performance for U.S. President Jimmy Carter) and Chicago, Illinois (hometown of Salerno). The show features Broadway stage veteran Anne Francine as the Evil Queen and Richard Bowne as the Prince. Popular demand will bring the production back to Radio City before permanently closing in March of 1980. A cast recording will be released and a filmed performance will air on HBO in 1980 and on the Disney Channel in 1987.
| ||||
Peter Boyle born
1989:
"21 Men and a Baby," the fourth 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.
1960:
Disney's adventure film Ten Who Dared is released. The story of United States Army officer John Wesley Powell, who was the first to travel up the Colorado River, with a group of nine men in 1869, to make a map of the region, the film stars Brian Keith, John Beal, James Drury, and David Stollery (who as a youn teen was first known for his role as Marty Markham on Disney's The Adventures of Spin and Marty). It is both a reenactment of the historical scientific expedition, and a dramatic story of the struggles, dangers, and conflicts the ten men encountered. Songs in the film include "Ten Who Dared," "Roll Along," and "Jolly Rovers" by Lawrence E. Watkin and Stan Jones.
1970:
The Wonderful World of Disney airs on NBC with part one of "The Wacky Zoo of
Morgan City," starring Hal Holbrook, Joe Flynn, Anne Seymour and Wally Cox. Mayor
Philbrick (Flynn) tries to help Maggie Hargrove (Seymour) push through a proposed art museum ... which will be built where a zoo currently stands. Hoping the zoo will fail, Philbrick assigns accountant Mitch Collins (Holbrook) the task of running it. To everyone's surprise Collins turns the zoo around! The cast includes Mary LaRoche and Penny Marshall.
Film director, producer, actor and former animator Mike Mitchell is born in Oklahoma.
He directed Disney's 2005 superhero comedy film Sky High.
October Preview Month
| ||||
October 18
2018:
Walt Disney World announces it’s planning to build a new "nature-inspired" resort.
The as-yet-unnamed resort will open in 2022 and will have 900 hotel rooms as well as villas for Disney’s
timeshare program. The new luxury facility will be located between Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and
Disney’s Wilderness Lodge. (A month later the resort's name will be revealed as Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge.)
1973:
Animator and cartoonist Walt Kelly, best known for the comic strip Pogo, passes
away at age 60 in Woodland Hills, California. Born in Pennsylvania, he relocated to Southern California, and found a job in 1936 at Walt Disney Productions as a storyboard artist and gag man on Donald
Duck cartoons and other shorts. Kelly requested a switch to the animation department in 1939 and became an
assistant to noted Walt Disney animator Fred Moore. He worked for Disney until September 1941, contributing
to Pinocchio, Fantasia, The Reluctant Dragon, and Dumbo.
1972:
Disney's Run, Cougar, Run is released. When a professional hunter and two sportsmen use a helicopter to scout for big game in the southwestern wilderness of the U.S., Seeta, a tawny, 3-year-old mountain lion, her mate, and
their three kits are endangered, and Seeta has to struggle to protect her family from these dangerous intruders!
2013:
The Fifth Estate, a biographical thriller film directed by Bill Condon about the news-
leaking website WikiLeaks, is released by DreamWorks/Touchstone. The film stars Benedict
Cumberbatch as its editor-in-chief and founder Julian Assange, and Daniel Brühl as its former spokesperson Daniel Domscheit-Berg.
1999:
Actress Patricia Mary Ursula Edwards, better known as Paddi Edwards, passes away at age 68 in California. Although a successful actress working steadily in film & television, she began doing voiceover
work in projects for Disney, later in her career. Starting in 1989 she voiced the two eels Flotsam & Jetsam for The Little Mermaid. This was followed by The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue as Lab Computer, Hercules as Atropos, The
Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars as Satellite 1, and An Extremely Goofy Movie as the voice of the Office Receptionist.
2019:
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, a dark fantasy adventure
film produced by Walt Disney Pictures, opens in U.S.
theaters. A sequel to the 2014 film Maleficent, actress Angelina Jolie
returns to the title role. When a formidable queen causes a rift between
Maleficent and Princess Aurora, they must face new allies and enemies
in a bid to protect the magical lands which they share. The cast includes
Elle Fanning as Princess Aurora, Michelle Pfeiffer as Queen Ingrith,
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Conall, and Sam Riley as Diaval. It is directed by
Joachim Rønning, and written by Linda Woolverton, Micah Fitzerman
Blue, and Noah Harpster.
Also released in U.S. theaters on this day is Jojo Rabbit a black comedy World War II satire written and directed by Taika Waititi. A Fox Searchlight Pictures production, the film is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film stars Roman Griffin Davis as Jojo, a young boy in Hitler's army who finds out his mother, played by Scarlett Johansson, is hiding a Jewish girl in their home. The cast includes Thomasin McKenzie as Elsa, Sam Rockwell as Captain Klenzendorf, Rebel Wilson as Fraulein Rahm, and director Waititi as Adolf.
The film's soundtrack (also released this day on Disney's Hollywood Records) has been composed by Michael Giacchino, best known to Pixar fans for his work on such animated films as Ratatouille and Up.
2005:
Disney re-releases The Emperor's New Groove as a single-disc special edition called "The New Groove Edition."
1918:
Actor, jazz pianist, singer, and songwriter Bobby Troup is born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His best known song "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66" (also known as simply "Route 66") was composed in 1946. Troup got the idea for the song on a cross-country 10-day drive from Pennsylvania to California. Nat King Cole, with the King Cole Trio, first recorded the song that same year. Capitol Records released it as a single, which became a hit, appearing on Billboard magazine's singles charts. It reached number three on the magazine's Race Records chart and number eleven on its broader singles chart. Cole later re-recorded the tune in 1956 (for the album After Midnight) and 1961 (The Nat King Cole Story). The 2006 Pixar animated movie Cars
includes renditions of "Route 66" by Chuck Berry and John Mayer. Mayer's version was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance. As an actor, Troup's best known acting role was Dr. Joe Early on the television series Emergency! in the 1970s.
1956:
Actress-turned-psychologist Cindy O'Callaghan is born in Ireland. She played Carrie Rawlins, one of the three orphaned children, in Disney's 1971 Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
1977:
Animator, director, voice actor, and storyboard artist Peter Sohn is born in The Bronx, New York. After graduating from CalArts he worked at The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. before coming to Pixar.
His credits include such features as Finding Nemo (Story Artist, Production Artist), The Incredibles (Story Artist, Production Artist, Animator, additional voices), Ratatouille (Story Artist, Animator, voice of Emile), WALL-E (Story Artist), Up
(Storyboard Artist), Monsters University (Voice of Scott "Squishy" Squibbles), and The Good Dinosaur (Director). He was also the physical model for young Russel from Up. In 2022, Sohn provided the voice of Sox, a robotic kitten, in the Pixar film Lightyear.
