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July 11
1941:
Disney's Donald Duck short Early to Bed is released.
1953:
Disney releases the animated short How to Dance starring Goofy. The likenesses and sounds of the Firehouse Five Plus Two (Ward Kimball's Dixieland band) are featured as well.
1991:
Disney announces it will enter into a distribution deal with a Bay area digital studio named Pixar. (Together they will make such films as Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bugs Life, and Finding Nemo.)
July 12
1948:
Four time Academy Award-winning sound designer and sound editor Ben Burtt is born in Jamesville, New York. Best known for his work on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Burtt is responisble for the voices of WALL-E, M-O, and other robots in the 2008 Disney/Pixar computer-animated feature WALL-E.
2006:
Hong Kong Disneyland unveils 3 new Tomorrowland attractions - Stitch Encounter, Autopia and UFO Zone. They will officially open to visitors the next day.
July 13
1925:
Walt Disney marries Lillian Bounds, one of his first employees, at her brother's home in Lewiston, Idaho.
1928:
Actor Bob Crane is born in Waterbury, Connecticut. Crane appears in the live-action Disney films Superdad (as Charlie McCready) and Gus (as Pepper).
1940:
Actor Patrick Stewart, the voice of Mr. Woolensworth in the 2005 animated feature Chicken Little, is born in England.
1946:
Actor/comedian Cheech Marin is born in Los Angeles, California. His Disney voice credits include Cars as Ramone, The Lion King as Banzai the Hyena, and Oliver & Company as Tito.
July 14
1928:
Actress Nancy Olson is born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her Disney credits
include Pollyanna as Nancy Furman, The Absent-Minded Professor as
Betsy Carlisle, Son of Flubber as Elizabeth 'Betsy' Brainard, and Snowball
Express as Sue Baxter.
1946:
Original Mouseketeer - and the youngest male to audition to be
a Mouseketeer - Carl "Cubby" O'Brien is born in Burbank, California.
(He will later become a professional drummer performing with acts like
The Carpenters, Debbie Reynolds, and Andy Williams and on the hit
TV variety series The Carol Burnett Show.)
2006:
A new daytime harbor show called “The Legend of Mythica” debuts as part of Tokyo DisneySea Park’s 5th Anniversary celebration
July 15
1912:
Imagineer and writer Al Bertino, who helped design such Disneyland attractions as Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, the Haunted Mansion, and the Country Bear Jamboree, is born in California. Big Al, the most familiar face in Frontierland's Grizzly Hall, is a tribute to Bertino!
1944:
Actor Jan-Michael Vincent, the star of Disney's 1973 live-action feature The World's Greatest Athlete, is born in Denver, Colorado.
1946:
Grammy award winning singer Linda Ronstadt, who recorded a contemporary version of Disney's "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" (in both English and Spanish) and who appeared in the 1987 TV special "Golden Anniversary of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," is born in Tucson, Arizona.
2006:
The 2006 DisMeets in Allentown, Pennsylvania takes place. The 3rd annual event features presentations by leading Disney-site webmasters.
July 16
1927:
The 56th (and final) Disney Alice comedy film,
Alice in the Big League is previewed in a Los Angeles theater.
1954:
More that 180 acres of south Anaheim orange groves officially
belong to Disney as of this day. He will use the California property
to build a theme park. To finance the project, Walt has sold a
vacation home and even borrowed against his life insurance.
1955:
The Golden Horseshoe opens the day before Disneyland's debut for a private party for corporate sponsors. The show, called the Golden Horseshoe Revue, marks Wally Boag's first official performance as Pecos Bill/Traveling Salesman at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon.
2002:
As of this day, Disney's Lilo & Stitch has taken in $119.5 million in the U.S.
July 17
1912:
Radio-television host Art Linkletter is born in Canada. Exactly 43 years later he will take part in the televised grand opening of Disneyland.
1917:
Comedienne Phyllis Diller - the voice of The Queen in
the 1998 Disney/Pixar A Bug's Life - is born in Missouri.
1929:
Actress Helene Stanley - the live-action model & singing voice for Disney's 1950 Cinderella, and the live-action model for the 1959 Sleeping Beauty - is born in Gary, Indiana. She also portrays Polly Crockett in the 1955 Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier.
1955:
Television crews, Walt Disney, Art Linkletter, Ronald Reagan,
Bob Cummings, the Mouseketeers, Thurl Ravenscroft, California Governor
Goodwin J. Knight and over 28,000 guests witness the opening of Disneyland
in Anaheim, California. Broadcast on ABC, it is the biggest live telecast to date.
July 18
1913:
Marvin Miller, the narrator of Disney's 1959 classic Sleeping Beauty, is born in St. Louis, Missouri.
Legendary funnyman Red Skelton is born in Vincennes, Indiana. He will appear on the 1976 TV special Monsanto Night Presents Walt Disney's America on Parade.
1952:
Uncle Donald's Ants, a Disney short directed by Jack Hannah, is
released by RKO. In this cartoon, ants follow Donald Duck home by
following a leaky sugar bag and eventually begin to take over his house!
1955:
Monday
Disneyland in Anaheim, California first opens to the general public at 10 a.m. on this humid day with admission costing $1.
Dave MacPherson, a 22-year-old college student from Long Beach, is the first paying guest into the new park (he has waited on line all night to purchase the first ticket). MacPherson will win lifetime passes (good for any three persons and himself) to the Anaheim park (and eventually the Florida and France theme parks as well).
Also visiting is a young boy named Ron Schneider and his family. (Ron's father had done some of the air conditioning work on one of the buildings.) Ron will go on to become Epcot's original Dreamfinder!
July 19
1934:
Disney signs a contract with the Lionel Corporation to produce a Mickey Mouse wind-up hand-car.
1942:
Character actor & Disney voice star Sterling Holloway enlists in the U.S. Army.
1950:
Disney's Treasure Island (based on the book by Robert Louis Stevenson) is released in the U.S. and the U.K. It is the first Disney live-action film without any animation and the first Disney film to be shot in England. Also released is the True-Life Adventure Beaver Valley.
July 20
1890:
Actress Verna Felton, best-known for providing many female voices in numerous Disney animated films, is born in Salinas, California. Her Disney voice credits inlcude the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, the Queen of Hearts in Alice In Wonderland, and Winifred the Elephant in The Jungle Book.
1923:
Journalist-turned-publicist and Disney Legend Charlie Ridgway is born in
Chicago, Illinois. As a news reporter he wrote some of the first articles about
Disneyland - before & after its opening. Ridgway was at the park's grand
debut! Starting as an employee in 1963 he helped promote more than 150
major press events for Disney theme parks. In 2007, his book Spinning
Disney's World was published.
1995:
The Walt Disney Company signs a 49-year lease with the 42nd Street Redevelopment Project to manage and operate the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York City.
July 21
1924:
Veteran actor Don Knotts is born Jesse Donald Knotts in Morgantown, West Virginia. He will go on to appear in Disney's 1975 The Apple Dumpling Gang, the 1977 Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, and the 1979 The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again. Knotts is also the voice of Mayor Turkey Lurkey in the animated 2005 Chicken Little.
1951:
Tony Award-winning actress Lillias White - the voice of Calliope, Muse of Epics in Disney's animated Hercules - is born in Brooklyn, New York.
1952:
Comedian-actor Robin Williams, the voice of the Blue Genie of the Lamp in Disney's 1992 Aladdin and the voice of Timekeeper in the 1992 From Time to Time (which played in the Disney World attraction The Timekeeper) is born in Chicago, Illinois. He also stars in Disney's 1997 live-action feature Flubber.
2005:
Prince Nicolas Mongello is born to webmaster and author Lou Mongello and his lovely wife, Deanna.
July 22
1947:
Actor-writer-director-comedian Albert Brooks, the voice of Marlin
in the 2003 Finding Nemo, is born in Beverly Hills, California.
1949:
Academy Award-winning songwriter Alan Menken, known for his work on
such Disney classics as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast,
Aladdin, Hercules, and Pocahontas, is born in New Rochelle, New York.
1955:
At Disneyland, the Candy Palace opens on Main Street. Over in Tomorrowland, Rocket to the Moon presented by TWA debuts.
Actor Willem Dafoe, the voice of Gill in the 2003 Finding Nemo, is born in Appleton, Wisconsin.
1967:
Irene Bedard, the voice of Pocahontas in Disney's 1995 animated film, is born in Anchorage, Alaska.
1994:
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction opens on Sunset Boulevard at Disney World's Disney-MGM Studios. A simulated freefall thrill ride, it is themed after the popular television series The Twilight Zone, hosted and created by Rod Serling.
July 23
1908:
Actor Karl Swenson, the voice of Merlin in Disney's 1963 release
The Sword in the Stone, is born in Brooklyn, New York.
1928:
Disney's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon Sleigh Bells is released.
1931:
Architect Arata Isozaki, the designer of the Team Disney Building in
Orlando, Florida, is born in Ōita, Japan. The building's oddly looped
gateway suggests a giant pair of Mickey ears!
1953:
Disney's True-Life Adventure film Prowlers of the Everglades is released.
along with the adventure feature The Sword and the Rose. In Everglades,
Disney filmmakers take their cameras to Florida and capture the lives of
such creatures as alligators, raccoons, and snakebirds.
The Sword and the Rose tells the story of Mary Tudor and her troubled
path to true love.
July 24
1936:
Versatile comedic actress Ruth Buzzi is born in Westerly, Rhode Island. Best
known from the 1960s TV variety series Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Buzzi's
Disney credits include The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, It's Tough to
Be a Bird, and the original version of Freaky Friday.
1951:
Actress Lynda Carter, Principal Powers in Disney's 2005 feature Sky High,
is born in Phoenix, Arizona.
1966:
The New Orleans Square area opens at Disneyland, California, with a ceremony presided over by Walt Disney and the real mayor of New Orleans, Victor Schiro. The 3-acre site, the first new themed "land" added to Disneyland after its 1955 opening, has cost $18 million to build. This will turn out to be Walt's last major public appearance in the park.
July 25
1894:
Legendary actor Walter Brennan, who appears in the live-action Disney films The Gnome-Mobile (1967) and Those Calloways (1965), is born in Swampscott, Massachusetts.
1936:
Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon Alpine Climbers is released. Directed by David Hand, it features the only animated appearance of Donald Duck's St. Bernard pet.
1959:
The Ernest S. Marsh locomotive (Engine No. 4) takes its first inaugural run around Disneyland at the hands of Chief Engineer, Walt Disney. Built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1925, it is named for the current president of the Santa Fe Railroad.