THIS DAY IN DISNEY

Jun 04, 1990

Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel Opens

If you’ve ever wanted to live in a world full of wonder, Walt Disney World’s elaborate Dolphin Resort just might be the place for you. This deluxe hotel, located in the heart of Walt Disney World, was designed by renowned architect Michael Graves. Graves is also responsible for the Team Disney Building at the Walt Disney Studio Lot in Burbank, with the huge statues of the Seven Dwarfs holding up the building. While there are no dwarfs to be found around the Dolphin, a pair of stylized 56-foot dolphin statues — inspired by Italian Renaissance design — grace the rooftop. Inspired by Florida itself, the Resort features distinctive architectural silhouettes on grass expanses and white sand-shored Crescent Lake, while sitting across the lagoon from its sister resort, another Graves-designed masterpiece, the Walt Disney World Swan Resort.

THIS DAY IN DISNEY

Jun 03, 1996

The Rock Premiere on Alcatraz Island

When disenchanted Brigadier General Francis X. Hummel (Ed Harris) and his troop take 81 tourists hostage on Alcatraz, a.k.a. “The Rock,” and threaten the Pentagon with launching rockets armed with VX gas against the population of San Francisco, all that stands between a city and a disaster are two men: Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage), a biochemist and chemical weapons expert who’s never seen combat, and John Mason (Sean Connery), a British national, incarcerated on Alcatraz in 1962, who escaped in 1963 and has been out of action for 30 years. This is the premise of the Hollywood Pictures film, The Rock, which premiered on this day in 1996 on Alcatraz Island, and unlike the old days, this time 500 invited guests were scrambling to get in. Several fans on water scooters surrounded the rocky island in hope of catching a glimpse of the celebrities. One invited guest who arrived on a sailboard peeled off his wetsuit to reveal a tuxedo underneath. Nicolas Cage summed the event up perfectly when he stated, “It’s a beautiful place to have a premiere, but this is really weird.”

THIS DAY IN DISNEY

Jun 02, 2003

Destino Premieres at Annecy International Film Festival

Destino, the surrealistic film Salvador Dali and Walt Disney collaborated on in 1946 but left abandoned after eight months of storyboarding, finally was premiered on this day in 2003 at the Annecy International Film Festival, a prestigious event that celebrates achievement in animation. Resurrecting and completing Destino, based originally on a story by Dali and Disney Legend John Hench, was a mission undertaken by Roy E. Disney, who said at the time, “It is a little different [project] for us, but I’m enormously proud that we’ve done this because it is about who we are as artists, how long our history is and how long we respect it.” The short film, which featured many Dali-esque touches, including melting clocks and a sculpture of Venus rising to life, would go on to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Animation Short in 2003.

THIS DAY IN DISNEY

Jun 01, 1989

Typhoon Lagoon Opens at WDW

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale… a tale of the shrimp boat Miss Tilly, journeying from Safen Sound, Florida. During a fierce typhoon, the tiny ship was tossed to the peak of the volcanic mountain, Mount Mayday, which became a source of many fantastic waterslides. Surrounding the mountain, a 56-acre topsy-turvy tropical paradise was formed — full of waterways, rivers, rapids and slides. That story, developed by Disney’s Imagineers, is the background for Walt Disney World’s Typhoon Lagoon water park, which opened on this day in 1989. Typhoon Lagoon guests can glide down five story waterslides, splash around in the world’s largest wave pool and snorkel with real live sharks. No matter your desire, there’s something to “wet” your whistle.

THIS DAY IN DISNEY

May 31, 2008

Toy Story Midway Mania Opens at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Step right up to learn about Toy Story Midway Mania! , that carnival-inspired 4-D interactive attraction based on the worlds of the Toy Story films (including new games based on Toy Story 3, beginning in late May 2010). The games began on this day in 2008, and here are some fun facts for you to toy around with: Did you know that guests are meant to experience life at the size of a toy, so in Andy’s room, a 5′ 6″ person will feel about 14″ tall? The murals located in the load area are the largest murals painted since Epcot was built. It has been estimated that, each day guests may break more than one million virtual plates using the spring-action shooters. In order to create a show that responds not only to every pull of a guest’s spring-action shooter but also every move their midway tram makes, there are more than 150 computers communicating over multiple networks throughout the attraction. Each Toy Story Mania! vehicle weighs as much as 8,480 Woody dolls. It would take 5,026 toy soldiers lined up end-to-end to make up the total track length!

THIS DAY IN DISNEY

May 30, 1936

Thru the Mirror is Released Reflecting back on this day in 1936, the Mickey Mouse cartoon short Thru the Mirror was released. When Mickey falls asleep reading Lewis Carroll’s Alice Through the Looking Glass, Mickey dreams that he travels through his own looking glass, into a wonderland of talking furniture and objects. After eating nuts given to him by a talking nutcracker, Mickey shrinks down small enough to find himself striking up a dance with a match from a matchbox and dealing with an angry deck of cards after innocently dancing with the queen of hearts. Guests visiting the Meet Mickey attractions in Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland may sometimes get the chance to meet the star on “the set” of Thru the Mirror, complete with oversized props from the movie and the short’s musical score playing in the background.

THIS DAY IN DISNEY

May 29, 1941

Strike at Walt Disney Studios

In 1941, the morale was not high at the Disney Studios. The studio was millions of dollars in debt, largely due to the loss of the European markets during the war. Employees were fearful for their jobs. Additionally, the 1930s saw a rise in the labor unions of motion pictures and other industries. Disney artists were not poorly paid, however, pay levels were set based on what Walt or top executives thought they were worth. During the growing tension, a tough “left-wing” union organizer, Herbert Sorrell, with the support of the newly formed Screen Cartoonist’s Union, instigated Disney’s employees to strike. In 1947, at a testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee where Sorrell was accused of being a Communist Spy, Walt recounted the situation, “I told Mr. Sorrell that there’s only one way for me to go, and that was an election, and that’s what the law had set up. He laughed at me and told me that I was naïve, I was foolish. He said, ‘You can’t stand this strike,’ and that, ‘I’ll smear you and I’ll make a dustbowl out of your place if I choose to.’” When the studio did go on strike on this day in 1941, Walt felt terribly betrayed and was astonished at what he felt was the ingratitude of his employees. He left negotiations in the hands of a Disney attorney, and while away on a goodwill tour of Latin America, received word that the strike was settled, giving in to unionization.

THIS DAY IN DISNEY

May 28, 1966

it’s a small world Opens at Disneyland

On this day in 1966, people from all over the world joined together under the golden sun at Disneyland for the opening of it’s a small world. The group included young performing groups from America and abroad, and more than 50 consul generals, consuls and vice consuls representing nations worldwide. Amongst the opening day festivities was a phone call between Walt, who was at Disneyland for the dedication, and Disneyland Ambassador Connie Swanson, who, in keeping with the international theme, was in Sweden, to be heard on the loud speakers via an international phone call. Connie recently told D23′s Scott Wolf, “I opened [the event] from Sweden. I was over in Skansen, which is a cultural amusement park in Stockholm, and I was with the Minister of Communication, Olaf Palma, and when I said the dedication words in that office in Sweden it went on the loud speaker. I could hear Walt saying, ‘There’s some difficulty, we can’t get it through,’ and I thought, ‘Oh dear, here I am in Stockholm with the press and this Minister of Communications and the line is going down, so I just read my script as I was asked to do.’” Another aspect of the festivities was the brainchild of Jack Lindquist who recently said, “We needed something to open the attraction. Walt was going to be there and Louis Lundborg, the chairman of Bank of America, and I came up with the idea of going to Disney reps all over the world and saying, ‘Send me a bottle of water,’ and they did a great job. Pretty soon my office had about 15 different bottles. Water came from Thames, Seine, Amazon, Danube, Nile, Volga, Rhine, Caribbean, Mediterranean, Atlantic, Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, among others. To me, it was just a symbolic way to open the ride. Here was water from all over the world, and we got kids representing those countries to pour some water into the moat. It was symbolic and it worked fine… and it was cheap. It also gave me an opportunity to get to know the Disney reps around the world.” In his dedication speech, Walt said, “I’d like to welcome all of you to the dedication of it’s a small world, and I’d like to thank all of these wonderful children who have performed here to make these dedication such a success. Thank you, children! Beautiful children! When we completed it’s a small world for presentation at the New York World’s Fair, we felt that we had accomplished what we’d set out to do. We wanted to foster a better understanding among nations of the world by showing the dress, the customs, the language, the music and a little of the culture of our neighbors around the world, and we wanted to show it to be a very happy one. I think it’s safe to say that having fun has universal appeal.”

THIS DAY IN DISNEY

May 27, 1933

The Three Little Pigs is Released

The Three Little Pigs cartoon short may have been a Silly Symphony, but its success was anything but silly. It earned an Academy Award as the Best Cartoon of 1933. Animator Fred Moore, who was responsible for animating the pigs, was proud that the film achieved fully developed character personalities. The Three Little Pigs wallowed in success which lead to three sequels, The Big Bad Wolf, Three Little Wolves, and The Practical Pig. It was from this film that Disney’s first popular song, “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”, written by Frank Churchill, huffed and puffed its way into people’s hearts who took on their song as an anthem against the Depression.

THIS DAY IN DISNEY

May 26, 1963

Walt Disney Studios Receives Emmy for Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color TV Show

On this day in 1963, Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color received the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences greatest honor, when it won an Emmy award. Richard Sherman recently recalled his contribution to the premiere episode of the series, saying, “Walt said, ‘We want to have an opening show where we’re going to introduce this character who’s a rather articulate character named Ludwig von Drake, who is very understandable.’ He was voiced by Paul Frees, who happened to be a brilliant, brilliant, funny guy. ‘He’s going to tell about the history of color and everything.’ So Bob and I, we wrote the ‘Spectrum Song’ and a thing called ‘Green with Envy Blues,’ a descriptive of the uses of color in language and the uses of color visually. The one special thing he said was, ‘I want to have one song that’s kind of pretty, something about the beautiful things about color and how wonderful it is. We’ll have that as a finale of the piece.’ We never dreamed at that time that it was going to become the theme song for so many years.” Sherman also recalls how Walt Disney sparked an amazing phenomenon. “What happened is they just had an explosion of sales… color television was in from that time on. It just exploded, the market opened up. RCA was trying to sell color sets, that was the whole new wave of entertainment and with Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color it turned the corner. They were going through the roof with those sales. It was fantastic.”