With an active turn-of-the-century Main Street, U.S.A in 1956, it seemed natural to have an old-fashioned parade, just as small-town residents might have experienced in the day, and what better occasion than Easter? So when Easter fell on this day in 1956, Disneyland’s Director of Entertainment Tommy Walker produced a recreation of an Old-Fashioned Easter …
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Matthew Garber, best known to Disney fans as the “extremely stubborn and suspicious” young Michael Banks in Mary Poppins, was born in England on this day in 1956. Matthew made his film debut as Geordie in Disney’s The Three Lives of Thomasina, which also featured a young actress named Karen Dotrice, who went on to …
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Walt was quick to test the waters in the exciting new medium of television, producing two one-hour specials for NBC in 1950 and 1951. But when it came time to pitching a television series, only third-place network ABC was willing to structure the kind of deal Walt wanted—one in which the network advanced $500,000 toward …
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It was once again a battle of duck versus chipmunk in the Donald Duck cartoon short Chips Ahoy, which set sail in theaters — in CinemaScope! — on this day in 1956. When Chip and Dale find themselves hungry with a lack of a food source, they soon spot a big tree filled with acorns …
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The Mickey Mouse Club Circus was a real circus in Disneyland starting in November 1955. And while the extravaganza boasted the Mouseketeers from the Mickey Mouse Club television show and breathtaking acts such as “Professor Keller’s Fantastic Felines,” the Big Top was no match for the exciting Magic Kingdom and closed just two months after …
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Shortly after the opening of Disneyland, the Mickey Mouse Club Circus debuted in Fantasyland featuring acts from the Ted DeWayne Circus along with the Mouseketeers from TV’s Mickey Mouse Club. One of those Mouseketeers was Bobby Burgess, who recently told us, “It was a red-and-white, huge tent, and it was hot and sweaty in there …
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On this day in 1955, citizens of Earth got a glimpse at what it would be like to fly to the moon when Man and the Moon made its debut on the Disneyland TV series. The show begins by tracing man’s fascination with the moon, from the first superstitions and legends, to the invention of …
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In this Jack Kinney-directed television special, which first aired on this day in 1955, viewers got an inside glimpse into Goofy’s rise to stardom. The program began with a look at Hollywood, the “movie capitol of the world,” where a group of similarly styled talent scouts are tirelessly searching high and low, left and right …
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“Most of us are inclined to think of the animated cartoon as a modern invention, like the airplane or automobile, but actually, the idea of imparting life and motion to still pictures is as ancient as man himself. But in our time, we’ve seen this dream come true.” Walt Disney spoke those words in the …
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Ladies and Gentlemen, and children of all ages… The Mickey Mouse Club Circus, in the world’s largest striped circus tent, debuted at Disneyland on this day in 1955 and remained until January 8th of the following year. As if it weren’t enough to see Professor Keller and His Feline Fantastics, Serenado the Wonder Horse playing …
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