On this day in 1958, the Walt Disney Presents television series first aired From All of Us to All of You, predating the tradition of animated Christmas specials. The show was a compilation of both Christmas and other festive animated clips from Disney’s features, along with yuletide cartoon shorts. The episode would pop up in …
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After a dozen photographers spent nearly three years in the white wilderness of the Arctic, a new True-Life Adventure was born. White Wilderness, released on this day in 1958, told the story of the animal inhabitants of Canada’s subarctic and Alaska’s arctic wilds. As was typical with the True-Life Adventures, White Wilderness and several other True-Life …
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For many years, Tinker Bell has been known to fly high above Disneyland to light the fireworks, just as she had done so many times on Disney’s television series. On this day in 1958, circus performer “Tiny Kline” first dressed as Tinker Bell to perform a 1000 foot glide over a Los Angeles audience when …
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While every Disney Magic Kingdom-styled theme park has an Alice in Wonderland attraction, only Disneyland has an Alice-themed dark ride, which opened on this day in 1958. The attraction was originally planned to be part of Disneyland’s opening day festivities three years earlier, but those plans had to be abandoned because of budgeting issues. In …
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People and Places is a documentary film series about, as you might have guessed, people and places. These 17 travelogues, released from 1953 to 1960, focused primarily on little-known places or out-of-the-ordinary people. On this day in 1958, the latest installment of People and Places took audiences on a virtual trip to Scotland, focusing on …
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People and Places is a documentary film series about, well, people and places. Through these 17 travelogues, released from 1958 to 1960, viewers were taken on magic carpet rides to far off lands such as Siam, Switzerland, Sardinia, and even Disneyland U.S.A. The Wales installment tells the story of the Welsh people who were the …
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The “Magic Highway” episode of the Disneyland TV series, that aired on this day in 1958, steered viewers through the history of America’s highways, transporting them from the earliest days to the highways and vehicles of the future. The animated segment about the future takes an optimistic look at many possibilities for the highways, from …
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While the Disneyland television series invited Guests to see Disneyland behind-the-scenes magic, in the episode “An Adventure in Art,” Walt Disney invited his viewers to learn about an important aspect of his company… art. Referring to Robert Henri’s book The Art of Spirit, Walt explained how people see art in different ways. Showcasing a segment …
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Tinker Bell was your spunky guide for this pixie-eye tour of Disneyland, which included sampling a live performance of the Mouseketeers in Holidayland and breathtaking aerial views over highways, the heliport, and around the park. The show ended with a spectacular fireworks display in the sky above Sleeping Beauty Castle. An edited version of this …
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Painted by American artist Delmer J. Yoakum, the Grand Canyon Diorama was added to the Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad in 1958. To the sounds of Ferde Grofé’s “Grand Canyon Suite,” Guests could now ride slowly on the train and view scenery from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in a realistic diorama. The diorama …
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