May 22 - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

May 22, 1987

“Disney’s Golden Anniversary of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” Airs

On this day in 1987, with a smile and a song “Disney’s Golden Anniversary of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was celebrated in an episode of The Magical World of Disney. Using Disneyland as a backdrop, host Dick van Dyke is joined by the Seven Dwarfs and Jane Curtin, who portrays the wicked Queen, while Sherman Hemsley (TV’s George Jefferson) appears in the Magic Mirror. Highlights include very rarely seen scenes that were deleted from the movie, done in pencil animation. Although now available as bonus features on DVD, this was the first time the public was given the chance to view those scenes. In a dance number with the Dwarfs, Dick van Dyke sings “You’re Never Too Old To Be Young.” With all that was packed into this hour special, the “happy” program didn’t have a single “sleepy” moment.

1968:

From the late 1950s to 1968 Los Angeles Airways provided regularly scheduled helicopter passenger service between Disneyland and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and other cities in the area. The helicopters first operated from Anaheim/Disneyland Heliport, located behind Tomorrowland. Service later moved, in 1960, to a new heliport north of the Disneyland Hotel. Arriving guests were then transported to the Disneyland Hotel via tram.

English: Los Angeles Airways Sikorsky S-61L helicopter,

lifting off from the Disneyland Heliport, 1963.

This is the same aircraft that crashed—killing all on board

in August, 1968. Note the Matterhorn Mountain in the background.

The service ended after two fatal crashes in 1968: The crash in Paramount, California, TODAY killed 23 (the worst helicopter accident in aviation history at that time). The second crash in Compton, California on August 14, 1968, killed 21