February 02 - plan to build Epcot, Laugh-O-Gram Films, Zorro, Western Family magazine & More!

1922
Twenty-year-old Walt Disney begins work at his own cartoon company called Laugh-O-Gram Films in Kansas City, Missouri. He will produce one-reel animated versions of 6 fairy tales, each lasting just one minute. Walt had felt that Kansas City theaters - which featured cartoons made by studios on the east coast - might be willing to buy some from a local company. He created a few and brought them to the Newman Theater. In order to clinch the deal, Walt calls them ... "Newman's Laugh-O-Grams." He will incorporate Laugh-O-gram Films in May of 1922 with $15,000 from backers. (These cartoons will be regarded as Walt's first professional effort in the field of animation.)

1928

Distributor Charles Mintz signs a new three-year agreement with Universal Pictures to provide Oswald cartoons (which are being created by the Disney Studios).

1950

The cover of this day's issue of Western Family magazine features Mickey and Minnie Mouse smooching through a giant valentine. The illustration is the work of Hank  Porter (originally a staff artist at the Disney Publicity Art Department).

1953

Walt Disney signs a licensing deal with Mitchell Gertz for rights to produce a Zorro TV series. In 1950, Zorro creator Johnston McCulley assigned the film and television rights to Gertz, a Hollywood agent. Gertz had been trying for several years to find the financing to produce the series.

1967

Roy Disney outlines his late brother's plan to build a theme park and the world's first futuristic metropolis, or EPCOT, when Disney Productions announces it will build the world's first glass-domed city in central Florida.

The movie presentation, narrated by Walt Disney, who past December 15, 1966, is termed by officials as "Walt's last film." Project Florida A Whole New Disney World premieres at the Park East Theater in Winter Park, Florida at 2:00 PM, where it is screened for business and government figures. The 25-minute film shows a 50-acre, air conditioned "city of tomorrow" centered in a 1,000-acre industrial park between Orlando and Kissimmee.

"Our corporation is dedicated to making Walt Disney's dream a reality, but it cannot be done without the help of you people here in Florida."

-Roy O. Disney

1992

The first phase of Disney World's Dixie Landings Resort (Alligator Bayou section) opens at 1251 Dixie Drive, Lake Buena Vista. Alligator Bayou consists of 1,024 guest rooms over 16 buildings styled as rustic, weathered lodges with 64 rooms per lodge. Located in the Downtown Disney resort area, Dixie Landings is themed after the Louisiana Countryside. It includes the Boatwright's Dining Hall (a full service, 208-seat table service restaurant themed to a wooden shipbuilding yard) and Fulton's General Store. (Today the resort is known as Disney's Port Orleans Resort.)

2006

Disney announces that the Disneyland and Disney World Pirates of the Caribbean attractions will be undergoing a 3-4 month makeover to work in character and plot elements from the movie series that took its inspiration from the original attraction.

2010

A Baby White-Cheeked Gibbon is born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The fourth  gibbon born at DAK (as part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Plan); the yet-to-be  named male won't be presented to the public until later in the month.

March 30 - Disney Legend Marc Davis is born

Mar 30, 1913

Disney Legend Marc Davis is born

On this day in 1913 Disney Legend Marc Davis was born in Bakersfield, California. It was some unpleasant experiences as a young child that indirectly led to his creating some of Disney’s most well-known characters, from Cruella De Vil to Tinker Bell and developing some of the most iconic scenes in Disney attractions such as the Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. Marc’s widow, Alice Davis, a Disney Legend herself, explained to D23′s Scott Wolf, “Marc was in 26 schools before he was out of high school. His father was a rainbow chaser… somebody who would always see the pot of gold over the hill, or the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. He also was a very fine jeweler. He could fix those clocks and barometers for boats in nothing flat. So whenever the family was broke, all they had to do is go to a seaport and he had more work than he could possibly handle. Whenever Marc would go to a new school, at recess the boys would circle around him and just beat the (heck) out of him. That’s the way they greeted you. So he started doing a whole bunch of drawings and he’d have all these drawings when he’d go to school and everybody wanted one of the drawings. He would do drawings for them and they didn’t beat him up. He said that’s what started him as an animator, drawing for all these kids all the time so they wouldn’t beat him up.”

1822

The unified government of Florida is established with William P. Duval from Kentucky as its first Territorial Governor. (Florida had becomes a U.S. territory in 1821 after the U.S. acquired it from Spain as part of a deal to cancel $5 million in debts owed by the Spanish.)

1945

Disney's Donald Duck short The Eyes Have It, directed by Jack Hannah, is released. Donald uses hypnotism on Pluto and convinces him he is a mouse, turtle, chicken and finally a lion!

1957

Members of the Santa Fe Railway Co. visit Disneyland. Walt himself hosts Bob Waller, a Santa Fe
attorney; Hank O'Leary, special representative of the public relations department of the Santa Fe; James P. Reinhold, assistant to the president of the Santa Fe; and; Ralph Thomas, manager of communications for the Santa Fe. (Back in 1953, the Walt Disney Company had solicited major railroads for corporate sponsorship of the attraction. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway was the only company to respond.)

1968

Two children come across the lifeless body of a homeless man in an abandoned tenement building on East 10th Street in New York City. Because no one identifies the body, the deceased is buried in an unmarked pauper's grave on Hart Island. (A fingerprint check in 1969 will identify the corpse as Bobby Driscoll, 31, the voice of Disney's Peter Pan. It is also discovered that the cause of death is a heart attack. Sadly his long history of alcohol and drug abuse was a strong contributing factor to his early death.) 

2004

The Orlando Sentinel runs an article in which Walt Disney World president Al Weiss gives some insight into how the parks are maintained.

2006

The Disneyland Resort 50th anniversary celebration takes to the skies over Tucson, Arizona with a 100-foot tall, Mickey Mouse-shaped hot air balloon dubbed "The Happiest Balloon On Earth." With golden ears high atop its head, the Mickey balloon will travel throughout the western United States and Canada during an 11-week tour.

2008

Seasons Of The Vine, an opening day attraction at Disney's California Adventure, closes. A film presentation which took viewers through the journey of producing wine in California, it is shut down due to low attendance.

2011

The Walt Disney Pavilion at Florida Hospital for Children has its grand opening ceremony. Hundreds are on hand to celebrate the occasion (including Bob Iger, president and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, and Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts), which includes a moving dedication ceremony featuring inspirational stories from former pediatric patients.

Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel Opens at Disneyland Resort

Jan 02, 2001

Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel Opens at Disneyland Resort

The first hotel to ever be located inside a Disney theme park is no ordinary hotel… it’s grand! On this day in 2001, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel opened its golden gates for the first time, allowing guests to stay within Disney’s California Adventure park. Although guests could enjoy the adventure of Disneyland park, California Adventure was not yet open, nor was Downtown Disney District for another ten days. On February 8^th, Disney’s California Adventure held its grand opening, along with the official grand opening of the Grand Californian Hotel, allowing Guests to have a grand experience at the newly expanded Disneyland Resort.

1937
Disney's Mickey Mouse film The Worm Turns - featuring the voices of Walt Disney as Mickey and Billy Bletcher as the dog catcher - is released.

1938
Conductor Leopold Stokowski arrives in Los Angeles for a session for Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

1977
At Disneyland's Frontierland, the Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland attraction closes. (It will later be replaced by Big Thunder Mountain.)

1979
Disney World's Dumbo's Circus Parade kicks off down Main Street, USA. (January 2, 1979 - December 21, 1979). he parade featured "colorful costumes, comical ballerinas, a circus train, floats, ringmaster Mickey Mouse and Dumbo himself." 

1984
The Astuter Computer Revue, a show in EPCOT Center's CommuniCore East, closes. The attraction took place on a second-floor terraced theater that overlooked a large room housing some of the computers used to operate the park. It was hosted by a projected host who sang and danced his way across computer banks in the foreground of the room in an attempt to explain the role of computers at Walt Disney World. The Astuter Computer Revue will be the first attraction ever to be removed from EPCOT. It will be replaced in February 1984 by Backstage Magic.

CLICK HERE to download the Computer Revue Song

 

CLICK HERE to hear the whole Astuter Computer Revue "live"

1996
Today is World of Motion's final day of operation at Epcot. An opening day attraction, visitors traveled on Omniover vehicles through humorous technology-themed scenes. (Test Track will eventually take its place.)

2001
Disney unveils its Grand Californian Hotel, offering a few hundred guests a preview of the high-end rooms and service the company hopes will transform the updated Anaheim vacation spot. The hotel is the first in the U.S. to be located inside a Disney theme park. The Grand Californian Hotel features 2 full-service restaurants (Storytellers Cafe and Napa Rose) and a snack bar (Whitewater Snacks). Although its grand opening will be in February, the first paying guests are welcomed on this day.

2005
Effective this day, all current Walt Disney World admission media will now require ticket tag finger scans.

2006
In observance with the Tournament of Roses “Never on Sunday” tradition, the 117th Rose Parade in Pasadena, California takes place on a Monday. Disney takes part in the event with a float featuring recreations of all 5 castles from each of its theme parks.


2009
Opening night of "Disney on Ice: 100 Years of Magic" begins at 7 p.m. at the First Arena in Elmira, New York.

2010
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra performs a concert of symphonic arrangements from the Walt Disney Studio archives at Powell Symphony Hall in Grand Center. The concert is synchronized with images from such Disney classics as The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Mary Poppins and Tarzan.



It is reported that The United Way of Palm Beach County, Florida is offering a program in which volunteers can earn a day at a Disney park.