A few happenings in the world on this day. Number one is the theatrical release of Peter Pan, which Walt intended to be his second movie release after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Turns out that it took Disney four years to acquire the rights to the story, after they had been bequeathed to an English hospital by the original playwright, J.M. Barrie. This put the project on hold and several other movies were released before it.
The featurette that accompanied Peter Pan was one of Disney’s nature documentaries about black bears. Titled Bear Country, it was one of a long line of nature stories Walt and his crew would document, and several earned Disney top accolades for the work. To this day Disney is still heavily involved with nature conservation, funding, and story telling.
Third thing that occurred on this day was the debut of Illuminations nighttime spectacular in EPCOT. It has gone through many changes through the years, and we read that the first day it debuted was a bit of a mess, as crews worked up to the last-minute to prepare and still had a few problems. However, these days there are still some glitches but most people wouldn’t even notice them with all the things going on during that show.
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