Walt Disney Productions (later The Walt Disney Company) has produced an
anthology television series under several different titles since 1954.

The original version of the series premiered on ABC on Wednesday, October
27, 1954. The show was broadcast weekly on one of the Big Three television
networks until 1990, a 36-year span with only a two-year hiatus from 1984 until
1985. The series was broadcast on Sunday for 25 of those years. From 1991
until 1997, the series aired infrequently and had only two hosts, Walt Disney
and Disney Chairman Michael Eisner. It is the second longest running prime-
time program on American television, behind rival film anthology, the Hallmark
Hall of Fame.

Film trade headline for January 11, 1954.

Walt Disney behind the camera.

SANDY KOZEL

On this day in 1961, Berlin was divided by a barbed wire fence to halt the flight
of refugees. Two days later work on the Berlin Wall began.

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (August 13, 1926 – November 25, 2016)

Infamous Cuban dictator and revolutionary Fidel Castro came to power in
1959 and served as his country’s Prime Minister until 1976 and its President
from 1976 to 2008.

Present day Mexico City was captured by Spanish conqueror
Hernando Cortez from the Aztec Indians on this day in 1521.

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock  (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980)

Iconic director Alfred Hitchcock is known as The Master of Suspense
for his classic films such as Psycho (1960), Rear Window (1954), North
by Northwest (1959), Vertigo (1958),  and The Birds ( 1965).  As one of
the most influential filmmakers of all-time, he directed over 50 feature
films.

 
     1944

William Bendix from “Lifeboat”. Hitchcock’s obligatory cameo is
shown in a newspaper ad showing his dramatic weight loss from 
dieting.

On this day in 1995.

This 1952 Mickey Mantle Topps "rookie" is
the most valuable post-war card.

"The Lassie Show" debuted on ABC radio. It was a 15-minute weekly 
program that aired until 1950. The series was an anthology and had
no recurring human characters. Lassie actually barked and whined
on cue for the series, but animal imitator Earl Keen did growls and
other sounds, as well as the sounds of other animals. The series
was sponsored by Red Heart dog food.