Fantasmic - Cast card

In honor of the Studio's 20th anniversary last week, I wanted to share a bit of detail from the park. The pictures below are of a cast information card from the opening of Fantasmic. It contains a few facts about the show, plus some guidance on how to answer questions that guests may have.

Click on the pictures for larger versions.

Back to Basics

"Play, Paradox and People: Awe in Disneyland", Medical Opinion & Review. Vol. 3, No. 10. October 1967.

Don D. Jackson, M.D., Director of the Palo Alto Mental Research Institute writes...

If enough money is spent, can a group of engineers and entrepreneurs think of paradise in music in several accents, with birds yet? Clever, scheming men could deduce what the public wants and pipe in the pap at great profit. Personally, I don't think it is that simple -- or more of us would be rich. I think that in collaboration most of us can feel man's potential for good.
...All these experiences -- cathedrals, music, and, forgive me, the Tiki Room -- rather than being intense, private perceptions, or essentially individual reactions, are perhaps a sense of sharing what man can do when he joins with other men. What is awesome is not just the feeling of suprabeing, but the awareness that none of us knows what man can do.
...Disney's audacious mind produced a fairyland mystique to stimulate and intrigue millions. His inventiveness, coupled with a workingman's capacity for labor, was as brilliant and daring as Werner von Braun's and has brought the world considerably more joy and hope.
...Disney bet 95 million on his belief that he knew what people long for and that technology could supply the materials for his vision. How many of us are willing to stake out a commitment to an idea, a vision, a creative moment and then discover or invent the knowledge and tools to carry it out?

Little robotic birds inspire awe in guests at Disneyland? Who'd have thunk it? Walt Disney did. He left behind a legacy of taking technology and using it to tell stories, to take people to another world. A place where parents, children, everyone can live their dreams and reignite fantasy.

But it wasn't the technology and the money that made it happen. It was the collective creativity and talents of hundreds of individuals working on any project to create these new realms of being -- cartoons, movies, music, nature, and, yes, theme parks.

Back to basics... Earning My Ears has been dormant for six months. It is time to return to my original plans and not let folly stand in my way. My initial intent was to continue my study of all things Disney (though I'll admit a strong bent towards the theme parks) and to share things as I learned them. The product of this blog was a short series of research pieces. As I realized that I didn't have any major pieces ready to go, I floundered trying to decide what to do, and ultimately let this blog fall by the wayside. Unlike Walt Disney, I committed myself to an idea but failed to carry it out.

But now we are going back to basics. Back to continued reading, researching, and studying -- and sharing what I learn. I will occasionally do more in-depth research pieces and interrelated series of articles, but the majority of posts will be more tidbit-oriented and I hope to let a bit more of myself show through rather than just facts. I will not promise three posts a week, or even two. But I will promise to keep this site updated and continue to share as I learn.

I hope you'll join me again as I continue Earning My Ears in the world of Disney.

Since the Tencennial (Part Two)

This a continuation of a previous post looking at changes since the first 10 years of Walt Disney World. Specifically, we are looking at milestones reported in the Fall 1991 issue of Disney News magazine which was celebrating Walt Disney World's Tencennial.

1975:

• The Lake Buena Vista shopping village opened with 29 shops and four restaurants.
  • This area has expanded into the Downtown Disney area, separated into the Marketplace, Pleasure Island, and West Side. It houses more than 30 shops, 16 eateries, and other entertainment venues.
• Mission to Mars and Star Jets open in Tomorrowland.
  • Mission to Mars has gone through various changes and now houses Stitch's Great Escape. Star Jets was re-themed into a retro-futuristic design and re-named to Astro Orbitor in 1994 when the new Tomorrowland opened.
• Daily performances of America on Parade celebrate the nation's bicentennial.
• The Hall of Presidents opens.
  • While this was reported in Disney News as opening in 1975, it actually was an opening day attraction at the Magic Kingdom in 1971.
  • Many changes were made to this attraction in 1993. The script was re-written and narrated by a new voice. The incumbent president began to deliver a speech. President Lincoln's speech was updated.

1976:

• River Country at the Fort Wilderness Campground opens.
  • This water park was closed in 2001 after its more-successful counterparts, Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach, opened in 1989 and 1995, respectively.
• The Magic Kingdom welcomes its 50-millionth guest.

1977:

• The Empress Lilly riverboat is dedicated. It was home to three restaurants and a lounge.
  • Today Fulton's Crab House is located in the riverboat.
• The Main Street Electrical Parade makes its debut at Walt Disney World.
  • The parade had been running since 1992 at Disneyland. The Orlando version made a concurrent run until 1991 when it was replaced by SpectroMagic. It then moved on to Disneyland Paris. In 1999, the Disneyland version was refurbished and brought to Walt Disney World where it ran until 2001. The parade has since been moved back to California and runs at Disney's California Adventure park.

1978:

• Daily parades are held to celebrate Mickey Mouse's 50th birthday.
• The Magic Kingdom sets a one-year attendance record with over 14 million guests.

1979:

• Ground breaking begins for EPCOT Center.
• The Magic Kingdom welcomes its 100-millionth visitor.

1980:

• The Lake Buena Vista Conference Center and 136 Club Lake Villas open.
  • The villas became the housing portion of the Disney Institute when it opened in 1992. They were closed in 2003 and demolished to make way for the Saratoga Springs Resort.
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad makes its debut.

1981:

• Walt Disney World celebrates its Tencennial.

Since the Tencennial (Part One)

The Fall 1981 issue of Disney News magazine featured the Tencennial celebration of Walt Disney World.

Articles in the magazine provide overviews of Lake Buena Vista with its tennis, golf, conference facilities, and the Walt Disney World Village's dining and shopping; Walt Disney World as a "Living Laboratory" of unique ecological, transportation, and power systems; the Tencennial celebration itself, a "year long, and a smile wide" featuring parades, concerts, celebrities, fireworks, and shows; and memories shared by cast members who had worked there from the beginning.

But the best part of the magazine is the three-page article that steps through the highlights of Walt Disney World history, year-by-year. Let's take a look at some of the accomplishments and how things have changed over time.

1971:

• The Walt Disney World resort opens with much celebration and fanfare.
• America the Beautiful, Walt Disney World's first Circle Vision 360 feature premiers in November.
  • This show is later replaced with Magic Carpet Round the World, American Journeys, and The Timekeeper. Today the theater hosts the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor.
• Flight to the Moon opens in December.
  • This attraction has also been replaced several times. The show building has since housed Mission to Mars, ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter, and currently Stitch's Great escape.
• Christmas was celebrated with a Candlelight Processional narrated by Rock Hudson.
  • Today the Candlelight Processional is performed many times each year at the American Gardens Theatre in Epcot.
• Walt Disney World hosted its first golf tournament, won by Jack Nicklaus.

1972:

• If You Had Wings opened in June.
  • This show building would later hold If You Could Fly, Delta Dreamflight, Take Flight, and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. If You Could Fly and Take Flight were largely identical to their respective predecessors, but with minor changes due to loss of sponsorship.
• Attendance for the first full year of operation exceeded 10.7 million guests.

1973:

• The Golf Resort opens in December.
  • The resort would later be renamed The Disney Inn. It is now known as Shades of Green and operated by the US Department of Defense for use by active and retired military personnel.
• Pirates of the Caribbean opens in December.
  • This attraction was recently refurbished to include Captain Jack Sparrow and other characters from the movie franchise.
• The Walt Disney Story (closed), the Swan Boats (closed), Tom Sawyer Island, and the Richard F. Irvine steamboat (now the Liberty Belle) all open.
• President Richard Nixon visits the convention of Associated Press managing editors at the Contemporary.
  • This is where the famous "I am not a crook" line was spoken as Nixon defended his record in the Watergate case.

1974:

• Magic Carpet Round the World opens in the Circle Vision 360 theater in Tomorrowland.
• Pioneer Hall opens at Fort Wilderness.
• Discovery Island opens in Bay Lake.
  • Discovery Island closed in 1999 after the opening of Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Read All About It: Roller Coasters, Flumes, and Flying Saucers

Roller Coasters, Flumes, and Flying Saucers by Robert R. Reynolds is a look at the history of ride design company Arrow Development, as told through interviews by its founders Ed Morgan and Karl Bacon. The book is full of stories about rides for Disney parks, ventures with other parks, and interesting anecdotes about the general history of rides and roller coasters.

Ed and Karl met in a civilian Navy plant during World War II. Soon after they founded Arrow Development and began work machining parts for everything from crop dusters to Hewlett Packard machinery. Before they knew it, they were in the amusement park business. The first in a long line of revolutionary developments, the team built the first all-steel carousel.

It wasn't long after that a small boat, the Lil' Belle, that caught the eye of Disney. The boat was built for Lake Merritt Park in Oakland, California. Soon, Arrow Development was contracted to build ride systems for the soon-to-open Disneyland park. The team conceived and built the dark ride systems that we know today. The list of their early contributions include Mad Tea Party, Snow White's Adventure, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Casey Jr. Circus Train, Dumbo, Autopia, and Alice in Wonderland.

A later challenge was the Matterhorn. Here Arrow had other firsts in the amusement park business, including one that would revolutionize the roller coaster industry: tubular steel track.

Through the course of time, Arrow Development designed rides for Disneyland, the 1964/1965 New York World's Fair, and Walt Disney World. Their Disney credits go on to include It's a Small World, Flying Saucers, Pirates of the Caribbean, and development of the Omnimover. They worked with other theme parks, many of which failed, including Freedomland in New York, the Pacific Ocean Park in California, Knott's Berry Farm, and Busch Gardens. They had further revolutionary designs in the amusement park realm including the flume ride and the corkscrew loop. Along the way, they also had other projects such as designing capsules that would sustain monkeys sent into space.

The book is filled with stories about Arrow's interaction with Disney through the years: their transition to working for "movie people" instead of amusement park operators, Disney briefly owning an interest in the company, Karl getting sucked into the air system of the Flying Saucers, flooding out the Small World show pavilion at the World's Fair, and interacting with numerous Imagineers as they did what they did best.

In 1998, Ed Morgan and Karl Bacon were honored with the Hall of Fame Living Legends award by the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions. They are the first to share the award, and the honor puts them in league with the likes of George Ferris, Walter Knott, and Walt Disney.

The Verdict: This book is a quick easy read, laid out almost entirely as interview answers by Ed and Karl. At times they often speak highly technically, which could cause the average reader (myself included) to not understand all of their jargon. But in the midst of this, is a long trail of great stories told by the men themselves -- stories about their hardships and successes, and stories about the people they worked with. It focuses mostly on their work with Disney, but does include many of their greatest achievements apart from their ties with Disney. This is not a book for everyone's shelf, but it is a must have for the collector or researcher of any theme or amusement park.

Disney Synergy

The idea of synergy within the Disney company is not new. We see much of it today -- such as cross-branding from The Disney Channel into retail outlets, movie theaters, and theme parks. But this is not a new idea by any means. In 1967, Disney's synergy among its various organizations was alive and well. The company went so far as to create an updated diagram of the creative and marketing links shared within. This was not the first such diagram to be created, but given the time period, it tells many great stories. (click on the image to view a larger version)

The first thing that jumps to attention is that the studios were central to the Disney operation. The studios command the largest amount of real estate on the diagram and have more links than any of the others. In 1967, the company was still deeply rooted in its studio beginnings, and this entity formed the core of all the company's activities.

Other divisions of note include Disney World Florida which was in planning stages, the Mineral King ski resort which never found its way to realization, and the Celebrity Sports Center which was a short-lived recreation center in Denver, CO.

Some of the more interesting synergies:

• Disneyland plugs motion pictures and keeps characters before the public - As much as many Disney theme park purists may dislike the seemingly rapid growth of characters in the parks in the recent years, this was a planned strategy forty years ago. Sleeping Beauty Castle was named while the film was still in production as a means of building interest in the character and story.
• Disneyland and Disney World Florida provide a major sales outlet for merchandise licensing - The company has always carried various souvenirs for sale in the parks, including ones branded with characters from television and film.
• WED master plans, produces audio-animatronics, and imagineers and designs attractions for Disneyland, Disney World Florida, and Mineral King - It is no surprise at WED's involvement in the theme parks that we know today, but the Mineral King ski resort was to be home to a small set of imagineered attractions, as well. The Country Bear Jamboree was originally conceived for Mineral King.
• TV promotes the theme parks and the talents of WED - Walt Disney viewed television as a great promotional tool since its inception. Even after his death, the company still realized the potential that this outlet had in getting audiences excited about the theme parks. We still see this today with such things as the fairly new Disney Travel on Demand series.
• Music, TV, publications, comic strips, studios, and theme parks promote each other through use of characters, stories, and settings - There are many links amongst these divisions that showcase how the company viewed its intellectual assets as a means of advertising and providing source material to other divisions. These synergies are too many to list here.

Disney has maintained course on realizing the potential it can gain by aligning its various divisions. The ESPN brand is a great example. The cable network occasionally has Walt Disney World centered promotions. Plus Walt Disney World has annual ESPN weekends and will soon re-brand the Wide World of Sports to include the ESPN name.

It would be quite interesting to see an up-to-date synergy diagram.

Epcot 1978: Dubailand?

With the recent activity in Dubai to create a world-class travel destination, it is interesting to note that early plans for EPCOT Center included a United Arab Emirates pavilion.

Press materials describe the pavilion as follows:

"Guests arriving at the Pavilion presented by United Arab Emirates will immediately pass two ancient Arabic Dhows (sailing ships). Inside the pavilion visitors first experience the excitement of a re-created Bedouin encampment. Located at the center of this desert oasis will be the traditional ascetic black tents which symbolize Arabian warmth and hospitality. Guests browsing within these tents will observe a veritable treasure of Arabian hand craftsmanship both on exhibit and for sale. Surrounding this encampment, a series of cultural displays and facades will be constructed authentically duplicating the arid architectural style typical of the Arabic countryside. Guests passing through this area will also be exposed to the fragrant aromas of an Arabian restaurant offering the finest in traditional Arab food.

"Upon exiting the Bedouin encampment, guests are beckoned by the opulent royal marquis to enter an Arabian nights experience, a thrilling magic carpet ride through the Arab World's most fascinating cultures, both past and present. As guests glide above the courtyard area, a powerful mythical character appears before them to serve as narrator and guide through the adventure. Leaving the black tents behind, magic carpets actually pass through the mythical character's apparition into a star-lit night where the narrator describes early Arabic contributions in the fields of astronomy, navigation, and mathematics. Once again, the narrator appears in front of the approaching magic carpets to guide guests into a showcase of medicine, chemistry, libraries, and science, all of which had their earliest beginnings in the Arab World.

"Finally, the mythical character appears once more to present the many cultural contributions occurring in the Arab World today."

No Vacancy: Asian

"The Asian hotel will be strongly Thai in its motif. A theme restaurant and lounge at the top of its 160-foot tower building will provide an enchanting setting for nighttime dancing and stage-show entertainment."

Approximately two-thirds of the 600 rooms would be constructed on the water with the remaining rooms in the tower building, overlooking the Seven Seas Lagoon and recreation facilities. Included in the design were plans for 50 suites, decorated in royal Thai decor.

The planned convention facilities were to be underneath the main hotel facilities to separate them from the public resort areas.

No Vacancy: Persian

"Stepping right out of The Arabian Nights is the Persian resort which will reign like an exotic far-Eastern palace on the Northwest shore of the lake. Jewel-like mosques and columns will rise above landscaped courtyards, while terraced sundecks offer sculptured swimming pools and 'old Persian' dining facilities."

The 500 rooms of the resort were designed to radiate out from the central lobby, which was to be crowned with a huge dome. Restaurants and swimming pools could be found on terraced decks, overlooking landscaped courtyards.

"Guests will practically be able to sail to their own rooms through a sheltered marina."

No Vacancy: Venetian

"At the Venetian resort, an enclosed small boat harbor and intricate system of waterways will recreate the old world charm of the famed Italian 'City of Canals.'"

The 500-room Venetian was to be designed to resemble St. Mark's Square. The 500-room hotel would feature a 120-foot campanile which would toll the time. The glass-topped lobby would create a "brilliant, sunlit atrium effect indoors."

Shopping would be a unique experience as guests were to have ridden gondolas through waterways flowing under ornate bridges, linking various sections of the resort.