100 Years of Magic: 1982

We continue our series Celebrating 40 Years of Walt Disney World History with one of the trading cards that was released to celebrate the 100 Years of Magic campaign in 2001. Let's step back in time and see how the Disney Company celebrates one of the most important milestones in their history.

Calling upon WaIt’s vision, Epcot® (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) was created with the help of hundreds of scientific and historical experts to ensure accuracy of the technology used and displayed. With its fiber optics, lasers, computers, and water controls, the park opened on October 1, 1982 with five times the amount of special effects used in the MAGIC KINGDOM® Park.

---

1982 - Columbia completes its first mission in space; it is the first space shuttle, which allows vehicles to be reused in space missions.
1982 - An Audio-Animatronic walks for the first time.

---

October 2011 marks the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. The Vacation Kingdom has seen a lot of changes over the past four decades and the editorial staff at Imaginerding wants to celebrate the unique and rich history of the resort with a series of posts. A very special thanks to Celeste Cronrath for designing the series of logos. Make sure to follow her on Twitter.

The Bob-A-Round Boats at Walt Disney World: Celebrating 40 Years of Walt Disney World History

I am obsessed with Walt Disney World ephemera. 

What's ephemera? Well, I'm glad you asked!

In most cases, ephemera is defined as transitory material (usually printed) that is not designed to be kept. Think of brochures, postcards, buttons and maps. Early Walt Disney World history is bursting with physical examples of how this term could be applied to include attractions, restaurants, lands and many other gone-but-not-forgotten Disneyana. Back in August 2008, I stumbled across a flyer at Vintage Disneyland Tickets and I was perplexed at what I saw.

What in the (Walt Disney) World is that round thing?

I had no idea what the round boat was. It wasn't in any of my souvenir guides nor could I find it in any of the PR material that I have. I was stumped! Besides, how do you do a Google search for round boat at Walt Disney World and not go insane?

I e-mailed a few of my friends and Foxxfur from Passport to Dreams was able to provide the answer. She told me to visit the pages at Widen Your World and Walt Dated World for the bob-a-round boats.

Alison, at Walt Dated World, had this to say:

Rub a Dub Dub. Three (or four) people in a tub. These bizarre-looking striped boats had what looked like a lightening rod on top of them. (Florida is home to a lot of lightening, you know!) They were only around a short time after Walt Disney World opened. Apparently the boats were often the victim of dead batteries, which prevented them from Bob, Bob, Bobbing Along.
--http://waltdatedworld.bravepages.com/id159.htm

And Mike, at Widen Your World:

Another aspect of the resort [Polynesian] that has seen much change is the range of watercraft made available to guests over the years. Gone are the days when as many as eight people piled into a 40-foot Polynesian War Canoe and took off across the Seven Seas Lagoon toward real islands. And before those craft sailed into the sunset, the circular Bob-A-Round boats (each with an independent stereo system!) had already long since been retired.
--http://www.omniluxe.net/wyw/poly.htm

Since then, I have seen the bob-a-round boats in other promotional material. Big Brian's WDW A History in Postcards lists the following image as 01110261 THE POLYNESIAN VILLAGE.

Early postcard of the Polynesian Village with a Bob-A-Round boat!

October 1971 Eyes & Ears

In this scan from the inaugural October, 1971 Eyes & Ears, you can see a list of all of the prices for various recreational watercraft. The Bob-A-Round is listed at $8.00 per hour. Not the cheapest, but still, a pretty expensive way to traverse the Seven Seas Lagoon.

Click on me!!!!

I found this photo on one of the large two-page spreads in The Story of Walt Disney World: Commemorative Edition. Seven boats are shown, with an additional one on the other side of the fold (my scanner wasn't quite large enough).

If you look closely at the scanned image, you can see that four of the seven Bob-A-Round boats are docked at the Magic Kingdom. They are the ones in the back that are grouped in pairs.When I studied this image, I wondered if they ever rented watercraft from the Magic Kingdom dock. Obviously, there hasn't been a structure near the water to act as a rental agency, nor is there a cast facility for refueling or recharging. In this case, I would make the assumption that the boats are there for show. This is probably a staged publicity photo. No real guests were harmed in the making of this shot!

I continue to be amazed at the myriad of unresearched and unknown details of Walt Disney World

---

October 2011 marks the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. The Vacation Kingdom has seen a lot of changes over the past four decades and the editorial staff at Imaginerding wants to celebrate the unique and rich history of the resort with a series of posts. A very special thanks to Celeste Cronrath for designing the series of logos. Make sure to follow her on Twitter.

Related articles

• Celebrating 40 Years of Walt Disney World History: Contemporary Construction (imaginerding.com)
• Book Review: Since the World Began by Jeff Kurtti (imaginerding.com)
• Celebrating 40 Years of Walt Disney World: CTX Time Rover, A Warning of the Future! (imaginerding.com)
• Celebrating Walt Disney World: Walt Peregroy and Early Epcot (imaginerding.com)

Celebrating 40 Years of Walt Disney World: CTX Time Rover, A Warning of the Future!

I was invited to be part of the Main Street Gazette Round Table about time travel and Walt Disney World.

Our assignment from Ryan:

Roundtable Topic: If you could have been at one event from the history of Walt Disney World, what moment would you have liked to be a witness to and why?

It was a fun exercise, but limiting myself to 350 words was a fairly painful process. While ruminating on the post, I thought of all of the different times I would love to have visited the Vacation Kingdom of the World. One day, which will remain dateless until the Archives can confirm it, was during one of Walt's visits to the future Florida Property.

Admiral Joe Fowler (l) and Walt walk the property.

I wouldn't spend too much time harassing Uncle Walt but I would let him know that the Florida Project was going to be amazing and that his dreams were going to come true. And then I would warn Sklar, Hench, et al. that One day a crazy, wild-eyed scientist or a kid may show up asking about--er a crazy, wild-eyed Paramount Executive would take over the company and build too many hotels and way too many gift shops. He would save the company but would also render everything null that made the Vacation Kingdom special. And make sure that his contract is only for 10 years.

And this is where we will put all of the FastPass machines...

The following photo shows Marty Sklar, unknown executive (General Joe Potter?) and Marvin Davis (?) checking out the future site of the Castle just after groundbreaking.

Sklar (l) walks like a Floridian!

Make sure to check out Chris' response over at the Gazette. It is amazing how great minds think alike!

Halyx: For Those About to Rock...at Disneyland!

Right...this looks nothing like a certain Hildebrandt Star Wars poster!

Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records by Tim Hollis and Greg Ehrbar is an amazing look at the music of Disney and the creation and development of Walt Disney Records. It is filled with fascinating biographies of the singers and songwriters as well as descriptions of all of the released albums.

I was pleasantly surprised and intrigued to see mention of Halyx, a modern rock group that Disney created in the early 1980s. According to the authors, Disney was trying to branch out their stable of recording artists and wanted to enter the arena of rock.

The band played frequently at Disneyland and in the Los Angeles club scene. Bambi Moe (former A&R rep for Disneyland Records) states in Mouse Tracks:

They were fun. Lora's husband Tom was the keyboardist, and his keyboard was built into a golf cart he drove around on stage as the headlights flashed up into the audience. Roger Freeland, who was over six feet tall, wore a Wookie-like costume and wildly played bass. Tony Caputo, the percussionist, had a gymnastic rope so he could do somersaults and things. And Bruce Gowdy was the handsome leading man, sort of a space-age rock-and-roll guitarist to our Princess Leia type, who was Lora. The response of the Disneyland crowd was so phenomenal, it was causing the park a problem because they did not want people to get up and dance—it wasn't really allowed! Their sound was of the time, the sort of legitimate pop rock you would have heard on the radio, along the lines of Kim Carnes and Blondie.

Thanks to BANGOE for providing the image.

Due to various changes with their recording company, Halyx was eventually dropped from the Elektra/Asylum/Warner Brothers label before their first recording could be released.

Sit back and enjoy this live recording from Disneyland!

Related articles

• Audio Review: Walt Disney and the 1964 World's Fair (imaginerding.com)
• Book Review: Wally Boag, Clown Prince of Disneyland (imaginerding.com)

Celebrating Walt Disney World: Walt Peregroy and Early Epcot

October 2011 marks the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. The Vacation Kingdom has seen a lot of changes over the past four decades and the editorial staff at Imaginerding wants to celebrate the unique and rich history of the resort with a series of posts. A very special thanks to Celeste Cronrath for designing the series of logos for our posts. Make sure to follow her on Twitter.

---

Howdy Partners. For your safety, remain seated with your hands, arms, feet, and legs inside the article and be sure to watch your kids. If any of you folks are wearing hats or glasses, best remove em' cause this here is the wildest ride in the wilderness! 

Julie Svendson interviewed Walt Peregroy in December 2007. The amazing (and long) interview was published in Volume 9 of the Walt's People: Talking Disney with the Artists who Knew Him series by Didier Ghez.

Scanned from Walt Disney World: 20 Magical Years.

Do you know what I did in the Kodak pavilion—Images and Imagination was the name of the ride? I also designed the banister on the stairway and colors and designed the outside of the elevator. It’s probably all gone now. I designed the entranceway into the Images and Imagination ride and I did the four-seasons mural in The Land pavilion and the Symphony of the Seed. I did the 27-foot tall, 360-degree sky in the Land pavilion. And I designed the three solid balloons in The Land pavilion that would go up and down with different foods. I designed the fountain below the balloons, but I didn’t get my way on the fountain. Jim Sarno sculpted it. Beautiful. He told me he left because the fountain wasn’t finished with the top the way I designed it. I intended that it all be different foods not only sculpted but painted.

Scanned from Walt Disney's EPCOT Center.

Every celebrity in the world has gone through Disneyland, I’m sure, and I’ve done things there but there’s nothing obvious. But the two pavilions at Epcot are very apparent. You can’t go there without seeing them. And I have this delusion—they could take any piece out of the Symphony of the Seed, very carefully lift it out and put it outdoors or indoors and, with colored lights, it could be a fantastic, contemporary piece of sculpture. But museum curators, art critics, they insult Disney and all of us who work for them saying it’s Mickey Mouse and it’s not true. That’s what they think.

---

Walt Peregroy worked for the Disney Studios from 1951-1964 and 1974-1983. At the Studios, he worked on Lady and the Tramp, 101 Dalmatians, Sleeping Beauty and others. His last six years with the Company were spent working at WED on designs for EPCOT Center.

Related articles

• Book Review: Walt's People, Volume 10 (imaginerding.com)
• Let's Make Believe... (imaginerding.com)
• Book Review: Building a Better Mouse (imaginerding.com)
• Book Review: Walt Disney World, 20 Magical Years (imaginerding.com)
• Everything You always Wanted to Know about Walt Disney World! (imaginerding.com)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit, 1983-Style!

The 1983 Annual Report for the Walt Disney Company is a much sought-after piece for collectors, due mainly to the large fold-out cover that reproduces the artwork from the Horizons attraction that was set to debut at EPCOT Center. Annual Reports are used by publicly-traded companies to discuss the previous year and offer glimpses into the future to their stock holders.

One of the more interesting prognostications from the 1983 Annual Report is about the film Roger Rabbit. On pages 18-20, there is a listing of theatrical releases for the upcoming year. One of the smaller photos is credited as the live action-animated "Roger Rabbit".

Who Framed Roger Rabbit was released in 1988. It is loosely based on the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf that was released in 1981. Disney quickly purchased the rights to the book after its release. Ron Miller, President and CEO of the Walt Disney Company at the time of the filing believed that Roger Rabbit had blockbuster appeal. Miller looks like he had it pegged right on the nose (and what a big nose Roger had)!

An update from friend and author extraordinaire Jeff Kurtti provides some interesting information about the photograph of Roger Rabbit and Eddie Valiant from the Annual Report. Eddie is played by Mike Gabriel, who has worked as an animator, character designer, story artist, writer and director for the Walt Disney Company on films such as The Great Mouse Detective, The Rescuers Down Under, Pocahontas, Bolt and The Princess and The Frog. Jeff also mentions that the shot was done on the backlot of Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Another interesting Roger Rabbit fact from Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records (by Tim Hollis and Greg Ehrbar): Pete Renady, well known voice actor, also played Eddie Valiant during some of the test footage for the film during the early planning stages.

Borrow a Polaroid Camera, Free*

Polaroid operated the Polaroid Camera Center on Main Street at the Magic Kingdom from 1979 to 1984 (GAF ran it from 1971 to 1977 and Kodak from 1984 to 1989. In 1989 it was incorporated into the Main Street Confectionery).

During the early years, GAF and Polaroid sponsored the Guides to the Magic Kingdom. The Guides were paperback booklets that listed each attraction, shop and restaurant in the Magic Kingdom. As expected, prime space was dedicated to advertising the film products and offering handy tips on taking great photographs.

This guide also offered details on how to use a Polaroid Pronto Sonar camera during your visit to the Magic Kingdom. The camera is free*, you pay only for the film. Of course, the fine print does mention a refundable deposit is required.

Don't forget to stop by the Polaroid Camera Center to have an instant 8x10 portrait taken in front of a 19th century Presidential railroad car while you don 19th century costumes! Believe it or not, the picture comes out a minute later!

Over at The Jungle is 101, Mike has posted images from the similar brochure for Disneyland.

Related articles

• Fantasy Faire Resurgent (imaginerding.com)
• Book Review: Walt Disney World, 20 Magical Years (imaginerding.com)
• The GAF Picture Trail (imaginerding.com)
• SPOT (imaginerding.com)
• Disneyland Spots (imaginerding.com)
• 
  
• 
  

Hearing Voices: The Talking Mickey Mouse

From the Winter 1987 Disney News, we find this advertisement for "The Talking Mickey Mouse". Premiering 17 years before Pal Mickey, it offered a similar experience, minus the in-park interactivity. There were 13 cassettes/interactive stories that were created for Talking Mickey. The cassettes included commands to move Mickey's mouth, nose and eyes. Also available were three costumes for him: The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Sleeping Mickey and Bandleader. Talking Mickey was created by Worlds of Wonder; the same company that brought us Teddy Ruxpin.

You could also purchase a Talking Goofy that worked in concert with Mickey. They were connected by an audio patch cable. Apparently, Goofy could not work without Mickey!

 Image from Children's Records & More

Unity, Fellowship and Harmony

The Epcot Center logo symbolizes unity, fellowship, and harmony around the world. Five outer rings are linked to form the shape of a flower--a celebration of life. The heart of the logo is the Earth, embraced by a star symbolizing hope--the hope that with imagination, commitment, and dedication, we can create a better tomorrow. - Eyes and Ears, November 19, 1982

Published a month after the dedication of Epcot Center, the clipping tells the story of the Epcot Center logo succinctly and with a hopeful eye towards the future.

Related articles

• The Legend of the Three EPCOT Center books... (imaginerding.com)
• Book Review: Realityland by David Koenig (imaginerding.com)
• Book Review: Walt Disney and the Quest for Community (imaginerding.com)

Video Theme Parkeology: Third Session

The third segment of the Walt Disney World Tencennial special sponsored by Kraft doesn't have as many good images to capture. The segment suffers through a John Schneider song and a strange fantasy/flashback dance number.

Thanks to Michael Crawford at Progress City, USA for providing these video clips.

 

The first still is from a crane shot taken from the bridge to Tomorrowland. The structure to the right would be the second load/unload for the Swan Boats. It is now a seating area near the end of the Rose Garden. Widen Your World has a great article on the Plaza Swan Boats. Make sure to check out the hanging flower baskets on the light poles and the small trees.

This image shows an overview of the Top of the World Restaurant at the Contemporary Resort. Our family is seated around the table with dancing couples and an orchestra in the background. The segment is too dark to capture many good images. Alison's Walt Dated World site has some great Contemporary Resort information.

Video Theme Parkeology, Second Session

Previously, we looked at the first segment of a whimsical four-part video posted by Michael Crawford at Progress City, USA. The video was a celebration of Walt Disney World's Tencennial and offered several B-, C- and D-list actors vacationing at The Vacation Kingdom.

I pulled a few screen captures from this segment to do a little Theme Parkeology. But first, a reminder of what Theme Parkeology is:

Theme Parkeology (theem pahrk\ŏl'ə-jē) = the study of details, minutiae and history of theme parks. Akin to the archaeological study of human habitation, theme parkeology looks at the often layered and detailed surroundings. Theme Parkeologists relentlessly pour over the tiniest scraps to glean any information about an area of a theme park, past or present. (Term first coined by the original Theme Parkeologist, Jeff Pepper at 2719 Hyperion.)

Our first shot is a wonderful view of the old entrance to Tommorrowland. Notice the spires and lack of rock work? Also, the light blue walls on either side of the entrance had waterfalls cascading down them. On the left side, where we have Stitch's Great Escape, you could have experienced Mission to Mars from 1975 to 1993. On the right side, from 1979 to 1984, you could enjoy the CircleVision 360 film Magic Carpet 'Round the World. Now we can visit Monstropolis at the Monters' Inc Laugh Floor.

This is a shot of an Adventureland Ticket Booth. What is strange is that, according to the video, the kids entered Tommorrowland to get to this booth in order to get tickets to a John Schneider concert being held at the Magic Kingdom.

Widen Your World has a fantastic Adventureland page.

To the south, an original Magic Kingdom ticket booth operated until 1980. It later became a merchandise outlet called the Adventureland Kiosk until 1985, when it was renamed Bwana Bob's - a reference to Bob Hope, the hilariously unfunny man who made a safari-themed film entitled "Call Me Bwana" in 1963 and also presided over some of the WDW opening ceremonies in 1971.

Look closely and you can see some great details of Adventureland: the trash can, cement planter/benches, the archways and details on the building behind the wildlife (the tree...not Dana Plato).

Ricky and Dean, posing as your typical 1982 son and father pairing, take on one of Walt Disney World's golf courses. Notice the Fairway Villas in the background. Foxxfur, from Passport to Dreams Old & New has compiled the most comprehensive information about the Lake Buena Vista area. She posted an amazing four-part article at 2719 Hyperion detailing the growth, changes and oddities.

And Disney was building again in Lake Buena Vista – this time to the West of the Lake Buena Vista Club, East of the Treehouse Villas, nestled comfortably between four golf holes – the 10th and 11th to the east and north, and the 17th and 18th to the west and south. Because of this, these became known as the “Fairway Villas”. Lake Buena Vista Story, Part Two (Foxx has posted some stellar images of the Villas in this post.)

I urge you to spend some time ingesting all of Foxx's articles. There will be a test on Monday!

Buena Vista Obscura Index

The Golf Resort

Lake Buena Vista: Part One

Lake Buena Vista: Part Two

Lake Buena Vista: Part Three

Lake Buena Vista: Part Four

Video Theme Parkeology

Michael Crawford alerted the world to a video on the Progress City Public TV Youtube channel. Much to his chagrin, the world did not stop turning...

But the Deeks of the world stood up and raised their collective fists in triumph! This four-part special celebrates the Tencennial of Walt Disney World and features a bevy of B-, C- and D-list celebrities performing strange musical numbers. The real star of the show is the ten year-old Walt Disney World, herself. I spent some time getting some screen captures to do a little Theme Parkeology.

This first clip is just a nice shot of the family making their way to Contemporary. Notice the awesome traffic cones on the right. I wish the monorail was a littler clearer since it is the original Mark IV that ran from opening until 1989.

Pay attention to the use of the Contemporary logo above the door. Also, that is Michael Keaton in orange. Interestingly, Keaton was 31 when this was taped and was portraying a pre-21 year-old suitor to a 16 year-old Dana Plato. Set creepy to MAXIMUM!

A shot of Discovery Island and River Country. Notice the cars in the parking lot and the huge number of watercraft plying the waters of Bay Lake.

I pulled this shot because of Timothy Q. Mouse on top of the silver/mirrored globe and the blue arms holding the flying elephants.

Look! A festooned Empress Lilly. Notice the gangway leading from the upper dock. Also, you get a great view of the Village in its pre-Eisner glory. Captain Jack's is jutting out into the lagoon. Above the Lilly's pilot house is the Village Restaurant (which would become Chef Mickey's and ultimately, the Rainforest Cafe).

Check out Foxxfur's great list of the restaurants and shops of the Village at Passport to Dreams.

The following two images show the large field where Splash Mountain would be someday.

The pathway in the bottom-right leads to the original Frontierland Railroad Station.

Everyone loves the water bridge! This image shows one of the older Disney buses and the Southern Seas side-wheeler.

Our last shot for this post is of the Parking Entrance for the TTC. If you watch this quick segment of the videoclip you can see one of the amazing castmember outfits from the day.

Special thanks to Progress City USA, Widen Your World, Passport to Dreams and the Main Street Gazette for providing excellent background material for this post.

Dump Your Kids on Us!

--From the October, 1978 WDW News.

The graphic caught my eye first. Then, I noticed the amazing hours at the Contemporary! You can drop off your toilet trained kids at the Contemporary Resort child-care all day, while you enjoy the Magic Kingdom, Treasure Island and the World Cruise . While you're at it, be sure to visit the Top of the World or any of the fine dining at the Disney Village. If you leave the kids at the Polynesian Village Resort, you can partake of the atmosphere of Captian Cook's Hideaway!

And not to be too sexist, but it does say "trained child-care hostesses." Nothing screams 1970s like female-only child-care!

A Merry Crew of Ragtag Fuzzie-Wuzzies

The music, magic and creative talents of Michael Jackson. George Lucas, Francis Coppola and the Walt Disney Company are combined in Captain EO, the 17-minute 3-D motion picture space adventure that is being shown at only two locations in the entire universe-at the Magic Eye Theater in Disneyland and at the Journey Into Imagination Theater in Epcot Center. 

Involving a three­-dîmensional process that breaks new ground with technology developed by Eastman Kodak and Walt Disney lmagineering, the space fantasy stars Michael Jackson complete with original songs written, produced and sung by him. The film was produced by George Lucas who made film history with Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Academy Award­winner Francis Coppola of Godfather fame directed Captain E.O. 

During the filmed space journey, Captia EO (Michael Jackson) and his merry crew of ragtag fuzzie-wuzzies and robots with dual personalities crash land on a colorless inhospitable planet where they are confronted by the hideous Black Queen (Anjelica Huston) and her force of ruthless henchmen. 

The colorful new Disney-created characters making up EO’s crew include: Hooter, the dwarf green elephant who sneezes wild musical notes through his flute-like trunk; Fuzzball, the orange-haired space monkey with butterfly wings; the Geex, a golf-encased tow-faced personality with two left feet, one right foot and two shaggy heads; Major Domo whose mirrored silver costume becomes a complete set of drums, traps and string bass played by Fuzzball; Minor Domo with his sparkling purple torso that turns into an electronic synthesizer played by Hooter.

Using the power of music, dance and light to fill the planet with all the shades of the rainbow, the EO crew overcomes the evil witch by turning the white land into a magical world of color and happiness. 

The super-realism of the 3-D, 70mm process makes it seem that Michael Jackson dances right out of the screen and into the theater. Spaceships hover over the audience while lasers shoot past their heads in state­ of-the-art staging.

Captain EO is a world of fantasy, an irresistible musical adventure that is certain to dazzle your senses and have you cheering the film’s every twist and turn.
--Disneyana Collector, page 2 (Fall 1996. Volume 5, Number 2)

George Lucas, Angelica Huston, Francis Coppola, Mouseketeer Annette Funicello, Space Hostess Minnie