Did You Know?
I think one of the most fascinating aspects of life is that you never know what’s coming around the next corner or that every day you find yourself discovering something you never knew beforehand.
Having said that here are some tidbits that I recently came across which you may never had known about the world of Disney….or as the title says….Did You Know?
Florida but Not Ocean Front Florida
Did you know…
…Walt Disney once discovered that the majority of people living in the United States lived East of the Mississippi? Thus, he decided he needed to build an East Coast version of Disneyland. The location came down to either St. Louis or Florida and once Walt was insulted by August Busch Florida won out. But what many people do not know is that there was a very specific reason why Walt and his team chose to build in central Florida and not along the Eastern seaboard.
Walt Disney squashed any ideas of building near the Atlantic ocean because he wanted access to his “East Coast Disneyland” to come from all angles and putting his project near the ocean would limit customer access. I would also think that perhaps it was also a financial decision as you would expect scoffing up areas near the water would come at a high cost if availability was there in the first place.
Space Mountain: The Inside Out Attraction
Did you know…
…that there was a specific reason why Space Mountain looks like it is inside out with the beams on the outside instead of the inside? When Walt first envisioned the first ever inside roller coaster attraction in 1965 (before indoor roller coaster technology was available) he wanted the guests to see flashes of comets and shooting stars during the ride and thus needed a smooth service for those images
The imagineers (actually the engineers) figured out a way to meet is need by placing the “ribs/beams” on the outside of the structure. Problem solved.
October 1, 1971
Did you know…
…that the chosen opening date for walt Disney World was no accident? Having some leftover aches and pains from Disneyland’s opening those in charge who remembered that day decided to do whatever could be done to avoid similar opening day issues. The plan was to open during the week when the kids were in school. The October date was also decided to avoid the summer heat and humidity.
Opening day was Friday, October 1, 1971. In my mind who wouldn’t expect parents keep their children out of school on a Friday to attend the opening? Maybe opening up in the middle of the week would have been a better choice.
The opening day had only the Magic Kingdom Park, along with the Contemporary Resort and Polynesian Village Resort.
If you’re wondering, the cost for adults was a whopping $3.50…just a shade under what it costs today…LOL.
The “Weenie” Concept
Did you know…
…how the “Weenie Concept” is constantly in the minds of the imagineers? In Disney lore the “Weenie” was the component that would draw guests to various parts of the park….just as Walt Disney would draw his dog to him at night after a long day by waving a “weenie dog” in front of man’s best friend.
Using this concept it was decided that the “weenie” for EPCOT’s World Showcase would be the American Adventure pavilion.
One of the earlier designs for EPCOT had this pavilion at the front of World Showcase. After some discussion, however, it was felt that the pavilion should be placed at the center of World Showcase thus implying that the USA was acting as a host for the other countries….sort of like a certain deity served as host at what is famously known as “The Last Supper.”
The World Showcase that Wasn’t
Did you know…
…that EPCOT’s World Showcase could have been much bigger than it is today? There are 11 pavilions in EPCOT’s World Showcase part of EPCOT but there could have been more. When the concept of World Showcase was first decided there really was no determined number of pavilions to build in that part of EPCOT. A suitable analogy regarding who and how many would be built would be similar to casting a number of fishing lines into the water and see how may “bites” would surface.
The Disney company reached out to many countries with offers but not all responded with open arms. Among those who were sent invitations included Africa, Denmark, Switzerland, Israel, and oops…Iran to see if they had interest and obviously money to help. For various reasons (one would guess mostly financial) those countries graciously turned down the offer. Imagine how much bigger EPCOT would have been had several more than we see today had taken Disney up on its offer.
Having said that there was a rumor some 20 or so years ago that Australia was approached with an invitation to build a pavilion in World Showcase. I know you are wondering where such a pavilion would have been built. It would have most likely be built to the right on the China pavilion in that corner of World Showcase and according to some people if Australia were to say “let’s do it” the plan would have been to build something akin to the Sydney Opera House on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour, Australia. The question is, would such a pavilion be required to be partially built over the World Showcase Lagoon water? Makes you think doesn’t it?
To this day there is a possibility that in the future there may be a 12th pavilion added to World Showcase and it would reside in that area.
The EPCOT Entrance that Wasn’t
Did you know…
…the originally planned entrance to EPCOT was not where it is today? Instead the originally proposed entrance was to be placed between Future World and World Showcase. This placement was nixed by Card Walker who was President, Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company at that time.
When shown this plan Walker donned his marketing cap and said, “There’s no way we can do this!” He went on to say, “When our guests enter and exit through Future World, our corporate sponsors get two shots at them—coming in, and going out.” He went on to say that with the proposed central entrance “…guests may pass the Future World pavilions only once—-or not at all! I’m not going back to Roger Smith or Cliff Garvin (Exxon’s chairman at the time) with this plan—the entrance stays at Spaceship Earth!”
Well it does make you think how the entrance would have looked if it had been placed between the two areas.
The Thirteen Year Musical Drought
Did you know…
…that at one point original musical compositions were not a part of Disney parks for an extended period of time? For most of us we associate certain areas or attractions within either the East Coast or West Coast Disney parks with some musical piece. Disneyland opened up with no original songs but instead, utilized those derived from Disney films.
The first original song for a Disney park came from the Sherman brothers when in 1963 they wrote "The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room" for Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room in Disneyland.
The Sherman brothers then went on to write a few songs for the 1964 New York World’s Fair. They wrote songs for both The Carousel of Progress (“There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow”) and the It’s a Small World (“It’s a Small World After All”) attractions.
In 1967 “Yo Ho, A Pirate’s Life For Me” was written for the Pirates of the Caribbean. The music was written by George Bruns, with lyrics by Xavier Atencio (shown below)
in 1969 “Grim grinning Ghosts” was written for the Haunted Mansion (Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion) by Buddy Baker, with lyrics also written by X Atencio.
Then come the drought…no original songs were written for thirteen years.
There was a need for songs for EPCOT and once again the Sherman brothers answered the call. Only longtime visitors to EPCOT would know these songs. Do you remember “One Little Spark” and “Magic Jouneys” from the Imagination pavilion? Then there was “Listen to the Land” written by Bob Moline for the Land pavilion as well as “Canada (“You’re a Lifetime Journey”) for the Canada Pavilion, “Energy You Make the World Go ‘Round” for the Universe of Energy and of course the collaboration with Randy Bright for “Golden Dream” for the American Adventure.
Since then we have not had a musical drought now have we?
11 Pavilions…11 Builders
Did you know…
…I thought I was finished with this article until I came across this last gem?
I do not know why but for some reason, according to several sources, the 11 World Showcase pavilions were build by 11 different architectural firms. The Disney imagineers created the basic designs for each pavilion and these designs were turned over to various architectural firms who completed the drawings…so each pavilion had its own private architectural and engineering firm.
Why?
That’s a good question. My only thought is that the pace for building World Showcase would be at its quickest if each pavilion had a dedicated architectural firm to get the job done.
Thoughts?
See you next time.