Missing The Osborne Lights
Every year around this time it hits me.
I miss the Osborne Lights.
I am guessing that there is a healthy number of you listening who have experienced what was known as the Osborne Spectacle of Dancing Lights that was part of Disney’s Hollywood Studios for many years during the Christmas Holidays. To be surrounded by millions of lights as well as being surrounded with the songs of Christmas and snow falling in Florida no less…. well, I truly miss it and to this day I wonder if we would still have the lights and songs and snow with us had Hollywood Studios been built with a larger footprint.
When I mention The Osborne lights to those who have never experienced it, I’ll usually point them to a YouTube video, but the video does not do it justice. Then I tell the story of how this holiday spectacular made it to Walt Disney World.
I know Walt has always said “It All Started with a Mouse,” but the story I am about to tell you started with a man.
His name was William Jennings Bryan Osborne Jr.
William Jennings Bryan Osborne Jr. was born on September 21, 1943, in Fort Smith, Sebastian County, Arkansas. He graduated from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, with a B.A. in business and a minor in biology. Early on Osborne worked for several hospitals, including St. Edward's in Fort Smith and St. Vincent's in Little Rock.
It was in 1968 when Osborne and his wife Mitzi founded the Arkansas Research Medical Testing Center, located in Little Rock, Arkansas. The company specialized in conducting clinical drug trials required for FDA approval.
This business became very successful and gave Osborne and his wife the opportunity in 1975 to purchase a huge estate in the middle of town. In 1980 they welcomed a daughter into their live. They named her Allison Brianne Osborne…and nicknamed her Breezy.
A Daughter’s Wish
In 1986, at the tender age of six, Breezy asked her father if they could decorate their home in lights for Christmas. So, to please his daughter Osborne strung 1000 lights around their home.
As the years passed, he decided to add more and more lights.
You can imagine that as the years went on the displays would grow and grow and by 1993, which was just seven years after his first year decorating his estate with a simple display, he was now featuring over three million lights.
If any of you have ever seen the Osborne lights you would remember such sights as an illuminated globe, rotating carousels of lights, huge Christmas trees of lights (I’ve been told 80,000 lights on the largest of those trees; the 70-footer) and of course the famous canopy of lights.
As you can imagine his Christmas lights display became very popular. How many of you drive around your neighborhood to marvel at your neighbor’s Christmas displays? Well, the lights were extremely popular in both in Arkansas and around the world.
Once news crews came to film and report on his displays word got out and everyone and his brother was visiting the Osborne Christmas displays. That presented a problem because you see the Osborne’s property was located on one of the busiest streets in Little Rock, and all the attention eventually caused severe traffic issues, and many complaints from his neighbors.
The Lawsuit
By 1993, the display was lit for 35 days during the Christmas season. The lights were turned on from sunset to Midnight. His neighbors filed a lawsuit, saying traffic congestion made what should have been simple and short trips to the corner store become more like a two-hour journey. Another argument claimed that emergency vehicles could not get down the street. William Jennings Osborne was not happy with this lawsuit. As a result of the lawsuit Osborne added three million more lights.
The county court ordered an injunction against the display. The injunction ordered that the display be limited to being lit for only 15 days and the time of the lighting was to be limited from 7:00 PM to 10:30 PM.
Not happy about this Osborne appealed first to the Arkansas Supreme Court and lost, then in 1994 to the United States Supreme Court, where Justice Clarence Thomas refused to halt the order. Thomas shot down Osborne’s claim that his “religious freedom” was being violated. (Maybe Osborne should have offered Thomas a free trip somewhere or bought Thomas’ mother’s house for her.) Things got even worse for Osborne in 1995, when the Arkansas State Supreme Court ordered him to completely shut down.
Walt Disney World Comes A Calling
So how did the Osborne lights make their way to Disney/MGM Studios in Orlando?
Well, as this story of the Arkansas Osborne Lights case captured national attention, Osborne was approached by several cities offering to host his display…and then the Walt Disney Company came a calling.
John Phelan, who at that time was a Project Director for Walt Disney World, contacted Osborne’s attorney to discuss the possibility of moving the display to Orlando. The attorney put Phelan in direct contact with William Jennings Osborne.
Here’s a funny and interesting sidebar to tell you about this offer. Osborne was told that the company wanted to display the lights on Residential Street. Osborne thought they meant a residential street in Orlando as he was not aware of Residential Street which was a backlot section of the Disney MGM Studios theme park.
Currently at that time there were already a series of more than 700 feet of house facades on Residential Street on the backlot that could be used as the framework for the decorations, as well as extending it onto Washington Square and New York Street.
If you remember Residential Street, it had a line of facades that were used in TV shows, commercials, and movies.
The homes on this street made appearances in such films as “Splash Too” and “Ernest Saves Christmas,” but the most recognizable ones from Residential Street belonged the family from “Empty Nest” and the ladies from the “Golden Girls.”
In 1995, the display was set up on Residential Street as "The Osborne Family Festival of Lights," and it became hugely popular.
Residential Street was visited using the Studio Backlot Tour's tram vehicles. However, these vehicles would not bring guests down Residential Street to see these displays during the Christmas holiday season. Tram tours ran until sunset and after sunset guests would walk down Residential Street to marvel at the display.
Although the initial presentation of the display offered the original lights from the Osborne estate the folks at Disney decided to build upon this each year. Soon the numbers climbed to over five million lights. Then came to idea to include some Hidden Mickeys within the lights.
I recall that in 2007 there were over 40 Hidden Mickeys in the display.
If you are keeping score by then the display was made up of over 10 miles of rope lighting connected by another 30 miles of extension cords. The extension cords and lights were held together using two million ties. It took 20,000 man-hours to install the display each holiday season, starting in late August/early September. The lights were usually tuned on in mid-November and ran through the first week in January.
I know this work started in August because during one August visit I saw the beginnings of the light stringing.
Goodbye Residential Street; Hello New York Street
When the park began constructing the lights! Motors! Action! Extreme Stunt Show! in 2004, part of the attraction would swallow up Residential Street.
The Osborne Lights needed a new home, so the decision was made to move the display to what was then known as the New York Street Set.
This move gave the show directors more space for more lights and would allow them to use snow machines on the rooftops and make use of over 100 gallons of fluid to make it “snow” in Orlando, Florida
2005, Sylvania became the presenting sponsor of the lights, as part of parent company Siemens's long-term sponsorship deal with the Walt Disney Company's theme parks, which also included the Spaceship Earth and Illuminations: Reflections of Earth attractions at Epcot.
Each year the resort looked to tweak the display from the previous year.
In 2006, 1500 dimmer switches were added to the display. This allowed the lights to “dance” to various Christmas and holiday songs, including “Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12-24)” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and” Feliz Navidad” by José Feliciano.
The display was then rechristened “The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights.”
Whenever a choreographed song was played the lights "danced" to the music. After each performance, the lights remained steady for about seven minutes before "dancing" again to another selection; other holiday selections play during the intermissions, along with recorded "live" segments from a fictional radio station (with Arnie and Anne) and visits from Disney characters. The dancing segments cycled roughly every 40–60 minutes.
Tweaking continued for the next several years, but the huge change came in 2011 the year William Jennings Osborne passed away.
That year all the lights were swapped out for LED lights including all the rope lights.
A new entertainment lighting system was installed and the whole show was upgraded.
The show team decided this was also a good time to do something they had been wanting to do for years…. upgrade the canopy.
The canopy was all red but now with special LEDs allowing each light to have controllable Red, Green, and blue LEDS. This allowed the engineers to play with the canopy and sort of give it a video touch to the tune of almost 22000 pixels and over 16 million colors.
By 2013 the Osborne lights had Siemens replaced Sylvania as sponsor.
Something called the “Frozen Holiday Premium Package” was offered to guests in 2014. This package themed around a little movie called “Frozen” offered reserved viewing of the lights.
The 2015 holiday season would be the final season for the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights.
In September of 2015, Disney announced that the upcoming holiday season would be the final one for the Osborne lights, as the entire Streets of America section of Hollywood Studios was set to be removed as part of the preparation for the land that eventually became Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
The final performance was scheduled for January 3, 2016, but On January 3, 2016, it was announced the final season would be extended by 3 more nights. If you are interested, here is the official Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights playlist.
Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12-24) by Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Jingle Bells by Barbra Streisand
A Mad Russian’s Christmas by Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano
Here Comes Santa Claus by Elvis Presley
Parade of the Wooden soldiers by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra
Nuttin’ for Christmas by the Plain White T’s
Christmas is Starting Now by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Winter Wonderland (Original arrangement by Dan Stamper)
What’s This? by Danny Elfman (from Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas”)
On the final performance rescheduled for January 6, 2016, the final songs the lights danced to were "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "Mickey Mouse Club Alma Mater".
The Streets of America area was permanently closed to guests on April 2, 2016.
Most of the Osborne Lights have been donated by Walt Disney World to the Give Kids the World Village for their "Night of a Million Lights" event to raise money for the village to host wishes and guests.
This story illustrates how a simple gesture by one person can impact millions for generations.
William Jennings Osborne’s desire to bring a smile to his young daughter at Christmas time has resulted in bringing smiles to many children over the years including yours truly.
I miss the Osborne lights.
See you next time.