Having returned from a research trip to Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, I was really able to take my time in what is my favorite part of the entire resort. I spent a large part of my day on Main Street, USA, and was brought back to my childhood, walking down the street, parents in tow, marveling at the sights, sounds and, yes, the House of Magic.
Therefore, in this installation of my WayBack Machine, I wanted to focus on a time when the Magic Kingdom was still in its infancy and a wonderful, albeit defunct, attraction on Main Street, USA.
(Lou borrows four quarters from his father, pops them into the WayBack Machine’s coin slot, and sets the dials for 1973.)
The sounds of Tony Orlando and the dawn chant “Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round The Ole Oak Tree” are quickly drowned out by the sounds of children’s laughter, train whistles and a ragtime tune played on a distant piano. .
I am on Main Street, USA in the spring of 1973. There is no EPCOT Center. No blizzard beach. Not even in Port Orleans or Grand Floridian. The Magic Kingdom IS Walt Disney World. Well, for now, anyway.
What you CAN find here now is the “Wonderful World of Water” ski show, a new attraction called “Tom Sawyer Island”, and even a “Country and Western Spectacular” show with stars like Anne Murray, Faron Young and Freddy Hart. These mini-concerts will take place in the evenings at Tomorrowland Terrace (you can now find Sonny Eclipse performing there), Diamond Horseshoe (sadly, you can now find an empty building there), and Fantasy Faire (where you can now play in Ariel’s Grotto). .
You can also cruise along the rivers of America in one of Mike Fink’s keelboats, or for the person who just isn’t sweating it out in the Florida heat, you and your family can power your own little canoe on the same body of water thanks to Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes. (no swimming please). Don’t even get me started on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, and Skyway. (Lou wipes away a tear, blames the heat, and moves on)
I’d love to start with a breakfast with some of my favorite characters, but we won’t be seeing anything like that for a while. Speaking of which, where is Holidayland? It’s supposed to be between Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, but hey. And what about Thunder Mesa and the Western River Expedition? So wait, you’re telling me we’re going to get the “Plaza Swan Boats” but NOT Thunder Mesa? O humanity.
Anyway, back to Main Street: this model Victorian-era East Coast town, with architecture and elements found in the late 1800s.
I could literally spend hours (or should I say “pages”) just talking about the shops, both present and defunct, the architecture, the windows, the details and much more, but I’ll have to save that for another trip. . However, what I want to focus on is something that you may not remember very well. Let’s head over to the Main Street Exposition Hall… I mean – The Gulf Hospitality House.
Along with Tom Sawyer Island, it is the newest attraction at Walt Disney World. Located next to the Hospitality House, The Walt Disney Story depicted Walt’s life from his early childhood days in Marceline, Missouri, through the creation of Mickey Mouse and the development of Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
The attraction was staged in a theater built expressly for this film. The film itself was a project that began in June 1969 and was not completed or previewed until March 1973. To accurately tell the life stories of Walt Disney, a team of more than 200 people at Walt Disney Productions studied carefully for 75 hours. from interviews conducted with Walt prior to his untimely death on December 15, 1966, ten days after his 65th birthday. One of the main contributors was Bill Bosche, an artist and producer who worked for Disney for more than 30 years. Taking excerpts from these interviews, Walt Disney posthumously narrated much of his own autobiography.
This 23-minute film would be shown simultaneously at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, with the WDW version being released in April 1973 and opening on May 6 of that same year. It would eventually run until October 5, 1992. Initially, this attraction was unique in that it was, like If You Had Wings, free (as Walt Disney World still used a coupon system for ticket sales). tickets) and was sponsored by Gulf Oil. the same sponsor of the building of the attraction.
The theater was built on the southwest side of the Hospitality House and a separate entrance was even built. Looking at the Main Street Exposition Hall today, the small stairway to the right of the building’s main entrance was originally created for the Walt Disney Story.
Inside the building, the long hallway that made up the queue area was filled with Disney memorabilia, including the one-time Oscar awarded to him by the Academy for the 1937 masterpiece Snow White. Unlike a traditional Oscar statue, this one had seven smaller Oscars next to it. You can also find a scale model of the Nautilus, used in Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. (Until recently, you could have found that same model in the tail of the Living Seas. Whether it will remain when the Nemo-ization of the pavilion is complete is unknown.)
The hallway was filled not only with screens, but also with the sounds of classic songs from Disney movies. At the end of the hall were tickets to two identical 300-seat theaters. Between the two sets of doors was a mural with 170 Disney characters. Up until the mid-1980s, characters from new releases were added to every movie up to Big Mouse Detective. One of these theaters was remodeled and now shows classic Disney cartoons. The door to the other theater (now unused) can be seen at the rear of the Hall.
The film itself took the Guests on a moving journey through Walt’s personal and professional life, concluding with his plans for Disneyland, eventually WDW, and most importantly, EPCOT, the city. The film was presented on a specially designed screen to give guests the impression that they were viewing a virtual scrapbook of Walt’s life. It was presented as a photo album, with rare audio accompanying photos and illustrations.
The post-show area was always in a state of flux. He showed off everything from plans for the WDW expansion to the futuristic EPCOT Center. Most notable was the brief display of the model of one of WDW’s newest projects, the Western River Expedition. In addition to a working model, Hoot Gibson, an audio-animatronic owl, told Guests that he would be the star of the attraction. He also explained some of the AA processes, and was accompanied by an Animatronic storybook, which turned the pages as he told his story.
The Walt Disney Story closed from June 1981 to October 1982 to become the home of the EPCOT Center Preview Center. The original film was replaced by one that more specifically depicted Walt’s dreams of his futuristic city. In October 1982, when the EPCOT Center opened to the public, the Preview Center was removed and the original film was returned.
However, just six years later, The Walt Disney Story was removed yet again, this time to preview Walt Disney World’s third theme park, Disney-MGM Studios. It was aptly renamed “The Disney-MGM Studios Preview Center.” Oh yes, our friend the owl straightened up once more, sat in a director’s chair and narrated this too.
After the studios opened in 1989, The Walt Disney Story returned once more, but closed for good in October 1992. Disney said that the original film had deteriorated so badly that it could no longer be shown in theaters.
The original outing of the film led Guests to the Disneyana Collectibles store, which sadly no longer exists. It can be argued that this shop, with its wonderful collectibles, was the first of the trend of having themed shops at the end of the rides. It had wonderful items like commemorative plaques, original hand-painted animation cels, and several limited edition reproductions. You can also make a reservation for a seat at the Diamond Horseshoe Jamboree while you’re there.
In order to preserve the film and continue to make it available to Visitors in the future, it was released in a greatly abridged version on VHS tape in 1994. Unfortunately, today, the video is not available on DVD, apart from the remaining copies of the 100 Years of Magic DVD, which had a much shorter pan-and-scan version, minus the original opening and ending.
In October 1996, the building that once housed The Walt Disney Story became home to the Walt Disney World 25th Anniversary Welcome Center. Like previous “preview centers”, the building was filled with models and exhibits featuring the Disney Cruise Line and other upcoming projects. The Welcome Center closed in 1997 and the exhibits were removed. It later hosted the “Disney’s Animal Kingdom Welcome Center.”
While the mural is still there at the rear of the theater, most of the original exhibits are long gone. The remaining ones are themed around photography, as the building is now sponsored by Kodak.
(To get a very small taste of what this attraction was like, I recommend taking the time to view the exhibits and film “Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream” at Disney-MGM studios.)
As we prepare to head home (damn my real job), we may see some signs of things to come later this year, like the Plaza Swan Boats cruising the Magic Kingdom’s waterways, the Fort Wilderness Railroad ( get on the boards quick as this won’t last long) and a new attraction called “Pirates of the Caribbean”. Nah, that will never catch on.
On a personal note, I often walk through the Town Square Exposition Hall to reminisce about the previous attraction, see the exhibits, and see what I see on the horizon. It saddens me to see such a wonderful and personal tribute to Walt go by the wayside and the building remain almost empty to all intents and purposes. That being said, I did do some digging, and it looks like something new may be on the horizon for a part of the building… Keep your eyes and ears peeled!
Anyway, I can see at the docks ahead that… oh wait. wrong attraction.
Err… What I meant was that this will work for this installation of my Walt Disney World WayBack Machine. It’s time to go back to the Magic Kingdom of 2006 and enjoy Stitch’s Great… oh, forget it.
So until our next trip together to Walt Disney World, I invite you to learn more about some of the secrets, history, and fun facts about the “Vacation Kingdom of the World” at http://www.DisneyWorldTrivia.com and at the http://www.MouseTunes.com Disney Podcast, recently named Best Travel Podcast of 2006.
Thank you! Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!
The article first appeared in the August 29, 2006 issue of ALL EARS® Weekly Newsletter
For more WDW trivia and fun facts, check out the Walt Disney World quiz book or Ask Lou, where the author answers your questions about Walt Disney World and publishes weekly articles with more details on the history, secrets and the stories.
