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Let’s All Sing Like The Birdies Sing… Again!

My siestas keep getting chorter and chorter…

It began, like so many things, with one little spark…

Although this was not a spark of imagination, but of conflagration. More specifically, a fire that took place this last January in the Magic Kingdom’s Enchanted Tiki Room – Under New Management attraction. Since this was […]

Betty Taylor, 1919-2011

At times, the workings of the cosmos are so peculiar as to be completely inscrutable. And so it is that Betty Taylor, who brought Slue Foot Sue to life for thirty years at Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe Jamboree, passed away within a single day of her fellow performer of over 40,000 shows, Wally Boag.

Taylor debuted […]

To GYRO And GERO In The Wabe

When Epcot Center opened in 1982, Disney characters were famously kept out of the new park. There were the big-headed World Showcase dolls and, of course, Dreamfinder, but no Mickey and Minnie. But with its vast, open areas, Epcot Center needed something happening to enliven the sprawling plazas between the pavilions.

Someone, apparently, also through […]

Examining Epcot – The Germany Showcase

Germany, at a distance

When planners at WED Enterprises were selecting the initial lineup of pavilions for Epcot Center’s World Showcase, they knew that Germany would be included. This decision might seem obvious, considering the nation’s prominence on the world stage, as well as its familiarity to American audiences. Disney’s key reasons for […]

Selling EPCOT – Germany and Hummel

Sponsors were critical to the creation of Epcot Center, and some of the very first corporations to sign on for the park were German companies. One of the earliest was Goebel, who sponsored the Glas und Porzellan shop in the Germany pavilion. It remained an Epcot presence until 2010, when the shop closed to make […]