It’s been quite a week… quite a month… quite a year… pretty much all around the world. So why not let’s escape all that – escape through space and time to a magical place called 1994. When the world was new.
Yes, it’s time for a new episode of Walt Disney World Inside Out, this time giving us a bit of Halloween in July and some spooky surprises. Let’s take a trip through the Magic Kingdom, Epcot ’95 (oh yes), and the Disney-MGM Studios to see what’s up at Walt Disney World circa October 1994.
Stops include the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Pleasure Island’s Comedy Warehouse, and the Norway Pavilion for a trip aboard the Maelstrom. There’s even a rare glimpse of the short-lived Walt Disney Imagineering Labs inside Innoventions. All that plus the usual Video Toaster-and-zydeco madness of the mid-90s. And if you get bored, try Googling the names of all the random kids that our intrepid host interviews throughout the show. Enjoy!
Post-mortem: Note that the show continued the 1994-era trope of being a lying lying liar about the nature of the Tower of Terror. I’m sure we’ve raged before here about how the promo videos of the time always showed a bunch of Blossom-behatted 90s kids standing up inside a falling elevator, and they do it again here. They also manage to fit in the other 90s WDW video trope, misusing footage from Paris’s Phantom Manor as if it was from Haunted Mansion.
It was nice to get a glimpse of the Magic Kingdom’s late lamented House of Magic, though. And is there anything more Eisner-era perfect than a costume lineup of Mighty Ducks, Golden Girls, Pretty Woman, and Sister Act? And, of course a promo for Planet Hollywood. Because muscles!
We live in something of a renaissance for Disney history publishing, and I was beyond ecstatic to see a new title pop up on Twitter this morning. From the masterful art publisher Taschen comes The Walt Disney Film Archives: The Animated Movies 1921-1968, a sprawling (624 pages!!) collection of artwork and historical text from deep within the Disney Archives. I’ve been dying for Taschen to do a Disney collection for years, so it’s amazing to see it finally happen.
On his site, Didier Ghez reveals more about the content of the book and the august collection of historians who have contributed. It’s quite the lineup, to be sure, and guarantees that there will be things found here that have never been seen before. One can only hope that Taschen will continue the project with a volume about the Walt Disney Theme Park Archives.
I’m thrilled to announce that after more than a year of work, The Progress City Primer is now available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook from a variety of booksellers. At 340 pages, the book contains 33 stories covering the full span of Disney history from Walt’s time until today.
The book is currently available on Lulu, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble, but as it continues to make its way onto other online retailers I’ll add those links to the book’s official site – progresscityprimer.com. You can even read a preview of the book thanks to Google Books.
Of course I’d like to thank all the Kickstarter backers who made this project possible – your help is much appreciated, and I hope everyone who contributed enjoys the final product. And for those of you just coming across the project, I hope you’ll take a look!
EDITED TO ADD: I feel terribly guilty to have forgotten this – if you have a favorite local bookseller, they can order the Primer through their wholeseller with the ISBN 978-0986205064. So please support your local book shop!
Today marks the 40th anniversary of Walt Disney World’s Space Mountain, and here, courtesy of Tom Morris, is part of the attraction’s first queue safety spiel. It features Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper who, let’s just say, was a heck of a pilot but possibly not ready for prime time as an actor.
It’s the 4th of July in Progress City, and that means pageantry!
So here’s some pageantry.
It’s the thrilling dedication of the American Adventure at Epcot, which took place on October 11th, 1982. Thrill to the oratory of Card Walker! And the pavilion’s two sponsors, American Express CEO/Chairman Jim Robinson and Coca-Cola President Don Keough. All introduced by the 1982 Walt Disney World Ambassador Jeanne Thiele.
Each of the World Showcase pavilions had a dedication much like this, with some sort of musical performance and choreographed dance number. They usually also featured an appearance by the pavilion’s major sponsor. The entire month of October was filled with these events; everything in Epcot got one, with VIP cocktail parties and other hobnobbing opportunities.
So strike up the band and celebrate America 1980s-style!
From the Progress City archives comes this collection of 33 tall tales and true from Disney history. Available in paperback, hardback, and ebook formats.
Recent Comments