I think one reason fans of a certain age bristle at the overly-heavy “dreams” and “wishes” slant of modern Disney marketing is that we grew up in a much different age. In the 1980s and before, Disney certainly promoted its “magical” aspects, but it also focused heavily on the real-world wonders behind its films and theme parks. Television specials about the parks tended to boast less about the more fantastic elements of their offerings in lieu of underscoring the ruthless efficiency and technical wizardry with which they were presented.
It wasn’t all about childhood wishes and “limited time magic” before the kiddies grow up; it was about the marvels of Audio-Animatronics, or the wonders of a Swedish pneumatic trash removal system, or futuristic methods of transportation that were emission-free and used no moving parts. Disney relished showing off a highly efficient operation full of expertly-trained individuals who took pride in the elite quality of their offerings. Those smiling cast members didn’t happen by accident; they were the result of years of concerted effort in the science of play. And what happened behind the scenes was at least as extraordinary and impressive as what happened on-stage.
Another aspect of coverage in the 1980s especially was the unexpected and overwhelming flourishing of the Disney empire. Disney was growing by leaps and bounds, expanding its parks to an unprecedented degree, but it was also expanding wildly in the realms of animation, live-action film, television, and consumer products. It had also, at last, finally started to mine its vast archive of material, making long-unseen treasures available on the Disney Channel, network anthology programs, and syndicated broadcasts. It was a golden era for the Disney fan.
You can get a feel for this odd nexus in Disney history by watching this program from 1988. It aired on A&E, and judging from the video, that cable network was just about as different from today as Disney was. This video was an episode of the program Chronicle, a Boston-based newsmagazine that, amazingly, still seems to be in production today.
Take a look, and get a feel of what it was like back when you could just wander the park and have old ladies walk into frame:
Dick Nunis!! I totally let the Nunis part be a surprise. Didn’t want to spoil you. How casually he strides the park, descending stairs and avoiding old ladies!
There’s something quaint about the whole affair, from the vaguely uninformed news anchors to the weirdly inappropriate Oz intro. It certainly was a different era – one-day admission for two adults and one child was $61.50! That’s about 2/3rds of the current price for a single adult. And today you don’t even get old ladies wandering into frame. Another indicator of a bygone age: they actually admit that adults like to come into the park on their own!
There is some great behind-the-scenes footage in this, which you rarely see elsewhere. There’s a look inside the laundry, a brief clip of the pyrolysis energy plant, and a look inside the central shops where they were working on the Monorails. While these are Mark IV monorails we see, this was during a time when they were beginning to roll out the Mark VI trains at Walt Disney World. There’s no mention of the still-under-construction Disney-MGM Studios, and barely a mention of Epcot Center, although we do get the pleasure of a brief interview with Imagineer Kym Murphy!
What’s truly amazing is in the later part of the episode, when they discuss Disney’s move to exploit their back catalog through syndication and the long-beloved Sunday night anthology program. As a kid who grew up with the Disney Sunday Movie and, later, The Magical World of Disney, one can’t help but feel that this is an opportunity that the modern Disney company has failed to exploit. The same could be said for syndicated programming – after all, when a kid grows up watching an hour of vintage Disney programming every day at 5 as I did, it kind of worms its way into your brain after a while.
Some time ago, we wrote about a rather amazing phenomenon from Walt Disney World’s past: the tearoom fashion modeling trend found at Lake Buena Vista in the 1970s. But even before the Lake Buena Vista Village was constructed, these swanky luncheons were taking place at the Polynesian Village Resort.
In August of 1972, The Eyes & Ears of Walt Disney World profiled the resort’s Sign and Pictorial Shop. Located in the North Service Area, near the Magic Kingdom, this shop provided handcrafted signs and artwork for a variety of Walt Disney World facilities. And look what they were working on:
“Supervisor John Rushing (right) tells EYES & EARS, “We carefully check everything that leaves the shop, looking closely for color, workmanship and detail.” John and Pete Naughtin make a few last-minute changes catching details that most eyes wouldn’t even spot!” – Eyes & Ears, 1972
Informal modeling!!
Yes, ladies, you too can witness the latest in island fashions from Polynesian Princess daily from noon ’til two! How much would I love a poster of that sign? So, so much.
Not as much as I’d like this one, though:
“‘A steady hand is something I’ve got to keep,’ says John barnett who must carefully paint English letters – with a Chinese flair no less! John’s sign is a gold leaf display whose center portion is 23 Kt. gold. Lettering takes nearly four hours and if a mistake is made, this is one sign that can’t be thrown out!” – Eyes & Ears, 1972
Why yes, that’s a sign for the Eastern Winds – the fabled Chinese junk once moored at the Polynesian Resort’s dock. As the most exotic craft on the Seven Seas Lagoon, the Eastern Winds provided the perfect locale for late-night cocktail cruises and the most spectacular viewing location for the Electrical Water Pageant or the Fantasy in the Sky Fireworks.
Here, for a little diversion, is a special that aired on the syndicated “Wonderful World of Disney” show back in 1986 (although it aired in my market in early January, 1987). It’s Donald Takes A Holiday, a compilation of vacation-themed Donald shorts with a new narration tying them together. There’s no particular historical significance here; it’s just always good to see the Duck in action.
And yeah, I left the commercials in, because they were too good to cut out.
In the frantic rush to open Walt Disney World in October 1971, a variety of “t”s and “i”s were left uncrossed and undotted. These ranged from a nearly empty Tomorrowland to unfinished resort hotels, not to mention a roster of incomplete attractions which were rolled out over subsequent months and years.
This second wave of Magic Kingdom development was the company’s main thrust over the next five years, and led up to the completion of Tomorrowland and Space Mountain. But often lost in the historical shuffle is the fact that, around that same time, the classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea attraction received a massive overhaul. Perhaps it’s not surprising that this rehab has been forgotten, considering that it happened so early in the resort’s lifetime. It’s difficult to find quality documentation of the attraction at all, even from the 1980s and 1990s, and research is almost impossible if you’re depending on snapshots from crummy guest cameras from the first three years of the park’s operation.
But when you think about it, this must have been a critical rehab. After all, 20,000 Leagues was one of the park’s cornerstone E-ticket attractions – it was something featured in almost all of the park’s advertising imagery, and was one of the Magic Kingdom’s key moneymaking shows. Taking it down for a long overhaul so early in the park’s history indicates that it must have been a triage situation. One suspects that this rehab was their first priority once Space Mountain opened to draw off some of the crowds.
Helping guide this remodel was a young Tony Baxter, who has, of course, been in the news lately. His involvement in this project shows an early interest in the Victorian scientific romances that would guide his career through his unrealized masterpiece, Discovery Bay, to the Verne-inspired Discoveryland of Disneyland Paris.
Let’s see what the Eyes & Ears of Walt Disney World had to say about the project, back on December 5, 1975:
Whole New Look For “20K”
Now you’re probably sitting there wondering to yourself… what’s a “20K”? Just ask any veteran Disney employee and they’ll tell you, 20K is our lingo for Fantasyland’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” attraction. A long-time favorite of our guests visiting the Magic Kingdom, the underwater adventure attraction was closed this past September for an extensive rehab, with a re-opening date set for “some time in the Spring of 1976” according to engineers working on it.
EYES & EARS visited the construction site and talked with Calvin Anderson, Superintendent of Project Supervisors for our Planning Department, and Don Mika, the Project Supervisor. Calvin explained that the entire attraction is undergoing a massive rehab, one involving such extensive changes as to almost be re-building the attraction. Don told us that after draining the 12 million gallon lagoon, work began on tearing out much of the old “rock” walls and animation. At the same time, the submarines were sent to the staff shops building a few at a time for rehabing, which is still being carried on at this writing.
Don Mika (l), the Project Supervisor, and Tony Barter (r), WED artist, discuss how highlights and shadows will be painted into the rock formations to add depth as well as beauty.
Then began the task of creating a whole new look of the underwater world of Capt. Nemo for our guests. “There are drastic changes being made in the animation,” Calvin told us. He went on to explain that about 95% of the old animation has been replaced with new, more life-like creations from WED, our design company in California. The old animation, which was water activated, is being replaced by animation which is activated by compressed air. And to keep the water crystal clear, the entire 12 million gallon lagoon is being converted to a closed filter system, like a swimming pool. Before, we continually pumped fresh water into the lagoon and let it run out the other side to keep it dear. Calvin said that to his knowledge, 20K will be the largest self-contained “swimming pool” in the world.
The west wall of 20K as it now looks. The first step was to rip out all of the old “rock” and animation and then begin the task of constructing new rock formations and installing all new animation.
One part of the extensive rehab is the addition of new underwater rock formations on the west wall. These rocks are not being formed at random by the construction personnel, but were designed by WED artist Tony Baxter. He first sculpted a model of the rocks in clay, then cast a mold in plaster of paris for use on the construction site.
Tony Barter first built plaster models of the rock formations being constructed on the west wall to guide the workmen. Pictured here are Mike Kopach (foreground), Louis Chancey (center) and Ervin Rouse (back) studying one portion of the model in preparation to welding iron rods into place for the real thing.
Using the models as a guide, Walt Disney World builders set about making the basic framework out of angle iron and reinforcing steel rods. Then a skin of metal mesh screen is attached over the framework and painted for protection. Next comes the spreading of cement stucco over the screen much like peanut butter on bread, then it’s given a rock-like texture. The “rocks” are then painted their basic color. Special effects painting is applied under the direction of Tony and Skip Lange, also from WED, giving the rocks highlights and shadows. The final touch comes with the addition of aquatic plant life and the new animation.
The first step in forming the new rock is to bend iron rods into the general shape desired. Then a steel mesh is attached to the rods. A cement stucco is then spread over the mesh to give the rock-like appearance. Above are Thomas Bothell (top, left), Leo Waldon (top, right) and Jack Tomes (bottom) attaching mesh over the rods.
After the rock walls are formed, then come “coral” formations and other aquatic life. Pictured here are George Lake (l) and Roy Hough (r) cleaning up a coral head just prior to painting.
There is still a lot of work to go and our creators in the construction field will be continuing through this coming Spring. Then with the addition of 12 million gallons of water, 20K will once again be entertaining millions of our guests. Watch EYES & EARS for construction updates as the work progresses.
One thing that’s interesting about all this is how it presages many of the techniques that WDI continues to use today. This marks the transition from construction workers just free-handing the creation of rocks from concrete to the modern technique of using custom-sculpted rebar sections based on artist-created models. Nowadays it’s done with computers, but the theory is still similar to the techniques Tony and others were pioneering then.
It’s also amazing to think that the lagoon at the time was an open system, just cycling freshwater through. No wonder it needed a rehab!
Engine 275, a Baldwin 4-6-0, en route from the Yucatan to Tampa, where it was refit and restored to become the Walt Disney World Railroad’s “Roger E. Broggie”
When Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom was being designed, Imagineers had to seek out steam locomotives to power the park’s new Railroad. In early 1969, two of Disney’s in-house train specialists, Roger Broggie and Earl Vilmer, traveled to Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula in search of antique engines. The Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán (United Railways of Yucatan) was divesting all of its old steam engines as they began to upgrade to diesel stock, and the Disney men wound up purchasing five locomotives and an array of spare parts and other cast-offs.
The well-worn engines were shipped by train – very meta – across the continent to Tampa, Florida. There, at the Tampa Ship Repair and Dry Dock Company, they were extensively restored and retrofitted to bring them up to Disney show standards.
Above and below are two rare pictures of the locomotives en route from the Yucatan to Florida. As you can see, they were hardly the showpieces they are today. Above is engine 275, a 4-6-0 model built by Pennsylvania’s Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1925. Today park guests know it as the Roger E. Broggie, named for the Imagineer who purchased it in 1969. Ironically, the Roger E. Broggie bears the serial number 58445; this shows it was built consecutively with another Disney engine, the Walter E. Disney, which is serial number 58444. Still in operation in the Magic Kingdom today, the two trains once sat on Baldwin’s production floor way back in 1925; both 4-6-0 designs, they are essentially “twins”.
The five Disney locomotives en route from the Yucatan to Tampa, 1969
Here we see all five Disney locomotives as they were arranged for transport. From the front of the train we have the Lilly Belle, a 2-6-0 Mogul built by Baldwin in 1928; the Roger E. Broggie; the Walter E. Disney (Engine 274); and the Roy O. Disney (Engine 251), a 4-4-0 American built by Baldwin in 1916. The final train, the one in the picture’s foreground, was a fifth engine that the Disney men bought for $750. It had apparently been junked, but perhaps Broggie thought it could be salvaged.
This mysterious fifth engine was a 2-6-0 Mogul, like the Lilly Belle; it had been built in 1902 by the Pittsburgh Locomotive Works. Unfortunately, the locomotive proved to be too far gone to warrant restoration, and it was later sold off to an outside party.
From the Progress City archives comes this collection of 33 tall tales and true from Disney history. Available in paperback, hardback, and ebook formats.
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