D23 Destination D: Attraction Rewind - Orlando, FL Nov. 22-23, 2014
Sorry these notes are coming so late after the fact. I came to Orlando the night before and stayed for one week after, for what was truly one of the best trips I've ever done. Got to meet, and reunite with, so many great friends I've come to know all through the Disney scene.
Here are the notes I took throughout the different panels:
Welcome to the World's Fair
1964-65 World's Fair built on the same site as the 1939-40 Fair
Rules restricted countries from participating, lest they not be allowed to host in the future. As a workaround, international pavilions were instead sponsored by corporations from those respective nations.
The line for Progressland was so long, they had to build an awning-covered walkway later dubbed "Progress Lane."
Walt Disney: A Giant at the World's Fair
Belgium waffles are not actually from Belgium; the creators are named Belle and Jim (Belle-Jim waffles)
"You're always pushing my buttons" - Marty Sklar, to Bob Gurr
Magic Skyway: The queue line had miniatures of different countries, featuring Fords manufactured in those respective nations; this area was called the International Gardens. The queue also featured a Rolly Crump creation, an orchestra of car parts.
Progressland: had the first "wait time" sign for a Disney attraction.
it's a small world: Richard M. Sherman's first time riding it, the sound broke, so he and his brother Robert sang the song for the other guests for the rest of the voyage.
Mr. Sherman recorded a video interview especially for the Destination D event; after it was screened, Marty said, "Well, Bob [Gurr] and I can't top that, so we're leaving."
Disney Music Magic at the New York World's Fair
it's a small world was advertised as a very "Disneyland" experience
Magic Skyway queue line had specific music for each miniature. Given the short prep time, though, many of the musical themes were from other Disney films (or, in some cases, were adapted for future movies).
Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln
Presented by Michael Kelley and Jack Gladish
Original idea was a 5-screen attraction called "One Nation Under God," culminating with Lincoln's speech
Originated from the Liberty Street idea
Later developed into a journey around the world
Final concept was to feature dinosaurs
A pre-recorded soundtrack played within the cars, which had to coordinate with expected timing of each show scene
The show was too big to bring it all back to Disneyland
Walt had offered Ford the chance to open it first at Disneyland, to work out the kinks, before its opening at the World's Fair
Edison Square concept was to show change-over-time technology. As a walk-through across many scenes, though, it had to be meticulously timed to accomodate the flow of guests. It would have started around 1900 (Edison inventing the lightbulb) and move through the decades, ultimately in the home.
Blaine Gibson would model characters after real people he'd seen at restaurants, church, etc.
"John [Hench] was the greatest travel companion because he was always reading the stewardesses' palms." - Marty Sklar
At time of the premiere, many guests lived in homes not originally designed for electricity. GE Medallion Homes were a new product, intended for electric power.
The attraction moved from Disneyland to the Magic Kingdom because GE wanted to reach an east coast audience again.
Show was given the Pepsi greenlight from none other than Joan Crawford!
Lost on the Way to the World's Fair
Fantasia artwork was featured in Coke festoons (the artwork in the back of the machine)
"One Hour in Wonderland" special was sponsored by Coca-Cola
Walt offered preferential treatment to sponsors who had leased at Disneyland (like Coke), when developing attractions for the World's Fair
Tiki Room was already open at Disneyland, so a new version was developed for Coke at the World's Fair: Legends of the Enchanted Islands. They declined due to costs. Their pavilion, without Disney involvement, debuted new sodas with a tour of the world across different show scenes.
The plans for the attraction were to feature a traditional theater setting (instead of in the round, like at Disneyland), with a curtain of water fountains. The curtain would drop to reveal a tiki hut with birds, all surrounded by lush rainforest. Flowers and tikis would emerge from the plants to sing. The show's climax built up to a volcano eruption and a storm beginning. As the show ended, the storm cleared and a rainbow appeared.
Ramsey Avery, Supervising Art Director
Showed a clip of a young boy at the World's Fair, with shots at the IBM Probability Display, GM's Futurama, and it's a small world.
Surprise screening of Magic Journeys - fantastically far out!
Disneyland: Fond Memories of the Past
The Enchanted Snow Palace attraction designed by Marc Davis. Video slideshow with music.
Becky Cline & Stacia Martin hosted
Special Disneyland-themed Little Golden Books
Babes in Toyland exhibit: Rolly Crump had worked on the movie sets, which were brought to Disneyland - his first work featured in the parks. The trees in the Forest of No Return had actors inside and would come after you.
The Opera House then became the Mickey Mouse Club Headquarters. Local lead Mousketeer Ginny also voiced Girl Squirrel in The Sword and the Stone and the Tiki Room goddesses. Re-broadcast episodes were shot from the Opera House, and footage was shown clearly among the Babes in Toyland sets.
The Flying Saucers (at some point) had beach balls
Lincoln was the first bi-coastal Disney star, since he came to Disneyland in 1965 while the second season of the World's Fair version continued in New York
X Atencio (who wrote the script) also did the voice of Mission Control in Adventure Thru Inner Space
Kaiser Hall of Aluminum had a talking Knight ("I wish I had aluminum in my day!") and Kap (the Kaiser Aluminum Pig).
Tomorrowland Flight Circle located in front of Rocket to the Moon. You could fly your model planes/rockets there.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea exhibit was located around where the Star Trader is today. For the special "Disneyland After Dark," a stage was set up in front of the entrance - it is where Annette sings "Danceannette."
America Sings: A sculpture of Sam Eagle was given away to guests who went on preview day. The official opening was on "Herbie Day" to promote The Love Bug.
Welch's Juice Stand in Fantasyland had a beautiful mural of the Fantasia "Pastoral" scene, in Eyvind Earle's signature style.
Mickey Mouse Club 3D Jamboree also featured the 3D cartoons "Working For Peanuts" and "Melody." This was the first footage many guests had ever seen of the Mouseketeers in color.
The cover art for Annette's single "Indian Giver" was shot in Frontierland
The song "All Aboard the Mine Train" was in an episode called "Disneyland '61," featuring Nature's Wonderland. This was one of the first songs the Sherman Brothers did for Disney.
Tony Baxter and Charlie Ridgway, former Marketing associate
Walt Disney World preview center
In August before opening, they loaded onsite staff onto the Monorail by ladder, then over to the Magic Kingdom where the castle was lit for the first time. They came through the Contemporary as work was still being done, with welding and sparks everywhere.
There was a playful rivalry between the creative team (headed by John Hench) and operations (with Jack Lindquist)
The Hall of Presidents building had air conditioning, so they'd take breaks resting in there
"While San Francisco was doing its thing with the Summer of Love, Disneyland was doing its thing with Adventure Thru Inner Space." - Tony Baxter
Mickey Mouse Revue: weakness in the preshow with dynamic, animated clips from the cartoons, while the Audio-Animatronics could not capture the vibrancy of the hand-drawn counterparts. It was a let-down rather than meeting guests' anticipation.
Horizons: Tony says it should have been inside the Spaceship Earth building, since it serves as a preamble to the rest of EPCOT. It took mundane elements (family, flirting) and placed them within a spectacular setting. There originally were to be four endings, one in the urban city. The panel ended with a big-screen showing of all three completed endings.
Environmental narrative moves through tracking shot, progression, and close-up
In Pete's Silly Sideshow, Minnie Mouse was originally going to be a horse trainer modeled after a dancer in The Three Caballeros
The Discovery Bay Chronicles
A mini-series was developed to introduce guests to this world.
The story: Jason Chandler drilled through Thunder Mesa and uncovered gold. He used the money to fund scientific reserach and exploration, an area which becomes Discovery Bay. Chandler bought an iron boat from Ned Land, and, armed with additional clues, will search for the Nautilus.
Its ties to San Francisco make it a northern counterpart to Frontierland
Entrances from both Frontierland and Fantasyland
The Sailing Ship Columbia would dock there at night
Undersea attraction similar to Carousel of Progress, moving guests and props.
Dining room onboard the Nautilus
Shooter game with fireworks, setting off sparks
Marvolo's gallery of illusions, a Carousel-style ride with short vignettes
Dreamfinder and Figment came from this creative evolution
Marvolo's Balloon Flight over to Dumbo's Circus (another area which never was built)
Tony's senior year college project was a boat ride to lost civilization based on the Island at the Top of the World film
The Hyperion balloon attraction would take guests through northern lights, polar ice caps (polar bears, whale channel), ice crystal labyrinth; whales attack the boat; go to the lost island Astrogard; enter temperate zone, experience arctic storm; then return to station. Tony even read the script for the attraction!
The idea kept getting bigger, eventually its own theme park, with Exotic Ports, Free Port, The Age of Invention
Parts of it still exist today: 20,000 Leagues in Disneyland Paris; Le Visionarium taking Jules Verne to the modern world; Paris's Space Mountain was originally to be called Discovery Mountain
Long Beach park idea, with the island of Volcania (from Verne)
Tokyo DisneySea brought back the Jason Chandler character
An Evolution of Make Believe Made Real
Focus on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
The first Fantasyland forest area which has been developed
Skyleidoscope Show in World Showcase during the mid-1980s. Create a rainbow in the sky above the lagoon. Boats, motorized surfboards, hovercraft, airplanes, dragons. The Dreamfinder wants to make a rainbow, but to make a rainbow you need gumdrops, and gumdrops and dragons are a bad combination. (I couldn't follow!) Tragically, a pilot died in an accident and the show was ended.
EPCOT Daredevil Circus Spectacular, performing around Communicore Fountain. Circus acts on rooftop, courtyards. Elephant manure was also used for EPCOT horticulture.
Spectromagic was created for Magic Kingdom but first sent to Paris. Magic Kingdom, Disneyland, and Tokyo Disneyland all had "last chance" campaigns to see the Electrical Parade, before each one got a new show. (Disneyland got the infamously awful Light Magic.) The strategy for Spectromagic was to make it as different from the Electrical Parade as possible, by switching several key elements like musical structure, instrumentation, light technology, and design.
