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Disney - Points of Light 9/30/91 [OA 8329] [2]
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323153559
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Disney - Points of Light 9/30/91 [OA 8329] [2]
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Records of the White House Office of Speechwriting (George H. W. Bush Administration)
Speech Backup Chronological Files
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S
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This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
Library Staff.
Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
Collection/Office of Origin:
Speechwriting, White House Office of
Series:
Speech File Backup Files
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Chron File, 1989-1993
OA/ID Number:
13773
Folder ID Number:
13773-009
Folder Title:
Disney - Points of Light 9/30/91 [OA 8329][ [2]
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as
Walt
isney World
/
NEWS
Press & Publicity Department P.O. Box 10,000 Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-1000 (407) 824-4531
WORLD SHOWCASE PRESENTS SWEEPING SPECTACLE OF NATIONS
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- If Future World's look of tomorrow is the heart
of Epcot Center, then World Showcase -- with its kaleidoscope of international
experiences -- is surely its soul.
A community of nations in miniature -- focusing on cultures, traditions
and accomplishments of people from around the globe --- World Showcase is the
only permanent exposition of its kind anywhere.
Awaiting visitors are exotic cuisine, entertainment, artisans and scenic
wonders of 11 countries -- Canada, The United Kingdom, France, Japan, Italy,
Germany, China, Mexico, Morocco, American Adventure -- and the newest addition
to this international community, Norway, Gateway to Scandinavia.
Bordering a 41 acre lagoon beyond Future World, the countries of World
Showcase are re-creations of landmark architectures and historic scenes
familiar to world travelers. The mini-towns have buildings, streets, gardens
and monuments designed to give Epcot Center guests an authentic visual
experience of each land.
Even a casual afternoon's walk will allow guests time for viewing the
natural and man-made wonders represented by the dramatic pavilions, from the
rugged grandeur of Canada to a boat ride through three eras of Mexico, with
visits along the way to Renaissance Italy, a delicate Japanese garden and
teahouse or a German platz where Oktoberfest is in session.
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And every visitor will want to sample the heather-and-ale mood of an
English town, with its shops and pubs spanning centuries of architecture, from
quaint thatched-roof cottages to Victorian elegance.
A must stop is The American Adventure, a 108,000-square-foot,
Georgian-style structure featuring perhaps the most-impressive theatrical
performance in all of Epcot Center. Sponsored by Coca-Cola and American
Express, The American Adventure presents a 29-minute drama of the nation's 350
years of history, utilizing elaborate three-dimensional settings and a new
generation of Disney "Audio-Animatronics" characters. Host figures Mark Twain
(who carries a smoking cigar) and Benjamin Franklin (the first
"Audio-Animatronics" character to walk) narrate America's progress from the
era of the Pilgrims to the present.
But to fully enjoy the sweeping spectacle that is World Showcase, most
guests may find a single visit inadequate. Shoppers, for example, will
discover that commercial firms from participating nations have stocked a wide
variety of merchandise from their respective countries.
Cuisine? L'Originale Alfredo Roma Ristorante -- designed in rich
Florentine style -- and Les Chefs de France offer world-famous dining
experiences. Norway offers the "koldtbord," a help-yourself dining experience
that features a real Norse country cold and hot food selection. There's also
a version of Mexico City's San Angel Inn and Tokyo's Mitsukoshi Restaurant,
plus authentic dining and cooking styles of Canada, Morocco, Germany and The
United Kingdom.
Architecture? There's the distinctive flavor of the Orient in a half-size
replica of China's beautiful Temple of Heaven (Beijing), and in a delicate
five-story pagoda and a massive Samurai castle from Japan. In Italy,
re-creations of the Doges' Palace and campanile (bell tower) lead visitors to
a version of St. Mark's Square.
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The Morocco Showcase faithfully copies the architecture and atmosphere of
this famed African kingdom. In Canada, the look of a famous hotel, Chateau
Laurier, crowns a sculptured landscape with a Rocky Mountain vista. A
picturesque scene awaits the Norway Showcase guest. From the ancient Stave
church with its imposing spires to a replica of Oslo's 14th century Akershus
Castle, Epcot's newest attraction is a new World Showcase treasure.
Motion pictures? Both China and Canada present spectacular versions of
Circle-Vision 360 films. Disney filmmakers gave new mobility to cameras that
captured such grandeurs as China's Forbidden City, seldom-seen Tibet and
Mongolia and views of the ancient silk route once followed by Marco Polo. The
full-circle "O Canada" production even takes viewers on a rip-roaring
buckboard ride in the famous Calgary Stampede.
France visitors will see a 200-degree screening of "impressions de
France," a spectacular airborne travelogue set to classical music and shown in
a replica of a famous Paris theater.
The film "Norway" comes at the conclusion of "Maelstrom," an exciting high
seas adventure that includes encounters with vikings, trolls and a North Sea
storm. Guests step off the 16 passenger Viking boats into a quiet fishing
village where they await the movie that offers a five-minute montage of modern
Norway.
Live entertainment? Each country presents artisans, artists and
performers dressed in traditional costumes. In France, white-faced mimes
amuse street crowds, and in England Cockney players entertain with street-wise
comedy. Visitors can listen to the gentle strains of folk ballads in Norway
or experience the dynamic marachi music of Mexico.
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In Japan, folk dancers perform in front of the replica of an
eighth-century pagoda and in China, the mysterious East is represented by
dancing dragons. In Germany, an compah band and the sounds of glockenspiels
and alpenhorns enliven a festival spirit. Moroccan artisans work in their
specialties while musicians perform native music on the streets outside their
shops.
World Showcase is designed to entertain and inform visitors as well as
provide a two-way cultural exchange for nationals working in international
pavilions. Each pavilion is staffed by men and women from that country.
Several are participating in a program called World Fellowship, During each
year's stay in Walt Disney World, each participant takes part in a work-study
curriculum designed to broaden international outlooks and experiences.
Nighttime offers a thrilling display of light, music, lasers, fountains
and fireworks as IllumiNations lights up World Showcase. Hundreds of
thousands of lights create a wonderland by night for the thousands of guests
who line World Showcase Lagoon for this spectacular nightly ritual.
Each Showcase is based on concepts chosen for their contributions to a
country's social, cultural and architectural heritages. Following is a
summary description of the patterns involved in each country's design.
THE AMERICAN ADVENTURE
From the late 1700s to around 1830, America's public architecture was
designed from a mixture of styles, including English Georgian -- developed
during the reign of King George III - which captured the spirit of the
American Revolution. The American Adventure combines Georgian-style classic
buildings in what is intended as a people's mansion and includes examples from
Williamsburg, Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the Old State House in Boston
and Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello.
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CANADA
The Canada Showcase includes examples of buildings and scenes found
throughout the nation. The romantic 19th-century French Chateau-style hotel
is a prominent feature in many cities, usually convenient to a railroad
station. A waterfront area is designed to reflect the look of the Eastern
Seaboard, while Victoria's Butchart Gardens were the pattern of a West Coast
look.
Near the hotel a rugged stone building, modeled after a famous landmark
near Niagara Falls, is reflective of Canada's British influence. An Indian
village with totems signifies the culture of the Northwest, while Canada's
wilderness is presented in a setting complete with steep mountains, waterfalls
and a northern forest.
THE UNITED KINGDOM
Time, materials and style were compressed into a single combination of a
city, town and rural atmosphere for The United Kingdom. Included is a pub in
a. building reflecting a cluster of periods and different facades. Visitors
traveling an informal street will find a 1500s-style thatched-roof cottage, a
four-story timber-and-plaster building, a formal square with a Hyde Park
bandstand, a pre-Georgian plaster building and a formal Palladian exterior of
dressed stone. A city square with classic formal facade copies a look found
in London and Edinburgh. On other streets are found a Regency multi-porched
row building, a town gate and clock tower representative of York, a 1400s
brick-style house and a plaster-and-stone great hall. A promenade shows an
exterior facade similar to Hampton Court.
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FRANCE
The showcase reflects the ambiance of France between 1879 and 1910, a
period known as La Belle Epoque, or the beautiful time. This was an energetic
period of art and literature, grand exhibitions, inventions, science: A time
when a spectrum of styles formed the character of Paris boulevards and
architecture.
Within the showcase are: a bookshop, reflective of art nouveau; a perfume
and designer accessory shop styled after the chateau look of an older Paris; a
pre-show facade copied from a classic portico, and a post-show interior
modeled after Les Halles, the busy garden market of Paris. Elsewhere are a
sidewalk cafe and restaurant that is a scaled-down version of a 19th-century
building with rolling mansard roofs and elegant ironwork. Also, a provincial
street reflects the village atmosphere of France, complementing the formal,
tree-lined streets of Paris. The one-tenth replica of the Eiffel Tower was
constructed using Gustaf Eiffel's original blueprints.
JAPAN
Architecture and landscaping meld flawlessly in this showcase. Rocks,
which in Japan symbolize the long life on earth, combine with water,
symbolizing the sea, which the Japanese consider a source of life. These,
with a variety of trees and other plantings, blend with the Japanese
architecture to produce an authentic Oriental experience. A pagoda which
stands prominently in the showcase was modeled after an eighth-century
structure in Japan; the torii gate near World Showcase Lagoon is similar to
one in Hiroshima Bay. The structure which houses the Mitsukoshi Department
Store on the first floor and a formal Japanese restaurant on the second was
inspired by a portion of the Gosho Imperial Palace in Kyoto.
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MOROCCO
Across a wide promenade, the Koutoubia Minaret (a detailed replica of a
famous prayer tower in Marrakesh) stands guard over the entrance to this
showcase. In the center of the rectangular courtyard is an ornate fountain
lined with thousands of multi-colored tiles.
Like most Moroccan cities, the showcase is divided into two sections: The
ville nouvelle (new city) and the Medina (old city). The entrance to the
Medina, the thriving marketplace of Moroccan cities, is usually through an
arched gate. Guests pass beneath pointed arches and the swirling blue
patterns of the Bab Boujouloud Gate, a replica of a gateway in the city of
Fez. Just inside the gateway is the Fez House, a replica of a traditional
Moroccan home.
In the Medina a reproduction of the Chella Minaret in Morocco's capital of
Rabat rises above the shops and shoppers. There also a reproduction of the
Najjarine Fountain in Fez stands as the traditional village fountain.
ITALY
Architectural elements of Venice stand at the showcase entrance, including
the Doges' Palace and a scaled-down version of the campanile (bell tower) of
St. Mark's Square. Complementing these buildings are Venetian bridges,
gondolas, colorful barber poles and the sculpture of the Lion of St. Mark atop
a column. Other buildings are composites of architecture found throughout
Italy. Alfredo's Restaurant is reminiscent of the Florentine style; the
stairway and portico adjoining the Doges' Palace is typical of Varona; the
town hall overlooking the promenade is reflective of Northern Italy. The
garden wall enclosing the piazza is typical of Rome and Florence. Sculptures
include an heroic version of Bernini's Neptune fountain, based on the original
in Florence and the Fountain of Trevi.
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GERMANY
Building styles represent different periods and locales, but rely heavily
on Germany's romantic, fairy-tale architecture. The atmosphere of a
biergarten is derived from the 16th-century town of Rothenburg. The platz
(plaza) includes a special place for a dynamic sculpture of St. George and the
Dragon. The facade of an art-and-book shop was inspired by the Kaufhaus, a
16th-century merchants' hall in Freiburg in the Black Forest; statues on the
building recall the rule of the Hapsburg Emperors. The tourism facade was
copied from a 400-year-old town hall in Romsburg Square in Frankfurt. The
high wall serving as a backdrop for the showcase was inspired by the Eltz
Castle on the Mosel River and Stahleck Castle on the Rhine.
CHINA
The gateway of the showcase is based on the beautifully styled main gate
at the summer palace in Beijing, which also provided the inspiration for the
half-size Temple of Heaven, the most visually prominent feature. The Temple
of Heaven, through which guests must pass into the Circle-Vision 360
attraction, symbolizes the Chinese universe. A public marketplace, designed
to encourage socializing, includes facades borrowed from an elegant home, a
school house, a city gate and shop fronts with European overtones.
The art gallery features a "Lotus Blossom" gate and a formal saddle-ridge
roof line. Gardens and reflecting ponds simulate those found in Suzhou and
symbolize the order and discipline of nature.
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NORWAY
Norway Showcase with its imposing stone, wood and tile architecture is the
newest addition to World Showcase. From the ancient wood spires of the Stave
Church to the quaint village shops to the film on contemporary Norway, the
showcase provides a look at Norway from the Vikings to the sophisticated,
industrial nation of today. One-thousand year old Viking artifacts, some
found in North America, illustrate the daring of these hearty seamen. Across
the cobblestone plaza from the Stave Church stands the majestic Akershus
Castle. This reproduction of the 14th century structure that guards Oslo
Harbor houses the elegant, 220-seat buffet style Akershus Restaurant. A
unique feature of the pavilion is "Maelstrom," an exciting ride through
adventure. Boarding 16-passenger dragon-headed boats, guests float through a
Viking village, pass legendary trolls who attempt to impede the progress of
the travelers, encounter a waterfall and a North Sea storm and finally emerge
in a quiet Norwegian fishing village.
MEXICO
Fronting the World Showcase Lagoon is a quaint, colonial-style building,
reflective of architecture in central and Southern Mexico. A Mayan pyramid
dominating the entranceway expresses the country's proud pre-Columbian
heritage. Inside the showcase is a museum gallery. Beyond the museum,
visitors enter a formal portico, modeled after a mayor's mansion, and then a
typical colonial plaza, where a market-day and a festival atmosphere prevail.
Beyond the plaza, visitors begin a boat-ride journey past a smoking volcano
for a close-up look at Mexico's colorful heritage and attractions.
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WORLD SHOWCASE PARTICIPANTS
CANADA
Labatt Brewing Company Ltd. (beer)
CHINA
China Pavilion Exhibition Corp. (food and merchandise)
FRANCE
Barton & Guestier (wines)
Chefs de France of Orlando, Inc. (restaurants)
GERMANY
Bahlsen of America, Inc. (bakery products)
Braurie Beck GmbH & Co. (beer)
Goebel Art (GmbH) (porcelain)
H. Schmitt Sonne GmbH (wine)
ITALY
International Gourmet Restaurants of America, Inc. (restaurant)
JAPAN
Kirin, USA, Inc. (beer)
Mitsukoshi (USA), Inc. (department store/restaurant)
MEXICO
Arribas Brothers (glass sculptures)
San Angel Inn (restaurant)
Cerveceria Moctuzuma (Don Equis & Superior beers - cantina & restaurant)
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MOROCCO
Marrakesh Moroccan Restaurant, Inc. (restaurant)
Kingdom of Morocco (tourism)
NORWAY
Vard A/A (shipping)
Selmer-Sande A/S (construction)
Den Norsek Creditbank (banking)
Vesta-Gruppen A/S (insurance)
Aker Norcem A/S (offshore oil)
Kosmos A/S (shipping)
Det Norske Veritas (marine insurance)
Frionor Norsk Frossenfisk A/L and Norway Foods A/S (seafood)
Norsk Data A/S (computers)
Dale of Norway (ready-to-wear clothing)
Jotul (woodburning stoves)
Norseland Foods (Jarlsberg cheese, Kavli bread)
UNITED KINGDOM
Bass Export Ltd. (Rose & Crown Pub - beer & ales)
Mid Wales (merchandise, pottery, jewelry, giftware)
Pringle of Scotland (fine woolens)
Royal Doulton (china, dolls & figurines)
R. Twinings & Co. Ltd. (teas)
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Walt
isney World®
20th ANNIVERSARY
SURPRISING
CELEBRATION!
NEWS
Press & Publicity Department P.O. Box 10,000 Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-1000 (407) 824-4531
© Disney/Amblin
WALT DISNEY WORLD 20TH ANNIVERSARY
TO FEATURE SURPRISES, SPECTACULARS
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Call it a Bi-Tencennial, a Twin-Tennial, or simply a
20th anniversary. By any name, it means Walt Disney World Resort is turning 20,
and to mark the occasion, a 15-month surprise party will feature all-new shows and
entertainment spectaculars throughout the Vacation Kingdom.
The special fun begins Oct. 1 -- the anniversary of the Vacation Kingdom's
grand opening in 1971 -- and continues through 1992.
A colorful aerial spectacle will brighten Epcot Center days. A marvel of electro-
technical wizardry will fill Magic Kingdom nights with magical, moving colors. Pretty
women will sing and dance their way to stardom at the Disney-MGM Studios Theme
Park. And everywhere, fun-loving Roger Rabbit will pop up to announce,
"Sur-p-p-prise!"
Remember the Magic Word: Surprise
Disney entertainment wizards are going to new heights to present what show
producer Chase Senge calls "the biggest, best parade in 'World' history." Towering
35 to 40 feet above the Magic Kingdom's Main Street, U.S.A., a cast of brilliantly
colored, larger-than-life inflated Disney characters herald festivals from regions of the
world in "Surprise Celebration."
Roger Rabbit decked out as the carnival jester soars above a carriage on which
a surprise grand marshal, selected from among park visitors, leads the procession.
The festive 20th-anniversary theme song builds, and on cue
everyone along the
parade route is encouraged to sing in unison, "Surprise!" as each new unexpected
feature pops into view.
-more-
YEARS
Printed on recycled paper.
Walt
isney World®
2
New Orleans' Mardi Gras, Latin America's Carnivale de Rio and Europe's
Carnival in Venice are celebrated in music, dance and stunning costuming during the
20-minute parade, a daily feature of the 20th anniversary year.
Imagine Goofy as a 35-foot "jack-in-the-box," Minnie Mouse as a towering
Brazilian dance queen, Donald Duck as a bigger-than-life calypso drummer, Pluto
donning the dog-gonnest Caribbean garb and Mickey Mouse in royal finest. Eyes turn
upward to admire them all, then back to street level where more than 100 musicians
and dancers join in the merriment.
And with each passing parade unit, there's a
surprise!
Nighttime Magic Fills the Kingdom
Future-technology wizardry creates a moving gallery of light, music and color
during "SpectroMagic," the biggest nighttime attraction ever in the Magic Kingdom.
"Imagine complete animated cels the size of a house," says Show Producer Don
Frantz. "That's what we are producing with a synthesis of music, light and
mechanical animation along the mile-long Magic Kingdom parade route."
The 20-minute production borrows from the prismatic holographic industry,
military lighting developments, electro-luminescent and fiber-optics technologies, and
tosses in light-spreading thermoplastics, clouds of underlit liquid-nitrogen smoke and a
sprinkling of good old-fashioned twinkle lights.
Powered by batteries and synchronized by computer with a new, digital music
score, the light show portrays the magical worlds of Disney -- music, wonder, fantasy
and dreams.
Mickey Mouse in prisms of light leads the way, followed by tableaus depicting
the merriment of a musical band and colorful garden, the beauty of the sea, the
wonder of flying horses, and the chilling specter of an evil, winged monster with a
38-foot wingspan.
A fanfare unit announces the final act -- a 150-foot-long unit showcasing
Cinderella's coach and carousel all decked out in dazzling colors. At the front,
Practical Pig dips his paint brush into white, gives a "swish," and the entire scene
turns a scintillating, brilliant white. Jiminy Cricket, perched at the back, sprinkles a
confetti of light while Practical Pig plunges his brush into color and restores the
stunning array of hues to coach, carousel and everything else in the scene.
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3
The high-tech spectacle of lights is complemented by a musical main theme
plus individual musical numbers relating to show segments -- "an entire environment
of sound," Frantz says.
"The music and show are totally integrated," adds Disney entertainment vice
president Ron Logan. "Our goal is: if a blind man and a deaf man are standing
together, they'll feel and experience the same thing."
Daytime Brighter Than Ever at Epcot Center
Explosive rainbow colors fill the daytime sky at Epcot Center during daily
presentations of "Surprise in the Skies." Vivid fireworks in reds, blues and greens
announce a show featuring boats with multi-colored flags which pull six colorful delta-
wing kites into the air, where they are joined by 10 paraplanes flying the colors of
Epcot Center's World Showcase nations.
Patriotic music introduces a red, white and blue paraplane and similarly colored
pyrotechnics. The squadron of paraplanes joins in the display with a release of red,
white and blue smoke.
Thirty-five-foot-high inflatable Disney characters in international garb pop up
along World Showcase promenade and become rallying points for the "real-live"
characters to meet and greet Epcot Center guests.
Disney-MGM Showstoppers: Live and in 3D
The golden age of stage and screen is rekindled in a new live spectacular at
Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park. "Hollywood's Pretty Woman" takes audiences to
"Club Hollywood," where proprietor Mickey Mouse hopes to impress actor-turned-
movie-producer Roger Rabbit with the club's singing-and-dancing talent.
The musical fun at Theatre of the Stars salutes the talents of such Hollywood
greats as Judy Garland, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire and Carmen Miranda.
Meanwhile, a dynamic family of "Dinosaurs" joins the beloved cast of "Jim
Henson's Muppets on Location" to present yet two more memorable shows with a
distinct Hollywood flavor at Disney-MGM.
Earl Sinclair and his prime-time fossil family, the "Dinosaurs" from the ABC-TV
series, take Hollywood by storm when they appear as "guests of extinction" in a
glittering display of Mesozoic mania on the Studios' Hollywood Boulevard.
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On the Studios' Central Park Backlot, those zany Muppets appear for an on-
location film shoot featuring favorite songs and unmatched performances by Kermit
the Frog, Miss Piggy and a celebrated cast of Muppet stars.
A courtyard away at the Studios Theme Park, "Jim Henson's Muppet Vision
3D" attraction continues its premier run as a fun-filled combination of "live" Muppets
interacting with a 3D film of Muppet antics.
During shows in all three parks as well as resort shows throughout Walt Disney
World, Roger Rabbit pops in on the action to announce a "Sur-p-p-prise!" show-
stopper filled with music and fun involving guests selected from the audience for
surprise gifts and honors.
Special surprises also are included in all 1992 Walt Disney Travel Company
vacation packages to Walt Disney World Resort. Local travel agents have the
information.
Further information about Walt Disney World, including theme park hours,
ticket media, recreation and accommodations, is available by calling Walt Disney
World Guest Information at (407) 824-4321, or by writing to Guest Letters, Walt
Disney World Resort, P.O. Box 10040, Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040.
Reservations for the 17 resort hotels, vacation-villa resort or campground resort
featuring a total of more than 15,000 accommodations on Walt Disney World
property are available by calling (407) 934-7639.
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Walt
isney World
NEWS
Press & Publicity Department
P.O. Box 10,000
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-1000
(407) 824-4531
WALT DISNEY WORLD GUESTS ARE TREATED TO MORE THAN DOUBLE THE FUN
FOLLOWING A DECADE OF VACATION KINGDOM GROWTH
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Whole new theme park worlds celebrating human
achievement and the magic of Tinseltown, a water park with misty surf lapping its
shores, a bustling nightclub theme park and new themed-resort adventures have marked
a decade of Walt Disney World Resort growth that dramatically broadens the vacation
horizons of fun-seekers of the '90s.
The "World" premieres of Epcot Center (1982) and the Disney-MGM Studios Theme
Park (1989) have tripled the Vacation Kingdom's theme park adventures, joining the
famous Magic Kingdom park that has entertained millions of guests since the dawn of
Walt Disney World Resort on Oct. 1, 1971.
Typhoon Lagoon, a second themed water-park four times the size of Disney's River
Country (the granddaddy of water parks), opened in time to cool the summer of '89 with
a variety of splashing streams and slippery slides cascading from a 95-foot-high
watershed toward a lagoon where the surf's up: Six-foot breaking waves bring the
seashore to Central Florida.
Beyond sundown, the bright lights are up on Pleasure Island, a complex of six
nightclubs plus restaurants and boutiques. The island, which features a nightly New
Year's Eve celebration, brought high-energy nightlife to the Vacation Kingdom in summer
1989.
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©1988 The Walt Disney Company
-2-
The '80s and early '90s have seen Disney "resort magic" grow by hotel rooms and
campsites -- more than three times. There currently are 15,212 overnight
accommodations within 17 hotels, a campground and vacation villas on Walt Disney
World property. In 1980, by contrast, there were 4,440 accommodations in seven
hotels plus the campground and villas.
In the '80s, the 901-room Disney's Grand Floridian Beach Resort and 2,112-room
Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort opened, treating guests to themed vacation adventures
to "long ago and far away." In its fantasy escape to turn-of-the-century Florida, the
Grand Floridian has established a new landmark of luxury on the Disney property. The
Caribbean Beach, a relaxed 200-acre territory of swaying palms and brightly colored
villages reminiscent of wave-lapped tropical islands, has introduced a Disney themed
adventure in the moderate price range.
At the Disney Village Hotel Plaza, the addition of the Buena Vista Palace, The Hilton
and the Guest Quarters Suite Resort during the '80s increased the number of rooms from
1,500 to more than 3,700 at the seven "Official Hotels of Walt Disney World."
The 635-room Disney's Yacht Club Resort and 580-room Disney's Beach Club
Resort opened in fall 1990. They followed the June debut of the 1,514-room Walt
Disney World Dolphin and the January debut of the 758-room Walt Disney World Swan
to launch another wave of Disney hotel growth into the '90s and introducing a whole
new resort area -- the Epcot Resorts. The complex includes more than 254,000 net
square feet of meeting and convention space.
The four hotels have easy access to Epcot Center by means of a new International
Gateway which allows guests to travel by tram or walkway to a new theme-park
entrance near France in World Showcase. There's also water-taxi transportation from
the hotels to the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park.
Two more Disney themed resorts in the moderate price range -- the 1,008-room
Port Orleans (which opened June 1991) and 2,048-room Dixie Landings (opening 1992)
-- provide still other fantasy vacation venues.
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The Magic Kingdom and its surrounding resorts opened Oct. 1, 1971, on a 28,000-
acre site near Orlando, Fla.
From the beginning of construction in 1968, Walt Disney World has followed Walt
Disney's concept for an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT), using
innovative technologies in construction, operation and transportation to create a unique,
future-reaching community encompassing the entire 43-square-mile site.
Its prototype systems contribute to the enjoyment, safety and convenience of a
visitor population of up to 50,000 guests who "live" on the property each night. Plans
now being developed by the Disney Development Co. may also include residential areas,
business and research centers, and new entertainment and resort facilities.
The Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center and Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park, along
with all the other Walt Disney World facilities, are open every day. Park operating hours
vary, with extended hours during holidays and peak vacation seasons. Following is a
summary of major features in the giant complex:
MAGIC KINGDOM
The Magic Kingdom, based on the Disneyland design, covers 100 acres and offers
45 major shows and adventures in seven lands: Main Street, U.S.A.; Adventureland;
Frontierland; Liberty Square; Fantasyland; Tomorrowland, and Mickey's Starland -- which
premiered in 1988 as Mickey's Birthdayland during Mickey's 60th birthday year as the
first new "land" since 1971. The many popular attractions include Mickey Mouse's
house in Starland plus Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Haunted
Mansion and Space Mountain. Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters make
frequent appearances joining bands, singers, daily parades and street-corner performers
that are favorites of Disney guests. It has parking for more than 12,000 vehicles.
EPCOT CENTER
Epcot Center, which opened Oct. 1, 1982, is a 260-acre international exposition
with two main areas: Future World, showcasing imagination and technological
achievement; and World Showcase, presenting the culture, entertainment, crafts and
architecture of many nations. Wonders of Life, presented by Metropolitan Life, is the
newest of Future World's eight major attractions.
Eleven countries surrounding World Showcase Lagoon include Canada, United
Kingdom, France, Morocco, Japan, Italy, Germany, China, Mexico and Norway plus the
host, American Adventure. Epcot Center is located three miles south of the Magic
Kingdom (two miles west of Walt Disney World Village and a mile northeast of the
Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park) and is linked by monorail and surface transit to other
guest areas.
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DISNEY-MGM STUDIOS THEME PARK
Lights, cameras and all the action of Hollywood filmmaking are "on stage" for
visitors to the combination movie park/motion-picture, television and radio production
facility. Shows and attractions are based on elements of show biz, while a backstage
studio tour takes guests into a magicland of backlots, special effects areas and
soundstages. Themed restaurants such as the 50's Prime Time Cafe and Sci-Fi Dine-In
Theater Restaurant, unique Hollywood-style shops and street entertainment which takes
its cue from vintage Tinseltown characters add an extra layer of magic to a park visit.
Attractions include The Great Movie Ride, the Backstage Studio Tour, SuperStar
Television and the Monster Sound Show (both presented by Sony), the Indiana Jones
Epic Stunt Spectacular, Star Tours (presented by M&M's Chocolate Candies) and Jim
Henson's Muppet* Vision 3D.
MAGIC KINGDOM RESORT AREA/MONORAIL RESORTS
Surrounding the Magic Kingdom are five themed resorts -- Disney's Grand Floridian
Beach Resort, Disney's Contemporary Resort, Disney's Polynesian Resort, The Disney
Inn and Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground. They contain 3,093 guest
rooms, modern conference and banquet facilities, and 1,192 campsites for recreational
vehicles, tents and vacation trailers. Also within the resort area: Discovery Island
tropical gardens and zoological park, River Country water park, beaches, lakes, pools and
forest park lands. The areas are joined by a transportation network -- with the
Contemporary, Polynesian and Grand Floridian offering the convenience of resort-side
monorail stations.
Fort Wilderness Campground covers 730 acres of pine and cypress forest. In
addition to 785 campsites for recreational vehicles and tents, it offers 407 suite-trailers
for nightly rental. Recreation includes tennis courts and swimming pools, streams for
canoeing, beach, marina, horseback riding, nightly campfire entertainment and trading
posts stocked with camping supplies and groceries.
EPCOT RESORT AREA
Two of America's pre-eminent architects, Michael Graves and Robert A.M. Stern,
have created a haven for both vacation-bound families and convention-bound groups.
The Graves-designed Walt Disney World Swan (758 rooms) and Walt Disney World
Dolphin (1,514 rooms) feature a combined 254,000 square feet of meeting space. The
Stern-designed Disney's Yacht Club Resort (635 rooms) and Disney's Beach Club Resort
(580 rooms) have 73,000 square feet of meeting space. The resorts are conveniently
situated just southwest of Epcot Center on a 25-acre lake and are connected to the
theme park by a new International Gateway to World Showcase. The resorts are also
just a water-taxi ride away from Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park.
Also part of Epcot Resort Area: Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, 2,112 rooms in
five villages on a 200-acre site.
DISNEY VILLAGE RESORT AREA
Disney's newest themed resort, the Official Hotels of Walt Disney World and a
variety of comfy vacation villas combine to provide a wide selection of accommodations
in the host community of Lake Buena Vista.
Lush courtyards and brick lanes remindful of the French Quarter welcome guests to
Disney's Port Orleans Resort, a 1,008-room, moderately priced hotel which opened
summer 1991. Due in 1992: The 2,048-room Disney's Dixie Landings Resort with
villages themed to stately Southern manor homes and backwoods bayous.
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The seven "Official Hotels of Walt Disney World" Grosvenor Resort, Hotel Royal
Plaza, Howard Johnson Resort Hotel, Travelodge Hotel, The Hilton, Buena Vista Palace
and the Guest Quarters Suite Resort -- feature 3,735 guest rooms, resort recreation and
convention facilities. Disney's Village Resort offers four types of one- and two-bedroom
villas nestled in woodlands overlooking streams, parks and beautiful golf fairways. Many
of the 585 units have kitchens.
Banquet facilities and meeting rooms for up to 500 guests are included in the Walt
Disney World Conference Center. All the resorts are located near the Disney Village
Marketplace/Pleasure Island shopping and nightclub area.
PLEASURE ISLAND/DISNEY VILLAGE MARKETPLACE
The Disney Village Marketplace features fine shops and restaurants adjacent to the
Pleasure Island nightclub theme park, which includes entertainment for the 18-and-older
crowd at six nightclubs plus shops and restaurants. Free shuttle-bus service links the
Village to all other guest areas.
THE MAGIC LINKDOM
Just for the "golfanatic," Disney's golf facilities feature five championship courses
and a total of 99 holes. Latest additions (slated for first play in January 1992) are
courses designed by celebrity architects Pete Dye and Tom Fazio. Their Osprey Ridge
(Fazio) and Eagle Pines (Dye) courses are located near Disney's Fort Wilderness and Dixie
Landings resorts at Bonnet Lakes Golf Club. They supplement three Joe Lee-designed
courses -- the Magnolia, Palm and Lake Buena Vista -- that annually host the PGA Tour's
Walt Disney World/Oldsmobile Golf Classic. Rounding out the Magic Linkdom is a nine-
hole family-play course located at The Disney Inn with the Palm and Magnolia courses.
TYPHOON LAGOON
The 56-acre Typhoon Lagoon water theme park boasts a 95-foot mountain as its
centerpiece. Guests "scale" the mountain by stairs but come down its sides on eight
water slides and white-water tubing flumes. A two-and-one-half-acre wave-making
lagoon lies at the base of the mountain, and its waves -- up to 6-feet -- ride body surfers
to new peaks of water fun. The park also includes the 362,000-gallon Shark Reef, in
which guests snorkel in a saltwater paradise alongside fish, rays and other reef
creatures. The park also includes Castaway Creek, a meandering, 2,200-foot rafting
stream encircling the complex, and a special water-play area for children.
RIVER COUNTRY AND DISCOVERY ISLAND
Located in Fort Wilderness, River Country is an old-fashioned swimmin' hole with
water slides, flumes, white water rapids, nature trail, heated swimming pool and white-
sand beaches. Across the channel in Bay Lake is Discovery Island, an 11-acre zoological
park featuring exotic birds and animals, colorful flowers and peaceful trails.
RESERVATIONS
All hotel and campground accommodations may be booked through Central
Reservations, P.O. Box 10,100, Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0100. The telephone
number: (407) W DISNEY. Special package vacations utilizing the Walt Disney World
Village Hotel Plaza and other tours are available through the Walt Disney Travel Co.,
P.O. Box 22,094, Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-2094. Advance reservations for "Hoop-
Dee-Doo Revue," "Broadway at the Top," the "Polynesian Revue" and Disney character
breakfasts may be made by guests holding reservations in Walt Disney World hotels
through Central Reservations. Advance purchase of multi-day passports may also be
made through that office.
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TICKETS
Multi-day passports to the Walt Disney World theme parks are the most popular
ticket media. One-day tickets also are available for the Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center or
Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park individually. It takes four to six days to see a major
share of the Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center and Studios.
LOCATION
Walt Disney World is located 20 miles southwest of Orlando along Interstate 4 with
exits for the Walt Disney World Village, Epcot Center and (via U.S. 192) the Magic
Kingdom and Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park. The Walt Disney World Information and
Reservation Center is in Ocala, Fla., on Interstate 75 at State Route 200. Orlando is
easily accessible by air, bus, train or automobile. Some 20 scheduled airlines and more
than 30 charter carriers serve Orlando International Airport.
INFORMATION
Detailed information on Walt Disney World services and entertainment may be
obtained from Guest Services in each of the resort hotels, at City Hall in the Magic
Kingdom, at Earth Station in Epcot Center, in the Guest Services Building at Disney-MGM
Studios Theme Park or by calling (407) 824-4321. Advance information and a helpful
Vacation Guide may be obtained from Guest Letters, Walt Disney World, P.O. Box
10,040, Lake Buena Vista, FL, 32830-0040; Phone (407) 824-4321.
-30-
1199P:hia:DH
THE SATURDAY
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70
THE SATURDAY EVENING POST
October '82
tion's sake. Disney hopes to lure
between seven and ten million new
visitors to its gates each year by of-
EPCOT CENTER:
fering an educational as well as an
entertaining experience.
Epcot will be divided into two
DISNEY'S DREAM
major sections: Future World, a ser-
ies of corporate-sponsored pavilions
COME TRUE
designed to show the technological
advances of the next 25 or so years,
and World Showcase, a collection
of villages from eight nations.
Whether it's 100 years in the future or a
million years in the past, the new "thinking man's"
theme park can take you there and back.
by Annetta Miller
O
n the evening of December 14,
ization's new 600-acre, $800 million
1966, Walt Disney lay in a
theme park, is scheduled to open
Burbank, California, hospital,
October 1 in Lake Buena Vista,
weakened by a cancerous growth in
Florida. Not the domed city Disney
his lung. With his brother and confi-
once envisioned-that idea was
dant Roy Disney at his bedside,
dismissed as impractical-its scope
Walt seemed intent on discussing a
will be even more ambitious. Epcot
project that had become an obession
offers the largest showcase of
in recent months: building an exper-
technology and exotica in the world.
imental city that would incorporate
Epcot is located just two and one-
the best ideas of industry, govern-
half miles north of Walt Disney
ment and academia worldwide.
World, and the two parks, along
His Experimental Prototype Com-
with all of Disney's on-site hotels,
munity of Tomorrow (Epcot, as he
are connected by gleaming monorail.
had come to refer to it) would be a
Epcot is more than twice as large
huge bubble-topped utopia, where
as its corporate cousin and has an
the garbage would never need haul-
identity all its own. Designed to ap-
ing, the thermostat adjusting or the
peal to more cerebral interests than
grass mowing. Modern technology
does Disney World, Epcot has been
would be as warm and familiar as a
dubbed "the thinking man's theme
favorite pair of slippers.
park."
Disney's musings that night were
While Disney World's emphasis
to be the last words he would speak
will continue to be fun for fun's
about his final and greatest dream.
sake, Epcot will be fun for informa-
He died the following morning, De-
cember 15, 1966, of an acute cir-
Communicore (below)-where you can
culatory collapse.
have a friendly chat with computers-
But 16 years later, Walt Disney's
is a collage of today's reality and
dream has become a reality.
tomorrow's dreams. At the African
Epcot Center, the Disney organ-
pavilion (far right) you'll go on safari.
THE SATURDAY EVENING POST
71
Upon stepping off the sleek
monorail from the outlying parking
lots, visitors will first encounter
Future World's Communicore, a
kind of space-age midway with
shops and small technology-orient-
ed exhibits. One display, sponsored
by Sperry Corporation's Univac di-
vision, demonstrates how comput-
ers work and how they will run Ep-
cot. Games-an American census
quiz, a computer-aided design-a-
hand
STATES
Epcot Center's Spaceship Earth, a co-
HOT
lossal geodesic dome, marks the en-
was
trance to Future World. Beyond, visi-
Rimun
tors may travel back to the dawn of his-
special
tory, inspect a covered city of the future
Wod
Statis
(above) and race on toward outer space.
72
THE SATURDAY EVENING POST
October '82
roller-coaster game and a talking
primeval forests that were the
Several countries have contributed
robot-feature some of the indus-
source of today's fossil fuels. There
financing; others have sent experts
tries in Sperry's target market.
they will come face to face with a
and products instead. But the Dis-
Future World's pavilions, the next
lumbering Audio-Animatronic bron-
ney organization itself is footing
stop on a visitor's journey, are no
tosaurus who moves, breathes and
most of the bill.
less awesome than Communicore.
even slobbers on the unsuspecting au-
If Epcot's show is impressive,
They have attracted an elite con-
dience.
perhaps more so is the behind-the-
glomerate of corporate sponsors in-
Disney's artistry takes on an in-
scenes work required to produce it.
cluding General Electric, Bell Sys-
ternational flavor in World Show-
Engineering the creation of Epcot
tems, Kraft, Exxon, General Motors,
case, separated from Future World
has been a staff of 1,800 artists,
Sperry, Eastman Kodak, Coca Cola,
by a sparkling lagoon. Here, visitors
designers and engineers (Disney
AT&T and American Express.
may breakfast on tea and biscuits in
likes to call them imagineers) at
Many feature "ride-through" ex-
England, follow roads leading to
Walt Disney Enterprises in Glen-
hibits, treating visitors to enough
Rome, lunch in a Bavarian beer gar-
dale, California. About 1,000 out-
push-button, light-flashing, mind-
den where it's always Oktoberfest,
side consultants have also been
stretching activity to power a small
explore the marvels of a Mayan
hired for the task, including noted
city. In "Spaceship Earth," for ex-
pyramid, cross the vast expanses of
science fiction author Ray Brad-
ample, Epcot-goers will spiral
Canada and the Great Wall of
bury.
through a silvery, 18-story geodesic
China, relax by a blue pond in the
Much of the wizardry at Epcot--
dome while seated in small self-pro-
formal gardens of a Japanese
from the laser-generated special ef-
pelled vehicles. Under the darkness
pagoda and dine under a moonlit
fects to the method of tallying the
of the world's largest projection
Eiffel Tower.
number of tons of popcorn sold in a
dome, they will see Earth as a space-
No expense has been spared in de-
month-will be computerized. Just
ship adrift in a midnight sky.
signing World Showcase. The Ital-
how Disney planners create its
Other pavilions offer more down-
ian pavilion will feature a replica of
ghostlike three-dimensional figures
to-earth wonders. "The Land," an
St. Mark's Square, and France's
or its walking, talking characters is
agricultural exhibit, provides visi-
will offer gourmet dining complete
not open to discussion. ("It looks
tors a chance to see everything from
with imported chefs. But probably
magical, and that is precisely why
bananas to shrimp grown using
the most impressive show will be in
we don't talk about it," a Disney
aquaponics, hydroponics and other
the Chinese pavilion, where viewers
spokesperson says.)
futuristic farming techniques. "The
will be encircled by a 360-degree,
Such is their attention to detail
Living Seas," set to open in 1984,
multidimensional movie. Mongol
that even the sense of smell has been
will transport them in small bubble-
horsemen galloping across the
catered to. Disney designers have
shaped vehicles to a 5.7 million
plains, a camel caravan traveling
come up with ways to add appropri-
gallon underwater colony.
Marco Polo's silk road and a
ate scents to the displays, from the
Though the exhibits look toward
396-foot-tall Buddah are among the
fragrance of orange blossoms in
the future, they do not forget the
sights featured.
"The Land," to the whiff of an
past. A diorama in the energy pavil-
Unlike Future World, World
erupting volcano in the energy
ion takes visitors riding in solar-
Showcase has received little finan-
pavilion. To simulate the volcano's
powered theater seats back to the
cial support from private industry.
lava, the special-effects people had
to create a substance that was not
hot, yet glowed with fiery light and
bubbled and congealed like the real
thing. Everything was tested-from
gelatin to a mixture of mineral oil
and talc. The chemists finally came
up with a proprietary blend they
refer to simply as "orange goo."
Putting together the visionary Ep-
cot has been a mammoth undertak-
ing for Disney employees in both
California and Florida. Its economic
impact has been immense, especially
in the Orlando-Lake Buena Vista
area, where it has been influential in
the growth of several new hotels and
a $300 million airport terminal.
Epcot will not really be finished
on opening day, however. Nor, in
fact, will it ever be finished. As Walt
Disney long ago envisioned, Epcot
Center will remain in a constant
Using a multitude of dazzling effects, the Universe of Energy, sponsored by Exxon, will
state of evolution, with pavilions
take visitors through the great geologic upheavals that trapped fossil fuels deep within
and exhibits that change as rapidly
the earth and on to examine the energy sources of the future.
as mankind advances.
OCTOBER 4. 1982
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Living
Disney's Last
Dream
Epcot Center, a toytown
to entertain and educate
U
nlike Alexander the Great, Walter
Elias Disney never ran out of worlds
to conquer. This week, nearly 16 years af-
ter his death, the most ambitious of all the
great fantasist's projects opens at Disney
World in central Florida. Named Epcot
Center, Disney's last, vast vision is a com-
bination world's fair, theme park and
dream factory executed at a cost to date of
$900 million. Like the Magic Kingdom at
Disney World and California's Disney-
land, it is destined to become a part of the
American experience, but with a differ-
ence. Unlike its predecessors, Epcot is
aimed primarily at grownups. There are
no Mickey Mouselings on the streets.
Wine, beer and whisky flow, as they do
not at other Disney theme parks. Epcot
offers serious cuisine of several national-
ities, in addition to fast food. And finally,
a semiearnest air of education hangs over
Epcot's 260 acres.
While Disney's successors have clung
genuity, historical fact, fancy, showman-
Radiating from Spaceship Earth are
to the founder's ugly acronym (Epcot
ship, faith, hope and goo.
pavilions that explore other areas of tech-
stands for Experimental Prototype Com-
The fairway consists of two principal
nological endeavor. The World of Motion
munity of Tomorrow), they have departed
areas: Future World and World Showcase,
(sponsor: General Motors), nested within
from his utopian concept of a real-life
both intended, in the words of Disney's
a wheel-shaped building, is a mostly light-
community evolving in harmony with an
trumpeters, to "satisfy the imaginative ap-
hearted show with 24 Audio-Animatronic
ever changing and beneficent technology.
petites of the tens of millions of people
scenes depicting such momentous occa-
What they have wrought is not the town
destined to become 'Epcot travelers.'
sions as the invention of the wheel and the
but the adult toy of the future. Epcot is a
Visitors enter through a building that is al-
first traffic jam. The Universe of Energy
mind-pummeling assault of electronic in-
ready a symbol of the center: an 18-story
(sponsored by Exxon) is a serious but
geosphere called Spaceship Earth. Inside
compelling presentation whose three-acre
they are whisked along a track to view a
roof with a partial photovoltaic surface is
depiction of man's evolution in communi-
probably the largest privately built solar-
cations from cave to spaceship, glimpsing
energy collector in the world. Inside, life-
such wonders as Gutenberg's print shop,
size models of dinosaurs fight to the death;
an Audio-Animatronic Alexander Gra-
there is even an erupting volcano with
ham Bell inventing the telephone, and as-
7,000 gal. of simulated lava and realistic
tronauts at work.
odors that turn each eruption into a smell-
A bionic policeman being readied for the World of Motion; Venice from the lagoon
Spaceship Earth at entrance to Future World; aerial view, with World Showcase in rear
land, a Japanese pagoda and minigarden,
The recession and the declining appeal of
a St. Mark's Square with the Doges' Pal-
its theme parks have reduced attendance
ace deliberately misplaced on the left in-
at Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom.
stead of the right (to accommodate a
Epcot Center is expected to attract 9 mil-
neighboring Roman scene), Canadian
lion admissions its first year at a one-day
Rockies settled snugly next to a Mon-
price of $15. Disney strategy is to per-
trealesque hotel, and a Bavarian village in
suade guests to tarry at both Magic King-
Oktoberfest. In France there is a restau-
dom (13.2 million admissions in 1981)
rant bearing the imprimatur of Master
and Epcot at a bargain four-day adult
Chefs Paul Bocuse, Roger Vergé and Gas-
rate of $45 for the two, thus lengthening
ton Lenôtre (a traditional veal or chicken
their stays. Epcot is designed to lure the
dinner at about $12 is a fair buy), and the
25-to-34 age group, the dominant force in
Italian pavilion replicates'an Alfredo's of
the economy but one that has not re-
drama. The lava is pumped by the same
Rome restaurant, with passable fettucini.
sponded strongly to previous Disney-style
nd of machine that is used to shoot dog
As with all Disney endeavors, the lo-
fantasy. While 75% of Florida visitors to-
od into cans (it could be nicknamed the
gistics strain the imagination. Some 54
day do not attend Disney World, 80% of
lpo Volcano). The Land (sponsor:
million tons of earth were moved; 16,000
this group say that they would be attract-
raft) manages to meld a boat tour, envi-
tons of steel were used, and 500,000 board
ed to a center like Epcot. Thus Disney
nmental subjects (topsoil loss, space-
feet of lumber went into the construction
should retain a powerful lock on the
own plants) and musical cutups by such
of the sets alone. Around the 40-acre
American imagination. His heirs can still
udio-Animatronic vegetable performers
man-made lagoon, 70 acres of sod have
say, as Walt used to, endlessly, "I count
the Colander Combo and the Kitchen
been laid, 12,500 trees and 10,000 shrubs
my blessings."
-By Michael Demarest.
rackpots led by a human being, Bonnie
planted. More than 1.5 million ft. of film
Reported by B.J. Phillips/Orlando
ppetit.
were shot in 30 different
Epcot's surest-fire hit is
countries and edited for
pavilion called Journey
more than four hours of
to Imagination (Kodak)
shows. An entire new 3-D
which Disney's "imagin-
camera and projection sys-
WOLFF-OUTLINE
rs" have pulled out all the
tem were invented for the
mputer stops. Guests star
360° wrap-around show in
their own video movies,
the Imagination pavilion.
ess colored spots on the
The Disney magic, of
or to create electronic
course, depends on a sus-
usic and engage in a kind
pension of disbelief. There
electronic finger painting
Painting China figures
are no fanny pinchers on
th lasers. The pavilion
this Appian Way, no Red
itures the only major new Disney char-
Guards in Disney's China, no air pollu-
ter, the Dreamfinder, "older than wis-
tion in the Tokyo transplant. In the Land
m and younger than the morning mist,"
pavilion, the myriad plants have to be pol-
10 conducts the tour with a dragon
linated by hand: bees might gum up the
med Figment.
works or sting the guests.
From Future World, the Epcot travel-
Despite, or maybe because of, the san-
leaves the glitter of yesterday and to-
itizing, Epcot is bound to be a huge suc-
rrow for a lake surrounded by slightly
cess. Though the new venture is more
led-down scenes of eight countries and
than half financed from its own assets, the
"Independence Hall" complete with
Disney organization is no longer the mag-
overview of the American past. There
ic profitmaker that Uncle Walt be-
a Mayan temple from Mexico, the Eif-
queathed. Disney films have flopped al-
Tower and a street scene from Paris,
most without exception since Mary
king's Tiananmen Square and the
Poppins in 1964; the organization's cellu-
mple of Heaven, a small corner that
loid bid for adult acceptance, TRON, has
An automated broccoli stalk being dressed
1 forever be a Hollywood pastel of Eng-
yet to recoup its $22 million expenditure
Electronic
faith
August 1963
GENIUS OF LAUGHTER AND LEARNING
WaltDisney
@ WALT DISNEY
***ODUCTIONS
W
HEN FUTURE HISTORIANS sit
Remembering how my deaf Grandmother
down to choose a Hall of
Bell "heard" by reading the lips, I asked Walt
Fame for our time, there will be trouble over
how closely Lincoln's mouth actually shaped
the name of Walt Disney.
the words I had heard. For answer Walt turned
Some judges will list him as an artist; others
to an assistant.
will call him an educator. Still others may in-
"Hear that? A great idea! Find someone who
sist that Disney belongs with the inventors,
reads lips to tell us how good Lincoln's mouth
and some will argue that he was a naturalist.
is. I want him perfect!"
Each, in my view, will have a point, for Walt
That was typical of Walt Disney. He seizes
Disney is all these things. But on one question
ideas and runs with them. Even Disneyland
the historians are bound to agree: Walter Elias
began this way.
Disney was a genius who brought laughter
"Like every father, I used to take my chil-
and knowledge to the world in a distinctive
dren to an amusement park," he told me, "and
American way.
I'd be bored to death. Nothing for me to do.
No country ever had such a corps of good-
And I'd think, why doesn't someone develop
will ambassadors as Mickey Mouse, the vet-
a park where the parent can enjoy himself
eran trouper of 35 years; Donald, the irascible
with the children?"
duck; Snow White and her delightful dwarfs;
Millions of other parents must have had the
and Pluto the pup. Wherever they and their
same thought. The difference is, Walt Disney
companions go-and there is scarcely a coun-
did something about it. He dreamed of an
try that has not welcomed them - they bring
amusement park where family groups chil-
laughter and enduring friendship.
dren, parents, and grandparents could go
Hard on the heels of Walt's antic cartoon
and have fun together, and then he built it.
animals came other, more serious stars the
And as everyone knows, the lure of Disney-
beguiling beavers and otters of In Beaver Val-
land now reaches even to Moscow.
ley, the seals of Seal Island, the African lion,
How highly Walt Disney is regarded by his
Perri the squirrel-actors not merely drawn
fellow Americans was indicated last March
but taken from life. Walt is a superb teacher
when he received the George Washington
of natural history, geography, and history. Dis-
medal, highest award of the Freedoms Foun-
ney's television characters, Davy Crockett and
dation at Valley Forge. Former President
Johnny Shiloh, subtly taught history as they
Eisenhower, serving as Chairman of the Foun-
entertained.
dation's Board of Directors, made the presen-
I recently glimpsed the restless brilliance
tation. He read a citation honoring:
that drives Walt Disney to venture constantly
"Walt Disney, Ambassador of Freedom for
into the new and the untried. We stood in one
the U.S.A.
of his studios, and there Walt introduced me
"For his unfailing professional devotion to
to Abraham Lincoln.
the things which matter most human dignity
Unbelievably, the President put out his
and personal responsibility.
hand and gave me a warm handshake, as if he
"For masterful, creative leadership in com-
were receiving at the White House. Lincoln's
municating the hopes and aspirations of our
eyes met mine, his lips moved, and I was
free society to the far corners of the planet."
greeted with a deep "How do you do?" and
a slight bow. It was a startling, even an eerie,
experience. I almost had doubts that this
was only an electronically operated effigy.
EDITOR
National Geographic Aug. 1963
VIRS
TOYB
/
F
NOVELTIES
The Magic
Worlds of
Walt Disney
By ROBERT DE ROOS
Illustrations by National Geographic
photographer THOMAS NEBBIA
NE AUTUMN EVENING in 1928, a new
O
actor appeared at the Colony Theatre in
New York in a movie called Steamboat
Willie, the first cartoon ever produced with sound.
He had ears bigger than Clark Gable's, legs like
rubber hose, a grin wider than Joe E. Brown's, and
a heart of gold. His name was Mickey Mouse.
Beginning that night, Mickey and his creator,
Walt Disney, grabbed the world's funny bone and
have never lost their grip.
The New York Times praised the new film as
"ingenious."
"A wow!" cried the Weekly Film Review.
Thus was born history's most influential mouse.
Mickey led the way in the development of anima-
tion as a new art, to the exploration of the world
of animals and faraway people and of their adven-
tures and geography.
Mickey Mouse has skipped from triumph to tri-
umph-always preceded by three words in big
letters: "WALT DISNEY PRESENTS."
Mickey is featured in comic strips and books in
15 languages, became the star of television's Mick-
ey Mouse Club, and, finally, founded a magic king-
dom called Disneyland.
Host Walt Disney halts his old-fashioned fire
truck on Disneyland's Main Street and gives
autographs. Each year his magic kingdom near
Anaheim, California, draws five million visitors.
159
KODACHROME © NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
Mickey Mouse as Steamboat Willie
Launches Two Fabulous Careers
First sound cartoon ever released, the
Walt Disney short opened in New York
in 1928. An international celebrity al-
most overnight, the wonder mouse led
his creator to the pinnacle of show busi-
ness. For years, the high-pitched, boy-
ishly breathless voice emerging from the
sound track was Disney's own, and of all
his cartoon characters, Mickey remains
closest to Disney's heart.
©
WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS
KODACHROMES BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHER THOMAS NEBBIA © N.G.S.
Elephants really fly in
Disneyland, a 20-year
dream come true for its
builder. Young at heart
of all ages soar happily
aboard Dumbo, a ride
in Fantasyland.
Mechanical marvel, a
macaw in Disneyland's
Enchanted Tiki Room,
talks, sings, cocks its
head, and puffs out its
chest. Xavier Atencio ac-
tivates the bird with
magnetic tape-a feature
of the new technique of
Audio-Animatronics de-
vised by Disney's "im-
agineers" (pages 204-7).
160
He is Topolino in Italy, Mik-kii Ma-u-su in
Japan, Ratón Mickey in Mexico, Micky Maus
in Germany, Mikki Hiiri in Finland, and just
plain Mickey in scores of other lands. He is
known around the world-always with ap-
probation and love.
Mickey, a versatile fellow, has been every-
thing from farmer and magician to great lover
and fire chief. He has directed planets and
comets in their courses. He has defied time,
space, and gravity. But, though bound to win,
he has always fought the clean fight.
True to character, "Mickey Mouse" was
the designation in World War II for diagrams
of convoy movements toward Normandy's
D-Day beaches, and Mickey rode into battles
as the insigne on hundreds of ships and
planes.
When King Bhumiphol of Thailand pre-
sented Walt Disney with a medal, he said
quietly for Walt's ear alone: "This is an honor
from my government, but more than that, it
comes from me. I grew up on your cartoons."
Franklin Roosevelt demanded Mickey in
HS
EKTACHROME
N.G.S.
the White House. Dowager Queen Mary of
Bathed by klieg lights, Hayley Mills goes
Britain liked to find Mickey on the bill when-
before the cameras in Summer Magic, the
ever she went to the movies.
fourth film the British actress has made for
It can be said that Walter Elias Disney,
Walt Disney Productions. At 17 she receives
the man, and Mickey, the mouse, have made
thousands of fan letters weekly and has been
a lasting impact on mankind.
called the world's best-known teen-ager.
700 Awards From Around the World
Kangaroo rat's valiant battle with a rat-
tlesnake enthralls viewers of Disney's first
Last fall, in Walt Disney's outer office at
feature-length True-Life Adventure, The
the studio in Burbank, California, I got a
Living Desert. Leaping and dancing, the rat
glimpse into the dimensions of this durable
kicks up a small cloud of sand, driving the
pair, 35 years after the mouse clicked in the
serpent away. The episode illustrates Dis-
fertile Disney mind.
ney's technique of capturing intimate
In cases ranged along the walls, on shelves
moments in the lives of animals.
and tables are some of the more than 700
WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS
awards the Disney organization has received
(page 167). There are dozens of medals, cita-
tions, and plaques from appreciative govern-
ments attesting the international amity
created by Disney's make-believe characters
-Mickey, Donald, Goofy the dog, and all
the others.
Walt once sent a proud director home with
a newly won Oscar. "How did the family
like it?" he-asked next day.
"The kids weighed it first thing," the direc-
tor said. "You might like to know an Oscar
weighs 6 pounds, 12 ounces on our bathroom
scale."
The Author: Free-lance writer Robert de Roos
has contributed two previous articles to the GEO-
GRAPHIC-"Los Angeles" (October, 1962) and
"Booming Arizona" (March, 1963). He is a former
newspaperman and the author of four books.
161
162
National Geographic, August, 1963
The awards from the film industry mean
"You know, I was stumped one day when
most to Walt. But he is proud that conserva-
a little boy asked, 'Do you draw Mickey
tion groups have also recognized his interest
Mouse?' I had to admit I do not draw any
in protecting wildlife. He is proudest, per-
more. 'Then you think up all the jokes and
haps, of the Audubon Society Medal awarded
ideas?' 'No,' I said, 'I don't do that.' Finally,
in 1955.
he looked at me and said, 'Mr. Disney, just
Walt's office has become so crowded that
what do you do?'
recently four cabinets of awards were placed
"Well," I said, 'sometimes I think of myself
in the studio commissary. Some of the em-
as a little bee. I go from one area of the studio
ployees promptly nicknamed the commissary
to another and gather pollen and sort of stim-
"the awards room."
ulate everybody.' I guess that's the job I do. I
certainly don't consider myself a business-
Disney Films Used in Teaching
man, and I never did believe I was worth
Although Walt constantly denies he is an
anything as an artist."
educator, his nature films, which he calls
Until a few years ago, Walt was president
True-Life Adventures, have received acco-
of the company, Walt Disney Productions.
lades from educators. Films like Seal Island,
He resigned and was made board chairman.
In Beaver Valley, and The Living Desert were
His older brother Roy became president.
pioneering achievements. Walt's early edict
Then Walt, tired of signing things, resigned
for them and all the True-Life Adventure
as chairman too.
pictures was to get the complete natural his-
Walt laughed at the memory. "Now my
tory of the animals with no sign of humans:
only title is executive producer. I'm the boss
no fences, car tracks, buildings, or telephone
of everything that's produced here. I work on
poles. This concept, plus the intimacy, the
story ideas and gags; I work on every script,
extreme close-up view of the animal, com-
writing dialogue and planning scenes. When
pletely won the public.
the story is set, I turn it over to the boys, and
The True-Life Adventures; films of the
they make it.
nomadic Blue Men of Morocco, Japanese fish-
"We film 25 new stories for television and
ermen, Siam, the Alaskan Eskimo, and Swit-
six feature-length pictures a year-and, of
zerland; Donald Duck's adventures in Math-
course, we think up ideas for the park, Dis-
magic Land; the man-in-space series, with
neyland. The corporation gets its vitality from
technical advice by Wernher von Braun; Dis-
what we create."
ney safety films, and many others are a solid
The corporation exhibits considerable vi-
part of the curriculum for thousands of school
tality: In 1962 this magic world showed a
children, not only in the U.S. but abroad-in-
gross income of $74,059,000-more than
cluding countries under Communist control.
$20,000,000 from Disneyland alone-and a
I first saw Walt Disney sitting at a low cof-
net of $5,263,000.
fee table, wearing his usual working garb: a
short-sleeved sport shirt with a woolen tie,
The Secret Life of Mickey Mouse
slacks, and a sleeveless alpaca sweater.
All this vitality stems from a mouse that
An aerial photograph of Disneyland domi-
was conceived in desperation, gestated in
nated one wall. There were photographs of his
secrecy, and almost died at birth.
family, including his five grandchildren; the
In the fall of 1927, Walt Disney returned to
Disney coat of arms; his first Academy Award.
Hollywood from New York without a staff
"That first Oscar was a special award for
and without a star. He had gone east to nego-
the creation of Mickey Mouse," he said.
tiate a new contract for his series Oswald
"The other Academy Awards belong to our
the Rabbit. His distributor refused to meet
group, a tribute to our combined effort.
his price and threatened to lure his whole
The whole thing here is the organization.
organization away.
And the big problem was putting the organi-
"I've already signed all your animators,"
zation together.
the distributor told Walt.
"Look at Disneyland," he went on, waving
Walt and Lillian Disney, his bride of two
toward the aerial photograph. "That was
years, had a doleful trip across the continent.
started because we had the talent to start it,
Walt needed a whole staff of animators. He
the talents of the organization."
also needed a new character-fast.
"What's your role?" I asked.
The idea for Mickey Mouse was born on
©
WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS
Too young to enlist in the Armed
Forces in World War I, 16-year-old
Walt Disney volunteered as a Red
Cross ambulance driver. He arrived
in France shortly after the Armistice
and drove everything from this cut-
down ambulance to five-ton trucks.
His salary: $40 a month. But he made
extra money by painting the Croix
de Guerre on soldiers' leather jackets
at 10 francs each. Drawing on the
ambulance canvas is Disney's work.
1923: Young Cameraman Shoots
Footage in a Hollywood Backyard
From Kansas City, Missouri, Disney
followed his artistic, star to Cali-
fornia. His equipment: boundless
ambition hitched to a fantastic imag-
ination. With his brother Roy he start-
ed making animated cartoons in a
dingy office. Experience gained from
the first shorts-Alice in Cartoonland
and Oswald the Rabbit-gave birth
to Mickey Mouse. Here he tests an
early movie camera, a Pathé model.
163
©
WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS
Story session of the 1930's runs late into the night as Disney (center) and his staff plan
a Silly Symphony cartoon. Rough drawings, tacked to the board, outline the basic plot.
Pinto Colvig, pointing with pencil, originated the voices of Goofy, the affable dog, and
two of the dwarfs, Grumpy and Sleepy, in Snow White (opposite).
the train. "I've got it," Walt told Lilly. "I'll
her sister, and Roy's wife Edna did the job. A
do a series about a mouse. I'm going to call
cameraman returned to the studio at night
him Mortimer Mouse."
to put the pictures on film.
Lilly Disney frowned. "I like the idea, but
When Walt took the movie to New York,
Mortimer sounds too dignified for a mouse."
distributors were not interested. They were
Walt thought a few minutes. "All right,
also not interested in a second Mickey, pro-
we'll call him Mickey Mouse. Mickey has a
duced while Walt was traveling.
good, friendly sound."
In Hollywood, Walt and Roy Disney and
Mickey Saved by Plinks and Toots
chief animator Ub Iwerks, now director of
Mickey was close to death. But he was
technical research, began work on Mickey.
literally saved by the bell-bells, whistles,
The defecting animators were still at the stu-
plinks, and toots. Sound had made its first real
dio finishing the Oswald contract, and Walt
impact on motion pictures with the release of
did not want them to know he was starting a
The Jazz Singer in the fall of 1927. Walt de-
new series. So Ub Iwerks was sequestered in
cided to try it.
a locked office, and there in four hectic weeks,
He and Iwerks rigged a homemade radio
he animated an entire Mickey Mouse cartoon.
with a microphone. They put up a white sheet
That first Mickey was entitled Plane Crazy,
as a screen and, with two helpers, stood at
a bit of nonsense inspired by the Lindbergh
the mike behind it with noisemakers, a mouth
flight. To get the drawings inked and painted
organ, and a xylophone. For six hours, Roy
on celluloid for the camera, Walt set up tables
projected a short bit of animation from Steam-
in his garage at home. There, Lillian Disney,
boat Willie, the third Mickey film. The sound
164
Princess Holds Court in a Forest Glen: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Audiences throughout the world are still charmed by this idyllic tale of a fair young prin-
cess threatened by a cruel queen and befriended by lovable dwarfs. The 1938 film,
Disney's first feature-length cartoon, has been reissued three times in the United States
alone. Two of its nine songs, "Heigh Ho" and "Just Whistle While You Work," now rank
as perennial favorites of popular American music.
165
©
WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS
makers watched the image and whanged
ground easily explains his success, though he
away. It was ragged, but it convinced them
began to draw at an early age.
that sound was for cartoons.
His father, Elias Disney, was a carpenter
Walt hurried to New York with the film,
in Chicago when Walter Elias Disney was
and there Steamboat Willie was completed
born there in December of 1901. When Walt
with sound. And it was ingenious and funny
was four, the family-there were three older
sound which transcended the mere novelty
brothers and a younger sister-moved to
of actors singing or mouthing lines.
Marceline, Missouri. Walt still recalls the
Sound was added to the first two Mickeys.
horsecar ride to the railroad station.
Suddenly and dramatically, everybody want-
At Marceline, one of Walt's first chores
ed the talking mouse.
was to herd the pigs on the family farm. The
Walt and the mouse have come a long way
Disneys were forced to sell the farm, and in
since. Nothing about Walt Disney's back-
1910 moved to Kansas City, Missouri. There
©
WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS
EKTACOLOR BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHER
Child star Shirley Temple presents producer Walt
Disney with a special award for Snow White-an Oscar
and seven miniature Oscars-at ceremonies of the Acad-
emy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1939.
Accolades from around the world surround Disney.
His collection of more than 700 includes 28 Oscars, 5
Emmys from the National Academy of Television Arts
and Sciences, and the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award
of 1942 for "the most consistent high quality of produc-
tion achievement." Cut-glass-and-silver pitcher is a trib-
ute from the First Soviet Cinema Festival in 1935.
166
Walt's father bought a paper route with 800 customers. Roy
"How do you make car-
and Walt were delivery boys. They started work at 4:30 in
toons?" asked the GEO-
the morning and made their rounds on foot.
GRAPHIC Editor. In answer,
The family moved back to Chicago in 1917. Walt went
the master himself picked
to high school, attended the Academy of Fine Arts, and took
up the telephone and sum-
moned this rollicking troop
correspondence courses in cartooning. He also worked at
of world-famous Disney
the post office sorting mail and delivering letters.
characters. Full of squeaks
"As long as I can remember, Walt has been working,"
and quacks, smiles and
Roy Disney told me. "He worked in the daytime and he
frowns, they play the roles
worked at night. Walt didn't play much as a boy. He still
of their animator-creators-
can't catch a ball with any certainty."
and with high good humor
When Walt was 16, he joined an American Red Cross
poke a bit of fun at them. A
(Continued on page 173)
pleased Walt Disney signed
this GEOGRAPHIC original.
167
1. Hi, Mr. G.O. Graphic-welcome to
ANIMATION
Walt Disney Studio! If you'll just follow
me, I'll show you how we make our
cartoon motion pictures. We start right
here in our STORY DEPARTMENT.
Mickey Mouse explains
Whenever Chip and Dale get an idea;
they develop it with story sketches,
the art to Mr. G.O. Graphic
then pin the sketches up on a storyboard
like a comic strip. They're working on,
our feature-length cartoon The Sword
in the Stone. Looks like Dale is doing
all the work while Chip waits for an
idea to hit him.
©
WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS
2. In the SOUND DEPARTMENT we record
mood and atmosphere. And it takes a lot of
our music, sound effects, and voices. Music is
auditioning sessions to select the right voice to
168
important in telling a story, to give it the right
fit a cartoon character's personality.
3. The ANIMATOR is the artist who
puts life into a cartoon character. He has
to be somewhat of an actor himself to
catch just the right movement or expres-
sion in a mirror and draw it. The
DIRECTOR-that's me-tells the ani-
mator how he wants the scene played.
At times, Donald here has to play a
crocodile or maybe an elephant.
Don't be alarmed if he starts to
hoot and flap his arms; today he
happens to be Archimedes the Owl.
To get an idea of what the real
animals look like, our animators
often refer to photographs in your
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC.
4. This artist-maybe you recognize him,
he's been with us a long time-is painting
a background drawn by a LAYOUT MAN.
Goofy gets more paint on his smock than
on the paper. It looks messy, but he calls it
"artistic license."
5. These pretty little girls are INKERS
and PAINTERS. They trace the animator's
drawings onto sheets of transparent
celluloid. They use a COLOR MODEL GUIDE
to paint the proper colors.
169
© WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS
6. Our CAMERAMEN place the
celluloid drawings, one at a time, over the
right painted background and photograph
them. This gives us a series of composite pictures
of cartoon characters in appropriate settings.
It takes 16 separate drawings to produce the action in
each foot of film, or 1,440 drawings for just one minute on the
screen. You can see that a feature-length film runs into thousands
of drawings-and a big budget! In The Sword in the Stone
227,840 drawings are used-each one different.
©
WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS
170
7. Ludwig von Drake, our FILM
EDITOR, splices the different scenes
together to make a master reel.
8. Look at this strip of film. You
can see how many drawings it takes
-18-for Archimedes the Owl to
flap his wings just once!
1. Here in our PROJECTION ROOM we
ill look at the results. On the screen you
an see a scene from The Sword in the
Stone. If we find any changes
necessary-and someone
probably will-it's "back to the
old drawing board." Well, let's
go in and see how the picture
came out!
171
©
1962 WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS
Artist Sylvia Cobb draws on a sheet of celluloid. Her sketch, one
of more than 200,000 drawings used in Disney's newest animated
feature, The Sword in the Stone, will later be photographed over
a painted background (below). Four years in the making, the mu-
sical comedy tells the story of how young King Arthur is tutored
for his reign by Merlin the Wizard and Merlin's pet owl, Archi-
medes. The film, which is based on a book by T. H. White, will
be released this Christmas.
ANIMATION SCENES © WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS
Musicians score a cartoon
as Professor Ludwig von
Drake prances across a
sound-stage screen. Over-
head microphones pick up
the individual instruments
and record them on three
sound tracks. A later proc-
ess transfers the three to a
single track.
Viselike platen holds a
celluloid drawing of the
long-bearded Merlin over a
painted background, while
an overhead camera (not
shown) photographs it for
a single frame of film. Each
brief bit of action by a car-
toon character requires
hundreds of such frames.
Another scene from the
movie adorns the wall.
172
HS EKTACHROME (ABOVE) AND KODACHROMES BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHER THOMAS NEBBIA © N.G.S.
unit as an ambulance driver, but he did not
"The mouse gave us an opportunity to im-
get overseas until after the Armistice (page
prove the cartoon medium," Walt says. Ex-
163). He had 11 months in France, then went
periment and expansion began in 1929 with
to Kansas City and set up as a commercial
the first Silly Symphony, in which music
artist. He finally landed with the Kansas City
played a key role.
Film Ad Company in 1920, preparing an-
Walt worked at the studio all day and every
imated commercials for silent-movie houses.
night. Only in recent years has he mastered
Walt recalls those days. "The pull toward
the compulsion to work all the time. "I still
Hollywood became strong. Animation was
take scripts home," he told me, "but I don't
big there, and if I couldn't be successful at
read them at night. It's a temptation to peek,
that, I wanted to be a director or a writer."
but I wait until morning. I used to read at
In 1923 he went off to Hollywood with $40
night and then worry until morning. I used
in hand, and for two months tried to hitch on
to be tied up all night, but no more."
at the studios. His $40 disappeared.
Donald Duck Becomes a Star
"Before I knew it, I had my animation
board out," Walt recalls. He finally got an
Walt's next enthusiasm was Technicolor's
offer for twelve cartoons-Alice in Cartoon-
new three-color process for film. A Silly Sym-
land-at $1,500 each.
phony, Flowers and Trees, was already fully
"I talked my big brother Roy into going in
photographed in black and white. Walt de-
with me," Walt told me. "I couldn't get a job,
cided to remake it in Technicolor. It was a
so I went into business for myself."
gamble, since Technicolor was extraordinar-
Business was good. Alice was followed by
ily expensive.
the successful Oswald the Rabbit series. Then
The picture was made in color and caused
came Mickey.
a revolution in the animated-cartoon indus-
173
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC 1900-1962
KODACHROMES © NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
"A truly invaluable research tool," Disney calls
the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. "We use it all the
Balconied buildings of New Orleans Square,
time." Here he pulls out an issue in the studio
a future Disneyland attraction, will display the
library and from it gleans information on period
lacy ironwork shown in the February, 1953, GEO--
costumes needed in'a forthcoming film.
GRAPHIC. Art director Herbert Ryman uses the
illustration to create a preliminary sketch.
174
try. In 1932 it became the first cartoon to win
an Oscar. Some of Walt's funniest pictures
were Silly Symphonies-notably The Three
Little Pigs and The Tortoise and the Hare.
In 1934 Donald Duck made his first sput-
tering appearance in The Wise Little Hen.
That egregious fellow became an immediate
hit-and now has surpassed Mickey as the
star of the stable.
"We're restricted with the mouse," Walt
told me. "He's become a little idol. The duck
can blow his top and commit mayhem, but if
I do anything like that with the mouse, I
get letters from all over the world. 'Mickey
wouldn't act like that,' they say."
Scenes Gain Depth and Motion
As the pictures were ground out, the art of
animation progressed. Characters were being
drawn in the round and in perspective, as
contrasted with the first flat figures. But Walt
was never satisfied.
"I knew that locomotion was the key," he
told me. "We had to learn to draw motion.
Look, pull your hand across your face and
you'll see what I mean. You don't see a sin-
gle hand; it's sort of stretched and blurred.
We had to learn the way a graceful girl walks,
how her dress moves, what happens when a
mouse stops or starts running."
Acrobats in slow-motion, three-toed sloths
Disney set up an elaborate school for his
of the Amazon perform for photographers
artists. "It was costly, but I had to have the
in the Disney film Jungle Cat.
ready for things we would eventually do."
What "we would eventually do" was Snow
Hero of In Beaver Valley, one of Disney's
White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first feature-
most popular nature shorts, ventures up
length cartoon. When word of this project
from beneath the ice on a winter patrol
got around Hollywood, many movie people
of Montana's Georgetown Lake. Moments
said Disney was making his biggest mistake.
later he narrowly eluded a starving coyote.
175
"They were thinking of the shorts-thought
we were just going to string some together,"
Walt said. "But we had a story to tell. They
couldn't get that through their heads."
While his artists were training, Walt had
technicians working on a new kind of camera
he planned to use for Snow White. He was no
longer satisfied with just round figures; now
he wanted the illusion of depth. To achieve
this, he developed the radically different
"multiplane" camera-and won an Academy
Award for it.
In photographing animated films, three
separate drawings are usually involved, each
done on a sheet of transparent celluloid. One
shows the foreground, one the animated fig-
ures, and the last the background. Before the
multiplane camera, the three celluloids were
simply stacked together and the camera shot
through them all, giving a flat image. With
© WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS
the multiplane, more than three celluloids
dollars, and the bankers became restive before
could be used, and they could be placed in
it was completed. Walt reluctantly had to
different planes, sometimes as much as three
show a man from the bank the unfinished
feet apart. The camera could focus in and out
product to try to retain their confidence.
among these planes to give an astonishing
"We needed a quarter of a million dollars
effect of depth and motion.
to finish the picture, so you can guess how
Snow White brought up a new problem.
I felt.
"We had to learn how to put personality into
"He sat there and didn't say a word," Walt
the characters," Walt told me. "Up to Snow
told me. "Finally the picture was over and
White, we'd just had stock characters."
he walked to his car, with me following him
A Disney artist enlarged on the theme.
like a puppy dog. Then he said, 'Well, so long.
"Remember in Snow White when the dwarfs
You'll make a pot of money on that picture.'
had the pillow fight and Dopey ended up with
So we got the money."
a single feather?" he asked. "Remember how
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (page
he fluffed it out and lay down with it under
165) went on to make theatrical history and
his head? It was funny, but more, it was
brought many honors to Disney. In 1938 Yale
Walt's way of expressing what kind of char-
gave him an honorary master of arts. In pre-
acter Dopey is and creating audience sym-
senting him as a candidate for the degree,
pathy for him."
Professor William Lyon Phelps said:
Snow White cost one and a half million
"One touch of nature makes the whole
176
©
WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS
Lord of the Amazon, a jaguar proves
as agile in the treetops as on the
ground. Photographers armed only
with cameras recorded the beast's
life cycle in Jungle Cat.
Dive-bombing falcon swoops down
on a prairié dog in The Vanishing
Prairie, filmed in South Dakota, Wyo-
ming, and Montana. Racing for its
tunnel, the rodent barely escapes the
bird's needlelike talons.
Tarantula and rattlesnake square
off in a scene from The Living Desert.
The battle-rarely seen, much less
photographed-ended in a draw.
Patience is a requisite for Disney na-
ture cameramen; one team waited six
weeks for an alligator's egg to hatch.
177
178
National Geographic, August, 1963
world kin, and Walter Disney has charmed
fur seals coming up from the sea to crowded
millions of people in every part of the earth.
island beaches in the Pribilofs, there to calve
He has endeared America to the hearts of
and mate.
foreigners."
The Milottes caught the cruel and myste-
That same year brought honorary degrees
rious reality of the fur seal-the courting and
from Harvard and the University of Southern
mating, the fury of the bulls defending their
California. (In 1960 Walt received an honor-
harems against bachelor seals, with babies
ary diploma from the Marceline, Missouri,
being trampled and crushed in the turmoil.
high school, which was pleasant, since he had
And, in the end, the eerie disappearance of
never finished high school.)
the herds into the sea.*
After Snow White came other feature-
The picture was Seal Island. It won an
length cartoons: Pinocchio, Fantasia, and
Oscar as 1948's best two-reel subject.
Bambi. Fantasia, released in 1940, started
This success was followed by another, In
out to be a kind of esuper Silly Symphony
Beaver Valley. Walt will go to the nth degree
for Mickey Mouse, with Leopold Stokowski
to get perfection, and for this film he kept
directing a full orchestra in The Sorcerer's
cameraman-naturalist Milotte in the wilds
Apprentice. Walt built it into something more,
for more than a year, studying the beaver's
a brilliant combination of animation and fine
life habits as he photographed. Out of Mi-
music-from Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony
lotte's footage came the story of a talented,
to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Fantasia intro-
fascinating animal (page 175).
duced stereophonic sound 15 years before it
The True-Life Adventure pictures used
was generally used in motion pictures.
techniques learned in cartoons.
"Any time we saw an animal doing some-
Bambi Points Way to Nature Films
thing with style or personality-say a bear
Bambi was the fictionalized story of a deer,
scratching its back-we were quick to cap-
and the animal studies it involved made it
italize on it," says a Disney writer. "Or otters
the forerunner of one of Disney's most im-
sliding down a riverbank-humorous details
portant contributions: the True-Life Adven-
to build personality.
ture films, about live animals in nature.
"This anthropomorphism is resented by
"One thing always leads to another around
some people-they say we are putting peo-
here," Walt told me. "In Snow White, we had
ple into animal suits. But we've always tried
cute little animals, more on the fantasy side.
to stay within the framework of the real scene.
In Bambi we had to get closer to nature. So
Bears do scratch their backs and otters are
we had to train our artists in animal locomo-
playful."
tion and anatomy."
Old Indian Trick Still Works
Walt introduced live animals into the studio,
deer and rabbits and skunks. "But they were
The cameramen spent months in primitive
no good," he says. "They were just pets. So
areas, in African heat, in Alaskan blizzards,
we sent the artists out to zoos, and all we got
in South American jungles. A film by Murl
were animals in captivity. Finally, I sent out
Deusing for a National Geographic Society
some naturalist-cameramen to photograph
lecture formed the basis of many important
the animals in their natural environment.
sequences in Nature's Half Acre, and many
"We captured a lot of interesting things
of the Society's lecturers over the years have
and I said, 'Gee, if we really give these boys
contributed footage to Disney nature films.
a chance, I might get something unique!'
Disney's cameramen-naturalists worked
But the war intervened: Walt Disney Pro-
with telescopic lenses, zoom lenses, time-
ductions became virtually a war plant for the
lapse cameras, and underwater cameras; from
duration. Disney training films for the Army
behind elaborate blinds, high in the treetops,
and Navy, pictures for bond drives, and sim-
and from fixed platforms.
ilar projects made an important contribution
Tom McHugh, photographing a buffalo
to our war effort.
herd for The Vanishing Prairie, found he could
As one of his first postwar projects, Walt
not get close enough, even with a telescopic
sent Alfred Milotte and his wife Elma to
(Continued on page 183)
Alaska. They sent back miles of film. In the
footage-or mileage-Walt stumbled on one
See "The Fur Seal Herd Comes of Age," by Victor B.
Scheffer and Karl W. Kenyon, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC,
of the great stories of nature: the saga of the
April, 1952.
Toy Model T Flies
in Son of Flubber
Miniature car, flown by
remote control, appears
only in long-distance
shots. Plastic figures
resemble actors Fred
MacMurray and Tommy
Kirk. Technician Bob
Mattey prepares the
vehicle for the cameras.
Full-size Model T poses
for close-ups with Mac-
Murray and his dog.
Mounted on a hydraulic
ram, it moves up or down,
revolves 360°, tips in any
direction. Shot against
a special red screen, the
action can be combined
with any background.
KODACHROME BY THOMAS NEBBIA
©
N.G.S.
©
WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS
Windjammer and Stern-wheeler Circle
lens. Then he remembered an Indian
Tom Sawyer Island in Frontierland
trick. He covered himself with a buffalo
Youngsters seeking excitement find it on
skin and sneaked in for close-ups.
the tree-clad island: They can angle for
James Algar, the writer and director
real fish in Catfish Cove, bounce across a
of The Vanishing Prairie, recalls being
gorge on a suspension bridge, peer down into
surrounded by the torrential rush of
the bottomless pit in Injun Joe's Cave,
buffalo.
climb into Tom and Huck's Tree House,
"I'd always heard of the thundering
and explore Fort Wilderness. Log raft at
herd, and the herd thundered all right.
left foreground ferries visitors to and from
But what I had never heard of was the
the island.
sibilant, silken swish which accompa-
Flower-banked paths rim the Rivers of
America. Botanically, it is always spring
nies the stampeding buffalo. It was even
or summer in Disneyland. A staff of 30 gar-
more terrifying than the thunder."
deners tends some 700 species of trees,
Alfred and Elma Milotte spent al-
shrubs, and flowering plants as well as half
most three years in Africa photograph-
a million annual and perennial blooms.
ing The African Lion. One of their no-
THIS PAGE FOLDS OUT
183
table sequences shows a rhinoceros bogged in
The rhino was ungrateful. Once on dry
a water hole, helpless and raging. The exer-
land, he charged the truck, and they barely
tions and grunts of the doomed rhino attracted
managed to get away.
an audience of jungle creatures. Birds added
The Milottes brought back much distin-
their raucous cries. Antelope watched. An
guished footage. They recorded a leopard
elephant surveyed the scene, panicked, and
lurking in a thorn tree above a herd of wilde-
ran away. A baboon sat on the bank thought-
beests, showed him drop on a calf and drag
fully, as though trying to contrive some plan
it back into the tree for his meal. They also
that would be of help.
filmed the kill of an antelope by a lion.
Enraged Rhino Charges Benefactors
Other outstanding film records were pro-
duced by Disney's naturalist-photographers.
In the film the rhino was left to die. Actual-
a bobcat in hot pursuit of a marten; the pri-
ly, the Milottes decided to rescue him. Dodging
vate lives, births, mating, and the search for
the desperate animal, they got a stout rope
food of the pine squirrel, golden eagle, rac-
under his head and rump, tied the line to a
coon, and crow; a goshawk striking a flying
truck, and pulled him free.
squirrel in mid-air.
184
HS EKTACHROME BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHER THOMAS NEBBIA © N.G.S.
They also recorded a goshawk slamming
"When we follow the animals underground,
into photographer Paul Kenworthy's shoulder
we of course expose their tunnels. In Perri,
ashe worked high in a tree to film close-ups
the squirrel goes underground. We spent days-
of its young.
conditioning her to the bright lights needed
As the technique improved, the photogra-
for color photography. Then, when we came
phers worked in compounds-sometimes as
to shoot, she didn't pay any attention to us.
big as 50 acres. "It was a short cut," a writer
We wondered if she had needed conditioning
told me. "We're not faking nature. We gave
at all."
the animals the opportunity to appear before
"Our naturalist-photographers probably
the camera.
wound up knowing as much about ánimals
"Take the spectacular shot of the scream-
they photographed as anyone around-in-
ing bobcat scrambling to the top of a saguaro
cluding the scientists," Walt said. "I don't
in The Living Desert. It may have been taken
think there's an animal on the North Ameri-
in a compound-but it wasn't faked. The cat
can Continent we don't have coverage on."
streaked up that cactus because he was fright-
Merely documenting the lives of wild crea-
ened by wild pigs.
tures was not enough. The cameramen's foot-
185
186
National Geographic, August, 1963
age contained drama, but it took the drama-
gets his and then Mr. Snake gets his
Pepsis
tist's hand to make it coherent.
wasp doesn't use brute strength, but science
A fascinating fragment of one of Walt Dis-
and skill. Should be ballet music. Hawk uses
ney's critiques taken down during a screen-
force and violence. One could follow the other
ing of The Living Desert survives and shows
and have a different musical theme as con-
him at work:
trast."
"In sequence where tortoises are courting,
Walt said: They look like knights in armor,
Nature Documentaries With a Plot
old knights in battle. Give the audience a
Walt has an amazing capacity to dramatize
music cue, a tongue-in-cheek fanfare. The
his work. When he is in a story conference, he
winner will claim his lady fair.
takes the parts himself. Before Snow White
"Pepsis wasp and tarantula sequence: Our
he gave a four-hour performance of the er-
heavy is the tarantula. Odd that the wasp is
tire picture, taking all the parts from Snow
decreed by nature to conquer the tarantula.
White to the smallest rabbit.
When her time comes to lay eggs, she must go
"That one performance lasted us three
out and find a tarantula. Not strength, but
years," an animator told me. "Whenever we'd
skill helps her beat Mr. Tarantula
get stuck, we'd remember how Walt did it
"Then the hawk and the snake. Our other
that night."
heavy is the snake.
With wasp and taran-
Next Walt Disney laid plans for a new kind
tula it's a ballet-or more like a couple of
of animal picture. "We decided to combine
wrestlers. The hawk should follow. Tarantula
nature's truth with fiction," Walt told me.
KODACHROMES (c) NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
Disney's supersecret hideaway, an apartment
above the firehouse in Disneyland, has never
Gas lamps light an old-time street lined by mov-
before been photographed. Furnishings of the
ie theater, tobacconist, apothecary shop, ice-cream
early 1900's match the mood of Main Street (op-
parlor, and penny arcade and candy store-each
posite). Grandchildren play under the eye of Mrs.
building scaled to 65 percent true size. Visitors see
Walt Disney as grandfather telephones.
mustachioed policemen in thimble hats strolling
the sidewalks as horse-drawn trolleys jingle past.
Tricks
BUS
0
KEATON
GRIFFITH SPECTACULA
FIGHTING BLOOD
Towboys
and
20
Sprouting mouse ears testify
that this young Disneylander is a
Mouseketeer, a fan of Mickey's.
Up above the world you fly,
like a teatray in the sky," recited
the Mad Hatter in the story of
Alice in Wonderland. Riding alu-
minum gondolas attached to over-
head cables, Skyway passengers
heed the Hatter as they soar over
the scenic canals of Storybook Land
where the Pirate Ship anchors. its
Jolly Roger fluttering from the top
mast. The aerial link between
Fantasyland and Tomorrowland.
first of its kind in the United States,
cuts through the heart of the Mat-
terhorn (pages 194-5).
"We would use the documentary
material straight from nature, but
give it a plot."
Perri, the story of a squirrel, by
Felix Salten, who also wrote Bambi,
was the first of these. Naturalist-pho-
tographers spent three and a half years
in the Uinta Mountains of Utah, film-
ing the life cycle of every animal in
the cast. They sent back more than
200 miles of film!
"Just viewing their films took
weeks," Winston Hibler, the co-pro-
ducer, told me. "Then it took pains-
taking editing to fit the film to the
story. And by adding music and an-
imation, we produced a paradox-a
true-life fantasy."
Perri was followed by a continuing
series of similar pictures that tell sto-
ries about animals in relation to man.
"The animals have names and we
kind of pull for them," a writer told
me. "Stories are believable as long as
the audience knows the things actual-
ly happened. We have to contrive to
get the animals to do what the plot
calls for without their appearing to be
trained animals. But we aren't asking
them to talk.
"In The Legend of Lobo, for example,
the script called for the main character,
the wolf, to walk a narrow log span-
ning a deep chasm. This was achieved
by training the wolf, first to walk
across a log near the ground, then to
continue to cross the log as it was
raised higher and higher.
188
The Magic Worlds of Walt Disney
189
"When the picture was shot, the wolf actu-
to flying flivvers, floating football players, and
ally crossed a log about 75 feet long spanning
bouncing basketball players."
a chasm several hundred feet deep."
The geographic scope and variety of the
From animal pictures Walt Disney has
Disney activities are awesome. Besides a com-
gone on to live-action pictures about people
pany in the Burbank studio filming a new
on an astounding variety of subjects.
movie called Summer Magic, Walt had camera
Disney stuck to timeless pictures at first:
crews in Florida, Yellowstone Park, and New
Treasure Island, Robin Hood, and Davy
England, a complete production unit in Can-
Crockett-films which can be released many
ada for The Incredible Journey, a production
times. "Then I got to thinking, 'When it comes
unit in Majorca and another in Vienna, a
to making comedy. we're the ones'; so we did
feature cartoon in the works, plus four tele-
The Shaggy Dog. So far it's been seen by 55
vision cartoons, and a Western being shot at
million people." The live-action comedies
the studio ranch.
closely follow the Disney cartoon techniques.
I had been told that Walt makes all major
"We've always made things fly and defy grav-
decisions on all his pictures, and I wondered
ity," Walt told me. "Now we've just gone on
how he kept track of things.
KODACHROMES BY THOMAS NEBBIA (LEFT) AND MELVILLE BELL GROSVENOR (C) N.G.S.
25
190
National Geographic, August, 1963
I found out when I sat in with him as the
We were in the projection room two hours.
"dailies"-excerpts from various pictures-
This, I learned, was how Disney keeps on top
were projected. About fifteen of the staff-
of his many projects. His men send their
musicians, directors, song writers, producers,
product to be appraised. A shipment of film
and writers-came in.
from Europe arrives every Tuesday. Walt
We listened to Burl Ives sing "The Ugly
also makes frequent trips to Europe and
Bug Ball" a dozen times as the camera cov-
flies key personnel to the studio for confer-
ered him from different angles. Sad Sam, the
ences. He is not a memo-writing man.
original shaggy dog, appeared on the screen
"After we tie down the shooting script, it's
with a caterpillar on his nose. We saw a scene
up to the boys to make the pictures," Disney
from a Western played over and over from
told me. "If they run into trouble, I always
different points of view. The dogs in The In-
tell them, 'If you bring me a problem, have
credible Journey went through their paces.
a solution.' Lots of times, their solution is the
Disney himself, in full color, flashed on
answer and it's just a matter of saying O.K."
the screen in a lead-in for his television pro-
gram, The Wonderful World of Color. He be-
Magazine a Friend to Researchers
gan suavely and then blew his lines.
On one of my first trips around the studio,
"I'm not only getting. wrinkles," he said
I saw the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC almost
from the back of the room, "I'm losing my
everywhere I went: in the animators' offices,
eyesight, too." He told a cameraman, "Don't
in the machine shop, on writers' desks. I saw
use that diffusion on me. I look out of focus.
it in the wardrobe department, where it's used
Let the wrinkles show."
in designing the correct clothing for various
The Magic Worlds of Walt Disney
191
countries, and in the staff shop at Disney-
materials and, of course, the phone rang every
land, where the realistic animals are cast for
minute."
Adventureland.
Disneyland really started more than 20
"Looks like I planted them," Walt said,
years ago, when Walt got the idea for an
"but we really use the GEOGRAPHIC. We
amusement park that grownups as well as
couldn't be in business without it" (page 174).
children would enjoy.
When I dropped into the library to inquire
"I had all my drawing things laid out at
about the meticulous research that backs up
home, and I'd work on plans for the park. as
every Disney picture, Koneta Roxby, the chief
a hobby, at night."
of research, told me: "The GEOGRAPHIC is
At the time, amusement parks were dying
one of our basic research sources. We use it
all over the country: "I talked Disneyland,
almost every day.
but no one could see it," Walt recalled. "So
"We certainly used it when Disneyland
I went ahead and spent my own money."
was being built," she went on. "This library
In 1954, for the site of his kingdom, Walt
was a madhouse. There would be ten or
bought 244 acres of land-mostly orange
fifteen people waiting in line for research
groves-25 miles from Los Angeles, near
Shrieks of joy resound as riders twirl
like tops at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party
(below). splash through a glacial lake at
the foot of the Matterhorn (right), and
bounce in air-cushion cars known as Fly-
ing Saucers (lower right).
KODACHROMES BY THOMAS NEBBIA C NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
Anaheim, California. "I wanted flat land that
I could shape," he said.
He surrounded the entire park with a high
earth embankment. "I don't want the public
to see the real world they live in while they're
in the park. I want them to feel they are in
another world."
When the preliminary plans for the park
were completed, the cost estimate was
$4,700,000, but Joe Fowler, who is in charge
of Disneyland, says, "That was only a guess."
The over-all cost to date is approximately
forty-four million dollars!
Disneyland: the Geography of Imagination
At the Disneyland opening, in July, 1955,
a year after the first orange tree was uprooted,
Walt said, "Disneyland will never be com-
pleted. It will grow as long as there is imag-
ination left in the world." It seemed, at the
time, a pleasant sentiment, but few took it
literally. Walt did, and that is why Disney-
land remains unique; he is forever enlarging
it (painting, pages 180-82). Now he is build-
ing an old New Orleans Square, complete
with a bayou boat ride.
Disneyland, on a fall day, is full of warmth
and zest. I paid my respects to the giant
portrait of Mickey Mouse, in living flowers,
that adorns the slanting earth embankment
at the park's main entrance.
I stepped into the Town Square-and right
into Walt Disney's childhood: The Square
with its red-brick Victorian elegances is a
192
KODACHROMES BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHER THOMAS NEBBIA © N.G.S.
Canopied launch glides
past Cambodian temples on
the Jungle Cruise, a simu-
lated safari by boat down
the Mekong, Nile, Congo,
and Amazon Rivers. Live
rubber trees, giant bamboos,
and brilliant blooms of the
hibiscus crowd the banks.
Jaws Agape, Hippos
Threaten a Cruise Boat
At every bend make-believe
danger awaits: head-hunters
brandish spears; gorillas
thump chests; bull elephants
trumpet madly.
Wide-eyed with wonder,
youngsters peer out at a rain
forest. "Approaching the
rapids; we may not make
it!" shouts the captain. But
every launch returns.
193
KODACHEN
Mountaineer Jeff Winslow Scales the Mighty Matterhorn Eight Times Daily
Roped for safety, Winslow ascends the 146-foot peak on pitons driven into its concrete
shell. Cloverleafs of the junior Autopia circle near a "nuclear" submarine (right). Below
the climber, visitors board bobsleds for a breathtaking ride through the hollow mountain.
distillation of Walt's early memories of Chi-
of Disneyland: It is a place for strolling (page
cago and Marceline and Kansas City shortly
187). People stop to peer into the windows f
after the turn of the century.
the apothecary shop and the old-time gener
A gaily cockaded band was tootling. A
store, and to look over the shoulder of a side-
horsecar rolled along, the horse's rubber
walk artist as he sketches a portrait. Most of
shoes making muffled thumps; a double-
the visitors are grownups. As the park statis-
decked bus stood at the curb; and a balloon
tics prove, adult guests outnumber children
seller, hidden behind a great cluster of his
three and a half to one.
wares, looked like a gigantic chrysanthemum.
Over a loud-speaker from the Santa Fe and
Visitors Fooled by Live Swans
Disneyland Railroad station came the meas-
At the end of Main Street, faraway jungle
ured voice of the train announcer:
noises made me turn to the left and enter Ad-
"
now leaving for Adventureland, Fron-
ventureland.
tierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland-
I took the jungle river cruise (pages 192-3)
all aboarrrd!"
aboard the sturdy river boat Ganges Gal,
Main Street, U.S.A., sets the tone and pace
which chugged past menacing crocodiles, a
194
BY THOMAS NEBBIA (ABOVE) AND MELVILLE BELL GROSVENOR © N.G.S.
Sparkling paint keeps the Matterhorn
perpetually snowcapped; push buttons
regulate waterfalls. Skyway cars ride
through Glacier Grotto.
ruined temple, and a group of bathing ele-
mented them on the effects they have created
phants. Gorillas and a tremendous African
along the jungle stream. They have made
elephant roared from the tropical vegetation
Disneyland a must for visiting horticulturists.
which choked the banks of the stream.
The park has close to 700 species of plants.
There was some discussion among the pas-
It takes at least 30 gardeners to keep them
sengers about the animals. Were they real?
in trim.
(They were, of course, animated.) But in Dis-
We wandered to the base of the Swiss
neyland, it is sometimes hard to know where
Family Tree House, which opened last fall.
fantasy ends and reality begins. A little later,
I asked what kind of tree it was.
I watched a pair of ladies peer intently at the
"It was modeled after the banyan tree,
live swans sailing on the moat of Sleeping
Ficus benghalensis," said Ray Miller, "but
Beauty Castle.
/
we call it Disneyodendron eximius, which
"They are not real," one lady finally said
means an out-of-the-ordinary Disney tree."
with authority.
The 70-foot tree is a copy of the Swiss
I met Bill Evans and Ray Miller, land-
Family Robinson's tropic domicile, complete
scape architects for the park, and compli-
with furniture salvaged from their ship.
195
I took a short cut through Frontierland
(pages 183-5) just in time to be caught in the
middle of a running gun fight between a
rootin'-tootin' sheriff and a Western bad man.
Happily, they were using blank cartridges,
or the slaughter would have been awesome.
The Mark Twain, the stately white river
packet, was just leaving her dock for a cruise
on the Rivers of America. Across the water,
I saw some energetic boys romping on Tom
Sawyer Island, while others helped Indians
paddle war canoes or rode the high-sided keel
boats, the ones used in Disney's Davy Crock-
ett movie and television series.
In Fantasyland (pages 188-9) I found my-
self face to face with larger-than-life-size
impersonations of famous Disney characters:
the Big Bad Wolf, one of the Three Little Pigs,
Minnie Mouse (page 202). The Mad Hatter,
his rubber jowls quivering, was trapped in a
corner. He was having a hard time defending
himself against a mob of children.
The Most Marvelous Submarine
In Tomorrowland, I boarded the submarine
Skipjack, one of eight submersibles in the
Disney fleet. It took me on one of the incredi-
ble journeys of the world, though it was made
in a mere six million gallons of water rather
than an ocean.
The sub "went under" in a swirl of bubbles
and sailed serenely (guided by sonar, the skip-
per said) through treacherous coral reefs
ablaze with animated tropical fish. Giant tur-
tles- dined on sea grass. Barracudas, sharks,
and a dangerous moray eel loomed from the
shadows. In a plunge to the abyss, we saw
20th-century Transit, Monorail Train
phosphorescent creatures of the deep.
and "Nuclear" Sub Pass in the Night
We passed through the hull of a sunken
America's first daily-operating monorail
ship and glimpsed chests filled with gleam-
train travels on_a concrete beamway, attain-
ing treasure. And, as the skipper explained
ing 45-miles an hour on straightaways.
that we could not expect to see mermaids
Gliding noiselessly; it journeys 2½ miles on
since they were only figments of imagination,
a winding circuit through Tomorrowland
we nosed impolitely into a mermaids' boudoir
to Disneyland Hotel, just outside the park.
(opposite).
"Dive! Dive!" roars the squawk box of the
The sub visited the lost continent of At-
Skate as it skims over its coral lagoon. The
lantis, went under the polar ice cap, and
order sounds real, and it is-tape-recorded
finally passed what may be the largest sea
on a U.S. Navy submarine in action. Run-
serpent in the world. Certainly the largest
ning on a submerged track, the vessel seems
cross-eyed sea serpent.
to embark into liquid space. Passengers peer
through portholes at the drowned continent
When I talked with Joe Fowler, the retired
of Atlantis and a graveyard of ships. They
admiral who is vice president for Disneyland
hear the grunts, whistles, and clicks of fish
operations, he said his former Navy col-
and shrimp-again genuine sounds recorded
leagues are delighted with the submarines.
in ocean depths.
One, a sub skipper, said, "That's the only
time I've ever been on a sub and could see
Snow-white mermaids with flowing tress-
where I was going."
es preen with mirrors and try on necklaces
"We were apprehensive that some guests
found in sunken treasure chests.
196
KODACHROMES BY THOMAS NEBBIA © NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
SARTE
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The Magic Worlds of Walt Disney
199
might suffer from claustrophobia in the
in the design, and the trains were built
subs," Fowler told me. "But in my Navy
at the Disney studio. The monorail is
experience, I had learned that few peo-
the first of its type-a "piggy-back" de-
ple suffer from claustrophobia if you
sign in which the cars are locked to
have moving air and something to see.
the track.
That's why there's an air jet in front
I rode the monorail from the Disney-
of every porthole."
land Hotel to the park several times. A
uniformed girl handed me aboard the
How to Build a Mountain
long silver train. It started gently,
Fowler has one besetting problem:
smoothly. We glided over the magic
"Almost everything we undertake in
kingdom at 20 miles an hour, silently
the park has never been done before,"
surveying the wonders below like some
he told me.
satellite from space. Most passengers,
He cited the Matterhorn as an ex-
myself included, leave the monorail
ample (pages 194-5). The 146-
foot-high mountain, which is one
hundredth the height of the real
Matterhorn, contains 500 tons of
structural steel, and almost no
two pieces are the same length,
size, or weight.
The Disney Matterhorn is a
close copy of the real mountain.
Disney designers studied hun-
dreds of pictures of the rugged
peak, pictures taken during the
filming of Third Man on the
Mountain. Like the original, it
also has its mountain climbers,
athletes in alpine attire who scale
and rappel it eight times daily.
Whereas the real Matterhorn is
extremely solid, the Disneyland
version is hollow and houses an
exciting bobsled ride.
I rode one of the bobsleds and
was lifted high inside the moun-
tain. Then my bobsled dipped
over a sharp edge and I was on
my own-moving around curves,
through icy grottos, past water-
falls, and under the Skyway's ski-
lift buckets, which take visitors
through the mountain for a view
of the ice caves. Finally my bob-
sled dashed into a tumbling moun-
tain stream, which braked it, and
the ride was over.
One of the greatest attractions
Ageless as the fictional fairy, 72-year-old aerial-
is the Disneyland-Alweg Mono-
ist Tiny Kline plays Tinker Bell harnessed to a
rail System which loops in and
cable (opposite). But she travels to work by bus:
out of the park (page 197). Disney
"I'm afraid to ride in a car on the freeways," she
and Alweg engineers collaborated
says. "They're not safe."
Tinker Bell soars over Sleeping Beauty Castle. Fireworks explode a shower of col-
or each summer evening when Peter Pan's good fairy flies down from the Matterhorn.
KODACHROMES © NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
Western Mine Train rides a trestle
across Bear River in Nature's Wonder-
land. Passengers see beavers building
dams, bull elk in battle, Gila mon-
sters, peccaries, and marmots-all
animated figures.
Diving for dinner (upper right),
Disney-built brown bear catches a
trout while another draws a bead on
a leaping fish.
Colored fountains spout high among
glistening stalagmites and stalactites
in Rainbow Caverns, the climax of the
Mine Train tour.
200
The Magic Worlds of Walt Disney
201
convinced it is the answer for rapid transit tailed skin is cast from ³/₈-inch Duraflex,
of the future.
which Washo described as à "hot-melt vinyl
I wandered backstage at Disneyland to
reformulated for strength."
visit Bud Washo, the head of the staff shop.
"Hardly anything affects it," Washo said.
There I got a glimpse of the Disney future,
"It can take weather, most oils, or gases. It's
though its subject matter in this case was
enormously flexible and durable."
the dim past.
When the casts are finished, the figures are
At WED Enterprises in Glendale, where
trucked carefully to the studio machine shop,
all the design work for Disneyland is done, I
where their animation machinery is installed
had watched Blaine Gibson modeling a series
(page 203).
of small-scale dinosaurs, cave men, and other
Dinosaur Will Go to World's Fair
prehistoric creatures. Now Bud Washo took
me into a barnlike room where Gibson's di-
I pointed to a sail-backed dinosaur which
nosaurs were being re-created-life-size An
was being fitted into its skin and asked:
enraged Tyrannosaurus rex with a two-foot
"What will that one do?"
mouthful of six-inch teeth is something to
"It will be able to swish its tail from side
stand beside-even if it is just clay.
to side, open its mouth, flex up and down like
Once the clay figures are completed, plaster
a lizard, and the sail will sway," Washo said
molds are made, and then the carefully de-
matter-of-factly.
KODACHROMES BY THOMAS NEBBIA (BELOW AND FAR LEFT) AND MELVILLE BELL GROSVENOR © N.G.S.
202
National Geographic, August, 1963
"Where will the dinosaurs and cave men
of plastic birds, opening and closing their
be used?" I asked.
beaks, turning their heads, and flipping their
"They're for the Ford Motor exhibit at the
tails.
1964 World's Fair in New York," Bud said.
Walt stopped to talk to a machinist. I looked
Plastic Birds Come to Life
at one of the birds. Without its feathers, the
creature was a mass of wiring and air tubes.
One day after lunch, Walt grabbed my arm.
As I watched, this unearthly bird puffed out
"Come on." he said. "I want to show you
its chest and began to sing.
something."
A machinist told me that every bird con-
We walked in the bright sunshine between
tains five air lines and four sets of wires, plus
the stages on the movie studio lot and turned
a tiny loud-speaker.
into the machine shop. Four elephants with-
"This is the latest thing we've done with
out skins sat in a row, gravely nodding their
Audio-Animatronics," Walt said. "We are
heads. On a bench lay what looked very much
using the new types of valves and controls
like a human hand, closing and opening silent-
developed for rockets. That way we can get
ly. Farther down, a prehistoric man waved
extremely subtle motions."
his arm; someone had incongruously placed
"About that word," I said, "Audio-Anima-
a handkerchief in his hand.
tronics."
On the machinists' benches stood a variety
"It's just animation with sound, run by
electronics," he smiled. "Audio-Anima-
tronics. It's an extension of animated
Minnie Mouse nuzzles a new friend at Disneyland,
drawings.
where employees costumed as Disney characters stroll
the grounds. Official greeter Mickey Mouse may be the
"We take an inanimate object and
world's most photographed man. About half the visitors
make it move. Everything is pro-
bring cameras, and he grants countless requests to pose.
grammed on tape: the birds' move-
ments, lighting effects, and sounds. We
KODACHROME BY THOMAS NEBBIA © N.G.S.
turn on the tape and the birds do their
stuff. At the end, the tape automatically
rewinds itself and starts all over again.
With tape we could present a program
of an hour and six minutes without re-
peating anything."
"Is anyone else doing this kind of
thing?"
"I don't know anyone crazy enough,"
Walt laughed.
Disney Birds Sing Popular Songs
Several weeks later, Walt invited me
to the studio for a showing of the com-
pleted mock-up for the Enchanted Tiki
Room, scheduled to open in the park
this summer.
Now all the birds had been bedecked
in colorful feathers, and were individ-
ually lighted. Four macaws opened the
show with a line of chatter and then
swung into a lively calypso number,
followed by Offenbach's "Barcarole."
A fountain jetted in time to the music
under colored lights.
The fountain sent up a particularly
high jet and, as it fell back into the
bowl, a Bird-Mobile slowly descended
from the ceiling, bearing yellow and
white cockatoos. They broke loose with
HS EKTACHROME (ABOVE) AND KODACHROME ©
N.G.S.
"Buttering up" a cave man, technicians solder
a shoulder to cover activating mechanism. The
Lifelike baby elephant, a plastic creation, rides
figure goes into the exhibit Disney is making for
off to enliven the Jungle Cruise. Voyagers will see
the Ford Motor Company's display at the New
it wiggling in the shallows and squirting water in-
York World's Fair in 1964-65.
to the jaws of a crocodile. New totem poles will
dress Frontierland's Indian Village.
18:00
DO
"Let's All Sing Like the Birdies Sing,"
and brought down the house.
There was much more: songs sung
by orchids and bird-of-paradise
flowers; a rain storm; chants by tikis
-carvings representing various
native gods-accompanied by ani-
mated drummers. It is a tremendous
show-the climax of more than two
years' work at a cost of approximate-
ly a million dollars.
Abraham Lincoln Returns to Life
I went out into the street again
with Walt and Wathel Rogers, who
supervised the Enchanted Tiki
Room. We entered another building
"Buenos días," chirps Jose the macaw as he greets
and I got a shock; I almost bumped
audiences in the Enchanted Tiki Room, named for
smack into Abraham Lincoln!
its carved images of Polynesian gods. Here, in a
The illusion was alarming. The
double exposure, Jose's head moves back and forth
tall, lonely man sits in a chair much
as he talks. He is one of 70 performing birds in
as in the Lincoln Memorial in Wash-
this showcase for Audio-Animatronics
ington, D. C. But this is no cold stone
figure; this Lincoln is man-size-and
Singing orchids harmonize with birds on golden
so realistic it seems made of flesh
perches. An artisan decorates a cage prior to the
and blood (pages 206-07).
opening of the Tiki Room this summer. Visitors
now see a 17-minute show with bird-and-flower
Wathel Rogers made adjustments
versions of "Barcarole," "Let's All Sing Like the
at an electronic console, and Lincoln's
Birdies Sing," and "Hawaiian War Chant."
eyes ranged the room. His tongue
moved as if to moisten his lips and
Exotic songster takes shape for the Tiki Room.
he cleared his throat. Then with a
Like the other birds, it has a plastic body but its
slight frown, he clasped the arms of
feathers are real. Impulses from a tape recorder
his chair, stood up, and began to talk
activate built-in air cylinders, here exposed, that
in measured tones.
create motion and sound.
"What constitutes the bulwark of
our own liberty and independence?"
he asked.
And then he answered: "Our re-
liance is in the love of liberty which
God has planted in us
"
To get an idea of the tremendous
animation job this is, try it yourself.
Sit in an armchair and pull yourself
to your feet, observing how many
muscles are called into play and the
subtle balance required.
The Lincoln skin is the same Du-
raflex that has worked so well on the
other Audio-Animatronic figures.
"Duraflex has a consistency much
like human skin," Rogers said. "It
flexes as well as compresses. Rubber,
for example, will flex, but won't com-
press correctly for our needs."
Rogers described the mechanics:
16 air lines to the Lincoln head, 10
air lines to the hands and wrists,
14 hydraulic lines to control the
204
KODACHROMES © NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
CIV,
Will
Electronic Wizardry Produces
a Lincoln Who Stands and Talks
Battery of machines at left records
on magnetic tape the voice and move-
ments of the robot. Responding to
the tape, an intricate system of pis-
tons inside the plastic figure enables
it to make 22 different motions.
Disney engineers built the Lincoln
image for the "One Nation Under
God" exhibit, a future Disneyland
attraction. In the Hall of Presidents
it will sit among life-size statues of
the 33 other Chief Executives. At the
finale, the effigy will rise from a chair
(opposite) and make a three-minute
speech of famous excerpts from Lin-
coln's addresses.
Muscles of Steel Flex
the Face of Lincoln
Large coil on the top of the head pow-
ers the jaw (lower left). After covering
the head with a rigid plastic skull,
a technician zips up the skin of flexi-
ble plastic (below). An artificial-eye
maker supplied the plastic eyes, a
wigmaker the human hair.
Mechanical Lincoln raises eye-
brows and lifts the tongue while
speaking (opposite, lower); the actions
employ two of its 15 facial expressions.
The figure's makers used Lincoln's
life mask as their guide.
KODACHROMES © N.G.S.
body, and two pairs of wires for every line.
Rogers ran the Lincoln face through some
of its 15 expressions. Lincoln smiled at me
(first on one side of his face, then the other).
He raised each eyebrow quizzically, one at
a time, then, fixing me with a glance, frowned
and chilled my marrow. And just to show he
wasn't really angry, he ended by giving me a
genial wink.
"Lincoln is part of a Disneyland project
called 'One Nation Under God," Wathel
Rogers explained. "It will start with a Circa-
rama presentation of great moments in con-
stitutional crises.
"Circarama is a special motion-picture
technique Walt developed for Disneyland
and the Brussels World's Fair. The Bell Tele-
phone Circarama now at Disneyland tells
the story of the great sights of America. It
has a 360-degree screen. The audience is sur-
rounded by the continuous action, as if they
were moving with the camera and able to see
in all directions.
"The Circarama for the 'One Nation Un-
der God' showing will have a 200-degree
screen. After the Circarama showing, a cur-
tain will close, then open again to reveal the
Hall of Presidents. The visitor will see all the
Chief Executives modeled life-size. He'll think
it's a waxworks-until Lincoln stands up and
begins to talk."
Audio-Animatronio figures are now being
planned for Disneyland's French Quarter
square in old New Orleans. They will also
add chilling realism to the Haunted Mansion
now under construction in Frontierland.
(Visitors who ask about the mansion are told,
"Walt's out capturing ghosts for it now.")
C NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
Never Do the Same Thing Twice
What next? Walt enjoys the past but he
lives for the future.
"The fun is in always building something,"
he told me. "After it's built, you play with it
a little and then you're through. You see, we
never do the same thing twice around here.
We're always opening up new doors."
I asked him a doleful question, "What hap-
pens when there is no more Walt Disney?"
"I think about that," he said. "Every day
I'm throwing more responsibility to other
men. Every day I'm trying to organize them
more strongly.
"But I'll probably outlive them all," he
grinned. "I'm 61. I've got everything I started
out with except my tonsils, and that's above
average. I plan to be around for a while."
THE END
207