Other Secret Stories of Walt Disney World Read online

  OTHER Secret Stories of Walt Disney World

  Other Things You Never Knew You Never Knew

  Jim Korkis

  THEME PARK PRESS

  www.ThemeParkPress.com

  © 2017 Jim Korkis

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher.

  Although every precaution has been taken to verify the accuracy of the information contained herein, no responsibility is assumed for any errors or omissions, and no liability is assumed for damages that may result from the use of this information.

  Theme Park Press is not associated with the Walt Disney Company.

  The views expressed in this book are those of the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect those of Theme Park Press.

  Theme Park Press publishes its books in a variety of print and electronic formats. Some content that appears in one format may not appear in another.

  Editor: Bob McLain

  Layout: Artisanal Text

  Theme Park Press | www.ThemeParkPress.com

  Address queries to [email protected]

  To my good friends and fellow Disney historians Sam Gennawey and Werner Weiss whose research and writing over the years have always been an inspiration and have helped me to view Disney theme parks with a different perspective and greater appreciation.

  Contents

  Cover

  Front Matter

  Introduction

  PART ONEThe Walt Disney World Parks

  Magic Kingdom: Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Café

  Magic Kingdom: Casey’s Corner

  Magic Kingdom: Pinocchio Village Haus

  Magic Kingdom: Main Street Confectionery Shop

  Magic Kingdom: Tomorrowland’s Retro Future

  Magic Kingdom: Stitch on the Loose

  Magic Kingdom: Hall of Talking Presidents

  Magic Kingdom: Cinderella Castle Mural

  Magic Kingdom: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

  Magic Kingdom: Sir Mickey’s

  Epcot: Germany Pavilon

  Epcot: Reflections of China

  Epcot: The World Showcase Art Galleries

  Epcot: Universe of Energy Dinosaurs

  Epcot: Secrets of World Showcase

  Epcot: More Secrets of World Showcase

  Epcot: The Flags of American Adventure

  Epcot: Secrets of American Adventure

  Hollywood Studios: Hollywood Boulevard, Part One

  Hollywood Studios: Hollywood Boulevard, Part Two

  Hollywood Studios: Rosie’s All American Cafe

  Hollywood Studios: One Man’s Dream

  Hollywood Studios: Changes in One Man’s Dream

  Hollywood Studios: Granny Kincaid’s Cabin

  Hollywood Studios: Roger Rabbit Remnants

  Hollywood Studios: Theater of the Stars Handprints

  Animal Kingdom: Macaws

  Animal Kingdom: The Art of the Tree of Life

  Animal Kingdom: The Boneyard

  Animal Kingdom: Festival of the Lion King

  Animal Kingdom: Bringing Dinosaurs to Life

  Animal Kingdom: Rivers of Light

  Animal Kingdom: Harambe

  Animal Kingdom: Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail

  PART TWOThe Walt Disney World Resorts

  BoardWalk Inn: Miniature Carousel

  BoardWalk Inn: Hidden Treasures

  BoardWalk Inn: The AbracadaBar Story

  Contemporary: President Richard Nixon

  Polynesian Village: Breaking Up the Beatles

  Polynesian Village: The Kukui Nut Tree

  Wilderness Lodge: Hidden Treasures

  Wilderness Lodge: The Headdresses

  Shades of Green: The Story Behind the Story

  Swan and Dolphin: The Story of the Swans and Dolphins

  PART THREEThe Rest of Walt Disney World

  Disney Miscellany: Osprey Ridge Gone but Not Gone

  Disney Miscellany: DisneyQuest

  Disney Miscellany: Raglan Road

  Disney Miscellany: Winter Summerland Golf

  Disney Miscellany: Electrical Water Pageant

  Disney Miscellany: The Boathouse Amphicars

  Disney Miscellany: Characters in Flight

  Disney Miscellany: Disney Springs Back Story

  Disney Miscellany: Crossroads

  Disney Miscellany: Wedding Pavilion

  PART FOURThe Rest of the Story

  Men Who Made WDW: Charlie Ridgway

  Men Who Made WDW: Bill “Sully” Sullivan

  Men Who Made WDW: Bill Evans

  Men Who Made WDW: Don “Ducky” Williams

  Men Who Made WDW: Bob Gurr

  Things That Never Were: Beastly Kingdom

  Things That Never Were: The Never Built Mountains

  Things That Never Were: Western River Expedition

  Things That Never Were: The Excavator, Lagoon Islands, Dark Kingdom

  Things That Never Were: Fantasyland Rides

  WDW History: The Secret Origin of Churros

  WDW History: Do You Remember Harry Holt?

  WDW History: Dick Tracy

  WDW History: Attraction Tributes

  WDW History: Turkey Legs

  WDW History: Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party

  WDW History: Lincoln’s Gettysburgh Address

  WDW History: Epcot Pavilion Dedications

  Things That Disappeared: Main Street Electrical Parade

  Things That Disappeared: Skyleidoscope: An Aerial Spectacular

  Things That Disappeared: Merlin’s Sword in the Stone Ceremony

  Things That Disappeared: Mickey’s Birthdayland

  Things That Disappeared: The Birth of Pleasure Island

  Things That Disappeared: Pleasure Island New Year’s Eve

  Things That Disappeared: Bill Justice Main Street Mural

  Things That Disappeared: Bill Justice Baby Care Center Art

  Things That Disappeared: Who Was Cornelius Coot?

  Things That Disappeared: Seashore Sweets

  Appendix:WDW Architheming and Entertainment Architecture

  About the Author

  More Books from Theme Park Press

  Introduction

  As new tomorrows speed toward us at an ever-increasing rate, there is a danger that the important stories of the past will be forgotten and left far behind. As I get older, I tend to forget things or things blur together so it becomes more and more important to write it all down.

  A fellow Disney writer once told me that he wrote articles and books so that he wouldn’t have to worry about remembering it any more. He could always just reference that written record instead of trying to maneuver through his memories or disorganized collection to find the information he once knew quite well.

  I find that I have begun to do that as well since the flood of new information is constantly crowding out older familiar stories. Things I once had glibly at the tip of my tongue I now struggle to recall.

  I was recently taken aback when I tried to find some Disney anecdote I knew I had and couldn’t find it anywhere. Searching the internet for past articles and skimming various magazines proved no help either, even though I knew that I had shared that rare information with others.

  It turned out that I had mentioned it on a podcast that was no longer available. It took some work to retrieve that information and write it down. Websites and podcasts disappear, so there is a need for a more permanent location like a book for those tales of Walt Disney World.


  This book claims to reveal secret stories and is the third in a series. How many more secret stories could there possibly be? Surprisingly, quite a few, especially with new things appearing with some regularity at WDW and even more significant additions like Star Wars Land and Toy Story Land to come in the next few years.

  Finding these new stories is sometimes just as difficult as trying to uncover the ones from the past. If one of the problems of Pleasure Island was that there was too much signage and it was all very convoluted, then one of the problems with Disney Springs is there is not enough signage to explain the story.

  Buildings have dates and there are odd physical references stuck in even odder locations, but there does not seem to exist, at least for the regular Disney guest, any written documentation of how it is all connected. Cast members, as usual, are not being told the story of their location either, so they can’t authoritatively help a curious guest to connect the dots correctly.

  It is hard to keep a story alive if nobody knows it.

  A friend told me that guests don’t care to look anymore or take time to appreciate the seamless storytelling elements. They need to rush for their FastPass or dining reservation and don’t have time for the joys of discovery. A trip to Walt Disney World today is an “appointment vacation.”

  In the old days, people didn’t take vacations. They didn’t have the free time or the money. Fortunately, at the turn of the century, the development of trolley parks at the end of a trolley line, and usually near a body of water like a beach, lake, or river, provided an afternoon’s inexpensive entertainment for those without much money or time. Those trolley parks often grew into familiar amusement parks like Coney Island and Cedar Point.

  In the old days, people with money who went somewhere such as a big city or Europe took tours sometimes offered by the upscale hotels in the area. That is why these people were called “tourists.” A tour entails learning about things, why things are there, what they mean, how they were built, the people involved with the project, and other facts shared by a knowledgeable guide. This background information enhanced the overall appreciation of what the tourists were seeing.

  When Walt Disney went on vacation, he purposely studied the areas where he was going to visit so he had a better understanding of what to see and what was the history behind it. His wife complained that he always knew more than the official guide.

  I keep assuming that people must already know all this stuff and I keep getting reminded that this is not the case. Walt Disney World is a living entity, constantly changing and growing. It is the size of a city-state which is why there are so many things still to write about and so many things to better understand.

  I grew up knowing some of this stuff. I worked at Walt Disney World in Guest Relations and in backstage tours where much of this information was always being discussed and everybody seemed to know it. Even a simple story is made up of many different layers, as Iquickly discovered.

  I can’t take for granted that people reading this book will immediately recognize the name of an Imagineer or what they were responsible for contributing. I can’t assume that people will remember that a certain attraction or entertainment once existed.

  So while some of you reading this book may feel I am being too cautious and precise in identifying something or spending too much time covering what to you is “familiar territory,” for many others it is brand-new material with no previous source of reference.

  I consider myself a caretaker of these stories for the next generation. I feel a responsibility to share these tales as they were so generously shared with me and to do so in the most accurate and complete way possible.

  As famed fictional detective Sherlock Holmes suggested, we need to teach ourselves to observe, not simply see something. Observation means taking note of the details and how all those details connect.

  Just seeing something is not necessarily reality. The Mbuti pygmies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who live their entire lives in deeply wooded areas had never learned to manage concepts like foreshortening. Upon their first exposure to a wide plain with distant herds of buffalo, they perceived it as tiny insects dancing directly before their eyes.

  Our perception of things is both subjective and culturally influenced and that is certainly true of what we think we see at Walt Disney World.

  One can cultivate an intimate knowledge of a place but still be ignorant of its hidden facets. It is always my hope that by sharing these stories it will help others to better understand and enjoy Walt Disney World. Please remember that there is always more to any story, including the ones in this book, but the tales recorded here are a good place to start.

  Jim Korkis

  Disney Historian

  April 2017

  PART ONE

  The Walt Disney World Parks

  Imagineer Tony Baxter stated that Disneyland was an intimate experience whereas Walt Disney World was a spectacular experience. Both are unique experiences.

  Imagineer Joe Rohde is the creative executive for the new Pandora: The World of AVATAR at Disney’s Animal Kingdom just as he was for the development of that entire park. At a presentation for the DAK opening team on June 14, 1998, Rohde took time to explain what makes Disney theme parks different:

  Most classic Disney parks offer guests a very particular type of experience: an idealized, fantasy world where guests escape for a while into a world of narrative order, visual harmony, and physical and emotional delight.

  What does it mean to be a theme park and not an amusement park? The theme park’s job is transportation. It is to mentally transport you, to remove you, to sweep you away from here, from everything you think about in an everyday situation, from your worries, your concerns, from your very perception that you are in the world you are in.

  An amusement park is a form of hyper immediacy. You get on a vehicle that seems dangerous and by traveling quickly and seeming dangerous, it reminds you in a very, very profound way that you are here right now. “I am here right now, upside down, traveling at 120 miles per hour on a piece of steel. This is my life. It is happening to me at this instant.”

  That’s the opposite of “I am in the Middle Ages surrounded by castles and knights. This cannot be possible. It doesn’t seem like the real world.”

  We do that second thing. That is why people pay so much money to go to theme parks. It is to be swept away. Every inconvenience, everything mundane that could remind you that you are still back in the real world, needs to be erased.

  Lines can’t be too long because now you are thinking about the line and the line is full of people and the people are just like you and now you are back again. Everything needs to flow and flow smoothly just like butter so that your mind stays in the artificially created narrative conceit that sweeps you away into another story.

  Like a great movie, like a great book, like a good piece of music takes you out of your life for some period of time and puts you some place else. So that is our goal and the goal is peculiar because it brings with it astounding constraints.

  All sorts of choices that are available to us in the mundane world that surrounds us as we deal with everyday things are not available to us in a theme park. It is because their very existence calls attention to the fact we are not where we want to be. We’re back in the real world.

  When you start to design a theme park, you are facing this daunting challenge that the smallest, seemingly insignificant thing can pull people out of the immersive experience.

  Our job is to create something new and different, something innovative, something that is not out there already. There is a whole other branch of the company whose job is to analyze the potential profitability of that thing we create.

  They analyze by comparison. Is there anything wrong with this picture? It is almost impossible to do because we are doing something that can’t be compared because nothing else like it exists. If it does already exist and does what it does well, there is no reason of us to be doing it.


  Magic Kingdom

  Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe

  The Mile Long Bar was originally in Frontierland from October 1971 to January 1998 at the exit of the Country Bear Jamboree. Next door, the Pecos Bill Cafe had been part of the Magic Kingdom landscape since 1971 and in 1998 incorporated the adjacent Mile Long Bar with added indoor seating.

  The location was re-dubbed Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe with a framed picture of Disney’s animated cartoon version of Pecos Bill above the fireplace. The newly designed quick-serve area was meant to evoke restaurants like Planet Hollywood (which opened in Orlando in 1994) and Hard Rock Café (Hard Rock Live opened in 1999 in Orlando) where celebrity memorabilia decorated the walls.

  To help explain the concept, the Imagineers posted the back story on a piece of faux stretched rawhide near the entrance:

  Considered by many as the meanest, toughest, roughest cowboy of them all, Pecos Bill has been credited for inventing all things western, from rodeos to cowboy dancing, to spurs, hats and lassos. He can draw faster, shoot straighter and ride a horse harder than any man alive. Unfortunately, we don’t know when and where he was born, just that he was raised by coyotes and that his name comes from the riverin Texas.

  Over the years, Pecos Bill along with his trusty horse, Widowmaker, have made quite a name for themselves forging new trails and taming others. Legend tells us several tall tales, like the time Pecos Bill jumped on a powerful twister and road it like a bucking bronco. Then there was the time when Pecos Bill dug out a path to create the Rio Grande river during a severe drought that hit his beloved Texas. And then there was the day Pecos Bill was so bored he took his handy six-shooter and shot out all of the stars in the sky except for one. That’s why they call Texas the “Lone Star State.”

  In 1878, with the encouragement of his friends, Pecos Bill decided to open his own watering hole, a restaurant whose motto very much reflects its one-of-a-kind owner. “The tastiest eats and treats this side of the Rio Grande.”

  Pecos Bill called it the Tall Tale Inn and Cafe and it quickly became a popular hangout for some of his legendary friends. As time went by, it became a tradition when each friend paid a visit they would leave something behind for Pecos Bill to remember them by. As you can see from the articles and artifacts that don the walls, many of which carry inscriptions, Pecos Bill had some mighty impressive friends. Seems that every trail eventually led to the Tall Tale Innand Cafe.