by Jim Korkis
Birnbaum wrote shortly before his death:
I would also like to point out that every worthwhile travel guide is a living enterprise. That is, this book may be our best effort at explaining how best to enjoy Walt Disney World at this moment, but its text is in no way cast in bronze. In each annual revision, we expect to refine and expand our material to serve our readers’ needs even better.
Despite the designation of “Official Guide,” I should say that the Disney company has exercised no veto power whatever over the contents of this book. Quite the contrary, they have opened their files and explained operations to us in the most generous way imaginable.
I daresay that there were times when the Disney folks were less than delighted at some of our opinions or conclusions, yet these analyses all stayed in. Furthermore, we’ve been flattered again and again by Disney staff who’ve commented about how much they’ve learned about some unfamiliar aspects of Walt Disney World from the material in this guide.
WDW History
Smellitzer
The distinctive smells in many of the attractions, from the orange scent in Soarin’ to a whiff of sea air in Pirates of the Caribbean to the aroma of vanilla coming from the Main Street Bakery, are the result of a Disney technology called a smellitzer.
It was named by its creator Imagineer Bob McCarthy who first developed it for use at Epcot, originally for the smell of smoke in the Roman ruins scene in Spaceship Earth and the appropriate smells for The Land pavilion. Technically, it is called a scent-emitting system.
The smellitzer operates like an air cannon, or a military howitzer that inspired its name, aiming the scent up to 200 feet across a room toward an exhaust system. Guests traveling on the moving vehicles pass through the scene as the appropriate scent drifts across their path. Regulated by computer, the scent can be triggered for a fresh aroma just prior to each vehicle’s arrival.
The smellitzer uses a series of pumps and vents to launch the smells at just the right second. Then an exhaust system sucks the odor out of the area so it won’t interfere with the next sensory experience.
McCarthy said:
Back in the 1950s, [film producer] Mike Todd developed a process called “smell-o-vision.” The idea was to release certain scents into the theatre as the visual counterpart was shown on the screen.
McCarthy, who worked with Todd on the project, continued
The main problem was that odors tended to linger in the air. After a while they all blended together. We couldn’t get the scents in and out of the theatre quickly enough.
The situation was different at a Disney theme park because the guests would be moving quickly through the area and there were no additional scents overlaying the original. Imagineers also learned how to regulate the strength or intensity of the odors used.
Imagineers experimented with more than three thousands different scents before determining which were the most effective and would be used at Epcot including an erupting volcano for the Universe of Energy show. The general purpose was to subtly enhance the realism of the experiences for guests.
In fact, some of the smells were meant to be so subtle that even though the aroma was there, it was not consciously perceived.
In a 1981 press release, Disney claimed:
Some of the most unusual scents will be in The Land pavilion at Epcot Center. Here, the visitors will experience tropical vegetation, rain forests, deserts; some of the great terrain found on Earth. Of course, Disney Imagineers plan to supply all the appropriate smells. Guests traveling through a farming scene may detect a faint animal smell. In another scene, an orange grove will smell like the real thing. Still another effect calls for the smell of damp earth.
McCarthy filed the patent on September 20, 1984, and it was approved on July 29, 1986. The patent abstract described it as:
A system for emitting, in sequence, a plurality of different scents includes a plurality of holders for scent-bearing chips; a mechanism for propelling these scents from a system; a mechanism for conveying, selectively, any desired scent holder into operative relation with the propelling mechanism; and a mechanism for actuating the propelling mechanism to propel scent from any desired scent holder in response to a programmed, predetermined sequence of scents of predetermined duration.
WDW History
Epcot Film
Imagineer Marty Sklar told me in 2007:
My start with Epcot began with that film that everyone calls the Epcot Film. There’s actually an official title that nobody ever seems to use. It is called Walt Disney’s EPCOT ’66. That’s the official name, but nobody uses it.
Walt had seen bits and pieces of it and, of course, had to approve the script. He’d certainly seen all the dailies of what we had shot of him. It’s a 24-minute film and we shot it all in one day on October 27, 1966. We started about 8am and ran until about 7pm that night. We had no idea that about six weeks later he would be dead.
We shot the entire thing on a stage at the Disney studio where we had done a mock-up of the actual WED room where all the planning was going on. We brought all that stuff over.
He was having fun. He ad-libbed that line “I am six miles tall.” That wasn’t in the script. He often ad-libbed on the introductions to his television show and this was no different. He was trying to communicate directly to people so he was trying to be comfortable, not so formal. We had no idea that he was sick and he certainly didn’t act as if anything was wrong. Of course, he had that hacking cough he would get if he got tired or worked up.
The first version was meant directly for the people in the state of Florida to get them to get the state legislature to establish the Reedy Creek Improvement District because we had some proposals we needed so that we had the freedom to get the thing done. The version that most people have seen is the one where Walt was making a plea to American industry to get on board. It was for the corporate sponsors. That was actually considered the second version.
Walt could be what I call “specifically vague” where he would get you excited about the big picture and then you had to worry about filling in all the details. Anyway, at my meeting with him, he was so focused that he made it easy for me to write the script. His ideas, phrases that he used, that’s all in the script.
That first version of the film was shown at the Park East Theater in Winter Park on February 2, 1967, as part of a press conference, and later on local television, because Disney needed the support of the legislators and the big decision makers in the state to give us some leeway.
Ham Luske and Mac Stewart were producing the film. They had worked on some of the television projects and had done stuff on Disneyland and the World’s Fair. Mac did all the storyboards for the film and put the narration under the scene sketches. That was really our shooting script for the film.
Art Vitarelli was the director. When we were on the set, there was time between various set-ups where Walt and I just got to talk. He talked about how frustrated he was about the monorail. He had done this thing at Disneyland and showed how efficient it was and that it worked but nobody had picked up on it. He had envisioned monorails going through the center of the freeways.
He wanted that for Epcot, things for people to see work that they could use in their cities. That last line he says in the film, “We’re ready to go,” for him literally meant, “Get off your butts and let’s do this thing now.”
Things That Disappeared
Walt Disney World Speedway
The Walt Disney World Speedway was built in 1995 by IMS Events Inc., a subsidiary of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation, and located in front of the parking lot for the Magic Kingdom. It was lovingly nicknamed the “Mickyard” as a combination of Mickey Mouse and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s nickname, the Brickyard.
The WDW Speedway closed on August 9, 2015, to make way for “transportation improvements” which meant its demolition in order to reconfigure the parking lot and entrance to the Magic Kingdom. In some years, the track was used as par
t of the WDW marathon.
The track was dedicated on November 28, 1995. Indianapolis Motor Speedway chariman of the board, Mari Hulman George, at the earlier groundbreaking ceremony in June 1995, presented the track with one of the original paving bricks from the famous Brickyard.
Three linked ponds in the track’s infield built a year after the track opened to handle drainage concerns formed the shape of Mickey Mouse’s head and were dubbed Lake Mickey.
It was designed by Indianapolis Motor Speedway chief engineer Kevin Forbes originally as a venue for the Indy 200 at Walt Disney World. IndyCar, then known as the Indy Racing League, raced on the 1.0-mile tri-oval from 1996–2000. The 1996 race marked the very first event in IRL history. NASCAR also hosted Camping World Trucks Series races at the speedway in 1997 and 1998.
The venue’s primary use was for the Richard Petty Driving Experience beginning in the off-season in February 1997 and was so popular that it operated roughly 365 days a year.
The high-speed attraction in Orlando was named for Richard Petty, an iconic figure in NASCAR history with multiple titles and victories. The experience allowed members of the general public to drive real NASCAR machines. In 2008, Indy Racing Experience was introduced where a guest could ride along with a professional driver.
In 2011, an Exotic Driving Experience was added that allowed car enthusiasts to drive Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Porsches on the track. Modifications were made to the speedway’s infield to create an “exotics course.”
In April 2015, guest Tavon Watson of Kissimmee, participating in the Exotic Driving Experience, failed to maneuver the high-powered $240,000 Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera through one of the course’s curves at a speed over one hundred miles per hour, and the vehicle’s right side struck a metal guardrail.
His passenger, Gary Terry, an experienced race car driver and senior operations manager at the track, was pronounced dead at the scene. Watson suffered only minor injuries. Both men were wearing seatbelts.
Florida Highway Patrol investigated the crash and determined that while the decision to run the vehicles clockwise (instead of counterclockwise like the track was designed for originally) may have factored into the incident, it was clearly an accident and no charges were filed against the driver.
When the closing of the track was announced, Bill Scott, executive vice president of attractions operation at Petty Holdings LLC, told the Orlando Sentinel.
Disney has other uses for the property, and they have the right to do with it what they want, and we respect that. It’s not without some sadness that we leave Walt Disney World Speedway. We had a great home here.
Things That Disappeared
Flights of Wonder
The Flights of Wonder show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom evolved into an educational presentation along with the comedy relief of a clueless tour guide character named “Guano Joe” who is more than a little fearful of these avian performers. Along with the audience, he learns about them and learns to love them.
Under the canvas canopy of a shady sanctuary—all that remains of the maharajah’s crumbling fortress—is the makeshift caravan stage in the “ruins” that are now the refuge for a dazzling array of birds. From park opening until 2015, the stage was covered with a canopy. A permanent roof was finally installed during a renovation in early 2016.
The façade of the roughly thousand-person amphitheater is designed to resemble the architecture of the Himalayan highlands or Rajasthan, India. The theater is situated outside the fictitious village of Anandapur, on the “trade route” toward Africa.
Guests are introduced to approximately twenty species of exotic birds who perform natural behaviors rather than the traditional silly tricks in some other bird shows. Some of the birds perform their antics on-stage while others swoop over the audience and show off their dramatic wingspans.
While the show is entertaining and at times amusing, its core is a much deeper message about serious conservation themes and habitat loss. It promotes the World Wildlife Conservation Fund.
Among the species that most guests see are Barbary falcons, macaws, Amazon parrots, Harris hawks, ibis, vultures, crowned cranes, trumpeter hornbill, great horned owl, black vulture, and the bald eagle. The birds are from various continents, not just Asia. While the specific birds may be different in each show, the format of the show remains the same.
The host is an actual trainer who has spent hours with these birds. The birds are trained to react and take different actions based on audio and visual cues they have been taught. Certain noises, words, or a subtle hand placement will spark an action from the birds. While the show has been carefully rehearsed to demonstrate how birds hunt and eat, they have not been trained to do the typical tricks but merely duplicate natural behaviors with an emphasis on entertainment value like grabbing a dollar bill an audience member holds high in the air.
Groucho, the singing parrot in the show and an audience favorite, was named the world’s best singing parrot on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno after an appearance. He’s also appeared on other television shows including The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Groucho is fairly unusual among parrots because he is able to sing seven full songs including “How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?”, “Camptown Races,” “Yankee Doodle Dandy,’ “Alouetta,” and “Jingle Bells.’
Hatched in 1986 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and raised by Theresa Barylock, Groucho is a yellow-naped Amazon parrot with an amazing ability to articulate many words and phrases such as “Look ma! No hands!”
At the end of 2017, the show closed to be replaced on DAK’s 20th anniversary in April 2018 by a new 25-minute bird show, UP! A Great Bird Adventure.
The new show features senior wilderness Explorer Russell and his furry friend Dug from the Disney-Pixar animated film Up (2009) who have journeyed to Asia and met up with Anika, a bird enthusiast, to learn more about birds from around the world, like their often-mentioned friend from the film, Kevin.
The new show, like its predecessor, features bird experts and close-up encounters with numerous bird species. The show now includes more than fifteen species, including toucans, parrots, macaws, an African fish eagle, and a bald eagle.
Things That Disappeared
Walt’s Bust
The Television Academy of Arts and Sciences established a Hall of Fame in 1984 to recognize extraordinary contributions to television and to specifically honor particular individuals. The third annual ceremony in 1986 inducted Walt Disney whose wife accepted the award.
In May 1991, when the academy moved to its new headquarters, a spot on the corner of Magnolia and Lankershim boulevards in North Hollywood, California, was reserved for the Hall of Fame Plaza, an outdoor exhibit of statuary and wall sculptures honoring past inductees.
The introduction of Walt’s bust to the plaza at the 1993 ceremony was done by Hall of Fame chairman Edgar Scherick, who said:
Walt Disney understood the power of television perhaps better than anyone. He used it to create a national fascination with his new theme park. He used television to educate and enlighten and became one of the most loved and trusted individuals in America as we welcomed him into our living rooms.
The bronze bust of Walt Disney was the work of Blaine Gibson who sculpted the piece in 1991 and signed it on the back of the base as “B. Gibson 1991.”
While working at Imagineering, Gibson sculpted everything from Indian chiefs, mermaids, and bathing elephants to, eventually, President Lincoln, Haunted Mansion ghosts, and blood-thirsty pirates, among just a few of his many accomplishments.
In 1962, at the urging of his WED Imagineering supervisor, Richard “Dick” Irvine, Gibson sculpted a bust of Walt Disney as a “thank you” gift for Walt. Gibson now claims he was tired, working on the project late at night, and that the foundry work was not very good and he couldn’t quite control what he wanted.
When he presented it to Walt, Gibson claimed that Walt said:
What am I going to do with this? St
atues are for dead people!
Gibson wanted to destroy the bust and replace it with another, but it was kept at WED for a while and then at RETLAW, the company owned by Walt himself. Gibson said that Walt was so animated in real life and constantly shifting in appearance that it was hard to capture a frozen moment in time. Gibson pulled out his old model, done while Walt was alive, and used it as a reference for the bust.
On May 6, 1993, actress and producer Mary Tyler Moore (who had been inducted the same year as Walt into the Hall of Fame) joined a costumed Mickey Mouse (wearing a tuxedo and holding an oversized jackhammer) for a groundbreaking ceremony at Disney-MGM Studios for a smaller replica of the fabled Hall of Fame Plaza. The Disney version of the plaza was located to the side of what is now the Hyperion Theater showing For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration.
It was CEO Michael Eisner’s intent that each fall, television legends and industry executives would gather at the location to honor present and former inductees.
The plaza itself was unveiled on November 20, 1993. Bronze busts of Carol Burnett, Sid Caesar, Bill Cosby (who was removed in 2015 because of all the negative publicity), Mary Tyler Moore, Red Skelton, Danny Thomas, Milton Berle, and of course, Walt Disney, were in place for photo opportunities.
In late September 2016, walls went up around the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS) Hall of Fame Plaza without warning in preparation for its removal. Disney has stated that all the busts were shipped back to ATAS in North Hollywood because it is considered their property.
Things That Disappeared
