Extra Secret Stories of Walt Disney World

by Jim Korkis

  Film Production at Disney-MGM Studios

  When it opened in 1989, Disney-MGM Studios was touted as an actual production facility where television shows, movies, and animated films would be made. The local media proclaimed that the opening would herald the beginning of Hollywood East.

  Unfortunately, due to lack of facilities, materials, personnel, post-production bays, and more importantly, support (for example, if something broke in Hollywood, a quick call across town would have a replacement there no later than that same afternoon, but in Florida, it might take a day or more to have it shipped from somewhere else in the country), that dream was never realized.

  TV shows, like Wheel of Fortune, brought their own trucks and equipment to edit and upload the shows for broadcast later in the same day they were shot, rather than pay the exorbitant rental fees being charged by Disney for the same limited facilities.

  In addition, producers had to fly their talent out from Hollywood and pay for upscale housing and transportation, causing a significant increase in the budget. In the early years, the state of Florida helped out on compensating some of those additional costs in the hopes of encouraging more film production to come to the state to boost the local economy.

  With a production budget of three-and-a-half million dollars, Splash, Too, a made-for-television sequel to the popular 1984 Disney live-action movie Splash, was the first movie to be filmed at the new complex.

  The production facilities at Disney-MGM Studios opened in June of 1988, roughly a year before the park, and projects like Win, Lose or Draw; Siskel & Ebert; a Carol Burnett special; Good Morning Miss Bliss (a precursor to Saved by the Bell, with Hayley Mills); the first season of the syndicated Superboy (1988); game show Remote Control (MTV); and the New Mickey Mouse Club began filming there.

  During the early years, other productions that filmed, or partially filmed, at the park included Ernest Saves Christmas (1988, with Vern’s house a façade on Residential Street on the backlot); Newsies (1992); Sheena (Queen of the Jungle) with Gena Lee Nolin (2000); From the Earth to the Moon (1998 HBO mini-series from Ron Howard and Tom Hanks pumping roughly $37 million dollars into the local economy); Teen Win, Lose or Draw; and Adventures in Wonderland; as well as tapings for World Championship Wrestling.

  Thunder in Paradise (1994 with Chris Lemmon and Hulk Hogan) employed some local central Florida actors and production was shot at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa, as well as at Disney’s Old Key West Resort, Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground, and even Epcot (where the Morocco pavilion was the backdrop for at least two episodes).

  Disney-MGM Studios had less than half the physical space as its nearby competitor Universal and found some productions moving to that larger venue.

  To expand its array of services, the studio signed a five-year deal with Lightpoint Entertainment Inc., a digital effects company that specialized in 3-D animation to assist with the syndicated television series Mortal Kombat Conquest (that made use of the China and Morocco pavilions at World Showcase).

  When the state of Florida ended its compensation package for film companies, the productions started going to other states. In addition, the challenges of doing production, from limited space to equipment issues, contributed greatly to the decision to close down the central Florida production units.

  Today, soundstages 2 and 3 at the park are home to the attraction Toy Story Midway Mania!, and Soundstage 1 was incorporated into the Pixar Place expansion.

  Things That Disappeared

  Ear Force One

  Ear Force One was created for Walt Disney World’s 15th anniversary in 1986. It was a gigantic ten-story-high hot-air balloon in the shape of Mickey Mouse’s head inspired by the much smaller helium Mickey Mouse balloons sold in the Disney parks.

  Ear Force One measured 96 feet from the bottom of its basket to the top of Mickey’s head. Each ear was 35 feet in diameter, the nose was 33 feet long, each eye 16.5 feet high, and the 54.6 foot diameter head measured 168.3 feet in circumference. Un-inflated and minus the basket, the balloon weighed roughly 330 pounds.

  The huge mouse-eared balloon was manufactured by Cameron Balloons Ltd. of Bristol, England, noted for producing many odd-shaped balloons since 1971.

  A typical hot-air balloon is made up of about 200 pieces of special purpose nylon fabric drawn from 6 to 20 patterns. Ear Force One was much more complicated, with 500 pieces drawn from 50 patterns. The pilots for that first tour were Robert Carlton and David Justice. Ear Force One also toured the nation (including visiting Disneyland) in 1988 to celebrate Mickey’s 60th birthday that year.

  To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Disneyland, a newer version of the original Ear Force One (that had been decommissioned many years earlier) was created by Cameron Balloons and dubbed “The Happiest Balloon on Earth” in 2006. It was unique because Mickey sported a Golden Ears souvenir cap like the one guests could purchase at Disneyland.

  The balloon was approximately 113,000 cubic feet in volume. It stood 98 feet tall and spanned 53 feet from ear to ear.

  Since Mickey’s nose is 5.5 feet in diameter, an average child could easily stand up inside it, and 2000 average-sized children could easily fit inside the inflated balloon. If Mickey’s proportionate body were added to the balloon, he would stand more than 200 feet tall.

  The balloon can fit into a bag which is 1,400 times smaller than the fully inflated balloon. During the tour, the system was moved in a Ford F-250 and trailer from location to location. It was the first hot-air balloon to ever rise over the Grand Canyon. Even more impressively, it flew below the rim of the Grand Canyon on April 11, 2006, a much trickier maneuver due to air currents.

  It was built for a 14-stop tour, including cities like San Francisco to showcase the balloon against the backdrop of the Golden Gate Bridge.

  After the last stop on the tour, July 17, 2006, at Disneyland, the balloon was returned to Cameron Balloons for removal of the souvenir Gold Cap, a project that was called “Back to Black.”

  It now resides in a warehouse in Boise, Idaho, along with the gold ears and is kept in “ready-for-flight” condition because as one of the most popular designs of such balloons, many requests come in from local festivals and balloon rallies. It participated daily in Leon, Guanajuato (Mexico), from November 16–19, 2012, for the 11th annual International Balloon Festival, in Metropolitan Ecological Park.

  In 1987, Donald Duck had a hot-air balloon created of his likeness dubbed the Zip-a-Dee-Doo Duck. To kick off the New Year in 1988, the Zip-a-Dee-Doo Duck joined Ear Force One on New Year’s Day, bringing two big Disney stars to the Magic Kingdom sky.

  In 1991, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Walt Disney World, Cameron Balloons created the “Castle in the Sky” balloon that featured the Cinderella Castle floating on a huge puffy cloud with the logo “Walt Disney World 20 Years.”

  Things That Disappeared

  LiMOUSEine

  In the spring of 1989, to promote the May 1 opening of the Disney-MGM Studios, the LimMOUSEine, with a costumed Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney World ambassador Kathleen Sullivan, departed Orlando on March 5, 1989, for an almost 40-city East Coast tour, beginning in Indianapolis, that would last for roughly four months.

  The driver of the unique burgundy stretch limo was Bill Marable, a former Disney bus driver, who often had to manuever through narrow and awkward turns during the trip. The 9,000 pound, 40-foot long, five-door, six-wheeled vehicle was loaded with high technology, since it represented Mickey’s “home away from home.”

  The limo sat a dozen passengers comfortably, but was placed low to the ground to accommodate the size of the costumed Disney characters that sometimes included Minnie Mouse and Roger Rabbit (the unofficial mascot of Disney-MGM Studios at its opening), as well as Mickey. There were yards of windows and four oversized glass sun roofs with sliding shades, large enough for the characters to stand up and wave to guests.

  This super limo, billed as “the longest fixed-frame vehicle that can be driven le
gally on U.S. roads,” included electronic gear (much of it donated by Sony and considered top-of-the-line at the time). The base vehicle for the LiMOUSEine was a Lincoln Town Car cut in half and stretched more than 20 feet on a beefed-up frame.

  The interior included an entertainment center with AM-FM stereo cassette player, CD player, 20 speakers, 8mm videocassette player, a half-inch Beta videocassette player, and two eight-inch Trinitron color monitors with wireless remote. Passengers could watch television programs received by antenna or watch videos. Two cellular telephones with separate lines could be used from four different locations in the car.

  Perched atop the grille, and looking remarkably (but not intentionally, a Disney spokesman insisted, because that would violate intellectual property rights) like a version of the Rolls-Royce ‘‘Spirit of Ecstasy’’ hood ornament, was a 24-karat gold-plated Tinker Bell figure with her wings stretched behind her.

  The Rolls-Royce front end with gold-plated radiator shell and trim had a 24-karat Mickey three-circled head shape. There were custom-built Mickey ears over front wheel wells, sparkling shooting-star effects on both front doors, 12 external parade speakers for parades, drive-up fanfares (with 1,200 watts of amplifier), red carpet, and hook-ups for external power when parked with the engine off.

  Designed by Disney artist Tom Tripodi, at a cost of more than $100,000, the LiMOUSEine was built by Ultra Corp. of Brea, California, from a potpourri of car parts. Ultra was renowned for building limos for celebrities, including Elvis, Liberace, Clint Eastwood, Farrah Fawcett, Sylvester Stallone, and Larry Hagman.

  The limo appeared in the Citrus Bowl Parade in Florida on January 1, 1990, with Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and Roger Rabbit standing up and waving through individual sun roofs.

  Barbie arrived at her Magical World of Barbie show at Epcot’s World Showcase in 1994 in the LiMOUSEine that had been repainted pink with metallic sparkles and Barbie memorabilia inside. Devoted fans could meet both Ken and Barbie and have their pictures taken with them outside the car. The show ended in 1995.

  With another paint job, the limo re-appeared driving down Main Street, U.S.A. at the Magic Kingdom for Walt Disney World’s 25th anniversary in 1996. It then ended up in the “boneyard” of Disney-MGM Studios Backlot Tour for a while and was eventually placed in storage.

  Things That Disappeared

  Astuter Computer Revue

  In 1969, an RCA press release stated that for their planned involvement in the Walt Disney World project the “focal point of WEDCOMM [Walter E. Disney Communications Oriented Monitoring and Management System] would be the RCA System Communication Center, open to the public as a highlight of the Tomorrowland area of the new Theme Park.”

  To help WDW guests understand about computers, RCA was going to produce a show designed by Imagineer John Hench tentatively titled Alice in Computer Land. However, when RCA sold its computer division to Sperry Univac (which later became UNISYS), RCA decided to sponsor a different attraction, Space Mountain.

  Sperry Univac went on to sponsor another attraction based on a revised version of Hench’s concept that would help WDW guests understand about the use of computers to run the Walt Disney World theme park. The attraction was the infamous Astuter Computer Revue that premiered with the opening of Epcot on October 1, 1982, in the CommuniCore East building.

  Along the back wall of Epcot Computer Central was a long ramp which led up to a second-floor terraced theater that overlooked a huge room where the park’s computers were housed behind large panes of glass. Guests stood to watch the show. The singing and dancing host for the show, who tried to explain the function of these computers in running Epcot, was performer Ken Jennings who was performing as Earlie the Pearlie, a Cockney pearl busker from the United Kingdom pavilion.

  At the Epcot show, guests were shown Jennings performing in the Rose and Crown Pub in the United Kingdom pavilion and then being electronically transported into the computer room where he was shrunk down to roughly a foot high. He was able to strut across the top of the computers without interrupting the cast members working in the location.

  This was done through an effect known as Pepper’s Ghost where his image looked like he was in the computer room.

  Imagineer George McGinnis said:

  We used the same effect [as in the Haunted Mansion], and it was very effective for the little dancing person on the computers. But Tom Fitzgerald secured the people for the parts and all. I laid out the area underneath the guests where the monitors and all the special effects were moving around, unseen by the guests.

  During the course of the show (and its successor Backstage Magic), an audio-animatronic figure of Mr. Eggz from the Kitchen Kabaret was used (with the same Pepper’s Ghost effect) to demonstrate how audio-animatronic figures were programmed and operated. At the end of the show, Jennings was returned to full size and transported back to the United Kingdom pavilion.

  The Sherman Brothers were called back to the Disney company by Imagineer Marty Sklar to write a song to explain about being a “rooter for the computer” that many guests have forgotten. Astuter Computer Revue was the first attraction to close at Epcot in 1984 and was replaced a month later by a similar but less musical show entitled Backstage Magic.

  That show had a perky female hostess named Julie (who through the magic of the Pepper’s Ghost effect was also shrunk to a foot high and walked on top of the computers) and her little electronic companion, I/O (Input/Output). Backstage Magic closed in October 1993.

  Since then, the Epcot computer operation has become much smaller and decentralized and, as people joke, the function of all those big mainframes when Epcot opened could probably today be handled on a laptop.

  APPENDIX

  Roadside Florida Before WDW

  One of the reasons Walt Disney selected Florida for the location of his Florida Project was that it was already a popular tourist destination for millions of visitors every year.

  After World War II, tourists in cars filled the many miles of open roads in the United States. Florida was the home to historical landmarks, beautiful landscapes like Busch Gardens that opened in 1959, small animal zoos, alligator farms, citrus stands near rows of orange groves, natural springs like Silver Springs with its first glass-bottom boats beginning in 1878, Seminole Indian villages, and other attractions like beautiful beaches and majestic lighthouses along the sides of the road that enticed visitors.

  Of course, after the opening of Walt Disney World in 1971, a flood of amusement enterprises appeared, like Circus World (1974–1986) operated by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Boardwalk and Baseball (1987–1990), Splendid China (1993–2003) with its 75 acres filled with handcrafted miniature replicas of temples, and many more entertainment venues including Universal Studios and SeaWorld.

  Other attractions, announced with much fanfare and publicity, like Roy Rogers Western World, Vedaland, DestiNations Theme Park, Hurricane World, Interarama, and Little England, never saw the light of day.

  Before Walt Disney World changed central Florida from an agricultural community to one devoted solely to the hospitality industry, there were many roadside amusements that still exist today despite some changes.

  Perhaps the oldest Florida roadside attraction is located in the country’s oldest city, St. Augustine (founded 55 years before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock and 42 years before the establishment of Jamestown). Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth still offers tourists an opportunity to take a drink from a spring discovered near a stone cross laid out with 15 rocks in one direction and thirteen in the other, indicating the year of Ponce de Leon’s arrival in Florida in 1513.

  Luella “Diamond Lil” (who got her nickname from being a participant in the Yukon Gold Rush) McConnell opened up the location around 1868, the date of the first still-existing guest book at the attraction, where she sold the water at ten cents a glass.

  Florida may be a little too famous for its alligators, but it proved to be a fascination for out-of-state vi
sitors.

  Gatorland was built by Owen Godwin Sr. in 1948 and featured Seminole Indian alligator wrestlers. It was one of just many of the reptile-themed attractions in Florida and still exists today.

  Guests enter through gigantic gaping (concrete and steel) gator jaws (designed by Godwin’s son Frank in 1962) into the gift shop and then the attraction that still features wrestling along with the “jumparoo” where enormous alligators leap out of the water to snap food dangling on overhead wires.

  Multiple alligator attractions (but not quite as long lived as Gatorland) filled the roadways. A different Gatorland in Delray Beach existed from 1962 to 1966 and specialized in shipping live baby alligators to your friends back home. J.C. and Mary Lou Bowen ran the Everglades Gatorland in South Bay (1958–1994).

  Daytona Beach Alligator Farm (1934–1942) was run by “Alligator Joe” Campbell whose collection was later purchased by the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. David Kuhn ran Alligator Alley (1970–1985) in Kissimmee. Gatorama opened in 1957 near Fort Myers by Cecil Glemons. It featured several thirteen-foot or larger alligators and is still open today.

  One of the first alligator attractions was the Tampa Alligator Farm (1919–1931) run by J.A. Stokes at Sulphur Springs Park. You could buy live or stuffed alligators along with other Florida souvenirs.

  Just north of Tampa is Weeki Wachee Springs. On October 13, 1947, Newton Perry, an ex-Navy frogman who had owned the land near the head of the springs for a year, presented the first live underwater mermaid show. The American Broadcasting Company took over the operation in 1959 and expanded and improved the show over the next 20 years.

  Guests in the theater sit roughly fifteen feet below the surface of the springs and watch through gigantic plate glass windows as live mermaid performers do acrobatic stunts in elaborate productions and even eat and drink while replenishing their lungs with hoses of compressed air. The location was the site of the 1964 premiere of the Don Knotts’ movie The Incredible Mr. Limpet.