While time travel is still the purview of science fiction writers, it’s always fun to take a step back to see the way things used to be, especially at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, which looked a heck of a lot different 30 or 40 years ago.
Here now the latest installment of Disney Memory Lane, Vintage Photo Edition.
THE DISNEY-MGM STUDIOS: WHERE FACADES ABOUNDED
What we’re looking at here is the main section of the Backlot Studio Tour.
At the top of the photo, a display of a New York City street can be seen. A police car, a city bus and a large vehicle are parked along the street. Storefronts reflected typical city businesses; there even was an “entrance” to the New York City subway system.
You can also see where Disney’s Imagineers used forced perspective to create the illusion of towering skyscrapers. There’s even a replica of the Washington Square Arch, a marble memorial in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village in lower Manhattan.
During the Studios’ early years, the city street was often used as a shooting location for TV shows, films and commercials.
In the forefront of the photo are a series of residential houses, but instead of livable abodes, they were all just wooden shells, or facades.
The facades were used for exterior shots for a variety of TV shows.
Perhaps the most famous façade seen along the Backlot Studio Tour was the one used for the hit show “The Golden Girls.”
The entire area was demolished several years ago to make way for the new Star Wars and Toy Story lands.
BETTY WHITE, BEA ARTHUR HELPED CELEBRATE WDW’S 15TH
The TV special highlighted Walt Disney World’s 15th anniversary.
According to the caption on the photo, the show was to feature “numerous big-name entertainers and was shot at the famous Central Florida vacation resort.”
In addition to Betty and Bea, who belted out one corny joke after another, the show also featured Dolly Parton and the Everly Brothers.
“The Golden Girls” was about four older women who shared a home in Miami, Fla. It aired from Sept. 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992, on NBC-TV. It also starred Estelle Getty and Rue McClanahan
DISNEY WHIRLED? PRIMEVAL WHIRL AT ANIMAL KINGDOM
At its core, it’s a land devoted to celebrating some of the most ferocious creatures to have ever roamed planet Earth. In the park are life-sized skeletal replicas … dino bone dig sites … and a thrill ride back in time to rescue an endangered iguanodon.
But there’s a section of the land that celebrates something else: Former Imagineering creative director Joe Rohde’s childhood.
That’s right. When Rohde sought inspiration for a new section of the land, which opened in 2002 as Chester and Hester’s Dino-Rama, he went back to his youth and remembered the road trips he and his family took after moving from Hawaii to California.
“Once we moved, we would regularly take off on drives across the West. My dad abhorred chain motels, so we would eat, sleep and shop ‘where the locals go.’
“Old roadside America was so weird it was beyond a question of tastefulness or kitsch. It was expressed without a fleck of concern for what someone else might think.”
And that’s what the Imagineers were aiming at with Dino-Rama.
One of the mainstays of Dino-Rama was Primeval Whirl, pictured above, which closed earlier this year.
Guests in their spinning vehicles were transported through curves, plunges and the jaws of a dinosaur skeleton.
It was fun, if stomach-churning … just the type of attraction you might find at a carnival or church bazaar.
The roller coaster-like ride system was similar to the one used on Goofy’s Sky School, an attraction in the Paradise Pier section of Disney’s California Adventure.
WHERE EPCOT’S FLOWER & GARDEN FESTIVAL SPRINGS TO LIFE
It’s colorful, it’s awe-inspiring, it’s creative … a must-see for most winter-weary guests at the park.
The topiaries at EPCOT are in the shapes of classic Disney animated characters, from newer ones like Elsa and Anna from Frozen, to members of The Fab Five, and they take on a special meaning during the event.
What folks don’t realize is that the topiaries take months to assemble.
Walt Disney World horticulturalists work behind the scenes to craft each unique figure.
And keep in mind each topiary is a living plant, which means that characters such as Tigger and Snow White [above] must not only look accurate in every detail, they must also need to have access to water and nutrients to stay as green and fresh as possible.
DISNEY’S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE IN ITS INFANCY
When the folks at Disney decided to build a theme park adjacent to Disneyland, they needed to dig up the park’s main parking lot to give themselves enough room for the expansion.
This photo, snapped in February of 2000 from the Disneyland Hotel, shows the very beginnings of the Paradise Pier section of Disney’s California Adventure.
You can make out the rough outlines of the lake now used for the World of Color show.
Looming large to the right is the Disneyland Pacific Hotel, which opened in 1984 as the Emerald Hotel of Anaheim, eventually becoming the Pan Pacific Hotel.
In 1995, Disney purchased it and changed its name to Disneyland Pacific Hotel, and it became part of the overall expansion of the resort.
Disney’s California Adventure opened on Feb. 8, 2001.
DISNEY STARS AND MOTOR CARS PARADE AT MGM STUDIOS
But in 2001, the Disney-MGM Studios was home to the Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade during the resort’s 100 Years of Magic Celebration.
Each afternoon through the end of 2002, guests along the park’s Hollywood Boulevard [its equivalent to Main Street] were treated to a celebrity cavalcade celebrating the Disney legacy in motion pictures.
Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse were the stars of the parade, which also featured the growing stable of Pixar characters, as seen above.
Most of the characters who participated in the parade rode in colorful, custom-designed vintage automobiles.
A BEHIVE OF ACTIVITY INSIDE THE CONTEMPORARY RESORT
It’s breakfast time at the Terrace Café during Walt Disney World’s 15th anniversary in 1986.
There’s so much going on in this photo that you might need a magnifying glass to see everything.
First, there’s the monorail gliding quietly through the concourse, left. Whether you’ve seen it once and a hundred times, the sight of the monorail appearing INSIDE the hotel is still a thrill.
Then there’s the impressive four-sided tile mural, created by Disney Legend Mary Blair, which dominates the center of the concourse.
And then there are the Disney costumed characters mingling with guests at their tables.
There’s Minnie and Mickey, lower left.
Goofy can be seen lower right [love the child trying to touch his face].
And there’s Chip and Dale yucking it up in the center of the seating area.
The Terrace Café is now Chef Mickey’s, but character meals are still going strong at the location … and the monorail can still be seen gliding through the now-50-year-old structure.
Chuck Schmidt is an award-winning journalist who has covered all things Disney since 1984 in both print and on-line. He has authored or co-authored seven books on Disney, including his latest, The Beat Goes On, for Theme Park Press. He also has written a regular blog for AllEars.Net, called Still Goofy About Disney, since 2015.
Wasn’t that the Contempo Cafe and not Terrace Cafe on the same floor as Chef Mickeys? We ate there many times.
Looks like Tigger on the 4th(?) floor too!
You have a sharp eye, Vicki. That is, indeed, Tigger on what looks like the 6th or 7th floor. And I believe that’s Br’er Bear standing next to Tigger. Thanks, Chuck