Other Secret Stories of Walt Disney World

by Jim Korkis

  I interviewed Imagineering senior show producer Roger Holzberg about the attraction in 2001:

  One Man’s Dream will enable guests to journey into Walt’s imagination; that is why the pathway flows back and forth like a wave. His imagination still speaks loudly to the child in us all.

  Guests’ footsteps will set into play a remarkable collection of rarely heard audio commentary by Walt himself. The attraction will culminate in an inspiring and emotional fifteen-minute film about a man who was never crushed by failure, and never spoiled by success.

  When we were researching the attraction, we found that many of our guests under the age of 15 did not know Walt Disney was a real person. They thought it was just the name of the company. We want to present the idea that Walt was an individual, not an icon. This tells the story of Walt the man, and we hope that guests will be moved by the scope of his imagination, what he accomplished, and what he inspired.

  Disney Archivist Dave Smith supervised the collection and transportation of more than 400 items that arrived at Walt Disney World via Federal Express from California on an Airbus A300 designated the “Spirit of Imagination.” The coast-to-coat delivery took just a few hours on June 29, 2001.

  The attraction was a walk-through exhibit with the curving pathway underneath the guests’ feet reflecting the different decades of Walt’s life, beginning with a yellow brick road that transformed into a wooden path in the Marceline, Missouri, era, and linoleum in the 1950s. Overhead was a swirling banner that listed what was happening in the world during the same time period, along with appropriate photos.

  Near many of the exhibits were “Connection Cards” that connected what was seen like Walt dressing up as President Lincoln in grammar school with the audio-animatronics Lincoln figure for the 1964 New York’s World Fair later in the attraction.

  Originally, Disney CEO Michael Eisner was the narrator for the final film, but when he exited the Disney company in 2005, he was replaced by Disneyland 50th Anniversary Ambassador, actress Julie Andrews, reading the same script. A lot of Walt’s voice-over came from the recorded interviews he did with Saturday Evening Post writer Pete Martin in June and July 1956.

  The exhibit was briefly closed and rehabbed (with such things as the swirling timeline banner removed) and reopened in March 2009 with some new items from the Disney archives and now sponsored by D23, in hopes of nudging true Disney fans into joining that organization.

  From August 16 to November 2, 2010, the attraction received another refurbishment that removed some of the displays and added new ones in their place, including a final section entitled “The Legacy Continues” to showcase more recent achievements. The interior color palette was changed as well.

  Originally meant just to last the eighteen months of the original celebration, Disney found that it would be too expensive to dismantle and ship everything back to California. In addition, One Man’s Dream met the operational need to have another attraction open in that area, especially during all the construction for Star Wars Land and Toy Story Land.

  Hollywood Studios

  Changes in One Man’s Dream

  Not all of the artifacts that originally appeared in the One Man’s Dream attraction were owned by the Disney company. Some were borrowed from other sources and, after the first year, were returned to the owners, with replicas often taking their place.

  In one of the first display cases it was implied that the artifact on display was Walt’s elementary school desk from Marceline’s Park School, but that was not true.

  The actual desk belongs to Marceline, Missouri, which displays it under plexiglass during the year at the school and sometimes at Walt Disney’s Hometown Museum, in Marceline.

  When the exhibit opened, the desk was on loan to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum for its exhibit, Walt Disney: The Man and His Magic(May 13 to September 4, 2001), and once it was finished there, it was returned to Marceline because it was larger than the display case in the One Man’s Dream exhibit at Hollywood Studios.

  Also in the Reagan exhibit was the famous Oscar and seven little Oscar statuettes given to Walt for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Those icons did make their way to One Man’s Dream to sit on top of Walt’s actual office desk from the Hyperion studio, but when the Walt Disney Family Museum opened in 2009, in San Francisco, the Disney family took it back, since it was their personal property. It is now displayed at the museum.

  When the exhibit opened there was indeed an authentic animation desk in the display that was on loan from the Los Angeles Natural History Museum. Walt himself donated the animation stand to the museum in 1938 and claimed that he had used that very stand for the production of Steamboat Willie (1928) after it had been upgraded from being used on the Alice Comedies. It was only on loan for the celebration, so it had to be returned and a replica created to take its place.

  Originally, the exhibit had the actual model (with some minor restoration) of Sleeping Beauty Castle done by Imagineer Fred Joerger, but when Disneyland celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2005, the real model was shipped back for a display at Disneyland. Once again, a replica took its place in Orlando.

  When the attraction first opened, guests were able to view, up close, the white dress worn by actress Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins (1964). However, after a few years, an examination revealed that the heat, humidity, and light were damaging the dress, despite all precautions, so it was replaced with the suit worn by actor Fred MacMurray in the feature film Bon Voyage (1962).

  The multiplane camera on display was not the real one, but a small replica. Three original Disney multiplane cameras still survive. One is at the Burbank studio in the lobby of the Disney Archives, another is at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, and the third is at the Art of Disney Animation attraction in Disneyland Paris.

  In 2009 Disney Archivist Becky Cline found in the Disney studio prop department two of the trunks used personally by Walt on his travels. One of them was placed by his desk in One Man’s Dream.

  The Walt’s Working Office exhibit was removed from the attraction and re-installed at the Disney studio in Burbank in 2015. Using old photos as a guide, archivists faithfully restored the space as part of the studio’s 75th anniversary in Burbank and even included the ashtrays and matchbooks.

  Disney continues to refresh the attraction, especially the final room before the theater that displays the latest items from the parks and films.

  Hollywood Studios

  Granny Kincaid’s Cabin

  At the One Man’s Dream attraction is a project that was completely hand built by Walt Disney himself who learned carpentry from his father.

  For decades, Walt both constructed and collected a huge variety of intricate miniature objects. In 1950, he conceived of an idea called Disneylandia, where multiple miniature tableaux of classic Americana would be displayed in train cars that traveled to different cities.

  Walt told animator Ken Anderson:

  I’m tired of having everybody else around here do the drawing and the painting. I’m going to do something creative myself. I want you to draw twenty-four scenes of life in an old Western town. Then I’ll carve the figures and make the scenes in miniature. When we get enough of them made, we’ll send them out as a traveling exhibit.

  Walt spent countless hours carefully constructing the first of his tiny tableaux entitled “Granny Kincaid’s Cabin” that was based on a set from his live-action feature film So Dear to My Heart (1949). To build the chimney, Walt picked up pebbles at his vacation home, the Smoke Tree Ranch, in Palm Springs.

  Inside the cabin, a hand-braided rag rug warmed a floor of planks not much larger than matchsticks. A china washbowl and pitcher, guitar with strings thin as cat whiskers, and a small family Bible sat on the table. A tiny flintlock rifle hung on the wall, and a spinning wheel with flax sat in the corner.

  The scene looked as if Granny herself had just stepped briefly outside and would be back shortly. Viewers would hear a voice
-over recording of her describing the cozy scene, since Walt had recorded a narration by actress Beulah Bondi, the famous character actress who played the part of Granny in So Dear to My Heart.

  Imagineer Wathel Rogers said:

  The interior of Granny’s cabin was completely dressed up with miniatures. Walt made the rocking chairs and the rest himself. He then said, “Let’s make up a cross section. Let’s have Grandmother rocking, Bible in hand, with a diorama behind her depicting the outdoors. Granny would say, ‘Oh hello there, I’m just reading my Bible.’ She’d chat for a while, then return to her reading.”

  The cabin was exhibited at the Festival of California Living at the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles from November 28 to December 7, 1952. Imagineer Harper Goff remembered:

  People would watch and watch. They wouldn’t go away. They saw the whole show and they stayed for the next one. So the show had to be stopped for 25 minutes to clear out the audience. Walt knew it was a success.

  “This little cabin is part of a project I am working on, and it was exhibited as a test to obtain the public’s reaction to my plans for a complete village,” Walt explained in a 1953 interview. With the public’s positive reaction as encouragement, Walt once again returned to his workbench and the miniscule hammers, screwdrivers, clamps, and magnifying glasses that were part of a miniature-maker’s craft.

  Another tableau was made featuring a frontier music hall stage complete with a one-eighth scale, three-dimensional, tap-dancing vaudevillian, called “Project Little Man.” Disney Imagineers filmed actor and eccentric dancer Buddy Ebsen performing tap-dance routines against a grid pattern for live-action reference.

  Sculpted by Charles Cristadoro and connected to a series of cams and gears like a music box, the little figure moved and was considered the beginning of audio-animatronics. This tableau is also displayed in the attraction opposite the cabin. In 1953, Walt abandoned plans for a miniature world and shifted his attention to a full-sized Disneyland.

  Hollywood Studios

  Roger Rabbit Remnants

  When Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) premiered to critical and financial success, Disney CEO Michael Eisner wanted the character to immediately appear in Disney theme parks.

  Roger was extremely prominent at Walt Disney World, including appearances at the Magic Kingdom and Disney-MGM Studios, as well as plans for a Toontown section, but disagreements with Amblin Entertainment, co-owner of the character, resulted in Roger disappearing from the parks.

  However, some remnants of Roger still remain at Hollywood Studios, including his hands and footprints placed in a square of concrete at the entrance to the Great Movie Ride. It reads: “PL-L-L-LEESE. Roger Rabbit. May 1, 1989.”

  Although today it is faded, on opening day, guests saw a huge, brightly colored Maroon Studios billboard in the Echo Lake area. The faces of Roger, Jessica, and Baby Herman were striking, just like the title card at the beginning of a cartoon.

  Over the Hollywood and Vine Restaurant, according to the back story, the rooms were rented to individuals or businesses. One window originally stated (some of the lettering has since chipped off) “Eddie Valiant. Private Investigations. All Crime. Surveillance. Missing Person.” There is also a symbol of a magnifying glass with an eye in it, a reference to “private eyes.”

  Valiant, of course, was the detective in the film played by Bob Hoskins when the producers could not find comedian Bill Murray to offer him the role.

  Next to Valiant’s window is another window with the silhouette outline of Roger Rabbit bursting through the blinds and the window, just like in a famous scene from the movie.

  If a guest can extrapolate the angle and the direction of Roger’s outline, it goes in a direct line to the backstage building that once housed Disney Feature Animation Florida, which made two Roger Rabbit theatrical shorts, Roller-Coaster Rabbit and Trail Mix-Up, and were preparing for more when trouble arose.

  On the side of the Disney Feature Animation Florida building was a painted black silhouette of Roger, the same size and in the same pose as the one from the window.

  Bridgitte Hartley, who worked as an animator on Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Roller Coaster Rabbit at the Disney-MGM Studios, died from cancer in the early 1990s. Around the corner from the silhouette of Roger on the Feature Animation building was a small garden in her memory called Bridgitte’s Garden.

  In the outdoor paint area of the Backlot Express restaurant is the actual Toon Patrol black paddy wagon vehicle that the weasels drove to do the evil bidding of Judge Doom. It is a real 1937 Dodge Humpback panel truck. The round official City of Los Angeles Toon Patrol decals on the front doors identifying it were removed at some later point. (Inside the restaurant in the indoor office of the paint supervisor, on the bulletin board, are some color photos of the vehicle with the decals and some standee weasels.)

  Shoehorned into a little corner of the Stunt Men’s area of the Backlot Express restaurant was the original working skeletal frame of Benny the Cab from the movie. In the film, Bob Hoskins sat in the driver’s seat, holding a rubber steering wheel.

  Behind him, and lower, was stunt driver Charlie Croughwell completely covered in a black jumpsuit and wearing a black hood (thin enough to see through) who actually drove the vehicle. When the live-action filming was complete, a colored cel of Benny would be placed over the vehicle obscuring any live-action reference. On the nearby walls are faded photos of how this magic was accomplished.

  Hollywood Studios

  Theater of the Stars Handprints

  When Sunset Boulevard opened in July 1994, a new Theater of the Stars (designed to be reminiscent of the fabled Hollywood Bowl) was opened. In the forecourt entrance to the 1,500 seat theater are autographed concrete blocks by various celebrities.

  When the park opened in 1989, it instituted the “Star Today” program where a celebrity would appear at the park, often for a week, and participate in a motorcade, a public conversation interview about their career, and eventually, a handprint ceremony as a photo opportunity.

  In an effort to enhance the relocation of the theater from its previous spot on Hollywood Boulevard, the Imagineers decided that they would use some of those celebrity-imprinted blocks that were never installed and were in storage after the event ceased. Among them:

  Alex Trebek 11/15/92

  Block says “Who is … Alex Trebek?”Host of the syndicated game show Jeopardy! since 1984.

  Monty Hall 6/14/90

  Block says “Let’s Make a Deal.” Developer, producer, and host of the TV game show Let’s Make a Deal (1963–1991)

  Tom Poston 6/24/90

  Block has an extra upside-down hand between his two hand prints. Poston played George Utley, the bumbling country handyman of the Stratford Inn, on the TV sitcom Newhart (1982–1990), and was nominated three times for an Emmy.

  Fess Parker 11/29/92

  Davy Crockett (1954–1955) for the original Disney weekly television show and Daniel Boone in the NBC television series Daniel Boone (1964–1970).

  James Doohan 7/3/89

  Block says “Beam Me Up.” Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, Chief Engineer of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise, in the original television series and original film series Star Trek (1966–1991).

  Bob Denver 10/15/89

  Block also includes the name “Gilligan.” The hapless shipwrecked sailor Gilligan on TV’s Gilligan’s Island (1964–1967)

  Tim Conway 11/26/1991

  American comedian known for his many different characters on The Carol Burnett Show (1975–1978) as well as his appearances in Disney live-action comedies like The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975).

  June Lockhart 11/26/91

  Mother in the TV series Lassie(1959-1964) and Dr. Maureen Robinson in the TV series Lost in Space (1965–1968).

  Vanna White 3/24/92

  Hostess on the game show Wheel of Fortune since 1982.

  Woody Harrelson 4/6/92

  Bartender Woody Boyd in the sitcom Cheers! (1985–1993)
although modern audiences may think of him as Haymitch Abernathy, the District 12 mentor of Katniss Everdeen, in The Hunger Games (2012).

  Ben Vereen 11/3/92

  Actor, singer, and dancer nominated for an Emmy for his role as Chicken George in Alex Haley’s TV miniseries Roots (1977).

  Valerie Harper and Cristina 12/4/92

  Rhoda Morgenstern in the television series The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1974) and its spin-off, Rhoda (1974–1978). Cristina is her adopted daughter.

  Howard Hesseman 9/17/93

  By his handprints he placed the letter “L” with an arrow pointing to his left hand and an “R” pointing toward his right hand. Disc Jockey Johnny Fever on the sitcom WKRP in Cincinatti (1978–1982) and teacher Charlie Moore on Head of the Class (1986–1990).

  Peter Graves 10/2/93

  James Phelps, the gruff director of the Impossible Missions Force on the TV show Mission: Impossible (1967–1973, 1988–1990) and Captain Clarence Oveur in Airplane! (1980).

  Animal Kingdom

  Macaws

  The show Winged Encounters—The Kingdom Takes Flight debuted in the Discovery Island area near the Tree of Life at Disney’s Animal Kingdom during the summer of 2014.

  The show features all six shades of macaws: hyacinth, green-winged, blue and gold, scarlet, blue-throated, and military. Each macaw features a wingspan of up to sixty inches as it soars over the area in a kaleidoscope of color as avian experts talk about conservation.

  The show is handled by the same team that does Flights of Wonder (which also features macaws) in association with Disney Creative Entertainment. The macaws fly together from backstage past the Tree of Life and land on the bridge at DinoLand U.S.A. In addition to the impressive flying, there are also up-close encounters for the guests in four ten-minute shows each day.

  Since the park opened in 1998, the Oasis has been the home for macaws and cockatoos. The purpose of the Oasis and its winding paths with different animal exhibits on the left and right side is to establish that Animal Kingdom is a park to be explored.