|
|
Walking in Walt's Footsteps Tour
Hot Tip:
I was so intrigued by these descriptions of the tour that I took it
myself, in April of 1998. The notes I jotted down after I took the
tour are given below!
In April, 1997, Scott M. Leonard (tk421@ix.netcom.com) posted some
interesting information about the "Walking in Walt's Footsteps Tour"
that is available for Disneyland guests. Excerpts from Scott's post follow:
"Well, today I decided to take the much anticipated "The Walking
in Walt's Footsteps Tour"...The tour was informative; the Disneyland
Railroad, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, Pirates of the Caribbean, The
Haunted Mansion, the Disneyland Monorail and It's a Small World."
Jackie Pearson (jlp@u.washington.edu) added the following information:
"The Walking in Walt's Footsteps Tour," given by guest relations
CM Dean. Very fun, informative tour that ended up with a ride on the Lilly
Belle. This little boxcar is beautiful, has red carpet and curtains, red
velvet furniture and beautiful carved paneling. Some of the windows have
stained glass inserts. There are many photos of Walt, one as a baby in a
little white gown, one as quite a handsome young man with his brother (oops,
forgot his name!) and another with his daughters. There is even one with his
wife Lilly, who is still alive. Dean said at one time they were considering
doing meal service in the Lilly Belle, wouldn't this have been a wonderful
idea!"
If you're interested in taking the tour, and getting a little behind the
scenes information on the park, this tour might just be the trick.
Only three of us were on the tour. Besides our guide, John, we
were escorted by one of the Disneyland Ambassadors. I can't for the
life of me remember her name now, but she was very nice and was extremely
helpful in keeping non-paying additions to our troupe from taking too many
liberties. She also fielded alot of questions of us...and non tour
group folks that just needed to know something as we made our way around
Disneyland.
John took us on a walking tour of the park that had me completely
engrossed for the next three hours (the tour was only supposed to last
two, but John could see that his audience was eating things up, so he took
his time with us). I'll try to capture the main points of the tour
in bullets...or else this report will take up too much precious server
space :)
- The tour garden used to be an area where Walt would hold his daily
meeting with the imagineers during the early years of the park.
It became the place for tour groups to meet in 1962. It's
slated to be eliminated in favor of a AAA-sponsored travel information
area of some sort.
Then we walked to the front plaza, in front of the railroad station.
- Here John described the theatre concept that Walt had for the park.
The marquee (the Disneyland sign), the ticket booths, the outer and
inner lobby, and the "coming events" posters showing the
attractions as you walk under the station...all were intended to set
the stage for the show to come.
- Walt had originally intended for curtains to be opened as each guest
entered the park, but the more realistic tunnel was implemented when
the size of the expected crowds were taken into account.
We strolled over to the firestation, where Walt's apartment is located
(above the firehouse):
- CMs always knew when Walt was in the apartment because he would
close the doors of the firehouse to cut down on traffic noise
upstairs.
- The entry into the apartment was through a spiral staircase about
the brass pole...until some kids got into the apartment one day, and
Security talked Walt into building the back stairs that now service
it.
- The apartment is a small one-room studio. One either side of
the room is a couch that pulls-out into a bed. Walt's was on the
right (as you face the firestation) and Lily's on the left.
The apartment has access to the upstairs patio between the firestation
and city hall.
- The room is decorated in a victorian style, very much in theme with
the rest of Main Street.
Next stop, the Walt Disney Story.
- Referring to the portraits of Walt and Roy Disney in the foyer, John
pointed out that Roy, of course, was the critical fiscally-responsible
complement to Walt's energetic creativity.
- The electric runabouts (the green one is on display next to the
office mockups, a white and a red one used to exist also) were used to
carry VIPs on tours of the park. The vehicles were left parked
in front of attractions as the group enjoyed the various attractions.
This practice was eventually discontinued when Walt realized that the
runabouts were breaking the themeing in the various lands.
Referring to the display of Walt's offices in the Burbank studios:
- Dave Smith, the company archivist, was responsible for documenting
the offices before they were moved to the park. Dave took a
thorough inventory and a ton of pictures to make sure that everything
was set up just as Walt had left it.
- Dave talked a phone company worker to allow him to take the phone,
even though the phone company owed the hardware (this was back in the
days before the AT&T/Bell breakup). John joked that the
phone was "hot" mechandise.
- Walt was working on a script, at the time of his passing, of
"The Happiest Millionaire" - staring Fred McMurray.
The script is still in the second cubbyhole from the left on Walt's
working desk.
- The several planes that the Studios owned when Walt was running
things are memorialized in photos and models. The call letters
for each end in "MM." The last plane that Walt used, I
can't remember the make and model, can be seen at the Studios theme
park in Florida.
- On Walt's desk is a note from Walt to some Studio staff suggesting
that they use newcomer Kurt Russell for an upcoming role. Kurt
now hold the honor of staring in more Disney films than any other
actor or actress.
- A diagram of "the Florida project" is posted on the wall
in the working office.
Moving to the formal office on the left:
- The miniatures that surround Walt's formal desk were collected all
around the world. Walt's obsession with miniatures led to the
development of miniature audio-animatronics (the dancing man) and
eventually the technology used in the parks (the Tiki Room, Mr.
Lincoln, Small World, and the rest).
- Pictures of Diane and Sharon, Walt's daughters, sit on the piano
(which was built just for Walt's office).
- Walt rarely read books. He just didn't have the time.
The books in the formal office are almost all personal gifts to Walt,
signed by the authors.
- On the left side of the piano is one of fifty statues, called "Mousekars"
after the "Oscar" award, that Walt and Roy had made to
distribute as special awards to Studio personnel. Walt is the
record holder of Academy Awards with 32 Oscars to his name. The
originals are all kept at the family's Carolwood home. Copies
are on display in Florida.
- The window view behind desk is not the view Walt really would have
seen. In fact, the building shown is the one that the office was
located in, on third floor of the rightmost wing in picture.
For the television shows that Walt hosted, though, the window was
covered with the scene shown today -- because the actual view out of
the office was an ugly parking lot.
- Walt never dwelled on the past. Whenever he was asked what his
favorite project was, the answer was invariably "the one I'm
working on now." Dave Smith was very surprised, then, to
find a copy of the "Steamboat Willie" manuscript in the
formal desk when he took the office inventory (fourty years after the
first of Mickey's shorts was released). It was very unlike Walt
to hold onto anything sentimental like that. (By the way, the
manuscript is one of the few things that Dave did not leave in the
office. It was taken to the company archieves instead, so that
it could be better protected. A few personal items were given to
the family, too.)
We walked back out to Main Street:
- John pointed out the forced perspective in the height of the
buildings on Main Street...and the blocks in the castle.
- We walked by several Main Steet windows including one for Walt's
dad, Elias Disney (a contractor), Herb Ryman and Ken Anderson (two of
many Disney animators that worked on Disneyland projects), and Ron
Dominguiz (who's family owned much of the property that the park now
stands on. Ron's family agreed to sell their property if
Walt would agree to hire their son when he finished college.
Walt agreed, and Ron was hired as a ride operator...and eventually
made it through the ranks until he retired as Vice-President of
Disneyland in 1994. Ron's window says something to the effect
that "...we'll take care of it as it's our own."
- John mentioned that there is a window for Walt himself in Toontown,
next to the five & ten store.
- We continued our walk up to the hub. John told us that at one
time all of the various lands were accessible only from the hub. You
had to walk back to the hub to change themes. We also talked
about the weenies that were designed into the lands to
"draw" you in: the castle and carousel, Mark Twain,
Rocket Jets...and nothing for Adventureland (the mystery was intended
to draw you into that dark, forboding domain).
- We walked by Snow White's grotto, which was a gift from an Italian
sculptor that had never seen the film, but owned a set of soaps in the
form of the princess and the dwarfs. Unfortunately, Snow
White was the same size as the dwarfs in the soap set, so the sculptor
made her that way. Forced perspective (putting her high, and
next to an especially small deer added for the effect) was used by
John Hench to give Snow some additional stature.
- The castle drawbridge has opened and closed only twice...first on
opening day in 1955 and in 1983 when the redesigned Fantasyland
reopened.
We walked through the castle passageway into Fantasyland:
- The architecture of this land is oriented toward historical source
of the stories depicted. Peter Pan and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride were
both set in London. The architecture of that side of Fantasyland
is Tudor. On the opposite side, the Pinnochio and Snow White
attractions are adorned with Italian and Bavarian dressings.
- Even the weather vanes are themed. The Pinnochio building is
topped with a figure of Monstro. Peter Pan is surrmounted
with a pirate's galleon.
- The carousel didn't have all white horses until 1976. Prior to
that time, they all had various colorings.
- A carousel differs from a merry-go-round in two ways. First, a
carousel has all horses. Second, a carousel moves
counterclockwise. Merry-go-rounds have a menagerie of animals
and rotates clockwise.
- The original center of the park is marked in the castle. It's
a small metal button right under the Fantasyland end of the castle.
- John told us the story of how the castle was originally supposed to
face the opposite way, but Walt changed it when he saw Herb Ryman
playing around with the model one day.
We walked through Fantasyland and made a brief stop by the Submarine
Lagoon, across from the Matterhorn:
- The 16-elephant Dumbo attraction was supposed to go to Disneyland
Paris when Euro-Disneyland opened. Disneyland's Dumbo was
in bad shape, though, so the park appropriated the new attraction and
a duplicate was built for Paris.
- The ride on the B-side of the Matterhorn (the right side as you face
the loading area) is 19 seconds longer than the other.
- The Submarine Voyage is one of the most costly rides to operate and
maintain. It's expected to be shut down soon.
- John told us the story of Walt showing off the new Monorail to
Vice-President Richard Nixon in 1959, when the VP was at Disneyland
with his family to dedicate the new tranportation system.
Walt was so excited to show off the new hardware, that he took Mr.
Nixon onto the vehicle, and sped away to impress his guest. The
secret service was less than pleased, but no charges were made against
the "kidnapper."
- The noise created by the new rocket rods is actual gear noise in the
vehicle...not a good sign from my experience as a noise engineer.
We walked back around the South side the Matterhorn toward
Frontierland:
- We made a brief side trip so John could show us the teacup handle
that Imagineers made on the Alice in Wonderland side of the Matterhorn
when the holes for the skyway were closed up. Yep, it's up
there.
- We walked into Frontierland and made a beeline for the Mark Twain.
We rode up in the pilot house. I'd done it before, but it
was still fun. John pointed out the old remnants of the Rainbow
Caverns attraction and the Mule riding trail.
- As Captain Neil made up our pilot's licenses, I asked about Captain
Mickey (the guy that hosted Barb and I in the pilot house in 1996).
Neil knows Mickey, but hadn't been in contact with him for quite some
time. He no longer works at Disneyland, but Neil --
coincidentally -- was planning to call him that evening because he'd
heard that Mickey had a fall and suffered a broken bone (foot or ankle
or leg, I think).
When we disembarked, we walked back into New Orleans Square and the
Royal Courtyard:
- The entrance to Walts new apartment, now the Disney Gallery, was
supposed to be off the Royal Courtyard. The staircase is
still there...in fact, we walked up it to get to the Gallery for the
next part of the tour.
- You can see the ladder to the Fantasmic! control crow's nest from
the courtyard.
We entered from the back end of the Gallery, but I'll describe the
rooms from the current entrance to make it easier to navigate:
- The first room at the top of the staircase was originally the
parlour. It did not have access to the street, the current door
and long staircases were added later when the Gallery was opened.
- At the very back of the parlour, to the very left side, are two
doors that lead into a pair of very small bedrooms intended for Walt
and Lillian's visiting grandchildren.
- Continuing outside to the upper courtyard, Walt and Lillian's master
bedroom is the room to the left off the courtyard. It has a
doorway to a bath and closet, both of which are now used for storage
by the Gallery.
- The Courtyard was rigged for heat and air conditioning. The
registers can be seen just below and running all around the roofline.
- To the right, the next room is the sitting room, complete with wet
bar and refrigerator (still functioning and used by CMs for lunches).
The wet bar is where the cash register is now located for purchasing
books and materials in the Gallery. The outside porch
overlooking the Rivers of America is just outside the sitting room.
- The dining room is the next room back down the Hall to the right.
It was located next to a smaller kitchen (now used by Club 33, next
door).
We walked back downstairs, and near the Blue Bayou next:
- John told us a little bit about Club 33, the membership-only club in
New Orleans Square. There are two dining rooms. The main
one is located above Cafe' Orleans and faces out over the Rivers of
America.
- The center chandalier in the main dining room (you can see it at
night from river side) is an original dating back to the 16th century,
and wired for electricity. The two on either side are
reproductions of that original.
- The trophy room has alot of eclectic stuff that Walt accumulated
over the years. This smaller dining room was intended to be
wired for sound, so the wait staff could provide whatever guests
wanted whenever they said they wanted something. Walt also
planned to communicate back to guest through an audio animatronic
falcon (or other such bird of prey...can't remember which).
Next we made our way over to the Haunted Mansion:
- It was Walt's idea to keep the building nice on the outside, others
wanted to make it creepy to advertise the attraction inside. As
usual, Walt won out.
- Pirates of the Carribean and the Haunted Mansion were both
originally intended to be walk-through attractions. Lessons
learned at the 1964 New York World's Fair showed how crowd control
depended on some automated ride system, so both attractions were
scrapped and redesigned.
- The mansion was copied from a house in Baltimore (not New Orleans).
- The Hearse was really used...in fact, it carried the body of Brigham
Young in the 1800's. John had no idea how Disneyland came to
acquire it.
With the tour over, we walked back to Main Street to get rainchecks so
we can ride the LilyBelle, the presidental car on the Disneyland Railroad.
This is normally a standard part of the tour, but the LilyBelle is
undergoing a rehab at the present time. I talked John into a
family pass, so I can take Barb with me when we return (he didn't put an
expiration date on the pass, either).
This was an EXCELLENT tour! John did a fantastic job.
Clearly he's a historian of the park and enjoys the details. My only
regrets are that it was too short, that we didn't get to go up into Walt's
apartment over the firehouse, that we didn't see Club 33, and that we
didn't get to ride LilyBelle. Still, for $14 a Disneyphile can't go
wrong on this one!
|
