Wednesday, November 12, 2003
by Mark Goldhaber, staff writer
I'm very grateful for all of the readers who have sent in their favorite
hidden tributes or little-known facts in response to my last few columns
on those subjects. Some of them were new to me, some were not, but all
were good, so I'd like to share them with you. But first, a couple of
corrections.
Reader Jeffrey Contompasis was the first of many to catch an error that
I made in my references to the size of Spaceship Earth. Jeffrey wrote:
Sphere Volume is 4/3 Pi R3
Relative volume of 2 Spheres is R'^3/R''^3.
So, if diameter 1 is 1178 times diameter 2, so are the radii, but the volumetric ratio is 1634691752:1.
That's what I get for trying to remember formulas when I'm exhausted. I knew that something seemed wrong but couldn't put my finger on it. It is indeed 1,634,691,752 times the size. Thanks for catching it, Jeffrey. Many people wrote in on that one, but you were the first.
Reader Joe Cambron also questioned my statement that the wand atop Spaceship Earth was the only structure at Walt Disney World that was over 200 feet tall, and therefore the only structure that required aviation lights on top. Joe suggested that the Contemporary Resort must be over 200 feet tall since it, too, has aviation lights on top. Well, the Contemporary does indeed have aviation lights on top; however, the structure is only 184 feet tall. The best possible reason for the lights that I can come up with is that the Contemporary is directly in the flight path of the old airstrip located adjacent to the Transportation & Ticket Center parking lot. Since it can still be used as an emergency landing strip, the height and proximity of the Contemporary probably require the lights. Good catch, but the Wand is still the only structure taller than 200 feet (though the resort is four feet taller than Spaceship Earth without the Wand.).
Reader Nicholas Steinhoff let me know that I mistakenly wrote that the white sand for the beaches at the Polynesian and Grand Floridian came from the bed of Seven Seas Lagoon, when in fact it came from beneath Bay Lake.
Yep, you're right about Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake. I knew that, but for
some reason I messed it up when writing the article. My goof. From one
of my favorite resources, Since the World Began: “Underneath
the mire at the bottom of Bay Lake, engineers found thousands of tons
of pure white sand. The sand was removed and cleaned, and now lines the
four and a half miles of beach that surround the 172-acre lagoon and Bay
Lake.” The Seven Seas Lagoon was transformed from excavated lowlands.
Good catch, Nicholas. Thanks for keeping me on my toes!
Nicholas also passes on this story, supposedly now told on the Backstage Magic tour:
Have you heard the story about the woman who sued Disney because her ears were damaged by the pressure difference in the trip down to Sea Base Alpha? Seriously. So the judge and jury were taken on a field trip to the living seas, where both doors were opened simultaneously to show the drop was almost nothing. Legend is the woman just walked away and the judge never heard from her again.
More tributes
Reader Dana Sieben, a member of the Great Movie Ride opening crew while on the College Program, contributes that the names and “info”(I'm assuming birthdates or similar) of Imagineers were programmed to show on the computer screens on the edge of the track in front of Ripley in the Alien section.
Another reader informs us that a French horn in the décor of the theater
at Mickey's PhilharMagic is shaped as a hidden Mickey. The same sharp-eyed
reader also contributes this tribute to Disneyland's old Mission to Mars
attraction at Mission: Space. During the Mission Control preshow of Mission
to Mars, the alarm system goes off, signaling a possible emergency re-entry.
The operations director, Mr. Johnson (Tom Morrow at WDW's Flight to the
Moon), says, “Just as I thought. Somehow, this silly bird trips the
emergency system every time he comes in. And I think he knows the laugh's
on us.” As he says this, the video monitors display a video of a seagull
landing in the area around the launch pad. If you watch the monitors at
the Mission: Space control room in the queue, a small video screen shows
an intruder alert, followed by the same footage of the seagull landing
near the launch pad.
Speaking of Mr. Johnson and Tom Morrow, DJ Coleman contributes the factoid that these Animatronics have the facial features of none other than Disney's master sculptor, Blaine Gibson.
More info afloat
Gabriel Pritz, a WDW Watercraft pilot and trainer, wrote in with more information on the Liberty Square Riverboats and the Magic Kingdom Ferries. I had discussed the untimely end of the original Admiral Joe Fowler, and the renaming of the Richard F. Irvine to the Liberty Belle. Gabriel reminded me that the ferries had been renamed in tribute.
The red ferry formerly known as the Magic Kingdom I is now the
Richard F. Irvine. The green ferry formerly known as the Magic
Kingdom II is now the Admiral Joe Fowler, and the newest ferry
(the blue one), formerly known as the Kingdom Queen is now the
General Joe Potter.
Gabriel also adds this information:
It's a little ironic that the same SyncroLift back in Dry Dock that
damaged the original Fowler's hull is still being used to raise
the ferryboats right out of the water quite often! The Fowler
and Irvine (which were constructed simultaneously) weigh 190
tons, and the Potter (constructed a few years later) weighs 180
tons. It takes this lift approximately 20 minutes to hoist the boats
from water level to street level (about 9 or 10 feet up) where they
can be winched across the street on railroad tracks into a huge tent
for rehabs. Just thought you'd like to know (if you didn't already!)
Paging Mr. Finder
The thing that got me most excited was when I got a note from Ron Schneider,
the original strolling Dreamfinder at Epcot. (Never discount the power
of 20-year-old memories. I was thrilled to hear from him.) He passed along
a correction (the scent-making machine that I mentioned back in September
is called a “smellitzer”—like in Howitzer—not “smellitizer”)
and a wonderful story. I'll let him tell it in his own words.
From 1982-1987 I was the original strolling Dreamfinder at Epcot's
Journey Into Imagination. On one of my first visits to the new pavilion
I was walking in through the employee access gate on the northwest end
of the building when I nearly tripped over my new co-worker!
Figment was on his little purple knees, writing his name in the wet cement just inside the new backstage access gate.
It's a little faded, but still there today in the cement just before you step off stage. And it looks like Figment learned to write from Mickey himself -- his E is printed backwards!
Imagine that.
We're havin' a party (line)
After a call to the Walt Disney World information line, they told me
that it wasn't there any more. During my trip in October, I just happened
to see that it was still there and still operational, so here it is, for
your enjoyment.
On Main Street, see if you can find the party line phone in the General
Store. For those of you who haven't heard of party line phones, once upon
a time, not every household have its own individual phone number. Because
switching equipment was very expensive, many people would share a single
phone line. If somebody was using it for a call, everybody else on the
party line would have to wait for their turn. It's kind of like the way
that multiple phones in the same house work, except that it was spread
out geographically.
How did they find out if somebody else was using the phone? Unlike phones
within the same house, you can't bellow at the top of your lungs, “Is
anybody on the phone?!” No, they'd have to do what many people do
anyway, even within the same house. They'd pick up the phone, and if somebody
else was talking on it, they'd hang up. Or, sometimes they didn't. That
was how a great deal of gossip started back in the old days.
Getting back to our story, try to find the party line phone in the General
Store. It's right by the sales counter next to the toy store on the Center
Street side. Pick it up and see what's going on in town. Spread the gossip.
Coming up next …
Next time, another real treat. I've got a couple of stories from the people behind the names on those windows on Main Street, including a wonderful surprise.
Bonus Factoid of the Week
Of the four engines on the Walt Disney World Railroad, only one is named
for someone who is not a member of the Disney family. The Roger E.
Broggie honors the first Imagineer, who built the Carolwood Pacific
Railroad in Walt Disney's back yard in 1949, and who bought and oversaw
the rehab of the locomotives for the Walt Disney World Railroad. The other
three engines are the Walter E. Disney, the Roy O. Disney, and the Lilly
Belle (named for Walt's wife Lillian). [And you're in for a special treat;
MousePlanet is running a story later this month about the recent rededication
ceremony for the Roger E. Broggie!]
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Mark is a veteran of many trips to Walt Disney World starting in 1972, with a few Disneyland trips also under his belt. He is also a Disney stockholder and a Disney Vacation Club member who collects Disney sericels, books, clothing, and just about any other thing with The Mouse on it that he can lay his hands on. Between visiting WDW, planning trips for himself and others, fantasizing about trips to WDW, and reading everything he can about Walt Disney and his legacy, there's not much time left for anything other than family time, but he's perfectly happy with that. Mark is a computer geek working for the State of New York. He lives in the suburbs outside Albany, New York, with his wife and son. Click here to contact Mark. 
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