A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: Secrets of the Osborne Spectacle of Dancing Lights
By Dave Shute
Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Even though it’s not so utterly Friday today…Jim, the dean of Disney historians and author of Jim’s Gems in The easy Guide, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.
SECRETS OF THE OSBORNE SPECTACLE OF DANCING LIGHTS
By Jim Korkis
The Osborne Spectacle of Dancing Lights has been exhibited for twenty Christmases beginning in 1995.
Disney has announced that this year is the final appearance of this breath-taking experience.
Over the years, the show has undergone several changes but here are a few items that guests may have missed over the years.
When the four 18-wheel Mayflower Moving Vans arrived at Walt Disney World on November 4,1995, and the lights were unloaded, Show Director John Phelan discovered that there was a figure of a cat with an arched back outlined in purple. Time was of the essence since the display was announced as opening in just three weeks on November 24.
Phelan contacted Jennings Osborne to try to identify where it fit into the overall Christmas display and if it were perhaps a tribute to an Osborne pet. An amused Jennings replied that it was actually part of his Halloween lighting and he had shipped it by accident. Osborne had three huge backyard storage sheds filled with his holiday lights so it was easy to make a mistake.
Phelan kept the cat and had it re-lit in a holiday style and added to the display. Each year, the Walt Disney World lighting crew hides it somewhere in the display without letting Phelan know its location, thus making him go and find it. It is in a different place each year. Phelan has since moved on to duties at a competing Orlando park but still returns to try to find the cat.
By the way, there is an homage to the University of Arkansas Razorbacks football team, with a red razorback hog hidden among the lights since Jennings was a huge Razorbacks fan including hosting free barbecues at Razorback games.
In 2006, approximately four hundred dimmer relay and control switches were added to the display allowing the lights to be choreographed to a musical score. The holiday event now consisted of more than five million lights and was officially renamed the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights.
Disney was not the first to use dancing lights but its display was the largest. Disney continued to update and add more and more lights each year.
The nativity scene saw a little controversy and was eventually moved to the Italian pavilion at Epcot for the holidays.
One year, special glasses were given away where the guests could see images of angels in the lights. Again, because of a little controversy regarding religious aspects, those glasses were redone the next year so guests could see snowflakes instead. The glasses also worked on your own Christmas tree at home.
The lights for display have all been converted to energy-efficient LED lights beginning in 2011 making the lights not only environmentally friendly, less expensive in terms of electricity but also brighter. Scenes and music from the ABC holiday show “Prep & Landing” have also been added.
The infamous “leg lamp” from the popular movie A Christmas Story is in one of the windows. Glow With The Show Mickey ears were introduced in 2013. Santa Goofy has been part of the experience for several years now.
Of course, there are dozens of hidden Mickeys as well from a toy soldier with mouse ears on his hat, to a marking spot on the rear end of a Dalmatian puppy to the more traditional three-circled images in a variety of colors.
By the way, the Mickey Mouse driving a train was part of the original display in Arkansas.
The radio station WJBO that broadcasts music throughout the night is a tribute to William Jennings Osborne.
That red canopy of lights used to adorn the outdoor driveway of the Osborne home. The canopy was lower when it was on Residential Street because Osborne wanted people to feel immersed in the lights.
“I like creating memories that people won’t soon forget,” Jennings Osborne once said. “I want the people to feel like they are inside the lights, looking out at the world.”
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Thanks, Jim. Jim has written more on the Osborne Lights here. I’m hoping to see them again on our December visit. The end of an era…
Come back next Friday for even more from Jim Korkis!
In the meantime, check out his books, including Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew
, which reprints much material first written for this site, and The Vault of Walt: Volume 4, and his contributions to The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit, all published by Theme Park Press.
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