Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

YOUR PERSONAL DISNEY LIBRARY (15)

By Jim Korkis

• Disney’s Animal Kingdom: An Unofficial History by Chuck Schmidt

Other than The Making of Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park by Melody Malmberg, released when the park first opened in 1998. and the later Imagineering Field Guide to Disney’s Animal Kingdom by Alex Wright (2007), there has been up to now no book solely devoted to Walt Disney World’s fourth theme park or the many significant changes that have occurred at it over the last decade and more.

Of course, there are other books that do include a section devoted to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, but this book is completely devoted to just the Animal Kingdom, and its coverage includes not only the park but also the Animal Kingdom Lodge, attractions never built, and also the recent Pandora: The World of Avatar expansion..

The book has sixteen chapters as well as a laudatory foreword by Zofia Kostyrko, an Imagineer who worked for years as part of the team that created and opened the park.

The book is very concise, with only 140 some pages devoted to the park plus an additional chapter of impressions of a variety of Disney fans who have visited it over the years.

Each section of the park, from Safari Village/Discovery Island to Camp Mickey-Minnie, is given its own chapter, and the book itself follows a loose chronological format from the beginnings of the project to its most recent additions.

Chuck Schmidt has been a newspaper journalist for decades and spent some of that time attending multiple Disney events including the opening of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. His media credentials also gave him access to talk with many of the Imagineers and others responsible for making the Disney dream a reality.

In fact, this book in particular benefits from contributions from Imagineers instrumental in the design and construction of Animal Kingdom, including Joe Rohde, Kevin Rafferty, Zofia Kostyrko (who had previously worked with Rohde on the Adventurers Club), and Marty Sklar (a final interview just a few weeks before he died). It also benefits from zoologist Rick Barongi and horticulturalist Paul Comstock, among others, who provide insights not available elsewhere.

For instance, Kostyrko revealed that inside the small temple that’s located near the entrance of Asia (by the Rivers of Light amphitheater), the original design team placed a time capsule, filled with sketches and other memorabilia from their years of work in shaping Animal Kingdom.

A long time Disney fan, Schmidt even has his own blog devoted to Disney, and has written three other books, including one on Disneyland Paris. His reporter training provides a clear, accurate presentation of what actually exists as well as occasional insights into the reason behind that existence.

I especially appreciated his sharing the influence the late Roy E. Disney had on the development of the park. In the book, Schmidt wrote: “During opening day ceremonies, Roy E. Disney said, ‘They [Walt & Roy] would have been thrilled with what has been created here and would have thought it a wonderfully appropriate addition to their company’.”

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest,  The Vault of Walt Volume 7: Christmas Edition, and his Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: MARCH 9 TO MARCH 17, 2019

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

For more on March 2019 at Disney World, see this.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 3/9-3/17/19

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 9a-11p 3/9, 9a-10p 3/10 and 3/11, 9a-11p 3/12 through 3/16, and 9a-10p 3/17

Epcot will be open from 9a-9p every day

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 9a-8p 3/9, and 9a-8.30p 3/10 through 3/17

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 9a-9p 3/9 through 3/16, and 8a-8p 3/17

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 3/9-3/17/19

Saturday 3/9 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none

Sunday 3/10  Morning:  Hollywood Studios Evening: none

Monday 3/11  Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none

Tuesday 3/12 Morning: none Evening: Epcot

Wednesday 3/13 Morning:  none Evening: Magic Kingdom

Thursday 3/14 Morning: Epcot Evening: none

Friday 3/15 Morning:  Magic Kingdom Evening: none

Saturday 3/16 Morning: Animal Kingdom  Evening: none

Sunday 3/17 Morning:  Hollywood Studios  Evening: none

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 3/9-3/17/19

The Magic Kingdom: Afternoon parade: 3p every day

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 3/9-3/17/19

Happily Ever After at Magic Kingdom 8p 3/9; 9.15p 3/10 through 3/17

IllumiNations at Epcot: 9p every night

Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 8p 3/9; 8.30p 3/10 through 3/17

Star Wars Show and Fireworks at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 8.30p 3/9; 9p 3/10 through 3/17

Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 7.15 and 8.30p 3/9; 8.15 and 9.30p 3/10 through 3/17

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 3/9/-3/17/19

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

MEDFIELD COLLEGE

By Jim Korkis

Unlike Disneyland, WDW is home to several references to Medfield College, a beloved part of Disney heritage.

Underneath the Main Street train station is a board listing the arrivals and departures of trains. One entry shows the arrival of a train from Medfield while another entry shows the departure of a train from Rutledge, home of Medfield’s traditional rival college.However, the other entries that all reference classic Disney live-action films should be a hint that Medfield is also a fictitious location that appeared in several Disney films, including The Absent Minded Professor  (1961) as well as its remake Flubber  (1997), Son of Flubber  (1963) and the “Dexter Riley” trilogy: The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes  (1969), Now You See Him, Now You Don’t  (1972) and The Strongest Man in the World  (1975).

The town of Medfield where Medfield College is located is the setting for the Disney film The Shaggy D.A.  (1976) which seems to imply that Medfield was also the location for The Shaggy Dog  (1959).

Medfield College was named after the town of Medfield, Massachusetts. Before World War II, Walt Disney came to Medfield on several occasions to visit friend Justin Dart who began the Dart Drugstore chain. Dart lived on Holiday Farm on Elm Street.

Today’s soccer fields behind the Ralph Wheelock School back then contained his private dirt air-field where supposedly Walt would land a plane on these trips. It was on these visits that Walt Disney picked up the name “Medfield” as a nice collegial setting. The cornerstone of Blake Middle School (formerly Medfield High School) has a Walt Disney quote inscribed on it: “Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children.”

The Medfield College scenes in both The Absent-Minded Professor and Son of Flubber were filmed on the campus of Pomona College in Claremont, California, as well at the Disney Studios in Burbank.

When Dexter Riley (Kurt Russell) and his friends gather outside the college’s administration building, they are at an outdoor patio near the entrance to the Disney Studios Animation Building.  The only change was lettering placed by the entrance identifying it as a Science Building.

Since 1921, Pomona College has been used as an educational institution setting in dozens of feature films, television productions and commercials. Because of the overwhelming number of requests, Pomona’s policy now limits most location filming to periods when the College is not in session, and to projects that feature “significant involvement” by Pomona alumni, trustees, faculty, staff or students.

For the 2002 revamp of the Journey into Imagination attraction at Epcot, several visual references were included that suggested that the Imagination Institute had connections with Medfield College. In the queue line are several office doors. One is for Professor Brainard from the Absent Minded Professor films while another is for Dean Higgins, the role actor Joe Flynn played in the Dexter Riley films. In the first film in the series, when Higgins is looking out his meeting room window, he is looking at the same panoramic backdrop of the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank used for Walt’s filmed introductions to his television series.

In addition, the glass-fronted computer room has a sign on the door indicating “no tennis shoes allowed” referring to The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes movie, and the room also contains a Medfield College letterman’s jacket

By the way, the fight song of Medfield College which can be heard during the credit sequence of The Absent-Minded Professor was composed by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman.

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest,  The Vault of Walt Volume 7: Christmas Edition, and his Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: MARCH 2 TO MARCH 10, 2019

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

For more on March 2019 at Disney World, see this.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 3/2-3/10/19

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 9a-11p 3/2,  9a-10p 3/3 and 3/4, 9a-9p 3/5 through 3/7, 9a-10p 3/8, 9a-11p 3/9, and 9a-10p 3/10

Epcot will be open from 9a-9p every day

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 9a-8p 3/2 through 3/9, and 9a-8.30p 3/10

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 9a-9p 3/2, 8a-8p 3/3, 9a-8p 3/4 through 3/8, and 9a-9p 3/9 and 3/10

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 3/2-3/10/19

Saturday 3/2 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none

Sunday 3/3  Morning:  Hollywood Studios Evening: none

Monday 3/4  Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none

Tuesday 3/5 Morning: none Evening: Epcot

Wednesday 3/6 Morning:  none Evening: Magic Kingdom

Thursday 3/7 Morning: Epcot Evening: none

Friday 3/8 Morning:  Magic Kingdom Evening: none

Saturday 3/9 Morning: Animal Kingdom  Evening: none

Sunday 3/10 Morning:  Hollywood Studios  Evening: none

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 3/2-3/10/19

The Magic Kingdom: Afternoon parade: 3p every day

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 3/2-3/10/19

Happily Ever After at Magic Kingdom 8p 3/2 through 3/9; 9.15p 3/10

IllumiNations at Epcot: 9p every night

Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 8p 3/2 through 3/9; 8.30p 3/10

Star Wars Show and Fireworks at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 8.30p 3/2 through 3/9; 9p 3/10

Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 7.15 and 8.30p 3/2 and 3/3; 7.15 p 3/4 through 3/8; 7.15 and 8.30p 3/9; 8.15 and 9.30p 3/10

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 3/2/-3/10/19

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

Updated June 25, 2019.

On March 7, Disney announced that the new Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge land would partially open at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on August 29.

Crowds in the new land will be a mess, and likely will spill over into the other thrill-style rides at that park. While I don’t see much impact on the other parks, no one knows for sure, and the Labor Day weekend that immediately follows opening day will likely be the busiest such in Disney World history.

I don’t see a huge impact outside the land itself the rest of the month, as it is hard to take kids out of school in September, the partial opening will make visiting specifically to see Star Wars less attractive, and many people will cancel their September trips to avoid the mess entirely.  See this for more.

WHAT IS SEPTEMBER LIKE AT DISNEY WORLD?

September at Disney World combines lower crowds with low prices, and typically also has nice deals as well.

This makes it a great month for returning visitors.

But it has lousy weather, combining continuing summer heat and humidity with the peak of the hurricane season, making me not so keen on the month for first time visitors who may never return.

Note also that picking the right park to visit each day is critical at this time of the year.  See this, and use the comment form below to ask me about your specific dates!

[Read more →]

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

YOUR PERSONAL DISNEY LIBRARY (14)

By Jim Korkis

• From Jungle Cruise Skipper to Disney Legend by William “Sully” Sullivan
• From Disneyland’s Tom Sawyer to Disney Legend by Tom Nabbe

Both of these books were released in 2015 by Theme Park Press as part of their series of having Disney Legends share the stories of their Disney careers in their own words.

For historians, it is important and insightful to hear from the people who were actually there, although there is always the caveat that the recollections may be flawed. Their memories might be chronologically imprecise, or they may only have seen their part of the contribution to a project, or they may have an agenda to over promote what they did.

In the case of Walt Disney World, it is important to remember that it opened nearly fifty years ago and most of the people involved with that event are now at least eighty years old, or passed away, which makes it even more important to try and capture those personal first-hand accounts for a better understanding.

These are both short books, barely 125 pages each, and there are many unanswered questions that still need to be asked and documented of these two legends. However, what is in the books is very good stuff and has pretty much never appeared in print anywhere else before this publication. Great anecdotes, new revelations and interesting perspectives fill the pages, as well as putting some personalities to the names of others.

Both Tom and Sully started at Disneyland in 1955 so knew and worked with Walt Disney. Fifteen years later, when they moved to Florida to assist with the opening of Walt Disney World, they were seasoned veterans who were often assigned to help with problem solving at the new park.

Florida was a completely different world with an entirely different culture. Constant battles with bugs, heat and humidity, lack of supplies and lack of access to experienced labor resources were among the many other challenges. Neither man is shy about sharing the obstacles that confronted them while rushing to open Walt Disney World.

Tom was in charge of opening the Walt Disney World monorail system in 1971. He was the one who created the famous Nabbe Grabbers to reach down between the beams to recover items like hats, sunglasses, toys and more that guests dropped as they boarded or exited. Today, shorter versions are used by the WDW maintenance staff.

He ended up staying at WDW for the next 32 years and moving from the Monorail to one project after another. In 1972, he moved over to Frontierland during the construction of Tom Sawyer Island.  They dragged out a bunch of old photos of him as a young Tom Sawyer at Disneyland in the 1950s for publicity.  He later moved to Tomorrowland in 1973 for the building of Space Mountain and also a few other locations.

“Then I moved again to another project called EPCOT and in 1984 I finally made a key career change by going into Warehouse operations and that’s where I retired from in June of 2003,” said Tom.

“Sully” Sullivan came out in 1970 to train the cast who were going to work at the resorts in the Disney manner of how to do things. He was based at the Hilton Inn South off of International Drive. By the time, the Magic Kingdom opened in 1971, he was in charge of Security and Fire Prevention for Main Street, Adventureland, Frontierland, and Liberty Square. He was then transferred to the Resort Division, where he spent three and a half years, assisting and operating the Disney resort hotels.

Sully said, “I later had the opportunity to open and manage operations at Epcot Center. After operating Epcot Center for two years I went back to the Magic Kingdom as Vice President of the Magic Kingdom. And after thirty-nine and a half great years of working hard and playing hard at Disney, I decided to retire, which I did in February 1994.”

Each book covers memories of working at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World in the early years, and helps us to better understand why these two men truly deserved being made Disney Legends.

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest,  The Vault of Walt Volume 7: Christmas Edition, and his Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!