You know what I love about the Web? This whole give-and-take thing.
I mean, here I thought that I had come up with a fairly interesting pile of new stories to post on the site this week. But leave it to JHM’s readers to come up with tales that actually top my own.
Take — for example — last week’s “Why For.” Where I wrote about how the former Chairman of Disney Attractions, *** Nunis, had once wanted to bring Disneyland’s Matterhorn to WDW’s Magic Kingdom. Now — as part of that article — I revealed that *** had originally wanted to build this thrill ride right on top of the same parcel of land that Mickey’s Toontown Fair currently occupies. And — given that it was Mr. Nunis himself (Who I was lucky enough to interview ‘way back in the early 1990s) who was my source for this piece — I was fairly confident in my information.
Well, imagine my surprise when I began getting notes from longtime WDW cast members. Who told me in no uncertain terms that I had the proposed location of the Magic Kingdom’s proposed Matterhorn wrong. Take — for example — this e-mail from Hooch, which said:
Hello Jim,
I read your “Why For” column today and actually a while back I contacted Dave Smith about the Matterhorn rumor at WDW. He responded (by saying) that footers (had been) installed behind “it’s a small world” in preparation for the construction of the Matterhorn in Fantasyland. They are there to this day.
I am not disputing what Mr. Nunis planned to do. However this is another piece of the Matterhorn puzzle that I feel should be mentioned.
Thanks!
Hooch
Then Steve stepped forward to back-up Hooch’s story:
Hey Jim,
Just one small correction to your recent “Why For” column. The original intent for the Matterhorn at WDW was not in the Mickey’s Toontown area, but behind It’s a Small World.
The mountain would have been in that corner of the park, complimented by the Swiss Chalet themeing and architecture of both Pinocchio Village Haus and The Skyway Station at either end. The entrance would have been in the area of that little alcove where the Pinocchio restrooms are.
In fact, If you go backstage near the entrance to the Utilidors and the Cast member bus stop, on the Small World side, about halfway up the wall you will see exposed rebar sticking out of the wall where the Matterhorn structure was intended to tie in. A friend of mine once questioned my sources on this information, and he now has in his possesion a signed letter from Marty Sklar verifying this information.
Keep up the great work.
Steve
Given what Dave Smith told Hooch and what Marty Sklar told Steve’s friend, I’m now wondering if what *** Nunis told me was right. I mean, given all the Swiss themed material that’s already in place over in that corner of Fantasyland, it now makes perfect sense now that the Imagineers had once planned on building a Matterhorn in this part of the Magic Kingdom.
So now one has to wonder: Why did *** tell me something different? Could it be that Nunis didn’t really agree with the Imagineers about where this mountain should be placed?
Hmmmn … Given that *** doesn’t really like to talk about his days at Disney anymore (I’ve heard that Nunis — who once ran the entire Walt Disney World resort like it was his own personal fiefdom — left the Mouse House on fairly bad terms. And — given that ***’s one of the guys who was raised to believe that “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” — Nunis has pretty much refused to talk with the press since he officially retired from the Walt Disney Company in 1999), I seriously doubt that I’m going to get another chance to quiz him about WDW’s version of the Matterhorn.
So — for now — given the logic of what Hooch & Steve have been telling us, why don’t we now go with their explanation about the Matterhorn’s location? And — instead of dropping this Disneyland thrill ride on top of Mickey’s Toontown Fair — let’s go instead with Fantasyland, somewhere behind the Pinocchio Village Haus restaurant and “it’s a small world”?
Okay. So that’s one story that I sort of got wrong. Mind you, I do occassionally get a story right.
Case in point: This week’s “The short, short life of WDW’s STOLport” piece. Particularly where I talked about how that long-abandoned runway was once used in the field test of some very interesting speed bumps. This part of the story actually brought back a lot of fond memories for many WDW cast members. Among them MH, who wrote in to say:
Hi Jim.
Thanks for all your wonderful articles. The article today about Walt Disney World’s STOLport reminded me of the day I actually got to experience the “Zip-a-dee Strips.” (That’s what I was told they were called.)
I was in a company vehicle with a supervisor one day and on a lark we drove out onto the runway to experience the strips. I could definitely tell that the strips sounded like “Zip-a-dee Doo Dah.” I had the biggest grin on my face, and couldn’t wait until they were installed in a guest area (I was told that they would be installed on a section of World Drive as you neared the Toll Plaza.)
I never heard why they were not installed.
Thanks for taking me down memory lane.
MH
Then there was TR, who sent me an e-mail that sort of explained how these musical speed bumps actually worked … As well as offering some additional information about how — long after WDW’s STOlport had officially been closed to the public — Walt Disney Company officials still found ways to use this abandoned airfield.
Jim:
I also remember the “musical roadway” during my time in the WDW cast. I met the man who designed it, and for his first test, he created a roll-up mat, into which he inserted plastic pieces about the size of standard wooden rulers (come to think of it, they may have been rulers) between the layers of this mat. They were set at varying intervals to change the frequency (note) of the song. It was only about 12″ wide and he drove over it with just one side of the vehicle. He explained to me that the main difficulty was that there was a slight delay, caused by the front tires and rear tires running over the “notes” due to their distance from each other. I always thought this was a neat idea, and told my mother about it (she was a civil engineer with the Alabama DOT) and suggested that we do the same on the interstates at the state line, using the song “My Home’s in Alabama.”
One note about the STOLport; it has been used on occasion by helicopters. After a shareholders meeting, I drove MDE and his assistant there to take a hop to Orlando Executive Airport via Bell Jet Ranger.
Thank you for your very interesting articles and your great website.
TR
Well, that’s kind of neat to know how that musical speed bump thing would have worked, don’t you think.
And — speaking of thinking … Every so often, I’ll hear from some JHM reader who’ll say that he thinks I’m lying. Who’ll claim that I’ve spun a story out of whole cloth, invented some controversy, all in an effort to drive up traffic levels at this site.
I got a number of notes like that last week after I posted my “A casino at Walt Disney World?! Don’t bet on it” story. It seems that a fair amount of JHM readers just couldn’t believe that the Mouse would ever entertain the notion of offering gambling at Disney World. Let alone surveying WDW guests to see what they thought of the matter.
Well, thankfully, someone who actually worked for Walt Disney World’s research department finally came forward to address this controversy. And — via e-mail — he explained what Disney was really trying to do when they first began polling WDW guests on this subject back in November of 2004:
I wanted to set the record straight on the WDW Casino rumor. As a member of the staff of WDW’s Research department, I am very familiar with this project.
There was a research project the 1st week of Nov when about 600 1 on 1 interviews (not focus groups) were conducted about gambling in central Florida. The survey was because of the new gambling law and Hard Rock Casino in Tampa. The purpose was to understand how much the potential future presence of gambling in Orlando would damage the WDW brand image.
The possibility of a casino on WDW property was randomly floated in some of the interviews, but strictly to measure response to different kinds of scenarios, and to guage how close to WDW a casino would have to be to hurt our image. The possibility of any casino at WDW was effectively killed forever after a ’94 gambling study showed very heavy negative feelings towards the idea.
So there you have it. Confirmation that Disney really wasn’t toying with the idea building a casino on property. But — rather — the Mouse was just trying to guage how Florida’s changing attitude toward gambling might potentially impact people’s impressions of the Walt Disney World resort.
And — finally — as an interesting sort of sidebar to yesterday’s “Don’t Like the Way your Cartoon is turning out? Just hit ‘rewind’ and recast” article — CK (A WDFA vet) chimes in with some additional information about how Disney’s contracts with celebrity voice talent actually work:
I wanted to respond a bit to your “recasting voice talent’ article. I liked it very much, and what you have said is true. But, unfortunately, when the actor has signed on the dotted line to voice a character, the battle isn’t over. Their contracts are often split into several subsections (or entirely different contracts). One being for the actual voice work in the film, another for their participation in marketing (Katie, Jay and Dave) and still others for additional work to be used with toys, rides, attractions, etc.
As you know, Robin Williams was very concerned about how Disney would use his ‘star power’ and exploit his involvement with the Genie. From what I understand, he even went to the point of having his contract stipulate that posters, trailers and commercials could only feature the Genie to the extent that the Genie appeared in the movie.
For example: if the Genie only actually appeared in 35% of the movie, he could only be featured in 35% of the trailer or 35% of the poster. Oh, and Robin William’s voice was not allowed to be heard on any commercial that was directly created to sell a toy (unlike, let’s say, a Happy Meal spot whose purpose is to sell burgers, but also get people into the theaters.) This ‘Toy Commercial’ stipulation was, I believe, a line that Disney crossed at least one time that I know of, further fueling the bad blood between Williams and Disney. (The commercial I remember was for a projecting View Master.)
Also, sometimes actors simply refuse to do additional work. When approached with the offer to do voice work for Hopper action figures, Kevin Spacey replied: “I don’t do toys.”
Fortunately, Andrew Stanton had been doing the rough ‘scratch’ dialogue for Hopper during the whole production and was often mistaken for official ‘Kevin Spacey’ work. So, in a pinch, they went with Andrew. And that’s his voice you hear in all of those Hopper toys (there were a lot of them) as well as the amazing Hopper figure in the “It’s Tough to be a Bug” 4-D movie. Sounds like Kevin Spacey to me – Andrew is a talented guy.
I was told that later, when Kevin Spacey actually held one of the toys in his hands and saw how cool they were, he was a little bummed that he’d passed on the job.
So there you have it, folks. All sorts of cool little stories that actually expand on some of the columns that we’ve run on JHM over the past week or so. Did you like this version of “Why For”? If so, let me know … And we then might actually use today’s column as a springboard for a brand new feature at the site: “JHM readers respond.”
Speaking of responses … Scott Liljenquist tells me that we’ve gotten a great response to the JHM Disneyland tours that we’ve got scheduled for next weekend. I’m told that both of the tours on Sunday are already virtually sold out at this point. Whereas on Saturday … We’ve still got a few slots left open on both the morning & the afternoon tour.
Sooo … If you’d like to spend some time in Anaheim hearing the sorts of stories that you won’t hear on the official Disneyland tour, then I suggest you click on this link and sign up for a JHM tour ASAP.
Anyway … Normally, this would be the part of the column where I’d say “That’s it for this week, folks. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you again on Monday, okay?” Well, this week, I’d like to try something different.
Just as sort of a let’s-throw-it-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks kind of test … We’re going to post some new content up on JHM this weekend. A new column called “Le Plug,” which will talk about many of the books, CDs, DVDs and games that nice people have sent to this site. With the hope that we’ll then say something nice about these new products.
Well, I’ve got a huge pile of this stuff on my desk right now. And — to be honest — I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to say about any of it. So (in theory) this could be a fun, spontaneous column … And/or it could be an awful, self-absorbed bore.
Either way, I’m sure you folks will let me know how you feel about this new column. So — if you get the chance this weekend — drop on by JHM and check out “Le Plug” and then let me know if it “Les Sucks.”
Then … After that column runs tomorrow … We’ll get back on our usual schedule. Which means all new content up on JHM starting on Monday.
Anyway … That’s it for today. Talk to you later, okay?