Rich G. writes in to ask:
Jim —
I really enjoyed Thursday’s story about how the Disney-MGM Studio theme park may be forced to change its name this summer. I was wondering: Will the expiration of Disney’s agreement with MGM/UA also result in the “The Great Movie Ride” being shut down too?
Rich G.
Dear Rich G.
Actually, no. Don’t worry about it. The rights to use the various movie scenes and characters that you see in “The Great Movie Ride” were actually acquired under a separate series of agreements that involved a number of different movie studios. Not just MGM/UA.
Take — for example — the “Alien” sequence in TGMR. Disney got the rights to use those characters and that oh-so-spooky setting by cutting a deal with 20th Century Fox, the studio that actually produced this Ridley Scott film back in 1979. The “Raiders of the Lost Ark” Well of Souls scene? The Imagineers actually had to approach two different companies — Paramount Pictures and Lucasfilm Ltd.– in order to get permission to make AA versions of Indy & Sallah.
That process sounds kind of involved, don’t you think? Wait. It gets worse.
In addition to getting permission from the individual studios in order to recreate a character and/or a setting from a particular motion picture, WDI often times had to also persuade the surviving members of a performer’s family to sign off on the likeness of that AA figure as well. Otherwise Disney’s lawyers wouldn’t allow the Imagineers to install the robotic version of that star in “The Great Movie Ride.”
This is what actually happened with the Lee Marvin Audio Animatronic that was supposed to be installed in the Western sequence of that Disney-MGM ride. Directly across from the John Wayne figure.
“Wait a minute, Jim,” you sputter. “You’re telling me that there was supposed to be a Lee Marvin figure in the ‘Great Movie Ride’? How did that deal fall through? What exactly happened here?”
Well, to put it bluntly, Lee Marvin’s kids refused to sign WDI’s release form. They were deeply offended that — out of all the roles their Dad had played over the course of his 35-year-long career — Disney had chosen to make a robotic version of Kid Shelleen (AKA The drunken gunslinger that Marvin had played in the 1965 comic western, “Cat Ballou”).
Now it didn’t seem to matter to Marvin’s children that their father had actually won an Academy Award for playing Kid Shelleen. Or that many people had thought that Lee’s performance in “Cat Ballou” was the very best thing that the late actor (Marvin died of a heart attack in August of 1987) had ever done.
All they knew was that everyone who ever rode Disney-MGM’s “Great Movie Ride” was going to see — for years & years yet to come — was a robotic version of their dad, drunk. This was a concept that Lee Marvin’s kids just couldn’t live with. Which is why they flat-out refused to sign WDI’s release form.
This — as you might understand — left the Imagineers who actually were in charge of completing this attraction in a bit of a lurch. These guys knew that they needed two well-known film legends in order to properly fill out the performance space that had been built into the Western section of “The Great Movie Ride.” And now that the Kid Shalleen AA figure had to be pulled out of TGMR … Well, that left one hell of a big hole.
Luckily, Frank Wells was able to come to WDI’s rescue. He told the Imagineers: “Look, I’m personal friends with Clint Eastwood. I was his attorney for a while. And — back when I was in charge of Warners — I actually greenlit a number of Eastwood’s pictures. Which is why I’m sure that he’d get a real kick out of seeing himself inside the ‘Great Movie Ride.’ So why don’t you work up an Audio Animatronic version of him? And I’ll then get Clint to sign your release form.”
This WDI did almost immediately. They fabricated that AA figure in record time. Of course, given the limited amount of time that the Imagineers were working with here … Well, I guess you can understand now why the GMR’s “Man with No Name” robot has such limited movement.
Anyway … WDI quickly produces an Audio Animatronic Clint Eastwood. The figure’s then sent east and quickly installed in “The Great Movie Ride.” But — because Disney’s lawyers insisted that the public wasn’t actually allowed to see this particular AA figure ’til after Eastwood officially signs that release form … During the “Great Movie Ride” ‘s entire test-and-adjust period, the “Man with No Name” stood stoically in that doorway with a paper bag over his head.
Meanwhile, the Imagineers keep calling Frank Wells’ office, asking the Disney Company’s president: “Did you get Clint to sign that release form yet.” But Wells is busy running the Mouse House. And Eastwood is beginning pre-production on “Pale Rider.” So neither of these guys really has a hole in their schedule. And meanwhile the date of Disney-MGM’s grand opening keeps getting closer and closer and closer …
Finally in April of 1989 (Less than 10 days before the studio theme park was due to open to the public), Wells persuades Clint to get on a plane with him. So that the two of them can then fly on down to Florida and go check out Disney’s newest theme park.
Mind you, Eastwood really isn’t a theme park kind of guy. More importantly, he’s not all that crazy about planes. So it takes an awful lot of weedling on Wells’ part to finally get Clint on Mickey’s corporate jet. But eventually Eastwood does agree to go to Orlando.
So Clint & Frank finally arrive at Disney-MGM and begin touring the theme park. And this whole time, the Imagineers assigned to the GMR are sweating bullets. They keep thinking about what could to happen if Wells is wrong. What if Eastwood absolutely hates the “Man with No Name” AA figure? What will they do then?
Finally, the two old friends get on board the “Great Movie Ride.” They’ve got an entire theater car all to themselves. And — as it quietly slides out of the attraction’s load area — a very nervous lead picks up his walkie-talkie and says: “They’re on their way. You can remove the paper bag now.”
And that’s literally what happens. Just seconds before the theater car that’s carrying Clint and Frank rolls into the “Great Movie Ride” ‘s Western section, an Imagineer sprints on stage and rips the paper bag right off of the “Man with No Name” ‘s head. Then — bag in hand — he slips back into the shadows, holds his breath and watches what happens next.
The doors leading from the attraction’s gangland shooting sequence now swings open. The theater car slides into the next room. Eastwood spies the “Man with No Name” AA figure leaning against that building. A big, very un-Dirty-Harry-like smile spreads across his face. He turns to Wells and says: “Hey, that’s me!”
Frank turns to Clint and says: “You like?”
Eastwood says: “Yeah. Sure.” Wells then whips out WDI’s release form and says: “Okay. Then sign this, please.”
And literally — right in the middle of the action portion of the GMR’s Western sequence (I.E. After the robber has tossed the dynamite into bank. Which is why all those flames are belching out of the windows) — Clint initials and then signs that release form. Thinking that his old pal, Frank, had gone to such elaborate lengths to try & amuse and surprise him.
To my knowledge, Eastwood has never learned about all the problems that the Imagineers were having with Lee Marvin’s kids. Or that his “Man with No Name” AA figure was really just a last minute substitute for the Kid Shalleen Audio Animatronic that the Imagineers had originally planned on installing in this attraction.
Which is why I’m kind of hoping that this story never gets back to Clint. I’d hate to think that — by posting this tale on JHM (Which was told to me by the very same Imagineer who reportedly raced on stage and ripped that paper bag off of the robotic Eastwood’s head) — that this will somehow undermine what must be a pretty fond memory of the late Frank Wells.
Anyway … There’s a happy, upbeat Clint Eastwood story for all you movie buffs out there. I don’t know if that tale will actually be enough to make up for “Million Dollar Baby” … But — what the hey — I gave it a shot, alright?
See you all again on Monday, okay? Have a great weekend!
jrh