Until next time

Trivia!

Beary nice

Christmas in the Parks

A trip back to the Winter 1980/1981 issue of Disney News tells us precisely what festivities were available to guests for the 1980 Christmas season.

Disneyland
Disneyland will shine with holiday decorations during the month of December as the Park celebrates its 25th season of Yuletide activities, highlighted by the traditional Christmas Parade. The joyful procession, to be featured twice daily from December 20 thru January 4, depicts the color and warmth of the season with toy soldiers, dancing snowpeople and Santa himself in his loft sleigh adorned with gifts.

With a special guest narrator reading “The First Christmas,” the Park’s stirring Candlelight Procession on December 20 and 21 will mark the opening of Disneyland’s expanded holiday festivities. Over 1,000 carolers blend their voices in what has become a Disneyland custom which began in 1955.

In addition, the Park will complete the Yuletide flavor with bountiful holiday decorations. Traditional wreaths and bright Christmas bells will hang from the doors of Main Street’s turn-of-the-century shops, and a majestic 60-foot tree will stand in Town Square.

At the other end of Main Street, at Sleeping Beauty Castle, two white Christmas trees will stand in the shimmering waters of the castle moat. Strolling throughout the Park, Disneyland’s Dickens Carolers will serenade guests with mirthful renditions of the season’s favorite melodies. An impressive lineup of musical entertainers performing on various Park stages will round out the holidays.

New Year’s Eve, December 31, Disneyland will present a fun-packed night with top-name artists from 8:30 PM to 2:30 AM. Special pre-purchased tickets for this even will entitle holders to unlimited use of Park attractions (except shooting galleries) and all the extra entertainment, at no additional cost.


Walt Disney World
Smartly dressed elves, cheery carolers, brightly decorated shops and a 65-foot-tall tree help fill the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World in Florida with plenty of old-fashioned Christmas spirit.

The holiday mood is most contagious on Main Street, U.S.A., where wreaths and tinseled garlands recapture the flavor of Christmas past, while strolling carolers regale passers-by with joyous holiday favorites. Focal point for these festive trappings is the gigantic Town Square Christmas tree. The towering, 65-foot-tall silver fir is decorated with 3,000 lights, 5,000 ornaments and an array of colorfully wrapped packages, all waiting to be opened on Christmas Day.

Just about everyone catches the spirit, especially during the enchanting Christmas Parade, which can be seen daily from December 20th through January 3rd. Live musicians, marching toy soldiers and dancing reindeer lead the way for Santa, Mrs. Santa and a host of delightful Disney characters.

The Christmas season officially opens the nights of December 13th and 14th, with the inspiring Candlelight Procession. A massive chorale of more than 1,000 choir-robed singers from individual choral groups throughout the area hold lighted candles, as they form a procession of harmony down Main Street, U.S.A. In Town Square, the members of the chorale form a “Living Christmas Tree,” and lift voices in song to accompany the traditional reading of the Biblical Christmas story by a guest narrator. Past guest narrators include Perry Como, Cary Grant and Rock Hudson.

During the Christmas season, the Magic Kingdom is open daily until midnight, and a spectacular fireworks display fills the sky over Cinderella Castle at 10 p.m. nightly. On New Year’s Eve, the park remains open until 2 a.m. for a special party which features extra-special entertainment events.

So much that we share

Last night at home

Crops of the Future... since 1982

Twilight on the World

David Koenig's Neverlands

This is what we do

Call Raffle #041!

The cat's meow

In his element

Mega Mouse Meet

Engineered marvels

Official sponsors are nothing new to Walt Disney World, its attractions, and its resorts. Currently, Coachman is Fort Wilderness’ Official Recreational Vehicles. In the early years that distinction belonged to Fleetwood. Here are a few of the Fleetwood advertisements that Fort Wilderness Resort guests were prone to seeing in 1978, 1979, and 1984.

Shopping Madness at World of Disney

Evening in France

This is not a post

Podfest 2008

A quiet lunch in Asia

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?

Eric Hoffman has been helping out behind the scenes of the Main Street Gazette since the beginning. He is the reason that this site looks as good as it does, and has the amazing ability to take the jumbled descriptions I give him and turn them into magic.

A while back I offer Eric the chance to write an article, or two, or however many he wished for the Gazette. This is his first article, I hope you enjoy it. And if you do, please leave him a comment letting him know that you'd love to hear from him again!


Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?
by Eric Hoffman

Often times when planning a trip to Disney World, visitors are careful to take care of the big things. Booking rooms, making advanced dining reservations and now with Disney Parks Celebrations promotion in full swing, you may even be planning a special celebration day in the parks. However, celebrating special occasions at Disney parks is certainly not a new concept.

In the past, savvy visitors to Disney World could take advantage of a host of special perks simply for the effort of alerting the reservation department of the date and nature of the celebration. If you happened to book your trip to coincide with an anniversary, for example, you might expect to find a balloon bouquet and a personalized card and picture from the Mouse himself.

One very simple yet special bonus item that Disney will provide for free is a themed celebration button. Stop in and inquire at Guest Relations in any park for these special event-related buttons. You can receive buttons for your Birthday, Anniversary, Honeymoon (just married) and 1st Visit celebrations.

You often read about how the truly magical moments at Disney World are the small, personalized moments that individual cast members create for the guests. With one of these buttons you really open yourself up to all sorts of personal interaction with not only cast members, but even other guests as well. Guests inevitably notice these buttons and “congratulate” or wish “happy birthday” to complete strangers adding a great sense of community to a trip. The memories created are priceless.

On a recent trip to Disney World my family was traveling on a Friendship from Disney's Hollywood Studios to the Swan and Dolphin resorts. A couple celebrating their honeymoon were onboard. They were wearing their “Just Married” buttons along with top hat/wedding veil Mickey ears. The captain of the Friendship noticed and announced the couple over the intercom to cheers and applause. They were also presented with a certificate making them honorary Friendship captains for the day. What a great memento!

My family was on the receiving end of this attention when the birthday of my middle daughter fell during a trip to WDW. We were given a birthday button with her name written on it at check-in at our resort. We had mentioned her birthday while making reservations. The cast members did not disappoint providing her with lots of attention, frequently greeting her by name. The characters she met would also point out her button which really made her smile. She was also singled out on the Jungle Cruise to be the skipper for that trip.

The current Celebrations promotion has really upped the celebration ante with a myriad of ways to help your family celebrate a special day at the parks. However, the simple celebration buttons that the parks pass out are always a simple and personal way to make a special trip to WDW just that much more special!

It's going to be a wild day

WOW

The Gazette's 500th

Dole Whips

My France awakens

As a preteen living in a world before everyone had the internet and there was such a thing as iTunes finding out what music was and then finding the music could prove difficult. For a number of years I had been captivated by the opening music of Impressions de France, but even my mother and grandmother’s French heritage didn’t seem to help. Finally, after so many years of needing to know what this piece of music was so badly that I was about to burst at the seams, this shy middle school boy wandered up to a Cast Member at the entrance to the film and asked if he knew the music that opened the movie and I tried to hum a few bars (this could not have been a pleasant exchange for either of us). He smiled, asked me to wait for a moment, and reached around the door before producing this piece of paper.Everything I could ever want to know about Impressions de France’s score was now mine. He pointed out the singular piece of music that I had been pining after for years: Aquarium, composed by Camille Saint-Saens. He continued to smile as I thank him and sprinted away in unabashed ecstasy. Unfortunately, I soon realized, my mission was far from over.

At that time, finding a particular CD of classical music was just as difficult as finding out what the music was you were looking for in the first place. I searched every music store in the county, but could not find a single recording of Camille Saint-Saens Aquarium performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. In the end, I opted for single compact disc I was able to find with a recording by the Philadelphia Symphony. Not only did I find the piece I had been looking for, but I feel in love with the entire collection of Saint-Saens, and other impressionistic composers, work. I must have played that CD a thousand times, conducting my own bedroom orchestra, because I not only heard the music, I felt the music deep down inside.

That old CD still sits in a place of prominence in my collection. I don’t listen to it very often because I’ve uploaded it to my iTunes and iPod and listen to it through these programs and players regularly. Nowadays there are sites like Disney Music Loops and cell phones with music recognition programs to speed up your search. Rather than traversing every road you know to obtain the music we seek we have Amazon and iTunes at our fingertips. I love having the technology that brings more to its users than ever before, but part of me wonders if the music that has become so much a part of me isn’t that way because of the journey we took to find one another.

A blustery day in the Kingdom

Let it begin

On the road again

Around this time last year I was heading to Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort for my birthday (a joint gift from my wife and my parents), as a runner-up to a trip to Walt Disney World for MouseFest, which they couldn’t afford to do for me (not that I would ever actually ask them to do that for me). It was a magical trip and I plan on returning to the island, soon, but not for this birthday. This year, I am in fact heading to MouseFest, for at least a few days of kinship. I feel extremely grateful to have this opportunity this year, in spite of all the hardships we are facing together as a world, and I plan on making the most of what has been granted to me.

So, today is my birthday and I am celebrating by leaving now, directly after a hard day’s work, to drive overnight and crash the gates in of the Magic Kingdom on Thursday morning. I miss the rides, I miss the food, I miss the atmosphere, and I miss the gardens I’m so prone to talking about, but mostly I miss the people that have come to mean so much to me over the past couple of years. I cannot wait to see them again, hang out, talk, and do nothing in the absolutely most magical place I know of. On top of all of that, I cannot wait to meet all the other wonderful Disney geeks out there, the ones I talk to through email regularly, and the ones I’ve never even heard of (yet). Like last year when I was unable to attend, I know not everyone who wishes to be there is going to be able to attend, and to those of you who cannot make it, let me just say that you will be deeply missed, but you are always at Walt Disney World with us in spirit.

I’ll return home in the extremely late hours of Sunday night, the 14th. But until then I have prepared some articles for those who are going to be left behind, or those stuck on their computer in the resort room, or those of you who just cannot get enough of the Main Street Gazette. For those of you in the latter category, I will also be sending back as many Picture Postcards from the long weekend as I can, so be on the lookout for those as well. Somewhere in the mix of all the content coming through the Main Street Gazette over the next few days are a couple of big moments. On Thursday, with all of the Picture Postcards, the Gazette will reach 500 articles. Then, on Friday, the Gazette's good friend Eric Hoffmanis going to have his first, but hopefully not his last, guest article. I think all of that should keep most of you pretty busy.

For those of you who are going to be down at MouseFest, be sure to stop me and tell me ‘hello!’ Tell me you love the Gazette, tell me you hate my writing, ask me what on earth happened to all of my hair, or just give me a friendly nod. I am a pretty fun and easy guy to talk to, I promise.

Your mother and mine

I haven’t mentioned my mom in any real capacity on this site, save for a mention of a Halloween costume. It wasn’t that she wasn’t with us when we were weeks and weekends at Walt Disney World, it’s just that it is tough to find pictures of her. You see, for most of my youth, my mother was the one with the camera in front of her face, making sure we would have memories to look back on years later. She was also the one who told my father that spending as much time at Walt Disney World as we did as children was bound to have some sort of effect on us... Well,...This is one of the few pictures I have of my mom at Walt Disney World, and it happens to have been taken six years ago today. On that day, I turned 21. At the time I was living in Florida and, because of work, had missed the holidays with my family the previous year and 2002’s Thanksgiving, and Christmas was not looking much better (as it would turn out, I would miss it as well). My mom was down visiting my grandmother, but made the out to see me. We drove up to Downtown Disney, window-shopped in the various stores, had lunch at Rainforest Café, and took this picture in a kiosk at The Art of Disney. She was the only person I ended up seeing on my birthday that year, and it is one of the happiest memories I have from my second stint of living in Florida.

My mother, aside from being sentimental and having a camera attached to her face, has one other attribute that I picked up from her, making notes on everything. Turning the above picture over, you’ll find the following entry:That’s my mom, always there when you need her and always prepared. I was the person who, on this day twenty-seven years ago, made her a mother, and she is a big part of the reason I am the person I am today. Happy birthday to me, but more importantly, thank you to my magical mom!

And action

The Cameraman is an interesting piece found at the end of Hollywood Blvd., in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It is interesting for the same reason that it is extraordinary; it is the perfect piece to embody the spirit of Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and yet it doesn’t depict Walt Disney, a Disney character, or use any recognizable Disney symbol, though the title plaque does include a quote from Walt Disney himself.

The Cameraman was created by Aldo and Andrea Favilli, father and son (respectively) artists. Andrea became an Imagineer in 1987 and worked on a number of blue sky, design, and concepts for Disneyland, Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Typhoon Lagoon, Pleasure Island, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris. After the opening of his own studio in 1992, he sculpted the Disney’s Legends and the Frank G. Wells Awards. Yet, I imagine, of all of his design and sculpting work, The Cameraman must hold a special place in his heart.

Andrea has said that his true education began as a young child with the guidance of his father, Aldo. Aldo was, at the time, a motion picture art director in Rome. So, the ability to work on a sculpture, with a subject matter so close to one’s family, must be a truly inspiring undertaking.

The Cameraman that can be found in Disney’s Hollywood Studios is, in fact, a second edition. The original statue was commissioned by Roy E. Disney and Shamrock Holdings and can be found in the media district across from Warner Bros. The Cameraman is art depicting art and offer a deep insight into the world of filmmaking, while adding to the ambience of Hollywood.

Diggin' in Dinoland

Dinoland U.S.A. offers more than just a blast to the past and some carnival elements. Dinosaurs are mystical to children, and continue to draw them in decade in and decade out with their fierce jaws, their huge sizes, and the idea that you cannot visit a local zoo to see one. For the aspiring paleontologists there is and education of what exactly is involved in paleontology all done in the finest edutainment fashion.The graduate students at the Dino Institute, in between playing rooftop games and adding “osaurus” to every word they can find, have actual tasks they must perform. Sometimes these are tasks that they, like the guests, know nothing about and so they look to their teachers for guidance. Signs like this one, detailing the how and why of plaster wrapping bones, pepper Dinoland U.S.A. Though the students have offered their own insights to the instructions, these signs are a great way to further understand the meticulous work that is carried out by paleontologists. Though even as an adult I can learn something from these information boards, they are perfect for the elementary and middle school set that are starting to firm up specific interests. Coupled with the plant life that is discussed and displayed on the Cretaceous Trail, and you have a firm foundation that will spawn digging in the backyard and library upon returning home.For smaller children the Boneyard is a great place to give them an experience they won’t soon forget and some time to run off their high energy. As a wee tike myself, I can remember going to a museum and Florida that had a large sandbox type structure filled with pebbles and seashells (both whole and crushed), that was mixed in with a few shark’s teeth and rocks with trilobite imprints. The shark’s tooth I found was kept in a prominent place on my dresser well into my teens. From that day on I was convinced I would be digging for things in the ground for the rest of my life, turns out I was actually going to take the sandbox further with me than what I found in it. The Boneyard, with its buried fossils can, and does, have the same effect on the preschool and elementary set.There are opportunities for children to learn all throughout Disney’s Animal Kingdom through tangible real world experiences. The hardest concept to teach a child is to teach them about something they cannot see and touch and experience. Dinoland U.S.A. is a model learning environment for children who want to understand where, how, and when the giant bones in front of Dinosaur where found. Through entertaining explanations and creating hands-on details the prehistoric age of the dinosaurs once again comes alive in the minds of the adolescents who take some time, and whose parents take some time, to soak in everything this land has to offer.

Walter Meyer: The man behind the meals at Epcot Center

Part of every wonderful trip to Walt Disney World is food. Old favorites and new palate pleasers make the memories of the last trip all the more tangible. In the Fall 1984 issue of Disney News Sandra Hinson introduced the world to Walter Meyer, the executive chef of EPCOT Center. This should whet the appetites of all the faithful heading to MouseFest this week.

There are no exclamations, just a silent frown as two tiny furrows of concentration crease the master chef’s brow. The Cuisinart has jammed, throwing a bowl off its base and splattering the gleaming steal counter and shelves with a thick cranberry-date mixture.

Walter Meyer, executive chef for Epcot Center, quickly wipes away the mess, replaces the bowl, and tries again. The grinding whir indicates the problem is not solved and so the blend is poured out, revealing the culprit – a date pit has stuck in the blades.

In just 24 hours about 400 elegantly dressed guests will arrive at the Liberty Inn in the American Adventure pavilion at Epcot Center’s World Showcase for a nine-course banquet to benefit the 1984 U.S. Olympic teams. Meyer is in charge of all culinary preparations. This fact would set most folks’ nerves into a frenzy, but Meyer doesn’t seem in the least pressured as he removes the culprit pit and continues concocting the fresh fruit sauce that will accompany the pheasant galatine.

After the mixture has simmered on the stove awhile, Meyer finally tastes it for the first time. Hiss tall white chef’s toque nods approval and he puts the fruit sauce into a huge refrigerator. He washes his own pots and pans and then hurries back to the corner of the warehouse-size test kitchen at Walt Disney World’s Food Distribution Center where other preparations for the banquet are under way.

Meyer checks the tenderloins being wrapped for the filet of beef and approves the celery sticks, stuffed and garnished with pieces of chopped walnuts and a dot of green parsley. Over in the bakery, he samples the minardise, dainty confections that will be served with the European blend coffee after the “fantasy chocolate mousse cake” dessert. “I would never stay away from cooking,” the busy chef says as he scurries to another part of the kitchen. “My hands are always directly on the job.”

The executive chef works on until after midnight, catches far fewer than forty winks, and returns at 4 a.m. the next morning preparing for the day of the banquet, preparations which don’t end until nearly midnight. An unusually busy day? Not at all.

Meyer has been on the go ever since he joined the Disney organization in 1977, and the twinkle in his eye is a testament to the fact that he’s enjoyed every minute.

Meyer, who now supervises a staff of 375 Epcot Center food and beverage people, spent years prior to Epcot Center’s 1982 opening doing research and creating recipes for all eating establishments in the area. The quality and variety of the authentic international foods served in the many varied World Showcase eating places helped earn Meyer a place last year in the Honorable Order of the Golden Togue, the elite society of the top 100 culinarians in the United State and Europe.

“That’s what you call an achievement from the industry,” says the 52-year-old executive chef, who has long since left routine competitions to the younger ranks.

Meyer, the youngest of seven children, was born in Dubendorf, just outside Zurich, Switzerland. His father, a skilled woodworker, wanted Walter to follow in his footsteps. However, young Walter wanted to travel, a desire which ultimately led to his becoming a chef.

As he recalls, “I wanted to see the world and the hotel industry was the key.”

Know his high school French would not go far in the world of haute cuisine, Meyer worked for a year after graduation on a farm in the Jura Mountains north of Lausanne, plowing the fields and perfecting his mastery of the language. He then enrolled in the Gwerbe Schule Vocational in Zurich where he specialized in baking and pastry making.

After completing their education, all Swiss men are required to undergo five months of basic army training. Meyer finished his military service in time for employment at the exclusive Palace Hotel in St. Moritz under Chef Eugene Defrance during the 1948 Olympics. For the next five years, Meyer worked the winter season at the Palace. During the summers, Defrance helped placed the young chef in positions in Geneva, Ireland, and Stockholm. The ten years following his graduation saw Meyer serving under the finest chefs in the best kitchens of Europe.

In the late 1950s, Meyer’s wanderlust compelled him to cross the Atlantic, ending up in New York City, where as part of the legendary Restaurant Associates group, he helped plan the concepts for such notable “Big Apple” restaurants as the original Four Seasons, Tower Suite, and Mama Leone’s; plus two other shining stars of New York’s dining scene, no longer in operation, the Forum of the 12 Caesars and La Fonda del Sol. Meyer also served as chef at the Indonesian Pavilion during the New York’s World Fair in 1964.

His career eventually led him to Florida. Meyer was the executive chef at the Lighthouse Point Yacht and Racquet Club in Pompano Beach when Jim Armstrong, vice president of resorts and food administration at Walt Disney World, was beginning his search for a very special chef to fill a very important assignment – planning the menus for Epcot Center. Before long, Meyer was literally up to his elbows cooking and tasting for the new restaurants.

Epcot Center eateries received immediate critical acclaim, and Meyer is now involved in the preparations for new restaurants in Epcot’s Morocco, China, and Living Seas pavilions. There is little time for skiing, vacation travel, or sailing – his favorite hobbies – but this chef who most wanted to see the world seems quite content.

He pauses to count his blessings: “the opportunity to be creative, being involved in new projects, constantly new challenges… time goes flying here.”

Pull the rope

Here’s a crate tucked away on Tom Sawyer Island for Raiz M. Heigh, a Pulley Manufacturer. In layman’s terms a pulley is a wheel with a groove and two flanges, or rim or lips. In this wheel’s groove rests a cable, rope, cords, etc. Often included on lists of simple machines, pulleys have a multitude of uses. One such use, especially during the time of Tom Sawyer and Mark Twain’s beloved riverboats was to assist in the loading and unloading of cargo. How would you get cargo, probably in more crates, on and off of a ship like the Liberty Belle? Why Raiz M. Heigh (raise ‘em high), of course!

Round about the turn of the century

Today is Walt Disney’s birthday, and while he may no longer be with us, his reach still impacts the lives of so many around the world. Rather than chatter on about what he means to me, and how thankful I am for all that he has given to the world, I thought we would see what some of the other Disney enthusiasts had to say about Walt Disney.

I asked several friends to give me one word that they thought of when they hear the words Walt Disney, there were their responses.

Glenn aka Doc Terminus (Passamaquoddy): Infectious

Lori ( We Wants the Redhead ): Thankful

Bryan (All About the Mouse
): Innovator

Elizabeth (Guest Author on Imaginerding and Disney Communities’ Mommy Librarian): Genius

George (Imaginerding): Family

Lou (Disney World Trivia and WDW Radio Show): Dreamfinder

Greg aka Doc(The Disney Obsession): Curious

Fiona (DF’82): Imaginative

Aileen(my lovely wife): Meticulous

Myself: Visionary

Ten words to describe a truly remarkable man, and even combined they do not do Walt Disney justice. Do you have your own word that we didn’t think of? Feel free to add your word to the list in the comments section for this article.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WALT!

Sit back and relax

Children need downtime; it’s just a matter of life. When at Walt Disney World these rests could be a nap at the resort, a dip in the pool, or one of the multitude of soft resets. But what about adults? True, in our day-to-day lives we don’t get naps, but it doesn’t mean that the stimulus overload of a day at the parks doesn’t get to us and turn us into Chernabog, Captain Hook, or Maleficent. At the Main Street Gazette, we think that a relaxed guest is a happy guest. We also understand that sometimes, even more than children, adults don’t want to leave the parks. So, for those readers out there looking to escape from it all while never having to leave, we’re going to start a series of looking at the quiet corners of Walt Disney World.A perfect place to rest, and a perfect place to start, is the courtyard found in The Magic of Disney Animation. After entering the waiting area for the tour, just off to the right before you enter the Animation Theater, is a courtyard that is often overlooked by guests on the tour, and seldom used by anyone. The steps here allow for a brief pause to check batteries, look over pictures, plan your next touring move, or jot down a few notes for a touring plan or on a postcard to a loved one.

The most striking, and often disregarded, elements of this square are the prints embedded in the center of the pad. Like the prints that cover the front of the Great Movie Ride theater, these prints carry with them a history. On three slabs are the fingerprints of some of the greatest animators the world has ever known. On the first slab are the imprints of Marc Davis, Ken Anderson, and Ken O’Connor. On the second is Ward Kimball’s artistic touch. While the third boasts the prints of the almost inseparable duo of Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas.

The next time you are looking for a place to rest your weary feet, someplace quiet and out of the way of the hustle and bustle of Disney’s Hollywood Studios, think of this little courtyard tucked away near The Magic of Disney Animation’s Animation Theater. Perhaps sitting near the echoes of greatness will inspire you. Perhaps your trip will turn a corner then and there to become the best Walt Disney World vacation ever. Or perhaps you will simply leave refreshed and ready to face the remainder of the day. No matter what, a brief break here is sure to be just what you need.

Concluded its normal operating day

Over the past few weeks there has been quite a discussion bubbling around the Disney community over the fact that Epcot will be closing earlier starting in January. Currently, according to the Walt Disney World online calendar, this will effect only Fridays starting January 9th, with the final Friday of the changed schedule being April 3rd. Coincidentally, during the same time period, Epcot will be hosting Evening Extra Magic Hours on Fridays, keeping the park open up to an additional three hours on those nights when the park closes a 8:00pm rather than 9:00pm.With all of this talk about park hours, I thought today we would take a look back at the Cast Member pocket calendar from late 1986 – early 1987. From the tri-fold calendar we can see that during the 15 Years of Magic park hours for both the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT Center regularly shifted from early (6:00pm) to late (2:00am) hours. As well, the nighttime show, Laserphonic Fantasy, was generally only shown on weekends.

In cretaceous color

Billboards along the highways and byways of America are nothing new. Billboards that seek to distract you from your desired destination with an unbelievable, “we must stop and see this,” gimmicks are as old as the highways themselves. Billboards touting larger than life picture shows are also nothing out of the ordinary. But when you combine a billboard with a film near the roadside attractions of Chester and Hester’s Dino-rama, well, that is something to behold.It may be the writer in me, but the wordplay at work on this sign makes me grin. McDonald’s and dinosaur references fill this billboard from corner to corner and top to bottom, sometimes in the same line. One of my favorite bits is the “Over 5 Billion Served (at one time),” a clear suggestion to the repeated changing of the McDonald’s golden arches that for decades informed customers just how many burgers had been served. Though McDonald’s has served well over 100 billion burgers, it has stopped the counting for the sake of counting. For the history buffs among us, McDonald’s began in 1948 and served its 5 billionth burger in 1969. 21 one years of work, and that greedy dino gobbled it all up at one time…

You better not pout

In 1983 the world received its first glimpse at Walt Disney Productions’ Mickey’s Christmas Carol. That winter, whenever you purchased two jars or bottles of Orville Redenbacher products you were entitled to a free Mickey’s Christmas Carol Coloring Book. Inside were fourteen pages of blank magic waiting for the keen eye of a child and freshly sharpened crayon.Here is one page, of perhaps the most recognizable scene from Mickey’s Christmas Carol, that is sure to keep your pint-sized artists occupied while you shop for gifts to go under the tree.