Quite a character

Today’s Back Issue is sure to good for a few laughs, or at least a chuckle or two. As has been mentioned before, I spent a lot of time at Fort Wilderness as a child, and it was there, around the campfire, that I grew to love the rascally pair of chipmunks, Chip and Dale. They may not have been my favorite characters, but they were the most dependable, because I always knew where to find them. In the Winter 1982/1983 issue of Disney News world-renowned columnist Marilyn Beck catches up with the pair for a brief interview.

Sometimes the best things come in the smallest packages, and Chip and Dale certainly prove the rule. Featured character actors from Walt Disney Studios, Chip and Dale have been making us laugh for 39 years.

I met them at their treetop penthouse in Weyerhaeuser Towers, where we chatted over hazelnut mousse and herbal tea. I spoke plain, they spoke in italics.

Tell me, are Chip and Dale your real names?
C: Bob and Ray were already taken, and it was either come up with a catchy name or back to the family furniture business.
D: Anyway, French and Provincial just didn’t seem to have the same ring.
Is it true you started out in the circus?
C: You’ve really done your homework. Yes, Dale and I had a high-wire act. We raced across high-voltage lines without a safety net. A real great gimmick!
Chip, how did you two get your break in Hollywood?
C: Well, Dale and I were in the Army. W.W. Two, the big one. It was 1943. That great Disney star, Pluto, was filming on the base. We were off duty at the time and grabbing a snack…
D: We were cracking nuts with the cannon.
C: Quit interrupting. I’m telling the story. Anyway, Pluto just happened to be there, in the way actually. They got the whole thing on film and the next thing you know Private Pluto was in the can and we were contract players at Disney!
That’s an incredible Hollywood story. Almost like Lana Turner.
C: It wasn’t like today. We really worked for peanuts then.
D: Acorns, actually. But we soon said nuts to that and started to get to the big time.
When did you two start working with Donald Duck?
C: That was Walt’s idea. We’ve done a few pictures with Donald. The first was Chip and Dale in 1947. That guy is really quackers, always a cutup on the set.D: They usually feature us as the feisty but loveable chipmunks that constantly pester Donald. You could call it chipmunkey business. Great fun.
You sure have a lot of fans. Is it true that your popularity put you into comics?
C: Sure was!! In 1953 Walt published our first comic book. It sold so many copies that by 1956 we were regulars on the comic book scene. Even today, twenty-nine later, kids can read our latest adventures.
D: They even talked to us before they finally signed Harrison Ford for Raiders of the Lost Bark, but our tight schedule made it impossible.
One last question. Rumor has it you two were seen dining with former president – does this mean a political future?
D: Two scoops of Macadamia Madness at Baskin Robbins?
C: Shh – let me handle this – we knew President for a long time before he ever entered politics, back when he was just a peanut farmer. This is a crazy world – people see you talking to someone and the next thing you know the gossip columns say you’re in politics. We were really just checking on the current crop.
Chip and Dale, I don’t know how to thank you for being here today. It’s been a real pleasure to have two of Disney’s best-known character actors here to talk to their fans.
C: Just send almonds.
D: Cashews are good, too.

More powerful shrinking machine

My friend George calls them Soft Resets, the places in between the marquee attractions where children can let loose, get a little crazy, and reboot themselves. The fountains and water play areas in Epcot, the Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade in the Magic Kingdom, and The Boneyard in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. As a preschool teacher, I couldn’t agree more that children need some time to be free in Walt Disney World. For while the attractions seem freeing to most adults, the queue lines and structured ‘sit here’ rules, not to mention touring plans, are all a little too rigid to the free-spirit energy of youth.

That being said, when designing one of Soft Resets, the visuals and personality of the area must be timeless. It has to be appealing, or at least recognizable, to children. Water sprouting sidewalk? Children are only halfway out of their clothes before their in the water. Becoming a Skipper and piloting your own Jungle Cruise? Kids will be spinning the wheel before you even put coins into the slot. Carnival games themed to dinosaurs? You’ll go broke trying to win a stuffed dino, but your children will ecstatic. Running around in Wayne Szalinski backyard while you are the size of an ant? Wait, what?

The Honey, I Shrunk… audience has grown up and moved on. The last time this franchise had a presence in any sort of outlet, aside from the theme parks, it was in the television show that ended after three seasons in 2000. That means that a typical ten year-old child would have been two the last time the show aired. How many of you out there have an abundance of memories from your second year? The Movie Set Adventure was great when I was a ten year-old boy, but, I would imagine it has lost a great deal of its appeal to the younger generation these days.

Take some of the other similar play areas and compare. Though we could bemoan how Pooh’s Playful Spot is situated on a parcel of land that once housed one of the coolest attractions this side of Vulcania, Winnie-the-Pooh is a childhood standard that continues to attract tons of toddlers to the silly old bear every year. Similarly, fascination with dinosaurs never wavers, and the ability to excavate one of these creatures is an idea that would leave many children wide-eyed. The Honey, I Shrunk… name does not jump the generational gap with the same resilience.

Another point to consider for this ill-fated adventure is its location. The Boneyard is large and visible as guests make their way through Dinoland U.S.A. Likewise, Pooh’s Playful Spot, on the edge of Fantasyland near the crossroads of Tomorrowland, Fantasyland and Mickey’s Toontown Fair, is in a perfect location to draw in pint-sized guests. Couple Pooh’s location with sporadic character meet-and-greets and it has everything a parent could ask for to reset their frazzled youngster. Meanwhile, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure in tucked away behind a façade on the Streets of America and the Studios Catering Company Flatbread Grill restaurant. While the play areas in the Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Animal Kingdom could be stumbled upon, they are in prominent locations, a guest would have to specifically be looking for the Disney’s Hollywood Studios Movie Set Adventure or be very lucky to chance upon it.

I love giant Legos and grass slides as much as the next guest, but I think this attraction needs to be refreshed. A playground of Wall-E’s junk collection, as much as I love that little robot, would not be a long-term fix for this area. A Fantasia prop storage area might perform better, complete with giant broomsticks, a sorcerer’s hat to climb under, unicorns to climb on for a photo spot, and slides made of ballet slippers. Maybe this isn’t the best idea, but it certainly has more long-standing appeal than the currently out-dated motif the Honey, I Shrunk… story offers. In the end, children like to recognize their play environment and discover new experiences and details in that environment. A new story, or more accurately, an old story is needed to refresh this hidden Soft Reset and make it a viable, and vital, pit-stop for the pent-up energies of the smaller guests.

Beautiful Table Design

Cindy Braak and Jean Volante, Florists for Walt Disney World, have put together a terrific video showcasing a multitude of ideas for Thanksgiving centerpieces. If you haven’t thought about this yet, or have put it off until the last minute, this video will help you immensely. Check it out!

In the tracks of the yeti

Reinhold Messner, in My Quest for the Yeti, ponders an age old question, “I stared, first amazed, then perplexed, at the spot where this apparition had stood. Why had I not taken a picture?”To anyone who has ever had an encounter with creatures that were thought to only be mythic beasts or shadows of the paranormal, this is a common question. It is a question that they are asked repeatedly, and ask themselves repeatedly, scarcely conceiving of a satisfactory answer. Perhaps they were overcome with fear or perhaps their equipment couldn’t stand up to the elements. Any range of answers could come bubbling up and out of the explorers.Today, from my most recent expedition, I add a few of my own photographs to the long line of grainy, shaky, out of focus, hair-late, circumstantial evidence, and after-the-fact pictures of the mysterious creature known as the yeti.

Un-official MouseFest Rocking Chair Meet

Here is the scenario...

You're going to MouseFest. You're in the Magic Kingdom on Thursday the 11th and you have your ticket for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. You have attended MouseFest 101 and the Kick-off Reception. The taste of your last Dole Whip is still lingering on your palette. You may also be just a little tired.

But wait, there is help.
Your friends at the Main Street Gazette and The Disney Obsession "invite you to relax...pull up a chair" as we proudly present, your rest. Yes, we invite you to be our guest at our Un-official Main Street Gazette and Disney Obsession Rocking Chair Meet.

We'll meet at 6:00 p.m. on the porch of the Town Square Exhibition Hall where we'll hopefull find rocking chairs waiting. While we're there we will celebrate friendships by making new friends, creating new memories, and yes, having a bit of a rest just before the Christmas Party.

If you are looking for that little something extra to add to your already packed MouseFest schedule, then this meet is for you. We hope to meet you there.

Rooted firmly to the ground, yet dedicated to the spirit

Visitors to the Japan Pavilion of Epcot are met by the good luck of the torii, but the imposing 83-foot-tall pagoda is just as stirring. The goju-no-to or five-story pagoda uses Horyuji temple, an eighth century pagoda found in Nara, as its muse.

The levels of the pagoda follow with traditional Buddhist beliefs of the five elements that are used to create all things. In fact, the use of the five elements in architecture is the most common use of the elements in modern society. In relation to the goju-not-to, each element is assigned to a level. These levels/elements are, in ascending order: chi (earth), sui (water), ka (fire), fu (wind), ku (sky/void).

Atop the pagoda is a sorin. No, not a hang glider simulation attraction, a sorin. This roof ornamentation is composed of nine rings, each with a host of wind chimes, to represent Buddhist deities and a water flame to protect the pagoda from fire. While the sorin is usually the sole enhancement to a temple to protect it from fire and to be used as a lightning rod, the goju-no-to in Epcot includes the addition of a more modern lightning rod at the peak of the sorin.

Though pagodas started in China, the Japanese took the Chinese designs and modified them to be more in tune with their own ideals. The Japanese pagodas are simpler, with less embellishment, less curvature of the roof, and less color. They are more concerned with purity of the form with unpretentious lines. Though simple, the goju-no-to strikes an imposing figure, both in World Showcase and the world beyond.

From grassy plains

Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground did not open on 1 October 1971 with the rest of Walt Disney World. After a few weeks, Fort Wilderness finally opened on 19 November 1971 with a compliment of 131 campsites. A western settlement, swimmin’ hole, and locomotive, along with more campsites and eventually cabins, turned the pines and marshes of central Florida in a living and breathing Frontierland that guests could actually reside in, if only for a few days.

In 1996, alongside the rest of Walt Disney World, Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground celebrated its 25th anniversary. To commemorate the event, like so many other Disney milestones, a coin was issued.Though the train, most of its tracks, the underbrush, and River Country have long since pulled up stakes, Fort Wilderness still carries on the spirit of the frontier. A lot has changed since those early days, but as we celebrate its 37th anniversary, I think we have a lot more good things to come in this often overlooked corner of Walt Disney World.

Happy Happy Birthday To You

I have one of those wives that people tell stories about, or make movies of, but that never truly seem to appear in real life. The kind of wife that when I am sick, and working with preschoolers that happens more often than I like, finds something intriguing to bring home to me. Usually these items are Disney related, but not something I would have sought out myself. She will bring home 1970s Walt Disney World postcards from an antique store and Sorcerer Mickey Mardi Gras beads, while I’m continually looking for ancient park maps and out of print books.

Last year I had a bit of a stomach bug and, while at the pharmacy, she came across Mickey 80 Years PEZ Collection. The collection, in a tin of course, has three individual Mickey dispensers, Mickey in Black and White, Pie-Eyed Mickey, and Modern Mickey. The set also includes three wrappers of assorted PEZ fruit candy and a reproduced Mickey Mouse Poster. Like I said, it isn’t the kind of item I would have natural searched out, but it holds a prominent place in my collection.
Today, on Mickey’s 80th Birthday, let’s see what PEZ has to say about themselves, and Mickey Mouse:

For over 50 years, Pez and The Walt Disney Company have enjoyed a strong partnership to provide you with the best of Pez dispensers from Disney. In honor of the 80th anniversary of both Pez and Mickey Mouse, we are pleased to offer you this Collectible Gift Set of Mickey Mouse 80 years for your very own.

Mickey Mouse was born on November 18, 1928 in a film called Steamboat Willie, which just happened to be cinema’s first ever talking cartoon. He appeared in many films through the 1930s and 1940s including one of his most famous, Fantasia. In the 1950s, he began to transition to television and was featured on the popular show, Mickey Mouse Club. In November 1978, Mickey celebrated in 50th anniversary by becoming the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Throughout the years, Mickey Mouse had several different looks and styles, but his popularity and public adoration lives on.

PEZ was created in 1927 in Vienna, Austria by Eduard Haas III and was first marketed as a compressed peppermint candy. The name PEX was derived from the German word “Pfefferminz” meaning peppermint. PEZ Candy and Dispensers were introduced to America in 1952. We hope that you will enjoy your Pez Collectibles of Mickey Mouse for many years to come.

HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY MICKEY MOUSE!

Time for Woody's Roundup

Pixar Place’s Hey Howdy Hey! Take Away offer some truly tasty treats, some of these morsels are even fit to eat, while still others are simply tempting to the eyes and intellect. Take, for example, the Hey Howdy Hey! menu, which is posted on the side flap of a box of Cowboy Sugar Crunchies cereal. The box could fit on any cereal aisle with its colorful spokes-character and phrasings like “Sugar Frosted Coating,” “volume may settle in shipping,” “Double Dipped Chocolate,” and “packed with vitamins and nutrients for your morning roundup.” These horseshoe shaped oats even have a television tie-in that require you to check your local listings so you’ll know when to tune-in!But the most fantastic detail of the Cowboy Sugar Crunchies is in the top right corner of the box. What does that say? Pixar Farms? Digital Foods? Ah well, I guess they aren’t coming to our grocery stores any time soon, but at least that leaves more for Andy.

You are... Renaissance People

Today’s Back Issues’ article isn’t exactly an article. In fact, as far as I can tell, it has never been printed in a publication anywhere. It is, however, printed on a plaque that is located inside of the Epcot 25th Anniversary Gallery. Back in 1981 Ray Bradbury gave a speech to the men and women of Walt Disney Imagineering as they were in the process of constructing EPCOT Center. It is an awe-inspiring address to be sure.

John (Hench) and Marty (Sklar) told me I was supposed to come up here and explain you to yourselves… and to tell you what you are and what I am and what I’m doing here. I’m here because I want to be here. There are a lot of places in the world I could be, but I’ve been coming through WED and going to Disneyland for many years now and I like what I see.

A wonderful thing happened to me in 1954, I went to Italy for the first time ever. I traveled through Rome and Florence and Venice. I saw the works of Fra Angelico and I came home inundated with the Renaissance. By a wonderful coincidence, a few months later I came out to the Disney Studios and wandered and saw the sketches and the drawings and the paintings for “Sleeping Beauty.” I said, “My God… this is fantastic, that I’m seeing work here commensurate with many of the thing that I saw in Renaissance Italy when I visited there for the first time…”

And so, really, what you are is Renaissance People. If ever there was ever a Renaissance organization, this is it. You haven’t peaked yet, but you’re peaking, and sometime in the next twenty years when you peak completely, the whole world’s going to be looking at you…”

Buckminster Fuller lectures us on how to change the World and yet the only people I see who are successful at changing the World are right here – people with very special dreams. We are acting out what Schweitzer often spoke of in his philosophies years ago. He said, “… set a good example for the World. If you are excellent, if you are of high quality, the World will imitate you.”

What we’re doing here is creating a “Schweitzer Centrifuge”… That’s the way I look at the EPCOT project. If we build all of this correctly, if we build it beautifully, if we set an example for the World, we can change the whole damn country. That’s how important you are. That’s how important I feel, working with you. People will come from all over the World; they’re already doing it at Disneyland and Disney World – when you get people like Hirohito, or you see Khrushchev pounding at the door and not able to get in – and being irritated by it – you know you’ve got something. And so, what we’re going to do in the next year and the next five years and the next thirty years is change our own country, only for the better. And after that – the World.

It’s a big project. But of all the groups in the World, while everyone else is busy talking, you’re doing the stuff that’s really going to count.

Builders of magnificent temples

The pyramid temple that encases the majority of the Mexico Pavilion in Epcot’s World Showcase is an imposing structure rising 36 feet into the air. While the motifs are elaborate and authentic, they do not highlight a specific time period in the rich history of the area. The temple is can be more accurately described as an amalgamation of various Mesoamerican designs, some of which date back to the third century A.D.The stairs which climb the entirety of the temple are one of the more extraordinary details of the temple. Not only breathtaking to view, these stairs lead to the chamber where high priests would work in mathematics and science, including an amazing aptitude for astronomy. At the base of the stairs is a stela, or intricately carved stone slab.

This stela, according to Richard R. Beard in Walt Disney’s Epcot, served three purposes. One, it was a decorative element. Two, it accommodates the lights needed to illuminate the pyramid at night. Lastly, and perhaps my favorite reason for the stela’s inclusion, “it effectively discourages children from climbing the stairs to test the will of the gods,” or perhaps the patience of the parents.

While on safari

Kilimanjaro Safaris is a central element not on to this land, but also to the backstory of Harambe as an important aspect of the evolution of this place. Our story holds that the Harambe Wildlife Reserve was once a game-hunting reserve, but at some point in the early 1970s – when issues of conservation were coming to the fore – the townspeople made a conscious decision to change the usage of the land. Now it is a preservation zone, with animals available only for photo safaris via guided tours. It was clearly a big decision for the town, with significant potential economic impact, but the collective viewpoint had come around to the point that they felt this was a necessary step.
-The Imagineers, The Imagineering Field Guide to Disney’s Animal Kingdom p. 68









Across the river is Harambe, a recreation of a present-day village in eastern Africa that’s on the edge of a large preserve. After passing through the main street, guests can board a safari vehicle at the huge old baobab for a look at animals. In Harambe we’ll give guests a sense of Africa today. The safari’s story is about the challenges Africans face, especially with regard to poaching and population pressures.
-Melody Malmberg, The Making of Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park p. 68









We’re not trying to present you with the reality of what it is, you’re supposed to be inside a story, inside a story about being in a safari camp in Africa. So, you know, we would do the renderings, expressing kind of where we wanted the story to go. Another problem that we came up against, which is kind of interesting, and a lot of these pictures I don’t know have been seen before, they’re just kind of stuff I pulled from the file. But, so we knew, unlike a scene in a ride, where you can direct people to look over here, we knew two things. One, you can look where ever you please, and number two, we will never know where the focal object is going to be, which is an animal. The animal could be anywhere and you could look anywhere. So, when we did our storyboards we every thirty seconds, we drew a line on the ride track, estimated the average speed of the vehicle, made a dot every thirty seconds, and we drew these hundred and eighty degree storyboards that we would hold up in front of our faces, like this, and go, ‘Okay, that’s at, you know, second number seven-hundred, we’re here seeing something like this, wildebeests might all be over here, they might all be over here, but they’re gonna be here in this scene. Okay, pick up the next one,’ you know. And we’d bend it around our head and go, ‘Alright, this is the next scene, ‘ so we could get some sense of what is this going to be like to progress through this environment, because back then there wasn’t like, you couldn’t do a digital ride-through or something, no such thing existed.
-Joe Rohde, 22 April 2008

D-I-Y: The Tongue-&-Ear Theory

It’s not very often that I keep it short and simple, but this Disney-It-Yourself really needs no introduction or further explanation. Have a fun day!

At every turn

A note before we begin: This is an image I have been sitting on for a while, because I know the kind of controversies it could stir up. However, with a little bit of history and a little common sense, I think we could all navigate the shores of the Rivers of America easily today.
On the dock belonging to the Big Thunder Mining Co., at the base of Big Thunder Mountain, rests a crate full of tools and stories. H. Abiff, or as he is more commonly referred to, Hiram Abiff, is the chief architect of King Solomon’s Temple according to the Freemasons. In an allegorical play, presented during the third degree of Craft Freemasonry, Abiff is killed by men who seek the secret password of the Master Mason. This performance is meant to instill the lesson of the trustworthiness of a man’s word.While there is no Hiram Abiff in the Bible, a correlation has often been cited since, in Masonic ritual, Hiram is mentioned as “The Widow’s Son,” while in the Bible, there is a Hiram who works in bronze and is contracted by King Solomon to create bronze furnishings and ornaments for his temple, and is also described as the son of a widow (1 Kings 7:13–14). While this is the most likely of the Hirams from the Bible the name Hiram is also referred to in 2 Samuel 5:11 and 1 Kings 5:1-10 as a king of Tyre, and again in 2 Chronicles 2:13-14 as a craftsmen sent from Tyre to assist in the construction of King Solomon’s Temple, though this latter version is commonly spelled Huram.

Now, dedicated readers and researchers, now that I have opened the Freemason door, let me dispel certain rumors that you might encounter should you beginning digging for historical data between Disney and the Freemasons. There are stories abound that relate how Walt Disney was a 33rd degree Freemason. These stories use the Disneyland’s Club 33 as evidence of his status and also claim that Disney’s brand of entertainment was meant as a plot to scramble young minds and that his films were full of symbols and ideals of the occult (these are, I assure you, the most docile of the claims). Walt Disney did belong to DeMolay (a youth organization for young men that is Masonic-sponsored), as did Mickey Mouse, in his formative years, and Disneyland did sponsor a Masonic club for its employees (along with a skiing club, shooting club, bowling teams, etc.), but these two instances are as close to the Freemasons as Walt Disney comes.

I hope everyone made it around this bend in the Rivers of America. These waters can be tricky at times, but, if you keep your head about you, and above water, you just might find you learn something new every now and then.

Addendum: Color Photography

By popular demand (since this is, after all, your publication as well), and after a little editing here and there, here is the Pop Century desktop from last night in a 1280x1024 format.

Clean & fresh

My love of the tile patterns, lighting, and overall motifs of the restrooms of Walt Disney World is well documented. And while I found some intriguing tiles and inspiring lamps on my last trip, they will have to wait for another day, because sometimes the best details from a restroom are on the outside.

Today’s details come from the restrooms outside of Chester and Hester’s in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Sunset Boulevard’s loading dock bathroom in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and the lavatory near the exit of Splash Mountain in the Magic Kingdom. All these painted advertisements recall a simpler time, and definitely give us a feel for the time and places these structures were built in (or should I say for).