Yes, Virginia, there was a time when Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom had buildings that were not used for retail space.
The Main Street Cinema used to be a small cinema that played classic Mickey Mouse cartoons. It was still doing this in 1996:
Main Street Cinema in August 1996.
That is the only photo of it from 1996 I have, but here is is in January 1998:
Main Street Cinema on January 23, 1998.
Later that year, it was being used to show previews for the new animated film Mulan:
Mulan replaces Mickey at the Main Street Cinema on October 16, 1998.
In 1999, Tarzan had replaced Mulan:
Tarzan replaces Mulan at the Main Street Cinema on November 6, 1999.
…and Toys Story 2 soon followed (they changed it out during my visit):
Toy Story 2 preview at Main Street Cinema on November 18, 1999.
I do have a photo of the cinema ticket booth from 1999:
Main Street Cinema ticket window on November 20, 1999.
I wonder what her name tag said. At Disneyland, it has her hometown listed as Marceline, Missouri (where Walt Disney grew up).
After my 1999 visit, I turned my focus to Disneyland trips and did not return to Walt Disney World until 2006. By that time, the Main Street Cinema had been turned into another shop. During this visit, it was also being used as the in-park headquarters for the Virtual Magic Kingdom online game:
Main Street Cinema no more on October 23, 2006.
They at least kept a projection screen at the back in tribute to the sign outside:
All that remains of the “cinema” part of Main Street Cinema on December 8, 2006.
Meanwhile, at Walt Disney’s original Disneyland, the Main Street Cinema is still a cinema, with multiple screens inside showing various Mickey Mouse cartoons. I guess California didn’t need another spot to sell T-shirts.
I have begun the process of reorganizing all my Walt Disney World photos. When I started taking digital pictures in 1996, I was just grouping things together by park and land. I mean, no one has hundreds of photos from the same place, do they? Back then, one visit to Magic Kingdom may have only resulted in a few photos from Adventureland — hardly enough for a gallery, right? Thus, my photos from 1996 to 1998 were all grouped together. By 1999, I had started bringing my laptop into the park with me so I could go back to the lockers and then download photos during the day so I could take more. Here’s me at the front of Disney/MGM Studios in 1999:
Me, “discretely” using my laptop at Disney/MGM Studios to download photos on November 19, 1999.
Since there were no web galleries yet, I even went as far as renaming photos to things like “tmk_1.jpg” or “dmgm_15.jpg” so folks who downloaded them by filename at least had an indication of which park the photo was from. (Microsoft Windows at the time only allowed for 8-letters for a filename, so it was impossible to have a photo called “CinderellaCastleSideView.jpg”.) I wish I had NOT done that, since some of the photos lost their embedded date code leaving me with no easy way to tell what year they were taken.
I am now trying to split them out by year, even though that means some areas will only have one or two photos. Ah, the early days of digital cameras with 1 megabyte of memory! I did this last year with my Disneyland and Iowa Adventureland Park photos, so it’s going much faster this third time around.
During my sorting, I’ve found interesting patterns to my photo taking. Sometimes I’d only have one picture (Epcot World Showcase pavilions) as if I just took a token photo to represent the area. Other times, I’d have a dozen or more (favorite attractions like Haunted Mansion, or something that was brand new like the opening of Buzz Lightyear).
Sometimes I took things like this:
Liberty Square CMs pose for me on August 27, 1996.
Notice they are posing for the photo. Folks generally just didn’t “waste” film on taking pictures of cast members back then unless the cast member had a princess dress on or was a giant mouse. I suspect they must have asked me about my weird camera, and after explaining what a digital camera was, I took their photo. I can’t think of any other reason I’d have used one of my limited photos on a parasol cart.
These two girls are now twenty two years older than they were when I took this photo of them in 1996. I wonder how long they worked for Disney World. Maybe they are long gone, or maybe Vice Presidents somewhere out there.
JUST ANNOUNCED: #StarWars: #GalaxysEdge will open May 31 at the @Disneyland Resort and August 29 at @WaltDisneyWorld Resort: bit.ly/2H6Pipz
Having experienced first hand the media frenzy of Disneyland’s New Tomorrowland opening, as well as the even grander 50th Anniversary event, I will have some fun photos and comments to share which might explain what we can expect from this…
In an earlier article, I speculated a bit on when EPCOT Center became the Epcot we know today. Today I’ll dive a bit deeper and include some comments from others.
Derek Mullins on Twitter commented:
From my observation, it was most likely the beginning of the sponsor losses, and the changes to be more thrilling (Test Track) and ‘hipper’ (Ellen’s Energy Adventure) in the mid-90’s. Of course, it’s all subjective, so I’m curious what answers you get.
Derek Mullins, @mewhunter67
Sponsor losses. That’s interesting, because sponsors go both ways. An existing ride could get a new sponsor which causes big changes… Or a ride could become sponsor less, and stay frozen as-is.
The comedic additions of Ellen and Bill Nye the Science Guy to Universe of Energy were certainly a change in feeling. That began in 1996.
Ellen is coming to Epcot! August 29, 1996.
World of Motion had closed and was to become Test Track in 1997.
Test Track opening spring 1997 on August 29, 1996.
The times they were a changing…
Howard Bowers on Twitter commented:
1999. Horizons is closed for the second time. Journey into Imagination is closed. Test Track is finally operational, having replaced World of Motion. And the 2000 wand is up next to Spaceship Earth.
The ride’s closed. Mouse outside shoulda told you. November 11, 1999. Lines out the door for the newly-opened Journey into YOUR Imagination. November 8, 1999.The new Test Track with a 1 hour wait. November 11, 1999.Epcot 2000?
Four notable changes certainly is a good percentage of the original attraction lineup. Howard also added…
Original Epcot took some hits in 1994 with the closing of Kitchen Kabaret and the addition of Food Rocks and the switch to Ellen’s Energy Adventure, along with Innoventions, but all of that still felt like Epcot, just the next generation. / Taking out Journey into Imagination and Horizons basically removed the Heart and Soul of Future World.
Howard Bowers
Ah, Kitchen Kabaret! Veggie Veggie Fruit Fruit was the “it’s a small world” song of EPCOT Center… During my first visit with a digital camera, Food Rocks had already taken over:
Food Rock on August 29, 1996.
That was part of the sponsorship change from Kraft to Nestle.
The Land, presented by … the chocolate company? August 29, 1996
I recall many of “us” joked at the time that having a chocolate company take over the “healthy” pavilion made little sense. But it’s not about finding a sponsor that fits — it’s about finding a sponsor that will spend the money. At least Listen to the Land didn’t become a chocolate boat ride ala Willy Wonka! (Hmmm, that would have made great sense and fit the sponsor… It just would have not fit at Epcot…)
The loss of Imagination was sad, since no other attraction ever embodied just what “imagination” really was like better than that original dark ride. Still, the two updates (Journey into YOUR Imagination, and Journey into Imagination with Figment) at least tried to keep the theme rather than becoming, say, a Wreck It Ralph ride through.
But Horizons, well, that was just a total loss. Nothing put the “future” in Future World better than Horizons. And, unlike updates done to Tomorrowland, or the final scene of Carousel of Progress, the futures presented in Horizons would still be as futuristic today as they were in the 1980s. I think it had much more life left… Pity the crowds disagreed, and it was almost always a walk on when I visited.
The closed building made a nice backdrop for Cast in Bronze, at least.
Cast in Bronze performs in front of the closed Horizons on November 8, 1999.
I think this needs “to be continued”…
Until next time…
Final year Horizons cast member on October 24, 1998.
I am in the process of generating a new version of my Walt Disney World photo gallery. It will contain over 32,000 photos when this is complete.
An update to my Universal Studios Orlando resort photos will follow. Because of the Harry Potter expansion, I’ve now spent more time in those parks my last visit than I have since the parks opened. Good stuff over there.
I’ll post another update here when the new gallery is online. In the meantime, you can explore the one from September 2018:
I don’t want to leave Walt Disney World out, but I haven’t had time to go through and resort/rename them yet. The filename format of my earlier digital camera was MMDD_XXX.JPG, so I can only tell the month and date unless I open the image in special software. (It takes special software because this was before the Exif standard used by modern images. In those early years of digital cameras, there was no standard. My Epson PhotoPC uses a JFIF header to store date code, and since no graphics programs knew how to handle this, any image I rotated or edited completely lost this information. But I digress…)
In 1989, Walt Disney World opened a bunch of nightclubs and called it Pleasure Island. It stills seems like an idea that didn’t belong with the family image of Disney, but for those who did drink, it was a real fun place.
Pleasure Island in 1997.
One of the bars was called the Comedy Warehouse. You could see a group of comedians perform an improv comedy show multiple times a night. I remember visiting Pleasure Island during a family vacation. There weren’t many places a minor could go, but the Comedy Warehouse was one of them…
When I started visiting Walt Disney World on my own in the 1990s, I wanted to see how different a visit to Pleasure Island would be for someone older than 21.
Staff, not cast member, at the Comedy Warehouse.
The comedy show was hit or miss, like most improv. Suggestions were taken from the audience and skits were performed. There was a phone in the audience they could call and get suggestions, too. I recall noticing that the show I saw in 1997 was very similar to the one I’d seen years earlier with my family. It seems tourists are fairly predictable when it comes to audience suggestions.
Comedy Warehouse in 1997.
The thing I liked the best about this place was all the Disney tributes in the building. By 1997, Epcot had already started to change from the E.P.C.O.T. I loved as a kid in 1983. This former Imagination pavilion sign caught my attention:
Magic Journeys sign at Comedy Warehouse in 1997.
Magic Journeys was the original 3-D film at E.P.C.O.T.’s Future World. I learned later that it also ran at Disneyland in their Tomorrowland. Ah, look at those glorious 1982 colors!
Captain Hook’s Galley sign at Comedy Warehouse in 1997.
I do not know where the Captain Hook’s Galley sign was from, unless it was from the famous Disneyland Chicken of the Sea restaurant. If you follow that link, you can read all about it on Yesterland. Perhaps there was a similar eatery at Magic Kingdom in Florida? Or perhaps this was just a replica sign made for the club? If you know, please leave a comment. For now, I need to get back to going through all these old digital photos.
Recently, I’ve been trying to find the source of an old rumor about Disney doing a retro (though we didn’t use that word then) attraction theater at Magic Kingdom. On July 28, 2000, I wrote the following in an old Yahoo! group (yes, Virginia, there was a day before Google)…
Now, it is known Disney has taken film of all their major parks being built (except,perhaps, Disney’s California Adventure?)… Disney also used to really document early animatronics (there is archived footage of the original C. of Progresssomewhere)… Does anyone know if Disney bothered to film each segment of World of Motion, Horizons, etc., before closing them down “for the future”?
Someone has a site suggesting putting up a “VR lost attractions” area at the photo expo at WDW’s TMK. It’s a great idea, and shows like CoP could be done great by simply filming it from the audience in 3-D. Other attractions could be done using Cave technology or whatever. Has anyone seen the site I talk about? If so, where is it? I’ve not been able to find it 🙂
— Al
Here we are, almost 20 years later, and I guess the odds of me finding that site are long gone. Most sites from back then are only available thanks to archive.org copies.
At what point did EPCOT Center become Epcot? By this, I mean, at which point did the original vision change to what we have today? The proverbial “straw that broke the theme park’s back,” if you will.
First, some ground rules for this discussion. Let’s consider “original” EPCOT Center to be the theme park that opened in 1982, as opposed to Walt Disney’s dream for the E.P.C.O.T. that would have been an actual city that people lived and worked in.
EPCOT Center
In 1982, the name of the park was EPCOT Center. Here’s a look at the first park map, taken from the museum display on October 1, 1007 (the day the park celebrated its 25th anniversary):
Photo by Allen Huffman of DisneyFans.com (Taken on October 1, 2007)
I have one of these maps, though it’s not preserved as well. Mine was on my wall as a child, and has been folded and unfolded many times, and kept in storage since then.
We will extend this “original Epcot” to include items that were not quite ready yet, but were added during the park’s first decade.
First, we have to ignore the Equatorial Africa (Future) as shown on this map since it was never built. We can include Morocco (also listed as Future) and Horizons (listed with a specific opening month). We will also include items this map didn’t even tease us with: Norway and Wonders of Life.
Future World
The original vision of the Future World side of the park was based around concepts such as Imagination, Energy, Motion and Communication. Then we had things like The Seas and The Land. Even at the start, the theme of Future World wasn’t fully cohesive, but each area had an icon, and it somehow all linked together quite nicely — at least through the eyes of a thirteen year old boy.
I visited EPCOT Center the first summer it was open (1983). Because of Future World, it immediately became my favorite park. A few years later, though, I went back to liking Magic Kingdom the best. I wonder why? Was it after changes started being made, or did I just grow bored with the limited offerings compared to the castle park?
Finding Future World turning points are probably the easy.
World of Motion was an elaborate omnimover dark ride through animatronic scenes. It closed in 1996 (sadly, before I visited with my digital camera). In 1998, it became Test Track, a high speed thrill ride…
November 8, 1999.
The theme of being in a General Motors auto testing facility didn’t quite fit with the surrounding pavilion concepts. This was definitely a turning point.
And then there was Horizons, which represented the vision of EPCOT better than anything else in the park:
May 22, 1997.
It was closed in 1999. It reopened in 2003 as Mission: Space, a high speed thrill ride:
Photo by Allen Huffman of DisneyFans.com. October 2, 2007.
Mission Space is one of the few Disney attractions I will probably never ride. I can’t do spinny rides and, apparently, I’m not alone. Not too long after it opened, they halted one of the centrifuges and created a tame version of the ride that lets you watch the video without the spinning. I’ve at least gotten to ride that one, but why did Disney even build such an extreme ride for any of their parks, let alone Epcot?
Many other Future World attractions were updated, but they mostly retained the original concept or theme. Kitchen Cabaret became Food Rocks, Listen to the Land became Living With the Land, and Journey into Imagination changed, removing all the elaborate sets and animatronics and becoming a much shorter ride … then adding some of the animatronics back in a second update.
There were also changes to Communicore with the introduction of Innoventions, but I still think the concept of “real tech of literal tomorrow” made sense and could fit in fine if constantly updated. (I saw a “digital versatile disc” player for the first time there, and also a glasses-free 3-D display. One of these items became very popular, and the other I am still waiting on…)
Let’s move to the other side of the pond now…
World Showcase
World Showcase has remained fundamentally the same. Beyond the expansion of restaurants and more bars, the biggest change has been the insertion of Disney characters. Mexico’s El Rio del Tiemo (River of Time) became Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros…
December 7, 2006. Photo by Allen Huffman of DisneyFans.com. October 1, 2007.
Norway’s Maelstrom became Frozen Ever After:
January 25, 1998. Before Fastpass!September 15, 2018.
There weren’t many other attractions on this side of the park, else maybe there would be more updates like these two. But now that the park has changed, a Ratatouille ride coming to France seems to fit right in with this “new” Epcot. Probably.
So what was “patient zero” of this transformation from EPCOT Center to Epcot? The name officially became Epcot ’94 in 1994, and then Epcot ’95 a year later, then just Epcot. At some point the logo changed into a more whimsical one than the sleek 1980s futuristic one it opened with.
But surely this started happening before 1994. All I know is, the EPCOT Center I fell in love with is long gone. I like what is there, but mostly for the food and drinks. I wonder how popular the park would be without all the alcohol…
