Friday, June 14, 2024

Sea World of Florida 1973-1987

Scans from the park's first fifteen years. 


Whale licks a woman's face c. 1980
from 1983 Sea World Souvenir Publication

Pete Penguin & Wally Walrus greet kids c. December 1973
Sea World photo archives

Starkist's Charlie the Tuna with guests c. 1977
Source tbd


1977 Sea World Print Ad
Image source: Ebay

Great White Shark Exhibit c. 1977
Sea World photo archives



Sea Lion & Otter Show, Sea World of Florida c. 1978
Image Source: 1983 Sea World souvenir guide








Thursday, April 4, 2024

If You Had Wings Documents

This is where my current and future scans of official / recreated If You Had Wings documents  are intended to go. Some scans came from actual blueprints taken from the attraction during its conversion to Dreamflight. Some are from the Florida State Archive's microfiche collection.


Cleaned up scale map of If You Had Wings, adapted
from blueprint scan


Original scan of If You Had Wings
track layout blueprint detail
                         
If You Had Wings Entrance Signs
blueprint scan from Florida State Archives

If You Had Wings Holding Area Signs
blueprint scan from Florida State Archives


If You Had Wings Holding Area Globe
blueprint scan from Florida State Archives

If You Had Wings Entrance Facade
blueprint scan from Florida State Archives


If You Had Wings Rain Forest Foliage
blueprint scan from Florida State Archives










Friday, November 17, 2023

Sun Bank on Main Street USA, WDW

Orlando-based Sun Bank (also Sun Banks and later SunTrust) operated a branch on Main Street USA at Walt Disney World from June 24, 1977 to c. June 23, 1997.

Prior to Sun Bank occupying the building, which was there from October 1, 1971 forward, I believe the space was used for booking guided tours of the park. That operation was based in the adjoining garden space by the time I paid any attention to this corner of Main Street as a kid. After Sun Bank left the building 20 years later, it became The Main Street Gallery which opened September 6, 1997, selling Disney-themed art and collectibles. Years later it was converted to The "Main Street Chamber of Commerce" and began handling the park's Lost & Found services, which were previously based in City Hall.

My parents used the original downtown Orlando Sun Bank as far back as I could remember. I opened my first bank account at Sun Bank's Windermere branch in 1985 when I was sixteen and got a job (with paychecks to cash) at Orlando's Mystery Fun House. By the end of that year I was working at WDW and was cashing my weekly checks at the Main Street USA Sun Bank branch using the backstage cast member walk-up window.

I took out a $3,000+ loan from Sun Bank in 1988 to buy my first PC, mostly to start writing books (which I never finished) and to create document files using the Disney information I'd been collecting since fifth grade. A lot of that information helped me get WYW the fanzine & website going a few years later. And because I was an annual passholder, I kept using the Main Street USA Sun Bank to cash post-WDW job paychecks up until about 1994, when I finally started doing direct deposit. The line to see a teller was never very long and walking up to the old-fashioned counter with its big antique safe behind the desk reminded me of The Apple Dumpling Gang.   

According to WYW reader Monica Roddey, Sun Bank "was always our first stop at the Magic Kingdom as my mom would hop in there to cash some traveler's checques!"

***

Sun Bank exterior February 20, 1995
image source: Widen Your World

Main Street WDW Elevation Art c. 1971 by Ernie Prinzhorn, with the
building that would become Sun Bank to the far left
image source: WDW

Sun Bank lobby interior, southeast corner, January 6 1994
image source: Widen Your World 

Sun Bank lobby interior, south wall center, January 6 1994
image source: Widen Your World

Sun Bank lobby interior, southwest corner, January 6 1994
image source: Widen Your World

Sun Bank lobby interior, northwest corner, January 6 1994
image source: Widen Your World

Sun Bank deposit envelope logo & lettering, 1992
image source: Sun Bank

1984 WDW Eyes & Ears article about
Main Street USA's Sun Bank



***

WYW's basic WDW Sun Bank credits: Tom Morris, Monica Roddey, Sun Bank, WDW Eyes & Ears, The Walt Disney Company

Saturday, September 16, 2023

Strawberry Switchblade Photos & Covers

Strawberry Switchblade was a pop group from Glasgow that was once a four-piece but by the time they had a couple hits in 1985, there were down to the duo of Rose McDowall and Jill Bryson (Janice Goodlett & Carole McGowan left behind). They broke up in 1986. I first came across their music at Murmur Records in Orlando in 1985 and haven't heard any other band with a sound like theirs.

Rose & Jill, 1985

First iteration of the band c. 1981: Jill Bryson, Carole McGowan,
Rose McDowall & Janice Goodlett

Jill & Rose c. 1984

Jill & Rose c. 1985


Image Credits: Smash Hits magazine, Star Hits magazine, Sheila Rock and Strawberry Switchblade official print media 

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Space Port, Tomorrowland Mountain & Space Mountain 1965-1975

Many of the original Space Mountain's details have changed over the decades but no matter what version one considers, it's always been an enigmatic, exciting time. After so many years since my first first ride in the 1970s, I still get a sense of youthful anticipation sitting in one of its vehicles waiting to launch. It's just SO GOOD. It was the first WDW ride I remember seeing under construction as a kid and also the last WDW ride I was trained to work as an Operations cast member, which was in 1989.

Writing about Space Mountain's history for this site was easy in 1996 since no one on the internet had done that yet. RCA's Home of Future Living, the dog Nipper in a UFO at the entrance, "Here's To The Future" as a lyric or (and most importantly) Space Mountain being the only attraction where Blondie made an appearance... before 2023... I quickly covered all that stuff just so there'd be mentions of it online and also posted some rare images. What I DIDN'T do was introduce any important new information about the ride's genesis to the public record, since its basic origins were already covered in Walt Disney Productions annual reports or press releases and most interviews about the greater details of how the ride came to be hadn't even been conducted yet. What I knew about Space Mountain in the 1990s included, but wasn't rooted in, how the attraction evolved as a concept for Disneyland. What I've learned about that since then isn't entirely different than what everyone else has learned if they were reading The E Ticket, Jason Surrell or blogs like Progress City. But that's good stuff! And where that tapers off, I have material to add about the ride transitioning to WDW.

As with several other things that Walt Disney had his eye on during the last few years of his life, a space-themed thrill ride came to Florida first before tracking back to Anaheim in a new version. The original plan was for a rocket ride in the style of a Matterhorn sequel of sorts... four tracks veering in and out of a massive white cone/peak with guests visible in their vehicles to those standing in front of the attraction. It was part of a project called Space Port, envisioned for a late-1960s update to Disneyland's Tomorrowland. When Walt Disney first suggested the ride in 1964, Tomorrowland had been aging for nine years and he wanted to see it updated in a big way. WED Enterprises' John Hench came up with Space Port as a centerpiece for the new look of the land and honed the ride concept for years both before and after Walt's death in 1966. At that time there was no link between the ride and RCA.

In the company's 1965 Annual Report, the large structure dominating the concept art was referred to (and only once ever to my knowledge) "Tomorrowland Mountain." Within WED, the attraction was officially named Space Mountain sometime around 1967 and referred to by the name in print for the first time in 1969, along with the first published concept art, in A Complete Edition About Walt Disney World. By this point the ride was designated as being part of the Florida project, in the Tomorrowland section of Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, and plans for the ride at Disneyland were on hold.

Originally, plans for WDW's Magic Kingdom suggested that Tomorrowland would open in a "completed" state along with the rest of the park on October 1st, 1971. As construction progressed, it became clear that the land would be minimal on opening day compared to its stature in 1969/1970 blueprints. What was now called Space Mountain in pre-opening publications was still being conceptually developed all the way up to and through the Magic Kingdom's opening. With that structure being the intended visual anchor of the area surrounding it, Tomorrowland would be light on attractions for several years after 1971 and the last part of the park to come together at the end of what the company referred to WDW Phase One.

Space Mountain's profile evolved from the more elaborate indoor/outdoor four-track behemoth envisioned on paper and in a 1969 scale model, made in conjunction between Arrow Development and (primarily) WED sculptor Mitsuo Natsume, to an increasingly sleek cone with no outside track elements, between 1968 and 1972. Arrow Development (1945-1984) was heavily involved in the design of many early Disneyland rides including the Matterhorn. For the WDW Space Mountain model, they provided the track portion with WED enclosing it within slopes of their own making. There was a challenge with Space Mountain's original four-track design related to the computer control system that would be needed to operate the ride, since the technology in 1966 was not advanced enough to complete the project. When it finally became possible to move forward a couple years later, the ride was pared back to the two tracks that guests are still riding today. Looking at models of the final track layouts, it's hard to imagine four tracks within the current cone or to envision how much larger the building would need to be if four tracks were to coexist.

RCA's earliest involvement with Walt Disney World was either their possible sponsorship of an Alice In Computerland show (its date and concept details mostly unknown to me as of November 2021) that became the precursor of EPCOT Center's Astuter Computer Revue (1982) or their 1968 effort to sell Disney on their proposed "WEDCOMM" communication system that would serve the resort as an integrated means of collecting data, managing reservations and monitoring park and hotel activities. "A system of Systems, a network of Networks," RCA called it in their 71-page 1969 Project 90 booklet. Reading the full description, it sounds like a hybrid of a card catalog, 2001: A Space Odyssey's HAL and the yet-to-come internet. The system didn't come to fruition and RCA dismantled its computer division in 1971, at which time WED Enterprises saw an opportunity for getting RCA directly involved with an increasingly fast-developing new Tomorrowland thrill ride.

* prophetically, 1969's Project 90 included both textual and visual references to Space Mountain years before RCA was to sign on as the attraction's sponsor in 1972. What is NOT referenced in the document is that rarely-discussed Alice In Computerland show concept.

The combination of WED and RCA on the project resulted in an attraction design that went beyond the nature of anything that had come before in its scale, concept and variety of content. The ride itself would be the first completely indoor roller coaster in history (capitalizing on that by putting half the ride in near-total darkness) and the third in Disney's history, behind Disneyland’s Matterhorn and WDW’s Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, to have two distinctly separate tracks. The additional features revolving around RCA's space cameras/equipment and consumer products were also extensive enough for Disney to promote the Space Mountain pre-show and post-show as, combined, an attraction unto itself, warranting a visit by anyone even if they wouldn't be riding the coaster. Never before had the non-ride portion of a theme park ride been recommended in print as something to do based on its own entertainment value. And it was genuinely worth that investment of time.

Sources: Walt Disney Productions annual reports, The E Ticket magazine, The Disney Mountains by Jason Surrell, mitsuonatsume.com, Mike Hiscano, Dave Hooper, Alison Matthews, Tom Morris & even myself because of stuff I learned working at the ride


1964 First rendering of Space Port concept by John Hench

Vic Greene, Walt Disney & John Hench with an early model of
Space Port c. 1965

1965 Walt Disney Productions Annual Report 

1965 Space Port rendering for Disneyland by John Hench, Herb Ryman


c. 1965 Disneyland Tomorrowland concept by John Hench,
with Space Port in the background


Three c. 1965 John Hench Space Port / Space Mountain concepts

From 1969's A Complete Edition About WDW, an early rendering of how Space
Mountain might appear in Florida - this was a Space Mountain / Matterhorn
hybrid approach with four separate tracks running through the attraction


From the cover of 1969's A Complete Edition About WDW, a view of the
WDW's Tomorrowland in concept form - Space Mountain in more of a
"circus tent" shape than the cone that materialized four years later





Friday, August 11, 2023

EPCOT Center Orlando-Land Articles & Similar Materials 1980-1983

Context: Various scans of things I collected as a kid with related material


Orlando-Land May 1983 A

Orlando-Land May 1983 B

Orlando-Land May 1983 C



Orlando Magazine November 1983 Scan A

Orlando Magazine November 1983 Scan B

Orlando Magazine November 1983 Scan D

Orlando Magazine November 1983 Scan E

Orlando Magazine November 1983 Scan F

Orlando Magazine November 1983 Scan G

Orlando Magazine November 1983 Scan H

Wednesday, August 9, 2023

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (20K) Audio & Video Links


Audio Links

Submarine Organ Track (source)
https://youtu.be/oIYAyS_UrZg

Submarine Organ Track (live)
https://youtu.be/qMDeAxcNdrA

Submarine Live Ride-through 1975
https://youtu.be/uG_eT_74Yw8

Submarine Live Ride-through 1989
https://youtu.be/Go3BEMt4hE0

Video Links

Ride-through 1994
https://youtu.be/FcpHNj8woDI

Ride-through 1990
https://youtu.be/3aoPd4dHWrA

Rehab Compilation Footage 1990
https://youtu.be/Qpbq70QOJfs

Nighttime Spur Line Operation
https://youtu.be/3IFz7IMQ9lk

Lagoon Viewpoint
https://youtu.be/JDeKCpROStM

Front Dock Viewpoint 1993
https://youtu.be/BZ8CgvfQSIU

Front Dock Viewpoint 1994
https://youtu.be/-XRUZItq9tg