Disney Trivia for May 30

[Dave]

1966: On this day, Disneyland threw a grand opening celebration for its newest Fantasyland attraction, "It's a Small World." Inaugurated on May 28, the attraction was originally built for the 1964-65 World's Fair in New York. Honoring all children of the world, the attraction features the song "It's a Small World (after all)" by Richard & Robert Sherman. (More than 256 million guests have experienced Disneyland's "It's a Small World" since 1966.)

1967: Site preparation began in Florida on the Walt Disney World project, requiring swamp drainage, clearing of land, and removal of trees. (It took 1,584 days and $400 million to Opening Day.)

The first incarnation of the Backlot Tour (when the park was called Disney-MGM Studios) had its entrance where the current entrance to The Magic of Disney Animation is. The original tour was far longer and more elaborate than the current version. The former tour drove through New York Street/Streets of America. Due to the surprise popularity of the park, New York Street was removed from the tour and made into public walking space within the first few years of operation. After driving through New York Street, the tram drove to Catastrophe Canyon, just like the tour does today.

Walt Disney's plane - the one he flew in while scouting locations for Walt Disney World during the mid-1960s, is on display at Disney's Hollywood Studios' Backlot Tour. Getting the Gulfstream into the park was no easy feat. The resort had to close one of its main thoroughfares, World Drive, for the plane to make its final landing on the street back in October 1992

[McDuck]

I love seeing Walt's plane. And I do miss the days when Studios was a working studio!

[Dave]

May 30, 2014 13:43:20 GMT -5 McDuck said:

I love seeing Walt's plane. And I do miss the days when Studios was a working studio!

Me too. I also miss the Osborne lights going through the "neighborhood" at the studios. I realize the houses were just facades, but it felt like walking through a real heighborhood to see everyone's Christmas decorations. I also admire the pilot who landed that Gulfstream on World Drive. Most of the time you would have a runway that is 100 feet wide and 8,000 feet long. Must have been really exciting.

[sydney]

I remember the Backlot Tour being longer too and going through the streets. He's one of the few pictures I have from Disney as a kid- it's of my brother and I in the late 80's I think.

[Dave]

Jun 1, 2014 6:42:16 GMT -5 sydney said:

I remember the Backlot Tour being longer too and going through the streets. He's one of the few pictures I have from Disney as a kid- it's of my brother and I in the late 80's I think.

Cool picture. I love seeing pictures of WDW the way it use to be. The old rides, the old stores - anything that is gone but brings back great memories.