It's a special Walt Disney World topic today. First with these pictures below of the 4th of july event last week - lot of people were there , including two airforce jets in the sky.
Note that the picture above is in high-res for those of you interested to transform it in wallpaper.
But how was WDW opening day event 26 years ago? Here are some great historical photos as well as video!
Of course, there was Walt's famous announcement on tv in 1967, and all America learned that day that a Disney World was on its way to be built in central Florida.Walt's Florida film was in fact taped in California, Oct 27, 1966.
After detailed research and analysis, Walt acquired 27400 acres of land 20 miles southwest of Orlando, big enough to hold all the dreams him and his staff had conceived. Below, Walt and his brother Roy with Disney executives Card Walker and Joe Fowler look over plans to the WDW project.
Before that , on October 15, 1965 , Walt and Roy held a press conference at the Cherry Plaza hotel in Orlando where he first announced his plans for a Central Florida theme park and answer questions about the proposed Disney attraction.
Six years later the Magic Kingdom open its gate and Roy O.Disney did his now famous grand opening dedication.
And it was now the time to celebrate and to free all the balloons!
But how did it look like, back in 1971? On the three part youtube videos i've found for you , you will discover Walt Disney World, back 26 years ago. The videos are coming from a 16mm movie filmed by Disney. The colours of the film are part of its charm, and you can also feel the innocence of the early 70's. If you were not born at that time, it will be for you a charming time machine! Enjoy it!
Photos and videos : copyright Disney
Interesting in that its the same narrator as the EPCOT film that Disney produced in the months before his death in '66 (and featured in full on the Tomorrowland Disney Treasure release). I wonder what he thought as he read this new script 6+ years later on how different the WDW result was from the original vision. :)
ReplyDeleteAnother great update.
ReplyDeleteThat was AWESOME! I forgot that Space Mountain and Big Thunder came AFTER the park opened. I was thinking there were also original attractions.
ReplyDeleteI thought the press event was November 15.
ReplyDelete