Disney Get The Green Light For Glendale's Grand Central Air Terminal Renovation Project

It took ten years but that's it, Disney finally got the green light to renovate the Grand Central Air Terminal which is located  in Glendale, north of Los Angeles. More from Gizmodo.com:

"Originally opened in 1929, the terminal was the main public building for the Glendale Municipal Airport which dates from 1922. Outside, the building is remarkable for its blend of Art Deco and Spanish Colonial architecture. The terminal's interior layout was a template for the layout for the future of airports with separate areas for ticketing, eating, and waiting. In its heyday, the terminal was used by high-flying celebrities, including Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, and Howard Hughes.

The terminal was closed to commercial aviation in 1944, and Glendale Airport was shut down permanently in 1959. Unfortunately, over the years, the Grand Central Air Terminal building has fallen into disrepair. Below, a shot of the original waiting room, now completely abandoned".

"After buying the land in the 1990s, Disney entered into a development agreement with the City of Glendale in 2000 to rehabilitate the building by the end of 2015. Disney wanted to build the land out for a new Grand Central Creative Complex, but because of the building's historic status, it had to cut a deal with city officials. Amongst the concessions Disney granted were that the land had to have an airplane "from the era" outside.

The Disney plan was approved back in March by the Glendale Historic Preservation Commission and in addition to structural improvements and seismic upgrades, the building's exterior will be restored to its former aesthetic glory from the clay roof tiles to the steel windows to the stone and stucco ornamentation. A nearby building will be demolished to provide a nice view of the building to passersby."

"Inside, the terminal will be retrofitted as offices for Disney employees. There will also be a visitor center and event space for the surrounding creative complex."

"According to the agreement with the city, Disney will need to provide "limited" public access to the building when construction is complete. Let's hope Disney takes that mandated service seriously."

Text: copyright Gizmodo.com

56 Years Ago The House of the Future Was Opening at Disneyland

56 years ago the Monsanto House of the Future was opening at Disneyland and stayed at the entrance of Tomorrowland during ten years. Here is a tribute to the "House of the future" with historical pictures and a real treasure videos!



The attraction offered a tour of a home of the future, set in the year 1986, Built of plastics, a revolutionary material at that time, the four wing"ultra-modern" House of the Future was on display from 1957 to 1967 at the entrance of Tomorrowland.The House of the Future featured the latest in furniture and appliances along with intercoms and other gadgets that were not common in 1957. For instance, it featured household appliances such as microwave ovens, which eventually were invented and became commonplace.




The house survived the introduction of New Tomorrowland in 1967, but closed shortly after, as Monsanto's attention shifted to their new sponsored attraction, Adventure Thru Inner Space. The building was so sturdy, that when demolition crews tried to knock out walls with a wrecking ball, the ball bounced off. Hacksaws were required to take the building apart, piece by piece.

However, it didn't remove all the house. The support pillars were rated for earthquakes, so when the construction reached them, most couldn't be removed. These few remaining pillars are still visible in Neptune's Grotto, the location of the exterior gardens of the house.

A good friend and faithful Disney and more reader also sent to me this rare article that he found in an old issue of Popular Science Magazine. And it's a very interesting one. Not only because it talks of the Monsanto House of the Future, but because the date of the article is April 1956! And so what, you ask? Well, you see, Disneyland's House of the Future didn't opened in 1956 but in 1957, one year later! Which means what? On the cover of this April 1956 issue, the title was "1956 Home Show" and the article was called "Plastic House of the Future" and not the "House of the Future". The good question of course is: Did Walt learned about the Monsanto's house thanks to the article or did he knew about it before? We'll probably never have the answer, but the article is fascinating. Have a look and don't miss the page with the plan of the House of the Future!

A while ago i've found the image below. This one is not related to the House of the Future, but it's from the same era and the picture - which show another kind of "house of the future" is pretty cool, so i add it here. Double-click on it to see it in big size.



This last picture shows the great replica designed by Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily for Disney shopping.com fduring Disneyland 50th anniversary!

And now, here is a great document with this two part Monsanto video that will show you how amazing - specially in 1960's - the House of the Future was. Don't miss it, it's just like if you were there, inside the House of the Future, 50 years ago!








Photos: copyright Disney

Video: copyright Monsanto and Disney

All my thanks to Macmouse4 for the great Youtube video

Editor's Note: You will find new updates below, but as i told you previously i remind you that we have now less than twenty copies of the "Disneyland Paris From Sketch to Reality" book in its english collector's edition, so if you don't own the book yet, it's now or never! You can use the Paypal one-click button below or send me an email to place your order at : neverlandeditions@gmail.com, and for more infos about the book with plenty of pictures and videos, please jump HERE.

Choose between french or english edition -Price include shipping

1 copy ENGLISH edition Disneyland Paris book, include shipping €100.00 EUR 1 SIGNED copy FRENCH edition Disneyland Paris book, inc shipping €115.00 EUR 1 NON SIGNED copy FRENCH edition Disneyland Paris book +shipping €90.00 EUR

Steven Spielberg Warning of a Hollywood Implosion

At last someone who see things clearly. And it's not coming from anyone as it is Steven Spielberg himself who said this week what you will read below, speaking at the University of Southern California Film School. 

So, what did Steven said? Well, first he revealed that his latest film - Lincoln - barely made it into distribution. Seriously? Seriously. But it's the great Steven Spielberg, you say, how is it possible that he can't find a distributor for any of his movies? well, that's all the point, even is you are Steven Spielberg - or Martin Scorcese or many others great directors - it's no longer enough to be sure that your movie will be distributed. Even Georges Lucas said recently that his World War II blockbuster Red Tails had an hard time getting into theatres and wasn’t able to get a international release: “The pathway to get into theaters is really getting smaller and smaller” Lucas explained. That's how bad the situation is now, folks. The problem, Spielberg added, is that studios aren’t taking any chances on ‘fringe’ subjects and scripts, preferring established franchises and superhero schlock directed by wannabes.

Is this the end of intelligent mainstream cinema?

"I really think so. The future for any talented filmmaker is the internet and television. That’s where the creativity is going to be, where new talent breaks first. You’re not going to see a debut feature however Oscar worthy at the cinema until it is a proven mega hit franchise with millions of YouTube views"

Spielberg added: “That’s the big danger, and there’s eventually going to be an implosion — or a big meltdown. There’s going to be an implosion where three or four or maybe even a half-dozen mega-budget movies are going to go crashing into the ground, and that’s going to change the paradigm”

Where is the problem and why Studios are not interested by mainstream movies, i.e real good movies as it was still existing not too long ago. Simply because Studios 
( and not only Disney ) are not really interested by movies, they're interested by the money they will make with them, and of course the power it will bring. That's a major difference with what Hollywood studios were at the Golden Era when people at Metro Goldwyn mayer or Warner really loved movies, and not only money. And i mean good movies. Do you think that someone could find now the money to do a Lawrence of Arabia? Or even Citizen Kane? No way, except, as Spielberg said in some TV channels like HBO. 

And in the meantime we won't escape to several super-heroes sequels, etc... Don't get me wrong, i have nothing against franchise movies. The last Star Trek for instance was excellent thanks to a good script, a brilliant filming and excellent actors well directed, but Iron Man 3 although it was entertaining won't last long in your memory, simply because it was not a great movie, not a piece of art. Unfortunately Iron Man 3 box office has reached now 1.2 Billion which is great for Disney as they might use some of the money for more interesting things, i.e for instance in theme parks. But it also mean that they probably think they've found the recipe to make gold and will use it again and again in the same kind of movies. This would not be a problem if they were using the money also to produce movies which will be food for your mind but i doubt that it will be the case... and that's where the problem lies. 

The irony in all that is that people like Spielberg and Lucas are also the ones who introduced 30 years ago the notion of blockbuster movies at Hollywood. So, i suppose that what is happening now is what is called the karma boomerang... Anyway, will the money-men finally kill mainstream movies, the great cinema? Possible, but not sure. Although i don't really trust the executives to be more intelligent than greedy, 
i have more confidence in the audience and i wouldn't be surprised if some day people begin to be fed up of these deluxe B-movies - because that's what they are, after all - and start to ask for movies which will be also pure work of art. As they say in India, the wheel is always turning...

Walt Disney Studios Cinémagique Attraction Full Show Video

The Cinemagique attraction at DLP Walt disney Studios is one of my favorite.  It's a brilliant tribute to Movies and Cinema in general and the show even have a lot of emotion thanks to great actors Martin Short and Julie Delpy, and brilliant editing and visual effects. Cinémagique is an attraction unique to the WDS so if you've never visited the park chances are that you don't know it, so i prefer to say nothing about what is happening to avid any spoiler.

But thanks to JordiFun who filmed the entire show you'll be able to watch right now this great movie, so go ahead, choose the 1080p definition and watch it full screen as usual! Also note that you will watch here the original movie as, since the video below was filmed the Cinémagique attraction has been updated, which means that some films clips have been replaced by others and you can read more about this in a previous article HERE.







Picture and video: copyright Disney

When Women Were Not Welcome to Apply For a Job at the Walt Disney Studios

Thanks God, things have changed for women since 1938 but if you were a woman and artist at that time and wishing to work at Walt Disney's Animation Studio the least we can say is that the WDS was doing everything they could to avoid any women application for a job at the Studio, as this Walt Disney Productions letter below proves it.

A read of this June 7, 1938 letter makes pretty clear what women can do at that time at the WDS: "Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing cartoons for the screen, as that work is performed entirely by young men." Discriminatory? It sounds to me and i think that even a phrase like this will be unthinkable now, and probably even forbidden by law...

Let's go further and see how they leave no hope. Not only the person who wrote the letter was clear that "For this reason girls are not considered for the training school" but also that
"The only work to women consists of tracing the characters on clear celluloid sheets with India ink filling in the tracing on the reverse side with point according to directions."

And just in case you intended to travel all across United States and come directly to the Studios, although the letter said that "it's necessary that one appear at the Studio, bringing samples of pen and ink and water color work..." it ended with "...It would not be advisable to come to Hollywood with the above specifically in view, as there are really few openings in comparison with the number of girls who apply".  It couldn't be more clear, and in two words it mean: please stay home.

To be honest, it's possible that the Studios didn't needed any new talent at that time but it's also obvious that if you were a man you had more chances to be welcome and do an interesting career at Walt Disney's Animation Studios. That said, it didn't stopped the WDS to have some great women artists like Mary Blair, for instance... but as i said in the opening, thanks God, since 1938 things have changed for women. The only problem is that now Disney has closed the 2D Animation Studios...

Your thoughts?

Pictures: copyright Disney

Great Tokyo Disney Sea Walk-Through Video !

Those of you who've never been to Tokyo Disney Sea will love this great "walk through" TDS video! And it's a real "walk through", i.e the video has been shot walking all through the park, and for a video filmed walking the image is pretty smooth and steady. I wonder if he used some kind of steadycam... Anyway, go ahead and watch this ( in HD 1080p definition and full screen mode of course )  it'll give you the feeling that you are actually walking yourself in Tokyo Disney Sea!




Video: copyright shossis6713