July 27 - Bill Sullivan

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On this day, in 1955, William Sullivan began his new job as ticket taker at the Jungle Cruise in Adventureland of Disneyland. Born in 1936, Sully, as most people called him, was studying architecture and working his first job in the aircraft industry when a television show changed his life. Like many people on July 17, 1955, Sully was glued to his television set watching the opening ceremonies of a new kind of entertainment in Anaheim, Disneyland. Unlike most people watching, he was inspired to completely change the course of his life by what he saw. The following Saturday he went down to the park to apply for a job. He was hired on the spot, quit his job at Northrop Aircraft on Monday and two days later was happily taking people’s tickets for the Jungle Cruise.

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A quick detour into the world of tickets at the beginning of Disneyland. For the first three months of operation, it cost guests $1 to get into the park, which included three attractions, and then between 10 and 35 cents more for each additional attraction. In October 1955, ticket books were introduced with A, B and C tickets in them. The best rides, like the Jungle Cruise, required a C ticket while something like the Carousel would be an A ticket ride. In 1957, as more attractions were added to Disneyland, a D ticket was introduced and the ticket tiers were expanded once more in 1959 to include E tickets. Some attractions, like the Matterhorn Bobsleds, debuted at E ticket status while older attractions, like the Jungle Cruise, were promoted to E ticket status, or whatever level was appropriate. The phrase “that’s an E ticket ride” has sort of become synonymous with exciting thrill rides but all it really meant was you were riding one of the best rides. Yes, the Bobsleds were E ticket, but so was the Disneyland Railroad. We now return to you to our regularly scheduled post.

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It didn’t take Sully long to get promoted from Jungle Cruise ticket taker to wisecracking Jungle Cruise skipper. After 2.5 years exclusively in that madcap bubble, Sully got to train on other attractions and move around the park more. He was then promoted to what he called a Yo-Yo Supervisor. Disneyland couldn’t afford to make him a full supervisor just yet, so at high attendance times he’d be wearing a suit and tie and managing things, then when attendance dropped again, he’d be back in costume running an attraction, sometimes going back and forth between the two roles on a day by day basis. In 1959, when the park enjoyed its first expansion with the addition of the Matterhorn Bobsleds and the Nature’s Wonderland section of Frontierland, Sully was made a full supervisor.

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Almost as soon as Sully became full time management, he also became a specials man. When Walt was chosen to be a part of the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, Sully was on the company’s security team. He was part of the team that ran the premier of Mary Poppins at Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Sully was then chosen to go to the 1964 World’s Fair as an assistant manager to help facilitate and troubleshoot the four attractions the company built for it. He moved his family to Queens, NY for a year and his daughter even started kindergarten there. When he returned to California in late 1965, he was promoted to manager of all of Fantasyland. And that’s when things got busy.

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While in New York, Sully had heard rumors of something Walt was cooking up called Project X that was going to take place on the East Coast, but no one knew what, when or exactly where. Shortly after becoming the head of Fantasyland, Sully was let in on the secret: another theme park was being planned for Central Florida. It then became Sully’s job, along with the Legendary Rolly Krump, to design the layout of Fantasyland for the new park. When they’d done all they could with that project, Sully was promoted to Senior Staff Assistant to the Vice President of the Florida Project, which basically meant he was now a high priced jack-of-all-trades.

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It might almost be easier to list the things Sully didn’t do in those years just before Walt Disney World opened. He helped design the entrance to the Magic Kingdom and Main Street USA (they made it twelve feet wider than Disneyland’s in order to accommodate bigger parades). He set up a post office to facilitate communication between Burbank and the construction companies. He helped get the Preview Center up and running. He was in charge of most of the promotional materials that were being made available to locals. He ran a legislator’s weekend so Jack Lindquist could convince the Florida state senators and representatives that creating a special economic zone for Disney was a great idea. He helped set up and staff the Preview Center. He was part of the Security and Fire Prevention team and was in charge of hiring the first 75 Security Cast Members for the Florida property. In short, Sully was the grease that kept the whole of Walt Disney World moving forward.

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Sully was also an integral part of the team that was planning and building EPCOT Center. Officially he was the director of PICO, the Project Installation and Coordination Office. Basically what that meant is that, while he didn’t have the authority to approve or disapprove of projects, all of them came through him and his office. With all of his operational experience, Sully could (and did) make improvement suggestions and rework the design of anything he felt needed tweaking. He spent four years perfecting the park and then was in charge of actually running the place for the first two years it was open. During the same period, Sully help train hundreds of cast members for the opening of Disney’s first international park, Tokyo Disneyland.

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In 1987, Sully was promoted to Vice President in charge of the Magic Kingdom, the world he had done so much to help create. He spent several years there until one of his old co-workers, Jim Cora, who was now in charge of all international Disney parks, sweet talked him into coming over to Europe to help get Disneyland Paris ready for its opening. So Sully spent the first few months of 1992 opening another Disney theme park. He returned to Florida where he resumed his duties as top man at the Magic Kingdom until his retirement in 1993.

Sully has the distinction of being one of the few people who have their names on not one but two windows on Main Street USA, both in the Magic Kingdom. The first one he received was as part of a group of guys who were instrumental in getting Walt Disney World off the ground. It reads “Windemere Fraternal Hall – Lodge Meetings Every Friday – Charter Members - Bob Allen - Pete Crimmings, Dick Evans, Bill Hoelscher, Bob Mathieson, Bill Sullivan” and can be found on Center Street above Crystal Arts. Sully received his second one for his retirement and it’s a solo act above the ice cream parlor. That one reads “Sully's Safaris & Guide Service - Chief Guide Bill Sullivan.” As impressive as having two windows is, Sully was absolutely floored the day he got his letter inviting him to a ceremony in 2005 where he was officially declared a Disney Legend.

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Sully still resides in Central Florida although he says he doesn’t go to the Disney parks much anymore. He admits that it’s mostly because he’d get too upset about all the changes that have been made since they were “his” parks. They aren’t his anymore but he’s okay with that. For 38 magical years he carried on the Disney tradition and now it is someone else’s turn. When asked about his favorite memory from his career, he gets a twinkle in his eye and mentions meeting the cute blonde who worked across from the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland and has been his wife for over 50 years. I know just how he feels (although my twinkle is brunette).

July 1 - WEDWay People Mover

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On this day, in 1975, the WEDWay PeopleMover began giving guests a grand tour of Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World. The original PeopleMover attraction opened on July 2, 1967 as part of Disneyland’s new Tomorrowland. It was an update of the ride system that had been used in the Ford pavilion for the 1964 World’s Fair. The term PeopleMover was coined for Disneyland’s ride but has since come to mean a variety of transportation modes. The cars didn’t move on their own but were propelled along the track by rotating wheels placed every nine feet. When Ford declined to sponsor the new attraction (they didn’t care to associate with anything that could supplant cars), Goodyear stepped in and the rotating wheels were replaced with actual Goodyear tires.

Eight years later, the Florida Project got its own version of the PeopleMover with two big differences. First, instead of the cars being propelled along by rotating tires, linear induction motors were used. New decade, new technology, which made sense to everyone except Goodyear. Because the new version didn’t need their tires, they said Disney didn’t need their sponsorship and bowed out. The Edison Electric Institute stepped up in their place. Second, the design of the cars and track were reversed. Disneyland’s ride had an open track with covered cars. Walt Disney World’s ride has open cars that run on a covered track.

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Disneyland’s PeopleMover was deemed hopelessly outdated and closed in 1995, to eventually be replaced by the ill-fated Rocket Rods. Walt Disney World’s attraction keeps chugging along even though it’s had a couple of thematic changes over the years. In 1994, the Magic Kindom’s Tomorrowland underwent a major renovation, becoming a working city of the future rather than a showcase of future technology. The PeopleMover was renamed the Tomorrowland Transit Authority Metroliner, although the Metroliner part was rarely used and the name was generally shortened to the TTA. The track was cosmetically made to look more metallic and the narration was changed to reflect the rides new function as part of the city’s public transportation system. When Space Mountain went down for a major refurbishment in April 2009, the TTA also closed for a while to accommodate the major construction taking place right next to its track. When it reopened in September of that year, it had another new narration and it was announced that it would be called the PeopleMover again. Except the name wasn’t a replacement, it was an add on, making it a mouthful to even mention the ride anymore. The attraction’s full current name is the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover.

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One final note: the Florida version of the PeopleMover is the last attraction in the Magic Kingdom that still retains a corporate sponsor (the nighttime spectacular, Happily Ever After, is sponsored by Pandora, but that’s a show not an attraction). It is currently sponsored by Alamo Rent-A-Car, although you could be forgiven for never knowing that. They aren’t mentioned in any of the narrations, just a few logos on the signs at the ride’s entrance and exit.

June 24 - Roy Oliver Disney

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On this day, in 1893, Roy Oliver Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois. The third son (behind Herb and Ray) of Elias and Flora Disney, Roy experienced much of the same childhood his younger brother Walt did, just as someone eight years older. After Walt was also born in Chicago, the family moved to a farm in Marceline, Missouri, where they welcomed the only sister in the bunch, Ruth. After struggling with farm life for a while (though the impact those years would have on Walt were incalculable), Elias moved the family again, this time to Kansas City, and started his two younger sons on the journey of a lifetime.

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One of the shared experiences Roy and Walt got to have together was providing the labor on a paper route their father managed to buy for the Kansas City Star in 1911. Roy was eighteen at the time and, twice a day, he and his ten year old brother delivered papers to nearly 2000 customers. Two hours in the morning, two more in the evening, no matter the season, no matter the weather. The work was miserably tiresome for the brothers, although it did seem to create a work ethic within them and a bond between them that lasted for the rest of their lives. Needless to say, once Roy graduated from Manual Training High School in 1912, he stopped slinging papers for a living and joined his older brother Ray at the First National Bank of Kansas City as a clerk.

 In 1917, when the United States was finally pulled into World War I, Roy signed up for the Navy and shipped out to win one for democracy. Unfortunately, he caught tuberculosis along the way and was discharged in 1919 to come home and recuperate. For health reasons, Roy relocated to a hospital in Los Angeles, California. He was now in the perfect place to help his little brother pick up the pieces when his bottom fell out just a few years later.

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When Laugh-O-Gram Studios, Walt's first business in Kansas City, went bankrupt in 1923, he took all his worldly possessions with him to live with an uncle in Southern California to regroup. After making a few brash claims, he was able to sell his idea for a series mixing animation and live action to an actual distributor, but he had a problem. Walt knew that he didn't have much of a head (or interest) in the day to day running of a business, hence having to declare bankruptcy. He also knew someone who did. With his new contract in hand, Walt visited Roy in the hospital and convinced him to become the money man in a new joint venture between the brothers. Still fairly weak, Roy checked himself out of the hospital the very next day and the Walt Disney Studio was born.

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It truly was the partnership of Roy and Walt that turned the studio from a dream into a multi-million dollar company. The two brothers were each other's opposite and compliment at the same time. Over the decades, a pattern formed. Walt would get some crazy idea in his head, like a feature length animated movie or a theme park, and dive headlong into it. Roy would try to reign Walt in, actually discourage him from following some scheme, do a lot of yelling and ultimately find a way to pay for everything. The arguments between them sometimes reached legendary proportions. But, in the end, they wholly trusted each other.

Not that there weren't a lot of really great times. In 1928, they bought adjacent lots and built houses together. They witnessed each other's weddings, went on vacation together, celebrated the birth of children (Roy E. Disney came along in 1930) and grieved together (like when their mother, Flora, passed away in 1938). By 1929, Walt had bought out Roy's share in the studio, so while they weren't technically partners anymore, they were lifelong equals. Roy was the company's first CEO, long before he was officially given that title in 1968. And when Walt passed away in December 1966, Roy was left to grieve alone for the first time in six and a half decades.

The irony of the last several years of Roy's life, is that he meant to spend them enjoying retirement. After all the hard work he'd put in keeping the Walt Disney Company financially solvent, he certainly deserved it. But after Walt's death, Roy felt an obligation to finish what the brothers had started in Florida. Roy had been there for the big press conference announcing Disney World just a few months earlier after all.  So he delayed his retirement and oversaw the biggest building project the company had ever undertaken. He insisted on one seemingly small change however. The Florida Project would officially be called Walt Disney World, a final tribute to his younger sibling. 

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When the dust had finally settled and the Magic Kingdom, complete with a handful of hotels, opened on October 1, 1971, Roy was on hand to officially dedicate everything, just as Walt had done at Disneyland sixteen years before. When all the pomp and ceremony was over, he quietly retired, handing the reigns of the company he'd help found over to the next generation of leadership. Unfortunately, he didn't get to enjoy his twilight years for very long. Whether the stress of building another theme park used up the last bit of life in him, or just the fact that he was eight years older than his little brother and had outlived him by several years, Roy passed away from an intracranial  hemorrhage on December 20, 1971. He was 78.

Roy is enshrined on windows on Main Street USA in both Disneyland and Walt Disney World for obvious reasons. A less well known tribute to him comes in the form of a stone lantern, currently part of the Japan pavilion at Epcot. When Walt Disney World opened, the company was starting negotiations to build a park in Japan. Emperor Hirohito personally presented Roy with the lantern as a symbol of future prosperity. It was on display at the Polynesian Resort for a decade before being relocated when Epcot opened. There isn't a plaque commemorating it that I know of, you just have to know what it is (and now you do). You can also find a life size statue of him, sitting on a bench with Minnie Mouse, in the Magic Kingdom's Town Square, at the opposite end of Main Street from the statue of Walt. Both men were responsible for making the magic happen. Without either one, the studio would have failed. Thankfully, they had each other and it didn't have to.

June 15 - Bill Martin

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On this day, in 1917, Wilson E. Martin was born in Marshalltown, Iowa. Bill, as he was known, and his family moved to Los Angeles, California when he was still pretty young. After high school, he went to Los Angeles Junior College and then on to the Chouinard Art Institute to study architecture. Following his graduation from Chouinard, Bill got a job as a set designer for 20^th Century Fox in 1940. His career was interrupted by World War II, which he spent in the United States Air Force as a bombardier trainer. Following the war, Bill worked for a company called Panoramic Productions before returning to Fox, this time as an assistant art director. Then, in 1953, he got an offer he couldn’t refuse.

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While working at Fox, Bill got a phone call. Someone from the Walt Disney Studio was wondering if he would like to switch companies. Disney was looking for new talent to become part of a group of employees referred to as Imagineers, was he interested? Bill jumped at the chance and became part of the team working to make Walt’s Disneyland dreams come true. One of his first assignments was to travel around to existing amusement parks to study existing systems and figure out what was working and, more importantly, what wasn’t. Then it was back to Burbank for massive brainstorming sessions.

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Bill would be the first to admit that not all of his ideas were great ones. Take, for example, the corset shop he dreamed up for Main Street USA called The Wizard of Bras. Obviously that particular shop never made it past the idea phase, but it was that kind of creative thinking that convinced Walt to make Bill the art director for Fantasyland. As a result, he was integral in shaping the design of everything in the area, attractions like Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and Peter Pan’s Flight, as well as the land’s general layout and look. Once Disneyland was opened, Bill would move on to other projects in the ever expanding park. He helped design the Autopias, Bear Country, the monorail system and New Orleans Square including both its signature attractions, Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion.

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By 1971, Bill had become the Vice President of Design at WED Enterprises (now called Walt Disney Imagineering). He was the man in charge of the master layout for the company’s newest theme park endeavor, the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World. Bill’s personal design projects included the famous utilidors (the ‘tunnels’ underneath most of the Magic Kingdom’s guest areas), Cinderella Castle, Main Street USA (still no corset shop though) and the system of canals which connect various areas of the entire Florida property. As if that wasn’t enough, he also designed a wide array of watercraft that was going to be used in those canals, including the large ferry boats that run between the Magic Kingdom and the Transportation and Ticket Center and various smaller steam launches and side wheelers.

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Bill officially retired from Disney in 1977, but, like so many of the influencers of that era, he didn’t simply walk away. He continued to keep his hand in the theme park creation business, just on a consultation only basis. His influence can be experienced in the Mexico and Italy pavilions at Epcot and the master layout for Tokyo Disneyland. Bill was, naturally, declared an official Disney Legend in 1994 for taking the theme park design torch from Walt himself and carrying it right on into the future. He has also been honored with not one but two mentions on Main Street USA windows. If you are in Disneyland, look above the Main Street Bank and you’ll see a window with his given name, Wilson Martin, right over the name Gabriel Scognamillo, who was the art director for Tomorrowland during Disneyland’s creation. If you find yourself in the Magic Kingdom, Bill is named as part of a larger group of Walt Disney World’s original designers on a window above the Plaza Restaurant. That window reads “Walter E. Disney - Graduate School of Design & Master Planning - Instructors, Howard Brummitt, Marvin Davis, Fred Hope - Headmaster, Richard Irvine - Dean of Design, John Hench - Instructors, Vic Greene, Bill Martin, Chuck Myall.” Bill passed away on August 2, 2010. He was 93.

June 4 - The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh Ride

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On this day, in 1999, the first dark ride to feature the creations of AA Milne, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, began bouncing guests through the Hundred Acre Wood in Fantasyland of the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. As the popularity of the Winnie the Pooh characters continued to grow throughout the Seventies, plans were made to create a ride at Disneyland that featured them.  However, when a newly rejuvenated Fantasyland opened in 1983, the tubby little cubby was conspicuously absent. So were any explanations. A few years later, when the new area of Mickey’s Toontown was being mapped out, plans were again made for a Pooh ride. Guests would sit in honeypots they could spin like teacups as they travelled through scenes from the films. Toontown opened in 1988 and, once again, Pooh and friends were nowhere to be found. The area allotted for the attraction (as well as the ride vehicle design) morphed into Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin, which opened in 1994. It would be another five years before Pooh received his due and it would happen in Florida, not California.

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In order to make room for the Pooh ride in the Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland, something else had to go. That something turned out to be Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. The removal of Mr. Toad also meant that cast members could no longer backhandedly tell guests to go to hell by suggesting they experience the Wild Ride (in one of the final scenes of that attraction, Mr. Toad did indeed descend into Hades). Both the ride and the insult can be considered minor losses. The Pooh ride does pay tribute to Mr. Toad however. Eagle eyed riders can spot a portrait of him in the attraction handing a deed to Owl (in other words, passing the proverbial torch in a legal and aboveboard manner). All that doesn't mean there wasn't plenty of controversy over closing the classic attraction at the time, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find terribly many people who wouldn't agree that the new ride is an improvement.

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The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh has several design elements that make it a unique dark ride. First is the inclusion of actual pages from the original A.A. Milne stories. Some are painted on the walls and some are projections. It's the ones that are projections that make for some cool effects. For instance, in the Blustery Day section, it appears that the words are being blown right off the page as each individual ride vehicle goes by. The ride vehicles themselves are probably the best innovation, though. In most dark rides, you sit in a honeypot (or mine car or caterpillar) and get ferried past sets and moving figures and the like. There might be some quick turns, but it's essentially a flat ride. In the Pooh dark ride, you get immersed in the story a whole lot more than that. Each individual vehicle is set up so that, say, when Tigger starts bouncing alongside you, your honeypot starts bouncing along the track. And when the river creeps out of its bed and floods everything, your honeypot starts rocking like it was caught up in the current.

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In 2003, Disneyland finally got their own version of the Pooh ride, but again it came with controversy. Real estate in the California park is at a premium and, once again, park officials knew that something was going to have to disappear to make room for the new attraction. Fantasyland didn't offer any options but there was a potential space over in Critter Country. This time the classic attraction that was doomed to be sacrificed was the Country Bear Jamboree. Even though a group of guests tried to band together to save the Bears, the shows low attendance figures doomed it to extinction. Just like Mr. Toad, though, the Jamboree isn't completely gone. Eagle eyed guest can spot the mounted heads of Melvin the Moose, Buff the Buffalo and Max the Buck in the ride (although they are technically the non-Animatronic heads that used to sit in the Mile Long Bar, not the heads from the actual show). Also note that the same mechanism that was used to lower Teddi Barra from the ceiling in Jamboree now bobs Pooh up and down over a whirlpool of honey. Besides some of the scenes being in a different order from the Magic Kingdom version (and stage a little differently), the ride vehicles in California are shaped like beehives rather than honeypots.

Hong Kong Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland also have their own Pooh rides, opening in 2005 and 2016 respectively. They are essentially the same as the Magic Kingdom attraction. No controversy was connected with either of the Asian versions since they opened with their parks and therefore didn't need to displace anything else.

May 28 - it's a small world

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On this day, in 1966, it’s a small world began sending guests on a whimsical journey of international goodwill in Disneyland’s Fantasyland in Anaheim, California. Walt was already under contract for three attractions for the 1964 World’s Fair, when he was approached by Pepsi to create a fourth one. The board of directors at Pepsi knew they were going to have a pavilion at the fair (it would be commercial suicide to not have a presence) but had procrastinated over what they wanted in their pavilion. Hollywood legend Joan Crawford was a member of that board by way of her marriage to the late Pepsi CEO Alfred Steele. She got fed up with the rest of the board’s dithering, asked her friend Walt Disney to come up with something and basically browbeat everyone into accepting whatever was presented, in spite of the fact that Walt would have less than eleven months to produce. Because Walt knew how to bring out the best in people (and had the best people to work with), everything worked out just fine.

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It was decided that the proceeds from the ride would benefit the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) so the basic theme was “Children of the World” and that became its working title as well. Because of the recent international tensions over missiles in Cuba, the theme was expanded to include brotherhood and peace (which may seem like it’s implied in an endeavor based on kids, but it really isn’t). The overall design of the attraction fell to the Legendary Mary Blair, who had already lent her considerable talents to shaping the look of films like Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. Unlike those projects where she merely influenced things, this overall look would be pure Mary. The simple clean shapes used in deceptively complex ways and the cheerful color palate combined to make a classic ride that endures and delights right up to today.

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Not that Mary didn’t have help along the way. The Legendary Marc Davis, as he did on so many Disneyland attractions, designed the scenes guests would travel through and many of the characters in them. His wife, the Legendary Alice Davis, designed the costumes the dolls wear and the Legendary Rolly Crump took care of the rest of the props and figures. The Legendary Blaine Gibson designed and sculpted the dolls with input from Walt himself, who insisted that every doll, no matter what country it represented, had an identically shaped face. It’s no coincidence that so many of the people who worked on this particular ride have gone on to achieve Disney Legend status (except for Walt himself, who has never been given the award; I know that it would be a fairly redundant gesture, it’s just something that makes me smile when I think about it), they are all that good.

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Which brings us to the music (I can hear some of you groaning already because, let’s be honest, the song has probably been playing in your head since you started reading this article). In its original form, Children of the World was going to have snippets of each country’s national anthem playing near the dolls from that country. It  was a plan that only sounded good on paper. In real life, it was a jumbled up, headache inducing wall of noise. So Walt brought his resident songwriters, the Legendary Sherman Brothers, into the project. He gave them just two guidelines: the song they wrote had to able to be done in a round (so it was infinitely repeatable without a beak) and it had to be easily translated into many different languages. They came back with It’s a Small World, a slow ballad about the universal theme of friendship. Walt said bring me something more cheerful. So they sped their song up considerably and replayed it for the boss. Walt liked the second version so much, he renamed the entire attraction after it. Love it or hate it, the Sherman Brothers’ ultimate ear worm has easily been played over 50 million times over the years making it the most played piece of music ever created, beating out the number two song by over 40 million plays. Of course, the fact that it is playing somewhere in the world at literally any moment of the day helps.

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The success of it’s a small world (and, yes, writing it without capital letters is the proper way to refer to the attraction) at the World’s Fair cannot be undersold. The ride’s high capacity (especially compared to other Fair attractions) meant that there was rarely a line, in spite of the overwhelming number of people who experienced it. Over the course of the two and a half years the Fair ran, over 10 million tickets were sold for small world resulting in over $8 million dollars being raised for UNICEF. At the Fair’s end, it was dismantled, transported back to Southern California and installed in its permanent home. When the Magic Kingdom opened five years later, it included a version of the ride, with the queue area moved indoors. Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland each have their own versions as well, so it’s fairly accurate when Disney claims that the sun never sets on cheerful children of it’s a small world.

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In 1997, Disneyland began a new holiday tradition with their version of it’s a small world. At the end of October, they add in almost a million twinkling lights as well as various Christmas decorations and costumes for the dolls. The soundtrack also gets changed to include international versions of Jingle Bells and Deck the Halls. The holiday version has proven so popular that it’s spread to every other park around the world except one. The Magic Kingdom ride stays unaltered (mainly to keep the change as something unique in the United States to its sister park).

March 18 - Pirates of the Caribbean

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On this day, in 1967, the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction began operating in the New Orleans Square area of Disneyland. Opening three months and three days after his passing, Pirates is the last ride that Walt Disney himself had a hand in designing (While Walt was integral to the concept of The Haunted Mansion, which opened two years later, that ride was almost completely redesigned after his death). On the original coming soon map of New Orleans square, Pirates was listed as a walk through wax museum attraction. After the huge success of It's a Small World at the 1964 World's Fair, it was decided to use the same boat system to carry guests through the Caribbean and to incorporate Audio Animatronics instead of wax figures.

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When Walt Disney World was being planned, it was decided that Pirates would not be one of the attractions that was replicated from Disneyland. Why? Because Florida already had a rich culture of real pirates, no one would want any fake pirates, right? Wrong. When the Magic Kingdom opened in October 1971, one of the biggest complaints from guests was the lack of a Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Disney had to then scramble to put one together. It wasn't until December 1973 that the Florida version opened. While it has a lot of similarities, it isn't the same ride. Version two is several minutes shorter and doesn't have the thrilling drops that version one has (it can't because of the high water tables in the Sunshine State), but it remains one of the most popular and treasured rides in the park. As the Disney empire expanded worldwide, executives did not repeat their 1971 mistake. There is a version of Pirates in Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Shanghai Disneyland.

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Pirates is a fairly unique attraction in the Disney family. There are plenty of rides that are based on movies in the parks, but Pirates is a ride that spawned not only a movie but a whole franchise (and while it's fine to mention Tower of Terror here, please don't embarrass yourself by bringing up the Haunted Mansion). While there are plenty of homages to the attraction in the original film, no one really knew how big the series would become. As the world of Pirates expanded and new characters and situations became beloved, it was increasingly obvious that the ride was out of synch with the new reality. So the ride that inspired a movie was in turn inspired by the movie and changed itself. In 2006, Animatronics of Jack Sparrow, a character created for the movie, were added into the California and Florida versions. Paris got Jack, as well as a Captain Barbossa figure, in 2017.

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Other modifications to the attraction have been made over the years to make it more politically correct. While those changes aren't historically accurate, they are entertaining and that's really what the ride is all about. X Atencio, one of the attractions original developers and the man who wrote its theme song, A Pirates Life for Me, once groused that his attraction was being turned into The Boy Scouts of the Caribbean, but I think that was just because no one likes to see their work changed (even if it no longer belongs to you once you've released it into the world). In spite of (or just as likely because of) all the changes Pirates of the Caribbean has gone through over the last four decades, it remains a must see in my book (and based on its wait times, millions of other books as well).

February 15 - Cinderella

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On this day, in 1950, Walt Disney Productions' twelfth animated feature, Cinderella, had its world debut in Boston, Massachusetts. The Disney Studio had limped through World War II. With most foreign markets unavailable (and folks at home focused on making sacrifices for the war effort), the features Disney released during those years had failed to turn much, if any, profit. With a limited staff (most of the guys had enlisted), Walt cobbled shorts together into "package" films just to keep the place open. By the war's end, more than $4 million in debt threatened to force Walt into bankruptcy (again). As the boys returned home, Walt, desperate for a hit, turned attention to the land of fairy tales and implored them to dig up a diamond.

Walt's first take on Cinderella happened in 1922 when he produced a Laugh-O-Gram cartoon based on the French tale. In the early Thirties, he wanted to make a Silly Symphony of the story, but it quickly became apparent that it would be too hard to condense the narrative enough. In 1938, it was decided that Cinderella would probably make a good feature and work began on a script. Ideas were kicked around and refined over the next few years. Production was ready to start in earnest when most work the studio was doing was stopped by order of the United States Government. It wouldn't be until 1948 that Walt blew the dust off Cinderella's script and everyone sharpened their pencils once more.

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Cinderella marked the first film that all of Walt's Nine Old Men would work together on as supervising animators. It also marked the first film that Walt wasn't overseeing on a daily basis. He was in England off and on supervising the filming of the studio's first live action picture, Treasure Island.  While that gave the Men more autonomy, it also made the movie more expensive. Every time Walt would show up, he had all sorts of little changes he wanted done to work that was already finished. By October 1949, pencils and paintbrushes had finally been laid down and Cinderella was ready for her coming out party.

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The picture was Disney's biggest critical success since Dumbo and its biggest financial success since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Cinderella grossed over $8 million and became the sixth highest grossing film of 1950. It did even better in England, coming in at fifth. Not only did Cinderella wipe out the studio's debt, it provided enough cash flow to last the rest of the Fifties. It received three Academy Award nominations (Best Sound, Best Song and Best Score) and won the Golden Bear (Music Film) at the first Berlin International Film Festival.

Since then, Cinderella has become a staple in the Disney family. She's spawned two animated sequels and a live action adaptation. She even has two castles, one in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World and another in Tokyo Disneyland (never mind the fact that that upstart Aurora has three). She may not be the smartest or the most assertive Disney Princess, but she does possess that special something that means she'll be around for many more years to come.

January 15 - Space Mountain

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On this day, in 1975, Space Mountain launched its first guests in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World. Walt Disney wanted to build a space themed roller coaster in the Sixties after the success of the Matterhorn Bobsleds, which opened in 1959, convinced him that thrill rides were okay to have in his park. Concept drawings were made as early as 1964 for a coaster called Space Port, consisting of four separate tracks that (slightly) intertwined with each other. Unfortunately, Disneyland didn't have enough land to accommodate that design and mid Sixties technology wasn't quite up to something that ambitious anyways, so the project was delayed. By 1967, the design had gone through several refinements, one of which was a name change to Space Mountain (another was the reduction to two tracks), but Walt's death and a focus on the Florida Project caused the coaster to be shelved indefinitely.

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Once Walt Disney World opened, it proved to be extremely popular, especially with teens. Disney executives were suddenly in need of something to satisfy their teenage guests. They considered building a replica of the Matterhorn Bobsleds (in fact the show building for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea had been constructed to support that ride) but ultimately brushed the dust off the Space Mountain plans instead. Computing power had advanced enough to pull the coaster off and Tomorrowland had the space. The only thing that lacked was the funds to actually build it. That's where RCA came in.

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When Disney signed a contract with RCA to provide all the communications hardware for the Florida Project, there was a clause that said if a suitable attraction were developed, RCA would pony up $10 million to make it happen. Executives showed RCA the plans for Space Mountain, they agreed that it sounded good and construction moved forward. RCA would sponsor the ride for its first eighteen years. In 1994, sponsorship switched to FedEx, who would lend their name for a decade. Since 2004, there hasn't been a sponsor (and yet it still seems to function with great regularity).

The version of Space Mountain in Florida may have been the first one (and is the state's oldest operating coaster) but versions of the attraction have opened in every Magic Kingdom type theme park around the world except Shanghai Disneyland. The Magic Kingdom's reaches a top speed of 35 MPH, pretty tame compared to most coasters, but since it's in the dark, it feels a whole lot more thrilling than that for the two and half minutes of whiplash inducing twists and turns. And, of course, the most thrilling part doesn't even occur on the ride itself. Everyone knows that only happens when you're on the PeopleMover and you happen to get to see Space Mountain with the lights on.

December 18 - Candlelight Processional

On this day, in 1971, the first Candlelight Processional made its way down Mainstreet USA in the Magic Kingdom of the Walt Disney World Resort. Modeled after the event at Disneyland that debuted in 1958, the Candlelight Processional has grown by leaps and bounds since that Florida night 47 years ago. It started at the Magic Kingdom (obviously, because that was the only park at the Florida Project then) as an actual processional. Performers carried candles from Town Square, down Mainstreet USA to amass in front of the castle. The show was performed once each of two nights and that was it. That’s still how it goes down at Disneyland, generally just one weekend a year. Walt Disney World, of course, has to do things bigger and better than that.

The Candlelight Processional got a big boost in 1994 when it was moved from the Magic Kingdom to Epcot. Instead of having guests stand along the route with very limited seating near the stage (the seats available at Disneyland are by invitation only), guests now get to sit in relative comfort in the America Gardens Theater at the American Adventure Pavilion. And instead of just one show a night for a single weekend, the processional is performed three times a night throughout the holiday season (which somehow doesn’t make it much easier to get in). The Christmas story is still narrated by various celebrity guests (Neil Patrick Harris, Jodi Benson and Whoopi Goldberg are perennial favorites), still has hundreds of singers made up of cast members and local choirs, and still has a full orchestra underscoring the whole thing. And, yes, it is still a powerfully moving experience that everyone should see as many times as they can in however many years they have on this earth. I’m not kidding; it really is that good. You might still be able to catch a show this season if you leave right now...

November 21 - The Timekeeper

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On this day, in 1994, the Circle-Vision 360 movie known in the United States first as From Time to Time, and later as The Timekeeper, opened in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom. It had debuted two years earlier at Disneyland Paris, making it one of the few attractions in an American park that originated outside of America. Timekeeper was the first time that a Circle-Vision movie was given an actual plot. Previous films had just been flyovers of various landscapes. It was also the first movie to involve something other than just screens with the inclusion of an Audio-Animatronic figure in the theater.

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The US version of The Timekeeper starred Robin Williams as the title android, and the inventor of a time machine, and Rhea Perlman as Nine-Eye, another of the Timekeeper's inventions. The plot revolved around the Timekeeper showing off his time machine by sending Nine-Eye throughout time and having her send back images of whenever she landed. The science on how that worked in real time was understandably fuzzy. Along the way, Nine-Eye bumps into such luminaries as Leonardo Da Vinci, Mozart and Jules Verne, who is accidentally transported to the present day. Hilarity ensues as Verne tries to cope with modern gadgets and is finally returned to his proper place in history. The show ended with a trip to 2189 for a look at the future (spoiler: it includes flying cars).

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The film was only a moderate success at best. By early 2001 it was already only opening on a sporadic, seasonal schedule. The Disneyland Paris version closed in 2004 and a Tokyo Disneyland version closed in 2002. Interestingly, both of those versions would be replaced by Buzz Lightyear attractions. The Magic Kingdom's version would limp along until February 26, 2006 when it would finally stop showing for good. A year later the location would reopen as the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. If you pay close attention when you're in the theater now days, you can still see some of the Circle-Vision screens hiding behind Laugh Floor set pieces.

October 2 - Liberty Belle Riverboat

On this day, in 1971, the Liberty Belle Riverboat attraction began operating in Liberty Square at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. Opening a day after the rest of the Magic Kingdom, the original boat was named the Admiral Joe Fowler, after the man who was in charge of construction for both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. The ride is very similar to the one in Disneyland. The boat takes a trip down the Rivers of America, looping around Tom Sawyer Island. It offers a unique view of the Haunted Mansion as well.

A second boat was put into service in May 1973. The new boat was named the Richard F. Irvine and was named after an Imagineer. The two boats operated together until 1980, the main difference between them being the Fowler had two smokestacks while the Irvine only had one. When the Admiral Joe Fowler was being moved to dry dock for refurbishment, the crane operator accidentally dropped it, completely destroying its hull. Management took a moment, decided that they didn't really need two riverboats and scrapped the remains. The only surviving parts are the Fowler's whistle, which was transplanted into the Roy O. Disney locomotive on the Walt Disney World Railroad, and its engine, which was transplanted into Mark Twain Riverboat at Tokyo Disneyland.

In 1996, the Richard F. Irvine was completely overhauled and renamed The Liberty Belle. That is the boat that is still in operation today. Okay, not today as the ride is currently undergoing another refurbishment, but you know what I mean. For those observant folks who are tempted to say "But I just rode the Admiral Joe Fowler last week," you are correct. In 1997, two of the ferry boats that transport guests between the Magic Kingdom and the Transportation and Ticket Center were renamed the Admiral Joe Fowler and the Richard F. Irvine.