July 18 - Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln

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On this day, in 1965, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, an Audio-Animatronic show, began wowing guests on Main Street USA in Disneyland.  In the late Fifties, Walt wanted to expand the Main Street USA area of Disneyland, specifically by building an attraction that was a tribute to the Presidents of the United States, all 34 of them up to that point. The problem was that Walt's vision had outpaced the technology of the day. There just was no physical way to create the show he had planned in his head, even if he had unlimited amounts of money to do it. The idea had to be shelved and the expansion never happened.

Several years later, as Disney was signing contracts to provide rides and shows for the 1964 World's Fair, the Imagineers of WED Enterprises brought a prototype of a new technology to show their boss. Since they couldn't make a show with 34 moving Presidents, they'd been focusing on making a single mechanical man in the likeness of Walt's boyhood hero, Abraham Lincoln. The Imagineers had managed to create something that, although quite primitive by today's standards, was kind of magical. Walt was intrigued by it, convinced the state of Illinois they needed it for their Fair pavilion and got them to foot the bill for constructing it.

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The first attraction with Audio-Animatronic technology to open was the Enchanted Tiki Room in 1963. Compared to Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, though, the Tiki Room is simplicity itself. A few beaks open and close, some wings flutter and eyes blink (granted this occurs on over a hundred different figures at once, but still). As impressed as guests were by singing birds and crooning flowers, they were floored by what what they saw in the Illinois pavilion. Great strides had been made in Audio-Animatronics in a short time. Not only did Lincoln speak and gesture and address different parts of the audience, but HE STOOD UP FROM HIS CHAIR! WHAT IS THIS SORCERY? Audiences marveled at the life-like qualities of the figure in the show and made Illinois one of the must-see attractions of the Fair.

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When the last guest had passed through the 1964 World's Fair, the Disney attractions were hands down some of the highlights of the whole affair. They were already pretty much paid for by the pavilions that had commissioned them and were already popular with guests, so it was natural that Walt would want to incorporate them into Disneyland. Three of the four attractions were installed whole while just the Audio-Animatronic dinosaurs from the Ford Pavilion made their way into part of the Disneyland Railroad. Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln found its way to Main Street USA (although it was a duplicate attraction, the original was believed to have been lost when the Illinois pavilion was completely demolished; turns out, the original figure was actually carefully packed up, delivered to California, strangely forgotten and discovered years later in storage), it's a small world took over Fantasyland and the Carousel of Progress landed in Tomorrowland. All four of them can still be seen today.

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Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln ran at Disneyland until 1972 before undergoing its first rewrite. The new show that opened in the space, The Walt Disney Story, actually didn't include the figure of Lincoln for the first three years. He was reinstated as part of the show in 1975, after thousands of guests asked where he went. And that's has been his status since then. Eventually a new gets written that leaves old Abe out and eventually he has to be written back in because people love and miss him. You can see him as part of the current show, The Disneyland Story Presenting Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. His technological aspects have been updated over the years making him still just as cool to watch as when he first stood up to illuminate guests over fifty years ago. Oh, and Walt did finally get that tribute to the Presidents he wanted, he just didn't live long enough to see it happen. You can see it at the Hall of Presidents in Liberty Square at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World (now with forty-five moving figures!).

July 4 - Teresa Salcedo

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On this day, in 1979, Theresa Salcedo became the first baby to be born in a Disney theme park. The fourth of July was hot that year in Anaheim. Rosa Salcedo was very pregnant and very uncomfortable. She and her husband, Elias, decided that maybe some of that discomfort could be relieved by a visit to Disneyland, it was the happiest place on earth after all. The couple arrived at the park and spent some time walking around together. Rosa was obviously limited in the rides she could participate in. She began to tire and Elias suggested they rest in the shade, having his wife sit on a bench on Main Street USA, just behind the Plaza Inn restaurant.

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Whether it was the heat, all the walking around she’d done that day, or it was just time, Rosa went into labor on that bench. Park employees were notified and, as they would do in any medical emergency, they called for an ambulance. The baby, however, wasn’t going to wait around for that sort of foolishness. By the time paramedics arrived, Rosa was too far along for mother and baby to be moved safely. She ended up giving birth to a healthy 6 pound 10 ounce daughter right there. When it was decided that everyone involved was in stable condition, Rosa, Elias and the newest member of their family, Teresa, were transported to a nearby hospital. A few days later, Disney created a nice photo op and had Mickey, Donald and Goofy visit Teresa and her mother in the hospital.

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That’s where the story should have ended but someone in the Disney PR department had a bright idea on how to capitalize on the story even more and gave birth to one of the most persistent Disney Urban Legends out there (maybe second only to the cryogenics one). A couple of months later, Disneyland was having a ceremony to celebrate the opening of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Since the press was going to be around anyways, why not invite the Salcedo family back for a special side ceremony acknowledging Disneyland’s first official citizen? There are so many reasons why not, but Disney did it anyways.

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A small presentation was held in front of Sleeping Beauty castle. The Salcedos were presented with a Disneyland birth certificate with the serial number 1 on it. Characters gathered around, pictures were taken, I’m sure there was probably some kind of confetti. And that’s literally it. Except a certain segment of the public refuses to believe that. Somehow in popular thinking, that birth certificate translated into a lifetime pass to Disneyland, which grew into a certainty that anyone born on Disney property would receive the same thing. Pure balderdash, as anyone who actually thought about that prospect for even a moment would quickly realize. I’m sure the Salcedos were given complimentary admission on the day of the ceremony, but that would be it. Disney doesn’t want thousands of really pregnant women jamming themselves into every corner of their parks, trying to induce labor (and then keep it quiet enough so they can’t be whisked off to a hospital) all for free tickets. That’s just an insane scenario to even briefly contemplate. And yet the legend persists. Even though Disney quickly realized that even the birth certificate was a bad idea and never gave out another one.

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That being said, a total of four babies have been known to come into this world at Disneyland, although gathering information about them isn’t easy. One, in 1984, was born in the park’s First Aid station. Apparently that time Dad had left mom alone to go ride Space Mountain (she couldn’t for obvious reasons), she went into labor while he was gone and by the time he was finally reunited with her (Excuse me, but my very pregnant wife isn’t where I left her. Oh, you’re the guy. Come with me, sir), he was a father. Another birth reportedly took place in an office backstage and the fourth birth happened in the parking lot. We do know that all of four of the babies so far have been girls. So I guess if you’re looking to make Disneyland history, we are all still waiting for a boy to be born there. Just don’t expect a lifetime supply of goodies for your efforts.

April 23 - Disney's Grand Floridian Resort

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On this day, in 1986, an official groundbreaking ceremony was held as construction began on Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa. When making plans for his Florida Project, Walt was all about tying everything together into a coherent whole. So when it came to the hotels that would ring the lake near his Magic Kingdom, he had specific themes in mind for them. Each hotel would be a reflection of one of the lands in the theme park. The first two hotels that opened in 1971, were exactly what he envisioned. The Polynesian resort was an echo of Adventureland and the Contemporary resort mirrored Tomorrowland. A third planned hotel was going to be Asian themed, another shout out to Adventureland and still adhering to Walt’s vision, but as the company’s fortunes faltered throughout the Seventies, those plans kept getting pushed back until they were eventually forgotten altogether. 

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When the Great Shake-up came in 1984, installing Michael Eisner as CEO, it was quickly decided that another hotel was needed near the Magic Kingdom, but the Asian idea was just as quickly shelved as being too dated. Instead, plans were made for a truly deluxe hotel that would be dated right back to the turn of the twentieth century, making it a reflection of Main Street, USA (albeit a much more affluent version). The Grand Floridian Resort (the Spa part wasn’t added until years later) would evoke the beach playgrounds the likes of the Rockefellers and Duponts enjoyed almost a hundred years earlier.



Three Victorian era beach resorts were studied while designing the Grand Floridian. The most obvious influence is the Hotel del Coronado in Coronado, California (just across the bay from San Diego) as it also boasts distinctively red tiled roofs and whitewashed walls. The Mount Washington Hotel in Breton Woods, New Hampshire, with less prominent but still bright red roofs, and Florida’s own Belleview Biltmore Hotel in Belleair (which sadly closed in 2009 and was torn down to make way for condominiums in 2015) also shaped the design.

As one of, if not the, premier resorts on Walt Disney World property, the Grand Floridian is beautiful, opulent and just drips the trappings of the upper class. There is almost always someone playing the grand piano in the lobby throughout the day and an orchestra regales guests each evening. The white sand beach area is actually quite famous (it served as the backdrop for the beach club in Hulk Hogan’s 1994 television series Thunder in Paradise). The grand wedding chapel (which can host several weddings a day) is right next door. And it’s home to some of the poshest eateries on property, including Victoria and Albert’s, a AAA Five Diamond restaurant. So why can’t the resort itself seem to get the same five diamond rating? According to the AAA website, the latest issue has something to do with the bathrooms, which is bringing it down to a 4.5 rating overall, and that, don’t get me wrong here, is still excellent. But the real reason the Grand Floridian can’t make it to that coveted five (and I’ve been told this off the record, so take it with a grain of salt) is because the monorail runs through the resort. Apparently that’s a sticking point for the powers that be at the American Automobile Association. If the hotel was off by itself somewhere, bussing guests around like commoners from, say, the All-Star resort, that would be fine. But the fact that there is such a gauche thing as a train station in the hotel and a monorail keeps going by, that is a cardinal sin.