From: Rich_Koster@agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US (Rich Koster)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.disney
Subject: Disneyana - Backstage Tour Pt. 3
Distribution: world
Date: 11 Oct 92 21:46:47 CST
Organization: The Amiga GateWay BBS * New Orleans, La.

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
 * SPOILER -- This whole article should not be read if you think you *
 *            might someday take the Innovations In Action - Behind  *
 *            The Scenes Tour at Walt Disney World which takes you   *
 *            "backstage" at the Magic Kingdom, including inside the *
 *            Utilidor tunnel system!  This article is a big spoiler,*
 *            SO BEWARE, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!! :-)                *
 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
 
Part 3: "What's that smell? It's not chocolate!"
 
Our tour guide pointed out the forced perspective used in the design
of Cinderella's castle.  It looks taller than it is because the
architectural details get smaller the higher you go.  For example, the
stone bricks in the castle walls look massive at ground level but get
smaller and smaller the higher up in the castle they are.  And they
are not actually bricks at all -- large sections of brick are sheets
of molded fiberglass.  She told us an amusing story about a woman who
tried to sue Disney, claiming she was hit on the head when a brick
fell out of a wall in the castle.  The woman didn't win the case after
it was shown that there are no individual bricks so she was obviously
lying.
 
We were told that recently Mrs. Disney still had use of the apartment
in Disneyland's castle but decided to give it back to the company.
There had been plans to build an apartment in the Magic Kingdom's
castle, but Walt died before construction began and Mrs. Disney didn't
want an apartment there, so it wasn't built.  But the space for it is
still there and our tour guide confided in us that one day when she
was still new on the job she snuck up there.  She walked around in
what would have been the apartment, and found it was being used for
merchandise storage.
 
Before stepping into the castle's main passageway, she told us to look
closely at the mosaic on the wall which depicts scenes from the movie.
She said it was the only time in a Disney park that the characters
don't look exactly like they do in the Disney movie they come from.
If you look at the mosaic of when Cinderella is at the ball with the
Prince, pay close attention to the color of the faces of Cinderella's
jealous step-sisters.  One of their faces is green (with envy) and the
other is red (with rage).  The mosaic was done by someone in England.
She pointed out the real gold tiles used in the mosaic, and we noticed
a missing one that someone had apparently stolen as a souvenir.  We
were also shown the fine detailing in the tops of the columns, complete
with the mice and birds from the movie.
 
A few minutes before we left the castle, I saw Cruella Deville, wearing
a black leotard under her dress.  She entered an interior doorway with
a female cast member.  As we were leaving the castle I saw two female
cast members come back out, one of whom was the same height as Cruella
and was also wearing a black leotard under more normal clothing.
Interesting...
 
We all walked over to the hub in front of the castle.  Walt had meant
for this area to be a place where the family could meet at the end of
the day, after some of them had gone to spend time in the lands that
interested them.  That is why it was designed with paths that lead
from the hub to all of the lands in the park (and why it also gets
very crowded).  She pointed them out, quizzing us as she pointed to
them.  The path that got the least correct responses was just to the
right of the castle, which leads to the newest land in the Magic
Kingdom, Mickey's Starland.  She reminded us that it was created for
the 60th birthday of Mickey Mouse, and in a tired voice she said his
birthday had been celebrated there every day for two years.
 
The advice was given that even though all of the parades in the
Magic Kingdom go through the hub area, it is not the best place to
view it as it gets very crowded.  She recommended Frontierland as a
better viewing area, especially close to the end of the parade route.
 
In the center of the hub there is topiary in the shape of Mickey and
Minnie.  When we had been at the hub a few days earlier, only Mickey's
hand was waving, and it was waving slowly.  The day of the tour both
Mickey and Minnie were waving, moving their arms up and down faster.
(Not four arms waving -- they were holding hands.)
 
The Disney topiary is not the same as the classic kind found in Europe,
as that kind takes decades to acquire the desired shapes.  The Disney
process starts with a three-dimensional wire frame of the shape they
want, and then uses faster-growing shrubbery inside it which is clipped
as it grows to keep the shape of the frame.
 
At one time all the topiary at Walt Disney World was real.  People had
a tendency to touch it however, and since it is a real growing plant
some of them didn't survive all the handling well.  So now some topiary
is real and some is artificial.  You can tell which is which: the real
topiary will be found raised up or in some other way out of reach of
the guests, while the artificial topiary is easy to touch.
 
A woman in our group said she had been there when for a special
convention the Mickey and Minnie at the hub had been dressed in real
clothes.
 
We were led away from the hub toward Main Street and regrouped in
between the hub and the storefronts.  Our guide told us that all the
names on the windows of the upper floors of Main Street are of real
people in the Disney organization, but that Walt Disney's name is
not up there because while he was alive he made it clear that he
didn't want his name on Main Street.  After his death, it was felt
that some tribute should be added there, but in deference to Walt's
wishes they put his initials -- W. E. D. -- on a window around the
corner from Main Street, but not on Main Street.  You can see it
above the ice cream parlor, facing the castle.
 
Before moving on down Main Street, she asked us if we had ever been
tempted by the smell of chocolate along the street to go inside a
shop and buy some.  All of us had.  What we had been smelling was
not chocolate from inside the shop, but the aroma coming out of
what the Disney imagineers call the "smellitzer" (pronounced smell it,
sir).  It is a mechanical device which releases a chemical which has
the same smell as what they are mimicking.  Besides using it for the
chocolate smell to lure chocolate lovers into the candy store, it is
also used in the dinosaur scene in Epcot's Universe of Energy.  There
the scent is called "eau de swamp"!  She said some shops in the Village
Marketplace have the pleasant aroma of perfume outside of them, thanks
to the smellitzer, to lure women inside.  My wife remarked on the
wonderfully strong floral aroma she noticed at the entrance to the
Grand Floridian, and asked if that was due to the smellitzer.  She
was told no, that Disney spends thousands of dollars on real flowers
at the Grand Floridian and that is why it smells so good over there,
not due to a smellitzer.
 
As we walked down Main Street we were highly aware of the effects of
the smellitzer.  Our guide told us that each time she walks along
there, even though she knows it smells so good because of the smellitzer
and not because of any actual aromas coming out of the store, she still
always wants to go inside there and eat some chocolate!
 
We got about halfway down Main Street and she stopped us to point out
that we were walking downhill.  When the Seven Seas Lagoon was dredged
out during the construction of the Magic Kingdom, the mucky soil on its
bottom was scooped out and spread over the land surrounding the lagoon,
including where the Magic Kingdom is.  A deep layer of sand was found
underneath, which was bulldozed to the areas around the lagoon that now
have sandy beaches.  The dirt was bulldozed on an incline along the
Main Street area, so that the entrance is lower than the area at the
hub.  This was done for a few reasons.  One is for staging, so that the
castle would be scene on top of a hill.  Also, as you enter the park in
the morning you have more energy to walk up the incline.  It slows you
down a little, allowing you to take in the surroundings and think a
little more of where you want to go -- then when you reach the end of
Main Street it levels off and you go off to the various lands of the
Magic Kingdom.  At the end of the day you are tired, so the downhill
slope makes it easier to walk as the guests are funnelled from the hub
into Main Street.  Since you are now walking downhill, you tend to
pick up some speed and the whole crowd moves faster toward the exit,
thus speeding up the flow of traffic.
 
End of Part 3. Coming up in Part 4: "It's not chocolate, it's sawdust
sh*t!"

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