Sam Gennawey's Blog, page 9

BUZZ PRICE GETS HIS WINDOW

Two years ago, almost exactly, Sam Gennawey pulled out a megaphone right here on MiceChat and declared that Harrison “Buzz” Price should be awarded a window on Disneyland’s Main Street. Next week, in a private ceremony in the park, that wish will come true. While Buzz didn’t live long enough to see the window himself, it is no less a deserved tribute to a remarkable man. In honor of his window dedication, we are rerunning the two part article that Sam first posted in April of 2011. – Dusty
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NOTES FROM WDW PART 1

Like many dedicated Disneylanders, every now and again I must visit that other Mecca of theme parks… Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. So bear with me as I travel through six theme parks in eight days and toss out a whole slew of personal opinions. I will also talk about a couple of new books along the way. To paraphrase Al Lutz, grab those cold blueberry Pop Tarts and a Diet Coke . . . let’s begin.READ MORE HERE.

THEORETICAL PEAK DAY

With all of the hassle of driving and parking at Disneyland, we should be grateful to those who had the foresight to make this less of a problem than it could have been. Van France, the creator of Disneyland University, said, "Today's visitor would have a difficult time visualizing what it was like. The Santa Ana Freeway was far from complete. There were still many signal lights. The local roads were all two lane. And, we were in the country. Sidewalks, curbings and gutters were to come later." 
One of the things we tend to forget these days was just how big the parking lot at Disneyland really was. At 102-acres, it was much bigger than the park it served. Was it simply a matter of taking the land not needed for the park and paving it over for the cars? No. Actually, like everything else at Disneyland, Walt and his team thought through what they we doing.
Keep in mind, in 1953 and 1954, there were very few attractions like Disneyland. The WED folks studied everything they could including Knott's Berry Farm, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, and the San Diego Zoo. Oddly, what they discovered was the crowds at Forest Lawn would ebb and flow just like visitors would at Disneyland in the early days.
Taking what they learned, the team began to make some basic assumptions. First, they conceded that 92% of the people visiting would arrive by car. At the venues they studied, they learned that each car averaged 3.7 persons. From there, they assumed that up to 43,500 guests would arrive by 9:00 a.m. and they would stick around until 1:00 p.m. And then leave. Then, another 43,500 guests would arrive after 1:00 p.m. And stay until sunset. This meant that the theoretical peak day would bring up to 87,000 guests. Take the number of guests and the number of cars necessary to bring those guests to the Park and they calculated that the parking lot would need to be at least 100 acres. 
This planning was done well before the management considered nighttime entertainment as part of the mix. Like Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida, it was assumed that a visit to Disneyland would be primarily a daytime activity. 

THE WALT DISNEY WORLD RAILROAD

While I was in Florida the first week of December, I joined Werner Weiss of Yesterland.com on The Magic Behind Our Steam Trains tour. We both paid our own way using our AP discounts. He will provide a detailed review of the tour while I will try and entertain you as best as I can about some of the fun historic details of the Walt Disney World railroad. 
The Magic Kingdom is home to four steam locomotives; the Walter E. Disney, the Lilly Belle, the Roger E. Broggie, and the Roy O. Disney. Imagineer Roger Broggie was responsible for finding existing narrow gauge steam locomotives that could be used at the new theme park. In 1969, he found a fleet of trains in Merida, Mexico used by the United Railways of Yucatan. All four were originally built at the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The were shipped back to Tampa, Florida to be overhauled with new boilers and other necessary parts. 
They are full size narrow gauge trains and much larger than the ones at Disneyland. This means that the tracks are set 36 inches apart. A standard gauge train is set at 4 feet 8 1/2 inches. All of the locomotives were outfitted with Diamond exhaust stacks, which would typically indicate that they were wood burning. However, they are run on diesel and a special blend of water. They were also equipped with cow catchers to give them that classic American Western look. 
The Walter E. Disney is locomotive Number 1 and it was built in 1925. It has ten wheels with four at the front of engine, six in the middle, and none at the rear (4-6-0). Appropriately, the Number 2 locomotive was named the Lilly Belle, after Walt’s wife Lillian. The Lilly Belle is a Mogul 2-6-0 built in 1928 with two wheels at the front, six in the middle, and none at the rear. 
Locomotive Number 3 was named the Roger E. Broggie after the Studio machinist who feed Walt’s need to build things with his own hands. The Broggie was originally built right next to the Walter E. Disney in 1925. It also has ten wheels. 
The Roy O. Disney rounds out the fleet as Locomotive Number 4. It was built in 1916 and is an example of an American Standard locomotive. This means it has four wheels at the front, four wheels in the middle, and none at the rear. 

What Could Have Been

Book Reviews: Jim Korkis and Floyd Norman

First up is the fascinating book, Who’s afraid of Song of the South? by Jim Korkis.  Next is information for the Disney geeks that are techno savvy.  Do you have a hard time keeping track of the Disney movies you have seen?  There’s an app for that. Finally, we trim things up by hearing what Sam thought of MiceChat favorite, Floyd Norman’s, new book, Animated Life.  Learn about his career and what it was really like to work as an animator at Disney.


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The Disneyland Before Disneyland Map

LESSONS FROM EPCOT

LESSONS FROM EPCOT
J. Jeff Kober
Jeff is a business training consultant who worked for the Disney Institute for many years. He now runs his own company called Performance Journeys and works with organizations to better serve their customers. In this book, Epcot becomes the living example of valuable life lessons. At the end of each section are questions for you to ask yourself that are not related directly to the topic of Epcot but are useful in self reflection. You can tell that Jeff just loves this Park and has overlaid his professional interests. It is part history book, guidebook, and business book. Very interesting concept. If you are a fan of the park, this is great stuff. It is an interesting mash-up. If you are studying management in school and have a fetish for the parks you may find real inspiration and some great case studies. 
Len Testa of TouringPlans.com once joked that everything in life has a parallel in the theme park world. This book proves him correct.  

Progress City Model: Just how big again?

It is hard to fully capture the scale of the Progress City model but I think this historic photo and this wonderful illustration by the team at ImagineeringDisney.com might help.

SAM-BITS: Little Stories from Disneyland

When working on a new book, sometimes you find some really interesting stories that just don’t quite seem to fit. However, the stories are too good not to pass along. Welcome to the cutting room floor.
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