Sunday, November 6, 2016

A Rare Look at How Disney Decided to Build Tokyo Disneyland

By Ted Linhart




By 1975, combined attendance at the Disney Parks had reached over 22M (12.5M at WDW and 9.8M at Disneyland) and most of the USA populace was no more than 4 hours by plane from at least one of the Parks given their locations on the East and West Coast. It was only natural that Disney would look for ways to expand their empire and bring the Park experience to the rest of the world. Today’s article will provide a behind-the-scenes look at how the first international Disney Resort, Tokyo Disneyland, was developed through two must see documents. The 1st is a very rare August 1975 document with a now politically-incorrect title — “Oriental Disneyland: Feasibility Study Executive Summary." The 2nd is a less-rare but very interesting Cast Member opening day booklet for Tokyo Disneyland. Join us as we go back in time and look at how Tokyo Disney went from concept to reality...

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Walt Disney's Final Public Appearance

By Dave Mason




In the third chapter of his four-part series on the lasting legacy of Walt Disney, historian Dave Mason provides a little-known backstory on the event which would prove to be Walt Disney’s final public appearance. Join us today as we travel back in time to Tuesday, November 1, 1966 and revisit Walt in Williamsburg, Virginia for what would go down in history as his final appearance...