Sunday, December 23, 2012
Disneyland Paris : Automata-mericana , The Main Street U.S.A Attraction That Never Was
Among all the attractions that never were for Disneyland Paris, one that i miss the most is the "Automata-mericana" concept that Imagineer Eddie Sotto envisioned for Main Street U.S.A.
The idea for this one goes way back to discussions with Herb Ryman in 1988. Imagineers wanted to call it Automata-mericana. As you know Walt Disney had loved miniatures, and Animatronics began with his fascination for French Automata. As you may recall too, he had an antique mechanical bird (which Eddie Sotto paid homage in Walt's Restaurant). There was a space available on Town Square East - under the Dentist where (Franklin Electric was originally) - and that space was considered for the added capacity program the year after DLP opening ( Les Mystères du Nautilus, Indiana Jones and more were part of that ).
On an Imagineering research trip in 1988 Imagineers had visited a funny Automata museum in Covent Garden, London, ( called Mechanical Cabaret Theater, since gone ) and they were inspired by the displays and how much people enjoyed them. The exhibit displays were not antiques, but rather new designs and it gave to Eddie Sotto the idea that Imagineers could make their own and customize them. The prescription vending beheaded doctor, "Shrunken Ned" at Disneyland Adventureland was inspired by one of the automata display there. Imagineer Eddie Johnson worked with Eddie and he came up with a series of sketches for the animated displays, each portraying life on Main Street in a funny way. Eddie Sotto recall his drawing of the Main Street cinema for one. Among these was a Barber Shop, Fire Station and Market House too, each with the Main Street "citizens" doing funny things.
For Eddie and the Imagineers the idea was to bridge the language barrier and show rather than explain the story of American life in that time period by using intricate display animation. Budget for the "added capacity program" unfortunately ate up all of the Main Street enhancements, except for an additional Steam Train - the Eureka. Eddie would still love to build this and think it would be a crowd pleaser in a quaint way. The sepia tone artwork was a sketch above is from Eddie Sotto.
The video below show some of the actual exhibits Imagineers saw back then, in London. Done in a Disney style with a Main Street Story, they would have been a great addition, with lots of humor.
This next video shows Disneyland Adventureland "Shrunken Ned" - Eddie Sotto play his voice.
If DLP had the budget to do it it still will be possible to add this Automata-mericana attraction where Eddie Sotto wanted to build it, so let's hope that someone at DLP will remember this great concept and will decide to add it at DLP Main Street U.S.A!
The artwork on the top is among the 250 WDI renderings that you can find in the great Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality book. Until tomorrow evening you still can enjoy the $45 discount thanks to the Christmas special offer with a special price of 85 euros ( $108 ) - instead of 120€ ( $155 ) and 15€ only for shipping wherever you live on the planet! As usual you can send your payment with Paypal at: neverlandeditions@gmail.com and send your order at the same email address. Bank transfers are also possible.
One click payment available through the Paypal button below!
Never seen the book before? No problem, you can discover ALL the book thanks to the video below!
Artwork: copyright Disney
It's Walt Disney Imagineering 60th Anniversary!
Walt Disney Imagineering turned 60 this week and it was for the most sixty fantastic years, wasn't it? I will pay tribute in the days to come to this WDI 60th anniversary with great "Imagineering" posts and in the meantime have a look at this short video that Disney released a few days ago to celebrate the event!
Picture and video: copyright Disney
So, did the end of the world happened for real at Disneyland Paris last friday?
So, did the end of the world happened for real at Disneyland Paris last friday? Of course not, you would have heard about it on CNN, right? In fact i did these images early this year having fun with an iPad app. Then, as the result was not that bad i thought i'll keep them for an April Fool three months later. But last April, the 1st of April was also the day Disneyland Paris celebrated its 20th anniversary and i thought that posting an article showing the end of the world at DLP on that day wouldn't have been cool, even if it was an April Fool.
So, i forgot the pictures and remember them during last week end of the world frenzy. So, yes, it was a kind of April Fool four months in advance and for those of you who are still doubting it happened for real or not - if there is any - have a look at the picture below showing a fall of meteorites on Main Street. Even if all the meteorites of the universe were falling on Main Street there is one thing that i can guarantee you: you will never - never - have a T-Rex standing on Town Square!
So, i forgot the pictures and remember them during last week end of the world frenzy. So, yes, it was a kind of April Fool four months in advance and for those of you who are still doubting it happened for real or not - if there is any - have a look at the picture below showing a fall of meteorites on Main Street. Even if all the meteorites of the universe were falling on Main Street there is one thing that i can guarantee you: you will never - never - have a T-Rex standing on Town Square!
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Editor's Note: Mission : Space at Epcot is one of Walt Disney World favorite attraction, but how is a real space mission? This fantastic video from Commander Sunita Williams filmed inside the Space Station is really fascinating!
All aboard on my Innoventions Blog for a private tour of the Space Station as you will discover every inch of it - and of course watch the video full screen! It's right HERE.
Just Three More Days...
Howdy, Folks! Just to let you know that there is only four more days before the end of the Christmas special offer on the Disneyland Paris, From Sketch to Reality book with a special price of 85 euros ( $108 ) - instead of 120€ ( $155 ) and 15€ only for shipping wherever you live on the planet!
This Christmas special offer is a great one thanks to it you can save $45 on the normal price of this great book that everyone who owns it love! ( no kidding, everyone love it! )
As usual you can send your payment with Paypal at: neverlandeditions@gmail.com and send your order at the same email address. Bank transfers are also possible.
More infos about the book, including videos showing you the whole book on the book web site HERE.
Also, for those of you who like to buy on eBay the book is available on eBay in its English edition HERE And also on eBay in its French edition HERE. The book is sold on eBay at the same price and you can also pay with Paypal but of course if you can it's better if you order it directly to me which will avoid me to pay the eBay fees.
Finally, you can also order the English edition through Amazon.co.uk HERE. We are doing the shipping, not Amazon so it will be done with the same quality than we do with our direct orders.
One click payment available through the Paypal button below!
Never seen the book before? No problem, you can discover ALL the book thanks to the video below!
Picture: copyright Disney
Friday, December 21, 2012
LIVE From Disneyland Paris : The End of the World Has Began - and it's REAL!!!
Finally, these bloody Mayas were right, folks!!! I'm right now at Disneyland Paris and the end of the world supposedly happening today according to an old Mayan calendar is happening FOR REAL!!! This may be my last post ever and it will be too the last Disney and more scoop with "exclusive" pictures of what's happening here at DLP since two hours, and let me tell you that it's hell on Earth!
It all began at 6pm tonight when the most powerful thunder storm i've ever seen hit the well named Big Thunder Mountain and the whole land. Heavy rains came with it during a few minutes and then stopped. So far it only looked like a thunder storm and DLP guests were not yet in panic mode, just trying to find a shelter until the storm ended. Some were laughing, they shouldn't have if they had knew what was going to happen next...
Thirty minutes later - i.e one hour ago - after the rain stopped on Frontierland the real thing began. I had moved to Discoveryland, and we all understood that this time the Gods were not joking! Jesus, the park is now facing the biggest magnetic storm ever and Space Mountain is hit each ten seconds by monstruous lightnings!!
Twenty minutes later began a fall of meteorites, hitting the whole structure...Space Mountain cannon is now on fire, as well as the boarding room structure which exploded five minutes ago when it was hit by a huge meteorite... Space Mountain dome has partly collapsed and what remains is covered by a sea of lava falling inside the Nautilus lagoon where the Nautilus and even the water is now on fire!! Guests are runing for their life all over the park and no one can tell what happened to those who thought that Space Mountain was a safe shelter...
I'm running now to Main Street which is also hit by meteorites... If i survive and have the last shots i'll try to post them, they may be the last one ever shot by a human being ... Goodbye my friends, if i don't survive i hope we'll meet in another life... And now, run!, run for your life! May God help us all!
It all began at 6pm tonight when the most powerful thunder storm i've ever seen hit the well named Big Thunder Mountain and the whole land. Heavy rains came with it during a few minutes and then stopped. So far it only looked like a thunder storm and DLP guests were not yet in panic mode, just trying to find a shelter until the storm ended. Some were laughing, they shouldn't have if they had knew what was going to happen next...
Thirty minutes later - i.e one hour ago - after the rain stopped on Frontierland the real thing began. I had moved to Discoveryland, and we all understood that this time the Gods were not joking! Jesus, the park is now facing the biggest magnetic storm ever and Space Mountain is hit each ten seconds by monstruous lightnings!!
Twenty minutes later began a fall of meteorites, hitting the whole structure...Space Mountain cannon is now on fire, as well as the boarding room structure which exploded five minutes ago when it was hit by a huge meteorite... Space Mountain dome has partly collapsed and what remains is covered by a sea of lava falling inside the Nautilus lagoon where the Nautilus and even the water is now on fire!! Guests are runing for their life all over the park and no one can tell what happened to those who thought that Space Mountain was a safe shelter...
I'm running now to Main Street which is also hit by meteorites... If i survive and have the last shots i'll try to post them, they may be the last one ever shot by a human being ... Goodbye my friends, if i don't survive i hope we'll meet in another life... And now, run!, run for your life! May God help us all!
Thursday, December 20, 2012
HKDL Mystic Manor Part Two : The Victorian Mansion That Inspired WDI Imagineers
You've seen yesterday new pictures of HKDL Mystic Manor and its amazing architecture. But where WDI Imagineers found the inspiration for it? Well, as you know Walt Disney Imagineering offices are in Glendale and believe it or not but the building which inspired for a big part Mystic Manor design was a "Sanitarium" of early last century located... in Glendale!
I'll tell you more in a second about the Glendale Sanitarium but if you look at the Mystic Manor pictures below you'll see clearly the architectural elements that WDI Imagineers kept from the 19th century Victorian mansion. Then they added the exterior staircase, did turrets with a different style so the final building could show the personality of world adventurer and art collector Lord Mystic, the owner of the manor.
As you might be interested to know more about this "Sanitarium", here is its story. Called the Glendale Sanitarium the building was in fact originally built to be a hotel, the "Glendale Hotel", a 75-room Victorian structure on what is now Broadway Avenue.... a hotel which finally never opened! But you can see the hotel on this rare picture below before the building was bought and transformed in a sanitarium. Have a look at the entrance located on the ground floor, in the center. As you can see it had two staircases, this will be transformed later when the hotel became the sanitarium with only one staircase and entrance.
More details now about its history with excerpts of a Los Angeles Times article by Sam Watters: "In 1886, early developers hired boomtown architects Samuel and Joseph C. Newsom to build the Glendale Hotel along what is now Broadway. It was in a field acquired after the California courts settled ownership of the vast San Rafael and La Cañada ranchos in favor of land-maneuvering gringos.As it turned out, the hotel never opened, a casualty of another recession. First it was a school and then an investment for Glendale city father Leslie Brand, who had bought the building by late 1904. A good Angeleno, he flipped the property a year later. The buyer was a health pioneer, the Battle Creek Sanitarium.Before our present-day insurance plans and government-backed medical programs, working-class Americans lived Catch-22 lives. When they got sick, they couldn't earn money to pay for care. Without care, they couldn't get better to return to their jobs. Workers depended on relatives, churches, charities and no-charge hospitals, which stumbled when tuberculosis, asthma and cholera afflicted industrial cities.... Into this impoverished world came the church of Seventh-day Adventists. Formally founded in 1863, the organization linked spiritual health to physical well-being. It advocated a holistic life available to people who couldn't afford to be sick..."
"In 1866, it opened the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Mich. A decade later, John Harvey Kellogg, a doctor, became its superintendent. For paying customers, he instituted a program that included rigorous exercise and mealtime walks to improve digestion, classes on food preparation and sessions with a diabolic enema machine that pumped gallons of water in minutes. Among his curious obsessions was cereal. At a time when the rich dined on eggs and meat at breakfast as their servants chowed down on gruel, Kellogg promoted cornflakes that he and his brother Will manufactured. Their Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co. launched Kellogg's, which is still based in Battle Creek.SoCal was to healthcare what NorCal is to technology. Single-owner guest houses, tent cities and full-service hotel-sanitariums offered services at varying prices in a "sanatorium belt" that stretched from Los Angeles to San Diego. Through railroad publicity and business opportunities developed by chambers of commerce, the Southland encouraged cashing in on health. That is what Battle Creek did when it picked up the Glendale Hotel in 1905.It was no accident that the Newsom brothers' Queen Anne-style extravaganza suited Battle Creek's health-through-good living program. Hotel architecture offers a welcoming home away from home, and the Glendale Hotel was a model American mansion. It had three stories with 75 spacious rooms and a broad, shaded veranda overlooking the Verdugo Mountains.The Glendale Sanitarium prospered with California's growth after World War I. To meet demand, management added rooms and services. It offered health regimens to the sick and hotel amenities to tourists and community groups. "
A century ago, as L.A. columnist Sam Watters reminded us that Southern California was to health what Silicon Valley is to high tech today. And although the Glendale Sanitarium was not an asylum, it was both for mental and depressed patients. Some war victims went there too as well as people getting over long illness's of depression.
Below, a rare picture showing the Sanitarium nurses in the mansion garden.
So now you know, Mystic Manor building was for a big part inspired by a victorian hotel who became a hospital for depressed patients, hospital which was founded by the same man who created the Kellog's cornflakes you eat at breakfast each morning! Isn't it an amazing story?
Pictures: copyright Disney and more, DR
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