Weird stuff viewed on the Disney Echo this yEAR

Crunchy numbers

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This Disney Echo blog had 28,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 6 Film Festivals. But probably not very well.

Disney Echo readers are weird. Or maybe I’m weird, I forget. But here are the posts that somehow got the most views in 2012:

---

Subliminal Message in Disney Tangled Marketing

---

Titanic Ghost Tour

---

New Official Disney Parks iPhone App Features Augmented Reality And Official Wait Times

---

Disney Tangled: Spoilers

---

Free iPhone app lets you zoom while recording

---

Disneyland PeopleMover, Innoventions replacement, Tomorrowland revamp, Frontierland expansion approved? Here’s why

---

Disney rereleases classic Song of the South

---

Lego Store at Disneyland’s Downtown Disney

---

iPhone — The Missing Manual for iOS 6, iPhone 5 and earlier iPhones

---

iPhone iOS 6 Bug with Sounds

---

Happy birthday, Siri!

---

Siri vs Siri: The battle of the iPhone 5 turn-by-turn navigation apps

---

Siri and iPad 3

---

Thanks, everyone, for a wonderful year!

When they shed the parking traditions on Walt Disney’s Studio lot

Back in the days when Walt Disney would drive his car along this street in the Walt Disney Studio in Burbank, California, many studio staffers wanted to park near Walt — but not for the obvious reason.

Disney animator and writer Floyd Norman shares a look in his rear view mirror at a time when one could see how well a man was doing at the studio by where he got out of his car in the morning — and if he had it made in the shade.

See Floyd’s latest article, Undercover (Parking) at Disney Studio, for an insider’s view of how one aspect of the studio has changed over the years.

You’ll also enjoy Floyd’s daily blog posts at Mr. Fun.

Like This on Facebook!

An Evening with Disney Archivist Dave Smith

Illustration © Disney.

My wife, son and I were lucky enough to meet Dave Smith in his office at the Archives this summer. It was the first time for our son, but my wife and I had previously introduced ourselves to Dave Smith at one of the Official Disneyana Conventions.

In 1997, in the persona as “Mickey,” I had the pleasure of hosting Dave Smith for a special evening online as he discussed his career with Disney and talked about all the Disney history in the Archives. I hope you enjoy reading it…

You Make A Story: Virtual Disney Travel

Sometimes, life being what it is, you just can’t take a Disney vacation as often as you’d like. That doesn’t stop you from dreaming and imagining what your next trip will be. Your imagination can bring you to far off magical lands even quicker than the fastest jet plane!

Here on the Disney Echo Eyes and EchoEars Travel Blog you can take a virtual Disney vacation by reading the trip reports as well as taking part in the Disney Echo’s ongoing interactive story-creation game, “You Make A Story.”

See background information about what “You Make A Story” is all about by clicking here or jump right into Chapter 3 – Part 1 – “Movin’ Right Along” by clicking here.

You can participate by leaving comments or by becoming a Disney EchoEar and actively adding to the ongoing story!

Either way, we hope you enjoy the story and have a great time as we do some virtual Disney travel.

Disney’s Oliver and Company

Heading into downtown Los Angeles? This sounds like a fun thing to do!

We enjoyed the stage show we saw at the El Capitan Theatre before WALL-E during our last trip to Disneyland, and both the stage show and movie presentation were great! I’m sure “Oliver and Company” will look wonderful with the El Cap’s digital projection as well.

Then having breakfast with Mickey and Minnie at Disney’s Soda Fountain & Studio Store would be something I’d like to do before heading into the theatre. The restaurant is not all that big so there’s sure to be lots of “face time” with the characters.

Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeer Cheryl dies at age 64 of cancer

Mouseketeer Cheryl of TV’s original Mickey Mouse Club dies of cancer

Cheryl Lynn Phelps (later Cheryl Holdridge after marriage) was born in New Orleans before her family moved to Los Angeles when she was a child. She died January 5, 2009 in Santa Monica, CA after battling lung cancer for the past several years.

Our condolences and prayers go out to her soul as well as her family, friends and many fans.

“Through the years we’ll all be friends wherever we may be…”

Disneyland, One Last Time

After our sightseeing in Los Angeles which included seeing WALL•E at the El Capitan Theatre then seeing our engraved paving stone in front of Ollie Johnston’s train station near the Disney Tunnel in Griffith Park, we got back to our room at the Disneyland Hotel as the sun was starting to set. Here’s the view from our room of that:

The construction crane (in the above picture on the right and the picture below in the center) is being used in the expansion of Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel. If the hotel wasn’t there, we’d also have a great view of Disney’s California Adventure.

After freshening up, we headed out through Downtown Disney to spend one last time that trip in Disneyland.

If  you count us going to the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on the previous day, we actually did take time to see a movie on this Disney vacation… we just didn’t do it in this very conveniently-located AMC Theater in Downtown Disney.

We were in luck! Monorail Red came into the Downtown Disney monorail station after a short wait and we were able to take it into Tomorrowland at Disneyland.

Gates keep new passengers behind a  half-fence until all the passengers get off of the monorail.

Here we are, inside the monorail, looking through the open door and a partially-open window. That’s the maximum amount the windows will open — designed to prevent Guests from jumping out (amazing that one has to do things to stop stupid people from doing things like that). However, it was quickly learned that the interior of the monorail would get way too hot in the California sun, so these windows will be redesigned/replaced with ones that slide down, like the older monorails’ windows.

A big tip of the mouse-eared hat to the designer of the backlit Disneyland Monorail logo!

How would Guests get out through these windows in an emergency?

There’s the Main Street Train Station as we speed along towards Tomorrowland’s monorail station.

We hadn’t seen Mickey’s Toontown at night, so we walked there first. Sadly, Roger Rabbit’s CarToon Spin was already closed for the night.

His wacky fountain was still lit up and running!

One last look over our shoulder at the ToonTown hills and Mickey’s ToonTown itself.

Approaching the Matterhorn, with Michael shooting a video of it.

It is great to see that they still draw portraits of Guests in a courtyard at New Orleans Square…

…and how faithful Walt Disney was in recreating a bit of the French Quarter at Disneyland.

This is near the back of New Orleans Square, with the restrooms down the alley on the right and the Frontierland/New Orleans Square train station behind us.

Gotta go on one last ride at Pirates of the Caribbean!

“We wants the redhead!”

“Quiet, ya scums!”

Main Street USA is ablaze with the new-fangled turn-of-the-century invention, the incandescent lightbulb.

Any Hidden Mickey’s in the arrangement of flowers there in Town Square?

One last look at floral Mickey and the Main Street Train Station, with Tinker Bell aglow…

…as she gives us a “goodnight kiss” of pixie dust. A farewell Disneyland memory of this trip.

The picture above and the two below combine to make a panoramic last look at the entrance to Disney’s California Adventure.

There are plans to change this entry way so this might be the last time we see it with our own eyes this way.

And now, one last walk through the exit of the plaza between DCA and Disneyland…

As we enter Downtown Disney for the last time this trip…

…we see a poignant message from three of our favorite Disney Characters…

We hope to seeya real soon, too, guys!

Each entrance to the giant World of Disney store is decorated differently.

It was hard to resist going in one last time, but we had an early plane to catch the next morning — and packing to do before then.

Bye-bye, World of Disney!

One last walk through Downtown Disney.

And then, all too soon, a last nighttime view of the Disneyland Hotel.

I can see our room from here!

Tired, but happy after a wonderful vacation that ended all too soon, before sunrise on Saturday morning I drove our rented SUV to in front of the Disneyland Hotel lobby where we had just checked out.

Goodbye, Disneyland Hotel! You’re… the best! 8=o)

Goodbye, California! We’ll be back… sometime!

Disney Tunnel at Griffith Park

We were last at Walt’s Barn in Griffith Park on our Easter trip. We went back to take a look at the paving stone we donated to the landscaping project around Ollie Johnston’s train station there. We not only found that but also found the Walt Disney Tunnel there at Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California.

Want to see it? I’ll have more about it, including a picture down below in this blog entry. I had a feeling that title and opening sentence would get your attention!

The Carolwood Pacific Historical Society offers regular tours of Walt Disney’s barn on the third Sunday of each month — in Griffith Park in Los Angeles. See the Carolwood Pacific Historical Society for more details.

That’s Walt’s Barn and Walt adjusting his Lilly Belle locomotive in the backyard of his house, in this photo on display inside Walt’s Barn. Take a look at our earlier trip report about our other visit to Walt’s Barn during Easter week. After clicking here, go to each of the following pages of that trip report where it says “Walt’s barn >>” in the upper right of the blog entry’s column.

During this visit, Carol helped the Carolwood society out by folding t-shirts in Walt’s barn. Michael and I voluntEARed but there wasn’t much for us to do, other than sweep the walkway near Ollie Johnston’s train station and remove pine straw from its roof. We were glad to help in any way we could!

Ollie Johnston’s train station has had landscaping and paving stones added around it since our last visit.

And a windowbox has been added inside the front window as well, including an electric lamp in the window.

In the picture above and below you can see the paving stones and concrete which have been added since the last time we were last there. Starting closest to the station’s door, the paver is inscribed “Ollie & Marie Johnston” and below that one is an engraved marker showing “Frank & Jeanette Thomas.”

The one on the lower left as you’re facing the train station is ours!

It is engraved with the words

RICH KOSTER

CAROL KOSTER

MICHAEL KOSTER

We never got ourselves a paving stone at Walt Disney World or Disneyland when there was an opportunity to do that, but I like the setting of this one even better.

Ours is placed alongside Disney notables and fellow members of the Carolwood Pacific Historical Society who donated to this project. From left to right, below the two markers for Ollie & Marie Johnston and Frank & Jeanette Thomas, are these:

Tom Shafer, Jr. // Oscar Urrutia // Les & Judy Smout Foundation // Rich & Teya Johnston // Ken & Carolyn Johnston // Ward & Betty Kimball // John Lasseter // Michael & Sharon Broggie // Roger Broggie // Herbert A. & Kathryn Dymond

Jim & Nancy Cotterman // Ella M. Witter, Marc George Witter, Matthew R. Witter // Bob Gurr // Walt Disney Family // Tony Baxter // Bob Lemberger // Michael Campbell & Family // Fred S. Lack, III // Peter & Patti Finie //

Rich Koster, Carol Koster, Michael Koster // James P. Klitch & Family // Gary Oakland // Austin Meyers // William D. Barbe // David Krebs // Blake & Sherolyn Thomas // Carl & Lois Lehman // Robert & Rita, Robert A. & Daniel Cisneros // Steve Waller

Over in a little-seen portion of the track system in Griffith Park is a hidden-away tunnel…

…marked with a plaque above it.

The Disney Tunnel is near the “Disney Loop” at Griffith Park and is curved like Walt’s own backyard tunnel was — but not as much. Walt’s Carolwood Pacific railroad at his Holmby Hills estate was designed with a curve that made it impossible to see light at the opposite end of the tunnel.

Update to add more information that Bill Barbe sent to me today: “The Disney loop was the original inner loop that is just inside the main part of the facility.  When the club expanded west they put in the three tunnels. The Disney Loop is the most inner loop in the club.  It goes around the infield area around the barn and inside between the storage building and the passenger cars.”

And additional information from Fred S. Lack III: “Walt Disney donated his track in 1964 and it was put in place in 1966. Walt was invited to the ceremony in September of 1966 but declined because he was too busy. (Walt died 3 months later) The Disney Loop starts at New Sherwood Station and goes around behind the car barns and down around the Disney Barn. The track was made out of aluminum and wore out and was replaced with the current steel track.”

Bill believes “they named it Disney Tunnel because it came off the Disney loop and Disney was a Charter Member of the club.”

Fred adds: “The city donated more land to Los Angeles Live Steamers in the early 1980′s. To reach this land, Los Angeles Live Steamers had to tunnel under the horse trail that still exists today. The tunnels, named for early members of the Los Angeles Live Steamers, were built out of old culvert pipes. They were not meant to be the shape of Walt’s tunnel. Since the west end is connected with the Disney Loop, I presume it was named for Walt. The tunnels were built about 1984.” 

I big tip of the mouse-eared hat to both Bill and Fred! 8=o)

Michael Broggie wrote to add: “Yes, when Walt was a member of the LA Live Steamers he donated the funds to create the tunnel and donated the track from his Carolwood Pacific RR.”

A tip of the mouse-eared hat to you, too, Michael! 8=o)

Something used by Walt on his original home layout remains in the Griffith Park layout to this day… but I’ve been sworn to secrecy not to tell what that is, for security reasons (so it won’t be stolen and sold on eBay). Join the Carolwood Pacific Historical Society and you might find out what it is!

We enjoyed our second visit to see Walt’s Barn and Ollie Johnston’s train station — and were glad to see how well the paving stones around it turned out (including the great honor of having ours among Disney luminaries as well).

A last look at Griffith Park before we headed back to the Disneyland Hotel.

You’ll find out about that and our last visit to the parks in the next entry to this travel blog.

Lunch at Disney’s Soda Fountain & Studio Store

After enjoying the WALL•E movie and the Disney stage show at the El Capitan Theatre, we entered directly into Disney’s Soda Fountain & Studio Store. This was the second time we had been there this year — and we love it!

Hidden Mickey (okay, maybe not so hidden) in the section of the store with Hollywood-themed Disney items. See how many “Hidden” Mickey’s you can spot in the picture below!

A large portion of the Studio Store area of the Soda Fountain shop was devoted to WALL•E merchandise.

I bought one of those BnL (Buy n Large) coffee mug (lower right of the picture) and they really are large! Carol got a large souvenEAR Disney’s Soda Fountain & Studio Shop coffee mug.

Lunch was great! Good thing we didn’t overdo it on the popcorn during the movie.

Check out the mouse-eared bread bowl of New England Clam Chowder that Michael ate out of!

You’re guaranteed to be seeing Hollywood starts in Disney’s Soda Fountain & Studio Store!

Did you see Goofy up there?

The WALL•E  Sundae looked real cute, but we were already stuffed. We didn’t want to look even more like the humans in the movie!

If we had ordered that, we would have needed BnL hoverchairs to get us out of there! 8=o)

Next, we drove to see Walt’s Barn again in Griffith Park. And we discovered something else there as well… Take a look in the next entry on this travel blog!

WALL•E Stage Show & Movie at El Capitan Theatre

Be sure to not only look at all the pictures here, but scroll down for Carol’s comments about the wonderful time we had at the El Capitan Theatre!

Here we are at the El Capitan Theatre box office, ready to see WALL•E in a beautifully restored theater with digital projection and digital sound! Take a look around!

I heard Sleeping Beauty and its stage show were great. And they also had reserved-seating breakfasts with Princess Aurora at the Disney ice cream shop next door!

Carol writes:
Among other things, a favorite 2008 Disney memory I have is going to the El Capitan movie theater Disney owns in Hollywood CA and seeing “WALL•E” there. It’s a restored 1920′s-1930′s movie palace, absolutely beautiful, with superb state of the art digital projection and sound. To see the best of Disney movies in there is better than any HDTV you could imagine! There is an organist who plays live music before the show and a live stage show, too! And an ice cream parlour next door that Disney owns, You should get a soda fountain old fashioned type lunch and ice cream fountain treat for dessert (and shop…. of course there’s a shop with it, this is Disney!!!!! )

My husband and I majored in communication arts, and my “majors” within that were both broadcast journalism and film. It is wonderful to see such a fine movie as “WALL•E” and in one of the best equipped theatres in the U.S., one that Disney owns, that is a restored historic building, across the street from the Kodak Theatre where the annual movie Oscars are handed out, and you can see the “Hollywood” sign in the hills from the El Capitan, and it’s on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, too! I would do it again! Soooooooooooo much fun!

We saw the “College Road Trip” Disney live action movie there in March 2008, but when “WALL•E” came out and we saw it in a theater near our home, it was so fine that the bug bit to see “Wall-E” there at the El Capitan Theatre hit us… So the last week of July 2008 we went all the way back. Worth it, worth it, worth it! And nothing like it at WDW !

Check it out here… disney.go.com/disneypictures/el_capitan/ …including any links to the Soda Fountain next door! Plan a trip sometime. The best and most convenient parking is in the basement of the Kodak Theatre across the street. The El Capitan box office can give you a list of the Disney stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame within a few blocks either side of the theatre.

Oh, and it’s also across the street from the famous Graumann’s (lately called Mann’s) Chinese Theatre, where the Hollywood stars would put their hand and footprints in cement on the sidewalk and autograph the cement. Lots of great sight-seeing to do. And immediately next door to the theatre where ABC-TV’s late night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live” is taped.

Disney went all out to redecorate the lobby and party room with little touches themed to WALL•E.

I never saw WALL•E and Eve buckle up…

The snack bars were tricked out in honor of the movie as well!

A special WALL•E popcorn bucket! We brought one home with us. We still have the one themed to the El Capitan Theatre itself when we saw “College Road Trip” at the theatre during Easter week.

They even borrowed space-themed educational displays from NASA.

 

 

The future is now… the ATM machine was out of order.

Look at the doors leading from the lobby to the theatre seating!

 

Even the doors to the restrooms got the WALL•E treatment!

Nothing inside the restrooms was themed to the movie, however…

I snuck into the downstairs party room, right before it was to start filling up for a party, and got these pictures…

The display by Microsoft wasn’t working… Figures!

When we entered to get our seat, the organist was performing. That’s always impressive!

The lights dimmed, the curtains rose, and the El Capitan Theatre’s sunrise over the California mountains display filled the entire width of the stage…

…which then transitioned into the Hollywood skyline at night.

Then we enjoyed the Disney stage show with Disney Characters and clips from the movies they appeared in.

The curtain falls to thunderous applause! Next, the motion picture part of the entertainment began with…

…trailers, followed by the Presto short, which looked great on the state-of-the-art digital screen.

Carol couldn’t resist taking these pictures when the WALL•E movie was being projected.

There is a convenient doorway connecting the theatre lobby to Disney’s Ice Cream & Studio Store.

That’s where we went next, for lunch. Details in our next blog report!