Carol’s Main Street slideshow

As some of you know already, I am a *HUGE* fan of Disney history. As a kid I always loved going to Disneyland, of course, but when I started working there as a Cast Member in college, I began to learn that ‘magic’ doesn’t just happen and there is so much that goes into planning and executing ideas. I especially like Disneyland history, but the more I learn about Walt and his legacy, the more I’ve come to respect just how brilliant he was, and I see just how many of the things he worked on were intertwined. Both successes and ‘failures’ would shape his path in life. I think many people really have no idea just what a true visionary he was, and oh how I wish he could have lived longer – if he even had just a few more years, I’m sure that both Walt Disney World and the ski resort industry, believe it or not, would be quite a bit different from what it is today… even better than what we know and love.

One of the things I enjoy doing is attending presentations about Disney history. In 2011, I attended an event in Orlando called “Destination D”, which was put on by Disney D23. It was a celebration of WDW’s 40th anniversary, and I really enjoyed it as it gave me a better understanding and appreciation of the planning that went into developing this massive resort destination. While at the convention, I briefly met a few of the people who gave presentations. One of them, Paul Anderson, is a well-respected Disney historian. He was a consultant on (and appears in) “Walt: The Man Behind the Myth”, my favorite documentary ever. Paul, along with a few other people I’ve gotten to know over the last few years, is like a walking encyclopedia – filled with information which is all so incredibly interesting to me! Paul and his colleague, Todd Pierce, both of whom are college professors, run a blog called DisneyHistoryInstitute.com. They post articles about Disneyland attractions, venues and events that I never knew about. Needless to say, it is one blog I like to follow, though there is so much content in there I’ve barely even scratched the surface.

Recently I threw some Disney questions at Paul, and to make a long story short, I came up with an idea and asked him to send me some images of Main Street from the 1950’s. I put it to some music (some of you may recognize it), added some dialog and sound effects and bam (well, 4 days of work later!) I had created a little slide show/video for them to add to their collection of YouTube videos. Now the audio of Walt came from “The Disneyland Story” which I believe was filmed 10 months prior to Disneyland opening (so ~ Sept 1954). This was one of several episodes that let the public know what Disneyland was going to be like, and one of the things viewers got to see in this episode was a scale model of Main Street. Can you imagine watching this series as a kid? Not having a clue what this Disneyland place was going to be like… but thinking it looked like something special, and different from anything else you’ve seen before. Remember, no internet, not even a VCR – no convenient way to rewind and look back at the photos and film footage. You would need to tune in on Sunday nights and drool over the screen and try to contain your excitement and anticipation. 🙂

Anyway, here is the completed video – please let me know what you think! If it gets enough views and thumbs up, maybe they’ll have me make another one for them sometime.

A Nostalgic Trip Down 1950s Main Street with Walt Disney