ABD - Backstage Magic - View from a Disney Geek

[DisneyRob]

Day One - 7/25/10

We arrived at Newark at 4:45 AM EST, Checked in for our 6:30 AM EST flight. We landed at Memphis at 9:20 AM CT (ahead of schedule) waited for on tarmac for 10 minutes for our terminal to be clear. The captain thought he was a comedian – Made a joke that Elvis was at our gate giving a press conference. We then went to our next flight waited for 10 more minutes and boarded our last leg from Memphis to LAX. We had landed 40 minutes early and we figured that our car would not be there yet but when we got to baggage he was there. I was asked if I was an actor by some scientologist guy and I said I didn’t want to buy his books or make a donation…. We were driven to the Renaissance Hotel. Upon arrival we were greeted by our Adventure guides, Mike & Dean.

After choosing lunch for the following day at the Jim Henson Studios, I chose to have a salad, Mike chose to have a cheeseburger. Our room was not ready yet so we decided to take a walk over to In and Out burger.

We both got cheese burgers and fries.

After lunch we decided that since we had a while before dinner that we would walk around Hollywood. We walked down Hollywood Blvd. They were premiering Cats and Dogs tonight so Gamins Chinese Theater. We would have to wait till tomorrow to see that. We walked all the way from the start of the walk of fame

and turned around to get the stars on the other side of the street. We had found Walt Disney’s star and I just had to get a picture of me with it.

By this time we got a call that our room was ready so we. Strolled back to the hotel to pick up our room keys. We got our keys and met several of our fellow adventures in the Lobby (Pete and Walter, Kristen, Nicole, Jeff and Stacy). We chatted a while finally putting faces to names of people we chatted with on the boards. It felt like we were meeting old friends. After a while we headed up to see our room. Here is the view from our room.

We still had a lot of time before dinner and we decided to see the rest of the Hollywood walk of fame. Mike was on a quest to find Audrey Heparn’s star for a friend at work.

We had seen all of the start (except for the ones in front of the Chinese Theater). It was lots of Walking. Here are some random photos of our walk.

Along the way we found a second hand store and found they had 2 Disney pins(Pirate of the Caribbean from Hong Kong pins for $9 each) Mike asked if I wanted them and the shopping begun… The gentleman behind the counter sold them to us for $9 for both so we already got a discount. It was getting close to dinner time so we went to the room. I showered and changed got gifts for the other adventurers and went down to meet everyone.

Before dinner we had taken our first picture with the ABD paddle in front of the Twist sculpture. I had handed out all of the Journals I had made for everyone( More about My Journal on the way home later) and Pete handed out Swag form the DisUnplugged Podcast. We were given Visors that said ABD 2.0. They were very nice. We walked up to dinner and had started our game show.

The contestants were John , me , Pam, and Wayne. When Pam walked over she asked me to let her win. I felt bad so I kept my hand away from the buzzer and only answered the hard questions like What was the fastest attraction at Disneyland( I’m not going to tell you the answer here) and everyone was surprised that I knew that. But hey I don’t call myself DisneyRob for nothing. John had won the gameshow and won a nice Photo album. The rest of us won a Vinylmation Mickeys. They must have sealed it with steel carbonate because it was so hard to open it. Mine was a crockodile. I past it around the table for all to see. We chatted and got to know everyone( We all knew that we would be a great group and knew we would make lifelong friends). We all served a chicken dinner… was not terrible but was not the greatest meal during the trip.

After desert several of us met up with Nancy one of the Disneyland correspondance. She was verry nice but we were exhausted. Mike and I excused our selves, said good night and headed back up to our room we were exhausted (we hadn’t slepted the night before before because we were so excited) . as soon as our head hit the pillow we were both out…..

Stay tuned for our second Night!
DisneyRob

 

[sayhello]

Oh, this is a great start! Looking forward to more!

It's funny getting so many reports and different perspectives for the same trip, since it's all DIS folks. Usually, around here, you just don't get multiple DIS'ers on the same trip. Of course, now that Pete is an ABD True Believer, that may all change!

Sayhello

 

[Jeff & Stacy in NYC]

Your pictures are really great! We are looking forward to seeing more with the rest of your report!

 

[nmoore14]

Great start to an excellent trip! I am enjoying reading your report already!

 

[DisneyRob]

The next morning we were told to meet outside the Twist restaurant at 7:30 am. Which I have been up since a quarter to 5 (I guess I was still on EST) We walked through Hollywood and Highland complex and stood outside the Kodak Theater.

We were told that we should not look up the stairs till we fully walked down them and then turn around. We all noticed the stairs were short and long and Michael (our guide) told us that this was because of the dresses the women wore to the Oscars. The stairs were made that way so they can climb them easily and so they would not trip (I seemed to trip due to them being so small). We were told that the stores have no free advertising and that they would cover the storefronts with curtains. Once we reached street level we turned around as saw that the stair fronts were tiled in red tile to continue the red carpet look up the stairs.

Our first stop was Graumanns Chinese theater. Mike and Pete were asked not to step on the property due to the size of their cameras. I guess they thought they were from TMZ or something LOL. We got to take a look at the hand prints in the ground. I choose to put my hand in Douglas Fairbanks (because of the scene in Blazing Saddles).

We crossed the street to go eat breakfast at Disney’s Soda Shop and Studio Store.

We were greeted by Another Michael.

Here is the Menu.

We were seated and had some fruit to start with.

Michael asked for a volunteer for some Disney Trivia. And if the volunteer was good we would be rewarded at the end. No one seemed to want to volunteer for it so I did. I answered most of the questions right off the bat, Pete helped me with one, I had to confirm another with Jeff and Stacy, and there was one that I was really stuck on. It was what is you’ve got a friend in me in Spanish…. I was stumped. I was trying to remember back to my High School Spanish class …. Nothing was coming to me… Luckily Alex (who was also from New York was Hispanic and he helped me out. Since I (collectively) didn’t miss one question instead of the regular 10% we were to get off, we got 20% off all merchandise for the entire day at the studio store.

This photo is of the Vault that was used in the opening of the Disney Channel TV show Vault Disney. they had put it in the soda shop as decore.

Michael (The Manager of the Studio store and El Capitan) (I know with so many Michaels it’s hard to keep track of) took us through the El Capitan Theater and Lobby.

Here we were given popcorn and were told of the history of the theater. It was a stage theater until Orson Welles was allowed to screen “Citizen Cane” there. It was turned down by other theaters for being too racy for its time.

When we walked into the theater the organ was up on stage with one of its resident players Ty. He explained that most theaters before “Talkies” were invented would have similar organs to play to movies, and would play the effects like a train whistle, birds chirping, Car horns, Etc. Then he showed us what it really could do, from full percussions to a clarinet. Then he pulled out all the stops… which was actually phrased from organ players. That is when everything is played at once. It shook the whole building. He then played a couple of Disney songs then was lowered under the floor.

Then we got to see the full Curtain show that happens before every movie.

I went over my Number of Photo's for a post so the Curtain show photos will be in the next post.

After the curtain show we were greeted by the stage manager of the El Capitan Theater. I can’t remember his name. He showed us some of the technology to making the stage show work. He had showed us the Mickey Door (Mickey had never used) that was modeled after the trap door that Mickey uses in Fantasmic. Miley Cyrus was going to use it for her concert there till her producers decided it was too dangerous for her.

We got to see how the trap door (not the same as the Mickey door) for the organ worked.

Here is the Lounge underneath the theater. The decor has not changed from when this was a gentleman smoking room.

Next it was off to Jimmy Kimmel Live studio. I have no Pictures of inside here due to it being a working set and pictures were forbidden. We were told that after El Capitan showed Toy Story 1 that they had a fun house in here after the show. The building was a masonic temple at one time and due to it being a historical landmark they are not allowed to make any alterations to the building itself. We visited the control room, the audio room, the green room (which was known as a hot spot in Hollywood for some time), they no longer serve hard liquor here because of an incident of someone dropping the f bomb on live TV. We were taken to the stage outside in the back where some of the live concerts happen. We were told that they lose this parking lot a week prier till a week after the Oscars because this is a staging area for the press. They have to dismantle everything and put it in storage for those 3 weeks (what a bum deal for Jimmy’s crew) they told us a story that WDW had called them and asked them for tips on how to do security for the Jonus Brothers because they had a concert the week before they were appearing at WDW.
To be continued in part too since this is running so long and I have a lot of Pictures.

 

[DisneyRob]

 

[ragtopday]

Great photos of the curtain show! Love your report!

 

[NitroStitch]

Wow! Great report & really great photos! I'm so glad you got photos of the curtain show, since my camera wasn't really doing as well in the low light with moving objects.

I'm also so glad everyone is remembering so many details about each part of the trip!

 

[nmoore14]

Great photos! I love the signatures on your pictures!

 

[Chropistopy]

Great report, Rob! I'm loving all the pictures!

 

[Jeff & Stacy in NYC]

Great pictures! Plus you wrote in a detail we couldn't remember to save our lives: the organ player's name was Ty! Thanks for another super installment!

 

[DisneyRob]

After Leaving the Jimmy Kimmel Studio we were given a much needed bottle of water and snack and entered the bus for the first time.

We were traveling to our first Studio lot - Jim Henson Studio. I remember everyone commenting on the music and how odd it was. I just remember that at one point a song came on (I can’t remember which one) and everyone’s head started bobbing together… can you imagine 21 Disney nuts and 2 Disney guides and everyone’s head going it was really a site to see.

Due to so many pictures I will follow this section with shots along the way. I remember our driver Don telling stories to us as we were driving by the comedy club Pauly Shores mom owns, the hotel Lindsey Lohan lived in for a while, Marilyn Monroe’s House, the restaurant Marilyn Monroe had her blind date with Joe Demasio. The Don told us about the street we drove down the right side with the palm trees and the left side which was in West Hollywood. There were two identical houses, on either side of the street, and since the one on the right has the 90210 address that it was a multimillion dollar house and the one on the right was under a million. Wow what a zip code can do for you.

We arrived at the Jim Henson Studios and some of the group got a picture with Charlie Chaplin (Who originally opened the studios).

Nicole at the Jim Henson Studios

Kristen at the Jim Henson Studios

Then feeling like we were in the movies and having the front gate opened for us was a thrill.

We were led into a theater and was treated to a hilarious film hosted by Bobbie(voiced by Jim Henson’s Son) and a bull (does anyone remember his name) made especially for Adventures by Disney.

Then we were led from there to the main building where we went into there main conference room. We were showed a mural that has almost every Muppet or Puppet they call them now ever created by the Jim Henson Company.

Mike Favorte Characters Statler and Waldorf.


Then we were met by Grant our host at the studios. We were led into the main Sound stage which was just basically a big warehouse that was all black inside. There was a grid overhead that had about 50 – 75 motion tracking camera on them. We would learn why there was no set or anything in this space even though we had our cameras we were told we could not take pictures in this area because it was a live set. I had turned to Mike and said we saw this studio and what show they did here on Science of the Movies on the Science Channel. We walked outside again and then he led us over to the Magic Lock box. Where we all had to stow away our cameras, even phones that were able to take pictures were locked in there. Where we were going they had to make sure that we didn’t even sneak any pictures. After the box was locked they joked on now they can sell our cameras on eBay. We were taken to the loft.

That is where their creature shop is. They weren’t working on any physical puppets at this time but were working on digital puppets, for the show Sid the Science Kid. Grant had showed us how they now do computer puppetry. If you see Sid the Science kid on PBS it takes 3 puppeteers to control one character. After the Loft we were allowed to get our cameras from the Magic Box and then had lunch. I had a salad and Mike had a cheese burger. Food was good, Nothing to jump for joy about but by this time we were all really hungry.

After lunch we were split into two groups, one was led into the main office, while our group was left to wander the lot to take pictures. Here are some of Mine.

Next was our group to go in and have our picture taken with a very familiar friend (Kermit) and Jim Henson’s Emmy. As I held it I thought, wow it seems a little flimsy, I would have thought that it would feel more substantial. After being able to give my accepting speech (Yes I actually gave one and no I didn’t say you like me you really, really like me) and have my photo taken, we walked back into the sound Stage. He had a camera and two monitor’s setup. He had pulled out DJ the Panda and Blue a blue footed bird. Two brave souls Stacy and Paul tried to puppeteer DJ while Grant Puppeteer Blue. Grant was really funny and quick with the comebacks to make the show really enjoyable. After that we had taken pictures with Grant and DJ

and had boarded the bus for our last stop for the day Walt Disney’s Barn in Griffith Park which will be in Part 3 of Day 2.

 

[DisneyRob]

 

[nunzia]

Great report so far! All we won at our game show was hats..your prizes are much better But..we had a delicious first night dinner with many choices and beer and wine included soooo . I hope you get the photopass CD of the pictures the guides take..so many neat things we weren't allowed to have cameras for. Did your group go to a Kimmel taping?
It was such a fun trip. Great memories and enjoying reliving it.

 

[ragtopday]

Great photos from the bus!

That's right - I forgot about the restaurant for Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio's first date, the one she was supposedly 2 hours late for! And the price difference from one side of the street to the other! I love that we are all including different details to round it all out - keep 'em coming!

 

[Jeff & Stacy in NYC]

Hi Rob! Jeff says the bull was named Samson. We didn't get it at first, but then the pig called him Sammy. So, Sammy the Bull. lol!

Your pictures from the bus were great! Can't wait to see what happens at our next stop!

 

[grizbuzz]

Great report Rob!

 

[NitroStitch]

Excellent report, Rob! Love the photos from the bus ride too. What would we do without the group to help contribute names and all the little details?!

 

[DisneyRob]

Sorry for the delay on the trip reports. Just have been so busy lately. Thanks for Sticking though it.

Our final destination of the day was Griffith Park, Here is the final resting place for Walt. Our bus had drove passed the Carousel that Walt would take his daughters on Saturday (because that was daddy’s day with the girls) and would sit on one of the benches (Which we would see tomorrow) and dream up Disneyland. We pulled up to the place where they had moved Walt’s Barn that he had built in his backyard on Carolwood Dr. in Holmy Hills in 1950. We were met by Doug from the Carolwood Pacific Historical Society.

It was taken from the designs that he had made for the barn in the set for the movie “So Dear to my Heart”.

It was built scaled down just like Main Street U.S.A. The Landscaper that designed the landscape for the original barn had come out to Griffith Park and recreated the landscape as it was when it was in Disney’s backyard. This is the same man who had designed the landscape for Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
He chose a color of paint “Old Barn Red” to make it look weathered. He even had the beams above the door sag down to make it look older that it was. Doug refers to the barn as the Original creation of Imagineering because here is where he first started tinkering with his Trains and thoughts began to develop for Disneyland.

We were invited to enter the barn to learn more. We learned that his Uncle Mike was an engineer for the Santa Fe Railroad. When Walt was a little boy in Missouri he would run into the fields behind his house and have his Uncle Mike blow a special whistle as the train passed just for him. As a teenager Walt worked as a news butcher and sold sundries like candy, Gum, Cigarettes.
In 1948 Walt was a special guest at the Great Chicago Rail fair. Walt had taken one of the nine old men Ward Kimble with him. He was the first private citizen in America to own his own full scale working railroad. He would drive the train about 25 feet up his driveway and then back it up down the driveway.
Walt got the idea of having a miniature steam train for his home form Ollie Johnston who had one in his backyard first. Disney then wanted one but wanted a better one and had a portion of his property leveled off to host his train called Yensid Valley. Lillian didn’t like the idea of having a train puff smoke and cinders though her garden so Disney had his engineers at the studio come up with a solution to the problem. He would have a tunnel through the front yard that her roses would be on and the train would be able to go thought the front yard as well. Lillian knowing Walt was stubborn and would have his way said fine build your tunnel. Walt then had his legal team draw up a contract to give right of way for a tunnel to be built thought Lillian’s gardens, which he had her sign and his daughters sign as witnesses as well. The tunnel was backed because he thought it would be a better ride if as you entered you couldn’t see the end of it. The contractor building the tunnel said it would be cheaper if he made the tunnel straight. Which Walt replied if I wanted to save money I wouldn’t build the whole thing in the first place and to build it as it was drawn.

Here are some Pictures from the Exibits inside the Barn.

The actuall Switch Layout of Yensid Valley

This photo is of his actual tools and drafting board he had used. In 1957 he had redesigned Tom Sawyer Island for Disneyland here.

This section of track was actually in the crossing of Yensid Valley.

WED Locomotive Works

Walt's Hat

This photo of the sink, shaving and towel dispenser was all things that Walt had actually used on the weekends while he was in the barn.

Next we took a ride on a train the same scale that Walt Disney had.

We were not allowed to take photos while on the train due to them being afraid that we would get hurt if we had our arms out to take the picture. Walter was busy working on something and Pete decided to film us driving away but the rest of us took the ride. And it was a long ride too. You can see the video on Pete’s Facebook page.

After the ride we were given water and snacks and were able to pick up some nice items from their gift shop which helps support the barn and keep it running. I bought a pin and mike bought 3 pins and one was to help them fix the original “Combine” from Disneyland.

Engine Cabin from Original Disneyland Train

Ollie Johnston's Railroad Depot

Whole Group Minust Walter Outside Walt's Barn

Walking back to the bus we noticed that someone had stalked us to the barn! It was Nancy Johnson the Disneyland correspondent for the Dis. We all said hello and then entered the bus. When we reached the Renaissance Hotel there she was again. She had trailed the bus. LOL we had a laugh about that. The rest of the night was to be our own time, 6 people had gotten tickets to see Jimmy Kimmel that night, the guest was Johnny Knoxville from Jacka**. Mike and I didn’t want to see him. Most of us decided to go see Toy Story 3 at the El Capitan Theater.

Mike and I were invited to have dinner with Pete and Walter, I was so excited, I felt like I was having dinner with royalty. We went to our room to refresh and then met Pete and Walter for dinner. We had a great time, but since it was so good we lost track of time and missed Toy Story 3 with the others. We sat at that table I think from like 5:30 till about 11pm. We had such a good time that it just flew. I really love Pete and Walter, I’ve listen to them for so long now andlet me tell you, when they are recording the show, that is them there is no acting, no pretend, just as friendly and funny they are on the show they are in real life. I liked them before, but now I feel like they are a part of my family.

Well that finally ends day 2 so next Post will be on Day Three….. The Disney Geek gets to go to a Disney Holy land….

 

[BonnieMB]

Well that finally ends day 2 so next Post will be on Day Three….. The Disney Geek gets to go to a Disney Holy land….

Thanks for this great report! I'm going on the July 2011 trip and this makes we want to go RIGHT NOW!