The Disney Store's 25th Anniversary

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by: Nick

On March 28th of 2012 The Disney Store celebrated it’s 25th Anniversary, and Barbie and I were there for the store’s opening, so we could score the special Mickey Ears that were being given out that day.

We arrived at our local mall at 9:30 am for the 10 am opening of the store, and the line was already in front of the store, and down a nearby hallway.



Still, we were probably about 30th in line. If you look closely towards the center of the photo, you’ll see Barbie waving.



About 9:45, a Cast Member started handing out vouchers to guests for their Mickey Ears.
Ears were given out to the first 250 guests.
To help celebrate, the Disney Store asked for photo submissions for a chance to appear on their billboard in Times Square, in New York City! You bet I submitted mine!

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At 10, the store was unlocked by a young guest, and we were in! To see a Disney Store opening, please check out this post.



Me and my Ears!

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Me and Mike, one of the wonderful Cast Members at our Disney Store.



As a special thank you, the Disney Store offered 25% off anything in the store, excluding gift cards and park passes, of course.

Within 20 minutes of submitting my photo, I got a confirmation email saying that my photo had been received, and to look for it on Times Square!

Here is the photo I received with the email:




 

Please stop back tomorrow to see some of the merchandise I bought.

Disney History : A Visit to the New York World's Fair Book

by: Nick

Fans of all things Disney will no doubt know of the importance of the 1964 New York World’s Fair on the Disney Theme Parks. It is at this fair, for which Disney created 4 shows, that the “Audio-Animatronics” and “People Mover” ride systems were designed and perfected.
The fair opened 50 years ago, April 22nd.

When I saw this children’s book at the Flea Market a couple of years ago, I picked it up, curious to see if any of the Disney pavilions would be included.

 

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By Mary Pillsbury, illustrated by Catherine Barnes. Published by Spertus Publishing Company in 1964.

 

Lovely illustrations. Still trying to find some Disney.

 

And there it was, a piece of Disney history illustrated in this great book.

Ford Motors presented “Ford’s Magic Skyway” a WED (now Imagineering) designed pavilion. It included an early prototype of what would become the People Mover ride system. The ride moved the audience through scenes featuring life-sized audio-animatronic Dinosaurs and cavemen. 

Indeed, the book even refers to this as “a Walt Disney wonderland of Past, Present and Future”.

These same Dinos can still be seen today in Disneyland’s Railroad Primeval World diorama.

 

But wait, there’s more!

Next came a look at “Small World”!

At the Pepsi Pavilion, “Pepsi Presents Walt Disney’s It’s a Small World – a Salute to UNICEF and the World’s Children” (whew!) was featured. I think we are all familiar with “It’s a Small World”, but if not, it features animated dolls representing the world’s children and animals, and a song by the Sherman Brothers which, if you’ve started to hum it will be stuck in your head all day now. 

“In each country they passed, thanks to Walt Disney, they saw animated figures of children dressed in picturesque costumes-and there were even the right animals for each country!”

And how much did I pay for this little “time machine”? $1.00!