FASTPASS TO THE PAST: THE THEME PARK HISTORY PODCAST Season 3 Lost Lands: A Roaring 20’s Main Street (Disneyland Paris) Opening: Welcome to Fastpass to the Past. The Theme Park History Podcast and Season 3. Have you ever wondered what is the origin story behind your favorite attractions and theme parks? Well, you’re in the right place. However, today, as is often the case, we’re going to talk about things you’ve likely never even heard of in a new take on our ‘Lost Lands’ series – where we discuss the Lost Resorts of Disney history. Introduce Yourself: Hello I’m your host, Austin Carroll. I am a history nerd a former Disneyland Cast Member Episode Introduction Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. I have gotten so much Wpositive feedback and just unbelievable support over the past few years. I am so excited to bring you folks a whole new season of theme park history. I know times are really tough right now and you may be working from home. Take a break from endless video chats and stay seated as you take a mini vacation back to what might have been. So - without further ado - lets head deep into the archives of what many consider the most beautiful “magic kingdom” style park in the world, Disneyland Paris. Please keep your hands, arms, and mickey ears inside the timemachine at all times. Between the time that Michael Eisner signed a letter of intent with the Prime Minister of France in 1985 and the opening of what was then called Euro Disneyland, in 1992, there was an explosive period of creativity among the Walt Disney Imagineering team. This “Blue Sky” period saw designs featuring everything from an entire land contained in a large Space Mountain-style building called Discovery Mountain to a futuristic steampunk castle design. Why the sudden creativity for a park that was simply intended to build on the tradition established by the original Disneyland in 1955, supersized at the Magic Kingdom Park in 1971, and then polished at Tokyo Disneyland in 1983? It was because this time, the Imagineers were encouraged to think beyond the reused renderings and cloned attractions that had implemented in the past three parks. As this was the Walt Disney Company’s first park on the continent, a continent that’s long tradition of regional amusement parks once inspired Walt Disney himself, Management was committed to making Euro Disneyland a unique park, where even Disney’s signature attractions like The Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain would be reimagined. So, Disneyland Imagineers set to work, designing beautiful facades and wholly different attractions within the bounds of Frontierland, Adventureland, and Discoveryland (a renamed Tomorrowland). And at the entrance to it all, as is true in all of the parks worldwide at the time, lay a beautiful, and a bit contradictory given its Parisian address, Main Street USA. What does Main Street USA look like when it's only 20-mins outside of Paris, a city with one of the world’s most complex architectural histories? That responsibility fell to one man, Eddie Sotto, a self-proclaimed Disneytologist, who had only been at his dream job of Disney Imagineer for a little less than a year, set to work designing a very different Main Street USA than his beloved Anaheim park. And one that took place 30 years later... Teaser: Instead of a turn of the century, Victorian facades that harkened back to Walt Disney’s Minnesota hometown, Eddie’s main street would resemble something different - something exciting. In the place of horse-drawn carriages, he saw gangsters, policemen, and great American cities that flourished during the jazz age. Part 1: The Main Street Conundrum Eddie Sotto was only 12 years old when he sent Disney a suggestion for rides on his very own Disneytologist letterhead. Along with a photo of his very own scale-model of Disneyland, made out of business cards he had collected. In response, they sent him a cease and desist. However, that didn’t stop Eddie from pursuing a career in theme park design. At the urging of his wife, who suggested he should do something productive with his hobby of creating models and storyboards of theme park attractions, Eddie began his design career in 1979 at Knott's Berry Farm. It's an experience he describes as "design boot camp". The crowd pleasing (but no longer with us) "Soap Box Racer" was his first project. After spending three years with Knott's Berry Farm, he then continued honing his skills at Landmark Entertainment, where he designed attractions for Six Flags and Universal parks. After three years, Eddie finally landed his dream role at Walt Disney Imagineering in 1986. He was Baltimore at the time and had lunch with Bruce Gordon, who was Tony Baxter’s No. 2 man. He showed him a project he was working on that had images in it that were very Victorian, very 19th century. Kind of Jules Verne-inspired, with submarines and lots of sets. Tony liked what he saw and took a chance on Eddie, hiring him for the Disneyland Paris project as the youngest VP in Walt Disney Imagineering. That being said, Eddie moved all the way out to Southern California before he even knew what he would be designing. When the assignments for the park’s different lands were handed out, he thought he was gonna get Discoveryland, because of the submarines and things I had shown them. However, Tim Delaney, a WDI veteran got that, and Eddie was given a daunting task - redesign the land of legacy, the only land Walt ever had a hand in designing, Main Street USA. It goes down in Disney lore that Walt’s plan for the original Disneyland’s Main Street was intended to present an idealized town at the turn of the 20th century. Although based on Walt’s life as a young boy growing up in Marceline, Missouri, in the early 1900s, Walt maintained that Main Street never really existed, but if guests were to conjure up their ideal town, it would be something like Main Street U.S.A. In the minds of many of Walt’s trusted lieutenants, including John Hench an Imagineering fixture by the time Eddie joined, Main Street had a cache that extended well beyond Walt’s legacy. It was perhaps the most important part of the park, functioning like the opening scene of a movie, drawing guests into “the show” with the promise that what was ahead, beyond the quaint shops and themed restaurants, were areas “threaded with adventure, romance, thrill, and fantasy.” Since Disneyland’s opening in 1955, every designer who has been tasked with creating a new Main Street for a new Disney park has had to live up to that first nostalgic thoroughfare, the only one Walt actually had a hand in designing, while also setting the scene for the rest of the park. Once given the assignment, the question facing Sotto was: “Do we change things up or stay with a tried-and-true formula?” If that wasn’t challenging enough, the cold and wet, even snowy, climate of Paris presented additional challenges to this eager young designer. He also needed to serve the expectations of the European clientele. Eddie imagined guests visiting Palais Garnier, Paris, the Opera house and other sites, and then finally DLP. As he couldn’t compete on ornamentation with the historic gilded Parisian marvels nearby, he decided to create a main street that was uniquely American. Teaser: As the victorian buildings of Marceline, Missouri were just simplistic copies of their European brethren, Eddie envisioned a different Main Street - one that called to mind the gleaming Art Deco American cities of the 1920s. Part 2: What it Would Have Looked Like Eddie’s Main Street was inspired by the stories of the Roaring ‘20s, and the jazz, cinema, art deco, and gangsters that populated the decade. Egged on in his ideas by the popularity of the film Once Upon a Time in America and the European’s continued interest in America’s most turmoulous ages (after all, what more do Europeans like than stories of America messing up!?), Eddie got to work designing a Main Street USA that would be at home in a film about New York City or Chicago. He envisioned Gangsters’s role in the land as parallel to the 1917 silent slapstick comedy series "Keystone Kops", with fun instead of guns. He thought, “Walt was able to make Piracy and cowboy outlaws fun, so we thought we could make a "Speakeasy" fun too, without the violence." In fact, Eddie really meant what he said. In a Disney first, on Main Street, he wanted to put in a real-life "Speakeasy'. The "Speakeasy", called Capone’s Jazz Club in other iterations, would have been on Flower Street, with an orange awning. A police car would always be parked outside the notorious club. The guest would enter a relatively innocent looking flower shop, but a minute later the walls would revolve to reveal a 'Cotton Club'-style jazz hotspot. Later versions had guests being ushered into a life size portrait of “BIG AL,” before the wall began to move. Regardless, the interior would have been the same with jazz blaring and cigarette girls roaming. Occasional police raids would end the show. Nearby, guests could sample Chicago deep dish pizza from Al Capone’s Honest brother while listening in on the Capone brothers secret discussions with the police, tipping off locations of “Speakeasies” and other operations on party line phones. Next door to the Speakeasy would have been a dinner that looked like the famous Edward Hopper painting "Nighthawks” instead of The Walts - An American Restaurant, which stands there now. It would have been a quintessential Burger Place, complete with a Juke Box, Stainless steel, cherry cokes, and shoestring fries - with a walk-up counter outside to augment the indoor counter and booths. Like the restaurants, each shop reflected the personality of an immigrant to the United States. For instance, a Boulangerie would have been owned by a French immigrant with photos of Paris and New York City on the walls of a humble coffee counter and seating. The french presence continues with Claude’s Neon, a custom neon sign shop where a glass blower creates neon art right in front of the guest. Following, of course, in the tradition of its french inventor Claude Neon. There would also be standard stores with Disney merchandise and Hollywood props. The major fixtures of this new Main Street was to be an elevated train running along the facades on one side of the street. The El Train station would have looked just like the one in the movie Hello Dolly and was to be set on Town Square at a 45° angle. This allowed one block of Main Street to also be positioned that way as well. Beneath the station there would have been merchandise and other vendors. Once they boarded, Guests would look out windows to find a "City of the Future" as Victorians imagined it. This was to be a Discoveryland transition.The posters in the hallway of the Arcade are the last remnants of that idea. After reaching the station in front of Discoveryland, it came back to the Central Plaza in front of the Castle, passing in front of a Jules Verne diorama on the return trip before exiting onto the upper floor of The Emporium store (a familiar fixture in this unfamiliar main street). Since they were dealing with Paris’s dreary wet weather, Eddie hoped that the train would alleviate the desire of Senior Walt Disney Company leaders pushing for a Main Street with a Roof, similar to that in Tokyo Disneyland. He thought El Train would be more of a "Peoplemover" system with many cars. One of the purposes of the elevated train was to extend to the entrance of Discoveryland to allow guests to circulate without getting wet. The tracks also would have provided a way for people to watch the parade while being under shelter during the rain. Eventually, the issue of circulating crowds during the rain and even snow that northern France is prone to was solved with a backstage arcade corridor called The Discovery Arcade. Before the corridor was envisioned out of operational necessity, Eddie imagined that behind the Town Square East block of buildings there would be a hidden private restaurant with an American-style streamlined locomotive train complete with dining cars inspired by the famous “20th Century Limited.” Guests would enter the hidden railroad terminal via a door underneath the railroad station. It was similar in format to the Pacific Dining Car, one of the oldest restaurants in Los Angeles, having been built in 1921. The idea of private dining was pioneered with Club 33 at Disneyland, which opened in June 15, 1967, just 6 months after Walt’s death. Eddie thought the 20th Century Limited could continue club 33’s legacy with what would be one of the most unique private restaurants in Europe. He wanted to investigate projections outside the windows that would take guests across the US as it looked in another time. To the left of the elevated train on the east side of Main Street would have been the entrance to a theatrical attraction, similar to the theatre on Main Street in Disneyland. It would have been called The Buffalo Nickel Theatre, a hail back to the old nickeloadans of early cinema. Inside, a circle vision type screen would have told the history of Hollywood. It could have also been a live show. They had created a circular driveway for the Main Street limousine to pull up in front of the theater and that is where you would board it. Today, the limousine is the only thing left of that idea. This concept was scrapped early on as the guys upstairs wanted to build a studio as a second park, and the theatre would duplicate the experience. However, it would be one name change and almost 10-years before The Walt Disney Studios Park would open its doors across the esplanade from Disneyland Paris. At the front of Main Street, guests would have encountered A Service & Gas Station where the Firehouse is currently located. Eddie put in a Service Station because in the 1920s the transition from horse-drawn streetcar to automobile had already been made and the automobile had won. In the original illustrations, the station appears similar to Oswald’s on Buena Vista Street in California Adventure and is placed similarly. During development, the plans evolved to make it less industrial and more Victorian like the traditional Main Street with columns added. Herb Ryman and Eddie also discussed Walt's fascination with dollhouses and miniatures. To pay tribute to him, they envisioned an exhibit of sorts that would be between The Transportation Company and a Hat shop. Inspired by a trip to Covent Garden, London, where they saw an animated “Cabaret” of handmade miniatures, they would create mini animated scenes of Main Street. For example, The Main Street cinema would have had tiny figures of kids playing in the aisles, couples making out in the back, and the Projectionist embracing his mop imitating Valentino's famous screen kiss. Another Eddie, Eddie Johnson, was the Art Director on the project and he came up with lots of fun ideas for these animated scenes. In the 1920's version we also wanted to sprinkle the facades with giant advertising billboards and have cars motoring up and down, to give some idea of the dynamic atmosphere in the United States at that time. These were the only two ideas that were saved for the final version. Interestingly, not even exact copies of Walt Disney World survived. The Crystal Palace restaurant from Walt Disney World was initially intended for the Main Street Program in the hub. They had planned for a glowing Crystal Steinway to rise up in the middle of the Restaurant, similar to how the Rock n’ Roll brand used to grow out of ground in Disneyland’s Tomorrowland. It would have included a grand piano and could have been spectacular. However, the plan was scrapped in favor of the cheaper Plaza Inn from Disneyland replica. To preserve the idea, Eddie moved the Crystal Palace inspiration to the entrance sequence to create a 1876 "Crystal Palace Exposition.” It would be a giant glazed ticketing complex. However, the cost of building something that extravagant actually led them to subsidizing the covering of ticketing with the hotel that now greets Disneyland Paris visitors. This hotel was Eddie’s idea - the first in-park hotel. A Disney feature that would later pop up in California Adventure and Tokyo Disney Sea. Teaser: If the scrapping of the Crystal Palace, one of Walt Disney World’s most beautiful architectural triumphs, was an indication, the 1920’s facade of Main Street did not end up in our Lost Lands series for creative reasons alone. Financial stipulations also played a significant role in the Disneyland Paris Main Street we ended up with. Yet, we still have to question, what really happened? What Happened: The answer is simple. A year into the project, Eddie took a much needed vacation and while he sipped pina coladas on a beach, the project was scrapped. In truth, the project had unearthed some creative challenges. The Imagineers wrestled with the 1920’s design being overlaid onto the existing concept of Main Street, as it existed in Disneyland, Disney World, and Tokyo. The existing designs had become ingrained in their collective consciousness. Eddie was brought on as an outside hire for this very reason, but as a child who had grown up going to Disneyland, he worried that the addition of the 1920s elements, even if they were perfect, would seem like a clash. They needed to massage the transitions between the Art Deco building and the Victorian 19th century buildings, even going back and simplifying the Victorian design to make the gap less glaring. At the time of the project's fateful decision, they only had a few loose sketches by Herb Ryman and a full-scale finished rendering of the project by Disney legend Colin Campbell, who had supplied much of the Walt Disney World main street concept art. However, Eddie wasn’t satisfied with the rendering. In his opinion, the design looked conflicted. He felt the angle, composition, colors, even the scale just felt wrong. However, it was taking a long time to get finished rendings of the project, so they went ahead and used this particular view, even though it just wasn't working the way I had hoped. They never got the chance to fix it. Eddie’s dream of a roaring 20’s was over only a year after they began. Micheal Eisner vetoed the plan. There are conflicting reports about the exact reason why. He could have disagreed with the creative, thinking it was too far off the Main Street that had been so successful in America and Tokyo. Or, he may have recently seen the violent 1987 film “The Untouchables”, which was released around the same time, and that put him off the Gangster-fun vision that Eddie had dreamed up. However, it likely came down to financials. The park was incredibly expensive. In 2017, Disney still had $1.9 Euros of debt from the construction of the property. This is because of details like Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, whose stained glass is from the same London studio that helped restore Notre Dame’s gothic spires. It also comes from careless mistakes from operating and building in a new unfamiliar climate. According to Eddie, the original moldings for Walt’s Restaurants were made of MDF, a pressed board material that is similar to IKEA furniture. Although inexpensive, expands in the rain and bursts apart. Despite this, they installed it before the door was added so the space was open to the elements, just a year later much of that was to be replaced. Was a 1920’s theme the right thing for Paris? In all honesty, it probably was. Eisner even admitted it himself later that a 1920s idea would have been better understood in Europe. However, it was too late. Disneyland Paris opened with a very similar Main Street USA layout to that found in every Disney park around the world. Despite hosting vastly different lands of Fantasy from their American brethren, including a Tomorrowland inspired by French Victorian sensibilities, the park, and especially Main Street, was berated by French Audiences as a form of American Imperialism. Eisner invited the press to his new park to explore what he described as “European folklore with a Kansas twist,” but honestly, it wasn’t even until recently that the park has reached profitability. The Main Street USA of Walt’s youth did not speak to European audiences, but, of courses, Eddie knew that all along. Legacy: The Walt Disney Company remembered this lesson when they set out to design Shanghai Disneyland. Instead of copy and pasting what worked in Tokyo and Walt Disney World, they set about designing a park that was distinctly Chinese and appealed to their sensibilities. The Chinese visitors didn’t want to see an American victorian street- they wanted to see Mickey Mouse! Thus, Main Street was redesigned as Mickey Avenue. Yet, where oh where did these wonderful 1920s designs end up? As they say in Walt Disney Imagineering, a good idea never dies. While Eddie Sotto moved to managing the design of Tokyo Disneyland in Japan from 1994 - 1999, many of his Disneyland Paris concepts were being built by his colleagues just next door. When Tokyo Disney Sea opened in 2001, with a 4.5 billion dollar budget, theme park fans were finally able to realize many facets of Eddie’s vision. In American Harbor, guests are treated to an immersive 1920s New York. At the center of the land stands McDuck’s department store, which harkens back to Eddie’s idea of a Macy’s-style department store for the Emporium. Not only is the facade similar, the columns and circular counters seem to be pulled directly from concept art of the scrapped Main Street plans. Eddie’s theatre is here too. Although instead of hosting an homage to classic film, it hosts a live stage show homage to Broadway that is oh so hard to get tickets for, called Big Bang Beat. Although the signage has been given a Japanese feel, the gray stone art circular molding is reminiscent of its original design as the Buffalo Nickel Theatre. In American Harbor, the street lights are gas, the signs neon, and there is even an outdoor market, similar to Eddie’s original plans to have the all-weather walkway, to this day named Market Street, open to food vendors selling their wares from carts. If that’s not enough to convince you that Eddie’s ideas live on in the parks to this day, simply look to the right and see Eddie’s electric elevated railway, in all of its glory. After being scrapped for monetary reasons all those years ago, in 2001, guests could finally ride on an elevated railway and peer out the windows onto 1920s New York streets before being let off in a verison of the future at Port Discovery. This attraction is called the Tokyo DisneySea Electric Railway and it is certainly worth a visit. It was not until long after Eddie left the Walt Disney company that his ideas for a wacky gang of policemen and a true 1920s Main Street graced a Disney theme park. In 2012, after a renovation that cost The Walt Disney Company over one billion dollars, Buena Vista Street was unveiled to the public just across the street from Eddie’s beloved Disneyland. Although the designs had been updated since 1986, the major elements - the department store, the market, an elevated train, the actors playing hilarious police men, and even the Service Station- were still there after all of this time. They say good ideas never die, and we are lucky enough to experience part of Eddie’s visionary creativity when we head to California Adventure and Japan.