I See Disney. . . Everywhere.

It’s been a few weeks since my last post. I hit a bit of a speed bump on the road of life. I Frequent readers of The Disney Connection will not be surprised if I say Disney can creep into my thoughts, even at times and in places where even I would think it couldn’t possibly find a way in.

On one of our frequent trips into Manhattan, my wife and I had finished our lunch on a bench outside Mamoun’s Falafel (opened in 1971, they lay claim to being one of the first Falafel restaurants in the country and first in NYC).  We wandered the quirky streets of the West Village, famous in story, song, TV and movies. If you haven’t visited “The Village”, then perhaps you’ve seen When Harry Met Sally, the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Barefoot in the Park, Glee and so many others where the Village is featured prominently. No, I did not see a Disney item in the window of a second hand store to add to my collection. And it wasn’t a child in a stroller wearing a Disney t-shirt. Before I get to the answer, I need to go back in time a bit. Hang in there.

NYU is one, if not, the largest tenant of the Village. My son is a recent graduate of Tisch School of the Arts and my wife earned one of her two graduate degrees from NYU’S Gallatin School of individualized Study. In our previous lives as actors, my wife and I spent long hours in this artsy part of NYC.

The community center of this world is Washington Square Park.  The park’s dominating features are the Washington Square Arch at the northern gateway to the park and the fountain which sits to its South.

The Park has a tradition of celebrating nonconformity and the buildings surrounding the park have, at one time, probably served as homes and studios for artists and other artistic rabble rousers.

Today they are primarily NYU owned buildings. On a beautiful weekend like the day we were there, there’s all kinds of people and activities going on. So, what about that Disney thing I started this with? Ok, here it comes.

So, my wife and I are strolling through the park, enjoying the day along with hundreds of others. At one point I had my back to the fountain and I’ looking towards the Arch, and what is it that strikes me? Take a look at this picture.

Look familiar? No, not the Empire State Building. Maybe it’s the angle. How about now?

It’s easy to see how the hub and spoke design in WSP made me think of Disney theme parks. If you enter through the Arch the fountain is a Weenie, drawing visitors inside the park.

Just like the Disney Castles or Epcot’s Spaceship Earth. For those of who aren’t familiar with the term Weenie, here’s how Diane Disney Miller explained it to Jim Korkis:

Dad would park his car in the garage and come in to the house through the kitchen. He would go to the refrigerator and pull out two uncooked hot dogs, one for himself and one for the dog. He would play with her, wiggling the hot dog around and she would go wherever he moved around and was so happy when she finally got her treat. It was part of an evening ritual and both of them loved it and looked forward to it.”

Walt saw that he could control where he wanted her to go by waving this treat around and the joy she had when she finally got her reward. So, Walt used the word “wienie” to explain to the WED designers of Disneyland of how he wanted to get guests to move to a certain area.

From the hub you choose a path to other parts of the Park. Looks very much the same in WSP.

The parallels don’t end with the Park layout.

Maybe you want a Fantasyland experience. Well to the West there’s a children’s playground, covered in turf.

Want an experience in Adventureland? Take on the many chess hustlers who take up residence every day. Why is it an adventure? Well, most of them want to play what’s known as speed chess. The entire match might be over in less than 10 minutes. And, your wallet will be lighter as well.

Or, you can watch the skateboarders put their limbs on the line wherever there’s an open or mostly open piece of concrete and steps. or you can be a true adventurer and try it out for yourself. Skateboard and insurance not included in your admission price.

There’s even a nod to Frontierland if you take a look at this statue of Garbaldi.

He’d be right at home alongside the Country Bears, right?

As for the World of Tomorrow? Well, all around you, is the urban sprawl of the NYU campus, educating future leaders, artists, lawyers  and scientists in Tomorrowland.

And, doesn’t this building remind you of a certain futuristic, A-frame building that overlooks the Magic Kingdom in Florida?

You can almost see the monorail blazing a path against the sky. What about the monorail, you say? Okay, the NYC subway is hardly the futuristic transportation of tomorrow Walt envisioned. But there are plenty of busses and even ferries that touch all points of Manhattan island.

No fast passes are required to partake of the parks activities. Read a book, have a picnic or take in some sun in the warm weather. There’s even streetmosphere and entertainment, like this wonderful singer of French songs and her accompanist we sat to listen to that day.

You might get to hear other kinds of music as well as see jugglers, comedians and performance artists, just like the Boardwalk. I’ll bet the keyboard player at Casey’s on Main St. at the Magic Kingdom would love to play a piano like this.

 

Disney Parks have parades, you say. Yes, WSP has them too. Granted the parades are not often for entertainment, but might be organized protest marches. The park has a long history of social activism. The first labor march occurred there in 1834 to protest the use of prisoners to clean building stones. And, 20,000 marched in 1912 to remember the lives lost in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in a surrounding building.

Even so, the WSP are still colorful and entertaining. This one, on the day we were there, even had a red umbrella theme. Most of the marches end up in the shadow of the Arch, where there is usually staged a kind of Castle forecourt event, with speakers and other activities that usually elicit cries and applause from the gathered crowds.

Scene from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel recreating the Jane Jacobs WSP protest

In some cases you will need your park pass or don’t expect admittance. In the spring of 1961, the NYC parks commissioner refused a permit to the folksingers for their Sunday afternoon gatherings, because “the folksingers have been bringing too many undesirable beatnik elements into the park.”That April, folk music pioneer Izzy Young, who had been trying to get permits for the folksingers, along with about 500 musicians and supporters gathered in the park and sang songs without a permit, then held a procession from the park through the arch at Fifth Avenue, and marched to the Judson Memorial Church on the other side of the park. At about the time the musicians and friends reached the church, the New York City Police Department Riot Squad was sent into the park, attacked civilians with billy clubs, and arrested 10 people. The incident made the front pages of newspapers as far away as Washington, DC. Security in the Big Apple is not always as understanding as those in the happiest place on Earth.

Any visitor to a Disney Park is expecting to eat something. Not only does WSP have food choices inside, but around the park are more options than you can find in the EPCOT World showcase. Standing on Bleeker street near the park, you can see, an Irish pub, Felafel, Belgian fries, Sushi and other international choices. I’m not even counting the chains like Starbucks. Alas, no food plans are offered, unless you’re an NYU student, and your parents took out a second mortgage to pay the tuition.

There are often vendors in place of the expected gift shops. And you don’t have to go through one to exit WSP. This one looks an awful lot like a pin station. Not sure your going to find plush toys. But mid town at the Disney Store you’ll find Disney priducts with NYC themes.

I think its important in our fast paced lives to, occasionally, stop, look around, notice whats right in front of you. After all, life is what happens when you’re doing other things. Drag your eyes away from your particular device obsession and be in the moment. You’d be surprised what you might find and where it will lead you. I hope you’ve enjoyed this flight of fancy as I’ve taken you for the nickel tour of the inside of my Disney imagination. See ya real soon!

Flipping Disney’s Lands

With all the changes happening in Disney theme parks I’ve been thinking about the lack of change in Frontierland and Tomorrowland.

I think Walt would have seen the cultural and scientific changes that continue to happen and he might have though about thematically and artistically swapped them around.

Yes, that’s easier said than done. And if there was someone around who had just a bit of Walt’s forward thinking creativity, perhaps they would have made some changes already.  Yes, I know that everything is comparatively more expensive and complicated than it was 60 years ago. But, I will get back to that challenge later.

Walt made Disneyland more than just an amusement park by offering guests the chance to make some of our fantasies come true. He couldn’t really send us to Mars or have us ride a flying elephant. But, with a little thought, some story telling and a bit of cleverness, he made us feel as if we had. Walt also knew time wouldn’t stand still while he thought up new attractions. But, he was ok with that. He always said that Disneyland would never be finished as long as there was imagination to fuel ideas.

There have been many changes to Disneyland and Disney World since they were opened. All of the changes to the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland have been within the existing footprint of Walt’s original 1955 Lands. And that was just fine for a while. But, maybe not any longer.

In retrospect, the mid to late 1950s was one of those historical eras on the cusp of major cultural, social, political and technological change. TV was in it’s infancy, the civil rights movement was about to become front page news, the youngest president in our short history would be elected and by the end of the decade, the space race would be in high gear.

Walt’s generation grew up with Western movies and stories. Wars with Native Americans went on until the early 1920s. Arizona didn’t become a state until 1912 and much of the land east of the Mississippi was still largely uninhabited and wild. Brave cowboys, wooden forts, stagecoaches and looking for gold were not the stuff of ancient history and were still being used by Hollywood producers well into the 1960s. Taking a steam locomotive through that kind of countryside or riding in a mule train would have been a dream of many.

Many of the most popular TV programs kids would have been watching were westerns, including Roy Rogers, The Cisco Kid, Bonanza, The Rifleman, Wagon Train, Gene Autry and yes, Zorro and Davey Crocket. It must have been a tremendous thrill to shoot a rifle, ride riverboat or paddle a conoe.  Walt and the Imagineers would continue to add more to Frontierland, including a Fort, mine train, and a Native American village. Much of the west around California was still the frontier and those who lived in big cities still yearned to feel what pioneering was like.

the rifleman

The other hot topic of the day was the Space Race and the technology strides that were taking place to make putting men in space a reality.

Walt was fascinated with technology, gadgets and the future, both to entertain as well as to improve people’s lives. The Enchanted Tiki Room started with Walt finding a small mechanical bird on a vacation trip. The Monorail and the Peoplemover were Walt’s attempts to prove there were better ways to provide public transportation. Since the end of World War II, the country had seen tremendous advances in computers, home appliances and, medicine.

Walt was mining his childhood for entertainment ideas to which Americans in the 50s responded. Both of the Lands in Disneyland were, of course, huge successes. As were Fantasyland and Adventureland, but I’ll get to why I think these other two lands have managed to stand the test of time in a minute. (I’m not including Main St. USA, Critter Country or New Orleans Square)

So, what do I have in mind for Frontierland and Adventurland? You know those horror movies where the brain of some creature gets swapped with a man’s? In the case of the two Lands, I want to swap the artistic approaches and back stories so both could be more in line with 21^st century entertainment.

TomorrowLand

From the day Walt opened Tomorrowland, I’m sure he realized that it was quickly going to become outdated. He would have been right. Rocket to the Moon attraction became a reality in 1969, when Neil Armstrong stepped on the lunar surface. Later, Mission to Mars would become outdated as powerful telescopes and unmanned landers gave us a view of the real red planet. The Monsanto House of the Future, which showed what people could expect in a home in 1986, obviously had a built in end date. Walt didn’t live long enough to realize just how fast the future would come and keep coming.

Frontierland

The wild west, on the other hand, became very un-wild. The mystique of the pioneer hero and the cowboy roaming the range were displaced by astronauts, TV urban police detectives and situation comedies. If Tomorrowland has become Yesterdayland, then Frontierland has become a quaint remembrance of a time we remember with fondness, but no longer has appeal for today’s generations.

Timeless Lands

To get back to my earlier point, the reason I think Adventureland and Fantasyland are still as vibrant as they were when Disneyland opened is because they are timeless. Fantasyland was already a place where elephants fly, animals are our friends and animated films come alive.  It’s the Land that comes closest to a traditional amusement park. The nostalgic feel of the Carousel and it’s music and the bright colors help to put us in a fantasy mood.

Adventureland was always played as much for laughs as it was about helping us connect to the natural world and its animal inhabitants, which are still as exciting as ever. The Swiss Family or even the Tarzan tree house are flights of pure fantasy which, even when they were introduced, were seen just that way. There are still parts of the world that haven’t been explored, and men and women who take their chances learning about them. But, the rapid shrinking of untouched areas makes us yearn for them even more. So no matter what new attractions are added or removed, they seem to fit in to either the comic world of Fantasyland or the lush green of Adventureland.

Land Transplants

What I propose, then, is to swap the stories of these two Lands. Since tomorrow will always be coming, why not approach Tomorrowland the way it was done at Disneyland Paris. Make it a throwback to an era where science was just beginning to try and crack the mysterious codes. When Jules Verne and H.G. Wells were fantasizing about things that would one day be real.

I could go either way with the steampunk approach they took with Disneyland Paris. But, I think just the idea of designing around that 19^th feel would be just as cool. New attractions could follow the pattern and older ones like Buzz Lightyear in Disney World could easily be retrofitted. Buzz Lightyear, is already throwback toy to an earlier time. Even Monster’s Laugh Floor, which is a pure fantasy world, could be modified inside and out. Rocket Jets and Astro Orbiter would be easy fits. And the car attractions could have their surrounding scenery adjusted without changing the basic ride functions.

I’ll admit, the new personality of Frontierland will be tougher. It might be possible to treat Frontierland like the new frontier that the Tomorrowland presented. Exploration of some of the more extreme parts of the planet, popular on many cable channels is very popular. Existing attractions like Mine Train and Splash Mountain wouldn’t require much or any alteration. Disney has already taken steps in this direction. In Disneyland, to make room for the new Star Wars “frontier”, they have already mothballed some of the Western style areas.

Think of the possibilities of the dusty Red Planet as part of an attraction, or even other types of planets with unusual geography. Instead of just exploring the future, Imagineers could look at some of the more forbidding parts of the earth, like deserts, mountains and oceans as new frontiers to be explored.

I’m not an artist, so I can’t offer samples of what these new Lands would look like. I’m hoping that you can use your Disney imaginations to imagine what this would all look like.

Getting back to the challenges I alluded to earlier. Yes, there will be a cost. Yes, it will take time, considerable planning, and smart choices. Yes, there will be complaints from those who want everything to stay the same. But, I don’t necessarily hear people complaining a lot about Toy Story Midway Mania, or the planned Tron Coaster. That coaster would have fit nicely into the redesigned “New” Frontierland as an exploration of the insides of computers. I believe a well designed and executed attraction eventually trumps all desires to dip the Disney theme parks in bronze.

The same kind of effort and expenditure is going into Star Wars:Galaxy’s Edge. Even though it takes place “A long time ago. . .” many Star Wars scenes takes place in locations that could be in the style of the current Frontierland. Star Wars also includes technology that we can only dream might someday become real.

I’ve had fun taking a hypothetical journey to new Lands. I don’t hold out too much hope that my vision would ever be considered. On the other hand, not too many people, myself included, saw Toy Story Land or Star Wars:Galaxy’s Edge coming. Or, for that matter, all the changes planned for EPCOT. As I said in Should Disney Have Opened Pandora’s Box? or rethinking the entire Disney Studios story.Disney is not above radical and unexpected creative surprises.

And, I try to always follow Walt’s lead and continue to imagine and dream. Because that’s where the future lies. Not necessarily in what we have already done, but what we will do.

Disney’s Streaming Service. New Idea or Improving an Old One?

Seventeen years ago, America On-Line (AOL), a brash dotcom company, acquired the long-time media giant Time Warner. At the time the marriage of the leading internet service provider and one of the largest holders of media and pictures in the world, was seen as the creation of a 21^st century media giant and the future of how we would download, view and use, pictures, movies, news, etc. For those who hadn’t noticed, or weren’t old enough to remember, none of that happened. No one is downloading content. The marketplace has embraced streaming services. The deal is now considered one of the worst mergers in business history.

The Disney Company recently announced the acquisition of a small media company Bamtech, that created Major League Baseball Advanced Media and HBO Now, both successful streaming service offerings. The plan is to create a Disney, streaming service that will offer movies, real time sports and more. What’s going on here? Is the Disney Company trying to right the wrongs of AOL/Time Warner or is Disney simply following a strategy that Walt pioneered back in 1954?

When Walt founded WED I 1952 (now Disney Imagineering) to build Disneyland he had already put most of his personal wealth in on the line to start development, including using his life insurance policy as collateral for a $500k loan. As ideas for his new park poured out of him and became more challenging, it was clear that he was going to need a lot more money to make it happen. (Final would eventually grow to about $17m) All the banks turned Walt and Roy down. Famously, Walt said, “I could never convince the financiers that Disneyland was feasible, because dreams offer too little collateral.”

Undeterred, of course, Walt looked for creative ways to secure the financing he needed. He was always on the lookout for the next world changing idea he could put to use to further his own plans. Television in the ’50s had entered what is now considered its golden age. The Today Show, The Tonight Show, Kraft Television Theater, I love Lucy, The Honeymooners and other others had begun to attract large, weekly audiences. As he did throughout his career, Walt was able to look into the future and see that television would, not only, alter how we would consume entertainment, but was an ideal medium for promotion. At that point Walt had conveyed hid Disneyland dream as a story. Now he needed something more, something visually exciting. Fortunately he had a number of talented artists to turn to.

Walt and Ryman at work

If you’re not familiar with the story, Walt tracked down WED artist Herb Ryman on a Saturday. He explained that he needed a promotional sketch to convince TV executives to finance Disneyland. Over the next 2 sleepless days, Walt and Herb developed the basic layout and design of the Park. With Ryman’s drawing in hand and a proposal, Walt went to the NY TV executives. He was turned down by the two leading networks, CBS and NBC. But, ABC, desperate for programming, agreed to provide a loan and a future credit line in exchange for part ownership of Disneyland and a promise that Walt would provide a weekly TV show for the fledgling network.

Ryman original drawing of Disneyland

Initially ABC simply wanted to air existing Disney movies on the program. But, true to his character, Walt wasn’t going to be satisfied putting his name on something of mediocre quality. He wanted to do something more creative and a lot more promotional. With the agreement in place, Walt created the first combination of a media content provider and a reliable system to deliver it to a mass audience. Walt’s one hour of “streaming” programming, once a week, preceded the AOL/Time Warner debacle by 46 years and was 37 years before the first public use of the internet.

In addition to updates on Disneyland, the series featured edited or serialized versions of recent films including Alice in Wonderland. Disney was never afraid that TV would cut into film revenues, but would bolster ticket sales when the films were re-released. Original material like the Davy Crockett series would enhance and become part of Frontierland. The same approach worked for Tomorrowland and the “Man in Space” episode.

It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that the original Disney/ABC partnership was successful. Disneyland was built, paving the way for Disney to become a successful worldwide theme park franchise which now provides about 20% of the company’s profits. The ABC Disney TV program was the second longest running program in TV history at 54 years and aired its final episode in 2008  (The show had moved to NBC in 1961). Disney paid back the ABC loans after just 6 years in 1960, giving the Disney Company full ownership of Disneyland. I would call that a model for a good business partnership. Both sides got what they wanted and made money on their mutual investments.

I think part of the strategy for the unnamed Disney streaming service is an attempt to undermine existing offerings from existing providers like Netflix and Hulu . But, it’s also possible that Bob Iger and the Disney board hope to accomplish what Walt did decades ago, kind of by accident,  without making the same mistakes AOL/Time Warner made in the early years of the 21^st century.

First, The Disney Company would own, operate or direct the delivery system and Disney’s existing library of popular movies, tv shows and documentaries. They could make deals for other content, but, unlike Netflix they don’t have to.

Second, Disney can develop and produce new content using exiting movie and TV production entities they own. With the growth and success of original movie and series development by Amazon, Netflix, HBO and others, there is money and market share to be gained from original series and direct to streaming movies. Movies which might have been released through Blu-ray only could now be added to the streaming service with less overhead cost.

Third, there are cross promotional opportunities that can be leveraged between the streaming service, TV, movies and even theme parks, books and merchandise. Disney already does quite a bit of this, but a subscription audience offers more information to mine and the opportunity to re-kindle and leverage interest in older properties.

Fourth, there is an existing audience for much of the content available today. So, unlike other services that must guess what audiences will want, the Disney service will start with an enthusiastic initial subscription audience.

Finally, the information from streaming service subscribers combined with what Disney already has already collected from its own website, theme park magic bands and other sources, improves the Company’s ability to do things like targeted marketing and discount offers. No one would dispute that the power of data unlocks opportunities for the entity that collects and owns the information. Disney would be adding to their already existing about existing and potential customers for anything within the Disney world.

The Disneyland TV series premiered four months before major construction started on the theme park. Walt succeeded in using the Disneyland TV series in three ways: To create excitement for Disneyland by featuring segments about each of the four lands and many of the attractions; Grow and keep the audience for movies and Disney characters to drive merchandising and audiences for future Disney projects; to promote upcoming Disney movies.

These are the same methods and activities that are used by modern media companies. The difference now is that instead of reaching an unknown TV audience of several million in Walt’s day, modern companies like Disney use our connected world to gather very detailed information about us, including our likes, habits, purchasing history and more. They can reach hundreds of millions of existing and potential customers with great accuracy and effectiveness.

Disney Magic Bands

Leveraging technology does come with plenty of risk. Innovation and the unknown factors which drive user interest and adoption are hard to analyze. Offerings like Instagram can come out of nowhere to eclipse existing offerings. Any remember MySpace now that Facebook rules the social media world? Walt’s gamble on TV could have met with a similar fate. Only will time will tell whether the Disney Company has made the right moves.