The Blanchards Visit WDW – 1974 Home Movie

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Take a trip with the Blanchards as they visit WDW in 1974! From the opening shot from the backseat and the view of the tollbooth, you know you’re in for something special with this film. Interior Tiki Bird shots accompany the standard parade of its time. We descend 20,000 Leagues under the sea only to surface at King Stephans Banquet hall!Read More...

200 Seconds in the Magic Kingdom – Home Movie

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Blink and you’ll miss it! The quality of this film wasn’t great to begin with, but it is a quick tour around the MK! It opens with a brisk walk down Main Street USA; a quick tour while on the PeopleMover, a few glimpses of the 20k lagoon, and then the train departs from present-day big thunder mountain area. I told you it was short!Read More...

Early EPCOT Center Home Movie

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It’s not often we come across home movie footage of EPCOT Center…the early 80s were the beginning of the video camera revolution and true movie footage is much rarer from this time period. This film starts off with wonderful shots of the entrance plaza, future corps band and then the lines! Oh the lines to get into Journey into Imagination! The jumping fountains are so clean and functioning as they should but sadly our visit to...Read More...

A Magic Kingdom Vacation – 1978 Home Movie

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Last week on Home Movie Night we premiered a few home movies that haven’t seen the light of day in years. This one is new exception as a quite active family (in the dancing/wiggling sense, you’ll see what we mean) filmed their trip to WDW in 1978. Amongst some standard shots of the 20k lagoon the family tries on some hats, wanders around the park, jumps on the Jungle Cruise and for some reason films other...Read More...

Podcast Episode 57: El Rio del Tiempo

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Our good friend How takes the lead this episode and we can't be more excited. You can always expect a deep dive into whatever it is he is discussing, which is always amazing. This episode we take you back to EPCOT Center and right into World Showcase. One of our favorite countries that was actually the only World Showcase 'ride' when the park opened. This attraction has stayed very similar to the opening day form with…Read More...

EPCOT Center – Narrated by Harold and Yvonne Jenkins – Home Movie

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If you joined us for RetroWDW’s Home Movie Night #4, you’ll recognize this film as the star of the show. Harold and Yvonne Jenkins of Savannah, GA documented their trip to EPCOT Center not only on film, but they dubbed over their film with their own narration. From the opening line, “Home of the big silver ball”, you’ll be immediately drawn in as their southern charm and not so subtle descriptions provide a dialogue that is...Read More...

1980s Souvenir Film: “The Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World”

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Souvenir film..what’s that you ask? Back in the 70s and 80s Walt Disney World would sell 8mm silent and sound films that were meant to be taken home and showed to friends and family to get others interested in going…much like the “A day at…” videos in the late 80s and 90s. Often printed on low-quality film stock, these were never meant for archival purposes and time hasn’t been friendly to most of the surviving films....Read More...

RetroWDW announces RetroMagic video release!

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On Sunday, October 13, 2019, the Lake Buena Vista Historical Society hosted RetroMagic at Disney’s Contemporary Resort – After months of editing by our volunteers, we’re now happy to announce that we’ll be releasing videos of the day’s stories and never before seen photos and artifacts from Disney Legends, Imagineers, Cast Members, music and more! All videos will be released on their respective dates at 8pm Eastern via our YouTube Channel and our special RetroMagic Playlist....Read More...

Climb aboard The Great Movie Ride once again!

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We’ve got a special treat for you! Now that Mickey’s Runaway Railway has opened we figured you’d want to take a trip back in time for an uninterrupted journey through the movies! How Bowers was at it again, armed with his trusty 8mm video camera he filmed the attraction from start to finish. The date is December 1, 1991, and the attraction is fairly young at only 2.5 years old.Read More...