National Disability Independence Day – Accommodations Guide at Walt Disney World 1972

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July 27th is National Disability Independence Day marking 33 years since President George H.W. Bush signed the landmark Americans With Disabilities Act into law in 1990. While visitors today are familiar with the myriad accommodations for individuals with disabilities available at Disney parks and resorts you may wonder what the experience was like in the Magic Kingdom’s opening year. To mark the occasion we are adding to our archive the very first accessibility guide produced for...Read More...

Aunty Kaui’s Personal Collection of Slides

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A collector tasked the Lake Buena Vista Historical Society with digitizing a collection of 53 slides recovered from the cleanout of the estate of Aunty Kau’I, a fixture at the Polynesian Resort since its opening, who passed away three years ago today. The photos are mostly of performances at the International Market Place which opened in 1956 in Honolulu to serve the booming postwar travel and tourism visitors.  Aunty’s photos from this location are dated 1965...Read More...

RetroMagic Events on 9/30 & 10/1/23 – Celebrating EPCOT Center (SOLD OUT)

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This event is SOLD OUT : UPDATED as of September 21, 2023 Full details, guests list and more can be found at RetroMagic.net We are pleased to announce we will host our next RetroMagic event celebrating 40+ years of EPCOT Center in Florida during EPCOT’s and Walt Disney World’s anniversary weekend, September 30th-October 1st, 2023. The event will be hosted at Disney’s Yacht Club Convention Center with a 90-minute welcome event on Saturday evening, September 30th,...Read More...

Crossroads Shopping Center Brochure – 1986/87

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When our refurbished website is built with a document archive these are the kind of things we hope to bring to you. Crossroads shopping center was developed in the late 1980’s at the end of Hotel Plaza Boulevard on a sliver of land Disney owned just across the intersection of I-4 and 535.  Among the many restaurants and tourism-centric shops that occupied the center over the years was the anchor supermarket Gooding’s.  Once numerous in central...Read More...

Exclusive RetroMagic 50 Pen Set Available In Limited Quantities – Special Offer

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12:30 PM UPDATE — Our supply of pen sets has been exhausted.  Season’s Greetings Studio Tower still available.   Attendees of RetroMagic 50 last month in Florida were the recipients of our most popular gift ever — a custom deisgned, hand-crafted set of (5) floating pens in a vintage themed box.  Each pen depicts a different scene from the Vacation Kingdom’s history. The pens feature 5 scenes from WDW history with a moving scene: Skyway Over The...Read More...

Christmas 1989 Isotoner Ad Filmed At Disney-MGM Studios

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Over the years nary a fortnight passes between the last “Back to School” commercial on television and the first Christmas or holiday-themed ad starts running.  In simpler times, in this case 1989, you usually didn’t start seeing holiday ads on television until a week or two before Thanksgiving.  This past year the Lake Buena Vista Historical Society acquired over 400 internal Walt Disney World public relations slides.  A lot of them were promotional images we’d seen...Read More...

Flagler’s Breakfast Menu – Grand Floridian Resort 1988

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When the Grand Floridian resort opened and replaced the Contemporary as Walt Disney World’s flagship resort it had all the luxuries and decadence you would expect.  Fine dining venues abounded and Flagler’s was an upscale sit-down restaurant that specialized in Italian cuisine in the evening (because in the 1980’s fine-dining Italian was at its peak in popularity).  In the morning’s it was the place to have a nice breakfast away from the hustle and bustle of...Read More...

Fly With “Airship Shamu” Blimp In 1992

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A while back we acquired this set of slides taken by a crew member or passenger aboard Sea World’s promotional blimp the Airship Shamu. Included with the set was a December 30, 1993 article from the Orlando Sentinel about the omnipresence of blimps in the Orlando area. The slides are from a specific flight in March 1992. Airship Shamu soared over EPCOT, Disney-MGM Studios, Lake Buena Vista, Kissimmee, and other local sites including Interstate 4 looking...Read More...

Animal Kingdom Construction Photos

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Animal Kingdom opened 23 years ago today so we pass along birthday greetings to the nature themed park.  It is a remarkable place — many people have remarks about it. As our look back period at Lake Buena Vista HIstorical Society loosely adheres to a “25 years or older” period of time, Animal Kingdom hasn’t gotten much attention from us (yet).  However we recently acquired hundreds of Disney internal photographic slides mostly from the 1990s and...Read More...

Lake Buena Vista Townhomes Brochure (1972)

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A few weeks ago our friend Dr. Alan Bowers shared some scans of a brochure promoting townhome ownership in the Lake Buena Vista planned residential community for Walt Disney World.  The brochure is dated 1972 and outlines the community details, floor plans available and costs associated with buying into the new community. We could write a long article about Lake Buena Vista and its many phases of life before becoming, today, Disney Springs and Saratoga Springs...Read More...