Podcast

Podcast Episode 12: There’s No Place Like World Showcase

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We have a special guest, Glen Simpson, who is on board to discuss his career at Walt Disney World. He primarily worked at EPCOT Center in the World Showcase area. Glen also did some work at the Magic Kingdom starting in 1978 with food service and he was also a Jungle Cruise skipper. We get some great insight into the opening days of World Showcase, special guests, and some hilarious mishaps that only a former cast…Read More...

Restored Films, Restored Video, Videos

Rare EPCOT Center B-Roll Video – Part 1 of 11

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EPCOT Center opened to the public on this first day of October in 1982. Thirty three years later the park’s original “permanent World’s Fair” theme has suffered a bad case of mission creep. But for RetroDisneyWorld fans the chance to step into EPCOT’s first decade is one we relish. Just such an opportunity presented itself to us when we acquired a ¾” videotape (commercially known as U-Matic) containing footage of EPCOT Center’s World Showcase. U-Matic tapes…Read More...

Podcast

Podcast Episode 11: First Things First

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This month we go back to many firsts at Walt Disney World. George & Becky Miranda from Ohio join us to discuss opening day at The Magic Kingdom. They both have an amazing first hand account from visiting the park on opening day along with a great collection of photos (You're going to want to load these up and look at them while you listen to them describe that first day: https://www.flickr.com/photos/georgelmiranda/albums/72157658664679871). We then jump into…Read More...

Blog

What 16mm WDW Films are we raising money to restore? All is revealed

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If you’ve been following us, you know that we are working on a special project to restore two 16mm WDW films. These are not home movies, but professional productions that we would like to restore and share with the world. Together they have a runtime of over one hour, include sound and from our research there are no existing High-Definition digital prints of either of these films anywhere. We have seen a few horrid grainy VHS...Read More...

Podcast

Mini Podcast – Ep 10.5: RetroCon and Episode Previews

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Welcome to Episode 10.5 of the Retro Disney World Podcast: “RetroCon and Episode Previews” – We appreciate your support and hope you have been enjoying each and every episode. Be sure to check out some of our previous shows. RetroCon Brian and JT will be a RetroCon at a Retro Disney World table this coming weekend in the greater Philadelphia area! Brian discusses what RetroCon is and explains the cool items we’ll have on display as...Read More...

Disney World Home Movies, Restored Films

Lets Whoop ‘n Holler again at River Country ’78 – Restored Home Movie HD

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Over the past year of so we've been restoring many Magic Kingdom films...each of which lends to some amazing discovery that we haven't seen before. However, when you discover a film that includes footage from MK and River Country you tend to get very excited, and then when you realize there is more RC footage than MK you really get pumped...and realize some took an expensive (for the time) camera into a water park, positioned themselves…Read More...

Videos

Home Video: Disney MGM Studios from August 1989

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If you've listened to podcast Episode 10 of the Retro Disney World Podcast: "Hooray for Floridawood" you may be wondering where some of the attraction sound bites originated from. Todd has just shared nearly 40 minutes of footage from his trip in August 1989 that was used for parts of the podcast. The video starts out at 6:30am, the sun is just coming up for a very early 7am opening.Read More...

Retro Disney World

Welcome to Mesa Verde University

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For many of us fans the Horizons pavilion in EPCOT Center will always hold a special place in our hearts. While it closed years ago it lives on for many in the ride’s dialog and many can recite it from memory. One particular part of the attraction recently inspired us to create several t-shirt designs, the first of which (oh yes, there are more on the horizon!) we are revealing today.. Welcome to Mesa Verde University!...Read More...

Podcast

Podcast Episode 10: Hooray for Floridawood

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We take you back to the opening day of the Disney-MGM Studios, way back on May 1, 1989. Our very own How and our guest, Hoot Gibson were waiting in the parking lot all night to be the first through the gates. They discuss rubbing elbows with Michael Eisner and Bob Hope and of course giving commentary about being the first to see different attractions. How has a great story about being the first person ever…Read More...