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Welcome to Episode 58 of the RetroWDW Podcast: “Retro Menus” – We appreciate your support and hope you have been enjoying each and every episode. Be sure to check out some of our previous shows!
Listener Mail
Right to the mailbag this month! The bag is full and we love that! Every month, you can possibly get on the show, so be sure to write to us at podcast@retrowdw.com.
- Mark is our first listener who wrote in, saying he found our podcast and is slowly working to catch up. His question is all about the WedWay Peoplemover and where it is stored. We kick you off with a super deep dive on this and give you our thoughts.
- Holly writes us next from Missouri – She just found us and listens to us while sewing masks for a local hospital. Holly is a former Disneyland employee and her first visit to WDW was in 2007.
- William Walker wants to know about Mickey’s Retreat on Little Lake Bryan. Brian & How get into this one to discuss and explain what this is.
- Art has been contacting us about Teen Magazine from 1972. There is a great set of photos in this magazine, including the Bob-A-Round Boat. We discuss this magazine and look through it a bit together.
- Jason wrote in about his latest fireworks & backstage tour. He tells us a great Bob Gurr story, which sounds so crazy it almost has to be true. What are your thoughts on this? Let us know if you find out from Bob…
Questions, Comments & Concerns
We love feedback and hearing your memories!
Drop us a line at podcast@retrowdw.com or call us and leave a voice mail at 978-71-RETRO. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Audio Rewind
Our audio rewind this month is The Blob from the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater – Thank you for all the guesses and emails!
We have a winner! Congratulations Geoffrey Nease! – you will be getting a bunch of great Ephemera – hope you enjoy!
If you think you know the answer to this month’s audio rewind, email us! contest@retrowdw.com – This month, the winner will be getting a mystery prize! All entries are due 6/23/2020 and a random winner will be selected.
Main Topic
This month we aren’t taking you to a specific ride, resort or theme park. When looking back our first ephemera episode was a huge hit! We also did one on dining, Retro Food. So today, we are going to have Brian lead us through some really neat menus, food options, and dining.
The former dining locations are a great way to look back and experience how the resort used to be. Dining was huge back in the 1970s and Disney made sure the dining was just as special as the trip itself.
Brian has a whole pile of menus and we all follow along as we dissect and discuss what people were eating many years ago. We start off at the Contemporary Resort Top of the World restaurant. This was an amazing space with entertainment, food and just an insanely great decor. This is great because we compare the pricing over the years and changes.
Another amazing location we take you to is The Outer Rim. Most of you know this as the current bar/lounge in the Contemporary. Well, it existed in a different format many years ago and they were actually able to keep the name. The menu doesn’t miss and it sounds like a great place to enjoy a meal. We round this all out with some room service menus, The Magnolia Dining Room and of course the Pueblo Room. We hope you enjoy this look back at some of the old menus and food selections from WDW History.
Young N Loving Teen Magazine – April 1972 (30mb)
Articles on The Grand Canyon Concourse from Passport to Dreams Old and New:
Menus
Todd’s Mom Packin’ Sanka
Friend of the Site
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2020: The Year of Film
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Next Month
- Join us next time for Episode 59, which we have not fully planned out, but you won’t want to miss it Thanks for joining us!
Meal memories…Sherwood crepes at King Stefans Banquet Hall, I still look for it hoping it will 1 day return to some menu there / there is a recipe online with the name of it in reverse / they were to die for and would be picked along w your 3 or so other menu options at the check in prior to ascending up the stairs or in the ‘barrel’ elevator for dinner. Onion soup served in little cast iron kettleS at the Liberty Tree along with an appetizer option of oysters. Cafeteria style selections at the Crystal Palace with a… Read more »
I remember the little plates of 3 butters at the Liberty Tree Tavern; one was a WDW Logo butter, one was honey butter, but I can’t remember the 3rd one. I miss Disney Central Foods so much and I hear they are no longer there, what a shame. I really liked their desserts, especially the cherry turnovers found in the MK, and their Banana Walnut and Black Forest layer cakes served at Heidelberger’s in the Village.
Meal memories …. pancakes for breakfast and fried chicken for dinner every day at the Contemporary when we spent 2 weeks there in 1977 (a 9-year old’s dream)! Can still picture mum’s massive morning grapefruits. Loved seeing the momorails coming and going overhead! Do any listerners have any suggestions for where I might find a Contemporary menu from that time? Either room service or restaurant? Looking to complete my little collection of ephemera from the year we were there.
I’ve had a passion for Disney since I was a child, maybe because I was born in 1964, the year of Mary Poppins and the World’s Fair, so your podcast and your Youtube channel are genuine pleasures for me. My parents, brother, and I had eagerly anticipated the opening of WDW, and in the summer of 1973 we made our first trip when I was 9 years old. I remember a good deal about it. We stayed off property, so I have no hotel information from that trip. Pirates had not yet opened; we could see Space Mountain going up… Read more »
Re: the bulldozer at the bottom of the lake. On the show One Day at Disney, they interviewed Thom Self who is a maintenance/scuba diver at Disneyland. There must be similar person at WDW who might be able to verify the story.
Great episode! And the first one I listened to “live” as I’m still working my way all the way from ep 1. The discussion on Mickey’s Retreat at Little Lake Bryan brought back memories – I went a couple of times when on the International Program with Disney. I mainly remember this is where the football (soccer) games were played, and for our guys, most games were like a World Cup: France vs Morocco, Germany vs UK and so on. Those games were on pretty early to accommodate work schedules but as LLB wasn’t too far from Vista Way (where… Read more »
Complete menu list from Lite Bite at Lake Buena Vista Village, discovered in a photo taken in 1976:
Hamburger $1.25
with cheese $1.40
Fried BBQ Chicken Sandwich $1.75
Italian Submarine $1.60
Grilled Cheese $1.00
Tuna Sandwich (served with potato chips) $1.25
Hot Dog $.85
with chili, cheese & onion $1.30
Chili bowl $.65
French Fries $.40
Frozen Banana $.50
Fruit Tart $.50
Assorted Fountain Beverages (prices not visible on photo)
Brian and Todd: I’m assuming the Contemporary had a southwest theme for so long (and may even still have it) is because it favors the colors of the Grand Canyon on the mural covering the elevator shaft — plus the entire open area inside the hotel was called the Grand Canyon Concourse. The motif of the figures on the elevator shaft was also representative of the Native Americans and animals of that famous southwest area.