Restored 35mm slide show: An Evening at the Magic Kingdom SHOW PAC

We are pleased to share with you another in the series of souvenir “SHOW PACS” which are 35mm slides with an audio soundtrack. This set, released in 1975, was sold in the theme park as well as by mail order. The sets came with a cassette tape and 40 numbered slides. A viewer would load the slides into their projector and then put the cassette in a tape player and a clanging bell would indicate when...Read More...

WDW Restaurants Photo Gallery – April 1975

A remarkable set of slides dated April 1975 capture a necessary and notable part of any theme park: The dining establishments. When we get a set of slides like this with no context as to their origin we are left to speculate or create our own backstory. At RetroWDW we choose to believe this set of slides was taken by a person doing research on how Disney does counter service and buffeteria-style dining. You’ll notice photos...Read More...

Vintage Walt Disney World 16mm 1975 Press Film – Restored in HD

It's very rare to find any 16mm films of Disney World, but when you come across one that the Disney Company produced you put your cards on the table and make a move to secure it. We stumbled upon this one on eBay and it was worth the purchase and digital transfer. Think back 40 years ago, these press films would be distributed to newspapers for in-house screening or television studios for use in newsreels and…Read More...

Double Feature Monday – ’72 Magic Kingdom and ’75 Parades Restored HD

We are back from our trip to Florida (no Mouse this time, just a world of wizarding..) and we felt it was time to release our next films. For our first film, to be honest, we have no idea where it came from; all we know is that it is from August 1972. After the obligatory opening shot of Main Street, we get a really nice view of the flowers on East street and then some...Read More...

Swan Boats and Adventureland Steel Drum Band in ’75 Style

I felt bad the other night when I got everyone psyched up for new film restoration - specifically I've been much like Paul Revere in recent weeks..."The Swan Boats are coming, the Swan boats are coming!" I wasn't joking around, the transfer was complete last week and when the hard drive arrived it turned out everything on it was corrupt. To make some amends, and to prove that I'm not trying to turn this into some…Read More...

You voted for it: 1975 Lake Buena Vista Restored Home Film!

A few weeks back we presented some home movies filmed by David Coolidge. David was impressed with our restoration work and as a result submitted an additional few films for us to restore. David and his family stayed at the Lake Buena Vista town homes - personally I remember staying in these in 1986. The film is short, but there are some great views of the pool area, architecture and the waterways around.Read More...

1975 Super8 Magic Kingdom America on Parade – Restored in HD – Home Movie

This is #4 in our series of restored home movies. From July 20, 1975 comes the Magic Kingdom Parade - Spirit of America. This was shot in Frontierland and shows that the parade was going opposite the normal parade route for that day. Not sure how often that was done... We are having this film scanned and will be updating it with a cleaner restoration once that is complete. The color on this film was pretty…Read More...