The Grand Opening of Walt Disney World Part 8 - The Grand Opening Dedication Ceremony and Main Street Parade

Today we wrap up our introspective breakdown of the Grand Opening TV Special. And what better way to do that then with a parade. This parade in particular is a very special one. The day was October 25^th 1971. The third and final day in the Grand Opening Celebration This is the parade that accompanied the actual dedication of Walt Disney World however they somehow left that out of the special. You can find Roy Disney's speech on several other Disney specials and on YouTube but for it to be left out here seems odd. There is a lot to dig into here in fact this part of the Master Script is over 100 of the 148 pages of the script. There is also so much happening that we don't see. Here's a small sampling of what was going on and who was in attendance.

1100 Voice Chorus made up of High School and College students

400 Voice Chorus made up of College and Community choirs

100 piece University of Florida Symphonic Band

25 Antique Automobiles

12 Barber Shop Quartets

22 Tandem Bikes

52 Keystone Kops

24 Girls in period clothing stationed in the hub

24 Couples walking about Town Square

72 Couples walking about Main Street

16 Suffragette Girls with red white and blue sashes and signs

8 Fanfare Trumpets

The WDW Marching Band

Over 50 Unique Disney Costume Characters

The Pearly Band

16 Horsemen

Herbie the Love Bug

39 Cast Members in the Tomorrowland Unit

75 Cast Members in the Fantasyland Unit

16 Cast Members in the Fantasia Unit

37 Cast Members in the Adventureland Unit

27 Cast Members in the Calypso Unit

76 Cast Members in the Small World Unit

72 Cast Members in the Frontierland Unit

84 Cast Members in the Liberty Square Unit

50 Flag Carriers one for each states flag

1076 piece Ceremonial Marching Band

So as you can see this was a production of over 5,000 and that isn't counting the hundreds of support cast used to make this event happen. This may have been the single largest production done in the parks. Below I will post a few of the pages covering this day. I tried to show a sample of every segment to give you a good idea of what was happening that day.

So with that we wrap up our look at this very important time in the history of the Walt Disney Company and how it was shown to the world on Television. Tomorrow's post will Include the parade segments shown on TV. I will also release all three Jonathan Winters Clips in one video. And in two days I'll release the complete Grand Opening special. All three will be on the Manifesting the Magic YouTube page.