The Walt Disney World Grand Opening Special

To wrap up our multi part deep dive into the Grand Opening Special, here is the full Television Special. This is a re-post of the video. I don't know who shared it first but I want to thank them.

Jonathan Winters Antics on the Walt Disney World Grand Opening Special

Walt Disney World Grand Opening Parade

Walt Disney World Grand Opening - Bob Hope shares his thoughts on Walt's Legacy

Walt Disney World Grand Opening Julie Andrews sings "I'ts A Small World"

Walt Disney World Grand Opening - Kids of the Kingdom "There's More"

The Grand Opening of Walt Disney World Part 7 – Six segments with very different themes

Kids of the Kingdom

We come back to the parks from the Polynesian and meet up with the Kids of the Kingdom performing the song “There's More!”. They start in the hub and begin a whirlwind tour of the Magic Kingdom. First to Fantasyland where they can be seen riding on Dumbo and the Tea Cups. It's a nice little clip looking back at a shine new Fantasyland complete with Skyway. Then they are off to Tomorrowland. We see the “Kids” singing and dancing in front of the original Tomorrowland Entrance, complete with the two massive towers that I miss so much. Then across the park to Adventureland where the Kids of the Kingdom are still in glorious song but now high atop the Swiss Family Treehouse. All and all I really like this segment. It's a really nice song that has found it's place into Disney nostalgia and can even be found on several fan-made music collections on the internet. It also gives a nice be it short look at some of the key lands in the park.

Mickey Mouse Revue

This segment starts kind of weird with Julie Andrews saying “Now we are back in Disney World and to prove it here's the Mickey Mouse Revue.” So where have we been for the last 50 minutes...Cypress Gardens? That odd intro aside we now get to see a pretty good preview for The Mickey Mouse Revue. Once again we are seeing a brand new Disney attraction that is a Walt Disney World original and would be until it left for Tokyo Disneyland in September of 1980. We see Mickey warming up the band, then the Three little Pigs singing “Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf”. Next Snow White and her forest friends are Sings “I'm Wishing”. Then the Seven Dwarfs sing the “Dwarfs' Yodel Song”. On to Cinderella and her Fairy Godmother sing “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo”. And last it's the Song of the South gang singing “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” with the rest of the cast and a fade-out with the “Mickey Mouse Club March”. Again a great segment that achieves exactly what it set out to do.

Buddy Hackett 

On to Tomorrowland and we see the colored flags of the Grand Prix Raceway. We meet Chick Hearn our announcer for the coming race. Chick Hearn was a famous Sports announcer in the United States. He was best known for being the commentator of the L.A. Lakers. He also is the person that coined the term “Slam Dunk”. We are introduced to our racers. Mark Donohue, twice winner of the U.S. Road Racing Championship and three-time winner of the Trans American Sedan Series. Bobby Unser, 1969 Indianapolis 500 winner and 1981 winner as well but had it taken away for then re-awarded to him in one of motorsports biggest controversies. Sir Jackie Stewart, who is credited by Chick as the Current World Driving Champion. Fun side note Sir Jackie went on to win the F1 Championship that year and he did it with Mononucleosis, the wear of racing all around the world and having to cross the Atlantic 186 times for media commitments including this one. Lastly, we meet “Mr. Leonard Hackett”.

As the Drivers run to their cars Buddy finds out they are short one car. With a whistle, he's old friend Herbie the Love Bug shows up and they start the race. Herbie makes his move on the inside but is stopped by a spoon in the road. Yeah a spoon not a fork 70's humor at it's best.

Jonathan Winters

Johnny's back and this time he has a whole new character for us. For some reason, he is now a trapper named Carl Cracker from Weevil Seed Georgia, which doesn't exist, and his two dogs Jessie and Cugini, who also don't exist. He points toward his feet below the camera line at to fictional dogs. But at this point, we have already seen some crazy shenanigans from John so we shouldn't start questioning him now. He begins to tell the story of how his other character from earlier had talked to him about using his dogs to track his missing wife who ran away. This segment has a few dog jokes but not much else but its something to split up the park segments I guess.

Small World

After the antics of Buddy and Johnny we return to a calming voice of reason in Julie Andrews.

Shes going for a ride on the Skyway. And She's been on camera for more than ten seconds so of course, she's singing. This time the song is titled “A World Full of Love”. In a series of really well-done cuts she goes from the Skyway to in front of the station and into the queue (formerly the exit ramp) of It's A Small World. And as she makes her way to the load area the voices of children come in and start singing “It's A Small World After All”. It's a really well done mash-up of the two songs and it continues as she floats down the ride. Then out of the exit Julie pops out with dozens of children wearing their traditional national outfits and they head for the carousel. She gets them all on board and then we get a great wide shot of the carousel and of Julie singing in front of it. Again we get to see an attraction plus a nice musical number, very well done.

Bob Hope

This segment is really special. It's just Bob Hope talking about how “all this is Walt”. He really sums up Walt's philosophy and his love America and all of us. I can't do this justice but I will post the clip on the Manifesting the Magic YouTube page and link it here on the blog. It really is worth a watch.

The Dedication of The Polynesian Village Resort Video

The Wherefore and The Why

The World Symphony Orchestra at Walt Disney Worlds Grand Opening

The Grand Opening of Walt Disney World Part 4 – Julie Andrews Seems a bit eager

We head back to the Magic Kingdom and see a ton of empty chairs around the hub. The camera zooms in to one chair with Julie Andrews on it.

“If I seem a bit eager it's because a warm and wonderful event is about to take place. From every part of the world some 140 musicians representing the major symphony orchestras of their respective cities have journeyed here to join in a special tribute to Walt Disney and the opening of Walt Disney World. Under the baton of Arthur Fieldler they have already performed before members of the United Nations at the Philharmonic Hall in New York City and Tomorrow evening they give a final performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. But at this moment these outstanding musicians have assembled here to join their hearts and musicianship in one glowing message for all.”

PROGRAM

Fanfare for the Common Man Copeland 3 minutes

Festive Overture, Op. 96 Shostakovitch 6 minutes

Prelude and Love-Death, from "Tristan and Isolde" Wagner 16 minutes

"Pines of Rome", Symphonic Poem Respighi Respighi 20 Minutes

I. The Pines of the Villa Borghese

II. Pines near a Catacomb

III. The Pines of the Janiculum

IV. The Piaes of the Appian Way

Final Dance (Malambo), from "Estancia" Ginastera 4 minutes

Suite from "Gaite Parisienne" Offenbach 12 minutes

Overture - Allegro Brillante - Polka -

Galop - Valse - March - Can-Can – Finale

A. Encore #1 (To be announced)

B. Encore #2 "It's a Small World" To be introduced by the conductor as a special

thank you by the orchestra for the hospitality and guidance given by Walt Disney World to make this event possible.

At the Rubato of "It's a Small World", cue to be given to fire special aerial pyrotechnical display from behind Cinderella's Castle signaling the close of the performance.

Following the performance Donn Tatum presented a plaque to be permanently placed in the castle forecourt. It reads:

On this Site

The World Symphony Orchestra

Performed a Gala Dedication Concert

In Tribute To

WALT DISNEY

Celebrating the

Grand Opening Of

Walt Disney World

October 23, 1971

"It's a Small World"

Then a few words by Arthur Fiedler and Roy O. Disney who then invited everyone to a Champagne Farewell Reception Honoring the World Symphony Orchestra.

A side note: I can't find a photo of this plaque anywhere. Was it moved when the stage was built out in front of the castle or was it removed? If anyone knows anything or has a photo I would love to find out. Please message me with what you discover thanks.

The following pages show the schedule for October 23 1971 showing the busy day the orchestra had. Take a close look at page A-11 you'll see that two and a half minutes were to be used for the opening special which they were. But this is a good time to talk about time. This all went down on October 23, The Contemporary and Polynesian dedications on the 24 and the later segments with the big parade on the 25. This special aired on October 29. This whole special was edited within 4 days. That's an amazing feat but when you think how fast the park was built and some of the Disneyland projects the years leading up to this, it seems right on track with the Disney way.

The Grand Opening of Walt Disney World Part 3 – Where the Goodyear Blimp goes during the mating season

We Start today's post on Bay Lake as Glen Campbell comes back to show off the Contemporary and Introduce “The Spirit of Eternal Youth, My golfing buddy Mr. Bob Hope.” We then See Bob “Ex Mouseketeer” Hope walk off the Monorail and on to a set of stairs with a landing... Wait what? That's not part of the Grand Canyon Concourse. In fact, this staircase was built especially for the Dedication of the Contemporary. And here is a cool look at the original Artist rendering of it.

Bob goes on to make some classic Bob Hope Style jokes including flirting with a few tour guides telling them to wait for him in Adventureland. Then jokes aside he shares some very touching words about his friend Walt Disney.

"Walt Disney always believed in the beauty and natural wonders of the world. But he felt as we passed through that we should try to add a little wonder and beauty to it. Maybe you'll understand that Walt's dream was just a beginning. The dream doesn't stop here. This is the start of it. I think you'll want to tell your grandchildren you were there when it happened."

But surely this wasn't all that Bob hope said and did at this event. There has to be more to it right? Well, you're in luck I have included below several images of the Master Script of the Grand Opening showing exactly what the morning of October 24^th 1971 looked like. I say just the morning because in the evening was the dedication of the Polynesian Resort and that will come up later in our special. I would like to thank the folks at https://www.disneydocs.net/ for sharing this and so many other great pieces with all of us.

A few Highlights of this timeline are:

10:30 – A private reception for the guest of the Dedication Ceremony was held at the Polynesian. Guest would then board monorails to the Contemporary.

12:00 – The ceremony would begin. Bob Hope then would give an Introduction and mono-log, introduce several special guests then introduce the Chairman of the Board of U.S. Steel Edwin H. Gott. Ed then would make some remarks and had it over to Roy O. Disney to make some Acknowledgments and invite everyone to a lakeside buffet down by the Bay Lake Docks.

12:30 – The Buffet would start. Take a moment to read the menu it sounds really awesome and really 70's. After the buffet everyone had to be whisked back to the Polynesian for the dedication there and a big beach luau. But we'll get to that later.