The Grand Opening of Walt Disney World Part 2 - All matter of wonderful things for the human species

We last left off with Glen Campbell serenading a monorail. Today we hop on board and who do we find? None other than Mary Poppins herself, Julie Andrews.

"Hello everyone I'm Julie Andrews and I'm here at the opening of the Walt Disney World in Florida.

Just a few miles away from Cape Kennedy where men point their space vehicles to the stars, Walt Disney decided to launch his final dream. A commitment to the future for your children and mine.

This is a world of lakes and waterways, of incredible new rides and illusions, of wildlife sanctuary's for natures creatures as well as camping grounds and golf courses and all matter of wonderful things for the human species.

Best of all its a place to stir the imagination and instill a sense of hope for tomorrow. A joy for land built by an inspired dreamer for other dreams and dreams still to come.

The time now, the occasion the opening of Walt Disney World, the palace Orlando Florida."

While we hear Julie tell us of all the “World” has to offer, we also see some of the sites but not fancy shots of the Castle or the resorts. Nope we see a man made channel, possible the one the Electrical Water pageant docks in. Also, we see an early rushed portion of Fort Wilderness (another story for another time) with the Contemporary and the Magic Kingdom in the distance. Once again driving home the point that this is not another theme park but a “Vacation Kingdom”. 

Then the first close shot of the park from behind the castle as a voice announces “ The Grand Opening of Walt Disney World”. He then continues to tell us of the special guests we will see.

“Starring Julie Andrews, Special Guest Star Glen Campbell, Also Starring Buddy Hackett, Jonathan Winters.” Then in a boxed in text, “In Special Tribute to Walt Disney BOB HOPE” Yeah Bob got his name in a box and in all Caps.

We then rejoin Julie who has now aboard one of the old side-wheeler in the Seven Seas Lagoon ( It looks like the “Southern Seas” but it's hard to make out) and then like magic made it into the park riding on the double-decker bus and strolling down Main Street. She pops into the now ruined Main Street Cinema and watches a few clips from some of Disney animated classics all while singing when you “Wish Upon A Star”. But the Goofy, Pluto and Pinocchio show up and an odd clock sound turns the tune to a cool (for the '70s) upbeat version of “'Zip A Dee Doo Dah”. She is then joined by the Kids of the Kingdom in polyester perfection as they sing and dance their way up Main Street up to the Castle forecourt.

My favorite part is when they transition from “'Zip A Dee Doo Dah” to the lines “it's the most, it's mystic everything is Supercalifragilistic. Then hard cut to Julie Andrews as she finishes the classic lyric. “expialidocious”. And then in one of the most baller moments ever shrugs her shoulders and smirks. Like she is saying “How could I resist.”

The song concludes as they all run under the castle toward Fantasyland. But as the camera pans up to the balcony we see Mickey himself waving just to remind us whose house this is.

Monty Python would say a line on their Flying Circus show when cutting to a new segment, “ And now for something completely different.” and that's what we are getting here. We now see canoes paddling down a creek at Fort Wilderness Campground and we introduced to Margaret and her husband played by Jonathan Winters and their 9 kids? It's hard to count, with some great names that John clearly is making up off the top of his head. As he tells them to “run over to that area, just move around at will.” You know as all dads do. We then hear him belittle his wife who clearly has done all the driving and is stuck to the steering wheel.

So why is this nonsense in the Disney World opening? Well it goes back to what I said in the last post. Variety shows were all the rage back then and they would have silly little skits just like this to kind of split up the singing and dancing. To quote the father from the Carousel of Progress “ it's a lot of fluff, but it's fun. Only by this time, the fluff is these little segments and the singing and dancing are the main attraction. Greater minds than mine can explain the popularity of these shows in this spot in time. But I have to think it has to do with what was happening in the world at the moment. If you had the news on for the last several years leading up to 1971 you saw a lot of dark heavy topics from JFK to MLK, Vietnam, and the protests in the U.S. against the war including the Kent State shootings. I believe people need to escape and variety shows offered that in 1971. To this day Disney is my main escape from reality and for this show to be both a variety show and about Disney is just that much better.