Flashback Fridays: Sunset at the Shopping Village

Sunset, statues, and no crowds. The Village in the '70s is a place I would time travel to if I could.

Flashback Fridays: Topping Off

Putting the top of the Earffel Tower on before the Studios opens.

Flashback Fridays: Liberty Square Postcard

A vintage Liberty Square postcard including the classic Walt Disney World logo.

Flashback Friday: The Tower of the Four Winds

Designed by Rolly Crump to stand in front of the Pepsi Pavilion which housed "It's A Small World" at the 1964 Worlds Fair. The Tower of the Four Winds was a massive kinetic sculpture that Walt wanted to dress up the exterior of "It's A Small World" with because the facade of the building was so drab. Rolly's work certainly did the trick. Here is a description of the piece from Disney's press release of the attraction.

"Attached to three primary columns and four slender buttresses will be more than 100 spinning, swiveling, oscillating elements of as many colors and shapes. Propellers of every description and size, a miniature, purely decorative carousel with animals from several countries (a giraffe, camel, reindeer, llama, horse, elephant and donkey), a stylized representation of the sun; figures of birds, flying fish, winged dragon, butterflies, bees and other creatures–all will be in perpetual motion."

It was easy to find Small World just look for the tower.

Walt and his Tower.

Disney characters were often seen on top of the tower because they were being attacked by the New York youth often being stabbed in the backside and punched in the plusher areas.

The Original model of the tower as seen in the Grand Canyon Concourse of the Contemporary Resort.

Flashback Fridays: On The River

When the Rivers of America had life and energy. At one point you had four types of transportation on the river. They were: The Mike Fink Keelboats, The Liberty Square River Boats, The Rafts to Tom Sawyers Island, and the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes. 

Flashback Fridays: The Old Westside

Back before beige and grey were the only color Disney painted with. Back when gift shops had character. There were some outstanding third party retailers at Downtown Disney Westside.

Magnetron sold you guessed it... magnets.

Planet Hollywood On Location was one of four retail locations for the chain on Disney property, now there is just one and with the Chicken Guys expansion coming maybe none?

Starabillias sold movie memorabilia and autographs. Similar to what you find in malls in some of the bigger cities around the country. But remember your not allowed to take pictures inside.

Yeah, I'm a bad boy.

Flashback Fridays: Disney Character Mural

The Disney character mural found outside the Walt Disney Story Theater at the Magic Kingdom. That's me at the podium. If anyone has photos of themselves in front of the mural feel free to share them with me at manifestingthemagic@gmail.com. If I get a few I'll share them in a future post.

Flashback Fridays: The Village Restaurant

The Village Restaurant opened in 1975 at the Lake Buena Vista Shopping. Offering a menu of beef chicken and specialty seafood the Restaurant also had a large range of soups. It offered menus for "bruncheon" and dinner and even had valet parking available. The Village Restaurant closed in July of 1990 to make room for Chef Mickeys which would later move to the Contemporary in 1995 making way for the Rainforest Cafe on the same site but the original building was destroyed.

Flashback Fridays: Dumbo's Old Home

A photo that tells a story. We see dumbo in its original home behind the Cinderella Castle. Also in its original format. With only 10 elephants it would not see its numbers grow until 1993 when it went up to 16. Later in 2012 it would move to the newly created Storybook Circus where it would double in size with two ride systems giving us a total of 32 flying elephants. Another part of the story told in this photo is that of some extinct attractions. We see both the Skyway and the entrance to Mr. Toads Wild Ride. A little detective work can place this photo sometime after 1975 because we see Space Mountain in the background. Also, it would be taken before 1992 because we see the older style tent over the Mad Tea Party. I would guess it's from the late seventies or early eighties however due to the grain of the photo and the look of the guest on Dumbo.

Flashback Fridays: The Virgin Megastore

Back when Disney Springs was Downtown Disney. And it had stuff to do beside shop at the same stores your local mall has. There was a place, a special place where you could by music, movies, and books. A place where you could spend hours seeing everything or just kill time till your movie started. That place was the Virgin Megastore. I have so many good memories in that building. Buying Cd's of bands I just saw play at the House of Blues across the way. Finding albums of obscure Scandinavian bands that you couldn't get anywhere else in the states. I even bought my first Xbox in these hollowed walls. A great place and a big lose for Downtown Disney at the time. It was mostly underused after it closed. At one point it was home to a Princess Diana exhibit and another time a remote control car store. But it would end up a Splitsville. Kind of ironic that one dying piece of Americana the music store became another a bowling ally

Flashback Friday: Camp Minnie Mickey

For this week's Flashback Friday we travel to Animal Kingdom to the newly gone Camp Minnie Mickey. The land was never meant to be permanent and the theming reflected that. But every so often you would see these cool little character scenes pop up along the trails adding to the camp feel. A nice touch but a long call from the theming levels of Africa and Asia. 

Flashback Fridays: Fountain of Nations

The Winter of 86 was hard on the palms around vacation kingdom.

Guess who that little fella in the front is?

Flashback Fridays: Spaceship Earth

Another visit to the family vault this time. We travel back to 1984 less then two years after EPCOT Center was open. A very nice look at the old Future world  from across World Showcase. Look how different the paint schemes and foliage are. Thanks Again to my Grandfather for taking this photo 31 years ago.

Flashback Friday: Tapestry of Dreams

Remember these guys from Tapestry of Dreams?

Look forward to a whole article about this awesome EPCOT

experience. Including a look at a some pictures from the very

last performance of the parade.

Flashback Fridays: 15 Years of Magic Parade

Happy Friday! This week for Flashback Friday we Have some Photos my Grandfather took during the 15 Years of Magic Parade which celebrated ... You guessed it Disney Worlds 15 Anniversary. The Parade ran from October of 1986 till September of 1987. I was there too but i was also 3 and believe it or not did not have my first camera yet. Also below is a link to the newest video uploaded to the Manifesting the Magic YouTube page. It's the theme song to this very parade.

Bonus Flashback: Take a look at the Diamond Horseshoe back then so bright and welcoming. Then look at it now. One of the most under utilized spaces in the Magic Kingdom. Hope the show comes back one day.

Flashback Fridays: Contemporary Shopping

Shopping on the Grand Canyon Concourse in 2006 

before the Fantasia shop opened.