A History in Postcards
Chapter 9 Disney-MGM Studios Page 5 Sequels!
The combination of a lower capacity park along with the grand opening promotions on TV (including a grand opening special on NBC), and in magazines (including Time and Newsweek) kept the park gates closing early all through that first summer three months after opening the company announced that it would double the size of the park by 1992. When a movie is very popular it almost seems inevitable that a sequel will be made, so with a park that had so many "sell out performances" it was only logical that sequels would come along here too. In actuality much of the expansion was already underway, due to the plans for the park growing so much during the development of it. Also, in actuality in those early years there were certainly some guests who came away with the impression of the studios as a full price, but half day park. The continuing development of the park has certainly filled the days for many of those guests who had that initial opinion of the studios. New attractions opened each year; The Indiana Jones Stunt show opened August 25, 1989, it had ran a show on opening day but that was a sort of dress rehearsal, that doubled as a promotion for the opening of the park. Before the end of the year, on December 15, Star Tours opened, the same attraction had already debuted at Disneyland almost three years previously, but received a beautiful new facade in its Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park installation featuring an Ewok forest, a Snowspeeder and an AT-AT (which stands for All Terrain Armored Transport for those of you who are Star Wars acronym impaired out there). If you stand on the walkway near the AT-AT and wait a few moments you will see that the "laser canons" of the AT-AT work back forth as if firing from time to time (complete with sound effects. In fact, in the hot summer months you may want to watch just where you stand when you view this effect as those "laser cannons" become a giant pair of super soakers spraying water when the cannons go into firing mode.
0100-71977 The Moon of Endor
0100-70998 The famous cloud city of Bespin
0100-70999 At exciting Tatooine
May 16th 1991, another attraction joined these early expansion efforts at the studios, Jim Henson's Muppetvision 3-D, this humorous special effect laden attraction opened a year to the day after Jim Henson died.
On with the Show(s!)
November 22,1981 one of the great Disney animated classic movies opened in theatres (it had a premiere Nov. 13 before in New York City), Beauty and the Beast, but that was not the only place it opened that day...it also opened at the Disney-MGM studios that same day. It did not open in the same theatre we all know today, well... the theatre had the same name, The Theatre of the Stars, but it was much smaller, had an uncovered seating area, and was located where the beginning of Sunset Boulevard now is. Beauty and the Beast was not the only show to play that theatre, before Beauty and the Beast played that venue, a show called Hollywood's Pretty Woman (presumably based on the movie that came out the previous year) played there for about a month, there may have been other shows in the theatre before that. The relocation of that theatre was preceded by the building of the Backlot theatre this allowed the Beauty and the Beast show to relocate to that theatre while work continued on their new home. That "new home" wasn't just constructed to give BatB a bigger venue to play, but, as part of that larger plan to expand the studios the "Street" that was added to the park Sunset Boulevard is now home to four of the biggest draws at the studio the aforementioned Beauty and the Beast, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Rocking Roller coaster featuring Aerosmith, and Fantasmic! this nighttime spectacular featuring scenes from various Disney movies re-enacted as a part of Mickey's dream, plays in Walt Disney Worlds largest theatre, The Hollywood Hills Amphitheater seats 6,900 with another 3000 guests in standing room for each show. But those last three are a story for another chapter.
In this picture the The Theatre of the Stars sits in its original location
Clicking the picture will take you to a slightly larger version of it, or, if you want to see a really huge version of it click this link. This image was not from a postcard I scanned it from the 1998 Hardcover souvenir book where it was printed reversed (the far left was the far right and visa- versa).
That Backlot theatre, I mentioned earlier, the one where Beauty played while their new home was under construction, had other shows as well, The Spirit of Pocahontas played there in 1995 and part of 1996, but on June 21, 1996 a new Show opened there The Hunchback of Notre Dame, it became very popular, and developed such a fan base that rather that rotating in a new show that might help promote the next Disney Movie (Hercules), the show continued to run... for six more years. This show combined great singing, puppetry, well designed sets, and great use of the space available in the theatre, to provide a truly special experience, one that for many of us will always shine brightly as a fondly remembered show. Even the Voyage of The Little Mermaid, which opened in The Walt Disney Theatre January 7,1992, was not the first show in its' venue, previous to that "Here Comes the Muppets" played there from May 25, 1990 to Sept. 2, 1991, and before that it had been used as the "preview theatre" at the end of the studio walking tour.