Forty years ago this week, tens of millions of us “visited” the Magic Kingdom for the first time, courtesy of NBC's The Grand Opening of Walt Disney World.
The television special was designed to “correct” the problems of the live 90-minute debacle that marked the opening of Disneyland 16 years earlier, in which four commentators and 22 cameras scrambled from land to land, trying to capture as much of the pageantry and as little of the bedlam as possible.
First—the company decreed—the Disney World special would not be televised live on opening day, but rather taped beforehand and shown four weeks later. Camera crews, ideally, would then have the run of the place, without pesky guests to get in the way. Any flubbed lines could be reshot, and any other bloopers excised in the editing room.
Second, instead of the newsreel format employed by the Disneyland show, the new Disney World special would adopt a hipper variety-show format. Although the format (in which affable hosts introduced a series of musical numbers and comical sketches) is all but extinct today, the three networks broadcast a combined 13 variety shows during the 1970-1971 season, making it the second most popular genre, right behind sitcoms. To produce and direct, Disney executive Ron Miller selected variety specialist Bob Scheerer, who had directed the first two seasons and produced the last two seasons of the Danny Kaye Show. Disney couldn't get Kaye himself (although they would 11 years later for the opening of EPCOT Center), but the singing/dancing comic—and his old weekly series—epitomized the combination of color, class, whimsy, and family-friendliness that Disney was looking for.
The Disneyland special was filled with lots of ceremonies, speeches, and interviews. Disney World was to be introduced with singing, dancing, and laughs. For the music, Scheerer brought in Julie Andrews, Glen Campbell, and two colleagues from the Danny Kaye Show—songwriter Billy Barnes and choral arranger Earl Brown. Brown's primary task was creating a groovy version of “Zip-a-Dee-Do-Dah.”
Barnes, on the other hand, contributed two original songs—well, sort of original. “One song was for Julie Andrews, and one was for a group of singers and dancers,” Barnes recalled. “The (latter) song, 'There's More,' was about the opening of this huge place. The (other) was based on ‘It's a Small World.' I wrote a whole counterpoint.”
Why the Sherman Brothers weren't asked to update their own song Barnes didn't know, but he was thankful for the opportunity to write for Andrews. “I got to work with Julie; that made me happy,” he said. What he remembers most? “She's got a very naughty mouth. She talks naughty, because she was bought up in the music hall.”
To provide the comedy, Jonathan Winters ad-libbed three skits (that had little to do with Disney World) and Bob Hope recited a monologue inside the Contemporary Hotel. Unfortunately, when Hope arrived in Central Florida to tape his spots in mid-August, construction of the Contemporary was sorely behind schedule. Cameras were instructed not to shoot above the fourth floor. Cast members were stationed along the railings, pretending to be guests.
Scheerer recalled, “When we went into the hotel for Bob Hope's spot, we had to make sure everybody shut up so we could do the spot. The jokes he did inside didn't work because of noises, so we shot it again. And then we went outside, and he was upset because his hair was blowing, and we had to move him to another place.”
Another directive was to accentuate anything different from Disneyland, so past park vacationers got the impression that the Magic Kingdom wasn't just a copy of Disneyland. Three lengthy in-attraction segments were included—of the three attractions that weren't lifted from Anaheim: the Hall of Presidents, the Country Bear Jamboree, and the Mickey Mouse Revue.
Scheerer was also to keep his cameras' focus off the not-quite-ready-for-prime-time areas like the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea lagoon, the back half of Frontierland, and pretty much all of Tomorrowland
Camera crews shot pre-opening taping musical numbers, comedy routines, intros, and bridges—for one week while dodging the construction crews, then returned to Florida to capture the opening-day festivities October 1 and some of the ceremonies three weeks later. After editing it all together, Scheerer nervously presented the tape to Ron Miller.
“Ron Miller and the other (Disney executives) were very unhappy with the show that was put on for the opening (of Disneyland). Very,” Scheerer recounted. “Ron called me after I sent him a copy of (my show) and was suffused with gratitude. He said, ‘Oh, Bobby, I can't tell you how happy I am about this show.' He said he was so relieved, because he was terrified it was going to be another bomb, like the original one. And, because of that, he gave me (to direct) The World's Greatest Athlete. That was saying thank you.”
Miller was most impressed by dramatic shots from a helicopter of thousands of balloons being released into the bright, blue sky, to cap the opening-day festivities. “What did you have there?” Miller asked, curious about the symbolism. “Something about being God?”
“No,” Scheerer laughed, “It was just a good shot!”
For all the good intentions, Roy Disney hated the show. He viewed it when it aired on television on Friday, October 29, right before he left Florida for the last time. He thought the show was well put together, but noticed that—because so many of the segments were taped before the resort opened—the park was void of guests in most scenes. Julie Andrews skipping across a deserted Plaza and walking through a vacant queue didn't feel right. Walt would never have aired scenes of a guest-less Magic Kingdom.
Crowd density aside, the special remains a charming slice of 1970s silliness, with poor lip-syncing, colorful costumes, funky music, and dated dance moves. Check it out on YouTube. You'll love the wonderful shots of the newborn World, extended glimpses at the Mickey Mouse Revue, and, best of all, the thrilling grand opening parade, complete with Meredith Wilson leading a 1,076-piece band in “76 Trombones.” The one thing it could have used: just a little bit of spontaneity. Maybe Walt knew what he was doing the first time around, after all.
