With Presidents' Day this past Monday, it got me to thinking about some of the connections between Walt Disney World and the President of the United States.
Since it opened in 1971, Walt Disney World has hosted every American President while they were in office except for Gerald Ford, Donald Trump and now Joe Biden who's had his hands full this last year and WDW had visitor restrictions.
Ford did visit Disneyland in Anaheim in 1975 and his daughter Susan inaugurated River Country at Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground. Trump was scheduled to host a Republican fund raiser event at the Grand Floridian in December 2019, but it was relocated to Miami.
Jimmy Carter came to the Magic Kingdom in 1978, speaking from a podium decked out with flowers for the 26th World Congress of the International Chamber of Commerce.
Ronald Reagan made two trips to Epcot during his time in office, the first on March 7, 1983 when he visited the American Adventure. He viewed the attraction and loved it.
After the presentation, the President visited with students participating in the World Showcase Fellowship Program, an educational and cultural exchange program that no longer exists at Epcot but was designed to enable outstanding young adults to represent their various countries for one year in the pavilions of World Showcase. That concept evolved into the College and International Program.
His second trip on May 27, 1985, was billed as the President's Inaugural Bands Parade. Dozens of marching bands were unable to perform at Reagan's second inauguration because of severe cold weather.
Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who was part of the viewing group in Washington, D.C., offered him the opportunity to have the bands perform for him at Epcot. Only eighteen of the original fifty bands were able to participate as Reagan observed from a special bulletproof plexiglass booth outside the American Adventure.
A stars and stripes-costumed Mickey Mouse (who had previously posed for photos with the president and even giving First Lady Nancy a kiss on the lips) led off the parade with the combined Osceola and St. Cloud bands.
The bands were followed by a spectacular daytime fireworks display, the release of 15,000 balloons and a flyover by four F16 fighter jets.
George H.W. Bush had two visits of his own to Epcot in 1990 and 1991. Walt Disney World's 20th Anniversary Celebration was the setting for the first gathering of President Bush Sr.'s Daily Points of Light award recipients. This award is still given to outstanding community volunteers across the U.S.
It was appropriately held at the America Gardens Theatre in EPCOT. President George W. Bush responded in kind in 2004 and named Walt Disney World itself a Daily Point of Light.
President George H.W. Bush gives a speech in 1981 to the first gathering of Daily Points of Light honorees.
On January 19, 2012, Barack Obama gave a speech on travel and tourism set in front of Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom, joking that: “I confess I am excited to see Mickey. It's always nice to meet a world leader who has bigger ears than me.” In actuality, although Obama waved at the Partners' Statue in Hub, he did not have a photo opportunity with a costumed Mickey Mouse.
At a later appearance in 2012, Obama spoke to the National Association of Latino Elected Officials conference held at the Contemporary Resort.
Even though both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush visited Walt Disney World property during their presidencies, they never actually went inside the parks to speak. Bill Clinton just visited the Disney Institute in 1996 while George W. Bush delivered speeches at both the Contemporary Resort in 2003 and then the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa in 2006.
Of course, all the presidents are represented in Magic Kingdom's Hall of Presidents as audio-animatronics dopplegangers.
The Hall of Presidents attractions re-opened on August 3, 2021 with a new audio-animatronics figure of President Joe Biden.
Breaking from recent tradition, this new version does not include a speech from the new president himself, just a brief introduction and a recitation of the oath of office.
In October 1993, Imagineering added President Bill Clinton to the attraction speaking in his own voice and giving a short speech. This new tradition was retained when George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump became President.
Do you remember what these presidents said in the attraction? These speeches were written by Disney Imagineers and sometimes slightly edited by the president or his speech writing staff.
The audio-animatronic version of President Joe Biden recites the oath of office.
Bill Clinton:
My fellow citizens, we are the heirs of the great American Revolution. As this millennium draws to a close and the 21st century approaches, let us pause to honor the very idea of America.
America mirrors the world's diversity, yet it remains united in the struggle to uphold fundamental freedoms. We believe our nation's happiness still evolves from liberty, from opportunity and from the vision of equality set forth by our country's Declaration of Independence. And today our nation stands as a symbol of freedom and inspiration to people all over the world.
There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. And there is nothing wrong with the world that cannot be cured by the ideals that America represents. Those principles have no borders, and we look forward to a day when those principles, extended beyond our borders, will have circled the globe.
The quest for democracy must continue until all of the people of the world enjoy the freedom we must always fight to preserve. The spirit of America is as bright and hopeful today as it was in July of 1776. And we are ready to carry our great national experiment forward into the next millennium.
George W. Bush:
My fellow Americans, when we look back on the history of this country, we see a record of almost unbelievable energy, sacrifice, hard work; of impossible dreams that our ancestors dreamed and made real. We see injustice, too, that weighs on our hearts even today. But for every injustice there has always been a voice crying out to right it.
And America has always listened to those voices. We are listening today. And perhaps it falls to us, to this first generation of 21st century Americans, to say, once and for all, that no child, no race, no creed, no ethnic community will ever again be left out of the American dream.
Through education, through the opportunity to work and to enjoy the fruits of that work, we can open every closed door, expand the horizons of all Americans. Again and again, we return to the same simple principles: freedom, equality. The freedom to create, to prosper, to dream. Equality before the law, in the workplace, and a chance for a better life.
And each time, in the process, America grows stronger. The beacon of democracy grows brighter. The world looks with new astonishment at what free people can do. We the people are just getting started.
Barack Obama:
The American dream is as old as our founding, but as timeless as our hopes. It is reborn every day in the heart of every child who wakes up in a land of limitless possibilities, in a country where “we, the people” means all the people.
We may come from different places and believe different things, but what makes us American is a shared spirit; a spirit of courage and determination; of kindness and generosity. It is a spirit grounded in the wisdom of the generations that have gone before us, but open to the unimagined discoveries and possibilities on the horizon that lies ahead. Let us enjoy it, cherish it, defend it, and pass it on to our children as the bright and beautiful blessing it is: this enduring American dream.
Donald J. Trump:
From the beginning, America has been a nation defined by its people. At our founding, it was the American people who rose up to defend our freedoms and win our independence. It is why our founders began our great Constitution with three very simple words: We The People.
Since that moment, each generation of Americans has taken its place in defense of our freedom, our flag, our nation under God.
These are the achievements of the American spirit—the spirit of a people who fought and died to bring the blessings of liberty to all our people. Above all, to be an American is to be an optimist, to believe that we can always do better and that the best days of our great nation are still ahead of us.
It's a privilege to serve as the president of the United States, to stand here among so many great leaders of our past, and to work on behalf of the American people.
President Barack Obama gives a speech on Main Street, USA in 2012.
No president declared “I'm going to Walt Disney World” like winning football teams but they did tell something else that it was going to make the trip to save its life.
Both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World petting zoos have been homes for presidential pardoned Thanksgiving turkeys.
The first officially pardoned Thanksgiving turkey was in 1989 on the first Thanksgiving in office of President George H.W. Bush, although informally some other Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys had been given stays of execution by earlier chief executives.
For instance, President John F. Kennedy casually spared a turkey on November 19, 1963, just days before his assassination and sent it back so it could continue to grow. However, it was not an official pardon.
Most people have assumed President Truman began the practice of pardoning the turkey, thanks to a photo of the president with a turkey. The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri, has pointed out that “The poultry board gave [Truman] turkeys every year and we think they probably ended up on the dinner table.” There is no documentation that Truman ever pardoned any of the birds but that is the popular myth.
At some point, the birds who escaped a White House dinner were sent off to petting zoos and, beginning in 2005, they were sent to the Big Thunder Ranch at Disneyland. The first pardoned turkey (who like other turkeys were pardoned because they had not committed a crime) to be sent to Walt Disney World was in 2007.
On November 20, 2007, in a ceremony at the White House Rose Garden, President George W. Bush pardoned both turkeys May and his backup Flower (Mayflower, get it?) and said they would be “flown to Disney World, where they will serve as honorary grand marshals for the Thanksgiving Day Parade. May they live the rest of their lives in blissful gobbling.”
Both birds got a first-class flight to Orlando on a United Airlines jet and a red-carpet entry to WDW. WDW spokesperson Duncan Wardle said that this tied in with Disney's “What's next?” advertising campaign featuring a star football player after each Super Bowl.
“I think, if the turkey could speak, he'd say he's 'going to Disney World',” Wardle remarked.
Each year, the National Turkey Federation works with different farmers to send two birds to the White House. One will be pardoned, and the other is a backup. Neither is ever really at risk of winding up on the First Family's dinner table.
“Everyone calls it 'the pardon,' but it's the presentation of the national Thanksgiving turkey,” he said. “I believe it was George H. W. Bush who made an offhand comment that he was going to pardon the turkey, and that's where it became a custom.”
“They're not bred for longevity,” National Turkey Federation spokesman Keith Williams said. “They're not pets. They're not workhorses. They don't live that long.”
After a while, Disney no longer wanted the turkeys nor the responsibility associated with them.
“The birds are fed in such a way to increase their weight,” stated Dean Norton, the director at Mount Vernon in charge of livestock. “[Americans] want a nice big breasted turkey and so they are fed a high protein diet and they get quite large.
“The organs, though, that are in this bird are meant for a smaller bird. They just can't handle the extra weight, so they end up living not as long [as wild turkeys]. Often they are dead within a year of being pardoned.
Beginning 2010, the pardoned turkeys were sent to George Washington's Mount Vernon estate and starting in 2013 they have been sent to Turkey Hill Farm in Morven Park in Virginia.
None of the pardoned turkeys ever ended up at a food cart in Frontierland. One of the iconic food treats at Walt Disney World is the infamous, enormous Turkey Legs that made their debut in Frontierland in the late 1980s.
Originally, they were sold at only that one food cart location, but the demand grew so large that they expanded to other Disney parks including Disneyland.
Weighing roughly one and half pounds each, the legs have a taste that vaguely resembles ham thanks to being cured in a similar salt and sugar solution. The legs cost roughly twelve dollars each.
Each leg is roughly 730 to 1,136 calories with a minimum of 36 to 54 grams of fat, depending on the size of the leg. Originally, Disney sold legs that were 22 ounces but today the “jumbo” leg is closer to 34 ounces.
The Turkey Legs are not unique to Disney and are sold at carnivals, state fairs and other amusement venues around the United States.
A persistent urban myth was that the legs were so huge that they couldn't possibility be from an actual turkey and must be from another bird like an emu or an ostrich.
A Disney Imagineer programs the audio-animatronics figure of President Barack Obama.
“People are accustomed to Thanksgiving turkeys, which are female birds, or hens, which are traditionally much smaller; the males, called toms, are bigger — up to fifty pounds apiece — and their legs are the ones that Disney serves,” said Keith M. Williams, a vice president at the National Turkey Federation, an industry trade group.
Federal law prohibits the use of steroids to make turkeys and their legs meatier. However, farmers are raising larger turkeys because of demand and so the legs are larger as well.
Turkey legs are a favorite food of Andrew Zimmern, host of Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods:
“With the turkey, I can walk, I can gnaw, I can pull pieces off, I can put it down. And I just love salty, smoky, meaty. … It's an American classic. It's Americana.
“I can put everyone's mind at rest. It can't be emu. I've eaten emu. It's too big, And the meat would be a little more beefy. Emu has the consistency of turkey leg but the flavor of roasted veal. It's got mild beefiness to it and a little more metallic.”
In general, an emu leg would be about eight times the size of a turkey leg.
Marc Summers of Food Network's Unwrapped: Walt Disney World stated,
“Many guests aren't familiar with smoked poultry, so they pick up on the salty flavor. Disney injects their legs with a salt water cure for moisture, then smokes them. Turkey legs have pink meat because of the six-hour smoking process. It flavors the legs and keeps the inside meat pink and moist.”
The food treat became so popular that, in 2010, Disney created a line of merchandise souvenirs including hats, pins, magnets, t-shirts and even air fresheners featuring an image of the item and the slogan “Nice & Juicy!” Disney bakeries even produce rice krispie treat versions with chocolate icing as the skin.
By 2013, it was estimated that in Disney's North American theme parks over two million of the jumbo turkey legs were sold and consumed each year. Turkey legs are no longer available at Disney's Animal Kingdom since March 1, 2016.
Disney has stated that the legs are meant to be shared and that the average park visitor walks about seven miles during a visit or enough to burn most of the calories from eating the leg. They state that the popularity of the food item is due to its novelty and its “comfort food” factor.
There is no documentation of whether any U.S. President has ever sampled the treat, but that may change someday.
