As Doris Day famously hipped, Hooray for Hollywood. She meant the one in California, but there’s a single lyric that sounded like accidental foreshadowing some fifty years later: “Go out and try your luck, you might be Donald Duck.” At the televised grand opening of the Disney-MGM Studios, they even let Donald squawk that verse personally.
In the late 1980s, Disney and Universal spent a combined $1 billion on production facilities and infrastructure to turn Orlando into Hollywood East. Then-mayor Bill Frederick bragged that they’d have to call Hollywood “Orlando West” before long. Naysayers guessed it might become Toronto South, given the state allowed for cheaper non-union crews.
They’d all be wrong in under a decade. So much for trying their luck.
What happened? That’s an case study for another day, but it’s not hard to see the disadvantages.
Hollywood, that is the Hollywood, ended up where it is because any location you wanted was only an hour away. Deserts. Beaches. Mountains. Forests. Every size and shape of municipality. Drive four hours in any direction from Central Florida and you’ve got…more Florida, give or take some mangroves. In Hollywood, most stars were only a taxi away. It cost money and time to fly a full cast and crew across the country. Most productions that tried the new facilities didn’t count on the complete It’s A Small World experience, with built-in hallways so tourists could watch their favorite actors botch take seven.
There was a fundamental culture shock between the town where Mickey Mouse rubbed elbows and the town he put on the map. Former Disneyland magician Steve Martin laid it out to the Los Angeles Times after shooting Parenthood around Orlando in 1989:
“Because it’s a tourist town, people are used to having access to everything. It’s not like New York or LA. There’s no etiquette. And you’re expected to be friendly all the time.”
By 2000, despite offers from Disney to add private soundstages across the highway, Orlando hadn’t become Hollywood East or Toronto South. It was just the theme park capital of the world.
Today, the two parks that were supposed to lead the charge bear only passing resemblance to their grand openings. Universal Studios Florida still has its street sets and soundstages – the Deal or No Deal revival was recently shot there – but they get more mileage out of them for Halloween Horror Nights than outside production. Disney-MGM Studios no longer exists, in name or concept. Disney’s Hollywood Studios replaced its streets with Star Wars and soundstages with Toy Story, and the smart money says the remaining infrastructure of Animation Courtyard isn’t long for this world either.
If you know where to look, though, the dream of Hollywood East is still alive in Central Florida. This isn’t by any means a comprehensive list, but here are a few places to start.
1. The Backlot Express – Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Hidden in the jungle to the right of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular but before the big robot dog, you’ll find the gently rusting Studios Shops. This is where every prop, set, and piece of cinematic forgery in the Studios was made and now haphazardly stored. At least that’s how the story goes. It’s always been a quick service restaurant that just so happens to be furnished with everything you need to make a movie.
Once upon a time, the Backlot Express featured pieces of film history just as accessible as the toppings bar. The Toon Patrol paddywagon from Who Framed Roger Rabbit used to sit outside by the Paint Department. The mechanical contraption, like a deconstructed go-kart, that Bob Hoskins rode around in underneath the animation for Benny the Cab was a photo-op for anyone in the know.
Last summer most of the touchable props were removed to make room for the inevitable Galaxy’s Edge crowds. But all is not lost. Go eat, drink, and be curious. Keep an eye out for matte paintings in progress on the walls and props that clearly said Disney-MGM Studios not so long ago. Peek into the fully furnished Paint Department office. Peek at the hovercraft mold from Epcot’s dearly departed Horizons over the Stunt Department office. Bonus points if you can find the Six Flags brochure on the bulletin boards.
2. Sting Alley – Universal Studios Florida
It’s a testament to Universal Studios Florida’s versatile construction that this corner of its New York sets is named after a movie set in Chicago that was mostly shot on a Hollywood backlot.
Your average parkgoer won’t even notice it, even as they wait for their latte right around the corner. Hidden in plain sight between Starbucks and the corner where the Blues Brothers perform, Sting Alley looks like a dead-end. A collection of lovingly aged storefronts and fire escapes on the verge of collapse. Venture into that red brick unknown and it eventually connects to the waterfront.
In between is a refreshing piece of otherwise pointless design. There’s no store, no arcade, not even an ATM. It was built for production, with quarters that seem a little too tight for theme park crowds, and not much else. Sting Alley has showed up in commercials, music videos, and at least one episode of the ‘90s Swamp Thing. The Universal faithful know it best as an early staple of Halloween Horror Nights, later immortalized in a 2002 ad for the event and the pre-show video for 2009’s beloved Leave It To Cleaver house.
These days, even in the peak season, Sting Alley is quiet if not empty. So wait for your coffee, then go sit on an artificially dirtied stoop and enjoy the fake view.
3. Arches and Theaters – Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Now we get into the nitty-gritty leftovers. The kind of trivia that will make your friends pause momentarily and go, “Nice,” on their next vacation.
As mentioned previously, one of the last largely untouched corners of Disney’s Hollywood Studios is the Animation Courtyard, even if the actual animation stopped in 2004. The occupants have obviously changed, though, making the majestic studio arches a little less obvious than they used to be.
When the park first opened in 1989, the only way for a guest to see New York Street or any of the soundstages was the Backstage Studio Tour. This two-hour monster, later split into separate tram and walking tours, loaded from what is now the open-air queue for Star Wars Launch Bay. Trams took guests to the back of the lot, then dropped them off for a long walk through the stages, culminating with a short called “Michael & Mickey” in The Walt Disney Theater. So in the early days, the Disney-MGM arches physically separated the theme park from the active studio.
But as production dwindled and attendance exploded, guests needed more to do than peek into empty soundstages. A new show, Here Come The Muppets, was fast-tracked into the original Walt Disney Theater and a smaller replacement theater was built onto the back of Soundstage 4, then the post-production facility. Before long, the walking tour shrunk again, no longer needing a theater at all.
The second Walt Disney Theater, currently alternating between a twenty-minute biography of the man and highlights of upcoming releases in One Man’s Dream, and the first Walt Disney Theater, currently housing Voyage of the Little Mermaid, remain as mile markers for the slow end of production at the Disney-MGM Studios.
4. The E.T. Adventure Preshow – Universal Studios Florida
If Disney gets some obscure archaeology, so does Universal. It’s only fitting that this bit of trivia belongs to one of its last surviving day-one attractions.
The E.T. Adventure was once so synonymous with Universal Studios Florida that his wrinkly face came attached to the logo on t-shirts. Thirty years later, it endures as living history of an era when the park still invited guests to “Ride The Movies” and every other attraction taught them how to make their own. But though E.T. even retains the original blue, pink, and gray color scheme on its soundstage, that doesn’t mean it’s a perfect time capsule.
The earliest incarnation wasn’t about taking E.T. home; it was about making E.T. 2. In the first preshow, which Universal included on their pre-opening press kit, Steven Spielberg enlisted guests as actors in the grand finale of the long-awaited sequel. Instead of an Interplanetary Passport, you’d need a pass for the closed set. “Your role in the story is to hop a dirt bike or one of E.T.’s spaceships and take E.T. home.” Like the ADA-compliant spaceship vehicles he mentioned, this preshow didn’t last long. By 1992, the story was tweaked to the more adventurous version that still thrills today.
What’s left of the original setup, though, is the second room. Now a nondescript hall with behind-the-scenes photos from the movie and concept art from the ride to come, it was designed as the entrance to the soundstage, with notes on the walls about the day’s shoot. Take a look next time you file for an Interplanetary Passport and you’ll wonder why it never seemed out of place before.
5. Gift Shops and Hotels – International Drive and 192
The arms race to be the largest World’s Largest Gift Shop in Orlando didn’t kick off in earnest until Universal entered the fray. Souvenir outlets, discount ticket shacks, motels with and without continental breakfast. As the two heavyweights grew into the contenders we know today, so did their surroundings.
Tenants on International Drive and 192 come and go, but a few have proven as permanent as the humidity. If you want nonpartisan evidence of Orlando’s play for Hollywood fame, look no further than the Studio 1 Gift Shop on the west end of 192 or the Monumental Movieland Hotel on International, just across the street from Universal’s Endless Summer Resort.
6. Revenge of the Mummy Production Tour – Universal Studios Florida
By now, the Men In Black: Alien Attack “Immigration Tour” is a pretty poorly kept secret, but there’s not enough chatter about Revenge of the Mummy’s counterpart. It works the same way – approach the attendant out front and ask about a “Production Tour.” Depending on the day, they may not be offering any. It’s harder to land at the Mummy than MIB – this tour is longer and pulls a team member away from their post accordingly – but it’s worth asking.
Thought it replaced the legendary Kongfrontation, Revenge of the Mummy brought with it a fresh, funky take on Universal’s early mission statement. It’s not a real Egyptian tomb, but the set of an Egyptian tomb that just happens to have a real curse. It still counts as riding a movie, but with a touch of behind-the-scenes magic.
The Production Tour turns that touch into its own attraction. You’ll learn about the screen-used props in the queue, the production difficulties shooting in Morocco, the advent of CGI, and even a little about the design of the attraction.
It opened in 2004 so by no means does it count as an artifact of Hollywood East, but it’s one of the purest expressions of that spirit still around, so it’s worth mentioning to anyone who’s made it this far down the list. Also make sure you study the gold coins. You’ll know what I mean.
6 – Professional Wrestling As We Know It – Disney’s Hollywood Studios
If no soundstage was ever built in the state of Florida, sweaty men would still be body-slamming each other for sport and glory. However, the televised history of professional wrestling would look a lot different if it wasn’t for a desperate studio with a built-in live audience.
On August 6th, 1993, in a house show in Sheffield, England, Hulk Hogan defeated Yokozuna by disqualification and ended a legendary decade with the World Wrestling Federation. An action-adventure pilot he starred in earlier that year had officially been picked up to series. He didn’t mind that it would be filmed a lot closer to his Clearwater home, either.
Thunder In Paradise is a chaste Baywatch knock-off about a talking speedboat, but that’s beside the point. It’s must-watch television for any theme park fan solely because of how much they use and abuse Walt Disney World for locations. Everybody drinks at a beach bar in front of the Grand Floridian. Exotic foreign lands are limited to World Showcase approximations. One episode features an elaborate fight sequence that is simply the Cairo scene of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular.
The production took advantage of the Disney-MGM Studios soundstages at the same time as an upstart wrestling promotion setting its sights on the WWF.
As a freshly minted executive producer, Eric Bischoff wanted World Championship Wrestling to look big. The crowds. The ring. The lights. All of it. From 1993 to 1997, visitors to the Disney-MGM Studios could score free passes to fill the bleachers. The literally explosive opening to WCW Monday Nitro was shot just around the corner on New York Street. Sure, any fans in the audience would find out who won each title months before the matches ever aired, but that they could live with. What WCW needed was a star.
When Bischoff found out who his backlot neighbor was, he sent over Hogan’s longtime friend Ric Flair to setup a meeting of the minds. Hogan was agreeable, already tired of his 16-hour days on Thunder. Hogan was even more agreeable when Bischoff made him a very, very generous offer. By 1998, the Hulkster’s contract included a $2 million signing bonus and absolute control over all of his matches.
As soon as pen touched paper, Hulk Hogan joined the competition and ignited the Monday Night Wars, a six-year dead heat in the ratings between WCW and WWF that is still widely considered the golden age of professional wrestling.
All because two other rival companies bet $1 billion that Orlando would become the new epicenter of film and TV production. Hooray for Hollywood East.
