“The world you have entered was created by The Walt Disney Company and is dedicated to Hollywood–not a place on a map, but a state of mind that exists wherever people dream, and wonder, and imagine, a place where illusion and reality are fused by technological magic. We welcome you to a Hollywood that never was— and always will be.”
– Michael Eisner, May 1, 1989
When Imagineers first dreamed up the idea of adding a behind the scenes look at how movies are created, an entirely new theme park was not originally part of the equation. With Michael Eisner as CEO, a group of about ten Imagineers began work on adding a Hollywood themed pavilion to Epcot Center. Eisner had become fascinated with the idea of bringing Hollywood to the Walt Disney World Resort after spending some perusing the company’s archives, where he came across Walt Disney’s plans for a backstage tour of the Burbank studios. Using these original plans, Eisner dreamed up a pavilion, to be located in between the Land and Imagination pavilions in Epcot, where a movie themed backstage tour would be the feature attraction.
By the mid-1980s, with Eisner’s “Disney Decade” just around the corner, plans were continually increased to include more attractions, therefore requiring the use of more land. As the ideas for a tram style movie tour attraction outgrew its home at Epcot, Eisner led the way in expanding the pavilion’s Imagineers to a group of about sixty, so that research could begin on a new park altogether. Construction for the park began in 1986 with the rising of the Earful Tower, a massive pair of Mickey ears that could be seen from much of the park, including one major Streets of America attraction, the Studio Backlot Tour.
Entrance to Disney-MGM Studios
Image: Disney
Disney-MGM Studios theme park was to be one of the most unique vacation entertainment experiences in the world. It would have all the Disney magic synonymous with the rest of Walt Disney World, while allowing guests to have new experiences which would immerse them into the movies, and also work as an active film and animation studio. The latter concept, which was made possible through a strategic partnership with Metro Goldwyn Meyer, was the primary aspect that set the park apart from all of the others. Not only could guests become part of the movies through detailed attractions like the Great Movie Ride, but they would also have a variety of opportunities to see how these movies are created from start to finish, with a close up, behind the scenes view of working sets and backlots.
New York Street and Beyond: Productions on the Backlot
Image: Disney
The park’s major backlot was the Streets of America, or as it was initially known, New York Street. New York Street is the main series of false fronts located in the back of the park fashioned after a large city. Not only did New York Street demonstrate the effectiveness of using false fronts for film shoots, but it also helped guests to better understand the idea of forced perspectives. For instance, the Empire State Building seen in the backdrop of New York Street is about four stories tall, whereas the actual Empire State Building is closer to 100. The building in the park however appears to be taller than it is because it is pushed further back from the rest of the set, and the buildings surrounding it seem smaller themselves.
The greatest feature of New York Street was simply its ability to change based upon production needs, while still being accessible in a way that guests visiting the park could see glimpses of production from the Backlot Tour’s tram. Certain aspects of the skyline, and details of the “city” were interchangeable in that they could easily become a part of skylines for other cities, like Chicago, or Boston for instance. As Michael Eisner once pointed out however, it was extremely important for the production crews to keep theme park management informed about what the décor on the street was supposed to look like with each set change.
For instance, while preparing to shoot “The Lottery,” crews designed the street to look authentic to the actual New York City. By “authentic,” they brought in trash and graffiti, and have the standard fronts appear with some “added character,” that an actual, lived in city would definitely have. Set crews dirtied up the streets one afternoon, and left everything in place overnight to begin filming the next day. However, when the crews arrived the next day, they found that New York Street was back to its regular appearance, as Disney’s third shift custodial cast simply saw the area as too dirty for a Disney park, and so they returned the street to its original “less authentic” setting.
False fronts on New York Street after it became open to guests
The first major televised production filmed on the Streets of America actually occurred for the park’s opening special, on May 1, 1989, when dozens of stars sang and danced up and down New York Street. The grand opening special, along with a handful of other educational programming televised at the time also included sneak peeks into how this part of the park operated both as a behind the scenes film set, and also in showcasing what guests would see while riding through the area on the Studio Backlot Tour. For generations of Americans who grew up with Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom, and Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios would be an entirely different experience, and so it needed to be marketed in such a way to convey this idea to audiences viewing the special from home.
As a working studio, a number of films had at least some production time on in the park including “Ernest Saves Christmas,” “Splash Too,” and “Quick Change” just to name a few. One of the most famous films produced on New York Street specifically was Dick Tracy (1990) starring such celebrities as Warren Beatty, Al Pacino, Madonna, Dick Van Dyke, and Dustin Hoffman. After the film’s production, Dick Tracy became one of the many selling points of the Studio Backlot Tour, as guests could see clips from the movie and easily relay the images to the area they’d just visited.
A couple of films began production at Disney-MGM Studios before the area was even open and functioning as a theme park. A number of television shows were also in production at the park, although at the Streets of America specifically, the most remembered is likely the New Mickey Mouse Club in the early 1990s. Another hit television production filmed in the early days of the park was the mini-series, “Separate but Equal.” A variety of other hit films, such as Disney’s “Newsies,” for instance, were also filmed at least in part on New York Street.
The Studio Backlot Tour
Image: Disney
The main headline attraction in the park, perhaps only second to the Great Movie Ride, was the Studio Backlot Tour, which was part walking tour, part tram ride through the backstage areas of the park. The tour initially began with guests boarding trams next to the current location of the Star Wars Launch Bay. At the time, this area was devoted to animation studios, where guests could see Disney animators working on the latest features.
In between the walking tour and the tram portion of the tour, was an area where guests could essentially take a break from the attraction, as it was a couple of hours long when it was first opened. The Honey I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure, and the Studio Catering Co. quick service restaurant was strategically built at the end of the Streets of America to give guests a quick bite to eat, as well as a way for kids to expel some energy in the playground, before continuing on with the tour.
Before boarding the tram, guests would view the short film titled, The Lottery which starred Bette Midler, and was created entirely on sound stages at the park and on New York Street. In the film, Bette Midler’s character wins the lottery, only to lose the winning ticket out the window of her New York City apartment, where it is picked up by a pigeon.
Upon losing the ticket, she goes on a frantic chase through the city streets and into the subway station in an attempt to catch the lost ticket. The scenes in this film make use of a number of special effects that were explained to guests before boarding the tram, including stunt doubles, forced perspectives, and how certain sound effects were created. After viewing the film in its entirety (about six minutes) guests would watch a couple of more clips from Disney producers further explaining how the different special effects worked, and how they would be able to learn more about how movies like this one were made on the rest of the tour.
Another pre-tram experience included an interactive experience in which guests would become actors for a scene for a movie called “Harbor Attack”. In this section of the tour, guests would be selected to perform roles including captains and deckhands on ships that were going through storms and being torpedoed. The footage would make for some hilarious moments in seeing how random guests could put their improvisational skills to the test, while also demonstrating some secrets to how scenes in these kinds of movies were filmed.
Original park map showing the initial location of the Studio Backlot Tour
Image: Disney
Once on board the tram, guests would ride through costuming, various backstage areas featuring vehicles from movies such as “Herbie the Love Bug,” and eventually move on to the New York Street and Residential Streets. While on New York Street, guests would be able to watch a scene from “Dick Tracy’s Crime Stoppers,” be acted out right before their eyes. In front of the tram, live actors would work with the city’s false fronts to act out a quick skit involving comedy, and some use of the area’s New York Street-specific backdrop. When the park opened in 1989, the only way guests could see New York Street was by riding the tram on the Backlot Tour. The area was initially off limits to foot traffic, and would otherwise remain unseen to guests who chose to skip the attraction.
Another feature on the tour was the boneyard, an area which showcased old vehicular props from a number of movies. Among the most famous items here were a couple of props from the Star Wars films including a sandskiff from “The Return of the Jedi,” and a snowspeeder from “The Empire Strikes Back.” One non-movie piece that was in the boneyard was Walt Disney’s personal plane, which he used while surveying land for the “Florida Project” as Walt Disney World was known as in the 1960s. Though the Backlot Tour has been rearranged multiple times over the years, the plane has most recently been seen from behind the stadium for Lights, Motors, Action! and it is expected to be moved to the archives in California upon the area’s complete closure later this year.
Image: Disney
Catastrophe Canyon was explained to guests on the tour as an actual movie set that they were able to visit in the middle of the shoot. While the tram was stopped next to the set, an earthquake took place, causing a massive flood and explosion around the tanker that was positioned there. This scene was always one of the highlights of the Backlot Tour, and in addition to providing a little bit more action, it also allowed guests to see the details of how scenes like this one were created in movies. After viewing the scene from the main set, the tram would ride behind the set, so that guests could see how the different mechanisms worked, and how the scene would be reset throughout the day to be performed multiple times. The behind the scenes look at the set was fascinating in that guests were able to see how 70,000 gallons of water could essentially be used and re-used in the canyon ever three and a half minutes. Guests would also receive information on how the set was built, in how it was modeled after the deserts of Southern California, and how although the rockwork looked very aged and dry, it was actually built in only about six months and was intentionally designed with a more arid look in mind.
Image: Disney
Residential Street was the portion of the Backlot Tour in which guests would be able to see false fronts of famous movie homes arranged along a typical neighborhood street. Some of the most well-known homes on the street included that of the Golden Girls, as well as sets from “Ernest Saves Christmas,” and “Empty Nest.” Older versions of the tour sometimes included skits involving an actor going into a home and exposing it as a false front, though this portion of the tour was generally shortened in many later versions.
A decade of change
Image: Disney
Residential Street permanently closed in 2003, and the area was walled off to make way for a new experience in the form of a high octane stunt show that would open two years later. In the meantime, the Backlot Tour itself was drastically shortened, and the turnaround area between the former Residential Street and the end of New York Street underwent construction so that the tour could still run without cutting through the construction zone.
One year later, in 2004, the animation studio portion of the park was reworked to accommodate the closure of the Florida Division of Walt Disney Feature Animation. With the Florida Division closed, animators were no longer producing films in Walt Disney World, however the Magic of Disney Animation building stayed open, and was used for drawing classes that guests visiting the park could participate in instead.
Also in 2004, the area encompassing New York Street received an addition of a side street called San Francisco Street, thereby renaming the entire area the Streets of America. Under the new title of the Streets of America, the area added Muppet Vision 3D, which opened in 1991.
With the new arrangement in the area, and the land where Residential Street was surrounded by construction walls, extra entertainment was certainly needed to keep the Streets of America as a relevant part of the park. Cue a band that never wore out their welcome—Mulch, Sweat and Shears, a family of “bandscapers,” who repeatedly snuck into the park and performed in hopes of getting a record deal. The band, led by either Morris or Mia Mulch regularly drew large crowds, and added some fun entertainment to the Streets of America (and other parts of the park as well as for special events) while construction took place. The band ended up having an eleven year run, and their last performance was held in 2015 in front of the Chinese Theater near Hollywood Blvd. While many Mulch fans are certainly still grieving the loss of one of their favorite acts, this is completely understandable given the improvement to the atmosphere that the band provided over the years. The later years of the Streets of America’s lifespan were sometimes confusing for guests who only knew of the area as a randomly themed walkway between Muppet Vision 3D and Lights, Motors, Action! so added entertainment like Mulch, Sweat and Shears proved to be beneficial in not only getting guests over to this part of the park, but also in keeping them entertained once they were there.
Stopping by Lights, Motors, Action! on the grounds of the former Residential Street
Image: Brittany DiCologero
By 2005, Residential Street was long demolished, and in May of that year it was replaced with Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show. The show was based on its sister show from Disneyland Paris, titled “Moteurs… Action!” and was brought to the Walt Disney World Resort as part of the Happiest Celebration on Earth, which marked the fiftieth anniversary of the first Disney park. The show featured a variety of unique stunt work, that guests would rarely otherwise have the opportunity to see in person including car chases, motorcycles, pyrotechnics, fire stunts, free falls, and jet skis.
The explosive finale to Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show
Lights, Motors, Action! ultimately changed the entire landscape of the Streets of America. By removing Residential Street, an entire portion of the tram tour was removed, and with more entertainment and foot traffic coming to the New York and San Francisco Street areas, the tour needed to be further reworked to be far enough away from regular guest traffic that it would not be intrusive. With these changes, the Backlot Tour was shortened, and was only a fraction in length of what the original tour included.
Another piece of the Streets of America that has already become lost to the ages, is the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. This beautiful light display, which ran from 1995 to 2015 has a rather interesting history, which you can read more about here.
Holidays on the Streets of America featuring the Osborne Spectacle of Dancing Lights
The lights were originally put on view in Residential Street, which makes perfect sense as this setting would have been the most similar to the area they were originally displayed in. During this time, the Backlot Tour would stop running around sunset so guests could walk around Residential Street to see the lights. When Residential Street closed, the lights were moved to New York Street, where the lights further expanded, using LED technology and “danced” nightly to choreographed pieces of music for guests visiting during the winter holidays. By the later years of the production, the Streets of America would be filled with guests enjoying the lights, music, and even real snow and specialty snacks and drinks. In fall 2015, Disney announced that after a twenty year run, the final performance of the lights would be that year, as Streets of America would later begin construction to become Toy Story and Star Wars lands.
Yet another piece of the Streets of America that is soon to be dismantled is the Earffel Tower, the sometimes park icon of both Disney-MGM Studios and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, that has thus far withstood the test of time despite the closure of the Backlot Tour. The water tower was one of the first pieces of the park to be assembled during construction in the 1980s, and has served as the unofficial park icon here and there, leaving a memorable impression of it upon guests. When riding by the tower on the older versions of the Backlot Tour, the guide, or automated narration would give guests fun facts about the structure including that it was thirteen stories tall, each ear would weight about two and a half tons, and the hat size of the Mickey cap would be 342 and 3/8. As another beloved park icon is removed to make way for new lands, and perhaps a new kind of park as a whole, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the message of the park is getting increasingly further away from the old ideal of the “Hollywood that never was—and always will be.”
The Earffel Tower at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, an original icon that is soon-to-be dismantled
Image: Disney
Looking Forward and Back
Though the Streets of America were formall retired at closed in 2016, we can trace the beginning of the end for this area back to 2008, when the partnership between Disney and MGM ended, and the park could no longer function as both a theme park and actual production center. As a result, the Backlot Tour, and by proxy the Streets of America truly became remnants of their former selves. The Imagineers who designed the park explained it best, in the “Imagineering Field Guide to Disney’s Hollywood Studios,” book where the use an analogy of the bonus features of a DVD to explain the changing direction of the park. In this work, the Imagineers write that new technology has essentially changed the way we interact with the behind the scenes making of films. When the park opened in 1989, we could not learn about how movies were made via DVD extras, which made the idea of learning about the movies a facinating subject then, but not so much now.
In explaining this shift in the park’s message the Imagineers write, “[We] have steered Disney’s Hollywood Studios away from being a tutorial on filmmaking and in the direction of an immersive experience that puts Guests in the middle of the action in ways that a DVD cannot.” The Imagineers go on to use examples from the park that ironically are now beginning to close to make way for other new and exciting projects: “We place you at a stunt car shoot so you can hear the screaming engines and smell the burning rubber. We show you production artwork next to an actual artifact from a film…” and perhaps most importantly in terms of the Streets of America, “We let you walk the streets of a backlot so you can see what the camera can’t. Let’s see your DVD do that!”
A look back at Disney-MGM Studios on opening day
Image: Disney
When Hollywood Studios stopped acting as a working film studio, the park’s message to guests undoubtedly changed. Rather than allowing the entire park to serve as a look into the backstage inner workings of how the movies are made, the park became an immersive experience, where guests could be right in the middle of the action, and see the soundstages, sets, and props up close, rather than from a distance. Perhaps no one area of the park makes this new idea more relevant than the Streets of America. At once the Streets of America served as the unofficial focal point of the park. We may not have realized it at the time, but during the height of the Streets of America, this area most brutally exemplified what the park was all about—a theme park where guests could not only visit an old Hollywood that never truly existed, but also gain behind the scenes perspectives on how those classic movies were made.
Catastrophe Canyon almost two years after the closure of the Backlot Tour
With another name change, and two major expansions and renovations planned for the park, it is safe to say that we are officially coming to the end of an era. The Hollywood that never was but always will be, might continue to exist only as an idea in the park’s turbulent history, however the legacy of the Streets of America will definitely live on in the hearts of the cast members and guests who made valuable memories here over the years. “Well, as they say in Hollywood, that’s a wrap!”
