Bob Welbaum: Second Annual NFFC Florida Convention
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Of course, some of the stories were serious. Bob told how dignitaries used to visit during his stint at �It�s a Small World� at the New York World�s Fair. One special person that stuck in his mind was Ed White, the first astronaut to walk in space. Mr. White was on a very tight schedule, being due back in Houston, Texas to resume his training. Bob got him to the front of the line, took him through the attraction, then said goodbye.
A bit later, Bob was standing outside in front of the attraction when he hears a voice behind him, �If I take this young boy, carry him, can I take him on the attraction?� Bob turned around to see Ed White standing with a boy in his arms. He had found this boy, a total stranger, sitting in a wheelchair outside, and had blown off his schedule to pick him up and carry him to Bob. This was before the Americans with Disabilities Act and there was no wheelchair access; Mr. White carried the boy through the queue, and up stairs, to get to the boats.
Alan�s final question was what makes Disney parks so special?
Bill went first. �What makes Disney better? It�s the quality of people, quality of the training, quality of construction, quality of the design, it�s quality, quality, quality. It�s all put together.�
Bob agreed that it certainly was the people � everyone from varied disciplines coming together for a common cause� and wanting to do it. It started with Walt; no one ever told Walt something couldn�t be done. And Walt loved new things. Walt didn�t care about yesterday, he wanted to know what was happening tomorrow. It made for an exciting atmosphere.
To make his point, Bob related a story of an incident at Disneyland he happened to witness. Walt was inspecting the Tahitian Terrace, an Adventureland restaurant with a Polynesian-themed show, with some of his executives, including Admiral Joe Fowler, who had been chosen by Walt in 1954 to supervise Disneyland�s construction. Walt was looking at the stage area with a waterfall behind it. Walt gestured and said �Joe, what I want you to do is part the water.� This would of course create some interesting show possibilities, but how do you part water? But Joe Fowler didn�t miss a beat. In his finest Navy tradition, he immediately replied, �Can do, Walt, can do!�
Later Bob talked to Joe Fowler and told him Bob knew Joe had no idea how he was going to do what Walt had requested. And Joe replied, �Yea. But I wasn�t going to tell Walt that.�
Remember the original Epcot attraction in the Journey Into Imagination pavilion featuring Dreamfinder and Figment? One person who certainly does is Howard Kalov, who is the founder of �Friends of Figment� (www.friendsoffigment.org) and claims the largest collection of Figment and Dreamfinder material. Howard quickly reminded everyone that not only was this Epcot�s 25th birthday, it was also Figment�s! Howard discussed the original attraction, what happened to it, and how Friends of Figment worked to bring this lovable Disney character back.
Howard began with an electron micrograph of a tabular grain emulsion to show how the shapes in that emulsion inspired the shape of the building. (No, I didn�t understand it either, but the shapes did match.)
Not everyone may realize the original Journey Into Imagination had a specific storyline. In fact, the Imagineers developed a story that was ingenious: find things in your environment, gather them together, store them (in the attraction this was the Dreamport), and then you can recombine them into different forms of expression! These forms are presented in the attraction in this order: Art, Literature (Howard prefers to call this segment Story), the Performing Arts, and Science. In the Science segment Dreamfinder operated a space-time machine; remember the multiple screens with films showing crystals growing and seeds sprouting? This demonstrated how the manipulation of space and time allowed to you see what normally would be almost impossible.
Since the pavilion�s sponsor was Kodak, the attraction�s finale emphasizes imaging technology. The last scene is Figment standing on a film can watching the movie screens around him: showing him as a superhero, cowboy, mountain climber, etc. In other words, Figment was realizing all his dreams. Then it was off to the Image Works to try out your own imagination.
Next came the attraction�s second version: Journey Into Your Imagination at the Imagination Institute, or as Howard prefers to call it �That which shall not be named.� Figment essentially went away. When this version finally closed in October 2001, there was no going-away party � according to Howard, the only time in the history of Disney theme parks an attraction closing wasn�t commemorated.
To make a long story short, the third version which opened on June 1, 2002 is �Journey Into Imagination with Figment� and in the front window of Figment�s house is a banner proclaiming �Welcome Friends of Figment� as homage to all those people who lobbied for so long to bring back Figment � along with much of the attraction�s old magic.
Coincidentally, this attraction gave me one of my favorite personal memories. About 1988, I was visiting Epcot with a lady friend who had a nursing baby. As luck would have it, lunchtime came just after we�d boarded our ride vehicle. The problem was toward the end, Dreamfinder took pictures of all the vehicles (remember Kodak) and they were displayed just before the attraction ended. Fortunately I had ridden this before, and at the right moment I stuck my elbow out and was able to hide what was happening.
Thanks again to all the speakers at this year�s convention. I�m looking forward to next year already.
Discuss It
-- Bob Welbaum
Bob Welbaum is a longtime Disneyana fan and NFFC member from the Dayton, Ohio area.
-- October 25, 2007