People on the scene

The first executive chef for Empress Lilly was Garry Reich, who had been executive banquet chef at Disney’s Contemporary Resort. His resume included a stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel as head chef, and he had been White House chef for President Lyndon B. Johnson. He had been head chef in the New Orleans Square area of Disneyland and, before that, a Hungarian Army cook during World War II.

There was talk that the monorail would connect the Lake Buena Shopping Village to Magic Kingdom and the “planned World Showcase.” Howard Roland, vice president in charge of construction and purchases, noted that was “somewhere down the line.”

Standing next to

Lillian

Odds and ends

Although the flesh-andblood Lillian appeared at the opening, she did not speak to reporters. “According to Disney officials, Mrs. Truyens, who is reportedly in her early 70s, was fighting a cold,” the Sentinel reported. (For the record, she was 78, according to modern sources. She died in 1997 at age 98.)

In early May 1977, the Sentinel reported that Disney had planned to serve venison and striped bass, but Florida law prohibited the sale of the game. It was removed from the menu two days before opening. “They’ll probably either return it from where they bought it or give it to charity,” said spokesman Bob Mervine. There had been calls from “concerned citizens,” the newspaper said.

In June, a column called “Inside Stuff” reported the flat fee for the exclusive experience dropped from $50 to $35. “Insiders say top Disney brass may soon decide to change the Empress Room altogether to get back to a more realistic price that would be in better keeping with the Disney image as a family adventure,” it said.