Exhibit recalls resort’s roots
A tribute to the early days of Walt Disney World is a standing feature of the Orange County Regional History Center in downtown Orlando.
The space on the museum’s third floor features memorabilia, enlarged photos and explanations that put some context into the events of 1971, denoted in the exhibit as “the day we changed.”
Among the objects on display: a model of Disney’s Contemporary Resort and the monorail; the basic black Mickey Mouse ear hat; a Mickey backscratcher, VinylMation figures, an Orange Bird key ring; newspaper reproductions; a 1971 Life magazine with hundreds of cast members standing in front of Cinderella Castle on the cover; and a program from Magic Kingdom’s “opening spectacular and dedication” ceremony.
“This is a relatively small area for a relatively large story,” says Pamela Schwartz, executive director of the history center. “There’s the Disney story. And then there’s the Disney story with all the context before and after. … This exhibit, as it currently sits, really sort of talks about the very early origins, all the secrecy that was happening.”
The display has been in place since the history center moved into the building — the restored 1927 Orange County Courthouse — about 20 years ago. There have been small additions since then. The history center’s permanent exhibits are in the process of an update, starting from the fourth floor and working its way down, gallery by gallery, Schwartz says.
It’s still to be determined how that will affect the topic of theme parks there. It’s all in the design stage, she says.
The Disney exhibit is meant to look like visitors are standing amid the construction (and the spires) of Cinderella Castle. But the scaffolding might have been too convincing at first.
“People came to the exhibit, they thought it was under construction, and they didn’t want to come in here. They kind of peered in,” Schwartz says. The construction look was scaled back to make it more inviting.
The museum has more than
1,000 Disney items in its collection, she says, although much of it is in storage.
“Not only have we done a lot more research and learned more — and more
has happened in the past 20 years — but we’ve also grown the collection,” Schwartz says. Items come from various places, including private collections, antique stores and grandma’s attic.
“Sometimes when you’re building exhibitions, people can’t visualize
it,” she says. “Then once you open, the next two months everyone’s like ‘But I have things.’ ”
The history center also has displays about pre-Disney tourism in Central Florida, including one called “Destination Florida” that includes elements such as the Wigwam Motel, Dixie Highway and railway travel.
“We hear so often people say ‘Nothing happened in Central Florida before Disney.’ … Wrong.” Schwartz says. “So, we love to show or talk about all the things that did happen here that really actually enabled the success, whether that’s a natural landscape or that’s all of this sort of interesting, quirky tourist items that came before that.”
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