View from the Top
Stars, crowds flocked to Contemporary’s Top of the World
Before there was California Grill, there was Top of the World, a nightclub/restaurant on the 15th floor of Disney’s Contemporary Resort. In the early days of Walt Disney World, singers performed their acts there for two-week stretches, expanding Central Florida’s entertainment options in the process.
For this week’s Disney World at 50, which appears on Orlando Sentinel.com on Wednesdays, we chatted with Orlando Sentinel alum Dean Johnson about covering the big names and the venue. He was an entertainment writer in the 1970s and eventually became longtime editor of the newspaper’s Calendar section. He retired in 2005.
Johnson, who also wrote a longtime column under the name Commander Coconut, remembers big names such
as Peggy Lee, Rosemary Clooney, Mel Torme, Chita Rivera, Fabian, Diahann Carroll and Frankie Avalon coming through.
“It was good for me because I grew up in the ’50s, and these were ’50s acts,” Johnson says.
A selling point for dining atop the Contemporary was the vantage point, looking over Magic Kingdom.
“Of course, we all loved the view,” Johnson says. Sometimes he lingered after concerts to see the theme park’s fireworks, or he would go catch jazz acts in the Village Lounge at Walt Disney World Village (now called Disney Springs).
At Top of the World, “there were families, so it wasn’t quite a regular nightclub like you’d see in New York,” he said. “But it was an enthusiastic audience.”
Aside from these acts, Top of the World was popular for its buffets (breakfasts, lunches, Sunday brunches). Jackets were required for gentlemen at times. Drinks were named for monorail trains (Monorail Red was tequila, Galliano, grenadine, lemon bar mix and pineapple juice), and there was Top of the World dressing (onion, anchovy, garlic, eggs, cider vinegar, mustard, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce) for salads.
It was a celebration destination, Johnson says.
“The food was good. The servers were top-notch, mostly older men. And they always remembered what I drank,” he says.
Because the entertainers were in town for two weeks, Johnson would sometimes write two pieces, a review and a follow-up feature. Disney hosted local media for an early performance (there were usually two per night).
Afterward, “we were escorted up a back elevator to one of the suites and then only about a 15-minute interview” with the entertainer, Johnson says.
Chita Rivera was one of the few performers who didn’t want to do the interview, Johnson says.
“I think Disney probably insisted. For some reason, I mentioned that in my column. I got a nice note from her saying she was debuting a new act,” he says. “She did a lot of dance in her act, which was different.”
Johnson remembers questioning comedian Phyllis Diller.
“I asked her, ‘Is there any material Disney asked you not to do?’ And she mentioned one joke,” Johnson says. Let’s just say the rejected material focused on her looks and included a hot-button topic that survives today.
Johnson says he enjoyed Mel Torme interviews, but “he’d call publicity and ask for park tickets … but then he’d hand them out as tips to employees.” (Cast members called him “Mel Torment,” Johnson says.)
“You learn about the eccentricities,” he says. “Peggy Lee had to go backstage after every couple of songs to breathe oxygen. But she did the interview. She was very gracious.”
In the ’80s, the nightclub introduced a “Broadway at the Top” program featuring five Disney performers.
“It was good, but it never really caught on,” Johnson says.
He isn’t sure Top of the World was financially profitable.
“But it was good PR. And they could afford to do it,” he says.
Eventually, Top of the World closed. The space became California Grill in 1995. In 2009, another space also called Top of the World Lounge debuted atop Bay Lake Tower, a Disney Vacation Club property next door to the Contemporary.
“That was a circuit that even in the early ’70s was dying … cabaret acts, nightclubs with bands. … There wasn’t a lot of demand for these people in Vegas,” Johnson says.
“It was a thrill to me because that was my era.”
See more Disney World at 50 stories at orlando sentinel.com/wdw50.
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