55 - Backlot Studio Tram Tour

Welcome to Episode 55 of the RetroWDW Podcast: "Backstage Tour - MGM" - We appreciate your support and hope you have been enjoying each and every episode. Be sure to check out some of our previous shows!

Comments & Corrections

1. Take a listen to our latest mini-episode, Bringing The World Closer To You - this was a quick one but ended up being very good. Enjoy!

Listener Mail

The mailbag is full and we love that! Every month, you can possibly get on the show, so be sure to write to us at podcast@retrowdw.com.

1. Rob wrote in, asking about the VIP Lounges at EPCOT. Rob is mainly interested in the Kodak lounge at Journey into Imagination. Brian gives us his take on it. As I was putting this write-up together, I realized Rob is the owner of the site we reference. Check out his collection of VIP lounge pictures and information: Future World's Hidden VIP Lounges
2. Next letter we discuss purchasing fog machines at Innoventions. Was this actually a thing? We discuss...
3. Dane writes in, regarding ephemera. Do we have any from Toys Fantastique? Todd gets us up to speed on how our photo archive is growing and improving at this very moment. What any RetroWDW fan can do, is use the search and find so many more images! This is great, use this link and give it a try: Photo Search

[listenerfeedback]

Audio Rewind

Our audio rewind this month is the opening of Holiday Illuminations - Thank you for all the guesses and emails, and we didn't get many!

We have a winner! Congratulations Beth Goldman!  - you won a set of RetroMagic ornaments!

If you think you know the answer to this month's audio rewind, email us! contest@retrowdw.com - This month, the winner will be getting a copy of the Marty Sklar book, Dream it, Do it - All entries due 2/17/2020 and a random winner will be selected.

Main Topic

The main topic this month is one of the recently closed classics, The Disney-MGM Studios Backlot Tour. There have been so many changes and updates over the years, but we are going to focus on the original, for the most part. How is our guide on this episode, walking us through the entire tram portion of the tour. We take it right back to 1989, going through how the Disney-MGM Studios actually worked. The concept of going past the theme park and then entering the studio - this is how the tour basically began. The walking tour was part of this, but we are not going to discuss this.

The backlot tour had so many different aspects including residential street, the boneyard, the various production trailers, and so many other little nuggets. The tour seemed to change often, as far as props and items but the tour wasn't complete with a look at the Streets of America, or the New York street set. You would know this as the set for "The Lottery", which seems to be the only movie filmed here that we ever hear about. To accompany this episode, we have a great video on our YouTube channel - click here to watch after the episode!

 

2020: The Year of Film

To make sure you are the first to know when items are released, subscribe to us on YouTube. Be sure to click the notification bell too, that way you are alerted when we post.  Finally, be sure to check out Vimeo if that is your thing, as we will post there as well. This past month we have posted the Backlot Tour video, a ride around the monorail in 1991 and the 1994 runDisney Marathon. Enjoy!

 

Next Month

• Join us next time for Episode 56, which we have not fully planned out, but you won't want to miss it  Thanks for joining us!