It’s been 29 years since Disney’s Hollywood Studios opened at the Walt Disney World Resort. The theme park is now in the middle of a major expansion.
On May 1, 1989, the third Disney World theme park opened with just five attractions, including The Great Movie Ride, The Backstage Studio Tour, The Magic of Animation Tour, The Monster Sound Show and Superstar Television.
Now, the park is finishing up two new lands. Toy Story Land will open to guests on June 30, 2018, and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge land will open in 2019. In addition, a new Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway attraction will also open in 2019.
So let’s take a closer look at the park with these nine cool facts:
1. The origin: Hollywood Studios was created from ideas created by Walt Disney Imagineers. The Imagineers were given the assignment of coming up with two new pavilions for Epcot. One was Wonder of Life. The second was the Great Movie Ride. It was then CEO Michael Eisner who said the Great Movie Ride should anchor a new Hollywood themed park. The Chinese Theater was the home to the Great Movie Ride.
2. The Chinese Theater: The building is modeled after the Hollywood landmark. The near replica is a 9/10 scale of the original building.
3. The MGM connection: Hollywood Studios is still called by many Disney-MGM Studios. That was the original name of the park. To get access to a broader film library Disney and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer entered into a licensing agreement, thus the name Disney-MGM Studios. Over the years the two sued and countersued each other over the name and its use for theme parks and studios. The deal ended in 2008 and the name was changed.
4. There used to be a giant hat in front of the Chinese Theater. Mickey’s Sorcerer’s Hat debuted Sept. 28, 2001, as part of the 100 years of Magic Celebration. The 122-foot-tall hat weighed 156 tons and is made of composite fiberglass. The foundation was made of enough concrete to cover the length of a football field,. Now, if Mickey were to wear the hat, he would have to be 350 feet tall and would have a hat size of 606 7/8. The hat was taken down between Jan. 7 and Feb. 25, 2015.
5. Gertie the Dinosaur: Created by Winsor McCay in 1914, Gertie sprang to life on the vaudeville screen as who many believe was the first animated character to show a distinct personality, paving the way for our own cast of characters – including Mickey Mouse himself.
6. The Hollywood Brown Derby: Inspired by the historic Hollywood locale, this dining location features three items from the original menu: the famous cobb salad, grapefruit cake and the Shirley Temple cocktail.
7. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith: A 40-foot-tall guitar greets you at the entrance to the first Disney attraction to take guests upside down. Take off from 0 to 60 to the sound of over 900 speakers blasting the music of Aerosmith throughout the attraction.
8. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror: Walt Disney Imagineers searched Hollywood auction houses for the hotel furnishings. French bronzes by the 19th-century artist Moreau are found in the attraction, as well as furniture pieces that graced Hollywood clubs and hotels throughout the 1920s.
9. Fantasmic!: The nighttime show has over 50 performers, pyrotechnics, laser lights, 1 million gallons of dancing water and a 40-foot-tall dragon.
