Walt Disney World at 50: Life Magazine’s Opening Coverage
On October 15th, 1971, the world saw some of the first images of Walt Disney World as they spread across the pages of Life Magazine. We provide a deep dive of those pages and show you how the Vacation Kingdom of the World was first presented in this weekly news article. Here we’ll study who was present when 1,500 Cast Members gathered together in front of Cinderella Castle. We’ll look at the original Disney characters and parades that appeared at the time. We’ll explore the significance of attractions like The Hall of Presidents and the Country Bear Jamboree. And we’ll also take a close look at what exactly the Magic Kingdom looked like only a day or two after the park opened on October 1st. With the approaching anniversary of Walt Disney World, we examine more closely 50 years of magic.
Our podcast carries narrative of the entire experience. You can find the podcast here on Podbean, iTunes, Spotify, MyTuner, and ListenNotes. Please subscribe to both!
Here are some photos accompanying our podcast!
Here is the original cover:
The next two pages showcase Main Street U.S.A. at night and Mickey leading the band.
The next two images showcase a unique aerial view of the Magic Kingdom around opening.
The next two pages showcase many of the Disney characters as well as the Mickey Mouse Revue.
This last image highlights Big Al of the Country Bear Jamboree.
The Wayfinder Society: A Patreon Site for Disney Fans
We are offering a new program where you have the opportunity to enjoy exclusive offerings from Disney at Play and Disney at Work. Join us as we introduce our new Patreon program, the Wayfinder Society, intended to give you new insights to all things Disney, whether its work or play. I am truly excited to share this new opportunity with you and look forward to creating new experiences that you will enjoy whether at home or at the Disney parks. There are a variety of options for joining, depending on your interests:
When you join, you will be given access to unique, interactive apps that explores the parks in new ways, offering stories, photos, videos and more.
Here are some of the interactive apps we share with members of our society:
- Pandora: World of Avatar: This is an expansive and detailed look at every aspect of this land. You can’t find any source that has covered this entire land with its attractions, retail and dining more in depth.
- Pirates of the Caribbean Across the Globe: We not only compare this attraction in parks world-wide, but we deep dive into what makes each unique. Currently we’ve covered Tokyo Disneyland and Magic Kingdom. More to come!
- Coming Soon! S.E.A. Assembled! The Society of Adventurers and Explorers are coming to the Wayfinder Society. We’ll document their whereabouts and showcase their imprint on Disney attractions world-wide.
- Disney at Work Interactive Tour: Disneyland. For our upper tiers, we have an interactive business tour of Disneyland to include more than fifty attractions spread throughout the park. These are best-in-business ideas you can apply to your own organization.
- Coming Soon! Disney at Work Interactive Tour: Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary. Looking at the heritage of Most Magical Place in the World, we draw best practices from over the years that you can again, apply to your organization.
As you see, we have so much to share. And when you donate, a portion of your contribution goes to Embrace Celebration, dedicated to helping Disney Cast Members and others in this area who are unemployed during this pandemic. To learn more, visit our site to discover our offerings and various tiers. Join us!
