About this episode
It’s mime time at the Most Magical Place on Earth in 1978’s Christmas at Walt Disney World , featuring Shields and Yarnell as the most 1978 couple imaginable, Pablo Cruise and their indifference to help a screaming woman escape from pirates, Phyllis Diller in the world’s poofiest princess dress, the Doritos guy as a wildly off-model Geppetto, Dee from What’s Happening as an ungrateful passenger in a magical pumpkin coach, and Broadway’s original Annie singing Christmas carols with surprisingly reverent Disney villains. **** 🎙 Guests: Drew Crowley ( @pizzanautgo ) and John Dedeke ( @johndedeke ) from The Hourchive . **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: 1. A map of what Walt Disney World looked like in 1978 . 2. Vault Disney . 3. Mystery solved: How My Favorite Things became a Christmas song . 4. The opening music, The Great Gate of Kiev , part of Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition , and the entrance theme for Jerry “The King” Lawler . 5. Dick Clark interviews Shields and Yarnell on American Bandstand in 1976. 6. Drew eating a gigantic spoonful of mashed potatoes at the Liberty Tree Tavern. 7. Photos from the long-abandoned Discovery Island in 2009. 8. Disney’s short-lived plans of reopening Discovery Island as an attraction based on Myst . 9. The History (and Mystery) Behind Discovery Island (MSN). 10. One-day admission to the Magic Kingdom plus a book of attraction tickets in 1978 cost $13, according to this Ticket Price Guide . 11. Ernest Goes to Splash Mountain . 12. I miss Winnie-the-Pooh with the honey pot on his head . 13. Giant, smoking cigars in a theme park parade for children. 14. The (1970s) Mouseketeers at Walt Disney World . 15. That time Kraft saluted Walt Disney World’s 10th anniversary . 16. The Hourchive on Walt Disney World: Part 1 and Part 2 . **** “Christmas at Walt Disney World” © 1978 Walt Disney Productions. Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house . Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse . Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost . Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house .