American Cinematographer - August 1989 - 94

The Last

Another

Page

Kingdom for Florida Fairyland
including the Indiana Jones Stunt Show,
working sound stages for movies and televi¬
sion, a versatile back lot, complete anima¬

m

yu

if.

tion studio, on and on.
It's enough to worry the Holly¬
wood, Calif., folks who believe imitation is
the highest form of flattery, of course, but
who should be looking to their laurels. The
real boulevard has long since lost its glam¬
our and though it remains a tourist draw for
Los Angeles, a comparison of the two is

embarrassing.
There

are movements

afoot to

change and improve, so politicians, as politi¬
cians always do, fiddle with grants and
projects. Much talk, little action. Strange
that the original so faithfully reproduced in
all its charm in Florida, seems only to want
change - not restoration. What hometown
pride has abandoned, is rescued and pre¬
served there, even to the recently burned
out Pan-Pacific Auditorium, a replica of
which is the design of the opening gates.
Preservation and conditioning of
community treasures is a lesson Hollywood,
Calif., has not yet learned. It still lacks a
museum of any stature to hold memorabilia
of the industry which made it famous. Its
boulevard alternates between

a

line of

empty upstairs windows staring blankly
above the street to

Hollywood Bouievard

-

in Florida,

What is squeaky clean and has
bums?
What glistens in the morning
sun and nary a fleck of dust catches the
light?
What shining reincarnation is
no

bugs

or

this that stirs old dreams and shouts to the
heavens of the glitter and glamour of yore?

Why it's Hollywood Boulevard,
Hollywood Boulevard, Florida.
Specifically, Hollywood Boulevard within the
new Disney-M-G-M studio complex outside

Millions of eager

tourists are
wonder of the world in
Florida this year without ever traveling to
California. Selected representations of Hol¬
lywood architecture, mostly from the fa¬

viewing this

new

mous boulevard, have been constructed on
the grounds of the studio: a smaller-thanreal Hollywood Bowl, a big-as-life Chinese

Theatre, the original Brown Derby, ad

that's what!

infinitum.

Orlando.

The Chinese Theatre conceals a
fabulous ride-journey through life-like ani¬
mations of old movie scenes. Casablanca,
Alien, Public Enemy, Wizard of Oz, and A
Fistful of Dollars, to name a few. Like "rides''

Who does it better than any¬

body? Who never leaves a smudge upon the
sidewalk or a smear upon the scaffolding?

throughout all the Disneylands of the world,

a proliferation of T-shirt
shops below. These are interjected occa¬
sionally with dismal theaters which haven't
been cleaned in a quarter of a century
(Chinese Theatre excepted).
Those of us who visit the Disney
establishments wherever they are, are often
inclined to chuckle derisively at the alacrity
with which a dropped cigarette butt is
swept away, or how an ice cream cone
disaster vanishes as soon as it happens.
Nevertheless, millions of people want to be
in that kind of environment. The public seeks
out what is clean, entertaining, educational.
People devour the Hollywood mystique,
spend whole vacations in Disney's attrac¬
tions. The real thing could be just as en¬
chanting, but it takes doing.

Nobody else but Disney. Not Walt himself,
of course, but Disney - by any other name
the same cleanly, courteous, respectful, in¬

these

with the suspense

impeccably produced and filled
and drama an eager
public relishes. This is only a brief descrip¬

Florida and there you will catch what every¬
one wishes Hollywood was really like - as

spired, artistic showman who started it all.

tion of

it

Visit this beautiful, new

are

acres

of

fascinating innovations

place in

once was.

-JT
92

American

Cinematographer

August 1989
American Cinematographer - August 1989

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