Tom K Morris
@TomKMorris
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Alleged Imagineer. Unofficial WED historian. Had something to do with a castle somewhere in 🇫🇷 and some neon Mickeys. Also lurking on Bluesky and IG!
Los Angeles
Joined August 2013
Flex Alert! Needless to say Leslie Iwerks’ “Disneyland Handcrafted” is an amazing work of filmmaking that parlays 70 year-old “industrial” construction footage—hiding for decades in Disney’s film vaults—into a powerful work of cinematic poetry. I was happy to be part of the
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I've generally been avoiding social media for a few days bc of the inundation of kind words about Eddie Sotto that I can't, at the moment, keep up with and respond to. I thought I had posted my announcement to all the platforms but in peeking at Twitter, just saw that somehow I
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Randomly came across a Disney artist I hadn’t heard of, Frans Van Lamsweerde in one of those posts that casually mentions “My father was an artist at Disney.” And my follow up, “What was his name?” Followed by the unfamiliar name, followed by a Google search. And then, “Holy
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In reference to the peanut brittle comment, the photo crop on the left was taken in 1967 approx where the Mobil Station on 535 is now, near WDW’s LBV entrance, looking east. And to answer an expected followup question, the legs belong to Welton Becket. Stuckey’s was there for
I wonder if they found any peanut brittle? IYKYK
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Way to go Jon Hale, I’ve not even ridden my fave, Pirates of the Caribbean, 500 times! However, you were supposed to keep track of the license tag of each car, not just the color. I’m afraid you’re going to have to start over again.🤨 Just kidding, congratulations on 15k! I
NEW: Disney superfan is set to go on his 15,000th ride on Radiator Springs Racers at Disneyland in California. Jon Hale keeps a notebook to document every single race, writing down the color of the car, the lane, and if he won or not. Hale has been going on the ride since
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An original Walt Disney-era concept for Project Florida finally becomes a reality (serving a differently themed hotel, of course)!
Aerial photos of work at a roundabout in the new routing of Floridian Way. • Non-circular shape! • Grand Floridian access ends abruptly at the Disney property line. This work is a state road (funded by property taxes paid by WDW).
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I wonder if they found any peanut brittle? IYKYK
Aerial photos of ramp construction in the redo of the I-4 interchange with SR 435 S Apopka-Vineland Rd.
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I’m excited to announce that I’ll be speaking at the Walt Disney Family Museum on 02/28/26 on the origins of Walt Disney Imagineering (WED Enterprises). I'll reveal some new details & personalities involved with planning Disneyland that might surprise you!
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The very first Audio-Animatronics programming harness turned out to be unnecessarily Byzantine.
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Here’s an IAAPA Fun Fact! In olden days, IAAPA (then known as NAAPPB) was almost always held in Chicago. The reason? Proximity to Riverview Park, a 72-acre fun land run by William B Schmidt, whose industrial & safety innovations made his park worth an annual visit by his peers.
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So, thanks to Chris Merritt’s incredible 2-vol Marc Davis “bible,” my memory has now been jogged re this scene I haven’t thought about for 40 years. IIRC, I was asked to place this scene into an environment after the figures on the right were deleted due to budget. One of the
Can any Epcot historians out there (looking at you @ProgressCityUSA, @futureport82) tell me if a scene remotely resembling these sketches was in World of Motion? I barely remember doing these, but can’t remember what the assignment was. I don’t remember ideating this, but perhaps
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Can any Epcot historians out there (looking at you @ProgressCityUSA, @futureport82) tell me if a scene remotely resembling these sketches was in World of Motion? I barely remember doing these, but can’t remember what the assignment was. I don’t remember ideating this, but perhaps
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From TV set to Marc’s preliminary sketch, possibly done on his home drafting table after watching the episode (purely my speculation). Image from Chris Merritt’s epic 2-volume book set, “Marc Davis -In His own Words.”
@TomKMorris Full clip :) https://t.co/evMbfPcruO
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You’re right! S3 E18 “The Loaded Goat”
@TomKMorris I’ve been saying this for years. Same goes for the “goat eating dynamite” episode, which obviously corresponds to Big Thunder.
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I try to only post obscure anniversaries, so here’s one: 61 years ago, Oct 26, 1964, a curious episode of The Andy Griffith Show aired. The timing was perfect, and thus an iconic theme park sight gag was born!
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Lunch today at Bob’s with Mike McCracken. His father Michael (in the b&w photo) was one of Blaine Gibson’s key sculptors at Imagineering from 1967-1979 and sculpted some of the most iconic figures in the parks. He left to do freelance work on films and other theme parks, and the
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Inside this humble warehouse on Apopka Vineland Rd, the gothic towers and ornamentation for Cinderella Castle were created. Eleven years later, the stately king palms standing in front were transplanted, along with others, around Spaceship Earth. Photo by John Kemp
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Here’s the original theming, they were like this for decades. I lived in one for a year, circa 1982. In fact, this is the one I lived in! And I periodically stayed in them from time to time in the 90s.
@TomKMorris This is representative of the new “modern takeover” of Fort Wilderness. It’s incongruent with the original theming. It’s apparent in the restroom-like cabins, DVC basic hotel and modern stables. It’s not literally the new store, but it’s heading that way.
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