by Beth Keating
News
DisneyBizJournal.com
May 2, 2024
Another Disney World anniversary has come and gone, with very little fanfare from the company itself.
On May 1, 2024, Disney’s Hollywood Studios celebrated its 35th Anniversary with a short, barely twenty-minute ceremony in the Theater of the Stars (Beauty and the Beast Theater) on Sunset Boulevard. It took longer to load the theater than the ceremony itself offered to the excited capacity crowd.
The festivities were hosted by Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog, who then introduced Disney Ambassador Serena Arvizu. The Disney Ambassador gave a brief look back at some of the history of the Disney-MGM-Studio-turned-Hollywood-Studios, before handing the stage over to Hollywood Studios Vice President Jackie Swisher. Swisher spoke of the transformational changes at the park over the years, before turning the mike back to Arvizu. The ceremony wrapped up with a recognition of the 32 cast members who have been with the park since the very beginning. (Round of applause for those dedicated magic makers!)
Of course, no ceremony would be complete without an appearance by a celebrity – in this case, Sorcerer Mickey himself, who was joined on the stage by several of the studio’s beloved characters, in a confetti-marked salute.
The day was also highlighted by a commemorative guide map (which opens into a 35th anniversary poster), and a merchandise drop available through a virtual queue. The old Muppets store (Stage 1 Company Store) in the rear of the park was turned into a well-organized tee shirt, water bottle, backpack, pin and ball cap shop with 35th anniversary logos.
Sadly, this isn’t the first time Disney has missed the opportunity to celebrate a moment in its history with a bit of pomp and circumstance. Some of us even made our own PhotoPass opportunities for the day by asking the Disney PhotoPass photographers to take a shot of us in front of iconic Hollywood Studios buildings with the commemorative guide map opened to the poster page, just so we’d have a remembrance of the day. (How easy would it have been for Disney to host a few backdrops with the 35th anniversary logo for the event?)
Meanwhile, the news out of Disneyland with regard to Pixar Fest has us drooling – and contemplating whether our household budgets could afford a jaunt out to join in the fun. So many cute foods and fun activities (not to mention excellent popcorn buckets!!). It surely would have offered a blueprint for Disney World to “plus it up” a bit for their own, very legitimate milestones. Other international Disney parks have served up drone shows and parades for various landmark dates.
Disney fans love their Disney history. (Maybe a bit more than the Disney executives realize.) The family sitting next to me at the Hollywood Studios ceremony had even planned their vacation dates so that they’d be in the park for May 1. Hope they weren’t too disappointed. If you didn’t get in to the short ceremony at the beginning of the day, it was just a regular day at Hollywood Studios. Opportunity missed…
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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.
Get The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution by Ray Keating. More information at
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