17 days to go! MGM Studios!

MGM Studios is one of those parks that you just can't help but have fun in! Let's see it open for the day!

Post by Walt Disney World.

A Short History!
A team of Disney Imagineers led by Marty Sklar and Randy Bright had been given an assignment to create two new pavilions for Epcot's Future World section. The fruits of the brainstorming sessions were the Wonders of Life and Great Movie Ride pavilions.

The Great Movie Ride was to look like a soundstage backdrop, with a movie theater-style entrance in the middle, and would have sat between the Land and Journey Into Imagination pavilions. When newly appointed CEO Michael Eisner saw the plans for the pavilion, he requested that, instead of placing the ride in an already existing park, it should be surrounded by a new park themed with Hollywood, entertainment, and show business.

In 1985, Disney and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer entered into a licensing contract that gave Disney worldwide rights to use the MGM name and logo for what would become Disney-MGM Studios, which included working production facilities for movies and television shows and a satellite animation studio, which began operation prior to the park's debut.

Thus, a long, long suit ensued and ended with Disney being contractually prohibited from using the Disney-MGM Studios name in certain marketing contexts; in those instances, the park was called The Disney Studios.

On August 9, 2007, Walt Disney World President Meg Crofton announced that Disney-MGM Studios would be re-branded as Disney's Hollywood Studios, effective January 7, 2008, saying, "the new name reflects how the park has grown from representing the golden age of movies to a celebration of the new entertainment that today's Hollywood has to offer—in music, television, movies and theater."

It's no wonder that Disney and Universal Studios don't like each other!

Yestderday's Trivia Question: In MGM studios, the Tower of Terror is exactly 199 feet high, why was it made that specific height?
Answer: Because if it was 200 feet or more, it would require a beacon to warn airplanes!

Today's Question: How many speakers are on one train of the Disney MGM Studios ride Rockin roller coaster featuring Aerosmith??