Originally Posted By AutoPost This topic is for Discussion of: <a href="http://www.laughingplace.com/w/articles/2014/05/01/a-look-back-at-disney-mgm-studios-star-of-the-day-promotion/" target="_blank"><b>5/1/14: A Look Back at Disney-MGM Studios "Star of the Day" Promotion</b></a>
Originally Posted By FerretAfros How did the handprints work if each celebrity appeared for multiple days? Did they only do the handprints on one day, or did they do it every day and only keep the best one? I assume this is where most of the handprints in front of the theater came from, right? I also think it's interesting that some of the celebrities listed aren't from the entertainment industry. I guess they've all appeared on TV, but I'm not sure I get the "Hollywood" connection (Greg Louganis, I'm looking at you!) While I don't think it would need to be daily, it would be great to get some fresh celebrities to do this again. The most recent handprints are well over a decade old, and many of them are from people who are no longer household names. Disney often posts press photos when celebrities visit, so why not have them occasionally do a handprint ceremony?
Originally Posted By tonyanton the folks in charge of promoting the current celebrity visits probably don't even know the handprints are there! ;]
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Honestly, that wouldn't surprise me! Or if they do know they're there, they probably haven't realized that they were added over time after the park opened, and there's plenty of room for more
Originally Posted By DlandDug Amazingly enough, according to cast members who worked this promotion, the stars did multiple ceremonies, and the extras were kept in storage backstage. That way, if the forecourt panel was damaged or got worn out, it could be replaced. The latest reference I could find to a handprint ceremony was Kate Mulgrew in 1996. The next time I am in Florida (no hurry...!) I will survey the stars in the forecourt to find out when the most recent one was done.
Originally Posted By virk4 The outside theater [photo # 2 in the link]was located exactly where? Beauty and Beast started there before moving to the enclosed current theater.
Originally Posted By DlandDug >>(Greg Louganis, I'm looking at you!)<< Although Louganis is notable for his Olympic prowess, he has also had a modest career in television and film. By the late 1980s he had appeared as "himself" on game shows and documentaries. He also played "himself" in D2: The Mighty Ducks in 1994. More recently he was in Portlandia and reality shows, often with his dogs.
Originally Posted By DlandDug >>The outside theater [photo # 2 in the link]was located exactly where?<< The original Theater of the Stars was located at the end of Hollywood Boulevard on the right. It filled the space between the Pacific Electric Car Barn and the Brown Derby Restaurant. Today that area is the start of Sunset Boulevard. This location officially closed on May 2, 1993. Since Beauty and the Beast opened on November 22, 1991, you are correct that it debuted here. The "new" Theater of the Stars is further down Sunset Boulevard.
Originally Posted By DlandDug If you want to see the show that opened the Theater of the Stars, it has been uploaded here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqhy5PV0tis
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>The latest reference I could find to a handprint ceremony was Kate Mulgrew in 1996. The next time I am in Florida (no hurry...!) I will survey the stars in the forecourt to find out when the most recent one was done.<< The most recent one I've seen is from the 3 then-kids featured in the Harry Potter movies, around the time of the release of the first movie. If that's the last one, they did a good job of picking people who would stay relevant for many years, as they became more famous the longer the series ran and are now household names
Originally Posted By tonyanton I didn't realize they had the 3 HP actors...that is funny considering what's been going on up the road.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Yep! I know way-back-when Disney was hoping to get the theme park rights to the books/movies, but ultimately let Universal have it when they saw how much control Rowling wanted over the final product. For example, Disney never would have allowed the shops to be that small with the amount of traffic they expected, but Rowling insisted that the size must be 'authentic'. In hindsight, Disney probably wouldn't have given HP as much attention as Universal did, so I'm glad they got it instead, but it would have been interesting to see what they would have done with the IP After pondering it for a while, I feel like a lot of this park's heart was lost when Touchstone and Miramax were dissolved. Those are the films that I associate with the park, and since those brands don't exist any more (and there's no Disney equivalent to replace them) it seems like a lot of the stuff in the park that references them is somewhat pointless. DCA's backlot had a similar feeling (though to a much less extent) when Hollywood Pictures dissolved
Originally Posted By DBitz2 While I still like the Studios park because of my lifelong interest in Hollywood history and movie-making, the park has lost some of the magic of its early days that made it feel like a real celebration of vintage Hollywood and movie-making. I hope that Kathy Mangum can bring some of that back to the park one day, along with whatever expansion they might do in the future. My first visit to Disney-MGM was in October of 1991, the week after the kick-off of the WDW 20th anniversary (also my first time to WDW), so the park was still pretty new. I think MuppetVision and Voyage of the Little Mermaid were very new. There was a fun Muppet live action show on a backlot side street. The "Star of the Day" at least on one of the days I visited the park was Zsa Zsa Gabor. I wasn't that excited that it was her. Not that I have anything against her, but I had seen her in person and even met her once here in LA and would rather have seen a star I hadn't seen before. Oh, well, the very next year Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman started filming at Paramount Ranch, my hangout, and I saw and met more stars than I can count during the years DQ was at the ranch! I returned to WDW and Disney-MGM next in 1995 with a couple of good friends from the NFFC (DFC). The Star of the Day this time was Tom Lester, most known as Eb in Green Acres, but then in the new Disney movie, Gordy. I don't remember a Star of the Day, if they were doing it, when I visited again in December of 1996. Flash forward to October of 2007, when I visited WDW by myself (I have friends who live in Orlando, though.) I was on a resort bus from the Animal Kingdom Lodge over to meet some friends for the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. I kept looking at this guy on the bus across from me, thinking I knew him from somewhere. After awhile it dawned on me that it was John Tartaglia, who I had seen on another day as Grand Marshall of the Studios day parade. He was appearing at the park in some special Johnny & the Sprites shows. It didn't dawn on me at the time that he had been a star of Avenue Q on Broadway. A couple of years later, at a seminar at the 2010 D23 Expo, I turned around and John Tartaglia was sitting right behind me! Really nice guy who is a big Disney fan like us.
