Originally Posted By TP2000 Are you able to find any mention on any Disney fan message boards of this Main Street Dark Ride? Cause I can't find anything there either, even on this site. And God knows we all have been talking about every Al Lutz article here the day it goes up for over 10 years. A Google search would come up with something, if Al had deleted from his own site any mention of this Main Street Dark Ride he talked about. But Al wouldn't be able to delete references to it on the other fan message boards, where we would all be talking about it for days if not weeks after Al dropped a bomb like that in one of his famous Tuesday "updates". Anyone else out there in LaughingPlace Land remember the Main Street Dark Ride rumor from 2011? I don't remember it, and neither does Google. Anyone?
Originally Posted By believe How about that big rumor where Al said that Captain Eo was coming back, even though Iger said it wasn't. Talk about mud on Al's face when a "Tribute" movie started showing at the Magic Eye Theatre.
Originally Posted By Manfried Al gets a lot of things right too. But the word "delete" means it disappears.
Originally Posted By TP2000 Yeah, I imagine that one was embarrassing. Is that one still online, or did Al successfully remove it from the Google servers? ;-) I met Al in person once, at a "Noon Meet" in the Hub around 1998, one of the two (2) Noon Meets I went to during the late 1990's before going deep, deep, deep undercover for the 21st century, since my "Theme Park 2000" handle didn't seem so futuristic anymore. Lutz seemed like a nice guy, as I remember it. FULL DISCLOSURE: I also met Doobie of LP fame once, by bumping into him in a hallway outside our room doors at the Grand Californian shortly after it opened in early 2001. We chatted briefly. Also a nice guy, as I remember. For the life of me though, I just don't remember Lutz (or anyone other than Manfried) ever saying anything about a "dark ride" going in behind Main Street USA with an entrance via the Cinema building. Ever. And Google searches don't come up with anything either, even though every other article Al has written in the last decade (with some wild misses on the rumors still available for reading) and every other online conversation about his latest blogging is also available for review. What would have been the theme for this Main Street Dark Ride, I wonder? Manfried, do you remember a theme for it?
Originally Posted By Manfried TP2000, I get it. You are a "praise Al" person no matter what. Or maybe you are Al. I just remember it was a dark ride. Funny thing, I went back to find it the next day and it had all ready been deleted. So since then I do screen grabs. Just in case. So I have no proof. But you keep want to keep playing truth or dare. I don't so no more posts from me in this thread. Go to bed, it is past your bedtime.
Originally Posted By DlandDug Hmmmm. My two cents. I know nothing about a Main Street Cinema "dark ride" that was proposed in 2011. There was a fairly well publicized "refreshing" of the Cinema at that time. But I do know (for a FACT) that there were major plans for the Main Street Cinema back in 2000. In fact, I made one of my rare mistakes in judgement, and wrote it all up in an article. Don't go searching the internet for it, though. It appeared in a newsletter i edited, the April, 2000 issue to be precise. Here's the gist. My "unnamed source" informed me that this was a done deal. The original interior was to be gutted out, and the back wall removed. The enlarged auditorium would have been excavated below grade, and the whole thing lavishly remodeled into a movie palace. 40 to 50 guests would be treated to a musical fanfare, elaborate curtains, and a film presentation about the life and times of Mickey Mouse. Box seats along the side walls would hold famous Disney characters, who would interact with the movie. The article went on to state that this could happen during the scheduled refurb, starting April 24, 2000. And now you know why I seldom, if ever, print totally verified rumors. And take others with a grain of salt. (Not included in the article were these details. The interior had been completely designed by a famous theater designer. A gift shop was to be a major component. The whole thing fell through when an anticipated sponsor got cold feet. And my source was... Nope. Not sayin'.)
Originally Posted By TP2000 Fascinating Doug! Thanks for sharing. The Cinema seems to be a common place for Imagineers to look at every few years for something or other. I'm just glad we still have a Cinema at Disneyland, unlike Disney World where they turned it into a gift shop. Manfried, if the mention by Al Lutz of turning the Cinema into a dark ride in 2011 was only on Al's site for one day or less, that would explain why that concept never made it into any of the discussions on any of the various discussion boards. Perhaps the readership that day was very light for Al's update and it got yanked before anyone of us regulars ever saw it? That could explain the mystery why no one else remembers it and it has never been mentioned on discussion boards anywhere else. Not sure the screen grabs are necessary. In my Google searches for the Main Street Dark Ride info from Lutz I came across all of this old "updates", and there's quite a few doozy rumors that never panned out, or info about the future plans that just seems very silly in retrospect. (Lutz's stuff about DCA's extreme makeover plans he released in August, 2007 before the big reveal by Disney in October, 2007, for example. Those '07 updates are all still online. Some of the stuff Lutz said was coming in August '07 never got mentioned in the October '07 reveal, and still isn't there today in 2013.)
Originally Posted By mawnck Found this. But nothing to do with Al. Add me to the growing list of folks who think Manfried is "misremembering" because Al. <a href="http://micechat.com/forums/disneyland-resort/130360-would-dark-ride-brighten-up-main-street.html" target="_blank">http://micechat.com/forums/dis...eet.html</a>
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORWEN: But Capt. EO DID come back! It was Iger who was wrong about that. Capt. EO is STILL back! Al was right after all!
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder I have no dog in this fight, but it strikes me that for someone who constantly bashes Al Lutz, ol' Manfried sure does know or claim to know just about everything about the guy.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones I think Al Lutz was great at arguing with DCA/Disney apologists back on A.D.D. I wish he had not stopped posting.
Originally Posted By planodisney As a Micechat regular, I have read dozens of posts critical of Al. I dont know what youre talking about.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Al's okay, and he sometimes has interesting info. He has his flaws too, such as his writing style and his tendency to reduce everything (and everybody) to black and white. What's interesting is how many people do essentially the same thing with Al and either idolize him (or at least pump him up) or trash him. It seems to me more logical to just take him for what he is - a blogger with both merits and flaws who sometimes has reliable sources and sometimes doesn't.
Originally Posted By sjhym333 I would take Al over Jim Hill any day. I find Jim Hill's articles go from gushing for no reason to stories that have no basis in fact.
Originally Posted By sjhym333 Yeah he does that alot. Several months back he said he was going to dedicate Friday's to answer questions in his Why For? column. He did it two weeks and then stopped again. He is fairly inconsistent in his writing and has been wrong on many occasions about things at the Disney company.
