Originally Posted By vbdad55 <At least it is no longer featured in any prominent sight line, and is no longer touted as the park icon. The hat is. < I always thought the water tower was the park icon ?
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Just out of curoisity, why on earth would they build something in such a prominent place that they would only have rights to use in ads for about ten years? And exactly how long was the contract for? If I'm not mistaken, the theater was there for about 12 years before the hat came along, and that seems like a really random length of time for a contract to run. And why does the contract only apply to long distances? You can still see the theater from many places in the area, so I don't get the difference. Also, you can still see parts of the theater past the hat (the top center roof and the side walls of the court in front), so wouldn't that be breaking the contract? ssWEDguy-the images in post 2 are just old pictures of what it looked like before the wand was built. There's really nothing there that you can't find somewhere else.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> I always thought the water tower was the park icon ? << This actually is a good question. The water tower was the center at one time, and then Grauman's was. At least both of them at one time were featured in all the logos when they show 4 symbols for the parks -- Castle, SSE, Tree, and now the Hat. Grauman's Theater is still fatured centrally on the Hollywood Boulevard trashcans. "Keep our Studios clean!"
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> ssWEDguy-the images in post 2 are just old pictures of what it looked like before the wand was built. There's really nothing there that you can't find somewhere else. << Thanks for that! I'm still looking for help with the "Eyes and Ears" reference. I still can't find it.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy I'm still confused about the hat being where it is. It sure is there to hide the theater. It's not just accidentally there, don't you think? If they were paying money to use the Theater's image, it wouldn't make sense to hide it. So I'm guessing they're no longer paying money, and have to. But I can't get a simple, straight answer out of insiders who ought to know something about this. You wouldn't think it would be that hard. I'm guessing the reason isn't a happy one, and they just don't want the reason known. Maybe people just won't notice?
Originally Posted By RoadTrip I've heard that the issue was not with the Grauman’s likeness, but with the MGM film library. Disney's contract with MGM to use their name and films in the park needed to be renewed and for a considerable amount of time it looked like that might not happen (ala Pixar). This all occurred about the same time Disney started referring to the park as the DISNEY Studios. My guess is that the decision was made to hide Grauman's in case the movie ride had to be scrapped or radically changed. Disney obviously couldn't use all the MGM films in the Great Movie Ride if the contract had not been renewed. I'm sure Disney didn't want the view the whole way up Hollywood Boulevard to be a bunch of construction walls around the theater. With the BAH in place the theater could be changed, replaced, whatever without the view down Hollywood Boulevard ending in a construction site. JMHO...
Originally Posted By Indigo Alright, I heard a story the other day that makes sense to me. In the mid-90s they were looking to totally reconfigure Disney-MGM Studios. Extend the main street area out past where the gate is now and add reconfigure the parking to give the backstage tour area more room. Well, in that plan the hat would have been placed at the main gates for the park (approximately where the Christmas Tree goes now) and would be the weenie from the parking lot area (like the Train Station is for Disneyland). For various reasons this failed to happen before Y2K. But since they had the hat on order and had to do something with it, they put it where it was and made it a store. Weirdest part of all about this story, the ears would originally house a pair of ferris wheels in them.
Originally Posted By mrkthompsn I wonder if the Wand could be moved to the entrance ramp of the World Drive / EPCOT Drive interchange.
Originally Posted By tonyanton me too. I don't buy the whole copyright excuse for the Chinese Theater...before the BAH, the Earful Tower was used as the Studios icon on maps, merchandise, etc.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 ^^It's total BS. Just an Internet myth that takes on a life of its own and is spread like the gospel.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<^^It's total BS. Just an Internet myth that takes on a life of its own and is spread like the gospel.>> Are you saying there was NOT a potentially deal-ending rift between Disney and MGM in the late 90's?
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 Nope. Was referring to the Chinese Theater being trademarked and only available for a certain # of years as an excuse to plop the Pin Hat in front.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> Was referring to the Chinese Theater being trademarked and only available for a certain # of years as an excuse to plop the Pin Hat in front. << This would be fine, and maybe it is an internet urban legend. I don't really know. But why is it so hard to get information about this one way or the other, even from insiders?
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 ^^I do know, ss. As to knowledge, what are you looking for? Why the hat was placed there? Disney's back-and-forth with MGM over rights?
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 The whole MGM thing is silly. If Disney wanted to, they could just dump all MGM (what little is left) references and install their own. They could still have the Great Movie Ride, but now have scenes from Disney films (or Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures...you get the idea). Especially with things like the Chronicles of Narnia, which could replace any of the MGM ones, like Wizard of Oz. In fact they could turn the Wicked Witch AA into a White Witch AA.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> As to knowledge, what are you looking for? Why the hat was placed there? << Basically, yes. Why there? The thing seems to be placed so close in front of the theater that it's clear it's intended to block it. And I can't think of a reason why. Why would you intentionally block it except for some copyright reason? Or is it in fact just shoehorned in there and blocking the theater wasn't the intent? Is it as dumb as that?
