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Disney's Hollywood Studios

20 bytes added, 02:40, 1 May 2016
/* Conception */
==History==
===Conception===
Like most things in Walt Disney World, Disney's Hollywood Studios can trace its origins back to Walt Disney himself. In the 1960s, Walt wanted to build a theme park that would show guests the movie making process <ref name= "studios"> http://www.studioscentral.com/history-hollywood-studios </ref>. At that time, Universal Studios had a popular backstage tram tour , and Walt wanted to do something similar on the backlot of the Disney Studios <ref name= "studios"/>. Due to land costs and potential traffic problems however, this idea never came to fruition<ref name= "studios"/>. Although the Disney Studios backlot tour was never built, the idea would later resurface.
The genesis for what would eventually become Disney's Hollywood Studios began in the mid-1980s. Imagineers led by Marty Skylar and Randy Bright were given the task of creating two new pavilions for [[Epcot#Current_Future_World_Pavilions_Pavilions|Future World]] in [[EPCOT Center]] <ref name= "history"> http://www.studioscentral.com/history-great-movie-ride </ref>. One of the pavilions they created was to be called the Great Movie Ride pavilion<ref name= "history"/>. The main attraction of the pavilion would have taken guests through various movie scenes and was very similar to the [[The Great Movie Ride|attraction of the same name]] that would eventually open at Disney-MGM Studios. Michael Eisner, then the CEO of the Disney Company, decided that the idea for the pavilion was strong enough to warrant its own theme park and he told his Imagineers to begin working on it<ref name= "history"/>.
At the same time that the new EPCOT Center pavilions were being designed, Disney decided that it needed a new production studio due to the dramatic increase in the Disney production schedule during the 1980s. Instead of spending a lot of money on land, it was decided that the studio would be built on the property they already owned in Florida. This need for a new production studio was one of the driving forces behind the inclusion of a studio tour in the new Disney theme park.
Another factor that played a crucial role in the creation of the Disney-MGM Studios was that in 1982 Universal Studios was planning on building an east coast East Coast theme park in Orlando, Florida<ref name= "studios"/>. Universal was looking for a partner in the venture, so they approached Paramount Studios’ CEO Michael Eisner about joining them in the project <ref name= "realityland"> Koenig, David. Realityland: True-life Adventures at Walt Disney World. Irvine, CA: Bonaventure, 2007. Print. </ref>. Eisner declined Universal's proposal and the plans for a Universal East theme park were eventually tabled. When Eisner was named CEO of Disney in 1984 however, he knew about Universal's theme park plans and wanted to beat them to the punch <ref name= "realityland"/>. Eisner decided to build a movie theme park of his own, and had Imagineers start working on the concept. The idea of a Disney movie theme park was kept on the back burner until Universal announced its plans in 1985. After the announcement, Michael Eisner announced that the Disney was already working on a movie based theme park which would be the third gate in Walt Disney World<ref name= "realityland"/>.
Before the new park was even announced Disney had already been working behind the scenes to acquire the rights to the name and logo of Metro-Golden-Mayer Inc. This led to Disney and MGM agreeing on a contract in 1985, which allowed Disney to use the MGM name, logo and certain film clips<ref name= "yesterday"/>. The new theme park would eventually be named Disney-MGM Studios, and would feature the classic MGM logo- Leo the Lion.
===Construction===