Podcast: The Ride - The Contemporary Resort

Episode Date: July 22, 2022

We take a look one of the first Walt Disney World hotels. Featuring honey booths, ample servings of nutmeg, and Richard Nixon. Also, a monorail goes right through the building! Themed Car Washes with Eva Anderson up at Club 3: Patreon.com/PodcastTheRide WATCH THIS EPISODE: https://youtu.be/Cx-9OloU9wA FOLLOW PODCAST: THE RIDE: https://twitter.com/PodcastTheRide https://www.instagram.com/podcasttheride BUY PODCAST: THE RIDE MERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/podcast-the-ride PODCAST THE RIDE IS A FOREVER DOG PODCAST https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/podcast-the-ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forever! Dog! Warning! The following podcast may be teeming with five-legged goats, honey booths, and duck tamboos. People have got to know whether or not their podcast is a crook. Well, we're not a crook. We're covering the contemporary hotel, and we're Podcast The Ride, the podcast that's like a monorail of information running right through the middle of your brain atrium.

I'm Scott Gairdner, joined by Mike Carlson. My brain atrium is one of the most pleasant places to be. I just want to say that now. Beautiful interior decorating. Beautiful old murals. But my atrium and the hotel's atrium both equally pleasant, I want to say. Right. And I'm very excited.

Yeah, that metaphor makes a lot of sense. Jason Sheridan, hi. And my atrium is more like the layout of the building or design of the building, I guess I should say, which is to say brutalist. Whoa, a hot take. Hot take early in the podcast. Dark thoughts, I guess. Brutalist brain of Jason Sheridan. Maybe that's what we just abandoned the episode about the hotel

and get in, dig in deep. What is so brutal? What is he talking about, folks? Please, Michael, I have 17 pages about the contemporary. There's a lot of pictures, granted. Fuel that brutalist brain of yours with that apricot LaCroix. With the apricot. Yeah, it's delicious.

I saw it in the fridge. I was like, oh, I got to try the apricot. Brutalist brain fuel. Today's episode is about Disney's Contemporary Resort, one of the original two Disney World hotels that opened in 1971. Of course, the big, grand, futuristic hotel that the monorail actually runs through. And this is a video one. So if you're watching this or if you go to the Forever Dog YouTube, you can see that i've brought my pride and joy

which you can just hear you can hear that that's all you get if you're listening as of me pounding on it but if you're watching i brought in my contemporary toy uh which i'm very proud of i lit it up from the inside it doesn't come that way uh all you have to do is have a wire running not hidden uh through the part where the monorail goes through um i love this this is one of my favorite items that i have i i'm so excited that there there is a big physical contemporary that you can own what like a toy toy for the dorkiest child oh yeah ever be it is i i you know i've this. You've had this for a long time, obviously. And it's something that I am jealous of. And I haven't yet, until now, thought, oh, I should buy this on eBay.

There's nothing stopping you. It's not a rare item. You looked it up. You can get it in a bundle with the other. $200, I think, for the monorail, the contemporary, and maybe a Spaceship Earth toy as well. You're talking vintage? Because they still sell the contemporary. Oh, you can get this thing? and maybe a Spaceship Earth toy as well. You're talking vintage? Because they still sell the contemporary.

Oh, you can get this thing? I think you can get a newer version of this. Oh, interesting. Okay, well, look, mine is just fine the way it is. It doesn't need to be newer. Well, you've got the real deal. You've got the real deal vintage one. I don't know.

This might be from like four years ago. I have no idea. I like it is the point. It's dusty as a motherfucker but like there's so many nooks and crannies every little like hotel oh look oh my my fingers get in everybody else's frame yeah wow contemporaries interrupt i don't know this is a very strange gesture i'm doing look look at the rooms uh they get very dusty in these little sleeves so So that is the upkeep is difficult. And I might start sneezing a lot during this episode. Not COVID, as far as I know.

Yeah. This is like, you know, great sort of play sets, great play sets and toys. And I don't want to get off on a tangent here. I don't want to get off on a rant. You about toys and play sets? Just quickly. Yeah. Like, you know, this company NECA that makes the turtle toys I buy,

like they're going to make a turtle sewer. That's the big rumor. We've seen pictures of it, but I feel like contemporary as far as Disney, like Disney world locations, that's kind of number one, maybe as far as like you want a play set of, cause it's so iconic.

Obviously the castle's cool, but Disneyland, you got a castle set of because it's so iconic obviously the castle's cool but disneyland got a castle this is so unique to disney world i feel like maybe it is my main play set from disney world that i would want it's so disney world specific so specific to that early it's the vacation kingdom uh it's an emblem of the vacation kingdom but it's still yeah iconic to this day i've had this has ended up being in the background of kind of all my Zooms for the seven years that this all has been going on. And let me tell you, it is a conversation starter. The conversation goes,

oh, yes, the Disney contemporary hotel. It's one of the hotels that used to be there. And then that keeps going for two minutes. And then the second part of the conversation, the other person says, oh. So if you want to start that conversation, get one of these and get it into the background of your Zooms. If you want to start that conversation get one of these and uh get it into the into the background of your zoo you want to befuddle someone yeah yeah if you want to make

them wish they hadn't asked the question if you had just a collection of different hotels maybe that would actually make more if you're like well i collect models of hotels yeah i mean i sort of do there's just not that many of them uh because i have a little mug of the Bonaventure Hotel, which is the futuristic, the John Portman Hotel with the elevator pods in downtown L.A. I have like a ceramic mug of it, essentially, that I use to hold pencils. But that's as far as I know, it's not like a big area is, you know, list architecture in little forms you can put on your desk. If we put it out there. I mean, we have a lot of listeners,

some that work in toy companies. I assume people that obviously have made doll, Michael Eisner doll for us. I'm not calling for a custom built hotel or anything. I'm just saying, maybe if we put that out there, people, we could realize that there's a market for hotels that we like that you want to

display a miniature version of so look if somebody wanted to there's so many buildings to choose from in the Peachtree district in Atlanta any of I would take

any of this is like you're gonna be the Westin or the Sheraton whatever you want this is like you're like Ninja like Ninja Turtle level fandom like I need every

cartoon character that they made in the original cartoon I'm like I gotta get all these because like I never dreamed it would happen. If there was a line of hotels, you would have to get it all. You would have as crazy a display as I have. Actually, yeah.

If there truly was, I'm trying to think of other ones. I mean, this wouldn't be in the line. This is in, like, the 10th release. But we stayed in a Hyatt Regency near and garden grove that had a really good atrium yeah uh and i'd love to have that in the current color and in the original peach well that exactly that's how you do toys you do you do a variant that has the different colors and then they could have like a comic-con exclusive hotel like maybe there was it was only painted a certain color for a year and only the hardcore hotel fans know and that's the one you get at comic-con because it's

like only they made you know 500 of them i'm finally in your your world if yeah i just want to point out that the presence of a customized toy has mike immediately gassed up you're saying that my energy rose yeah my energy you're saying yeah scott scott perked up a little at the talk of like brutalist architectural hotel designs. Oh, yeah. You perked up a little bit, but Mike, like, he's got the juice. I like to toyify things. So sometimes when I'm talking to people about toys, I try to figure out exactly what their like completest collector, what would unlock their completest in them. Because a lot of people like toys and some have just a few of them.

And only a few people I know are like kind of completist. But I think, I believe everyone has something they would be a completist about. Oh, yeah. I believe there's something. Think about that at home. What is the, you think you're not a toy person, but if they made toys of X. Exactly. And tell us in the comments, what would you want?

What deep, obscure thing? Exactly. So, yeah, Jason, do Jason, you collect some toys. I collect some toys. Would there be a specific, like, Islands of Adventure high-level toys based on just, like, the rides and the iconography of Islands of Adventure? I think if they had, like, you know, were Christmas villages big where you grew up? Like, a tabletop Christmas village, like, your parents would pull out of course the pieces and stuff if they had a full islands of adventure with like each piece sold individually of each like landmark and oh sure you know put them on a table with like fake snow with like

cotton snow yeah and light it up oh that sounds nice yeah nice. Yeah. So, yeah, as we said, yeah. What would be your completest thing? I have four or five completest things. Yeah. They're reissuing. I'm an unusual man. And they make yours. Yeah, in the last few years they are.

This is, I'm all on my lonesome here. It's just me and you, contemporary. See, on the video, I can kind of nuzzle it. I think there are. Oh, yes. There are. Good girl. The only thing standing

in the way of this is that plastic prices and things are rising uh shipping is rising but price-wise that's the only thing because they're a company making more obscure and more obscure as far as what collectibles people are making so i don't think this is out of the realm of possibility yeah that someone would make a hotel a model line. Yeah. Start cranking them out. Yeah. Exactly one person is your customer. I know on Yelp I have seen crafters make, like, desktop, you know, organizers or lamps that are replicas of the lamps at some of these places.

Like, craftsman-style lamps in the style of the ones in the Grand Californian or lamps in the style of what you would see at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Would you be completist if you could purchase all of the sort of light fixtures in an old pizza hut? Oh, yeah. Tiffany lamps. Tiffany, old Tiffany lamps. Oh, absolutely, yeah.

If I could recreate the Canaan Road Pizza Hut where I was having Batley from Eureka's Castle drink my soda and then I spilled it everywhere. But I still have very fond memories from Eureka's. I'm drinking your soda. That's my Batley. That's your Batley. Sounds like Lovitz. Or Chuck E. Cheese. Oh, yeah.

That was Batley. I don't recall. I don't remember what Batley sounded like. He would say, I meant to do that, I believe. I think that's what he would say. See, that again sounds very Lovitz to me. Oh, okay. Was Lovitz the voice of Batley? I think he did say, I meant to do that.

Didn't Batley say, I meant to do that? I don't remember a single other fact about Eureka's Castle besides that the puppet spilled my soda in the Agoura Hills Pizza Hut. Yes, Batley would say. Sit down Pizza Hut. He would say, I meant to do that. Yeah, Batley. We haven't talked about Batley on the show yet. No, yeah, Eureka's Castle could be.

There's plenty of opportunities in Eureka's Castle. So, yeah, play sets, all that. I just bought, because they were on sale, for like $4 each, I bought these little pieces to connect and make a little Seinfeld apartment. Okay. It costs like 25 bucks. Is it an empty apartment? No, well,

they have little like peg pieces of the characters, which I'm not, that's fine, but I wanted just the apartment. Okay. You're more about the space. You want the-

Yeah, I was excited to like have the space displayed. Does it have the bike back there? I actually haven't put it together, so I might be painting on. Okay. Does it have a, so you don't have, it doesn't have his wall of VHSs or you have to check?

I'll check. I'll check. Let me know. I haven't put it together yet. Or do an unboxing. Sure. Let the audience in on it. We haven't done a lot of hotels.

Yeah. We did a hotel sector in the City Walk saga. We covered Sloppy Telly's Sheraton and the Hilton. But this is the first of the Disneys, I believe, right in front of us now. Right. And I feel like there's a whole year on hotels, probably. Oh, yeah.

If we wanted to entertain ourselves and perhaps bore some percentage of the audience. Not this one, though, because this, there's a ton going on here. This is entertainment. A ride goes through it. We're almost talking about rides.

A ride goes through what we're talking about today. I mean, that made a very, very clear impression. Maybe even before I went was the pictures of the monorail going through the contemporary. Yeah, which still seemed very futuristic at the time. It feels futuristic now. You don't see this all the time. This is one of the great feats of man to have a monorail.

Eighth, ninth, tenth wonder of the world. Yeah, yeah. At this point. I don't know how many they're up to now. Well, there are really only seven, right? And Andre the Giant is the eighth and Shina is the ninth um uh wrestler wise but i think technically eight okay okay i don't think there's been an official declaration of any we have to

decide if people are allowed in the list or not but the seven yeah the seven i think the seven was set in stone before um no iconic part of the early disney world skyline because they didn't have all those other areas yet. Like primarily it was that Magic Kingdom zone and you only had two hotels at the time. Grand Floridian came later. So when you went there, this is what you saw. You saw the future

and later spirits. Yeah, and this was by the way supposed to be a massive hotel district. Like the unbuilt the Persian hotel hotel the we eventually there is a hotel called the venetian but disney had plans for a hotel called the venetian hotel like there are all these uh unbuilt hotels that were going to be like themed after world destinations okay yeah yeah so yeah it was a much more, like, usual, the blue sky is very ambitious, and then we end up with less.

I mean, there's still talk that they'll. Yeah. There's been talk that they'll. There's still room. There are apparently a lot of sinkholes in this area, and that scuttled some progress. Yeah, that's true. Florida is swampy and maybe long-term not the best building area. And they love to eat steel girders.

Just the earth takes them back. But they finally connected, right? And we talked about this before on the show. They finally connected the Magic Kingdom to Grand Floridian. Grand Floridian. It only took 50 years to get that project. It feels like that was probably supposed to happen much sooner. Yeah.

But they really took their time. It took a half of a century to do that. They also, in the last decade, have made it much more clear and safe that you can walk from the contemporary to the Magic Kingdom. Yeah. the contemporary to the magic kingdom yeah um but yeah i i would say like i'm when i think about oh yeah it would be awesome if there was like 10 hotels or something around this but i don't know i kind of like that it takes a couple minutes for you to see that you're like a big picture of the next hotel you're i like that there's three the space makes it feel especially when i was a kid much more like kind of magical when you get

little like lengths of monorail ride in between if you were stopping every minute might get annoying right so so yeah so i'm sure they could build cool stuff around it but i kind of like there's only three yeah i kind of think it's cool and it gives like yeah the space gives it a little bit more of a like anticipation especially i keep keep saying, especially as a child. But we all know what I'm talking about, especially as now an adult. Yeah, sure. Continually. But as a kid, I remember being like, you know, you're peering out and you're like, oh, it's over there and I can see it.

It's little. And that feels like if you were stopping every two seconds and it felt like you were just going in a big mall or something like that would be less fun. All three deluxe hotels, hotels you know because they they say the i think the view and they justify it being closed in the magic kingdom does anyone want a hazard guess on a nightly rate a month from now in august oh and from from now uh yeah i'll guess middle yeah so 565 dollars okay i looked up the price of what it is if you want a theme park room, so I'll refrain.

This is an expensive hotel. What are you seeing? So what I was seeing for middle of August, so a month out, for a main tower, this guy, that we're looking at, main tower theme park view, $741 a night. Wow, wow, wow, wow. Main theme park view, $741 a night.

Wow, wow, wow, wow. Main Tower lake view, $680. Garden wing, $493. So getting closer to reasonable in those garden wing rooms. Closer. Closer. I spoke with my mother before doing this episode, and she said that they pay, what, $60 in the 70s, I believe, for a night.

And I believe we stayed there when i was little and it was more than that but i we lindsey and i stayed there like eight years ago or maybe it was i guess 10 years ago at this point and it was half what you're saying it was like 300 deluxe hotels were all kind of like 300 at that point you have a park view where'd you where'd you stay point on the okay well the problem is it was one of the other towers and I was stupid and I didn't realize it wasn't even that.

They probably confused you in all the text. They did confuse me. Now I wouldn't be confused. Now I'm savvy. But at the time, it was the first time back to going to Disney World

and I said, let's splurge a little. Let's do two at Grand Floridian, two at Contemporary. It's a little expensive. Not that expensive. But then we got there and I was like,

oh, shit, it's in one of the extra towers. What's the point? That's stupid. We may as well have been in an all-star. Gotcha. One of the wings demolished around 2007, 2008 to build the Bay Lake Tower. Yeah.

It got opened in 2009. Yeah. So that was a little bit of a bummer. Here's the other bummer about the price of it also. And you find this at a lot of Disney hotels is like, oh, it looks cool. Like they say, they make a toy of it. It looks good on the outside. You get into the room and it is like the most basic-ass hotel room you've ever seen.

These seem like just really, it's just a box. These are not extraordinary rooms. Yeah, the one in the main tower. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, a great view, obviously, if you get on that balcony. Yeah, and I think the other ones are probably nicer. The ones in the, what you're saying? The garden way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, a great view, obviously, if you get on that balcony. Yeah, and I think the other ones are probably nicer, the ones in the, what you're saying? The garden way. Yeah, built in the 70s and clearly not like super rehabbed other than putting the pictures of the Incredibles in there.

I'm sure we know about the way that this was built, the way that the rooms were installed, which is like drawers in a dresser. That a crane, that the rooms were all built off-site, fully built, like with wallpaper and tubs and everything. Beds, furnishing, all fully, fully built. This was built in conjunction with the United States Steel Corporation. And the architect Walter Beckett is credited with a lot of the designs. Welton Beckett is the guy, actually. Welton? Welton.

Not Walter. I don't believe so. You might be getting close to Walter Becker from Steel Fan. I think it's Walter Beckett. Here's Scott's architect corner because what this guy designed and built. These are like especially L.A., major icons of L.A. The Capitol Records Building was this guy. The Cinerama Dome, dearly currently departed but coming back with a lot of gross sounding food

cinorama dome the pan pacific auditorium which was this old la landmark this old theater that now is just there's a park and a gymnasium there but it used to be this like grand theater it's what the gates at hollywood studios and california venture are based on. Those like big art deco with the stripes going around them and a big setting in the film Xanadu, also important for that reason. Wow. So iconic imagery from the sky, contemporary included.

Also the Reunion Tower in Dallas, which is the big, one of my other favorite. I would collect every one of these. I was going to say this, they should do a lineage of this guy. Yeah. Oh my God,

just start here. Oh, if I can have a little Capitol Records, someone must have made. They have to make a of this guy. Yeah. Oh, my God. Just start here. Oh, if I can have a little Capitol Records. They have to make a little Capitol Records. Someone must have made a little Capitol Records. Yeah, the Capitol Records building. Yeah. I mean, if you haven't seen it in LA,

driving down the 101. Yeah, incredible piece of it. It looks like a stack of 45 records. Now you're getting gassed up. Now you're getting. Really, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, look at this.

Can I get a miniature Capitol Records building? It looks like unless these are one offs, it looks like you can get. Oh, wow. Why have I not done this? You can for sure get that. Oh, yeah. That's a toy set. Yes.

There's a Lego-y version. I'm doing this. I'm getting that. I don't want Congress. Get out of there. That's a defiled building. Yeah. Yeah.

Nobody ever. I don't want anybody ever storming the Capitol records, but don't ever storm a Weldon Beckett building. Damn it. I was going to say that all the, I also want a set of the, any, if it's an orb on a pole,

that's any of the like observation towers, space needle is kind of one of them the uh what's the knoxville the the sun sphere the wigs oh yeah okay not like the orb that the salty prince and donald trump everyone was touching the little or bigger orb yeah i'd love to i know i'd have that or you'd have the word kind of any yeah any of history's you'd ponder that or i would yeah yeah we could all they should make it it available for us to touch. Sure. I agree.

We could all take a trip to Saudi Arabia and touch the orb. Just give us the orb. Let us touch the orb. A fact I always liked about the constructing of this area

is that they built a factory on what is now the, like, the Port Orleans resort area. They built a factory to construct all these rooms. Okay. Yes, Orlando has a very interesting interview with a historian named Jim Corvus.

And they were trying to debunk the idea that Disney's plan was when they needed to redo these rooms, they'd pull them out of the contemporary and put them back in. Wait, did we finish saying that they were all airlifted on a crane they're modular into the space where that a hotel room was carved out for yeah so that in theory if you wanted to update them you just do it in reverse or if you had an unruly guest you could just pull them out in the middle of the night dump them somewhere or like airlift

them into like disney jail which also should have been a modular building like this because you could also see with different lighting this looks like some sort of mega jail or like the marvel universe villains uh fortress like the raft oh yeah which is where they put the super villains in yes yes so it's like the greatest hotel ever and it would also be the greatest prison of all time. And you could, yeah, if there were like, you know, like upper right corner ain't so bad, but it's you really punish people if you put them down in the basements. Yeah, you should like pluck people out like a big War of the Worlds machine. Right. So like you're here now. So like if you're going through it, it's like Baron Zemo is in one of the rooms.

And he's talking to the lizard. The lizard's next door, right. And then, I don't know. The rest of the bad guys are there, too. It's important to have friends. Oh, that's the Joker. Sorry, that's the Joker. Joker's in there, too. It's Joker and

Catwoman. They're all in the contemporary jail. But yeah, that was another blue sky, I feel like well idea i don't know that they ever because the thing is once they put them in to the contemporary they settled into the structure of the building and then they they were pointing out in this interview like yeah they weren't gonna ever take them back out. They built balconies. They built things around it. It would be very hard to do it.

It'd be impossible. You know it's easier just sending a couple of wallpaper installers up with rolls of wallpaper. I like wallpaper installers. That was the example. You know it's easier just sending carpet guys up. That's what I mean, like a blue sky idea of

like, oh yeah, Then it'll be cool. Like we'll be renovating half of the rooms or whatever by pulling them out. Yeah. And then we'll just do it off site. But like, that's who knows how far along that actually got. Cause it does seem crazy and practical. Yeah.

To, to yank entire rooms out. Like you're like picking something or you're, you're grabbing a booger out of your nose yeah no it seems insane to do that so yeah i don't know so they didn't do it didn't work i also like this whole it was intended as this project with u.s steel to prove the efficiency and cost effectiveness of u.s steel and it was estimated uS. Steel said each room will cost $17,000. And then each room only cost $100,000.

Wow. Yeah. So that's more than five times in 1971 dollars. So that's a lot. So there's still, so the prices now are still paying off the probably. That's right. How much the hotel cost. It was awful.

Like when all the furniture was made of asbestos, you know? Yeah. So I get it now. I steal or liar. You can't trust the word of us. Yeah. Can't trust us. Deal.

I steal. I think I, I think I read something once that Disney had to take over getting this done because us steel was so far behind. And there, there was a fact somewhere that by like 1970, they had all the convention space booked for 1972. So it's like we can't open late, okay?

No rooms for the people to stay in. It's like the version of the Jimmy Fallon sketch where he says move and he's the IT guy. That's what Disney said to U.S. Steel. Okay, I'm tracking this. Hang on. Okay, Disney is Nick Burns, your company's computer. you know that's what disney said to us deal they were like okay i'm tracking this hang on he they okay disney say disney is nick burns your company's computer exactly so disney is yeah they

would say like move because like we have to finish well i'll do it i'll do it myself basically is what the disney company would had to say to us steel i don't know this makes it much clearer to me at least i don't know if the listener likes this somebody later like so when driving with their husband or wife who does not listen to the show half hour into a long drive like what do I have to talk about oh I you know what I found out is that US Steel is like

the guy bungling the computer and Disney is like Nick Burns Nick Burns Jimmy Fallon character it makes sense to me three more hours of silence why did we take this trip let's just turn around people break up how many people honestly in the audience have broken up after trying to explain this dumb podcast to whoever they were dating or whoever they were married to and they were like i can't do it anymore i understand they went to

city walk yeah i get it it's funny haha. Ha ha. 19 episodes. Really good. When you like a bit. Maybe I would laugh at the punchline if I understood any of the subjects in the setup. That might help. Maybe we maybe we shouldn't be together then. That's great. Thanks for telling me all those facts. You didn't make eye contact once, you fuck.

So we apologize if that happened. But honestly, I don't know someone exactly this and you may call like i listened to the show to escape not remember the mirror held up to me in my my life now i'm praying a fucking crane dumps a modular hotel room ahead. I wish my room right now was removable by crane. That's also so funny to think about. It's like, we got to redo these rooms. I've called the crane people. Like, what are you fucking talking about?

Just buy some new couches and put them on a truck. Or like, you go down to the lobby and you're like, oh, my son actually threw up in the closet and I just want to, is it possible to get somebody oh yeah hold on one second they like hit something on the button and all of a sudden like the room is just plucked out of the hotel to be cleaned like that's great that's a fun cartoon idea if it was that official yeah this is like this is this is what a god could do yeah so i mean i'd like to see it but impractical not doesn't make sense um luckily they across this hotel wide they chose aesthetics

that would surely last beyond 1974 or so they showed the name contemporary which requires you to stay contemporary and they kind of made the entire hotel look like the uh speaking of seinfeld sets and constructing them the merv griffin set that uh yes pulled out of the dumpster and assembled in kramer's apartment yeah all kind kind of, the whole hotel looks like that. We're like, I obviously love old color schemes and retro vibes, but boy, was this an aggressively, just like early 70s, just like steeped really hard. Like it's not one teabag of 70s aesthetic.

No. It's a thousand all in one little cup. And well, interesting and comes back around in like cycles of design, fashion, taste, it feels dated. I could only imagine back then, this feels dated immediately. Yeah.

Like in the way that mid-century modern is kind of, I don't know, I will say timeless. It feels like it's always in fashion it's like converse all-stars you mean you're talking like more 60s yeah like more like 60s style that never seemed to fully go away yeah that i'm sure that had ebbs and flows as far as people like recognizing it as cool probably but nothing like the inside of the contemporary is like his age i can't think of a thing in disney that's aged worse maybe than the inside i'm trying to think i mean obviously stuff has been redone disneyland hotel has been redone but it still has its kind of 50s or whatever

year it was built in vibe yeah but yeah that's not i can't think of anything this is if i could read a little but there's a there's a big article, several big articles on a website called Passport to Dreams. If you want to see a lot of contemporary and read a lot of history of it. And they really broke it down nicely, the early vibe. A bizarre amalgamation of 70s pop and Mexican hacienda where dramatic reds, oranges, yellows, and browns overflowed from every nook and cranny. Hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, that's the vibe. Interesting. I didn't even think about it like that. Which is a place I would love to go walk around. I'd for sure love, I would love if it existed and if they'd never changed it, but just like for regular people.

And it does, this Southwest vibe is really fascinating because you look at this hotel you look at the outside of it what what makes them think make it feel like a future pueblo like i don't why don't what what is the how did they land there well i found i actually found the answer for that because i'm staring at the Mary Blair murals and like, how did this get here? Like, what is the thinking? And there was thinking. There's an article.

There was. We weren't sure. They had a justification and I don't know if I fully agree with it, but there's an article in Design Observer and the idea was that Mary Blair's whimsical art style and unique color palettes are very warm and

Friendly and inviting and the the characters in those murals which there they are in a lot more early-day stuff The restaurants have them that do not disturb sign the soaps. They're kind of everywhere so Mary Blair Yeah, big-eyed so that is meant to counterbalance the kind of intense, brutalist architecture. Sure. Soften it up. The balance. Yeah. Warm it up.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. I mean, it's interesting. It's very bold for sure. It's still good. Yeah. Don't let my negativity make you think I don't like it because I do like it.

But it's the idea of something that is contemporary. I mean, the restaurants and some of the amenities have kept pace with changing taste, I think. But I did have to laugh because it's like, we're updating the rooms to the Incredibles. Our hotel called The Contemporary will now have rooms based on a movie from 2004 with an art style from decades before that uh and then they redid the downstairs lobby and that is all concept art and design stuff from the development of the

contemporary so that contemporary is the past right right so we've kind of given up on the present and the future much like much of our culture like yeah you don't want to think about the future too much yeah yeah yeah which now i don't mind that stuff i mean i i like anything i think it looks great the lobby looks great the steakhouse 71 new in the last few months it also looks great um i there, uh, a bone to pick, uh, and it's not, not my bone I'm picking. I guess it's, it's, uh, a past guest of the show, Dennis McNicholas, who talked about Frontierland with us a little while ago. Um, he, he loves the contemporary, loves to stay there, uh, and is a big fan of how they have redone the lobby recently, uh, with this kind of nod to their their 70s

original aesthetic um but if we could pull up a a photo uh called rock pillows rock pillows is the photo um and this is one detail that dennis liked a lot if you're watching the video version so yeah like like it's very um it's kooky cut out art and very in like southwest colors on the wallpaper in the back uh and then like big long sectionals and then along the couch there are these kind of odd angular shaped pillows they look hard they look like rocks but they are soft. Can we show the close-up? Can we show Rock Pillow 2? Beautiful. Thank you, Margo.

I mean, that's fun, right? You know, that adds some life to the couches. We like our fake rocks. I don't think we knew that they came in pillow form, so we like this. However, Dennis was there several weeks ago, and the general style of the room uh remains but the rock pillows are gone no why disney why what you've taken so many nice things from us why must the rock pillows gotta be chapek chapek didn't understand it well my gosh are there different pillows there or the pills have been removed altogether um there are no pillows. It's just blank. Oh, interesting. Imagine that long couch with not a single

pillow causing distinct marks in between. What if... I think I have an explanation for that. I believe these pillows, I think something was going around when this opened. Bugs? I think

those were chained to the couch. Yeah, you pointed that out. And I think they were chained to the couch. Yeah, he pointed that out, yes. And I think they were getting roasted. Even Mr. Morrow pointed out that a bunch of new Vacation Club stuff opened at the Contemporary, and he went through a lobby, and he's like, oh, the pillows aren't chained down like in the Contemporary. And I was like, what the fuck does that mean? And Jane's like, oh, they chained pillows to the couches so they wouldn't get stolen.

Yeah, I'd steal it. I'd be the first to steal it. I understand. It's not – I'm the perpetrator. Yeah, potential culprit. Maybe somebody got past the chain system and took all the rock pillows. JPEG has sort of a minority report style like console, like technology console. And he knew you were about to heist this thing in a couple of months or whenever we go.

Probably. And he's like, you know what, let's just take him off the table. So next time I go, I'm going to be arrested for mind crimes. That's right. It's the future Chapek. That's right. Yeah, he's going to arrest you for that. Chapek, did you know this was coming? A middle

finger? Did you know this? He did know. Did you know I was going to commit this profanity on a web broadcast? He did know. What do you think of that, huh? He did know. You're going to commit this profanity on a web broadcast? He did know. What do you think of that, huh? He did know. You're going to Disney jail. Banging on the contemporary with my finger.

Now I'm just imagining Scott pulling a precog out of a vat. Pulling a... That was... You dirty rat. Who was that? That was someone's big... Was it Bryce Dallas? It was someone's first big role.

Was a precog? Was a precog. What? I got to look this up. Oh, yeah. I forget. But no, that's going to happen in Orlando with Scott. I'm going to pull someone out of a tank.

Mind crimes. This is ridiculous. This world of arrests for things that haven't even been done and no chain pillows. Well, it's real. Bring back the rock pillows. We want our rock pillows. We do want the rock pillows back. Couldn't they at least put them in like a little glass display case?

Okay. She had already been in stuff by this point. It's Samantha Morton is the, quote, most talented of the three precogs. Oh, okay. I don't recall them having differences. I can't remember the movie. I just know about the main premise. So there is a best precog.

Agatha. It's Agatha. We got to get Agatha out of here. Okay. Gotcha. So if you start buying pre-cog action figures, Agatha's the one. I don't know if they've done Minority Report. I would probably get, again, I don't get a lot of toys of things, but I would, and it's

not like I've seen that movie a zillion times, but to have pre-cog action figures would be pretty sweet. Yeah. No, that'd be cool. I think they should just do a full cruise collection to the i don't know if he's into those like the action figures but like eyes wide shut they make light of what i do i yeah this isn't for children this isn't for laughs and frivolity yeah this is serious we're saving the planet one film at a time but come on tom eyes wide shut figures come on at

least at least one sixth scale, hot toy style. With masks to put on all of them. I just watched it for the first time. Oh, boy. It's good. It's something else. It's a good movie. Keeps you up at night.

It's weird to watch that right before you go to bed. It is a weird one, but it's great. You could have the note, like the note he gets. Oh, yeah. Cease your inquiries. Cease your investigationiries yeah oh yeah um so yeah uh southwest vibe that they have continued to stick to a little bit and one thing that has never disappeared is that huge mary blair mural uh i don't know what you call it exactly the grand canyon concourse

mural it's what i've seen it referred to as uh If you don't recall, Mary Blair, the artist mainly associated with It's a Small World and the kooky perennially 60s design of It's a Small World. And this is one of the other big places where you see Mary Blair in the parks. One of her last projects, I think, for the Disney company. And it's really nice. You know, it's all these like all these cute villagers and a goat. I didn't know about the goat. Yeah, the five-legged goat.

The five-legged goat. Yeah, he's another kind of nerdy reference, I feel like. The real ones know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So tired dynamite goat, wired. Yeah, exactly. Five-legged goat tired, dynamite goat, wired. Yeah, exactly. Dynamite goat, everybody knows that. Well, everyone listening to this, yes.

No. Go to the grocery store and ask about the dynamite goat. They'll know, anybody. What's the dynamite goat? And they'll go like a big thunder. Everyone will say in unison, big thunder mountain on the lift hills. Turn and face it while you go around the bend and the thrill will be a little more intense. Did you read the justification?

I did, yes. Yeah, I thought that was really interesting that it was a purposeful quote unquote mistake and it's meant to represent the idea that nothing man makes is perfect. The Southwest Native American drives that she was studying and being inspired represent the idea that nothing man makes is perfect the uh southwest native american drives that she was studying and and being inspired by uh she was paying homage to that idea pretty cool yeah i did not wrong they made the the contemporary the exterior the contemporary hotel

which is perfect uh-huh yes so that's the one yeah perfect thing i mean it makes sense that that would be inside of a perfect structure yeah yes it's perfect to ironing it's very ironic that in a perfect place you know what else i like about here's something to say if we're if just to move if we're moving fully on from the outside of the contemporary we don't have to uh yeah absolutely we can just have this episode be the outside. In and out. The outside of the contemporary. I have thought about that as the way to tackle spaceship birth. That it is exterior. Yeah, yeah, I hear that. Like talking about it as an icon.

And the mural as well. Oh, sure, yes, yeah. Everything on the outside. That's the outside. And then inside is a whole other thing. I agree. And inside is five more episodes. I agree.

That is a great idea. Great, great. I know you guys are proud of me when I am pitching the topic of microdivisions. Another relationship just ended because somebody realized that they were going to have to listen to that in the car with somebody. They're like, well, that's enough. That's it. I'm getting out before they do that. I'm sorry.

The Epcot ball is getting an inside and outside episode. It's not the Epcot ball. I know if you're riding shotgun, you're supposed to get control of the iPhone. I can't abide by that rule anymore. There's too much content. These maniacs put out too much content. I have to keep up. I'll get behind and I'll get spoiled.

You think I want to? You think I want to hear all this? No, it's a chore at this point. Compulsion. It's a chore at this point. I'm a dick. I'll get spoiled. You think I want to? You think I want to hear all this? No, it's a chore at this point. Compulsion. It's a chore at this point. I'm a dick. I have a problem. They promised that Scott would eat a bowl of Fruity Pebbles, and I've been waiting.

I want him to eat the Fruity Pebbles. When is it going to happen? I'm begging to hear Weiger and Mitch talk about their cum. Like, I'm begging for that. And it's awful. I hate it. Well, we have nothing to say after that, Jason.

You made us... Too far, my friend. We're going to have to take a five minute break while we think about their come. Too far. To talk about something as pleasant as those guys come, again, the outside of the

build, which, you know what's great? Is any perspective that you get any view that you get where space mountain is also in it this almost if you're in the magic kingdom or you're in their tomorrowland it almost feels like this building the contemporary is elsewhere in tomorrowland or like on the horizon It almost feels like the back wall facade of Tomorrowland. Like it blends so well. And I just, it's, you know, Space Mountain looks so beautiful and is kind of a good pair, a good match with the contemporary.

I like to think of them as being married. I like to think of them as partners. They're a little far away. I mean, I guess in the right, yeah, right perspective. Not from their, like they're, like, they're big buildings. They're as far away from each other as I am far away from you and you. I guess that's a good point. I just would, if they were married.

They're not close enough to kiss. I want them kissing is what I'm saying. If I picture the two buildings married, I think they should be able to, like, reach over and give each other a little kiss. So maybe they're, like, they're married, but they have kiss so maybe they're like they're married but they have separate bedrooms they're like one of those couples yes like i'd like it like disney would want in the early 70s yeah there's a little moat i think that makes sure that's like having a privacy curtain like you'd have in a hospital or in a married couple bedroom okay 1971 that's good they've never consummated the two buildings have never consummated their love, but they are married.

And now, again, it makes perfect sense. Now it's a perfect way to describe it. Unless you want to think of the monorail. Think of the monorail as Space Mountain's sperm. Okay, what about this? It's entering the contemporary. What about this? Space Mountain and the contemporary are married, but Space Mountain is unable to have a physical relationship for whatever reason.

I don't want to say why, but Space Mountain cannot be physical. So Space Mountain has allowed the contemporary to be physical with the monorail. Oh, I see. And Space Mountain gets to watch the contemporary. So you're describing some sort of agoraphobic open marriage. Well, well, well, now who are the filth mongers? I'm being very tasteful in the way I'm describing this. In a way, Mike has presented the most.

Well, although, hmm, is that dirty or is it clean? It's really strange what you just describing is very well if it keeps everyone happy if everyone abides by the boundaries set up i think that they're all very on board with the rules because it's been going for 50 years at this point it's the relationship's been this way for so many years so the scene where they land if these are people and not hotels we're talking about this is a so it's a scene where like like a woman is walking through the park and then you go wider and see her bow and he's in a bubble. He's in a big plastic bubble and they're having a nice stroll together. I'm beginning to think about marriage.

But you are aware obviously of my condition. What if I were to propose an arrangement i stay in the bubble and you get railed by a man of my choosing look this is a relationship people have it's the only way it works no judgment this is a relationship people have and if it works for everyone i think it's fine and those early like contemporary vacation kingdom marketing materials really looks like they're trying to get the money of traveling couples who have quote arrangements. You're saying it's appealing to swingers? I'm saying like, it's like,

if you look at the pictures in these brochures, it's like, and also there's the Magic Kingdom, like the characters and the attractions are so small compared to like parasailing, compared to puttt putt boat i'm stuck okay i'm confused can you show us a photo the advert that parasailing and putt putt golf are being advertised is a like these are young couple like these are like people on vacation at a resort hot singles hot

singles in your area hot swingers hot singles i don't know if they're necessarily courting the swinger demographic but i see what you're saying it's certainly monogamous couples i don't know you're i think you're putting a lot on them to say the thing again jason yeah sure could i could i hold it yeah in my little hand my little hand uh yeah you can see there's small shots of each image okay first of all there's two pictures of uh families in this picture oh no three pictures of families wait how many children are in what jason just stood there are four children in this picture in the montage you're describing there's four children and you're saying that this is an ad to come and

get a third at a disney hotel. This is a later. It's starting to fade away. The attractions, all the parks are in this one. All you're responding to is the fact that very prominently there's a man who is in very good shape with his shirt off on whatever this parasailing thing with a woman. Who he may be completely monogamous with. It's a one-piece bathing suit also. It's not even scandalous by Disney standards, Walt's standards.

And then the other pictures are of the parks. So basically, it's advertising parasailing for hot young couples. That's what I would say. I don't know that there's any sort of swinging subtext. Well, it's just there used to be so much emphasis on the former, what is now California Grill, the former Top of the World Lounge, where it's like, come, eat a nice meal Grill, the former top of the world lounge, where it's like, come eat a nice meal, get hammered, see some singers.

Put your keys in the bowl. Put your keys in the bowl. They're open till 2 a.m. Nothing at Disney World is open. I want to see if you can find the most swingers energy ad. And you don't have to do it now, but for the future, I want to see if there is one that really gives it off. Because I don't know that that's the one.

It has parasailing in it. It doesn't parasail. The sexiest sport. Jason, are you sort of like, you have a parasailing fetish? I have a parasailing. Like, yeah, someone sails up. Hello there. We saw you across the beach.

We like your vibe. Yeah. Oh, no. The boat's motors are crossing entire arrangement falls apart fires but even like just in the text of like those early early like disney world is now open the vacation kingdom of the world they're emphasizing the vacation element come take a vacation not come to the theme park like it's almost an afterthought and especially back then the parks closed so early yeah like my family was all we took my grandparents down

in 91 and like in november of 1991 the parks are closing at like 6 p.m yeah but they still i still find that i'm like why isn't it open later anytime i I'm there, I go, what? Well, in the late nineties, it, the magic game was over until like midnight. Like, yeah, I think that's the, maybe that happens in the summer,

but like all the parks should be open to midnight all the time. It's really strange. Yeah. That's what I want. What a hassle it is to book reservations. Yeah. Cause then you go, well,

if I'm going to split the day, the day I like staying till midnight, that's the fun. split the day, I like staying until midnight. That's the fun. I do still take umbrage with the idea that advertising that you can have a drink there equals everybody come fuck. Well, no, they counteracted that by making the most disgusting cocktails you have ever heard. Yeah, yeah, let's talk about the cocktails. Can we talk about the gross food? This is the gross food section of the show,

and I have a lot. No, everything in this list is horrendous. Now, I don't even remember where mine are pulled from, which restaurant. I guess it doesn't matter. I pulled a lot. The website RetroWDW had scans of a cookbook series called Thought You Would Never Ask and Thought You Would Never Ask Part Two, which collected recipes from restaurants in Central Florida, which included Walt Disney World.

Okay. Oh, it's all Central Florida old recipes? Yes. Oh, who collects these things and talks about them, these freaks? Oh, I don't even want to meet the person who put this on the web so strange uh my anyway let's talk about it everything in them um tomato stuffed with fiddle leaf fern i yeah i don't know fiddle what is that okay i looked it up fiddle leaf fern is kind of like a spiral-shaped fern growth that you can use in cooking.

I have never, ever seen food with fiddle leaf fern. Eating a fern? You don't eat a fern. It did include, what else is it? I'm not a brontosaurus. No. Onion, two sticks. Never will be.

Six tomatoes, two sticks of butter um nutmeg everything on back then had nutmeg in it like yeah a lot of the cocktails involved nutmeg yes yeah i mean i like a nutmeg and a drink i'm not against that but wait until you hear some of these combinations all right go ahead i think the grossest one I found was called French 75. Which is a drink that is not always like this. Yeah. I've definitely, I think I've had a French 75, and these are not the ingredients as far as I know.

However, how much money do we want to put on Mike thinking this down? Mike will love this. And this isn't even the one with sherbet in it. French 75 from the cookbook. One and a quarter ounce gin. Two ounce sour mix. Okay, normal. Two and a half ounces champagne.

Okay, still pretty normal. Dash of rock candy syrup. Great. The suggestion of how to acquire rock candy syrup is melt down rock candy with a little water. So you have to make your own rock candy syrup. I've never had rock candy syrup. I like an occasional piece of rock candy. I don't know how you guys feel about rock candy.

I can't recall having rock candy. I know I have. Jason? I like it okay. Yeah. It's a little bit of a chore. Yeah. You jason i like it okay yeah it's like it's a little bit of a chore yeah you gotta suck on it it's a vacation treat i feel like it's a thing that candy shops on vacation they have it it's sugar yeah once in a while if i was getting bulk i'd have a little piece of it but it's a little bit like yeah it's just like a little crystal yeah so i guess you would melt it down i don't't know. It's just sugar. I don't know what's the...

It's just sugar. Yeah. What's the... I guess it does just end up being a syrup at the end of the day. Yeah. It's strange to see in a recipe. Scott, do you have the monorail drinks in front of you? Yeah.

You got four colors of monorail. Monorail pink, gin, pineapple, and orange juice, grenadine syrup, and heavy cream. Heavy cream. No. Fuck. No. Heavy. syrup and heavy cream no no heavy uh monroe red tequila galliano grenadine pineapple juice and lemon bar mix i bet that's good yeah well yes you yes which part of it is bad uh well for you the tequila yeah no i know that you get away you can get away from that with all this this sugar but i

mean like there's none which part of it do you guys not like about that drink i look i don't want any of the i don't want the sour mix in the french 75 much less that's so you don't like a whiskey sour not so much i i try to get as little of and margaritas i'm like if we can get down to uh it's like a it's juice it's a splash yeah not sour mix okay because sour yeah okay but sour yeah i'll have a whiskey sorry i don't like it too sour but i guess that depends on the strength of the mix women bar mix is fascinating is that like a powder i don't know i don't know i can't picture how that that comes and grenadine is god's uh nectar i love it grenadine is the greatest grenadine is like the shiradine is like the Shirley Temple.

Yeah. Yeah. The greatest drink known to man. I'm sorry. Are you still a Shirley Temple drinker? God's juice, I call it. I double checked. Galliano is a sweet liqueur.

So this is like the sweetest drink. That's the issue. I think pick one of the- I would never have a drink with more than one of these. A sweet liqueur added to all of that, I think, does seem like it's a little crazy. Because grenadine goes a long way in the drink. But grenadine is so- Lemon bar mix goes the longest way.

Yeah, maybe. Monorail yellow has coconut cream. That's the weird one in there. And then monorail purple. Yeah. Brandy, wine, and grape juice. What are we doing here? Brandy and wine.

Wine and grape juice? And wine is unspecified. Don't worry about it wine wine is made from grapes why do we need more grapes and just great i don't i'm not drinking grape juice for any i like grape juice jason uh yes i do like grape juice i like grape i like the grape juice that's called wine okay i like wine too it seems like a lot of grapes I have some non-alcoholic drinks. Did you pull these? Maybe not. What do we got?

Okay. Let's see. Bay Lake Thirst Quencher, a refreshing intermission featuring lime sherbet garnished with pineapple, fresh mint leaves, and topped with delicious lemonade. Just think there's a lot going on there. Yes. But not as much as an orange sunshine. A delightful combination

of freshly squeezed Florida orange juice, blended with an egg yolk, sweetened with a spoonful of orange blossom honey, seasoned with a hint of lime, and a touch of grated nutmeg. I bet that's good.

I bet that's good. They love nutmeg. I bet that drink's good, though. And zero alcohol content. And zero alcohol content zero alcohol so you don't get that stupid buzz that we don't want you get all the sugar a little bit of sugar little little bits and blaps in our brain yeah you just want to have fun what do you think that one sounds bad i don't i just think there's just too much going on i I mean, egg yolk. Egg yolk? Egg whites, if you froth, it becomes meringue.

Egg yolk, I don't know. It might be interesting. Hmm. Because egg yolk isn't like a sugar thing. It isn't. So it's a lot of, it's four different forms of sugar and then egg yolk. Yeah. And no alcohol. I bet it's interesting. I'll make that one. Can I make that one? You should make it.

Make it. Yeah, I'll drink it if you make it. It's probably an episode. And now a guy's in the one? You should make it. Yeah, I'll drink it if you make it. It's probably a movie. It is an episode. And now a guy's in the car and he's been like, oh, I gotta keep listening so they can make that dumb drink. Now I'm into, that's the significant other. Oh, they come back.

Fine, okay. I do want to hear this guy in his 30s drink egg yolk. I also, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that that is like real honey, like fresh honey. I hate artificial honey or like honey in packets. Yeah, yeah. I just don't like it. The lowest I will go will be the bear-shaped bottle.

Oh, so you don't think that's high quality? That's not high quality. I will descend to the bear. Well, it can be either. I've seen like, you know, raw, you know, from the farm honey in those bottles. But I've also seen just like the Kroger crap brand. So there's multiple bears. There's different bear bottles for different qualities of honey.

Yeah, the bear bottle will trick me. I'm saying like the nasty little like lemon honey tea and the tea bag already has honey flavoring in it. That's gross to me. Can we look into how many different bear bottles there are for honey? Well, I'll take any of them. I'll take any of them. I know that, but I'm saying for our purposes, figure out mascot-wise, figure out what the different bottles are. Are they plastic?

Are they glass? Oh, the SKU numbers? Types of bear. Yeah. Yeah. And figure out what's the high-quality bear and what's the brand. Sure. Yeah.

I think we can do that. All right. Which one of their little honey spigot hats is the cutest? That's right. Yeah, there's a lot here. There's multiple episodes here. Burbank Farmer's Market

usually has a honey booth. That's where I've bought honey in the past. Mason should be. Honey booth. I mean, we could dig into what the honey booth is.

I know that. Okay, that is a funny phrase, but that's kind of a standard farmer's market uh stall i don't think that's no doubt it is does it consist of you dipping your entire paws into open pots look did i have a long conversation with the guy of like well what do you think the difference is between the uh poppy honey and the buckwheat honey it's like well the buckwheat honey is gonna have more of a an interesting flavor i think uh i was like oh okay well i'll try the buckwheat honey i guess like here's the like interesting flavor, I think. I was like, oh, okay. Well, I'll try the buckwheat honey, I guess.

Like here's the, like it's, language is so important, folks. Because like if you think about this, it's like, if you just said I bought honey at the farmer's market, we move on. We go back to the hotel. But Jason says I went to the honey booth at the farmer's market and I could talk about it for 10 more minutes. But I mean, we won't. I'm just saying the language is so important.

He said full fat Sprite and I've brought it up in every episode. Every episode. I five-timered it, like, immediately. I'm willingly five-timering it. And that one, of course, Sprite, they, for years, advertised as fat-free. I fucked that one up. Full sugar Sprite. Full calorie Sprite.

No, too late. It's full fat Sprite. Why are you doing that? No, we love full fat Sprite. You know, it's short and sweet. You get what I'm saying. It's not diet, you know? Not diet.

Yeah, so anyway, Honey Booth, Honey Bears coming soon. Honey Bears episode. There's some other, I was looking at just food that you could get in 70s Contemporary. I mean, they're all pretty bad, but let me just cut to the chase and bring up ham and rice salad. These are three characters from different universes. They don't belong in the same multiverse. Ham, rice, and salad. It's not a fun mix.

Ham salad, though, is something that has been around for a long time. Ham can be in salad. Sure, sure. It's in Cobb, right? I don't like it. No, I don't. I'm not a big fan of it. I'm not a big ham guy in general.

Wait, are you talking about like a chef salad or are you talking about chopped up ham with mayonnaise, aka ham salad? Oh, ham salads like chicken salad? Ham salad, tuna salad, chicken salad. They're all in the same family. I've never had ham salad. It's like liquidy. No. Oh, God.

What was yours, the full title again? Oh, the full title was ham and rice salad. That could really go in any possible direction. What was yours, the full title again? Oh, the full title was Ham and Rice Salad. That could really go in any possible direction. Could. I don't know if there's any results. There's things on here that, like, why, you know, Duck Tambu. That sparked my interest.

Well, what's Duck Tambu? There are almost no results for Duck Tambu. Duck Tambu. These are all food. Nobody bothered to save the recipes for any of this. Let this die in the 70s. Let the past die. Kill it.

What's the last Jedi line? Kill it. They burned all the books. Yoda burned all the ancient contemporary cookbooks. Great ham and rice salad. It was not. Now no one will ask. You'd never ask.

Now no one will ask. And no never ask. Now no one will ask. And no one missed them. Also spaghetti salad. What do you mean? There is a very funny, there is one menu for the contemporary, I believe that listed as Italian spaghetti. I was just like, oh, maybe there is something to that idea that food didn't taste good until the 1980s in America. I don't think so. Or it's just so much salt and lard.

That was the stuff that tasted good, you know? Which, by the way, so the restaurant up here in the video, here, I'll pop off the little up here in the floating, the top portion, and I'll lock it back in. Bang. portion and I'll lock it back in bang at the top of the contemporary of course is the California Grill which opened in the 90s and remains a really fantastic restaurant and a great place to have some drinks and that feels like a that is staying contemporary

that is like people are eating avocado now there's this thing sushi flat bread pizza but I think of bread People are eating avocado now. There's this thing, sushi. Flatbread pizza. Flatbread. Yes. But I think of bread as being a big puffy loaf.

What do you mean flat? Someone, whatever culinary mind at Disneyland discovered flatbreads and just distributed them wide, bought a massive house. They got a huge bonus. You're saving us so much fucking money on bread costs it seems fancy to them they bought it these fucking suckers these fucking rubes i do love though i will pay i probably don't even look at the price if it's a flatbread and it's at disneyland and it's next to wine like oh shit that was 84 dollars well it wasn't good i've probably been suckered i'm a sucker for deep dish, of course, because I'm from the Chicago area.

But flatbread is so manageable pizza-wise. So if you're not, you don't want to spill. It doesn't have to be your main. It could be your side. So it could be anything. And it is a desire. Depending on what you're doing,

it's very desirable. I feel and it is a desire, depending on what you're doing. It's very desirable. Yeah. I feel flatbread. I think I am a sucker. If they, if the flatbread has like goat cheese or manchego and or figs, I'm like, well,

I'm pulling out my monocle and my ascot for this and we must have it. Some honey, some balsamic, something going on. Yeah. Yeah. I'll do an anytime always i'll do a once a year anchovy honestly on a flatbread sure they did they do at disney i don't know they

do that disney but i'm just saying like i'll go crazy on a flatbread that's what i'm saying sure anything goes yeah you can put honey on it and i don't care it could be the cheap shit it could be the good stuff that Jason got at the Honey Bowl the most bulbous bear but so that's the that's the top of the contemporary now which is great I got a last minute time there when we were all down

together a couple years ago oh my god like top of the world the former name of the establishment if you're watching fireworks up there and they're piping in the music and you got yourself a great drink and you got yourself a great gal, which I had, and a baby on the way. I was really just like, wow, life is precious. I was like, absolutely effervescent up at the, I am any time. You were having a great time. She got to drink shit.

Yeah. She's drinking club soda. Yeah. Why is, why is she less. Another lemonade. Celebratory than me. Yeah. I feel like that was a day we had, we went to that lounge that just opened at Grand Floridian.

And then I think, was it the same day or am I mixing up my days? I don't think it was. We may have done it that same day. Grand Floridian. And then I think, was it the same day or am I mixing up my days? I don't think it was. We may have done it that same day. So we got to go to that Grand Floridian lounge on the balcony and then went to Top of the World later that night. That's a day, right? They're just touring the...

That's all you need to do. You don't need to... Trader Sam's there too. Yeah, Monorail Bar Crawl. Yeah, if you're like, Disney World's too expensive, it is too expensive. But you can go to the hotels.

And not stay there. Not stay there. You can leave. And you can get the magic. You can get a little piece of magic. You can get so much magic. We felt all the magic. And this building glistening in the night as you leave, wonderful.

I felt the magic back in my hotel room where I was napping while you all were doing that. And then I got up and got dressed and went, I think I'm going to eat chicken guy a second time. Jason's on his own calendar when we're on vacation. I'm a wild man, folks. Jason does his own thing when you're on vacation with him. I just want to make that clear. If you ever go on vacation with Jason,

do not expect him to be with you 70% of the time. Wait, no. We did a lot of stuff together. We have done a lot of stuff together. We all broke off a lot. Yeah, but I think that you, more than most people, just end up doing your own thing, depending on what the vacation is.

Sometimes, yeah, yeah. Comic-Con, I think we're a little bit more together. Yeah. There's lines to stand in. There's lines to stand in, which we like doing. Well, yeah, that's true. And Comic-Con, if you try to say, I'll meet up with you later, that's like the biggest pain in the ass. Like, it's impossible.

I never saw them again for the rest of my life. But if I tell Jason, oh, we're going to the Wired. We have passes to the Wired Lounge where you get free, like, little tacos and a free, what's the T-shirt? Oh, wait. I have multiple freebie Mr. Mercedes T-shirts. Mr. Mercedes t-shirts jason got at the wired lounge multiple times which is a there's all these parties at comic-con and some are easy to get into easier to get into than others and this one is like sort of hard to get into but

not that hard because it's got free stuff in it and a couple years in a row we went there and jason each year got a free mr mercedes t-shirt a show i've never seen how is mr mercedes okay mr mercedes was a stephen king novel that was turned into a tv show i believed for the short-lived either at&t or direct tv channel and now it lives elsewhere i think it lives on peacock whatever confusingly named channel has louder milk which is also confusingly named right and they don't, which is also confusingly named. Right. And they don't explain it. Their posters were just like, you know, AT&T Network, what's that? Never heard of it.

Mr. Mercedes and Louder Milk. Then it's a picture of a guy and a picture of another guy. Why aren't you watching it? Yeah, yeah. It's everything you need to know. Right. And then there's a picture of Jason with the shirt on, wearing it to bed, I assume. Yes.

But yeah, no, we would do that. But yeah, I feel like on theme park vacations, we do a lot of stuff, but then, yeah, you're on your own timetable often. Napping. Well, we all would have gathered,

I think, in a previous time to check out some great entertainment up at the top of the pin tower. We all would have, like, made a point of getting the table, getting some big plates of ham and rice salad, some rock candy and gin drinks and enjoying. Here's a quote from ImagineNerding.com about the former top of the world bar.

Where else could you enjoy roast duck with orange sauce, veal Romanoff and rose petal salad while being entertained by the likes of Carol Lawrence, Jack Jones, and Phyllis Diller. Amen. I cannot answer that question. I don't know where else you could eat literal rose petals and watch Jack Jones, who I Googled and is the singer of the Love Boat theme, apparently. Which seems like that would have been a guy on your radar. It does. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. Why am I passionate about... Oh, now I'm not going to produce the name. theme yeah apparently oh it seems like that would have been a guy on your your radar it does yeah

yeah yeah uh-huh yeah why am i passionate about oh now i'm not going to produce the name the believe it or not right right right scarberry i want to say believe it or not i'm walking on air uh love i'll get into jack jones but yeah lots of uh you know you can see sherry lewis and lamb chop i mean god bless oh man i would have loved to adults nothing but adults because it's a bar so adults at a bar drink rock candy and watch lamb chop that's the ad stuff jason's talking about you're getting adults there and what was adult was sherry lewis just doing her lamb chop show for adults uh i don't know if it was a blue lamb chop no i don't know if it was a profanity-laden Lamb Chop.

I saw Sherry Lewis. Have I talked about seeing Sherry Lewis in person? I don't think so. Well, she opened the first Target in our area that opened in the mid-'90s. Sherry Lewis and Lamb Chop were at the opening, and we made a point to go see Sherry on Barrington Road. Ms. Chop.. Miss Chop. Miss Chop.

We were big Lamb Chop fans in the house. And we saw her. And really all we did was stand in the parking lot and saw her maybe cut a ribbon. I don't know. She didn't really do a ton. It wasn't amplified? My memory is that it was not.

Lamb Chop's got a pretty soft voice. Red hair lady. So yeah, we were big lamb chop i my parents are moving and i was just sent a photo of the three lamb chop puppets that we had as kids my mom wanted to throw them away and so they're dirty and i said no way you are not throwing these away you put those dirty puppets in the trunk and you drive them out of here. That's right. That's what I said. I said, I want those dirty puppets. Bring me my dirty chops. Dirty chops. And they're on the way. So I will get the Lamb Chop

puppets to add to my collection. So then we all have one and we can all do a funny body Lamb Chop nightclub act. That's right. Jason, who do you call? Wait, I thought they were all lamb no no lamb chop hush puppy and charlie horse are the three main oh i thought it was three lamb

chops okay oh no no no three yes the three characters the big three i guess hush puppy the triumph the hush puppy or charlie horse the holy trinity of lewis verse. Yeah. The names I kept coming across, Mel Torme, I saw mentioned as like doing 10 days or eight days there. The other. Sold out for 10 days. 10 nights. Torme. Okay. The other name I saw, I saw people saying Phyllis Dillard, but then I saw like a, you know, events guide of what was going on at the contemporary at the time and they

mentioned phyllis mcguire and i was like who is phyllis mcguire uh phyllis mcguire was part of a three sister group called the mcguire sisters she only died in 2020 she she was the longest living mcguire sister and i pulled up some of her music on Spotify and I just want to, Margo, can you play that McGuire sister song? Because it's shocking revelation about where we know this song from. Hmm, interesting. A couple of pretty gals. Sugar in the morning, sugar in the evening,

sugar at supper time. Be my little sugar and love me all the time. Honey in the morning, honey in the evening, honey at supper time. When pizza's on a bagel, you can have pizza anytime. Damn it. You can cut it, Mark. We cracked the case.

Wow. What a revelation. What a revelation. I had no idea the Bagel Bites song was based on an ancient, old-timey hit.

Wow. Did they pay royalties? I am assuming they had to pay the McGuire sisters. It's a parody song, essentially. It is a parody song.

So maybe they didn't. Oh yeah, maybe parody law. You could could hear you could go to the contemporary hotel and hear an un-pizza bagel version of the pizza bagel song oh my gosh you could hear phyllis phyllis mcguire sing that song in a haze of cigarette smoke wow that's that's interesting so obviously they were not performing that after the pizza like they probably stopped performing many years ago i assume uh i don't know i weren't like i don't know if they were all alive uh when the pizza right bagel started they didn't get to enjoy pizza bagel mania yeah they didn't get to go on tour to do the song is what i'm saying yeah they should have been able to go into the...

Contacting the McGuire estate. Hey, did any of these wonderful singers get a chance to sample a pizza bagel? Bagel bite. When they walked God's green earth, when they were all still around. Yeah, wow. Did they get God's bounty, that being a pizza bagel? Also, when they were writing the jingle, they were like, I can't crack this. There's no way we can write an original song about eating pizza on a bagel. Also, when they were writing the jingle, they were like, I can't crack this. There's no way we can write an original song

about eating pizza on a bagel. We must take an old song and rewrite it. Like, I guess it's, maybe it was just there was a deadline and it was, or it was like Elton John's candle in the wind and he was like, let's just rewrite an old one. And they're like, let's rewrite the old honey

on a whatever the hell they were saying. This could also be a thing where like older people would go like, yeah, you fucking idiot. It's that sugar song. Oh, yeah, sure. It was a classic. Yeah. Yeah. Well, if you're old in the audience and you know the sugar song and that's something that was obvious to you, let us know.

Yeah. Also, Margo, could you bring up that picture labeled Jimmy Rogers? I couldn't find anything on Jimmy Rogers besides this one old photo. And this kind of sums up early contemporary. What a wonderful photo that is. Thickest mustache I've ever seen. The thickest hair. Both hair and mustache are three inches deep.

Thickest eyebrows. That logo on the back wall, though, is my favorite thing I've ever seen. It's sort of, yeah, it's a bunch of cascading octagons. Yeah. I haven't counted the sides. Going from red to yellow. It goes through all the colors that were available in the early 70s, from dark red to lighter red to orange to uh yellowish orange and then there's

a big circle that looks like a weird petri dish made out of carpeting or something like like a little like those are all microbes microbes or i guess sperm i'm sorry i apologize but yeah it's it's so weird the whole image but it's such a great thing i I don't know. It looks like carpeting on the wall. It's a vibe. That's a vibe in there for sure. And world-class entertainment. And, you know, Connie Stevens, Vic Damone.

Those are names that I may have heard before. I couldn't tell you for sure. Everybody just, all entertainers around that time, it was just kind of trust. Like, that is a name. That's somebody, right? Yeah.

No, it is. No, for God's sake. Oh, come on. Victor Moan. He did, whatever. I'm not going to look it up. It's Victor Moan. Victor Moan sounds like a person that does.

You know Victor. If there's somebody named Victor Moan, they're a singer and they're a good singer. Of course. That's all there is to it. And they're in the contemporary. Ten, first ten sold out shows. Yeah, this is stuff we've talked about. Like where Disneyland and Disney World, like it was, I don't know that Victor Moan was like the hippest thing in that year.

You know, like he might have been hipper things going on in the 70s music wise. I just guess. So like Woodstock, did Woodstock have any effect on the career? No. Well, Victor Moan, no. stock did woodstock have any effect on the career of no well i did victim oh no uh you know i don't think it was like steven stills wasn't playing at the top of the contemporary but uh they were certainly trying to draw a certain crowd that they're not courting as much anymore well if you wanted to rock there was still a place for you and that place is called the teen pool unlike other sometimes kids go to their own pool yeah separate from the adults or the adults have

their own pool right the contemporary a rare scenario where teens are cast off have their own pool because there they can play rock music yeah because it would be too jarring to hear a bunch of bread right imagine if you're just a good american victim own loving man and then you get blasted by bread ah yeah what is this yeah well you're a kid look you might not be ready for this but your kids are gonna love it your teens are gonna love it while they're swimming they're those teens at that teen pool are up to no good they're smoking cigarettes unlike us at the adult pool who are also smoking cigarettes but it's good when we do it they're better cigarettes we do it with class yeah oh also just the the the teen pool just seems like a real like uh real pervert trap.

If you were trying to run a Chris Hansen operation. Oh, I see. Yeah, yeah. We put up a Craigslist ad saying there was the opening of a teen pool. Hey, half of the top 10 Billboard charts are over at the teen pool with people they've crossed state lines with. Oh, yeah. The 70s with a teen've crossed state lines with. Oh, yeah. The 70s with a teen pool that played rock music. Oh, my God.

Get every rock and roll artist away from there. Jesus. I didn't even think about it. Show us the logs. Show us the teen pool logs, folks. Who went to the teen pool? There was more wholesome stuff going on for kids to do. It seems like people were very fond.

If you were a kid who went to the Contemporary while your parents went upstairs to swing, to swap keys, you could stay in the Fiesta Fun Center. The arcade kept the Southwest theme. The Fiesta Fun Center, which had, there was a movie theater for just a dollar. You could see classics like Love Bug,

Mary Poppins, or Song of the South. Oh, good. Whoops. Moving on. There was also a big shooting gallery. you could see classics like love bug mary poppins or song of the south oh good whoops moving on uh there was also a big shooting gallery that seemed like legit and imagineered i mean disney building a shooting gallery that was gone by the time i went for the first time yeah were you just you just had like an arcade and the southwest of it yeah i went in 80 89 or 90 for the first time yeah so so that was gone oh excuse me why are you walking so close behind me well you're a tall guy you throw a decent shadow and i'm walking in it to keep out of this bright sun it hurts my eyes okay well you know

what spec savers you can get two pairs of glasses from 14149. And oh, you'll like this. One can be a pair of prescription sunglasses. Sounds great. Where's the nearest store? Not far. Come on. Let's hurry then. To my count.

One, two, one, two, one, two. Visit specsavers.ca for details. There also, there was a big mural on the wall that had representation of the three caballeros in keeping with the theme and the caballeros had girlfriends who were only that's the only media in which these three caballero girlfriends yeah like chip at caballeros yes essentially of whatever their names do you have a photo of that i don't that's just a note okay yeah we'll find that we'll find them maybe there's some yeah record of like what those characters names were um they just actually i do have a photo and they just look

exactly like them but uh you know the way you you try to find uh just your exact equivalent but right like the chip i mean the chip ads are mirror images of the chipmunks. Yeah. Yeah, that arcade. My memory of the arcade is basically one thing. Yeah. And it's one of the most exciting things ever as far as Disney World memories is they had, and let me find it. I have the picture with me here.

The only time I have ever seen the real Ghostbusters arcade game. Okay. That was not, what's the deal with that? It was not a common? I never, I guess not. That's one of those things as a kid where you walk in and you go, this is a complete, like I've never seen this before, and I would never see it again. I, I have a similar memory of an arcade

like in another beach town where I was like, holy shit, what's this Ghostbusters machine never saw it again really interesting because the same the only other arcade cabinet that I've never seen again was a Bucky O'Hare arcade cabinet and that was at the Little Caesars which became the Caesarland

which is still a topic we need to get into one day when we can find like somebody from corporate that has the materials this is just nothing to go off very little as as memory pictures there's just some people from the schaumburg only little caesars that was like a chucky cheese essentially um so yeah ghostbusters i wonder if it was not widely available which is crazy because it was such a popular cartoon and movies it could have just been overtaken like they made it when the show was wrapping up and it's like the turtles game and the Simpsons game and the X-Men

game just like overtook I guess but you would think Scott you know did you ever do you play like Simpsons and Turtles the main arcade games yeah yeah yeah X-Men was around whether you played it or not but Ghostbusters was do you ever recall seeing this no no no I saw

not a common one I guess you're once so I wonder what happened with it so but but that's like that's almost as powerful a memory as like going on any of the rides for the first time to me it's going like oh my god ghostbusters arcade did you not know that the game existed or no you didn't know anything this is the old you remember the old days of everything toy wise like you didn't know what toys were available you go into toys into Toys R Us and go, I hope they have Sonic the Hedgehog toys. I mean, unless you saw a commercial, you wouldn't know. So when you'd go into a new arcade, you would find games you never saw before.

It would blow your little mind. Wow. So was it great? I remember it being really fun. I think it was a side-scroller where you would shoot your proton pack stuff at ghosts, which is what a game like that would be. Yeah.

But, uh, my memory was it did live up to it, but I think I didn't get to spend too much time there. And my parents probably

were like, we should go to Disney world. The thing we paid for and have been planning to do for some time. Although I think maybe timing wise it was bad

because I did end up beating the X-Men arcade with some kids because it was broken and that was at grand floridian okay so a bunch of like strangers and i one night like teamed up to beat magneto and it was a wonderful moment and we never saw each other again geez wow and this wasn't uh immortalized in some kind of washington crossing the del type painting. Not as far as I know. It is in my mind. When the heroes stood up to injustice.

Yeah. Did what was right. Great moments in Disney World arcade or arcade moment, I guess. Great Disney World arcade moments, which I bet a lot of kids have of a certain age. I don't know if kids are still as excited about arc games as they are, or they were when we were kids, but I could be wrong. Because it's still there. Arcade is still there.

Do they have tickets now? Some places have tickets. Some places have cards. Right. I think they have some sort of like Chuck E. Cheese style thing there. I could be wrong. I'm not sure.

To redeem. Let's start. Let's get our remaining details that we like because there's a big thing that we haven't gotten to and I can only assume it will be the closer. Yeah. So toss out anything else. Yeah, I think that's right.

Can you bring up that concept art picture, Margo? I had never seen this before. I think this is early what the contemporary could have looked like. It's very different. Well, is this from, because the idea of this type of building was in the original Epcot plans,

and I don't mean the park Epcot, I mean the city Epcot. Like there was this idea of a general building vibe that I believe was supposed to be a mall. Like it was the shopping center in Walt's future city, which it does continue to have this extremely mall vibe, which probably speaks to why I dig it.

This looks like part of a city, this art. Yeah. This might be Epcot design. And this also may have been when the original name was in play, which I really like. Tempo Bay. Tempo Bay is a- Tempo Bay is a great name. I don't know- Maybe I would have- I maybe like. Tempo Bay. Tempo Bay is a... Tempo Bay is a great name. I don't know.

I maybe would have... I maybe like it more. I don't know. Tempo Bay. Do you think it fits? Do you think it fits? I mean, it fits with a place with lots of young couples

who are looking for new experiences on a vacation. They'll never forget. Hey, get on my tempo, baby. Press against my chest and feel my tempo. Oh, God. I don't think that's a heartbeat is what i said the same thing as you did but you sang it made me uh recoil um yeah it's tempo bay

is a cool name uh this looks this looks much more like a marvel prison or something this this art it's a lot less inviting but it is cool cool. Let's bring this back for a prison. For Avengers. If you're out there about to build a prison and you listen to this show. Yeah, if you're a part of the prison industrial complex

in America and you're looking for fresh, innovative ways to make some money and build new prisons, listen to Podcast The Ride and then just steal an old Disney concept.

If you're part of the prison industrial complex and you subscribe to our Patreon, then we think you're great. We love, yes. Thanks for everything you do. We're against the Prison Industrial Complex unless you are paying us $8 a month. Yeah. Then we're on board.

They really should, they could build like the Marvel supervillain holding pen somewhere. Sure, yeah. That would be fun. That would be a fun ride. Yeah. Everybody gets out and they just use old contemporary old tempo bay concept art yeah why not tempo bay uh margo will you pull out that matchbook uh image um it's a very jason request love the matchbook please so this little

kind of um simplified version of the contemporary shows up on a lot of stuff and it's still used can you switch to the menu too? Like they will tile it too. I mean this looks like the Overlook in The Shining. Oh yeah. God that'd be great as wallpaper

as computer wallpaper anywhere you want. As a shirt. As a Kooky Lasseter shirt. They did hit on some stuff that it's like, yeah, this works for a place called the contemporary. This is kind of timeless. Works in a lot of eras. There was also an era, though, where it was unmistakably 80s.

There's a picture, 80s contemporary, and there is an inherent mallness to it it that it is a big open atrium. And then look at that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, this is what I see in my dreams. This is a is a neon sign in kind of cursive that says contemporary woman. And then all those pipes up there.

That's what the Space Mountain. There's still some of it. This is still there. I think so. This gift shop. And I think the pipes are still there, too. This is still there. I think so. This gift shop. And it's pretty much in the same. I think the pipes are still there too. Yes, I believe the pipes are.

The lighting is absolutely different, but the gift shop is still there. I don't think they're selling the same things. They're not selling like big thick denim shirts. I don't think it looks like. Or that's a jacket maybe right there. Big cloth flowers for ladies to wear. They are selling like bizarre, a top that's very long. And the skirt doesn't start until like past your hips right uh bizarre proportions um but the last time i was in there

i doubt i remember being like where's all the merchandise that says contemporary they're like we don't have any and i went what yeah shit bring back the rock pillows give us something to buy uh maybe that's been that's different in the last couple years. I also don't think that you can rent. I believe there was also a contemporary man, and you could rent tuxedos there. You walk into a store that looks like this and rent a tuxedo. Oh, my gosh.

We would have done that for a show. Imagine how weird that tuxedo is, and there's probably like a little Coke vial deep in the pocket. Oh, right, because Top of the World Lounge, the detail, it says um somewhere it said like jackets required for men like that's it was a nice place so you can contemporary potentially go rent it when you're getting your shipped box of oranges the ultimate that's a 15 timer well is the big thing we're waiting for the ultimate 15 timer about the contemporary?

Well, I don't know that we've fully addressed it, but let's get to it. Let's do it. Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon. Richard Milhouse Nixon. You might know this already, but this is the contemporary hotel and specifically the adjoining convention center is where Nixon said, I am not a crook. That is right.

That is the ultimate little piece of trivia. That is good. People love that. Normal people like that. Yes. That one won't put them to sleep. Right. You say that.

And then stop. Then don't say anything else that you've heard today. Regular folks that don't give a shit about any of this go. Wait, what? Yeah don't give a shit about any of this go, wait, what? Yeah, it's a thing, like every president has a couple phrases you can just say, you know, that's not what your country can do

for you, tear down this wall, like, I am not a crook, quickly became Richard Dixon. It would be like, you'd be like, yeah, did you know when Bill Clinton said that he didn't have sexual relations with that woman? That was at Knott's Berry Farm. You'd be like, what? It was? Boysenberry Festival. didn't have sexual relations with that woman that was at knott's berry farm he'd be like what it was boysenberry festival yeah boysenberry yeah he had some boysenberry on his shirt if you look if you look close yeah it was a purple tie so you couldn't tell that much luckily or he planned for that because you know he was smart

say what you want about the guy he was smart he was smart boysenberry tie sloppy boy but he was smart read my lips no taxes cedar farm george hw bush yeah it happened um you know another notorious quote you ever think about how we are in our lives very often near where one of the most notorious this was probably i am not a quick one of the most notorious until the great presidential quote grab him by the pussy that that that that is the nbc studio that was mere steps from jay leno's tonight show right studio we so often like i'm getting off the freeway and pass right by that yes right where the billy bush yeah situation happened yeah he if you watch the full video that happens they leave the bus and they walk into the building they're going into

and they pass by an old-timey car that is at the entrance of Jay Leno's Tonight Show studio. This can only be a Jay Leno. I never realized. Duesenberg or something. Watch the tape. Watch the tape. Not the part that happened and he still got elected. But if you want to see an old Duesenberg, the real point of Jay's car is in the tape.

It is. It's complicit. The car was if the car had said a big auga, if Jay had honked his horn at the right time, it might have startled Trump and Billy and it wouldn't have happened. And then he would have gotten elected even more easily.

I would say there would be no difference. What future am I describing? The thing you're describing isn't even that big of a deal after the fact that it didn't do anything and he still became president. As opposed to I'm not a crook, which is it didn't. It's not like it hurt him, but it was it's certainly like synonymous with the. Yeah, the whole thing. The collapse because it happened within the year of him stepping down.

Let's say some. All right. So the full picture here. Sure. November 17th, 1973. Jason, you were talking about like what the what this was the specific event that was happening in the convention center it was a one-hour press conference with the associated press managing editors association now think about that uh

what president after nixon is going like i'm going to go talk to the associated press editors for an hour yeah i mean only doing an hour trump can improvise six that's true no problem as long as it's in front of a bunch of hooting and hollering yeah he's actively giving covid too that's right but he was being asked about making money in public service and the full quote i've earned every cent and in all my years of public service i have never obstructed justice people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook well i am not a crook i've earned everything i've got anyway he said that november 73 stepped down in october or august. So it turned out he was a crook. Crook.

Now, this plays into the observation that I wanted to make about this. I don't have the clip of it. But here, you kind of did a Nixon-y thing there. If I was going to try to do what I think kind of accurately it was and how he said it. This is my best attempt. They've got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got. That's like maybe kind of a drive.

And then over the years, probably like within the year, but what it's become in pop culture, and I invite you guys to all do this together. I think you know where I'm going with it. I do. I do. I know. The world has turned the quote into. Yeah.

Why? I'm not with it. I do, though. I do, I know. Here is what the world has turned the quote into. Yeah. I am brother crook. He does that. Yes, it's this. The people think this. They picture him on. He's always, it's priest side. That's my thing. It's priest side.

And then I shake on my jowls. I am not a crook. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Suck it to me. It's always, I'm not a crook. Suck me it's always for i'm not a crook suck it to me checkers this is like but this happens all that luke i am your father isn't the quote yes yeah these things get changed the fact that people so really confidently and probably to like entertain people at a party like look what i can do luke like he doesn't say luke no he doesn't say it. He says I.

Do you want some more gin and nutmeg special? But yes, there's no M. Well, I'm not a crook, but it's like, I am not a crook. I mean, how many times did Rich Little say, I am not a crook at one of his sold out shows in Las Vegas? Still, I think. Still doing it. As with our episode, it's what he builds to. It's the opener and the closer for Rich Little, I think. Still doing it. As with our episode, it's what he builds to.

It's the opener and the closer for Rich Little, I think, at this point. Some bands open and close with their hit song and Rich Little, I'm sure, does Nixon or Johnny. He does either Johnny Carson

or Nixon first and last. What if Nixon hosted the Tonight Show? He absolutely does that. Nixon was Karnak. That's actually a little heady maybe for his act. Yeah, too many things.

And it's a little disrespectful because honestly, Johnny, that's Johnny's show. So, you know, he was the king. Nobody ever did it better. We'd do the golf swing and you know what? Everybody would watch it. It doesn't matter what walk of life you're from, what politics you are. People love it. People like die mid-talking about Johnny Carson all the time.

They're just like, they're in the middle of the sentence. Do the listeners... Okay. Wait, go ahead. No, I don't think I'm gonna... You probably have some funnier thought than I do. My thought isn't that funny. I just like, do the listeners know, like, do they watch enough, like, interviews with

old Ben that have this reverence for Johnny Carson? Do they know even what we're talking about? Like, that's my question. That's what you're questioning? I'm just wondering. In this episode? I'm just wondering. Once in a while, I step out of my body

and I go, wait a minute here. People tuned in for Mickey Mouse. And they're like, Johnny Carson's been off you for 40 years. I think either you have to not have those moments or you need to have them 70 times an episode. That's true. That's how to proceed. Today I'm stepping away. I'm

floating above myself. I'll give you credit. I think that is a valid question to answer. I'm just wondering. I think at a certain point it just became so ubiquitous if they may have heard it and just tuned it out. Weird wild stuff. CNN documentaries or time-life compilation commercials or whatever.

I was going to ask in 20 years or 30 years, are people going to be like, oh man, the thing you got to remember when Corden said he was stepping away. I mean, the music stopped, the cardboard karaoke was over. Everyone gasped when they heard there's not going to be another crosswalk

dance-a-thon off. Yeah. I think when the Foo Fighters, because they heard there's not going to be another crosswalk dance-a-thon off yeah i think when the bullfighters because remember there's like there was seven of those guys they all fit into one car you couldn't believe it and the spin-off shows when it would just be celebrities and they weren't singing their songs who could have thought of that wait i mean you got quantico and then you got quantico in the field like ariana grande and seth mcfarlane together singing little shop get out of town hold on wait a minute they had arrow and then they had supergirl and then you're telling me there's these legends of tomorrow i gotta know now and it really blew people away and all these guys knew each other the characters all knew each other and that was revolutionary yeah it's gonna happen

yeah i don't know what you were referencing with seth mcfarland and ariana grande well scott i shouldn't have asked well uh-huh there is a spin-off of course carpool karaoke is not just limited to the j Corden show. It is also its own show on Apple TV, I believe. And one of the episodes, Seth MacFarlane is driving and Ariana Grande is sitting shotgun. And they sing like Sud and Lacey Moore. And Lacey Moore. Yeah, and they sing it together.

Wait, no spoilers. Well, they have the plant. There's like a plant in the backseat, I think. You're either going to sing Little Shop of Horrors like the girl group does, or you're going to sing Sunlight Seymour. If you're talking Little Shop and you've got to condense it to a show. I've been reading interviews with Seth MacFarlane about talking about the state of musicals these days. And I do wonder, Jason, if you concur with his feeling. He feels like we're really not in a good spot musical-wise.

He believes like Rodgers and Hammerstein, like, that's the top of the level, and we still, the songwriting is not there as far as the last couple decades of musicals. Yeah, I mean, I think, yeah, I don't know. There's some good ones, there's some bad ones. I did, like, watching the Tonys, I was kind of like, yeah, I don't know any. There's some stuff where it feels like there's musical,

like, you know, the speed run, like, quick where you can just have someone go, something is going to happen. Like, that's all you have to do. But he's saying the best stuff is still in the past, and we haven't, we have to get back to more traditional songwriting. It certainly seems like the Broadway and the West End, like, the way they book stuff, it is just like a lot of the same stuff comes up. Scott, do you have an opinion about this? I think it's interesting that Jason's just earnestly answering Seth MacFarlane's question through you. I'd love to get, you know, get back and forth. Let's get Seth on and talk about it. And only that.

Yep. Okay. Here's the Nixon thing I found out. Do you know what might have brought him to the Florida area? Oh, actually, I don't. Why did this thing happen here and why did he go there? He was fresh from a vacation because he, much like Trump, had a Florida White House. He had a place where he went like 50 times during the presidency and this was

three and a half hours south in key biscayne florida uh like a beachfront property he got it really cheap from like mob hookups and jimmy hoffa affiliated people and he was in a neighborhood of like other crooks including he uh was really good friends like nixon's florida neighbor was a guy named robert ablanalp one of the most complicated names i've ever seen uh uh robert ablanalp who was the inventor of aerosol spray can tops wow wow and that was that made him enough money to be Nixon's neighbor in Florida. And in fact, so, okay, this is 73. I'm not a crook. Oh, wait.

Oh, this would have been the beginning. I'm sorry. When the Watergate break-in became a story and leaked to the press, where was Nixon? As it broke, Nixon was on Robert Ablenalp's private island in the Bahamas called Walker's Cay. Not Moosha Cay. Not Moosha Cay, which is what I'm saying. So, like, there's a lot of notorious Cays at this point. Yeah, really?

There's Fire Festival Cay. Uh-huh. There's David Copperfield Monkey Cay. Now we know there's Watergate, Aerosol Spray Can Nixon Cay. I wonder if it's still in the family. I don'tosol spray can, Nixon K. Is it still the, I wonder if it's still in the family. I don't know. That's an interesting question.

Is it still owned by the Avalon Alps? Huh. I think it may have been slowly desiccated by hurricanes, which is the fate of a lot of these Ks. But anyway, it could be a future ordeal

of stepping through every K. All the Ks, yeah. And discovering how many crimes and which crimes every K is associated with. All the crimes. By the way, usually pronounced key, C-A-Y, key, like the Florida Keys, but sometimes spelled K.

Yeah. Did I say it right or wrong? Huh? So you're saying it should be, we've been calling it Musha K this whole time, it should be Musha Key. Yeah, I only learned this recently. A lot of times pronounced key in that area. I'm not 100% on which is,

is and is not pronounced key. Well, people have been confused now. They always knew Musha Key as David Copperfield's private island that had monkey butlers or whatever. Keys or Ks. I don't know. Keys or Ks.

I don't know either. I don't know i don't know either i don't know if it's a key or k um and anyway so that's the uh wait there was something else so he was down there oh and uh he that was that property in florida had a helipad that was built by the department of defense so we paid for america America paid for Nixon to have a helipad and then he sold the property and made a profit on it. So like that's iffy, right? To sell the helipad

that the government built and it looks so Florida shady and criminal that this property was used in both Miami Vice and Scarface. Great. The place where Nixon used to live. And I assume Nixon associate G. Gordon Liddy was on a Miami Vice episode, I think, because he was like a celebrity.

Oh, okay. G. Gordon Liddy did the break-in. Got the acting bug. Yeah. And I was going to say great. I don't know. It's great. But there's a Conan O'Brien with Conan, Don Rickles, and G. Gordon Liddy.

I don't know if you've ever seen that. No, no. But G. Gordon Liddy was a crazy person that got put in prison for the break-in, but worth investigating for many reasons because he became a celebrity, had his own radio show. Al Franken always bragged about being friends with him. You'd be like, I'm friends with G. We call him G.

What? That's what we call him. I swear to God, he'd always talk about this when I was listening to the Al Franken show in college on Air America. The clues have always been there of your ability to stomach

Al's words. Oh, yeah. I would listen to all of Air America when I was around. People you disagree with. Well, I always, I mean,

the SNL connection with Al was a good line into like politics. A good like straight line into like, a good straight line into, I guess I'll listen to Al talk about G. Gordon Liddy for an hour and a half in college. I guess I could have been doing better things with my time. But we've talked about before the G. Gordon Liddy calendar of women in bathing suits holding guns. On this show, we've talked about that.

I think we have, Jason. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah, we have talked about that. I mean, nowadays, those people are just congressmen. Yeah, yeah. No, it's not so – G. Gordon Liddy seemed like sort of a freak show at the time, but now it's just – everyone's like that. But anyway, I've lost – G. Gordon Liddy was on Miami Vice and shows like that. I don't know that he was on that show specifically.

Again, Johnny Carson reference audience might be at g gordon litty i'm back i was as much as possible i was back in my brain that's what i'm saying keep it that way zip it up yeah yeah you're right keep it don't even you're right you'll only freak yourself out you're right if you look at the whole picture they're all getting everyone's getting ready for this for the plumbers for that new prestige miniseries coming up about watergate so we're gonna be talking about is it out the julia roberts one no that's gas lit oh yeah yeah but that's out now but that has that one guy playing g gordon liddy okay so there's liddy in the air you know he is back in the zeitgeist we're getting our lids blow it off the man passed away a few years ago like a hundred

yeah which is of course that guy got to live to 100. But yeah, yeah. Liddy is in the zeitgeist. He's around. I believe you. I believe both of you. It's Liddy Mania. There are a lot of weird, it's so weird that people were like, yeah, he's a celebrity now. Isn't it fun?

Well, it was because, look, Watergate was hot. Nixon made it hot with great catchphrases like this. And there's one more observation I have about this, which is that if he was at the contemporary and I think he was in and out, I think he did that hour, got grilled and then he left. Yeah, he did not use the contemporary and its vacation kingdom amenities um but this was the first scenario of a president being very near his own robot in the hall very good point right the first sitting president when that was built right and i don't think he went into the park but he was within a mile he could have taken a 15 minute walk and been with his own right robot which is something i wonder about all of the presidents do they ever think about what's up with their robot do they ever ask can i go check out

my robot or are they over it because they're the president of course there's a robot of me yeah i mean there was reagan what do we have reagan was in epcot there's footage of reagan and epcot i believe uh nixon at epcot too nixon and epcot yeah but believe. Nixon and Epcot, too. Nixon and Epcot. Yeah. But, yeah, Reagan gave a speech at the. And was Clinton at Epcot, too? Clinton was at the Disney Institute. Okay. For some reason. Carter.

I looked this up. Sitting presidents at Disney World. Carter and Obama both did speeches in front of the castle. But I don't know. So they were the closest. So I don't know if they ever took the stroll to see the robot. You would think they would want to get that photo. Disney would have always wanted to get that photo op with the robot and the president.

But they still haven't done. I mean, now I get it why they're trying to like. They're not publicizing the Hall of Presidents anymore, really. That's not like at the front of the pamphlets to go to Disney World. Like it might have been in the past. Yeah. They're bringing the paras in the past. Yeah. They're bringing the parasailors back.

Yeah. The parasailors front and center. By the way, also, you can go see Cheer or Boo, depending on what your preference is. I'm just saying, if there was a robot of me somewhere, I would go see it. I would be there every day. I would ham around with it. Yeah, yeah. I would be there every day. You put your arm around it.

You do the photo with like, hey, how you doing? Yes. And maybe, maybe, if nobody's looking or if people are looking, you give a little kiss. Yes, I would kiss my robot. You would kiss your robot every day. How often would you kiss your robot? Probably twice a day. Twice a day.

You're up in the stakes. I'd ask the Imagineer to make sure that it wasn't going to like, like the oil wouldn't get on me or it wouldn't spark. I would like to think that they don't have a bunch of oil at the ready at their lips yeah but don't you think the oil's leaking in the pores of the rubber of the face skin rubber could be it would be an exciting day if you were watching the hall of presidents and then one of them and james polk started just uh lick black biling like as if he had like a like a an alien about to burst through his chest. Batman Returns. Oh, yes, Penguin. Uh-huh, uh-huh.

Because you would think, because it has to be lubricated because the rubber on the face is moving so much. There has to be some level of lubrication, I would think, inside. But we don't know if it's black or if it's clear. We don't know. It could be clear. We don't know how the presidents are lubricated. That's true.

I would guess it's probably clear. That would make sense. I would think, because if it starts exploding. It That's true. I would guess it's probably clear. That would make sense. I would think, because if it starts exploding. It should be red. I mean. Sure. Because if something goes wrong,

at least you've got an interesting show. Are there less fluids now with the electronic ones that aren't hydraulic? Because they're not hydraulic anymore, the newer ones. That's a good question. I mean, you still have to,

I don't know, by the way, anything I'm talking about. You still have to get big pieces of rubber that get moved, like changed out because they get worn out. So they still have to move. So I don't know. Maybe not. I'm not sure. Send the face to the flea market.

We're done with this one. I told you when I went to D23, like in 2017, they showed, like in the Imagineering section, there was this giant mater mouth from the car's ride. Just the rubber from his mouth that moves that has to be like changed every couple months or something because it gets worn out. And it was crazy. And I was like, oh, yeah, everyone's face has to be replaced. Everyone has to have new rubber faces, I think.

If they do want to get rid of the Hall of Presidents, just go all out and pump tons of red hydraulic fluid. Don't say that it's going to happen, but just go out with a viral event. Kill the presidents off is what you're saying in a blaze of glory instead of just quietly shutting it down, which is what I think will happen eventually. Reservoir dogs just blow out. They all weaken their knees. Program them all to just collapse. Give us a show.

And red pours out of them and then program like screams get acu i will i'll i'll do it i'll give you as many like what do you think franklin pierce would have screamed like well i'll try to do 46 different screams and then some just kid like lighten off fireworks in there like some kid kid gets some Florida fireworks and he's in the background lighting them off while this whole spectacle is going down. And then that'll be the big deal. You could sell it as a ticketed event,

the final Hall of Presidents. Yeah. And then build Jason's Sleepy Hollow ride that he keeps talking about. That's a five-timers at this point. Even though it was a real blue sky. Yeah. Yeah.

You brought it up this time. That's true. I did. Yeah. It can be. We all share the times. We all share the times. Okay. Final brought it up this time. That's true. I did. Yeah. It can be. We all share the times. We all share the times. Okay.

Final thoughts back in temporary. We should wind this thing down. I love it. Yeah. I mean, getting off. We didn't even say like. It's so comforting having it in front of me. I could just sit and describe sitting on the monorail and getting and going into the station

and like the warm memories I have of just stepping on the carpeting, feeling the air conditioning in there. Yes. These are some of the most pleasant memories I have from the first 18 years of my life. There's something about, there was nothing like stepping out inside the hotel

and the feeling you got when you would do it. It's the most sincere I've ever been on the podcast. This is truly, and it's still, I still feel that way. I'm not sure if it's, it's, it's for sure tied to nostalgia, but I do wonder if you were an adult and you'd never been, if you still have this kind of feeling of like, Whoa, this is awesome. Yeah. Scott, did you, do you know about the,

the top of the world lounge is what they started to call the, the top of bay lake tower that's the dvc only uh i tried to go we couldn't go because we had just booked the room um it was only for dvc members and now it is called top of the world lounge m dash a villain's lair no i don't know because it's got villain themed like drinks and snacks and stuff oh i like that there were guys i don't know if it's got villain themed like drinks and snacks and stuff oh i like that there were guys i don't know if they're uh if this was like permanent or what but there were like actors improv actors walking around okay as if it was like a villain's night off what villains who was there you know the king maybe maybe but like and i think they were more disney bounded dressed they were more like they were doing bits oh and all interesting yeah so hang with villains i like that was

anyone named vick singing vick vick vick damone vick damone yeah remember from earlier i i i have lost track of the old time we said so many old-timey singer names remember from earlier? Vic from earlier. I, I, I have lost track of the old time. We said so many old timey singer names, Vic Jason. And I was, I was back thinking like every, does everyone on these blogs mean Phyllis McGuire when they keep saying

Phyllis Diller, right? Another gotcha moment from Michael to Jason, the gotcha press. Is it again um can we marco if you're can we can we just pull up it's just called i think it's just 70s contemporary can we just look at a nice photo here as we because this is the i mean look at that just twinkling oh yeah oh sure early disney world dusk a glow, severe on the outside, but warm and glowing on the inside. And to pull up in the monorail, like such comfort, such great then modern technology.

I mean, it's a beautiful place, a calming place. Yeah, it is. I mean, everything is so expensive, but you can still, right? You can just get on the monorail still yes yeah yes so i just like if you're like a disney too expensive a big pain in the ass right now get on that monorail and take it in at dusk you know drive over there do it go get you know something in the lobby you can go to we didn't even talk about uh's Kitchen. Oh, yeah. It's where I got kissed.

What? I got kissed by Minnie at the buffet, at the character buffet. Yeah, I have a picture of it. Oh. It's on my Instagram. I have a picture.

Well, you got it. All right, we'll tweet that out. I was trying to go out on a nice idyllic image here, but you have... I was kissed by Minnie Mouse at the contemporary. That has nothing to do with my affection for the place, though, I swear to you. you know a nice idyllic image here but that you have i was kissed by mini mouse much more of one at the contemporary that has nothing to do with my affection for the place though i swear to you

it's a nice thing it's good i liked it you aren't just recalling you you hated it you would have done a negative like looks like shit stained on the outside the 70s relic what a what a garbage place is what you would have said until this magical kiss happened yep and the and the performer made the smooch sound that's the important thing is that the person inside the suit made made that noise can you add uh can you do a nixon and then add a smooch to the end of it uh would you have a whole episode real nixon or the character whatever way you want to go with it i am not a crook beautiful perfect that's the entire history of the contemporary uh condensed what a wonderful place so fun to talk about it you survived podcast the ride uh you can find us on the

socials at podcast the right i assume there'll be a photo of Minnie mid-kiss or just in the general vicinity of when it happened. I believe she's got her snoot on my head. Mm-hmm. I think so. I'm looking, trying to find it. Oh, yeah, here it is. I mean, take a look. This is for the sheepish face that you're making.

Well, because I didn't really, believe it or not, I didn't really want the performer to kiss me. Getting rid of the kayfabe of the podcast. She also isn't. It's a little false nose. She didn't turn sideways with her mouse mouth and go like. So you didn't want it is what your reality is. No, I was sheepish. This photo, I look sheepish because the performer's shoving their plastic nose on my face.

Get it in front of, put it in front of my camera. You have a mouth full of eggs Benedict during this. Gee, I don't know. Do I look like a little stinker? Do I look like a little stinker in that photo? Yes. What's the caption also? I said, they're not allowed to talk, but they are allowed to make a loud kiss sound effect.

That's what I wrote. May 9th, 2013. Who knew you'd be talking about it for years? A snoot you'd never forget. That's true. Merch is available in our ePublic store. Perhaps a shirt that says, a snoot you'll never forget.

And for three bonus episodes every month, check out Podcast The Ride The Second Gate at patreon.com slash podcasttheride. You can also get one more bonus episode on our new tier club three, where I believe by now we will have the results of the audience requesting to have Eva Anderson talk about whatever she wants. You want to know how that panned out and what it was. Oh, and you know what?

Eva gave us postcards. Oh yeah. Margo, can you pull up that image? I took a screenshot of it to put it on the screen. It's the one last image. We got presents in this episode with Eva. Why did we get them? What did we do to deserve them?

You'll have to go to Club 3 to find out. Beautiful. Beautiful. There it is. Both garden wings. What an ending. Oh, I didn't realize. I thought you were still going. Both garden wings.

Both garden wings. That's going to be our send-off from now on. Jason yelling both garden wings. Forever Dog. This has been a Forever Dog production. Executive produced by Mike Carlson, Jason Sheridan, Scott Gairdner, Brett Boehm, Joe Cilio, and Alex Ramsey. For more original podcasts, please visit foreverdogpodcasts.com

and subscribe to our shows on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Keep up with the latest Forever Dog news by following us on Twitter and Instagram, at Forever Dog Team, and liking our page on Facebook.