Walkabout The World - A Disney Podcast - Disney's Magic Kingdom Independence Day Walkabout With Josh

Episode Date: July 3, 2023

Hello travelers! Happy Independence Day! Today, join Producer Josh for a holiday Walkabout in Liberty Square at the Magic Kingdom. You’ll begin (and end) this Walkabout with the sounds of the Main Street Philharmonic. Then you’ll take in sights and sounds around Liberty Square including clips from the Hall of Presidents. You’ll end your Walkabout at the Main Street train station overlooking Town Square as we observe and listen to the Magic Kingdom’s daily flag retreat ceremony.    As always, use good listening devices as we always record in 4 channel surround sound. We hope you enjoy the episode and thanks so much for following along!    Look us up at @WalkaboutWDW on Instagram and drop us a note to say hi! Find our producer Josh also on Instagram at @TheSteele. Say hi to our west coast correspondent Ric at @opticaljedi. Lastly give a shout to our Orlando correspondent Pete at @neverlandlocal.   You can now also drop us at line at [e-mail]. Say hi, tell us how you found us, and give us some suggestions on things you'd love to hear. Please consider giving us a rating and review wherever you listen - it really helps.   Walkabout The World is a weekly Disney podcast, always recorded on property at Walt Disney World or Disneyland Resort with the simple goal of making you feel like you are in the middle of the magic. 

🎵 Well, hello travelers, and welcome back to Walk About the World. It is I, Producer Josh, here with you on today's, let's call it a holiday walkabout. If this is your first time hanging out with us in the parks, we are Walk About the World, your weekly audio adventure through our beloved parks and resorts here at Walt Disney World in Florida and at Disneyland in California. So as you just heard, that was the Main Street Philharmonic. Marching band passed by, which can only mean one thing. In fact, we are here at the Magic Kingdom today.

It's a warm one. High 80s. The afternoon shower just passed by, so it's very sticky. Florida summer, what's not to love? Today, I'm here in Liberty Square to share with you some patriotic sights and sounds and reflections of this country of ours, as it is indeed July 4th weekend, and we are in the perfect place to celebrate. I hope you guys are enjoying your hot dogs and barbecue and popsicles and sparklers and red, white, and blue everything.

Everything else that comes with this holiday. Hopefully we can help provide you with a soundtrack to your celebration. So let's just start by taking a walk around Liberty Square, taking in some sights and sounds. Let's go. Sleepy hollow refreshments to your right. Ye old Christmas shopments to your right. Ye Olde Christmas Shoppie to your left. Yes, I said Christmas Shoppie. And I meant it.

And of course, here's the main attraction here in Liberty Square, the Hall of Presidents. We'll come back to that in a little bit. To our left, we have the Liberty Tree. Southern Live Oak. More than 100 years old. And actually, if I remember correctly, from the Keys to the Kingdom tour, if any of you have ever taken that,

I'm pretty sure that I remember them telling a story about this particular Liberty Tree here in Magic Kingdom being a tree that Walt himself picked out. He didn't know what he was going to use it for, but he wanted that particular tree. He said, I want that tree. And so they saved it. Roy ended up putting it right here in the middle of Liberty Square, which I guess would have been Walt's kind of favorite part of the park. But that was kind of Roy's tribute to Walt from what I remember from that tour. Great tour.

If you've never done it, check it out. Look at our Liberty Bell riverboat that you hear in the background. And standing right in front of me, or I'm standing right in front of it, the replica of the Liberty Bell itself. An enduring symbol of American independence and freedom. This is a replica truly cast for Liberty Square using the same mold from whence, that's a fun word, from when of theidents here. It's been a while.

Continuous shows. So here when you walk right into the Hall of Presidents, you have in the rotunda where you're basically waiting for the show, it's the lobby area. You have the Great Seal of the United States in the center. You'll find portraits of various presidents, display cases. It's basically a little museum gallery. It's pretty cool. The display cases have everything from, let's see, there's a pocket watch that belonged to Thomas Jefferson. There's over here standing out to me is a Rangers jacket, Texas Rangers baseball team jacket. Yeah that's what I thought George W Bush Texas Rangers jacket circa 1990. Some of my favorite things in here there's just above the jacket is a painting

and the painting is was created by Dwight Eisenhower which I thought was cool there's a photograph of him at the easel underneath Eisenhower of course a notable military general but little known was he is a

quite the accomplished painter as well very cool my other favorite item is over here Richard Nixon's key to Disneyland but he received when he was vice president on a visit to the park. I have a little fun fact here that says, Nixon to this day holds the record for most visits to the park by any U.S. president. As you get closer to the theater, there's a great little display that showcases some of sculptor Blaine

Gibson's work. He did all the sculpts for all the presidents. And a lot of other attractions around the parks too. There's a bust of Walt over here, and of course a Walt, not just Walt, but Walt's favorite president, Mr. Lincoln. Those sculptures, also done by Blaine Gibson. Let's just sit here and relax and wait for the next show. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us for this reverent celebration of America's leaders, past and present. Now, Walt Disney World Resort proudly presents the Hall of Presidents.

This program is dedicated to the memory of Walt Disney. In 1971, his love for America inspired the creation of the Hall of Presidents, a place to celebrate the optimism and goodwill he saw at the heart of the American story. Walt's vision was to honor the nation by honoring the American presidency. It is 1783, and the smoke is clearing in the wake of the Revolutionary War. Over the course of eight grinding years, General George Washington has led a force of shopkeepers, farmers, and Native American allies to victory over the greatest military power in the world. A new nation has been born, independent and free. The founders must

form a national government. In 1787, through months of passionate debate, they create a written constitution. For the country's highest office, they imagine something new in the history of the world. A leader not born to power like a king or queen. A leader who has not seized power through conquest. A leader not separate from the people, but elected by the people. From among the people. We the people. This is a new idea.

An American idea. The idea of a president. The people don't know exactly what a president will be, but there is little doubt who it will be. George Washington's stature and bearing have marked him as a leader. His integrity has made him a great one. Washington knows that many generals who have led successful revolutions make themselves dictators or kings. Instead, he steps down from power and retires to his home, Mount Vernon. The world takes note, and George Washington becomes the symbol of American ideals.

In the first presidential election, it's Washington by a landslide. The only doubt seems to be his own. He writes, integrity and firmness is all I can promise. Integrity and firmness is exactly what we need. Everything he does as president will set a model for his successors. His final act may be the most important of all. After two terms, with no term limit in the Constitution, and amid overwhelming support to stay in office, he steps down once again and hands power back to the people. He wants us to speak, to elect a new president. During the early years of the Republic, we choose leaders as different as Thomas Jefferson, John Adams,

and Andrew Jackson. Elections are often bitter. Each president stands at that fiery intersection where personal character meets the challenges of the times. Some call the presidency a glorious burden. Jefferson calls it a splendid misery. We the people must choose well. We elect 15 presidents before the course of history brings us to the edge of a crisis like no other. A nation born of freedom still permits slavery. As the country pushes west, will new states be slave or free? The question produces bitter conflict. The issue rocks the election of 1860 and brings Abraham Lincoln onto the national stage. The tall, lanky, some say uncouth, candidate from Illinois is a master of words at a time when speeches are printed in full for people to read. A house divided against itself cannot stand, he has said.

With Lincoln's election, the house does indeed divide. Civil War. Eleven states secede from the Union. The war becomes a defining passage in the American story. The president's own inner strength and depth of character change the course of history. Lincoln had come up the hard way on the American frontier, desperately poor, with less than a year of formal schooling. His early years were scarred by tragedy, the death of his mother, his sister, his first love. He struggles with depression, but never loses his determination to rise above it. He once said he's driven by a desire to leave the world a little better place for having lived in it.

The war rages. Lincoln fights to preserve the Union and end slavery. Neither is a sure thing. At Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, six months after one of the bloodiest battles of the war, the president dedicates a cemetery to the thousands of soldiers who died there in words we can never forget. Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation,

conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so notely advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased

devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.

And the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. The country changes. And yet, in one sense, what we need most from our presidents has never changed. A guiding vision that calls forth the best that America can be. Will outer space be developed for the benefit of all mankind? Or will it become another

focus for the arms race? The choice is ours, and it is ours to make. Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. But really, it's all of us who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome. One of the agreements that President Sadat and Prime Minister Begin are signing tonight is entitled, A Framework for Peace in the Middle East. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. You have lost too much.

But you have certainly not lost America. I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. Loving this country requires the willingness to speak out for what is right, To shake up the status quo. That's America. Our presidency is no longer just an idea. It is an idea with a proud history. Ladies and gentlemen, the presidents of the United States of America. George Washington. John Adams.

Thomas Jefferson. James Madison. James Madison. James Monroe. John Quincy Adams. Andrew Jackson. Martin Van Buren. William Henry Harrison. John Tyler. James K. John Tyler.

James K. Polk. Zachary Taylor. Millard Fillmore. Franklin Pierce. James Buchanan Abraham Lincoln Andrew Johnson Ulysses S. Grant Rutherford B. Hayes

James A. Garfield Chester A. Arthur Grover Cleveland Benjamin Harrison William McKinley Theodore Roosevelt William Howard Taft Woodrow Wilson

Warren G. Harding Calvin Coolidge Herbert Hoover Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson

Richard M. Nixon Gerald R. Ford Jimmy Carter Ronald Reagan George Bush Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump. And now we come to the present. Once again, we place our trust in the idea of a president,

as we have from the beginning. My fellow citizens, no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that notification on the 14th day of April 1789 that you had selected me to lead our nation. But it was with the confidence

of my fellow citizens that I took an oath. 35 simple words that have been repeated by every American president throughout history. I, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and I will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God.

The presidency of the United States is a role unique in the world, an office entrusted to each president by us. We, the people. Therein lies the genius of that new idea, now over 200 years old. A new idea our presidents have turned into a great American idea again

and again. This concludes our presentation. Please gather your belongings and exit through the open doors to your right and to your right only. Coming back around, passing Ye Olde Christmas Shop again. It smells like Christmas. Just above the old Christmas shop is a great sign, the music voice lessons. By appointment only, Ichabod Crane, instructor. Right across from Sleepy Hollow Refreshments. All right. So, I think to end this 4th of July episode, every day at Walt Disney World, Magic Kingdom holds a flag retreat ceremony to honor our nation and those who defend it. It takes place at 5 o'clock over just in front of the train station

right there at the entrance to Magic Kingdom in the Main Street square so I think we're gonna head over there see if we can get a nice little spot up at the train station and relax for a little bit and then we will watch and listen to the flag retreat ceremony. And I will leave it at that. So thanks for coming with us today on our walkabout through the Magic Kingdom's Liberty Square. And I hope you all had a happy and safe 4th of July weekend. And we will see you on the next walkabout.

See you soon. Once again, please join us in just a few minutes in Town Square for a hot flag with free ceremony. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. We here at the Dapper Dance. On behalf of the Main Street Philharmonic, our Magic Kingdom security color guard, and Main Street Operations,

we are pleased and proud to welcome you to today's Fly With Treats ceremony here in Town Square. Our Fly With Treats ceremony is one of our official Magic Kingdom traditions, and we are honored to take the time out of your day to become part of that tradition with us. Right now, please join us in saying the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. strong. And now, our national anthem. Thank you. Thank you. And now, please join us in singing God Bless America. God Bless America, land that I love,

Stand beside her and I heard, and I heard, you died with life of love. From the mountains to the prairies, to the ocean, right before. God bless America, my home sweet home. God bless America, God bless America. God bless America, my home sweet home. Long as the bird of God My own Tears My love My love

We are thrilled to have with us today a very special Armed Forces Honor Representative. Please join us in welcoming today's Armed Forces Honor Representative. From the United States Air Force, Sergeant Arthur Perkins, all the way from Huntington, New York. Woo! Thank you. Thank you.