Skip to main content

Tales From The College Program: The Christmas Parade (Part 1)

Since we are getting into the Holiday season, I suppose it's about time I talked about the Disney Christmas Parade.  When I was accepted into the College Program one of the things I was most excited abut was going to The Magic Kingdom on Christmas Day.  As a kid I always watched the Disney Christmas Parade and thought about how great it would be to see it live.  You can imagine my shock when the first week in December the CP Newsletter announced they needed extras for the parade taping.  That's when I realized....They don't actually film the parade of Christmas Day.

This was 2003 before the boom of social media, I didn't get my news from the internet, so there was really no reason for me to think the parade was filmed on any day but Christmas.  Anyway, back to the story.

The taping was done over 3 days.  The first was an early day when only Cast Members could sign up.  We met at the Magic Kingdom before the park opened and were taken to Exhibition Hall where they put us in groups and explained what was going to happen.  On our way in a manager stopped me and asked if I needed help.  It seemed strange to me since everyone walking in was a Cast Member, so I said "Oh, I just need to buy some film (because it was 2003 and people still used film)."  She looked confused "Oh....well, uh, we are having an event right now and..uh"  She saw me start to laugh and realized I was messing with her.  She jokingly said "I hope you don't end up in m group."  Naturally, I made sure I was.

Her name was Cathy, and she was one of the managers at the Emporium.  As she walked us to our spot on Main Street for the taping, I caught up with her and asked who we were going to see.  She pulled out a slip of paper and read off "Wayne Brady and Disney Channel Stars."  I asked "IS CHRISTY ROMANO GOING TO BE HERE?!"  She looked down her list, yes she was.  I told Cathy that I had to meet her.  She promised to do her best to help me and I took my spot on Main Street.

My roommates and I stood across from the Emporium, this was our view.


Things started to get underway.  The first float was Wayne Brady, he rode down Main Street singing "You'll be in my Heart" from Tarzan.


When he reached the end (or beginning) of Main Street the music and his float stopped.  Alright, I thought, who's next.  The float then reversed back to it's starting point and he started over.  If I had to guess I'd say that we heard Wayne Brady sing that 40 second clip 6 times.  

He came over to our section to film some "We'll be right back" segments holding a baby that was in the crowd.  Then he left, time for the Disney Channel Stars.

The Disney Channel kids didn't have a float, they just walked down a short section of Main Street singing a song.  They consisted of the "That's So Raven" cast and Christy Carlson Romano (Star of Even Steven's and voice of Kim Possible."  They didn't take as long as Wayne Brady (which is probably why I don't remember what they sang).  They also filmed some promo shots across the street from us.

  
My roommate Dan had met Christy a few weeks prior to this, and he never let me forget it.  He even had a picture of the 2 together that he would taunt me with.  Here it is:


After they finished their taping, Christy and the other Disney Channel kids were hanging out in a roped off area by the Christmas tree.  I went over to Cathy and said "That's her!"  Cathy went over to Christy and said "There is a guy over here who would like to meet you." and what do you know, she came right over to me.  

Before I tell you about this part though I need to explain a few things.  My coworker, Dan (a different Dan) and I had just bought these children's sized Disney Channel shirts.  I had Kim Possible and he had Lizzy Maguire.  We also thought it would be a good idea to get our hair cut at Walmart, this resulted in me having to shave my hair as short as possible to correct the atrocity.  

So, Christy comes up to me, compliments my shirt and we take this amazing picture together.


Do I need to point out how excited she looks in my picture compared to Dan's??

That was pretty much the end of day one.  I was going to write about all 3 days in this one post, but it's already pretty long so I'll save it for tomorrow.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Blank Check House

After the success of Home Alone movie studios did not waste anytime copying the formula (kid outsmarts bad guys).  While the worst offender was probably Three Ninjas, Disney was also guilty with Blank Check.  They even used it as a selling point! I saw Blank Check in the theater, I remember because it was the only time in my movie going life that the theater manager came out and talked to us about how the movie was filmed in Texas (which is where I live).  So, on a recent trip to Austin, I stopped by the Blank Check house. Here is how it appeared in the film: And today: As you can see, they've done quite a bit of remodeling. Not to mention the heavy plant growth which makes it almost unrecognizable. The old garage door is now a window The original entry way has been completely removed. This is the front door now: I drove around to the side and found the back gate open.  In the film, the back yard had a pool, go cart t

Jumanji Film Locations

While I was in New Hampshire last week, I stopped in Keene to take some Jumanji comparison shots. Let's start at the beginning of the film. In the opening scene Alan Parrish rides his bike past a statue of his ancestor, Angus Parrish.  I had been to Keene once before and knew there was a statue in this square, so I assumed they just attached a fake plaque to it, I was wrong. They  built the prop statue on top of this rock fountain.  Why not just use the existing one? Here's another statue screen shot. It almost looks like they tried to brush out the actual statue in the opening shot from the film. . This Parrish shoes ad can be seen briefly in the film and appears in the back ground of the second statue picture I posted.  Here it is today. Moving onto the stampede scenes. Turns out Frank's Barber Shop is still there too. So is this old coke mural Run Kirsten! Stampede!

Look What You Did You Little Jerk: The Macaulay Culkin Incident

Last night I saw Macaulay Culkin's band "The Pizza Underground" at the Hi Ho Lounge in New Orleans.  If you aren't familiar with them, they sing Velvet Underground songs, but change the lyrics to be about pizza.  You can listen to their demo here. Like everyone else on the planet, I love Home Alone.  I saw it in the theater when I was 8 and have been a fan of Macaulay Culkin ever since. I live in Houston, so New Orleans is a 6 hour drive, but this was not something I was going to miss. The Show: The Pizza Underground demo is 9 minutes long.  If they would have come out, handed out pizza and played for 15 minutes I really think the crowd would have been satisfied.  Instead they would leave the stage between songs and have someone else come out.  First it was one of the members from Carte Blanche (one of their opening acts) who came out and rapped.  Macaulay's girlfriend came out and sang a poem that he had written for her.  One of the female members of Pizza