A decade of change

Image: Disney

Residential Street permanently closed in 2003, and the area was walled off to make way for a new experience in the form of a high octane stunt show that would open two years later. In the meantime, the Backlot Tour itself was drastically shortened, and the turnaround area between the former Residential Street and the end of New York Street underwent construction so that the tour could still run without cutting through the construction zone.

One year later, in 2004, the animation studio portion of the park was reworked to accommodate the closure of the Florida Division of Walt Disney Feature Animation. With the Florida Division closed, animators were no longer producing films in Walt Disney World, however the Magic of Disney Animation building stayed open, and was used for drawing classes that guests visiting the park could participate in instead.

Also in 2004, the area encompassing New York Street received an addition of a side street called San Francisco Street, thereby renaming the entire area the Streets of America. Under the new title of the Streets of America, the area added Muppet Vision 3D, which opened in 1991.

With the new arrangement in the area, and the land where Residential Street was surrounded by construction walls, extra entertainment was certainly needed to keep the Streets of America as a relevant part of the park. Cue a band that never wore out their welcome—Mulch, Sweat and Shears, a family of “bandscapers,” who repeatedly snuck into the park and performed in hopes of getting a record deal. The band, led by either Morris or Mia Mulch regularly drew large crowds, and added some fun entertainment to the Streets of America (and other parts of the park as well as for special events) while construction took place. The band ended up having an eleven year run, and their last performance was held in 2015 in front of the Chinese Theater near Hollywood Blvd. While many Mulch fans are certainly still grieving the loss of one of their favorite acts, this is completely understandable given the improvement to the atmosphere that the band provided over the years. The later years of the Streets of America’s lifespan were sometimes confusing for guests who only knew of the area as a randomly themed walkway between Muppet Vision 3D and Lights, Motors, Action! so added entertainment like Mulch, Sweat and Shears proved to be beneficial in not only getting guests over to this part of the park, but also in keeping them entertained once they were there.

Stopping by Lights, Motors, Action! on the grounds of the former Residential Street
Image: Brittany DiCologero

By 2005, Residential Street was long demolished, and in May of that year it was replaced with Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show. The show was based on its sister show from Disneyland Paris, titled “Moteurs… Action!” and was brought to the Walt Disney World Resort as part of the Happiest Celebration on Earth, which marked the fiftieth anniversary of the first Disney park. The show featured a variety of unique stunt work, that guests would rarely otherwise have the opportunity to see in person including car chases, motorcycles, pyrotechnics, fire stunts, free falls, and jet skis.

The explosive finale to Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show

Lights, Motors, Action! ultimately changed the entire landscape of the Streets of America. By removing Residential Street, an entire portion of the tram tour was removed, and with more entertainment and foot traffic coming to the New York and San Francisco Street areas, the tour needed to be further reworked to be far enough away from regular guest traffic that it would not be intrusive. With these changes, the Backlot Tour was shortened, and was only a fraction in length of what the original tour included.

Another piece of the Streets of America that has already become lost to the ages, is the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. This beautiful light display, which ran from 1995 to 2015 has a rather interesting history, which you can read more about here. 

Holidays on the Streets of America featuring the Osborne Spectacle of Dancing Lights

The lights were originally put on view in Residential Street, which makes perfect sense as this setting would have been the most similar to the area they were originally displayed in. During this time, the Backlot Tour would stop running around sunset so guests could walk around Residential Street to see the lights. When Residential Street closed, the lights were moved to New York Street, where the lights further expanded, using LED technology and “danced” nightly to choreographed pieces of music for guests visiting during the winter holidays. By the later years of the production, the Streets of America would be filled with guests enjoying the lights, music, and even real snow and specialty snacks and drinks. In fall 2015, Disney announced that after a twenty year run, the final performance of the lights would be that year, as Streets of America would later begin construction to become Toy Story and Star Wars lands.

Yet another piece of the Streets of America that is soon to be dismantled is the Earffel Tower, the sometimes park icon of both Disney-MGM Studios and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, that has thus far withstood the test of time despite the closure of the Backlot Tour. The water tower was one of the first pieces of the park to be assembled during construction in the 1980s, and has served as the unofficial park icon here and there, leaving a memorable impression of it upon guests. When riding by the tower on the older versions of the Backlot Tour, the guide, or automated narration would give guests fun facts about the structure including that it was thirteen stories tall, each ear would weight about two and a half tons, and the hat size of the Mickey cap would be 342 and 3/8. As another beloved park icon is removed to make way for new lands, and perhaps a new kind of park as a whole, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the message of the park is getting increasingly further away from the old ideal of the “Hollywood that never was—and always will be.”

The Earffel Tower at Disney's Hollywood Studios, an original icon that is soon-to-be dismantled
Image: Disney

 Looking Forward and Back

Though the Streets of America were formall retired at closed in 2016, we can trace the beginning of the end for this area back to 2008, when the partnership between Disney and MGM ended, and the park could no longer function as both a theme park and actual production center. As a result, the Backlot Tour, and by proxy the Streets of America truly became remnants of their former selves. The Imagineers who designed the park explained it best, in the “Imagineering Field Guide to Disney’s Hollywood Studios,” book where the use an analogy of the bonus features of a DVD to explain the changing direction of the park. In this work, the Imagineers write that new technology has essentially changed the way we interact with the behind the scenes making of films. When the park opened in 1989, we could not learn about how movies were made via DVD extras, which made the idea of learning about the movies a facinating subject then, but not so much now.

In explaining this shift in the park’s message the Imagineers write, “[We] have steered Disney’s Hollywood Studios away from being a tutorial on filmmaking and in the direction of an immersive experience that puts Guests in the middle of the action in ways that a DVD cannot.” The Imagineers go on to use examples from the park that ironically are now beginning to close to make way for other new and exciting projects: “We place you at a stunt car shoot so you can hear the screaming engines and smell the burning rubber. We show you production artwork next to an actual artifact from a film…” and perhaps most importantly in terms of the Streets of America, “We let you walk the streets of a backlot so you can see what the camera can’t. Let’s see your DVD do that!”

A look back at Disney-MGM Studios on opening day
Image: Disney

When Hollywood Studios stopped acting as a working film studio, the park’s message to guests undoubtedly changed. Rather than allowing the entire park to serve as a look into the backstage inner workings of how the movies are made, the park became an immersive experience, where guests could be right in the middle of the action, and see the soundstages, sets, and props up close, rather than from a distance. Perhaps no one area of the park makes this new idea more relevant than the Streets of America. At once the Streets of America served as the unofficial focal point of the park. We may not have realized it at the time, but during the height of the Streets of America, this area most brutally exemplified what the park was all about—a theme park where guests could not only visit an old Hollywood that never truly existed, but also gain behind the scenes perspectives on how those classic movies were made.

Catastrophe Canyon almost two years after the closure of the Backlot Tour

With another name change, and two major expansions and renovations planned for the park, it is safe to say that we are officially coming to the end of an era. The Hollywood that never was but always will be, might continue to exist only as an idea in the park’s turbulent history, however the legacy of the Streets of America will definitely live on in the hearts of the cast members and guests who made valuable memories here over the years. “Well, as they say in Hollywood, that’s a wrap!”