Chapter 14 - Hollywood Studios – Echo Lake - Indiana Jones – Part 2                                                                                          posted Mar 2022

Echo Lake
From Hollywood & Vine Streets we turn around and head to walk around Echo Lake.
When Disney MGM Studios first opened in 1989, the area was referred to as “Lakeside Circle.”
 
As we stated in the last Chapter, Walt Disney’s original Los Angeles animation studio was in the Lake area on Kingswell Avenue which was about three miles northwest of the lake. Walt Disney’s Hyperion Street Studio, where Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was animated, was about three miles to the north.
 
This area in Hollywood Studios was meant to be a homage to the real Echo Park. Hence the name changed to Echo Lake.
 
The early development of the motion picture industry was centered around the Echo Park area, Mack Sennett’s Keystone Studios, which was located on Keystone Street (now part of Glendale Boulevard).
Sennett was known for his outstanding silent movie comedies, including those starring the frantic and inept Keystone Kops as well as Charlie Chaplin, and often used the Echo Park as the setting for some of those wacky comedies.
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Los Angeles Echo Lake
Hollywood Studios Echo Lake
 References:
As we turn from Hollywood & Vine Streets and start around the Lake. Let’s stop off at

Min and Bill’s Dockside Diner
Min and Bill’s Dockside Diner can be found inside of the “tramp steamer” situated on Echo Lake.
 
Note: Tramp-steamer meaning a commercial vessel that has no regular schedule but takes on and discharges cargo whenever hired to do so.
 
Min and Bill’s Dockside Diner features refreshing drinks and quick-service sandwiches, this vintage eatery perches on the shores of Echo Lake and offers shady umbrella tables for a relaxing meal.
 
Current menu:
Click photo to enlarge
Min and Bill refer to the 1930’s comedy-drama film starring Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery. It tells the story of dockside innkeeper Min’s tribulations as she tries to protect the innocence of her adopted daughter Nancy, all while loving and fighting with boozy fisherman Bill, who resides at the inn. Marie Dressler won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1931 for her performance in this film.
 
The tramp steamer, S.S. Down the Hatch, that houses Min and Bill’s Dockside Diner represents the waterfront theme seen in the movie. The architectural style of the building is called “California Crazy.” It became popular in the 1930’s and the concept was to catch the eye of the consumer and create a lasting impression.
While we’re there look around, Tramp Steamers are cargo vessels that will pick up any cargo and deliver it where needed. So, take a look at what cargo they plan to load and where it’s going.
             Top Box is going to: Casablanca                                                     This Box is going to: Gone with the Wind
             Bottom Box is for: The Producers
This one is also going to: The Producers    
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These boxes are going to: It’s a Wonderful Life
Box to the left: Gone with the Wind
Top Box: Casablanca
  Bottom: Citizen Kane

Notes:
A Little History of California Crazy Architecture
The style, known officially as programmatic architecture. We saw an example of programmatic in Chapter 3 – Hollywood Blvd – Part 2, “The Darkroom”, as guests enter the park.
Driving down the roadside these buildings could advertise what they were selling as the customer was going 30 miles an hour down the street.
If you cruised the streets of Los Angeles in the mid-20th Century, you would have spotted giant hats, dogs, owls, oranges, and pianos along the side of the road—and it would have seemed perfectly normal. Back then buildings designed to look like specific things were a popular form of advertising.
 The original Brown Derby on Wilshire is an example of programmatic architecture, and it is represented at the Hollywood Studios Brown Derby.
 
There were even examples from the movie The Rocketeer, which we explained in the last Chapter.
A model of the Restaurant was in the Hollywood Studios Backlot.
The popularity waned because of changing tastes and rising real estate values. But that said, the tradition has continued over the years (see Dr. Satey’s Pediatric and Adolescent Clinic in Lancaster, built in 2017) though not as robust as the golden age, which was from approximately 1925 to 1945.



Reference:
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Dr. Satey’s Pediatric and Adolescent Clinic
Gertie the Dinosaur
On the other side of Echo Lake is another good example of this style of Architecture, Gertie’s Ice Cream of Extinction.
When you look across Echo Lake from Gertie’s side guests can see The Tower of Terror in the background.
According to the "historical marker" at Gertie's, "Dinosaur Gertie's Ice Cream of Extinction was built as a tribute to 'Gertie the Dinosaur,' one of the first well-known animated cartoon stars.
Dinosaur Gertie’s Ice Cream of Extinction takes its inspiration from two sources: “California Crazy” roadside eateries and cartoonist Winsor McCay’s pioneering animated film, Gertie the Dinosaur (1914).
Inspiration: Gertie the Dinosuar (1914)
Winsor McCay didn’t invent animated cartoons, but is recognized for creating the first cartoon character with a personality. McCay took his show on the vaudeville circuit, interacting on stage with his animated star, Gertie the trained dinosaur. It was the first film to use certain animation techniques includes keyframes, tracing paper, and animation loops. McCay is known as an influencer of animators including Walt Disney and others.
The film remained highly influential to him throughout his early career. In fact, the parallels between his Alice Comedies and the interaction between Mccay and Gertie are probably a direct result of that influence.
Walt had McCay’s performance recreated to include in a segment called “The Story of the Animated Drawing” to air on his “Disneyland” television series in 1955.
During the segment, Walt explained the significance of this character to the history of animated film, saying, “Winsor McCay’s Gertie and other animation novelties stimulated a great public interest and created a demand for this new medium. This, in turn, encouraged other pioneers to creative efforts that in time, led to the establishment of the animated cartoon as an industry.”
This gorgeous in green creature has made her way to Echo Lake, apparent from the footprints that have cracked the pavement, and seems contented to remain there and sell ice cream. In 1989, The Imagineers did a marvelous job of combining “California Crazy” with a tribute to this milestone in the art of animation.
But, Dinosaur Gertie's Ice Cream of Extinction  is a great place to find soft serve ice cream and other snacks at the park.
 
Current Menu:
 
Sources:
Turn around and up the stairs from Gertie is the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular Theater.
“Warning: Do Not Pull Rope”
Just left of the entrance to the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, is something that looks like an is an archaeological dig site with a rope coming out of it. There’s a weathered old sign that reads "Warning: Do not pull!" but the not is crossed out.
Of course, the rope is within easy reach and it’s a temptation is to see what might happen. Well, give the rope a pull or two anyway. Once you do, you will hear the sounds of a man that is stuck in the bottom of a well. 
Pulling on the rope sometimes elicits no response and other times an echoey voice from down in the well yelling, “Hey, what’s going on up there?” or the lengthy scream of someone falling to the bottom.
 
According to the Imagineers, that person is the very British Dr. Dunfor Pullit, an archeologist who is supported by the rope beneath the sarcophagus stone.
Repeated pulling on the rope can generate some different responses:
  • “Leave off the rope old chap, be a good fellow. I have a frightfully valuable artifact down here. Oh no [crash.] I HAD a terribly valuable artifact down here.”
  • “I say, leave off the rope old chap, be a jolly good sport. I say! Uh oh… oh no… blimey [fall, thud]”
  • “I say quit mucking about up there. Oh blast! Not again [fall, crash].”
  • “Blast it all, you don’t want to pull the rope. [crash] Oh dear.”
  • “Careful while I translate this… Let’s see, um, ‘twenty years of,’ ah, ‘sorrow to the,’ ah, ‘destroyer of this vessel!’ [crash.]”
 
The Disney Imagineers have placed this little interaction for guests to discover on their own.
It fits within the theme of Indiana Jones and its archaeological digging roots.  The Disney Imagineers have designed this mini-attraction and placed it here for guests to find.
If you turn around you’ll see the archeological camp.
Click on photo to enlarge
Archeological Find:
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
Click photo to enlarge.
As we enter the Theater’s queue, guests will pass a wooden sign marked,
Marshall College, located in Bedford, Conn., is the fictional college where Professor H. Jones teaches archaeology and history. (He also briefly taught at both Princeton University and fictional Barnett College, but Professor Jones always seemed to return to Marshall.)
This institute of higher learning is named after Frank Marshall, who served as producer on all four Indiana Jones films.
Prof. H Jones is of course Indy. Henry Walton Jones, Jr., is his given name, after his father, a professor of medieval literature. Though his father aptly calls him “Junior” (much to Indy’s chagrin), Indiana is the nickname he’s best known by. Jones gave himself that moniker (which was also the name of his childhood pet, a beloved Alaskan Malamute).
Tables of marked artifacts and surveying equipment surround this place-setting sign, letting us know that we’re in the Peruvian jungle, looking at the kind of artifacts made familiar in the opening scenes of the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
 
Once we’re in the Theater, grab a seat, all seats have pretty good views.
Show
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! is based on many of the popular stunt scenes from Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The show uses a various pyrotechnic devices which are incorporated into several of the stunts.
  • The first scene is based on the first scene in the first movie where Jones is maneuvering through an exotic South American jungle in 1936 to locate a lost Peruvian temple.
  • Inside he seeks a small and valuable golden idol known as the Chachapoyan Fertility Idol, a fictitious artifact created for the film.
  • The action starts with Indy braving dangers in a recreation of the Peruvian temple scene from the beginning of the movie.
  • Dangerous spikes, false floors and ancient booby traps test the archaeologist's skills before he attempts to make a getaway with the golden idol.
  • (The golden idol is an exact replica of the idol is Raiders of the Lost Ark.)
  • In the show the boulder is twelve feet in diameter and weighs 440 pounds.
  • The stunt show then moves on to the busy and audience-participant filled streets of Cairo. Indy and Marion watch street acrobats before events take a turn for the worse and a massive fight scene breaks out.
  • The Cairo scene concludes with Indy shooting at a Jeep loaded with explosives, producing a fiery conclusion.
PictureBalkenkreuz
The final scene of the stunt show recreates the action-packed sequence in which Indy and Marion try to stop the Nazis from flying the Ark to Berlin. The reenactment is complete with a scaled-down version of a German Luftwaffe aircraft with Balkenkreuz (In 2004, the Nazi swastikas on German trucks, aircraft, and actor uniforms were removed and replaced by a Balkenkreuz).
  • Indy fights a large German mechanic while Marion operates the aircraft's machine gun, blowing away enemies in sight.
Click on photo to enlarge
  • Indy and Marion are able to make a narrow escape as the airfield is engulfed in flames.
  • And at the end of the show the entire cast wishes everyone farewell and a great day.
Tracks:
Script:
And here's a rare treat, we've found a link to the actual Indiana Jones Epic Spectacular.
http://studioscentral.com/attractionpage/indiana-jones-epic-stunt-spectacular-script/
Walt Disney World has another nod to Indiana Jones at Disney Springs. Located in Disney Springs, Jock Lindsey’s Hangar Bar is named for Indy’s pilot from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The bar is a nod to the film franchise with souvenirs from Lindsey’s travels and small details from the Indiana Jones storylines.
The Motor Pool
As guests exit Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular on the left side, they will go pass some of the vehicles and
replicas that were used in the Indiana Jones movies.
The Imagineers acquired from Lucasfilm the tank, two trucks and two cars from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The vehicles were meant to be part of a motor pool that were parked waiting for mechanics to work on them. To reinforce that concept, a fuel dump and machine gun nest (to protect the vehicles from being stolen or sabotaged) were added.
Click on photo to enlarge
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This photo is from the backlot, where some of the movie props are stored.

As you follow the exit path, it will take you the Indiana Jones Adventure Outpost.

 
  Background:
Online Camera Gear Rental
Indiana Jones Adventure Outpost
Located between the PrimeTime Cafe and the exit to the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! is the shop which sells Indiana Jones and exploration merchandise.
Originally it was going to be a re-creation of Indiana Jones’ pre-World War II suburban Chicago house filled with artifacts from his many expeditions.
Imagineers had to come up with an idea that thematically fit the left block building which meant that one side had to look like Hollywood buildings in the 1930s but the other side had to fit the Indiana Jones story.
The interior designer was Kate Zovich who said, “Instead of doing normal merchandise fixtures, we really wanted to emphasize the theme.
The Interior Designers put together old gun cases and hung shirts off of them. We actually modified half of a wing from a biplane in order to hang clothes. Imagineer Arden Ashley purchased many of the props that decorate the building. He noted of the exit from the attraction that, “The landscaping and architecture work so well together.
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The front of the building looks like a normal house but the other side looks like an outpost.
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Flag of Hatay, which is a fictional country used in the Indiana Jones Movies.
Epic Eats
Just to the right of the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular entrance is the Oasis Canteen or known as the Dip Spot, is a quick service stand that still sells funnel cake.
But, what was Oasis Canteen is now called Epic Eats. Why the name changes, don’t know.
This Indiana Jones-style desert canteen looks an old dilapidated and rusty shack, but the menu is just about the same as it has been.
Indiana Jones Truck
It is on the other side of Indiana Jones just around the bend from the Epic Eats Kiosk. This stand sells Indiana Jones and other Hollywood Studio's merchandise.
The theming of this small shop is pretty amazing as it is built into and around Indiana Jones replica truck props. Not only does the Indiana Jones Truck have fun movie merchandise it is also a great photo opportunity. 
 
Details:
This is the end of Chapter 13 - Hollywood Studios - Echo Lake - Part 2. In the next Chapter we will round the Lake and take a closer look at Echo Lake's Theater District. Oh, you didn't know that Echo Lake has a Theater District, well you'll just have to join us for the next Chapter.
Afterword:
WDWMousing.com is designed to be a tour of Walt Disney World through photos. We have been to Walt Disney World countless times over the past 25 years and accumulated a magnitude of photos in that time. This website is an intention to combine two of our favorite pastimes, Walt Disney World and photography, and provide an insightful pictorial tour.
While doing so, we've done an extensive research of the internet and literary sources for background information on each area and attraction. The information is available, but most bits and pieces are scattered all over. WDWMousing doesn't intend to rewrite the stories, legends or data, but to try and collect it into one location with reference and links to the original articles and authors. And giving rightful credit. We've stumbled through quite a bit of mis-information, most of which came to life by fans because the origins were lost, forgotten or no one seems to remember. Over the past 25 years we've also lost most of the great Imagineers that helped develop, design and build the original concepts of Walt Disney World. So we believe it's extremely important to make sure that their efforts, intentions, details and creativity in making this Happiest Place on Earth isn't lost.
So we ask for feedback, insights, and suggestions.

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