“Howdy, Neighbor!”
For years, that’s how I greeted Guests on Main Street, USA, as they entered the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. The purpose of the Main Street citizens was to welcome Guests to the park in a way that allowed them to capture the small-town feel of Walt’s childhood hometown (Marceline, Missouri). We tried to embody what Walt understood from the beginning --- attractions like "It’s a Small World" and "Carousel of Progress" might dazzle with their high-tech effects and lifelike animatronic humanoids, but the shine would quickly wear off. High-TOUCH, not high-tech, is timeless! Even the best Audio-Animatronic (AA) is no substitute for a real person. After all, people are less likely to remember what you say as much as how you make them feel when you say it. From Main Street to Frontierland to Hollywood Boulevard at MGM Studios, the role of Disney’s atmosphere actors was to breathe life — real life — into the scenery of Walt Disney World. (I’ll introduce you to the other Main Street characters in a separate post in the near future.)
As Main Street reporter, Scoop Sanderson, I had the added touch of incorporating Pin Trading into my shtick. That added a memorable (and usually magical) moment with Guests, whether they were Pin Traders or not.
At Disney, pins are among the vast array of souvenirs you can purchase. When you buy souvenirs, you're buying memories! If you think about it, most souvenirs you've taken home have a special memory attached to them. And pins are no exception!
If you’d like to learn more about how pins are made, how to trade, and how we can feel better about how much we spend on these lovable little treasures, then follow me here. I've got lots of ideas for future posts, which will include a lot of fun and exclusive stories from my years at Disney (both onstage and off).
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