When the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park opened on this day in 1989, the park had hope…Hollywood legend Bob Hope, that is, to assist Disney CEO Michael Eisner in the opening day celebration. “It’s the largest theme park run by actors, or cartoon characters, unless you want to count Washington, D.C.,” the comedian quipped during the opening festivities, which included numerous flashy dancers, hundreds of white doves and fireworks lighting up the cloudy skies. The park featured a two-hour backstage tour, The Great Movie Ride, the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, Catastrophe Canyon, the Monster Sound Show, and an Animation Center. In his dedication speech, Eisner stated, “The world you have entered was created by The Walt Disney Company and is dedicated to Hollywood — not a place on a map, but a state of mind that exists wherever people dream and wonder and imagine, a place where illusion and reality are fused by technological magic. We welcome you to a Hollywood that never was — and always will be.”
