Thanks to Jodi +Magical Mouse Schoolhouse and Heidi +Heidi's Head for cohosting. No thanks to Mike +My Dreams of Disney for being at Disneyland ;-) Very jealous of that!
Recently retired (and currently part-time adviser) Tony Baxter is an absolute legend in Disney Imagineering. his story is incredible - he started at age 17 as an ice cream scooper on Main Street, U.S.A. in Disneyland and worked his way all the way up to become Senior Vice President of Creative Development for WDI.
After reading a little more about the Western River Expedition, a once upon a time attraction that never was at Walt Disney World, I decided to see what else Tony Baxter did!
- He is credited for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad - originally part of the Western River Expedition, but now it has it's own life at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and Disneyland Paris, and Tokyo Disneyland - 1979
- The 1983 Disneyland Fantasyland re-design
- Journey into Imagination - the original 1983
- Splash Mountain 1989
- Star Tours 1992 and the 2011 redesign
- Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage at Disneyland in 2007
I'm sure he will have a window on Main Street in the US soon. He currently shares one in DLP with Marty Sklar (which is strange, b/c I thought they had to be retired before they got windows!).
Look for an image that looks a lot like Tony Baxter in the new interactive queue at BTMR!
Interesting! I'm headed to WDW on Thursday, and I can't wait to see the new queue at BTMR! I'll definitely look for "Tony" while I'm waiting.
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