Adventurers Club

Adventurers Club

The Adventurers Club was a themed nightclub in Pleasure Island at the Walt Disney World Resort. It was styled after a private club for world travelers and explorers and was set in 1937. The walls of the club were covered with artifacts and photographs from various explorations. The Adventurers Club featured animatronics, puppets, and a cast of adventurers who performed in shows and improvisational comedy while mingling with the club's patrons. Shows and conversation were often laced with innuendo, and the patrons might have been welcomed as guests, given fictitious names and "recognized" as fellow adventurers, or simply referred to as "drunks".

History

The Adventurers Club opened with the rest of Pleasure Island on May 1, 1989 as part of a fictional legend about the island's previous owner, Merriweather Adam Pleasure, and back-story describing each of the buildings' former uses. Disney's Imagineers led by Head Writer, Show Producer and Show Director, Roger Cox and designer Joe Rohde (who later designed Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park) conceived and created the club.

The Adventurers Club's unlikely hero, Emil Bleehall, is based on a semi-autobiographical character Cox created. He is a little guy from Ohio who wins over the higher authorities and gains their respect and admiration with his seemingly awkward, modest, but ultimately unique crowd-pleasing talents. Cox felt it paralleled his own story at Disney. A docudramatic version of Cox’s journey at Disney by Sandra Tsing Loh, called, "It Happened in Glendale" from her Book, Depth Takes a Holiday was performed on the radio show, This American Life episode "Something for Nothing."[1]

Until December 31, 2005, every night in Pleasure Island was celebrated as New Year's Eve. The clubs show schedule was set to create a break near midnight to allow people to go outside to see the fireworks, and to accommodate the noisy explosions that resulted. One of the launch points for the nightly fireworks was the Adventurers Club's rooftop.

On June 27, 2008 Disney announced the Adventurers Club (along with all other clubs on Pleasure Island) would be closing permanently on September 27, 2008.[2] An online petition to save the club was created at SaveTheAdventurersClub.info by members of the Disney fan community in hopes that Disney would consider moving the club or keeping it open as part of the new Pleasure Island format, and over 2,750 signatures were collected in the first 72 hours. There were also letter writing campaigns to company executives, internet web sites, and blog postings. In February, 2009 Disney announced that Adventurers Club and the dance clubs Motion and Soundstage would reopen for private party rentals at least through September, 2009.

On September 26, 2009 it was confirmed that props from the Club would be sent to Hong Kong Disneyland. The props will be worked into the Mystic Point expansion that was announced at the D23 Expo. A few props which were created by cast members for use in the shows have been sold at auction by the performers who owned them. There are sitings that several "artifacts" from the former Club can now be seen at Trader Sam's in the Disneyland Hotel. Also, Scooter (the stuffed Peacock from the Club) and several other item have a new home high on the walls at D Street in Downtown Disney, Florida. Some items have been internally offered for sale to cast members.

The last public performance was held September 27, 2008[3] to overflowing crowds. The last semi-public event held at the Club occurred on September 25, 2009. It was a convention party for The ConGaloosh Society, Inc, a Florida nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of interactive improvisational theatre. The ConGaloosh Society continues to hold events that bring together fans of the Adventurers Club with cast members in new settings.

The Adventurers Club's cast reunited for one last performance and "membership renewal" at the Disney D23 Destination D event on Sunday, November 23, 2014 at around 8:30PM in the Disney's Contemporary Resort Fantasia conference building and rooms.

The Adventurers Club cast reunited again for the Countdown to Midnight event at Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Resort on December 31, 2015, inducting new members for the first time in seven years.

Inspiration

The Adventurers Club was designed and created by Walt Disney Imagineering in the late 1980s. Walt Disney Imagineering is the design and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation and construction of Disney theme parks worldwide. Chris Carradine, the Vice President of Walt Disney Imagineering, played a significant role in the creation of the club.[4]

The origins of the club were recently described by Craig McNair Wilson, who worked with the dramatic team for the club. According to Wilson, "it came out of our collective, shared love of the world of the pith helmet and all that circled around it. It was the place we always wanted to go, but it didn't exist."[4]

Wilson said the idea originated from a Sunday afternoon theme party, given by Disney employee Joe Rhode. The theme of the party was "The Last Days of the Raj." Every year for years, the employees would dress up in theme costume to recreate the days of British colonialism.[4]

According to Wilson, the Los Angeles show, Tamara, was also "major influence on the team." Tamara was a live theatrical, multiroom play, which allowed 150 audience members to follow ten actors through an Italian Villa set in the late 1930s. It took place in an old Elks hall in Los Angeles. Wilson and Disney Imagineering Vice President Chris Carradine saw the show "three or four times together and a few times more with others."[4]

According to Wilson, there was also "more than a pinch of Rick’s Cafe," from the film, Casablanca.[4]

There was an actual adventurers club, called the Ends of the Earth Club, created in 1903. Its members included Mark Twain,[5] General John Pershing, Admiral Robert Peary,[6] Gutzon Borglum (the sculptor of Mt. Rushmore) and more than 100 other prominent businessmen and academics located, primarily, in the northeastern United States.[5] However, there is no evidence that the Disney team was aware of the existence of the club.[7]

The physical layout of the club was designed by Chris Carradine, who is an architect by training.[7] The building was made intentionally large, so that the club could be expanded with additional exhibits.[4]

Characters

The Club Members celebrate the Hoopla

Resident adventurers

Different actors portrayed the adventurers on different nights, and most actors played more than one part.

The maid is the only character in the club to have a unique identity when played by a different actress (by way of contrast, "Graves" is always known as "Graves" no matter which actor is playing him). Past and present maids include "Anelle", "Yvette", "Sugar Snap", "Beullah Belle", "Ginger Vitus", "Sunny Knight", "Kiki McGee", "Gabby Normal", "Tish Myash", "Dusty Cabinets", "Tallulah Buttertart", "LaRue ", "Molly McClean"and more.

Other characters

Rooms

Shows

The Adventurers Club offered many shows throughout the night. The main shows were hosted in the library, which seated over 100 people, while smaller shows occurred in the Mask Room and Treasure Room, seating about 40 people each. The times were not always fixed, but there were plaques next to each room to show the schedule for that particular evening. The shows mostly follow a script and order of songs and jokes, but performers would sometimes make running jokes about guests' behavior, dress, or place of origin. Some guests would be invited to participate. Shows include:

There were shows done in earlier operational years of the club, but for various reasons were discontinued. These include the beer tasting session (where guests would vote on the beer of the evening), "Fingers Plays Requests" (where guests would try to stump the organist's knowledge of tunes), Madam Zarkov's show, and more.

Holidays

While every day is the Open House and the performers have free rein to alter the script to fit the evening, the club does do some specialty shows for the Halloween and Christmas seasons in place of one or more of the Library events.

Club traditions

During the Club's run, several unique traditions emerged. Some date back to the opening day of the club, others were added over the years.

Marching along we're adventurers
Singing the song of adventurers
Up or down
North, south, east, or west,
An Adventurer's life is best. KUNGALOOSH!!

We climb the highest mountains,
just to get a better view.

We plumb the deepest oceans,
cause we're daring through and through.

We cross the scorching deserts,
martini in our hands.

We ski the polar ice caps,
in tuxedo looking grand.

We are reckless, brave, and loyal,
and valiant to the end.

If you come in here a stranger,
you will exit as a friend.

~Merriweather Adam Pleasure
Club Founder 1927

Another tradition was when a regular performer left the cast, a custom-designed artifact with obscure references to that person was placed on display to memorialize them; many of these were kept in a locked cabinet in the Treasure Room.

Costumes

Throughout the years the costumes of the main characters changed several times. Emil Bleehall originally wore a plaid jacket and resembled a traveling salesman. This was later changed to a green "Junior Adventurer" outfit, reminiscent of a Boy Scout uniform. Hathaway Browne wore a Green Jacket, which was later supplanted by a leather aviator coat. As a result of the many layers of the newer costume, his character was often the object of jokes during the hot Florida summers. Fletcher Hodges went through one of the more strange transitions, switching from a professor lab coat to a "ponga" skirt with boxer shorts, then back to pants again. Pamelia Perkins originally wore a purple dress, then graduated to a blue dress with a prominent "Club President" sash. She continued to wear the sash through the rest of her costumes, including a bright dress reminiscent of a peacock (complete with a stuffed peacock hat) and her final costume, which was a red and blue kimono.

The later costumes were more outrageous than the earlier ones to make the characters stand out, and sometimes at the desires of new show directors. The cast would sometimes also add personal touches of their own, with some wearing different hats or carrying props.

Musical numbers

Songs performed in the library shows include several written by comedians Heywood Banks (such as "The Cat Got Dead") and Tom Lehrer ("The Masochism Tango"). Others come from a wide variety of sources: Broadway, children's songs, pop and jazz, comedy.

Several of the longest running songs were originals written by the performers themselves ("Drop Your Drawers", "Adventure Keeps Calling My Name").

Merchandise

Connection to the Jungle Cruise

There are several cross references between the Adventurers Club and the Magic Kingdom Jungle Cruise attraction, both themed to the same era of time. Some of the artifacts in the club are attributed to scenes on the Jungle Cruise. The fastpass machines at the Jungle Cruise are designed to resemble travel trunks. Two of these have nametags on the top, one with Emil's address, and one with Pamelia's. Recently the tags have gone missing, either from vandalism or a deliberate redesign of the machines. In addition, several "artifacts" throughout the queue are labeled as belonging to a private collection from the Adventurers Club, including its physical address. The Skipper Canteen, a restaurant in the Magic Kingdom, is supposedly run by the Jungle Navigation Co LTD (the company behind the Jungle Cruise) and has a cake on the menu called Kungaloosh; the skipper will teach the handshake associated with this.

Connection to the S.E.A.

The Adventurers Club serves as the Society of Explorers and Adventurers (the S.E.A.) branch after relocating to Mystic Point at Hong Kong Disneyland. Located deep within miles of uncharted tropical jungle, members of the S.E.A. transport their latest acquisitions to the ever-expanding Mystic (Lord Henry Mystic, owner of Mystic Manor) collection by river, rail, and jungle path. Along the riverside of Mystic Point stands a Hong Kong Disneyland Railroad station and a quay. However, Jungle River Cruise boats will not pass by Mystic Point when touring the Rivers of Adventure.

At the Aulani resort kids club, Aunty's Beach House, a portrait that once hung in the Adventurer's Club and a letter from Pamelia Perkins identifies and retcons the figures depicted as being of a predecessor to the Adventurer's Club known as the "Pillagers Brigade" with a younger Harrison Hightower III of Tokyo Disney Sea's Tower of Terror among them, years before he joined SEA and eventually found the Shiriki Utundu Idol.[8]

In the media

References

  1. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=62/ "Something for Nothing."
  2. "Pleasure Island FAQ". 2008-06-27. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
  3. http://keithbarrett.com/blog/adventurers-club-final-hoopla/ "Adventurers Club Final Hoopla"
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wade Sampson, "Craig McNair Wilson Remembers the Adventurers Club," Mouse Planet, Oct. 29, 2008, http://www.mouseplanet.com/8558/Craig_McNair_Wilson_Remembers_the_Adventurers_Club.
  5. 1 2 "Ends of the Earthers Foregather Here Again: And Astonish Mark Twain with Some Very Brief Reports," New York Times, Feb. 17, 1906, at 9.
  6. "Gathered From the Ends of the Earth to Dine," New York Times, March 31, 1904, at 5.
  7. 1 2 Wade Sampson, "Craig McNair Wilson Remembers the Adventurers Club," Mouse Planet, Oct. 29, 2008, http://www.mouseplanet.com/8558/Craig_McNair_Wilson_Remembers_the_Adventurers_Club; see also IMDB bio for Chris Carradine, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0139935/bio.
  8. http://micechat.com/forums/disneyland-resort/176788-shrunken-ned-member-s-e.html#post1056882077
  9. http://www.wowwiki.com/Quest:Some_Make_Lemonade,_Some_Make_Liquor
  10. http://www.garrysmod.com/news/
  11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VRFDbaEsd4
  12. http://www.garrysmod.org/downloads/?a=view&id=102274
  13. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=112284521
  14. David, Peter. "By Popular Demand", peterdavid.net, July 9, 2008
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