Friday, August 19, 2011

Breaking News: Mannequins Sign Removal Begins

They began removing the Mannequins name off the club marquee yesterday morning. We have team coverage from SPI Blog roving reporters Thommy and William. Off in the distance the removal finally began, nearly 3 years after the club had been shut down.
A closer look taken from in front of the new Apricot Lane. It is apparently very difficult to take the letters off the marquee which then begs the question, why not just take the entire marquee down instead?

We thus have to speculate that the marquee will get used again in whatever they plan to put into the venue. The entire front was designed to look like an old-fashion downtown style theater entrance. Remember that the rumor we published said that third parties will be able to reopen clubs as clubs that could be "similar" to what used to be there but had to be "different" too. So this action certainly does not dispel that rumor.
As night fell and lights came on, roving reporter William noticed that real light bulbs have once again been installed into these rear lights. They had recently been replaced with lower-light LED's. Not pictured, he also noticed one bulb at the large overhead garage-style door had been broken off at the base, leading to speculation that it was accidentally broken when something large was being taken out (or taken into) the former club building!

16 comments:

ClubMaster said...

This sucks!

Anonymous said...

It over or a new beginning????

KingBob said...

Still hoping that the rumor is true that 3rd parties will be able to reopen the old clubs as clubs. Rumor says they have to be "different" but they can be "similar". Thus, it should not come as a surprise that the Mannequins sign ultimately had to come down. But what will go up in it's place?

Daisy said...

It died the slowest of slow deaths. Nothing magical about the psychological toll of waiting 3+ years for this day.

Anonymous said...

It seems to be that they're taking down the sign, but what would be similar to Mannequins?
I have no idea.
Hopefully it will be replaced with a different dance club, but maybe better, or maybe they're just going to replace the sign with a better one, or maybe change the name to Dance Palace".
P.S.
Everybody knows one thing for sure, three years is long enough.

Brian said...

just another sad DAY in Mannequins History!

Anonymous said...

I bet Disney is going to put grass seed on the sign in the place of the letters.

Anonymous said...

As a former cast member of Disney and Pleasure Island... Once they got rid of Eisner, the company went to shit... Does Disney know that Mannequins light show and revolving dance floor was one of a kind... if they just put in the latest style of lighting out there like they did when it opened, it would draw people from everywhere... I hope a new 3rd party comes in and takes it over and they will laugh their way all away to bank... it is still a gold mine and I hope Disney doesn't screw the new company over. I was there not so long ago and once Eisner was out... they started screwing cast members on the kind of meals they were serving them at the employee cafe... I heard there was a problem with crime... well when I worked there there wasn't at all... sheriffs outside at every gate... but I worked there way before the West End was built.

City Walk still pulls in a great crowd and Disney has the money to build something better then that... I can understand renting out properties... but look what happened to Fireworks Factory.

ClubMaster said...

i hope the construction papers that was filed wasnt just for all signs to be removed and thats it.

KingBob said...

Hang in there folks. We don't know what is going on and absolutely nothing announced at D23. The rumor stated that clubs could not reopen under their old names so for that rumor to be true, this had to happen.

When PI clubs closed, signs for Motion and 8TRAX disappeared immediately. For whatever reasons, signs for Mannequins, Comedy Warehouse, Adventurers Club and Rock'n'Roll Beach Club remained in place.

Daisy, well put!

Anon at 5:11am, thanks for the history! We soon will finally know.

Anonymous said...

It appears all they're doing is the prep work to "sanitize" these clubs for future third-party occupancy. However, who knows if any contracts have even been signed?

Anonymous said...

I wish they would fix the one burned out tourch on top of the Adventurers Club tower (Far left one)instead of just turing them all off.

KingBob said...

Yes, it is quite possible that the construction permits are merely to remove club name signs off existing buildings and make the buildings as generic as possible. I wouldn't think though that a Notice of Commencement would be needed for something so mundane. And if they haven't leased them to become restaurants in 3 years, I really doubt taking the signs down is going to matter. I just have to think we've got some stuff coming!

Anonymous said...

I've YET to hear about any contracts being signed, or anything from those who would be the first to know that something is going to happen there.

I'll ask around, but so far it's not worth anyone getting there hopes up yet.

KingBob said...

If you come up with any info, please let us know! You can post in Comments or send me an email. Thanks!

ReelJustice said...

"We have several incredible projects currently in the works and look forward to sharing more information with all of you in the weeks and months ahead, including new details regarding Downtown Disney in Florida."-Tom Staggs, 8/21/11