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| Mannequins Mannequins, wherefore art thou Mannequins? |
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| In the area where guests are allowed to walk near Raglan Road, a canopy completely covers the scaffolding and obscures any looks inside. This is the former front entrance to MDP where the theater marquee used to stand proudly. |
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| The south facade facing the former PI parking lot is completely exposed! Notice that the interior stairs that we posted just two weeks ago here are not gone. |
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| That area that sticks out of Mannequins will have a large glass expanse facing the Springs. Towards the rear we can see the 8TRAX metal building as well as the 8TRAX roundhouse where the circular stairs led to the club's highest level. |
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| Peeking inside to the upstairs. Lots of new girders. |
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| Peeking inside to the new room that is in the building's northeast corner. That doorway to the rear would lead you past Mannequins former main bar and onto the dance floor. I know Dawn, Bobby C and Gordo are in there somewhere! |
This is so sad. I remember Gay Days used to have a PI welcome party at Mannequins on Thursday to kick off the weekend. It was busy busy busy. This brings back memories of the bar areas and the balcony overlooking the dance floor where I remember watching geisha girls perform on the stage while people danced and had a great time. The one thing that sticks out in my mind was a Mannequins employee saying Disney loves Gay Days. We make so much money this weekend. It's one of the most profitable weekends of the year. We had such a feeling of connection to Disney and always knew the weekend was off to a great start. Now mannequins has been destroyed and Gay Days moved off Disney property. I've heard this is why. Things just haven't been the same since the closure of PI and the host hotel moved to I-Drive. We lost a big part of the Disney magic that year.
ReplyDeleteGay Days still have a few events inside the theme parks or water parks but by-in-large, involvement with Disney is a thing of the past. I mean if a group wanted a nighttime event at Downtown Disney, there are few options.
ReplyDeleteLove your blog, King, but so sorry, theatre geek here--have to correct you on the "wherefore." The term wherefore as Juliet uses it in the play means "why" as opposed to "where." http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/262200.html
ReplyDeleteThe more you know! :-)
Yes, King Bob, GayDays still has their theme park days and another group hosts some parties after hours at the parks. It just seemed like a hit and hit back type situation when the closed PI, the host hotel was moved. I suppose though if GayDays wanted to host a welcome party they could still do it at DTD but they never rented out Mannequins, it was just a tradition to have the welcome party there while it was open to the public and Disney always unofficially but very effectively provided a lot of extra special touches. Hopefully with Disney Springs eventually a strong cast member night will develop again somewhere because that's really how the Thursday night PI welcome party came to be at Mannequins. Unfortunately GayDays doesn't have as close of a relationship with Disney, even though unofficial, as they could have because GayDays saw $$ signs in branching off to other Orlando areas and venues and Disney figured they could make more $ from a restaurant than a dance club. Maybe some day the two agendas will align better again I hope.
ReplyDeleteThanks Anonymous Theater Geek. "Wherefore" as used in this article's title means "Where the fuck are you" Mannequins, LOL.
ReplyDeleteAnon at 5:25pm, thanks for a bit of this history about Gay Days at Disney. I agree.