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Toad.
The Continuing Saga
We're probably done with updates now.
Hope you all enjoyed the ride!
THE END IS HERE.
Well, it looks like that rat fink Eisner has finally done it.
Mr. Toad had his last Wild Ride on Labor Day,
September 7, 1998.
Thanks to everyone who came out and showed that they care more about
Walt Disney World than the evil corporate weasels who control its
destiny.
We did our best, but they just don't care about you.
July 18, 2000
The last batch of over 150 Electronic Toad Hall
entries will be shipped off to the suits soon.
We're no longer accepting submissions to the ETH or the mailing list
thing. I, like Eisner, just don't care what those jerks do to WDW anymore.
Time to move not-quite-so-merrily on.
September 28, 1999
There are now over 1100 Electronic Toad Hall
entries. I still have a bunch more to add, but I don't have as much time
for this stuff as I used to. The end is finally in sight, tho.
September 7, 1999
Toad's been gone for one year now. I do miss him...
...and so do the 1500 people who are still on the mailing list.
June 29, 1999
www.savetoad.com gets its 60,000th hit. Obviously things are trailing off
now...and I can't say as I'm complaining about the free time!
June 20, 1999
An even more final Toad In is held to protest the grand opening of the new
Winnie the Pooh ride. The event generates a lot of press coverage, most
of which is a result of this Associated Press
Story.
May 13, 1999
The Electronic Toad Hall now has over
1000 entries. I've had as many for some time, but only now have I
had time to add them to the site. There are still many more to come!
March 21, 1999
A feel-good letter from a Disney customer appears in Disney Magazine. Considering that the
"magazine" is nothing more than a large advertisement for Disney
masquerading as a periodical, I suppose it's nice that they even
acknowledged that anyone might be unhappy with the change.
March 13, 1999
Over 600 Save Mr. Toad t-shirts have been
sold...and we're all out of them! No more big box of green shirts in my
living room!
February 26, 1999
We've now distributed over 13000 SAVE TOAD postcards...and we're all
out! I am now officially out of the postcard business! Woo hoo!
Still processing those Electronic Toad Hall
entries, tho. Over 850 there now and still hundreds to go.
January 6, 1999
The Electronic Toad Hall now has over 750
entries. I'm still processing entries from September, so there's lots
more to come.
January 1, 1999
Merry New Year!
December 25, 1998
Ho ho ho.
December 3, 1998
Over 500 Save Mr. Toad t-shirts have been sold.
November 15, 1998
www.savetoad.com gets its 50,000th hit.
October 11, 1998
We've now distributed over 11000 SAVE TOAD postcards.
September 21, 1998
The Save Toad cause receives high class press in The New Yorker in an
article entitled Save Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
We also get mentioned in this week's edition of Sports Illustrated.
September 18, 1998
A columnist for the Daytona Beach News-Journal vents in this article
called Mr. Toad squashed in the name of
Pooh.
September 17, 1998
We've now distributed over 10000 SAVE TOAD postcards.
September 13, 1998
Over 300 Save Mr. Toad t-shirts have been sold.
September 8, 1998
The final Toad In makes front page news in the Orlando Sentinel
article Fans don't go gentle on that last
wild ride.
There's also a nice editorial in the Cape Cod Times entitled Have the weasels won?.
September 7, 1998
Farewell, old friend...Toad is no more.
The article I wrote for the Palm Beach Post, as well as bunch of other
stuff appeared in the Post in a two-page spread entitled Requiem for Mr. Toad.
I have finally written up the Final Toad In
Report and now the pictures are up as well.
Also, two news stories ran on the Orlando ABC affiliate (ha!). One before the closing and one after the closing. Those of you with
slower connections will be interested in the smaller before and after videos.
Other stories: NPR Report, CFN Report
(large and
small versions), Fox News Report
(large and
small versions).
Finally! All the news footage I have has been digitized!
September 6, 1998
A Fox News Story about the
upcoming Toad closing and protest airs on teevee. If you have a small
pipe, you can download the smaller video
file. It's the same story, but the screen is half the size.
September 5, 1998
This E! Online article also mentions the closing of the Submarine Voyage
in Disneyland. The article's entitled Mickey Mouse
Cleans House.
September 3, 1998
More national press in the USA Today article End of the Road, Toad and the Washington
Post article Fans Are Hopping Mad as
Toad's 27-Year Ride Ends.
September 2, 1998
Disney FINALLY admits their evil scheme, less than a week before
The Ride is scheduled to close.
September 1, 1998
The Toad story hit the AP Newswire and has
been all over the place ever since.
The AP article led to stories at CNN, Wired/Reuters,
NPR, ABC National Radio (or was it NBC?) and a buncha other places, not
all of which have been listed here. I have honestly lost track of all the
press.
I'm sure I'll never see a lot of the articles, but since an awful lot of
them are just reflections of the AP article, that's not such a horrible
thing.
CNN also ran a little thing about us on
teevee.
August 30, 1998
Over 9000 SAVE TOAD postcards have now been
distributed.
August 28, 1998
An article entitled Net protest
can't save Mr. Toad runs on c|net's News.Com, sending our hit
counter thru the roof again.
www.savetoad.com gets its 30,000th hit!
August 19, 1998
The Electronic Toad Hall now has over 600
entries...and I'm way behind in adding them!
August 1, 1998
Over 250 Save Mr. Toad t-shirts have been sold.
July 27, 1998
The Save Mr. Toad mailing list
thing is now sporting over 1000 members.
A thousand good customers who Eisner couldn't give a damn about.
July 14, 1998
Over 8000 SAVE TOAD postcards have now been
distributed.
July 6, 1998
The Save Toad message is featured on the show Mountain View Speaks
Out on KMVT in California, thanks to way cool Toad supporter Daniel
Mart. The video is not terribly
interesting (just white letters on a blue background), so you might prefer
to hear just the audio portion. This
is an extended version of Daniel's
letter which was previously published
in the Palo Alto Daily News.
July 4, 1998
The spirit of Ben Franklin guides
www.savetoad.com to its 25,000th hit on our country's Big Day.
June 18, 1998
Over 7000 SAVE TOAD postcards have now been
distributed.
June 10, 1998
The Save Toad message is featured on Palo Alto community access
television, thanks to most excellent Toad supporter Daniel Mart.
June 8, 1998
Write and/or call: Marty Sklar, President of Walt Disney Imagineering,
1401 Flower Street, Glendale, CA 91221, 818.544.6500
(Remember that Marty is not a corporate weasel. Imagineering built Toad
Hall in the first place, so don't be accusatory. Be supportive!)
June 2, 1998
Well, those boneheads at Wired News got it wrong again in this article
about the Save
the Enchanted Tiki Room page that also mentions the Save Toad
movement. First of all, the Iago and Zazu update of the Tiki Room
was made to the Disney World version of the Tiki Room, not the
Disneyland version, which is the one in danger of becoming a food
court. Then, the author makes light of the fact that, at the time, there
were "only" 338 signatures on the online petition, without any idea of how
long the site has been up. (There's been more than 200 new signatures in
the last couple of days, by the way.) And THEN there was a quote
attributed to a Disney official spokesperson...probably about the Tiki
Room, but the article said it was about the Pooh invasion. When some
people wrote Wired to clear this up, they just removed the line
entirely.
Well, whatever. Press is press. See the article online at Talking
parrots, not chicken salad. (Just page down past that stuff about
rental erotica.)
June 1, 1998
Team Toad, along with our West Coast sister cause, Save
the Enchanted Tiki Room, get recognition in an article entitled Net aflame with
Disney protests on c|net's News.Com. Not bad.
May 28, 1998
The Electronic Toad Hall now has over 500 big
entries.
May 22, 1998
An e-mail of mine gets broadcast on a local news station. Check it out here. It's kinda funny.
May 21, 1998
The Save Mr. Toad's Wild Ride Website receives its 20,000th hit!
May 17, 1998
Toad In VI-ish gets teevee coverage on Fox
News!
See the video!
May 14, 1998
This pro-Toad Letter to the Editor is
published in the Palo Alto Daily News. Thanks to Daniel Mart of Mountain
View, California for taking the time to submit the letter.
May 10, 1998
Another Toad In takes place, as they do every
week, but I've gotten a report on this one.
Over 200 Save Mr. Toad t-shirts have been sold.
May 7, 1998
Over 6000 SAVE TOAD postcards have now been
distributed.
May 3, 1998
Toad In V (give or take a few) is a success.
The numbers don't really mean much now that we protest every weekend, but
I can only report on the ones I attend.
May 2, 1998
A new Promote
Wind in the Willows web site comes online. Please visit the site and
do what you can to give this 1996 movie a decent release. Terry Jones commands you to.
May 1, 1998
Hey, Wired News ran another article on us, a little bitty one this time.
Plus, it's mostly error-free! Check out the story they titled Toad Kill?.
April 27, 1998
Official Save Toad buttons become available
online.
April 26, 1998
Toad In 4.5 (or whatever) goes on without me!
April 17, 1998
The Save Toad cause gets very nice coverage in the Orlando Business
Journal. The article is entitled Save-the-Toadies Launch Amphibious Assault.
April 7, 1998
Over 5000 SAVE TOAD postcards have now been
distributed.
New and improved SAVE TOAD postcards are now
available.
April 6, 1998
The Save Mr. Toad's Wild Ride Website receives its 15,000th hit!
March 31, 1998
The Electronic Toad Hall hits 400 entries (and
still chugging along).
March 20, 1998
The second official Save Mr. Toad's Wild Ride flyer is put online, and is available in both
monochrome and color versions.
March 13, 1998
The first official Save Mr. Toad's Wild Ride flyer is made available for public consumption.
It's totally free, of course.
March 12, 1998
Over 4000 SAVE TOAD postcards have now been
distributed.
March 2, 1998
The Save Toad cause receives coverage on
WMFE-FM,
National Public Radio.
March 1, 1998
Toad In IV has the largest turnout yet!
February 22, 1998
The Save Mr. Toad mailing list
thing now has over 500 members.
February 18, 1998
The Save Mr. Toad's Wild Ride Website receives its 10,000th hit!
February 13, 1998
The Electronic Toad Hall hits 300 entries (and
still going strong).
February 11, 1998
Over 3000 SAVE TOAD postcards have now been
distributed.
February 9, 1998
The Save Toad movement receives national coverage (in color!) in the March
issue of Yahoo! Internet Life (the magazine on dead trees, not the online
version). The article is called Wish upon the
Net....
February 5, 1998
The Toad Cause is featured on the front page of the Kendall Gazette's
February 5-11, 1998 issue in an article entitled Resident goes into cyberspace to save Disney's Mr.
Toad ride.
February 1, 1998
Over 100 Save Mr. Toad t-shirts have been sold.
January 26, 1998
Call: Mr. Al Weiss, President of Walt Disney World Resort,
407.828.3464
January 23, 1998
Over 2000 SAVE TOAD postcards have now been
distributed.
January 22, 1998
You can now have a gander at our SAVE TOAD
postcards before you order them. They are 100% free, of course.
January 20, 1998
The Save Toad page is featured on the front page of Scandinavia Online in an article entitled Paddekampanje mot Disney. A Norwegian Toad
fan reports: "By the way, if you don't understand Norwegian.... SOL says
that Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is one the biggest rides at WDW."
January 18, 1998
The Save Toad site receives national television exposure on c|net Central. The show aired on both the
USA Network and the Sci-Fi Channel today. It looks like it
will also run again Monday night at 1:00am (aka Tuesday morning).
January 13, 1998
More HTML fiddling you couldn't possibly care about has been completed.
January 12, 1998
www.savetoad.com is in effect!
January 11, 1998
Toad In III upholds the fine tradition of Toad
Ins I & II.
January 8, 1998
An article entitled Users
wild over Disney ride runs on c|net's News.Com. Instant national
exposure gets our web page counter spinning furiously.
January 6, 1998
Nearly pointless, but difficult, tinkering with the Save Toad site's HTML
is complete. For now.
January 3, 1998
The Electronic Toad Hall hits 200 entries (and
climbing).
January 1, 1998
Merry New Year!
The Save Toad cause is highlighted in the January/February issue of New
Horizons newsletter in an article entitled Mr. Toad Needs Your Help!. This site is
also named January's Site of the Month.
December 30, 1997
Over 1000 SAVE TOAD postcards have now been
distributed.
December 25, 1997
Ho ho ho.
December 24, 1997
The Official Disney web site highlights "The Adventures of Mr. Toad" on
the front page of their weekly
Story
Section. They also highlight how horrible their artist is as the
absolute worst drawing of Mr. Toad I've ever seen is shown on this
page.
(The original horrible artwork is no longer there, but the story still is.
You can find it right here.
December 18, 1997
The Save Toad cause is highlighted on RockDaily.com.
A nice article documenting the December 7
Toad In runs in the Orlando Weekly.
December 17, 1997
The Friends of Toad and Miscellaneous Toad pages premiere on this site.
December 15, 1997
JT appears on Chicago's The Loop, WLUP FM 97.9 for the second time.
JT is interviewed by Yahoo! Internet
Life.
December 14, 1997
The second Toad In is even better than the
first!
December 13, 1997
The Palm Beach Post article appears on
the front page of the Accent section. It's quite good, but doesn't make
us sound very intimidating. Altho, I suppose, we aren't.
December 12, 1997
The Save Toad web site is declared a "best bet" by Ed Stansel's Web Watch
in the Florida Times-Union article Best
bets on the Net.
December 11, 1997
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride gets a nice write-up in The
Mining Company's Guide to Theme Parks.
December 10, 1997
JT appears on Chicago's The Loop, WLUP FM 97.9.
JT is photographed by The Palm Beach
Post.
December 9, 1997
See the official Save Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
t-shirt!
JT is interviewed by The Palm Beach
Post.
December 8, 1997
The Save Toad cause is featured in Steve Otto's column in the Tampa
Tribune. Check out the section entitled Hopping Mad.
The Save Mr. Toad mailing list
thing hits 200 members.
December 7, 1997
The first Toad In is a success!
December 6, 1997
We're on the front page of the Miami
Herald. The story gets picked up by Associated Press and we appear in
newspapers and television and radio stations all over the country! We
appeared in the Palm Beach Post, Tampa Bay Online, The Daytona Beach News
Journal, The State (Columbia, SC) and probably a lot of other papers.
December 5, 1997
JT is interviewed and
photographed for an article in The Miami
Herald.
Wired News runs a story entitled
Warts
and All, Fans Stand Up for Their Toad
regarding the Toad cause...unfortunately they several times refer to
Disneyland instead of Walt Disney World.
December 1, 1997
The Lampwick's
Disney News Poll comes to a close, with Toad winning two thirds of
the vote (more support than our President got in the last election).
November 27, 1997
Gobblegobble.
November 26, 1997
The first Toad Day takes place, with interesting results. Many Disney
Store employees incorrectly tell Toad fans that Mr. Toad is not even a
Disney character.
November 25, 1997
Call: The New York City Disney Store, 212.702.0702
(Tell them that they should carry Mr. Toad merchandise. Ask to have your
suggestion submitted formally and/or talk to a manager.)
One day after the request went out, a volunteer has created the Promote
The Wind in the Willows page. Please visit it frequently and help
support Toad's film career.
Not one, but two pro-Toad Letters to the
Editor have been published in the Orlando Sentinel. Thanks to Brad
Grant of San Francisco and Sandy Melillo of Fort Lauderdale for their
efforts.
November 24, 1997
The Save Mr. Toad site is selected as the "Cool Site of the Day" by
TUTIC
("That's Useful, This Is Cool!").
November 23, 1997
JT meets with Terry Jones
(writer, director, and star (as Toad himself)) of The
Wind in the Willows. Click here to find
out what happened.
The Electronic Toad Hall hits 100 entries (and
climbing).
Now all the current addresses and phone numbers are available in a single file.
November 22, 1997
Write: Mr. Lee Cockerell, VP of WDW
Operations, Team Disney, 1375 Buena Vista Drive, Lake Buena Vista, FL
32830-1000
Write: Mr. Greg Emmer, VP of Magic
Kingdom Operations, PO Box 10000, Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830
November 21, 1997
Write: Mr. Richard A. Nunis,
Chairman of Walt Disney Attractions, Team Disney, Fourth Floor North
C-460C, 1375 Buena Vista Drive, Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-1000
Call: Mr. Richard A. Nunis, Chairman of Walt Disney Attractions,
407.828.1790
Write: Mr. Dave Vermeulen,
General Manager of the Magic Kingdom, PO Box 10000, Lake Buena Vista, FL
32830
Call: Dave Vermeulen, General Manager of the Magic Kingdom,
407.824.4040
November 20, 1997
Write: WDW Attractions, PO Box 10000,
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830, Attn: Merchandise and tell them that you
wish they had some Mr. Toad merchandise available in Walt Disney World,
especially considering the mountains of Pooh products in the stores.
November 19, 1997
The best article documenting our fight so far, in City Link Magazine.
It's a good read, with solid data, some interesting quotes from an
official Disney representative (to paraphrase: "The ride is very popular
and everyone likes it, but we don't care.") and some amusing stuff, too.
It's called Showdown in the Mouse House.
Check it out.
November 18, 1997
The Walt Disney World Info Line (407.824.4321) begins telling people that
Mr. Toad is "definitely closing". Disney Publicity (407.397.6397) neither
confirms nor denies this statement. Still no one admits
responsibility for the decision.
November 12, 1997
JT is interviewed by TM Shine
of City Link magazine.
November 11, 1997
Call: The Disney Catalog, 1.800.237.5751
(Politely ask if there is any Mr. Toad (of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride fame)
merchandise available. When they say "no", ask to make an official
suggestion that Toad gear be offered. It's painless; they fill out the
form, you only provide them with the request and your name, and the
call is free.)
November 10, 1997
Our story runs in the Monday Tourism & Travel print edition of the Orlando Sentinel.
The Save Mr. Toad mailing list
thing hits 100 members.
November 9, 1997
Toad supporter Rich Rotondo gets his Letter to the Editor published in the
Orlando Sentinel.
November 7, 1997
Our story runs in the Friday Extra print edition of the The Tampa Tribune.
We receive online coverage on
Deb's Unofficial Walt Disney World Information Guide (WDWIG).
The Mr.
Toad's Wild Ride Survey comes online.
The Electronic Toad Hall features its 50th
customer response...and still going strong.
November 6, 1997
We receive online coverage in The Tampa
Tribune.
November 5, 1997
The main
Save Mr.
Toad's Wild Ride page receives a facelift. Page navigation is
also improved.
November 4, 1997
This page premieres.
The More on Toad page is updated.
November 3, 1997
Two fan-created buttons (this one and that one) added to the site. Download the
button of your choice and use it to link to
us.
Letter templates are added to the site.
The Learn More About Mr. Toad page premieres on
the site.
November 2, 1997
Our story runs in the Sunday print edition of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
November 1, 1997
Visit
Lampwick's Disney Survey for the month of November and vote for
Toad!
The site is entered into several banner networks.
October 31, 1997
We receive online coverage in the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution.
Call: Disney Publicity Department, 407.397.6397
Call: WDW Main Switchboard, 407.824.2222
The Electronic Toad Hall and Our View pages premiere on the site.
JT is interviewed by Rich Eldredge
of the Atlanta-Journal
Consititution.
E-mail response received from "Shawn" at WDW Guest Communications:
It is true that plans are currently
being discussed for the possible replacement of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride in
the Magic Kingdom Park with an attraction that would feature a more
current theme and more modern technology. We would like to clarify,
however, that no final decision has actually yet been made regarding the
future of this attraction.
October 30, 1997
E-mail: All your friends and let them know about Mr. Toad's
plight.
Phone call received from LA Times. Double-checking our story. Reporter
provided support, but no coverage.
October 29, 1997
First major press release issued.
October 28, 1997
Write: Mr. Michael Eisner,
Chief Executive Officer, Walt Disney Company, 500 South Buena Vista Street,
Burbank, CA 91521
Write: Mr. Judson Green, President,
Walt Disney Attractions, 500 South Buena Vista Street, Team Disney 531,
Burbank, CA 91521
Write: Mr. Al Weiss, President,
Disney World Resort, P.O. Box 10040, Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830
October 27, 1997
Vote for Mr. Toad in the online poll and voice your support for Toad in
the online forum at
Digital City Orlando.
Download our banner and
link it to the
Save Mr. Toad site.
Put the Save Mr.
Toad site URL (http://www.math.miami.edu/~jam/toad/proj.html)
in your signature file.
October 26, 1997
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad airs on the The Disney
Channel.
October 24, 1997
The Orlando Sentinel runs an article entitled Toad or Pooh? Celebrities Take Sides.
Hootie admits he is the anti-Christ.
Write: WDW Guest Relations,
PO Box 10000, Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830
Call: Greg Emmer, VP of Magic Kingdom Operations, 407.824.5030
October 23, 1997
John Lefante creates the
Save Mr. Toad web
site.
Write: Letters to the Editor, The Orlando Sentinel, 633 N. Orange Ave.,
Orlando, FL 32801-1349
Fax: The Orlando Sentinel, 407.420.5286
E-mail:
The Orlando Sentinel
October 22, 1997
The bomb is dropped.
Write: WDW Guest Communications,
PO Box 10040, Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040
Call: Lee Cockerell, VP of WDW Operations, 407.934.7287
E-mail:
Walt Disney World
"I believe you'll be hearing from me again."
-- JT Toad,
to the WDW employee who fielded his first angry call
The views and opinions expressed on this page are strictly those of the
author. The contents and links have not been reviewed or approved by the
University of Miami.
