July 17, 2025 • 16 mins
Today's episode features a rundown of the ESPYs and ESPN chief Jimmy Pitaro on how the Worldwide Leader is pitching its upcoming streaming app as a big evolution for sports. And Variety's Jazz Tangcay and Carole Horst discuss their deep dive into Walt Disney Imagineering and its work in Disney parks as Disneyland marks its 70th anniversary.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, strictly business listeners. This is your host Cynthia Littleton.
I'm so excited today to give you a sneak listen
to a podcast project we've been working on for a
few months, Daily Variety. On this show, we talked to
Variety journalists and guests about news, personalities and trends that
are making headlines and showbiz. Variety has the most incredible
(00:21):
masthead of journalists covering media and entertainment. In addition to
our strength in La, New York and London. Almost every
day of the year, Variety is somewhere in the world
covering a festival, or a market or a premier. We
want to showcase all this great work in a new
way with this program. Of course, we'd love to hear
your feedback at Variety dot com. Thanks for checking us out,
(00:44):
and away we go. Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily
dose of news and analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Thursday,
July seventeenth, twenty twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton,
(01:05):
and I am co editor in chief of Variety alongside
Ramin Setuda. I'm in LA. He's in New York, and
Variety has reporters around the world covering the business of entertainment.
I'm coming to you today from a hotel in West Hollywood,
where Variety is hosting its annual Sports and Entertainment breakfast.
We have a great lineup that includes Diplo, ESPN's Mina Kimes,
(01:27):
and women's soccer great Alex Morgan. More on that later
in today's Daily Variety episode. I'll give you my report
on the esp Awards. I found the SP's to be
a great night, minus about twenty minutes from host Shane Gillis.
I ran into ESPN chief Jimmy Petero at the show
and we talked about the very big sales pitch that
(01:49):
the worldwide leader in sports is preparing to lob at
consumers as it launches its standalone ESPN streaming app later
this fall. From there, we will wish Disneyland a happy
seventieth birthday. I talked to my Variety colleagues Jazz Tanke
and Carol Horst about their deep dive into the world
of Walt Disney imagineering and how their great work is
(02:12):
expressed in the parks. But before we get to that,
here are a few headlines. Just in this morning that
you need to know. Another video game franchise is going
the TV series route. Netflix has ordered a live action
series adaptation of Assassin's Creed. That's a nearly twenty year
old game franchise from Ubisoft, and the series will be
(02:32):
produced through Ubisoft's new film and TV division. Lady Gaga
opened her Mayhem Ball tour in Las Vegas last night.
The rave reviews are rolling in, including one from Variety
Chief music critic Chris Willman rip Connie Francis, What a voice.
The singer who had big pop hits in the nineteen
fifties and sixties has died at the age of eighty seven.
(02:55):
All these stories are on Variety dot com right now.
Check them out. Now. We turned to conversations with Variety
journalists about news and trends in show business. We'll start
with my late night thoughts on mingling with Sports Royalty
at last night's sb Awards. The sp Awards turned into
a fist pumping celebration of female athletes last night. It
(03:18):
was fun and it was invigorating. It was great to
see so many women recognized in a range of sports,
from volleyball to rugby to track and field. The SPS
have categories that are gender mixed, and women scored in
those two. The one and only Simone Biles won for
Best Champion Performance for her work at the twenty twenty
(03:39):
four Summer Olympics.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Well that was very unexpected, especially in a category of
all men.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
So thank you guys so much.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Lana mar the champion women's rugby player, one for Breakthrough Athlete.
She noted that it only took her seven years and
two Olympics to break through in her sport. That is
still very esoteric for when sport does amazing things And
for a girl who didn't understand why her body looked
the way it did, sport gave me an outland showed
me how capable I can be. Whoo. There were more
(04:09):
great honorees. Simone Bile's fellow Olympic gymnast, Sunni League, former
volleyball champion Katie Schumacher Cowley all held the floor with
incredible speeches. With this as a backdrop, this year's sp host,
Shane Gillis seemed to strike the wrong notes in his
opening monologue. He was quick to take edgy jabs at
some of the biggest stars in women's sports, Kitlin Clark,
(04:32):
Megan Rippino and Simone Biles inside the Dolby. Most of
his jokes didn't land, at least not in my section.
The strength of the honorees, male and female, saved the day.
There was a lengthy tribute to Oscar Robinson, a pioneering
black basketball star from the nineteen sixties and seventies. He
was the founder of the NBA Players Association, and he
(04:54):
fought a six year legal battle for the right to
give players more control over their careers. Robinson was known
as the Big O in his playing days. Today's NBA
players can thank the Big O for their multi multimillion
dollar contracts. ESPN, of course use the SPS as a
platform to promote the upcoming launch of its standalone ESPN
(05:15):
streaming at During the telecast, ESPN ran a sixty second
image spot dubbed Sports Forever. It tugs pretty hard on
the hearts of sports fans. Land wins tonight and se
what you'll see in the next minutes, hours and days
to follow me may convince you you've gone to sports Heaven.
(05:40):
I ran into ESPN chief Jimmy Petero as I was
leaving the Dolby on Wednesday night. I asked him about
the work that they have to do to get this
across to consumers. Here's what he explains.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
It's meant to capture the uh the spirit of when
ESPN launched in nineteen seventy nine, fast forward to today.
We're going to be launching our direct to consumer offering
this fall. There are two things that are happening this fall.
The first is we're going direct to consumer. The second
is we're enhancing the app. So in that spot, we're
(06:12):
basically telling you that there is a new day for ESPN.
Come this fall, you'll be able to access all of
our content, all of ESPN, all in one place, and
that is the ESPN App. And so whether you're on
a smart television or you're on your phone or your tablet,
we want you to fire up the ESPN app to
(06:33):
get the best sports experience. And then we really want
to make it clear that if you are a current subscriber,
as you mentioned, you access ESPN through YouTube TV. I
think you said ultimately what we want to do is
drive you as a YouTube TV subscriber. We're very happy
that you're subscribing through YouTube TV. We want to drive
you to the ESPN app to get that enhanced experience,
(06:56):
So that spot is really meant to, at a very
high level convey both of those things, all of ESPN
available direct to consumer, and all of it in one place,
which is the ESPN App.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
To Jimmy's credit, he didn't duck when I also asked
him why they chose Gillis to host and shared my
opinion that Gillis felt off for the night.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
We've had him on college game Day as a celebrity
guest picker, and he's done a fantastic job for us.
He's a very knowledgeable sports fan and that's why we
went with him.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Now we turn our lens to a different part of
the Magic Kingdom. Disneyland is turning seventy this year. In
our print edition this weekend on Variety dot com, we
take a look at Disney Imagineering and how its work
keeps the mother of all themed parks evolving. Here I
talk to my colleagues, Jazz Tunke, who was Senior Artisans Editor,
(07:56):
and Carol Horst, who is Deputy Features editor, about pulling
together this package of stories. Yes, indeed, they were assigned
the tough job of doing their research at Disneyland. Jazz
Tank and Carol Horse, Thank you so much for joining
me today.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Thank you for having thank you for having us.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
You two shepherded a fantastic package of stories that publishes
this week. In this week's edition of Variety. It's all
about Disneyland. Truly one of the happiest places on earth
for many Variety staffers, and Disneyland is turning seventy and
there's nothing we like more than anniversaries that end in
zero and five. So this package came together as a
(08:35):
labor of love. Jazz tell listeners the origin story of
this work.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
The origin story this began. I was scrolling through Disney
Plus and I stumbled across The Imagineering Story, which is
that documentary mini series that focuses on the imagineering. These
the people that make the magic and the palks, and
throughout the entire Disney brand happen.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
The technical wizards that design the tech behind the rides,
that do a lot of the tech behind you know,
everything that happens at Disney but really at Disneyland is
where it's expressed. Writ large.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yes, And it just so happened that Disneyland was turning
seventeenth on July seventeenth, So it was at the perfect
opportunity to be like, let's do this, and you're on board.
Carols on board, and we birthed this incredible package that
celebrates the imagineers at Disney.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Carol, you got a tour behind the scenes. Tell us
about your reporting and meeting with some key imagineers.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
I talked to David Lightbody, who's head of Disney Live
Entertainment worldwide, and he oversees live entertainment across all Disney parks,
all cruise ships, all Disney properties, down to what he
termed is the even the meat and greets with the
characters at the parks, which he terms of the I
(10:01):
love this phrase. He said it was the purest form
of theater, with like Cinderella meeting a fan. And his
enthusiasm for live entertainment for theater is born from his
work when he started out in Scotland putting on Shakespeare
and other plays in castles across the Highlands. I interviewed
(10:23):
him in this big equipment room, this big prop and
rehearsal room on the imagineering campus. It was just chock
full of old parade props and costumes and just the
detail on these, the thinking, the thought behind everything in
the parades in the theatrical offerings is astonishing, and he
(10:47):
oversees thousands of people who oversee in turn, thousands of
props and costumes. It is remarkable to see that stuff
behind the scenes.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Did you get a sense of this scope of the
imagineering operation in southern California?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
When we had our tour, We saw all the aspects
of imagineering from the highest highest tech. We saw how
they developed the Spider Man show that's on the Avengers campus,
with the robot that flies through the air, to the
sculpture room where they create models. They create sculptures from
(11:26):
this sketching two D sketches and people sitting around thinking
to these new BDX robots. We saw the whole scope
of this and it is again something I think that
is unique to Disney. And they work with NASA, they
work with all these high tech companies. It's incredible the
(11:46):
scale of what goes on on that imagineering campus in Glendale.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
So I sat down with Bruce Vaughn, who's the president
and chief creative officer of Walt Disney Imagineering, and to
just jump off what Carol said, like, we really got
an insight into their thinking and it's very much in
tune with Walt Disney, you know, just in touch with
still the inner child. And I think when it comes
(12:11):
to executing everything, I've focused on how the imagineers work
in the park, and it's everything from like they want
you to feel like you're inside the movie when you
go into Galaxy's Edge, but also if you notice like
the ground on Main Street or change when you go
into Frontier Land, or like Adventure Land or Tomorrow Land,
and it's like those tiny little details that you never
(12:33):
really pay attention to, even the smell like they talk
about the water smell, or you know that you have
on Pirates of the Caribbean. And it's a small world
which is so unique to Disneyland. And the newest thing
that's going to open is the Animatronics show with Walt Disney,
so it's replacing the Abraham Lincoln one. Bruce said, it's
(12:54):
that by far, the most advanced animatronic they've ever done.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
I know somewhere Walt is smiling because he famously said
Disneyland will never be finished, it will always be a
work in progress. And there's just no question that you
can just you see the investment well to button up
this great package once again, Jazz. You collected stories and
anecdotes from people on the Variety staff about what going
(13:18):
to Disneyland has meant to them.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Well, I mean, it's just the love for Disneyland and
what it means. Like Janelle Riley's story about going while
toad Ride is so brilliant. I also learned that Mike
Schneider's wife lost a diamond off her ring and I'm
so invested in this. I actually wanted to do a
story on the like odd items lost at Disneyland, but
I never had time to do that.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
I asked a park person once and they said that
every year they dredge the rivers of America where the
Mark Twain steamboat goes, and nowadays the single most thing
that's in there cell phones. I could talk about Disneyland
for another hour. Thank you for a great package that
really gets to the heart, gets to the heart and
the heart of Disneyland. Thank you, Cynthia, thank you, thank
(14:06):
you for having us. As we close out today's episode,
here are a few things we're watching for. Comic Con
in San Diego kicks off next Thursday. Variety will have
a large contingent down there and we'll be hosting a
photo and video studio. Next week, We'll also be covering
the Bogata Audio Visual Market in Columbia, and also next week,
(14:29):
Variety will unveil its Music Mogul of the Year honoree.
Daily Variety will be back in your feet on Monday.
On Friday, please take a listen to Variety's Strictly Business
podcast to my interview with Alex Morgan from Variety Sports
and Entertainment Breakfast. Before we go, I want to thank
all the listeners who have sent me feedback on this
inaugural week for Daily Variety. I've had some questions about
(14:52):
my sign off tagline and what it means. The phrase
I'm saying is styx nick's hick picks. This is nod
to Variety's history of running really really irreverent and slangy headlines.
Styx s t i c ks is a slang term
for rural areas, nix nix means to reject, hick h
(15:17):
i c k is a slang term for a rural resident,
and picks p i x is variety slanguage for movies.
Fun fact, the Styx nix hick picks headline ran ninety
years ago today. It was the banner headline on our
July seventeenth, nineteen thirty five edition. It was the lead
(15:40):
story that explained why a series of big movies set
in heartland areas had flopped with moviegoers in those exact areas. Basically,
the story boils down to, don't pander to what you
think the audience wants. Just make good movies and they'll travel.
It's a lesson Hollywood is still grappling with. Thanks for listening.
(16:00):
This episode was written and reported by me Cynthia Littleton,
with contributions from Jazz Tank and Carol Horst. It was
edited by Aaron Greenwall Sticks Nick pick Picks. Please leave
us a review at the podcast platform of your choice,
and please tune in Monday for another episode of Daily Variety.
Hello, strictly business listeners. This is your host Cynthia Littleton.
I'm so excited today to give you a sneak listen
to a podcast project we've been working on for a
few months, Daily Variety. On this show, we talked to
Variety journalists and guests about news, personalities and trends that
are making headlines and showbiz. Variety has the most incredible
(00:21):
masthead of journalists covering media and entertainment. In addition to
our strength in La, New York and London. Almost every
day of the year, Variety is somewhere in the world
covering a festival, or a market or a premier. We
want to showcase all this great work in a new
way with this program. Of course, we'd love to hear
your feedback at Variety dot com. Thanks for checking us out,
(00:44):
and away we go. Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily
dose of news and analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Thursday,
July seventeenth, twenty twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton,
(01:05):
and I am co editor in chief of Variety alongside
Ramin Setuda. I'm in LA. He's in New York, and
Variety has reporters around the world covering the business of entertainment.
I'm coming to you today from a hotel in West Hollywood,
where Variety is hosting its annual Sports and Entertainment breakfast.
We have a great lineup that includes Diplo, ESPN's Mina Kimes,
(01:27):
and women's soccer great Alex Morgan. More on that later
in today's Daily Variety episode. I'll give you my report
on the esp Awards. I found the SP's to be
a great night, minus about twenty minutes from host Shane Gillis.
I ran into ESPN chief Jimmy Petero at the show
and we talked about the very big sales pitch that
(01:49):
the worldwide leader in sports is preparing to lob at
consumers as it launches its standalone ESPN streaming app later
this fall. From there, we will wish Disneyland a happy
seventieth birthday. I talked to my Variety colleagues Jazz Tanke
and Carol Horst about their deep dive into the world
of Walt Disney imagineering and how their great work is
(02:12):
expressed in the parks. But before we get to that,
here are a few headlines. Just in this morning that
you need to know. Another video game franchise is going
the TV series route. Netflix has ordered a live action
series adaptation of Assassin's Creed. That's a nearly twenty year
old game franchise from Ubisoft, and the series will be
(02:32):
produced through Ubisoft's new film and TV division. Lady Gaga
opened her Mayhem Ball tour in Las Vegas last night.
The rave reviews are rolling in, including one from Variety
Chief music critic Chris Willman rip Connie Francis, What a voice.
The singer who had big pop hits in the nineteen
fifties and sixties has died at the age of eighty seven.
(02:55):
All these stories are on Variety dot com right now.
Check them out. Now. We turned to conversations with Variety
journalists about news and trends in show business. We'll start
with my late night thoughts on mingling with Sports Royalty
at last night's sb Awards. The sp Awards turned into
a fist pumping celebration of female athletes last night. It
(03:18):
was fun and it was invigorating. It was great to
see so many women recognized in a range of sports,
from volleyball to rugby to track and field. The SPS
have categories that are gender mixed, and women scored in
those two. The one and only Simone Biles won for
Best Champion Performance for her work at the twenty twenty
(03:39):
four Summer Olympics.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Well that was very unexpected, especially in a category of
all men.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
So thank you guys so much.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Lana mar the champion women's rugby player, one for Breakthrough Athlete.
She noted that it only took her seven years and
two Olympics to break through in her sport. That is
still very esoteric for when sport does amazing things And
for a girl who didn't understand why her body looked
the way it did, sport gave me an outland showed
me how capable I can be. Whoo. There were more
(04:09):
great honorees. Simone Bile's fellow Olympic gymnast, Sunni League, former
volleyball champion Katie Schumacher Cowley all held the floor with
incredible speeches. With this as a backdrop, this year's sp host,
Shane Gillis seemed to strike the wrong notes in his
opening monologue. He was quick to take edgy jabs at
some of the biggest stars in women's sports, Kitlin Clark,
(04:32):
Megan Rippino and Simone Biles inside the Dolby. Most of
his jokes didn't land, at least not in my section.
The strength of the honorees, male and female, saved the day.
There was a lengthy tribute to Oscar Robinson, a pioneering
black basketball star from the nineteen sixties and seventies. He
was the founder of the NBA Players Association, and he
(04:54):
fought a six year legal battle for the right to
give players more control over their careers. Robinson was known
as the Big O in his playing days. Today's NBA
players can thank the Big O for their multi multimillion
dollar contracts. ESPN, of course use the SPS as a
platform to promote the upcoming launch of its standalone ESPN
(05:15):
streaming at During the telecast, ESPN ran a sixty second
image spot dubbed Sports Forever. It tugs pretty hard on
the hearts of sports fans. Land wins tonight and se
what you'll see in the next minutes, hours and days
to follow me may convince you you've gone to sports Heaven.
(05:40):
I ran into ESPN chief Jimmy Petero as I was
leaving the Dolby on Wednesday night. I asked him about
the work that they have to do to get this
across to consumers. Here's what he explains.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
It's meant to capture the uh the spirit of when
ESPN launched in nineteen seventy nine, fast forward to today.
We're going to be launching our direct to consumer offering
this fall. There are two things that are happening this fall.
The first is we're going direct to consumer. The second
is we're enhancing the app. So in that spot, we're
(06:12):
basically telling you that there is a new day for ESPN.
Come this fall, you'll be able to access all of
our content, all of ESPN, all in one place, and
that is the ESPN App. And so whether you're on
a smart television or you're on your phone or your tablet,
we want you to fire up the ESPN app to
(06:33):
get the best sports experience. And then we really want
to make it clear that if you are a current subscriber,
as you mentioned, you access ESPN through YouTube TV. I
think you said ultimately what we want to do is
drive you as a YouTube TV subscriber. We're very happy
that you're subscribing through YouTube TV. We want to drive
you to the ESPN app to get that enhanced experience,
(06:56):
So that spot is really meant to, at a very
high level convey both of those things, all of ESPN
available direct to consumer, and all of it in one place,
which is the ESPN App.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
To Jimmy's credit, he didn't duck when I also asked
him why they chose Gillis to host and shared my
opinion that Gillis felt off for the night.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
We've had him on college game Day as a celebrity
guest picker, and he's done a fantastic job for us.
He's a very knowledgeable sports fan and that's why we
went with him.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Now we turn our lens to a different part of
the Magic Kingdom. Disneyland is turning seventy this year. In
our print edition this weekend on Variety dot com, we
take a look at Disney Imagineering and how its work
keeps the mother of all themed parks evolving. Here I
talk to my colleagues, Jazz Tunke, who was Senior Artisans Editor,
(07:56):
and Carol Horst, who is Deputy Features editor, about pulling
together this package of stories. Yes, indeed, they were assigned
the tough job of doing their research at Disneyland. Jazz
Tank and Carol Horse, Thank you so much for joining
me today.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Thank you for having thank you for having us.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
You two shepherded a fantastic package of stories that publishes
this week. In this week's edition of Variety. It's all
about Disneyland. Truly one of the happiest places on earth
for many Variety staffers, and Disneyland is turning seventy and
there's nothing we like more than anniversaries that end in
zero and five. So this package came together as a
(08:35):
labor of love. Jazz tell listeners the origin story of
this work.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
The origin story this began. I was scrolling through Disney
Plus and I stumbled across The Imagineering Story, which is
that documentary mini series that focuses on the imagineering. These
the people that make the magic and the palks, and
throughout the entire Disney brand happen.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
The technical wizards that design the tech behind the rides,
that do a lot of the tech behind you know,
everything that happens at Disney but really at Disneyland is
where it's expressed. Writ large.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yes, And it just so happened that Disneyland was turning
seventeenth on July seventeenth, So it was at the perfect
opportunity to be like, let's do this, and you're on board.
Carols on board, and we birthed this incredible package that
celebrates the imagineers at Disney.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Carol, you got a tour behind the scenes. Tell us
about your reporting and meeting with some key imagineers.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
I talked to David Lightbody, who's head of Disney Live
Entertainment worldwide, and he oversees live entertainment across all Disney parks,
all cruise ships, all Disney properties, down to what he
termed is the even the meat and greets with the
characters at the parks, which he terms of the I
(10:01):
love this phrase. He said it was the purest form
of theater, with like Cinderella meeting a fan. And his
enthusiasm for live entertainment for theater is born from his
work when he started out in Scotland putting on Shakespeare
and other plays in castles across the Highlands. I interviewed
(10:23):
him in this big equipment room, this big prop and
rehearsal room on the imagineering campus. It was just chock
full of old parade props and costumes and just the
detail on these, the thinking, the thought behind everything in
the parades in the theatrical offerings is astonishing, and he
(10:47):
oversees thousands of people who oversee in turn, thousands of
props and costumes. It is remarkable to see that stuff
behind the scenes.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Did you get a sense of this scope of the
imagineering operation in southern California?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
When we had our tour, We saw all the aspects
of imagineering from the highest highest tech. We saw how
they developed the Spider Man show that's on the Avengers campus,
with the robot that flies through the air, to the
sculpture room where they create models. They create sculptures from
(11:26):
this sketching two D sketches and people sitting around thinking
to these new BDX robots. We saw the whole scope
of this and it is again something I think that
is unique to Disney. And they work with NASA, they
work with all these high tech companies. It's incredible the
(11:46):
scale of what goes on on that imagineering campus in Glendale.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
So I sat down with Bruce Vaughn, who's the president
and chief creative officer of Walt Disney Imagineering, and to
just jump off what Carol said, like, we really got
an insight into their thinking and it's very much in
tune with Walt Disney, you know, just in touch with
still the inner child. And I think when it comes
(12:11):
to executing everything, I've focused on how the imagineers work
in the park, and it's everything from like they want
you to feel like you're inside the movie when you
go into Galaxy's Edge, but also if you notice like
the ground on Main Street or change when you go
into Frontier Land, or like Adventure Land or Tomorrow Land,
and it's like those tiny little details that you never
(12:33):
really pay attention to, even the smell like they talk
about the water smell, or you know that you have
on Pirates of the Caribbean. And it's a small world
which is so unique to Disneyland. And the newest thing
that's going to open is the Animatronics show with Walt Disney,
so it's replacing the Abraham Lincoln one. Bruce said, it's
(12:54):
that by far, the most advanced animatronic they've ever done.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
I know somewhere Walt is smiling because he famously said
Disneyland will never be finished, it will always be a
work in progress. And there's just no question that you
can just you see the investment well to button up
this great package once again, Jazz. You collected stories and
anecdotes from people on the Variety staff about what going
(13:18):
to Disneyland has meant to them.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Well, I mean, it's just the love for Disneyland and
what it means. Like Janelle Riley's story about going while
toad Ride is so brilliant. I also learned that Mike
Schneider's wife lost a diamond off her ring and I'm
so invested in this. I actually wanted to do a
story on the like odd items lost at Disneyland, but
I never had time to do that.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
I asked a park person once and they said that
every year they dredge the rivers of America where the
Mark Twain steamboat goes, and nowadays the single most thing
that's in there cell phones. I could talk about Disneyland
for another hour. Thank you for a great package that
really gets to the heart, gets to the heart and
the heart of Disneyland. Thank you, Cynthia, thank you, thank
(14:06):
you for having us. As we close out today's episode,
here are a few things we're watching for. Comic Con
in San Diego kicks off next Thursday. Variety will have
a large contingent down there and we'll be hosting a
photo and video studio. Next week, We'll also be covering
the Bogata Audio Visual Market in Columbia, and also next week,
(14:29):
Variety will unveil its Music Mogul of the Year honoree.
Daily Variety will be back in your feet on Monday.
On Friday, please take a listen to Variety's Strictly Business
podcast to my interview with Alex Morgan from Variety Sports
and Entertainment Breakfast. Before we go, I want to thank
all the listeners who have sent me feedback on this
inaugural week for Daily Variety. I've had some questions about
(14:52):
my sign off tagline and what it means. The phrase
I'm saying is styx nick's hick picks. This is nod
to Variety's history of running really really irreverent and slangy headlines.
Styx s t i c ks is a slang term
for rural areas, nix nix means to reject, hick h
(15:17):
i c k is a slang term for a rural resident,
and picks p i x is variety slanguage for movies.
Fun fact, the Styx nix hick picks headline ran ninety
years ago today. It was the banner headline on our
July seventeenth, nineteen thirty five edition. It was the lead
(15:40):
story that explained why a series of big movies set
in heartland areas had flopped with moviegoers in those exact areas. Basically,
the story boils down to, don't pander to what you
think the audience wants. Just make good movies and they'll travel.
It's a lesson Hollywood is still grappling with. Thanks for listening.
(16:00):
This episode was written and reported by me Cynthia Littleton,
with contributions from Jazz Tank and Carol Horst. It was
edited by Aaron Greenwall Sticks Nick pick Picks. Please leave
us a review at the podcast platform of your choice,
and please tune in Monday for another episode of Daily Variety.
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