When the library doors opened, a bellhop cast member issued them into the library. While Florida's libraries retained the carpet-bordered-by-wood flooring setup that DCA used in its earlier years, cast members did not instruct guests to stand on the carpet or any other specific area of the room. Furthermore, while DCA seemed to carefully count the guests for the room capacity, Florida seemingly packed in as many people into each room as possible. I spent several pre-show viewings rather uncomfortably wedged against the writing desk or a bookcase.
As at DCA, however, the sounds of the lobby loop faded away to the sounds of a raging storm outside the special-effects "windows". Notably, given the setup of Florida's lobby, with the fake window behind the "queen" statue, the window inside the left side library was not an architectural discontinuity.
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| The library layouts, copied from my DCA walkthrough |
Although the general setup of the libraries were mirrors of each other, with the same setup as DCA's pre-show rooms, the libraries had more notable differences from each other than California's. While California's Tower had the same desk and lamp setup in each library, Florida's libraries had unique desks, lamps, decorations, and possibly even carpets.
The Queen's Library desk had a single lamp. An open book sat on the desk, with illustrations about plants. Next to the book was a notepad, stopwatch, and magnifying glass, with notes about botany on the notepad.
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| The Queen's Library desk, June 28, 2017 |
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| Notepad with stopwatch on top, July 3, 2017 |
The notepad was partially readable. A stopwatch obscured the top part, but the readable part of the note said:
" [text unreadable]plants unknown in this area.
Most varieties should eventually naturalize with proper soil amendments and irrigation."
Since this stopwatch wasn't broken, I don't quite think it counts as a Twilight Zone Easter egg.
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| A closer look at the botany book and letters on the desk, July 3, 2017 |
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| Overall view of the Queen's Library, July 2, 2017 |
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| Queen's library table and chairs, June 28, 2017 |
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| A view of the carpet and wood floor border by the desk and television cabinet, July 2, 2017 |
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| A look at the carpet in the Queen's Library, June 28, 2017. |
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| A book with pictures of birds at the back of the Queen's library, near the exit door. July 2, 2017 |
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| A light fixture near the exit door, July 2, 2017 |
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| Landscape painting on the disguised sliding exit door, under show conditions, July 2, 2017 |
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| The exit door painting, with photo flash, revealing some rather bizarre color choices, July 2, 2017 |
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| Looking back at the entrance to the King's library, with bellhop cast member. July 3, 2017 |
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| Overall look at the front of the King's library, featuring the writing desk, TV cabinet, and a lamp. July 3, 2017 |
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| View of the upper part of the King's library, showing the ceiling and antiques. You can also spot the "mystic seer" Eeaster egg near the center of this photo, among the antiques. July 2, 2017 |
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| Detail of the desk. Note how even the desk itself is different from the one in the Queen's library. June 28, 2017 |
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| A clearer look at the HTH logo lamp in the King's library. The Queen's library also had a lamp like this, in the equivalent spot next to the television cabinet. June 28, 2017 |
As you can see, the libraries were filled with tall bookcases, covered in dusty antiques. The level of detail was downright overwhelming--especially if one was looking for the Twilight Zone artifacts hidden in these rooms.
While later Towers made their references relatively overt to those who knew where to look, Florida Tower's approach to The Twilight Zone was surprisingly subtle. The artifacts hidden in the libraries were incredibly well hidden, and I failed to spot many of them in person despite purposefully looking and having online guides to help me out.
One of the few I managed to spot in person was the trumpet in the Queen's library, located on a lower shelf next to the HTH logo lamp.
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| June 28, 2017 |
Based on information from TowerSecrets.com, the King's Library had a letter labeled "Rod Serling" while the Queen's had a letter marked "Victoria West", both from the episode "A World of His Own". These letters were extremely well hidden compared to their DCA counterparts. They were tucked into the locked shelves, hidden among the closed-off artifacts. According to TowerSecrets, the Serling letter was locked away to the left of the television. Unfortunately, that site did not provide a location for the West letter.
The miniature spacemen from "The Invaders" were also on the top shelves of the libraries, and easy to spot. Unfortunately and ironically, I did not get any clear photos of them.
As for the other known Twilight Zone references that appeared in the DCA libraries--the broken glasses, the "To Serve Man" cookbook, and the Twilight Zone scripts--I sadly can neither confirm nor deny that they also appeared in the Florida version. I've read some claims that the broken glasses were in Florida's lobby, but I personally didn't spot them either in person nor while reviewing photographs. As for the cookbook and scripts, sadly my limited ability to explore the library left me unable to find or photograph them.
The presentation of the pre-show itself also differed significantly from the Californian Tower... although at least one these differences in presentation may have been recent for 2017.
The most striking difference in presentation was that the lights remained ON during the pre-show. When the lightning strike turned on the television, the lights briefly went out, only to return to normal levels within seconds. This suggested that, while the strike caused a power outage in the DCA/Paris version, it merely created a surge in Florida.
While the lights being on made photography of the libraries much easier, I can't help but personally feel this change detracted from the story presentation. DCA's power outage made the pre-show much more obviously supernatural; after all, if the power is completely out, how did the TV stay on? DCA's power outage marked a clear line where the hotel went from merely abandoned to overtly supernatural, while Florida limited the supernatural to the video itself rather than the entire room.
This striking change may also have been extremely recent to my 2017 visit. Older live recordings of the library seem to show the lights going out completely like at DCA, while videos from circa mid-2017 show the lights-on presentation I just described. I have no idea why Disney would suddenly change this show element.
You can view a live recording of the 2017 "power surge" presentation in this video (starts at 0:52 if the video does not automatically begin there):
Meanwhile, this live recording from 2011 shows the lights remaining out during the pre-show (starts at around 2:39 if video does not automatically begin there):
Here is a source copy of Florida's video:
The video opened with the titles from seasons 4 and 5 of the original Twilight Zone series. This means that the "lost episode" the Tower represented was from either season 4 or 5, which aired in 1963.
The following is a rough transcript of the pre-show audio, just in case those videos don't work or readers would rather read through. I'll put the text in blue to make it easy to scroll past those who don't want to bother reading the transcript after watching a video, although I did include some notes here about how the video synced up with the actual library environment.
Rod Serling: You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension. A dimension of sound,
[Window shatters loudly]
a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into... The Twilight Zone.
[Dramatic Music]
[Lightning Crashes]
Hollywood--1939.
Amid the glitz and the glitter of a bustling young movie town at the height of its golden age, the Hollywood Tower Hotel was a star in its own right-- a beacon for the show-business elite.
Amid the glitz and the glitter of a bustling young movie town at the height of its golden age, the Hollywood Tower Hotel was a star in its own right-- a beacon for the show-business elite.
Now, something is about to happen that will change all that.
[Lightning crashes, striking the Tower and sending the elevators plummeting]
[Lightning crashes again, this time synchronized with the special effects window in the library. Note that every lightning from this point onward in the video was synchronized with the "real" window]
The time is NOW, on an evening very much like the one we have just witnessed.
Tonight's story on The Twilight Zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. This, as you may recognize, is a maintenance service elevator, still in operation, waiting for you. We invite you if you dare to step aboard, because in tonight's episode you are the star, and this elevator travels directly to...
[Audio now comes out of speakers hidden throughout the room, rather than from the television]
The Twilight Zone.
[Lightning crash, dramatic music, TV cuts out]
Thus, guests learned the plot of the ride, and got an explanation for those crashed elevators in the lobby.
Of course, the Rod Serling footage was from "It's a Good Life", with the narration dubbed by Mark Silverman.
As you may have noticed, the Floridian pre-show video featured a major error. While DCA's video accidentally showed Paris' exterior (which wouldn't be apparent to the untrained eye), Florida's managed to show an entirely incorrect building exterior. The Tower is the wrong shape (being more square, with three rows of windows on the side instead of the actual two), the sign is in a different place (being almost on the roof rather than across the building front), and there is an additional triangular-roofed structure in front of the Tower absent on the actual building. I can't help but wonder how such glaring errors occurred... was the pre-show video somehow made before the building design was finalized? Would it have been that difficult to replace the exterior shots with accurate ones?
Another notable difference from DCA's presentation was that the Florida video's final lightning crash was very loud and reverberated throughout the library, approximately simultaneous with the exit door sliding open. I've heard that California's pre-show initially ended this way as well, but personally cannot recall the change or when it occurred. Perhaps (and note that this is pure speculation) DCA phased out the extra-loud crash when it switched from carpet to solid wood floors; the carpet may have included some sort of system to have guests better feel the reverberating thunder. That said, the thunder was quite intense in Florida even if you were one of the many guests who couldn't fit onto it during a packed pre-show, so this could be grasping at straws.
Once the pre-show concluded, guests filed out of the libraries and into the boiler room.
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