The Adventurers Club was a themed nightclub in Pleasure Island at the Walt Disney World Resort. It was styled after a private club for world travelers and explorers and was set in 1937. The walls of the club were covered with artifacts and photographs from various explorations. The Adventurers' Club featured animatronics, puppets, and a cast of adventurers who performed in shows and improvisational comedy while mingling with the club's patrons. Shows and conversation were often laced with innuendo, and the patrons might have been welcomed as guests, given fictitious names and "recognized" as fellow adventurers, or simply referred to as "drunks".
History The Adventurers' Club opened with the rest of Pleasure Island on May 1, 1989, as part of a fictional legend about the island's previous owner, Merriweather Adam Pleasure, and back-story describing each of the buildings' former uses. Disney's Imagineers, led by head writer, show producer, and show director Roger Cox, and designer Joe Rohde (who later designed Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park), conceived and created the club.
The Adventurers' Club's unlikely hero, Emil Bleehall, is based on a semi-autobiographical character Cox created. He is a little guy from Ohio who gains respect and admiration with his awkward but uniquely crowd-pleasing talents. Cox felt it paralleled his own story at Disney. A docudramatic version of Cox’s journey at Disney by Sandra Tsing Loh, called, "It Happened in Glendale", from her book Depth Takes a Holiday, was performed on an episode of the radio show This American Life titled "Something for Nothing."
Until December 31, 2005, every night in Pleasure Island was celebrated as New Year's Eve. The club's show schedule was set to create a break near midnight to allow people to go outside to see the fireworks and to accommodate the noisy explosions that resulted. One of the launch points for the nightly fireworks was the Adventurers' Club's rooftop.
On June 27, 2008 Disney announced the Adventurers' Club (along with all other clubs on Pleasure Island) would be closing permanently on September 27, 2008. An online petition to save the club was created at SaveTheAdventurers'Club.info by members of the Disney fan community in hopes that Disney would consider moving the club or keeping it open as part of the new Pleasure Island format. Over 2,750 signatures were collected in the first 72 hours. There were also letter-writing campaigns to company executives, web sites, and blog postings. In February 2009, Disney announced that Adventurers' Club and the dance clubs Motion and Soundstage would reopen for private party rentals at least through September, 2009.
On September 26, 2009, it was confirmed that props from the Club would be sent to Hong Kong Disneyland. The props were worked into the Mystic Manor attraction, which opened in 2013. A few props which were created by cast members for use in the shows have been sold at auction by the performers who owned them. There are rumors that several "artifacts" from the former Club made their way to Trader Sam's in the Disneyland Hotel. The face of Babylonia was relocated to Jock Lindsay’s Hangar Bar in the Disney Springs shopping mall in Florida. Some items have been internally offered for sale to cast members.
The last public performance was held September 27, 2008 to overflowing crowds. The last semi-public event held at the Club occurred on September 25, 2009. It was a convention party for The ConGaloosh Society, Inc, a Florida nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of interactive improvisational theatre. The ConGaloosh Society continues to hold events that bring together fans of the Adventurers' Club with cast members in new settings.
The Adventurers'' Club's cast reunited for one last performance and "membership renewal" at the Disney D23 Destination D event on November 23, 2014.
The Adventurers' Club cast reunited again for the Countdown to Midnight event at Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Resort on December 31, 2015, inducting new members for the first time in seven years.
On April 29, 2019, some of the Cast of the Adventurers' Club reunited to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Pleasure Island, and new members were inducted into the Club at a special event on the beach at Disney's Beach Club Resort.Adventurers Club Cast Reunion April, 2019 - YouTube
Inspiration The Adventurers' Club was designed and created by Walt Disney Imagineering in the late 1980s. Walt Disney Imagineering is the design and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation and construction of Disney theme parks worldwide. Chris Carradine, the Vice President of Walt Disney Imagineering, played a significant role in the creation of the club.
The origins of the club were recently described by Craig McNair Wilson, who worked with the dramatic team for the club. According to Wilson, "it came out of our collective, shared love of the world of the pith helmet and all that circled around it. It was the place we always wanted to go, but it didn't exist."
Wilson said the idea originated from a Sunday afternoon theme party, given by Disney employee Joe Rohde. The theme of the party was "The Last Days of the Raj." Every year for years, the employees would dress up in theme costume to recreate the days of British colonialism.
According to Wilson, the Los Angeles show Tamara was also a "major influence on the team." Tamara was a live theatrical, multiroom play, which allowed 150 audience members to follow ten actors through an Italian Villa set in the late 1930s. It took place in an old Elks hall in Los Angeles. Carradine saw the show "three or four times together and a few times more with others."
According to Wilson, there was also "more than a pinch of Rick’s Cafe," from the film Casablanca.
There are several organizations that may have served as inspiration for the attraction. The Explorers Club was founded in New York in 1904. There is also an actual "Adventurers'' Club" which had chapters in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Honolulu. The Adventurers'' Club of Los Angeles, which was incorporated in 1922, has been in continuous operation since its founding.
Additionally, another organization, called the Ends of the Earth Club, was created in 1903. Its members included Mark Twain,"Ends of the Earthers Foregather Here Again: And Astonish Mark Twain with Some Very Brief Reports," New York Times, Feb. 17, 1906, at 9. General John Pershing, Admiral Robert Peary,"Gathered From the Ends of the Earth to Dine," The New York Times, March 31, 1904, at 5. Gutzon Borglum (the sculptor of Mount Rushmore) and more than 100 other prominent businessmen and academics located, primarily, in the northeastern United States. However, there is no evidence that the Disney team was aware of the existence of any of these clubs.
The physical layout of the club was designed by Carradine, who is an architect by training. The building was made intentionally large, so that the club could be expanded with additional exhibits.
Characters
Resident adventurers Hathaway Browne – Aviator, and the club's resident innuendo-making ladies' man. Otis T. Wren – Club Treasurer and ichthyologist. Fletcher Hodges – Absent-minded Club Curator, he is said to have "mounted every object in the club." Pamelia Perkins – Club President. Paula Pell once portrayed her."Funny Lady" by Chandra Harris-McCray, Our Tennessee, retrieved July 23, 2021 Samantha Sterling – Explorer and cabaret singer. Emil Bleehall – Contender for the Balderdash Cup. Hails from Sandusky, Ohio. The character used to be portrayed as a plaid sport coat-wearing country bumpkin, but is now depicted as a "Junior Adventurer" in a costume that is a pastiche of a Boy Scout uniform. During the final performances, both characters appeared in the show (as Emil Sr. and Emil Jr.). Graves – Club Butler. The Maid – There were many maids who work in the Adventurers' Club and participate in its activities. The only character that changes identity depending on which actor is playing her. Madame Zarkov – A mysterious gypsy who makes rare appearances at the Club. This character usually replaces that of Samantha Sterling for an evening. Both Samantha Sterling and Madame Zarkov appeared in the final performances at the club.
Different actors portrayed the adventurers on different nights, and most actors played more than one part.
The maid is the only character in the club to have a unique identity when played by a different actress (by way of contrast, "Graves" is always known as "Graves" no matter which actor is playing him). Past and present maids include "Anelle", "Yvette", "Sugar Snap", "Beullah Belle", "Ginger Vitus", "Sunny Knight", "Kiki McGee", "Gabby Normal", "Tish Myash", "Dusty Cabinets", "Tallulah Buttertart", "LaRue", "Molly McClean", and more.
Other characters Colonel Critchlow Suchbench – Club Gleemeister. The colonel is a cable-controlled puppet working from behind the scenes. He is usually "on duty" (sitting dormant), but he wakes up to lead the new inductees in the club song, and occasionally to converse with guests in the Main Salon. Babylonia – A giant stone face on the wall in the Main Salon, the goddess of women and all things fertile, who sometimes speaks. The Yakoose – A mounted animal head that occasionally moves and speaks, either to guests or to Babylonia. Arnie and Claude – A pair of talking masks in the Mask Room. Beezle – A genie whose head appears in the Treasure Room. Fingers Zambezi – A haunted organ that provides the music for the Library shows (with animatronic motions that usually have little to do with the music, and timbres that morph from theatre organ to practically any other keyboard instrument, according to the needs of the show). Sutter Bestwick – Another normally unseen character who is supposed to be a competitor for the 1937 Balderdash Cup. He, too, is unable to attend due to Otis' exploits. Sutter is also a past winner of the Balderdash Cup for 1930. His only appearance was on the club's closing weekend. Chilton Thompson – Although mentioned in the Balderdash Cup and the Radio Broadcast, he is never seen. He is supposed to be the sound effects man for the Radio Broadcast. He is also a past competitor for the Balderdash Cup, but, due to Otis Wren's doing, is unable to attend for 1937. Sheila Griffin – An unseen character who is supposed to be playing the role of Greta in New Year's Eve episode of "Tales of the Adventurers' Club", but for some unknown reason, does not show up to the Radio Broadcast Marcel – An anthropoid member of the staff (played by an actor in an ape suit). Appeared during the early days of the club's existence, delivering mail and assisting the maid and club members. In the Hoopla of the club's closing night, he invited the permanent members of the Adventurers' Club to accompany him on a year-long safari. Plaid Monkey – This was a character invented by the performers in later years. He was sometimes joked about, but very rarely made appearances. The character was a quick combination of the Marcel monkey mask and plaid jacket props that were no longer in regular use. Nash – In the early years all bartenders were simply called Nash, no matter who was actually working that job at the time. Club Auctioneer – From time to time, guests were called to play different interactive roles. One more popular was the role of an auctioneer selling the services of the house maid. This guest became an infrequent visitor with around 30 estimated appearances in the late years of operation. Dave the Soundman – The name of the Tech of the day, no matter what the Tech's name actually is.
Rooms