August 17, 2012

Location: Carsland, Disney California Adventure

Ah, 1401! How we have loved you here on Fun Find Friday. In the past we have found you in Star Tours, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, The Seas with Nemo and Friends, and Carousel of Progress. Today we are going to head over to the West coast where 1401 makes its triumph return!

Let's take a quick look back at the meaning behind 1401. Imagineers, loving to make their mark on the parks, leave behind different letters, numbers, and symbols to give nod to themselves. Sometimes the symbols are references to their kids favorite film while letters may be the initials of the Imagineers or their loved ones. 1401 is the universal Imagineer number however. You see, Imagineering headquarters is found at 1401 Flower Street so to give a nod to the masters of the theme parks, they hide 1401 around the parks.

Now it's time to head to Carsland. Keeping with the theme of the film, all the buildings and businesses are owned by the different characters of the film. Due to the fact that these buildings are legit businesses according to the story each of the individual stores has a certificate of registration license found somewhere within. If you head over to Luigi's Casa Della Tires you can find his hanging up in the office. While taking a look at it you will notice that the License Number is WED-1952-1401. 1401 isn't the only important part of the license number however.

WED stands for Walter Elias Disney, but more importantly when Walt began to plan for Disneyland he created WED Enterprises, which would eventually change into Disney Imagineering. So the WED here is a nod to the original name of the Imagineers. 1952 was the year that Walt actually created WED Enterprises, and as stated above 1401 is the address for Imagineering!

So why does Luigi get the honor of having the Imagineer nod instead of all the other businesses found in Carsland? While it doesn't say for a fact, the most obvious answer would be due to the fact that the new attraction that Luigi hosts is actually based off an old attraction, the Flying Saucers! As a nod to the former attraction, Luigi gets to be home of the famed 1401!