Everyone knows that Chinese Theatre at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is a replica of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, which opened in 1927 in Hollywood, California. Disney stayed faithful to the original — right down to the four towering obelisks, or spires, flanking the gateway. In every respect, the theatre in Florida is more than just a flimsy facade. It’s as permanent as its 99-year-old predecessor.

Except in one case of baffling theme park sorcery: The obelisk on the right side of the gate — Spire Number 3 — was once fully retractable, as if it were a secret alien radio antenna.

We can hear the scoffers now. After all, we have been known to not take things too seriously. But if there’s one thing Parkeology loves more than unhinged humor, it’s an obscure theme park mystery. Something well off the beaten path.

The thrill is in the journey of discovery. As noted archeologist Henry Jones, Sr. once said: at the end of the path lies Illumination. And that’s exactly what we will find here.

I mean, not the actual IllumiNations fireworks show. That’s ridiculous. But it is fireworks related…

Oh, just read on.

The Retractable Obelisk Sounds Like an Urban Legend

In the days before the Internet, an incredible rumor persisted among Disney fans. It had to do with retractable spires, but not at the Chinese Theatre. No, this rumor involved Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom.

Florida is known for its hurricanes. Some have winds so devastating that they have caused the 24/7 Disney theme park operation to close up shop on rare occasions. So what happens to a massive fairy tale castle made largely of fiberglass and pixie dust when these freak storms hit?

Why, they simply lower the entire castle into the ground, of course. Or they deflate it, like the bouncy castle at your kid’s birthday party. Or they disassemble it, like an artificial Christmas tree.

Apparently, people are still falling for this, despite the fact that Snopes is a thing. You can see how a little bit of insider info makes this sound believable. There is another legend about how Magic Kingdom actually has an entire underground tunnel system beneath it. Sounds like the perfect storage shed for an 18-story castle, right?

But of course, Cinderella Castle never lowers into the ground for hurricanes. The truth? They only lower it to commemorate the passing of Disney Legends. Even then, it is only to half mast.

So why in the world would anyone believe that parts of the Chinese Theatre retract for some reason?

For us, it all started with a vintage Disney postcard.

This is from the early days of Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It was still called the Disney-MGM Studios in those days. And every night, there was a fireworks spectacular called Sorcery in the Sky. Guests would gather on Hollywood Boulevard to watch the show, with the Chinese Theatre as the centerpiece.

The highlight of the show was a giant inflatable Sorcerer Mickey Mouse. He would rise up from the roof of the Chinese Theatre, off to the right of the massive pagoda entrance to the Great Movie Ride. Now that’s a bouncy house we wouldn’t mind renting for our birthday party.

Mickey was big, he was rubbery, and he spit flames from his fingertips. Guests wanted an unobstructed view of this guy. There was just one problem.

Spire Number 3 sat directly in front of the mouse-balloon.

But as the photo above clearly shows, Spire 3 has vanished. It’s history. It has been erased from existence!

There’s only one logical explanation. Disney retracted that sucker into the shell of the building like a frightened turtle.

Or… it’s just a publicity photo with no basis in reality. Some Disney marketing person could just as easily have airbrushed the spire out to sell more postcards.

Did Sorcery in the Sky Really Retract the Spire?

Here’s the thing. Sorcery in the Sky is a long-gone fireworks show. It comes from a time when everyday tourist cameras weren’t the greatest under low-light conditions. And not everybody is taking pictures from the correct angle to show the obelisks. Oh, and most of the cameras are focusing on the sky, where the fireworks are.

It gets worse. When you really start looking, you will find hundreds of images and videos of the Sorcerer Mickey bouncy castle buffeting in the wind, with Spire 3 clearly visible right in front of him. The stupid thing has not retracted one little bit!

We can employ some mental gymnastics to explain this. Maybe the retracting mechanism broke often. Maybe they simply stopped doing this in later years of the show. It all starts to sounds like the JFK Magic Bullet theory after awhile.

But hold on. That postcard is not our only evidence. Below is a picture of fireworks at Disney-MGM Studios from the 25th Anniversary of Walt Disney World in 1996. It is sans Balloon Mickey. The picture is likely from an earlier point during Sorcery in the Sky, and Mickey didn’t come out until the end. But it has a clear shot of the Chinese Theatre.

Note that Spire Number 3 is missing.

Admittedly, this could be another doctored Disney publicity photo. Those fireworks behind the theater look a little too perfect. But if that’s the case, why not remove Spire Number 2 as well? What is the point in throwing the Chinese Theatre out of balance?

Which leads us to the next most plausible theory.

Maybe the Obelisks Were Removed for Maintenance

What if told you that it is really not that difficult to find a time when all four of those obelisks were retracted? Okay, not really retracted. Just completely obliterated from the face of the Great Movie Ride like a bunch of useless bronze trash.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Sorcerer’s Hat.

Disney added this structure to the Disney-MGM Studios in 2001 as the new icon of the park. And if we’re being honest, it’s an even better sorting hat than that one up the road at Universal. The Sorcerer’s Hat is the true barometer of which type of Disney fan you are. If you were a very young child when the Sorcerer’s Hat was built, chances are you have fond memories of it and wish for its return.

And for others (maybe us), it’s an abomination that foretold the End Times.

Imagine the irony — the utter hypocrisy! — of Disney worrying about theme park sight lines while installing this monstrous blight. We rejoiced at its removal, because it once again revealed the beautiful fake theater behind it.

But Disney saw things differently. They didn’t want anything detracting from their precious 122-foot tall Ode to Ears. The Mickey’s Sorcerers’ Hat had no other purpose than to be photographed at the end of Hollywood Boulevard. It fully blocked the Chinese Theatre pagoda behind it. But those four prominent obelisks on the sides? The ones that made Mickey look like he had acquired a set of heavy-metal ear spikes?

Yeah, they had to go.

For more than a decade, the obelisks disappeared. Not retracted, not hidden. Removed! And the worst part is, nobody noticed. Why would they? The only view remaining of the Chinese Theatre was from the side or right up close to it. The spires were useless decorations at that point.

Then, in 2014, Disney did two incredible things.

First, they took the Sorcerer’s Hat down.

Then, in a move probably even more improbable than the first, they put the spires back.

If you go to Disney’s Hollywood Studios today, you’ll see all four obelisks neatly arranged across the top of the Chinese Theatre as if they had never left.

The Retractable Verdict

Is this what we’re left with? A few rare publicity photos and grainy images, some with the obelisk in place, some without?

So far, it’s all just theories: Airbrushed photos, broken motors, some hapless maintenance worker unbolting it from the roof and taking it Backstage for some touch-up work. We can’t really know for sure that Spire 3 mechanically lowered into a pit like a secret missile silo.

Or can we?

Parkeology can sometimes be a grind. You can dig and dig and strike nothing but rock. But every so often, a vein of gold opens up. And those are the moments that make it fun.

Remember those old tourist cameras? They were low resolution by today’s standards. They were always pointed at the thing they should be pointed at (like the fireworks), rather than what a Parkeologist actually wants to see.

Sometimes they don’t even know they captured something incredible.

I will simply point you to a video by RobFuz. He runs a fantastic theme park nostalgia channel on YouTube. He had the foresight to record Sorcery in the Sky way back during Walt Disney World’s 20th Annivesary (around 1991). The Disney-MGM Studios had only been open a couple years at this point.

We mentioned the JFK Magic Bullet theory earlier. But how’s this for a theme park Zapruder film.

The video’s focus is the fireworks show. It has all challenges of trying to film with early 1990s technology. But it got lucky in three respects.

First, the Florida sky is still clinging to twilight when the show starts. Probably this was filmed during the summer, when the sky doesn’t reach full dark until after 9pm. As the video progresses, the sky is slowly changing into night. This early shot affords us a clear silhouette of all four obelisks on the top of the Chinese Theatre.

Secondly, wow did we get lucky with where the cameraman is standing. If he shifted another foot or so to his left, our view of Spire 3 would be blocked by a light pole. As it stands, he is threading the needle perfectly.

Thirdly, he zoomed out at exactly the right time. Early in the show, the camera zooms into the sky to focus on the starbursts of fireworks. At the 1:07 mark, he zooms out to his original setting and we can once again see all four obelisks on the theatre roof. The framing is higher than before, still watching the fireworks. But there’s Spire 3 right next to the light pole in the frame. If we hadn’t seen it before, we might think it is just a shadowy part of the foreground trees.

And then, over the next 40 seconds, without any fanfare or attention, the silhouette of Spire begins to descend. The camera jitters, trying to cover the blazing explosions of red and yellow bursting behind the pagoda. It flirts with losing the spire — and why would the spire hold any attention to anyone? The retraction is slow and steady. At first you are not even sure that it is lowering.

By 1:45, it has fully retracted — or at the very least, it is now so low it has merged into the shadow of the backdrop.

Finally — a full six minutes later — Sorcerer Mickey begins to inflate. Unfortunately for the cameraman, he’s at a bad angle to get a good glimpse. Mickey is mostly behind the trees. That doesn’t stop the camera from trying to zoom in. As the climax of the show, Mickey is illuminated brightly. We can see through the branches. The blocky, geometric shadow of Spire 3 is not present.

As a bonus, at the very end of the video, the camera switches to a better angle for a clear shot of Sorcerer Mickey. The fireworks show is over at this point. Mickey remains as a lingering reminder, almost as if waving goodbye to the exiting guests.

We can plainly see the square top of the pillar where Spire 3 should be. And the obelisk itself has disappeared.

At last the mystery is solved. We have traveled from the early days of the Disney-MGM Studios, through the darkness of the Sorcerer’s Hat era, all the way to the full restoration of the Chinese Theatre spires.

Now they gleam proudly from above the entrance to Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. And only one question remains…

Do you think any of them are still retractable today?