HA!
Casey Jr. Animal Car c.June 1965


Nobody puts people down better or more friendly than Disneyland!

Happy Monday!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, THEME PARK FANS!

SAY, "AHOY!" TO THE BLACK PEARL AND FLYING DUTCHMAN!

Ah, yes. Those quality-striving folks in Disneyland management are at it again and there's talk of 're-theming' Tom Saywer's Island.

Since most kids today haven't ever picked up a book, Disneyland has decided to follow instead of lead.

Well, being a fan of Walt Disney's theory of consistent theming, I think they should re-christen the Rivers of America...er, make that Waters of Tortuga vessels with new monickers...


I mean, fer cryin' out loud, what blockbuster film franchise can a kid relate the first American trans-global schooner or a Mississippi river boat too? There needs to be a change....


So, let's get crackin! Get out your crowbars and bronze colored paint cans and get to work swabbies! We wouldn't want to send a mixed signal to our increasingly illiterate and historically ignorant, consumer youth now, would we?

Walt wouldn't have it any other way............I think.

WE WANT MORE STUFFED PEOPLE!

Ya know, thinking about the lack of monkey at Disneyland the other day, I began to think about some of the other old-tymee goodness that has been cleansed from the theme park experience....

STUFFED PEOPLE!

Just Imagine the sawdust these three would kick up!

Both Knott's Berry Farm and Disneyland featured stuffed people throughout the park. Remember the Burning Settler's Cabin arrow victim or the Main Street squatters?

A rare snap-shot from the quickly removed, Disneyland Main Street
Bates Motel Attraction.

Be afraid little girl, be very afraid....

Why Disneyland and Knotts competed in this rather strange fringe of the display arts, I don't know. Must be an Orange County thing.

And we're not talkin' animatronics...No, sir!

We're talkin' stuffed skins over bamboo and balsa wood armatures!

This was quality entertainment folks!

Would you park your naive stuffed men with these two shifty lookin' kids?

What I do know, is that you and I (and our $60+ clams to get into the parks) are not worthy of this rare and lost art form.

Now that these residents of the parks and the Movieland Wax Museum are gone, the closest thing we have to stuffed people are the middle management in most of our corporate entertainment companies...

MAIN STREET MONKEYSHINES!


I know it's not the most fascinating pic in the world, but if you remember a month or so ago, I begged for monkey. Well, looking for some stuff to post tonite, I found this Main Street castmember from 1957.

I like how everyone has their paws out in a gesture of friendship. If only we could all reach out with our monkey paws, the world would be a better place...

I haven't been to Disneyland in a while, but the last time I was there, I had no monkey. Please bring back monkey...please?

MORE MONORAIL MADNESS!

Well, to add to everyone's Monorail posts, here's some more shots.

Is it possible to take a poor snap shot of the monorail I ask?

Bob Gurr...ya gotta hand it to the guy!

The Monorail alone should get him a first class ticket into Heaven, Nirvana, Shangra-La or a fairly good delicatessen in the sky!

Thanks, Bob!!

We are now passing General Dynamic's, Submarine Voyage!

Greetings, Space Mom!

Please have your hand stamped before you leave the platform!

A gift from Disneyland on Sunday...

IT'S 'FURRY-FREE FRIDAY' AT THE PICKLE BARREL!

Disneyland has always been full of posers. Yup! People who want their picture taken...on both sides of the costume!

There's no question the walk-around characters at the Disney parks are what set them apart from everything that came before them...and even the one's that have tried since then.

Walt wanted Disneyland to be a tactile experience. For a little tyke , actually touching and interacting with their fantasy friends is a powerful experience.

"I got ya poison apple...right here!"

It takes a special breed to take on the role of fantasy character...

In the days since their inception, that breed has expanded for better or for worse....

The wonderful thing about Tiggers, is they always take the Fifth!

"No bouncing 'til I speak to my attorney!"

But on the whole, the walk arounds are cool no matter how you look at them...

It's amazing how a polyester and rubber suit can break down walls...

...and get us closer to the things we love! yipes!

"Ahoy, Matey!"

I just hope the furry thing doesn't creep into the parks too much....

"Ok, Louie, you distract'em, I'll go for the cash..."

God knows we don't need Mickey Mouse molested by sauced-up soccer moms...

Anyhow, thought this would make a nice post today....Being Furry Free Friday and all...

Say "Bye, Bye, Mickey!"

"Bye, Bye!"

The Original Walt Disney World,
MICKEY MOUSE REVUE!

Back in the early 1960s, Walt had several plans for his budding Audio Animatronics technology. We've all heard of the earliest concepts such as Lincoln and the Tiki Room.


Depending on how learned a nerd you are, you may have even heard of such concepts as the primal Dancing Man/Disneylandia show, the early pre-Ford pavilion-Disneyland dinosaur exhibit or the Main Street/Chinatown Confucius character.


True, all of these were conceptual thoughts that pre-date the Tiki Room, but another early concept that eventually came to be was The Mickey Mouse Revue!

Upon the first successful tests at WED, Walt immediately thought the Audio Animatronics technology would be a perfect progression in the evolution of bringing his film cartoons to life.

His concept was to reinvent the age-old presentation of a character puppet show. In keeping with the joyful thoughts of his little wooden head, these puppets would have no strings! The show itself, a musical gag production using songs from his greatest films. Of course, the emcee would be none other than....well, Mickey Mouse!


As we've heard before, there just wasn't enough time for all of Walt's ideas to be realized in his lifetime. However, when the new park was being prepped in the late 1960s, Walt's 'super-puppet show' would be resurrected and given a fitting home.

The show had many neat sequences , featuring Disney stock characters from the films: Alice in Wonderland, The Three Caballeros, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Jungle Book, Winnie the Pooh, Cinderella, and even some TV and short film characters such as Ludwig Von Drake and Clarabelle Cow. Yep, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, his wench, his rotten nephews, Goofy and the Three Humaniod Pigs were in on the act as well...



Unfortunately, if you never visited WDW in the 1970s or very early 80s, you wouldn't have seen it. The low attendance attraction was pawned off on the Japanese when they bought Tokyo Disneyland in the late 1970s. The Revue was dismantled rather than recreated and was ready for the April 1983 opening in Japan.


Oddly enough, if these rare interior shots pique your interest enough, you can still see this great show today. Tokyo Disneyland is still very much intact from it's 1983 opening...and the Mickey Mouse Revue just happens to be one of the survivors! The show is virtually the same as the 1971 show...except re-recorded in Japanese!


It seems like a no-brainer, but three dimensional recreations of the Disney CARTOON characters could really breathe some life into the parks again. America Sings, Country Bears and later, Splash Mountain all used AA technology to bring cartoons to life as opposed to the simple servo motor animation in the dark rides.

Hopefully with Pixar in the mix, the AA tech will once again bring the classic characters back to America with new shows in the spirit of Walt's, Mickey Mouse Revue!

A SIGHT FOR SORE EYES!


Anyone out there tired of castle shots? Nah, I didn't think so!

Ain't she purty?

DISNEYLAND'S DOUBLE DUTCH BUS!

Here's a couple of shots of Bob Gurr's, Main Street OMNIBUS!

Made from scratch, this old-timey fantasy vehicle still runs (believe it or not) at Disneyland today. It started operation in 1956 and is still going strong!

Here's a 1958 shot...

Goin' my way, ladies?

...and a snapshot from the upper deck of all the activity of Main Street in the summer of 1959!


...and a close-up of some sweet signage for the Disneyland '59 celebration!


Ah, the good ol' days!

LET'S ENJOY THE ICY SLOPES OF THE MAJESTIC, MATTERHORN!

Been away from the blog for a few days...in the absence of ideas, I'll add to Major's Matterhorn post...


Here's some sweet angles on the freshly opened, Matterhorn Mountain from July 1959. At least that's the date on these slides. So, I'd say these were taken within a week or two of the Matterhorn's opening. A couple of the shots give you a glimpse of the hollow interior section where the Skyway went through.


The Matterhorn is one of my favorite attractions at Disneyland in that it's so "Walt".

It came about from his trips to Switzerland for the filming of the "Third Man On The Mountain" feature film. I like the fact that the Matterhorn was created simply because Walt looked up from his morning coffee and pastries, saw the actual Matterhorn and said, "I want one o' those!"

No focus group tests, no board of creative executives, no one to tell him "I don't think so, buster".

The Disneyland Matterhorn exists solely for the indulgence of one man.


In the process, he added great atmosphere to his park, reinvented the rollercoaster industry and proved once again, anything is possible..


Within a year of that coffee and pastry indulgence, the majestic Matterhorn rose over Anaheim, California-

Altitude: 160ft above sea level! YES!!!!

THE TEA CUPS, 1965! Our Favorite Spin 'N Spray!

People like to ride the edge of puking...they always have...



The sick part about this ride is that the laughter you see on everyone's face, is in the hopes that the faster you spin, the better the chances are of making your cup-mate puke!



Only in Disneyland could this violence have such a charming setting!