Saturday, November 8, 2008

Trip Report


I was lucky to get to the park on Thursday for a couple of hours. Boy was it a beautiful day! It was overcast in Newport Beach (where I was working) and hot and windy at home, but Disneyland was picture perfect, I swear they order that way! City Hall had the longest line of the morning.








Low crowds in the early part of the day; this is the best way to see the park.






Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the only “attraction” I rode that day, it’s truly becoming one of my favorites.






The Rivers of America sure is peaceful in the early morning hours, hard to believe you’re in Anaheim.






Time to visit my bridge and fence obsessions. Lets's look at the Plaza Gardens Bridge, there have been previous repairs done this year (previous post link) and honestly the repairs make no sense to me.






As you can see, they only replaced some of the floor boards, yet they were all in the same (old & worn) condition. Why just replace some? They did do a nice job “weathering” the boards so they look old.





While maintenance did repair the rotting fence posts they must have missed this! About a two foot section of the lower support beam is completely rotted out! I do hope they will be returning to this soon to fix it. It does appear there is a steel support under the bridge, but come on, this is the kind of thing I expect at Magic Mountain, not Disneyland!







This is the second bridge just north of the Plaza Gardens Bridge. Its looks just as worn as the Plaza Gardens Bridge and I suspect it will get some maintenance soon.






This stuff must require constant maintenance due to the weather.






The third bridge (located just north of the other two) looks fine. It must be fairly new and I gotta say, it’s not nearly as charming as the other two.






Lots of banging and sawing to be heard upstairs in the castle! I also saw a couple of guys come out of the door with blue prints in their hands.






Three fences is doing just fine, although it could use a little assistance from the landscaping department.






What used to be Titan’s Gardens, its now part of Pixie Hollow. I actually like this fountain and gardens much better. I completely avoided the actual “Hollow” area, it was packed!






Boy do they keep that little horseless carriage spotless!






Look what I found backstage, a HUGE Christmas tree!






Now a couple of short videos. First, new Purple/Blue Monorail, dare I say “It glides as softly as a cloud”







Look who I ran into sneaking out of the Pixie Hollow area, aren't they cute!




Friday, November 7, 2008

Disneyland Album - TV Guide January 1955 - Part 1

Its vintage TV Guide time again here on the blog.

From January 1-7, 1955, this TV Guide has part one of a four part series called “Disneyland Album”. Each week in January 1955 TV Guide did a little special on each of the four segments of the ABC show Disneyland. Check back on each Friday of this month for the next three 1955 issues, yes I have them all...

Loretta Young graces the cover. The Bowl Game listing are a blast to look at (you’ll find the complete issue this coming Bonus Sunday).






There’s no way I can post a TV Guide without the “TV Teletype”. First Tomorrowland episode on Disneyland coming March 9th, mark your calendar!






More TV Teletype, “Hollywood” gets the back page (not for long)… Pat Carroll must have had a better publicity shot?






Did I mention each of the four “Special” Disneyland Albums consist of just two pages each? Oh well, the super artwork makes up for it! The dinner scene is my favorite.






The Wednesday night TV listing shows the current “Disneyland” episode. "Part 1 of Treasure Island", what a great movie. Check out the “Best of Broadway” at 9:00pm, it’s one of only two shows in COLOR for the entire week. Nice cast lineup, I bet it was a good show. I’m guessing it was done live since there was no color video tape in 1955. It could have been filmed, but that would have been expensive and they seem to list “film” when that’s the case. As with many of the listings in these early TV Guides, the “Best of Broadway” may gone forever or on some poor quality kineoscope.






The centerfold section is a welcome to 1955 from WBKB ABC Chicago. What’s with the disembodied heads they used in the 50’s? They creep me out.






Fun little Jackie Gleason article, these articles are really just ads huh?





Come back on Bonus Sunday for the entire issue.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

A Trio of Mark Twain Tickets

Today let's take a look at a “Trio of Mark Twain Tickets” (say that fast five times in a row!). The Mark Twain is truly a functioning antique. There is a certain irony in the fact this 105 foot “replica” is getting older than the “old time” steamboat she represented when she was built in 1955.

From opening day individual tickets were sold for the Mark Twain. I don’t know when they stopped selling them. The Mark Twain was on the “D” ticket as early as 1956 (D ticket link) but I am pretty sure they sold these individual tickets thru at least 1957.

There were three colors that I am aware of, but there could be more. These are beautiful tickets, done in the same style as the early Disneyland Railroad tickets (RR ticket link). These realistic tickets must have added something special to the experience, too bad they don’t have a similar ticket today, even if just for a souvenir.

All three colors:








The backs; I could stare at Globe Ticket paper all day long…






From Jed’s blog “Vintage Disneyland Goodies” here is a day-one Mark Twain ticket with the purser’s check still attached - WOW!






And from “Stuff from the Park” here is an ultra rare shot of the Mark Twain ticket booth. I believe this booth was removed after the Columbia came online, but that’s just a guess. I have never seen a “Columbia” specific ticket - that would be insane!!!!





*** Just in - The Mark Twain on the River this morning around 11am.****



Wow, what a beautiful day at the park today!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Walt Disney World - 1972 Special Ticket

Let’s take a close look at a special Magic Kingdom Club ticket for Walt Disney World. Dated 1972, this ticket offered up all kind of fun options. I want to try the Trapper Canoe.






“Alcoholic beverages are not included unless specified” so there! Notice the Globe paper, it’s a little different than the attraction ticket paper. The water mark "Globe" seal is similar, but on this ticket it states “Globe Ticket Company”, on the attraction tickets it states “Globe Ticket Safety”.






Here’s a 1972 “A” ticket from Walt Disney World, you can see the different seal wording and the pattern of the background it wavy, not checkered like the special ticket above.






Gotta have some color! I love the Mickey Ear balloons.





This post was supposed to accompany the 1972 Walt Disney Word Vacationland I posted last Sunday (link), somehow I got my posts mixed up, like that’s never happened before…

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Magic Kingdom Club Coupon - 1959

Here’s a great coupon from 1959. For use by Magic Kingdom Club members, this magical coupon let the holder buy special ticket books. "Magic Key Books" or the extra special “Golden 20 Books".






Neat little spreadsheet to add up the total, what do you think the top section with the blank amounts was for?






Here's a back of one of the “Golden 20” ticket books, for a full post on “20” ticket books, follow this (link).






Since we’re in 1959, here’s the cover to a really fun Vacationland, it’s the Winter 1958-59 issue. Includes articles on; Guided Tours, Wonderland on Wheels, a Disneyland Photo Quiz and More!






Great centerfold with a rare sighting of the Viewliner!





Check back on Bonus Sunday for the entire issue of this Vacationland.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Bonus Sunday

Welcome to Bonus Sunday.

First up is a great Vacationland. This is a Walt Disney World Vacationland (don't run, it’s a good one). This is Issue #2 of Volume #1 dated Winter/Spring 1972. Lots of neat stuff in this issue. As I have done before, these full scans of the WDW Vacationlands are done in “Cinema-scope” with 2 pages scanned at a time. The WDW Vacationland seems to lend themselves to this format as shown on the two sample pages below. Enjoy.


WDW Vacationland Fall/Winter 1972 - 65mb








I sure do like this early 70's style of artwork, it brings back many fond childhood memories...






Next, from Wednesday‘s post (link), I was attempting to scan the entire issue of Modern Screen but a few things happened; (1) I had to disassemble the entire issue as it was stapled and glued together making flat scans impossible and (2) half the pages aren’t numbers so I got kind of confused. Here’s a few more fun pages, look back later in the week for the full issue (sorry Richard).







Hey, my mom used to use Prell!






This ought to wake you up if you’re still groggy and asleep! Wire hangers anyone?



Saturday, November 1, 2008

Mystery Ticket

Well I got a trick for Halloween – the stomach flu - Yuck! Feeling a bit better, but today get’s just a tiny post.

Tiny is right, this little ticket is just 1 ½” by 2” and has no perforation or clue as to what it’s for? General Admission maybe? It came from a batch of ticket books from 1969. No serial number and nothing on the back? I love a mystery when you can't think straight!





See you tomorrow on Bonus Sunday.