Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Trip Report


Monday was a beautiful day at Disneyland; the next two weeks are my favorite time of year to visit the park. The crowds are almost as low as late January and the weather is usually outstanding, as was the case on Monday.






Mickey looks a little goofy in the current floral arrangement, but people still flock to him, me included.






The less photographed side of the train station.






The “Lincoln Theater Restrooms” are being refurbished. It probably has something to do with the upcoming Disney Galley moving into the bank area. The men’s room was woefully small in this area, I wonder if its being completely re-done?








It’s been a while since I’ve seen these doors closed, this time its nice to know who’s coming back!








Spring is in the air and everywhere at Disneyland. Over the last couple of years I’ve really come to appreciate the landscaping and amazing amount of work it must take to keep it fresh and new every day.







Walking by the Candy Palace the smell was intoxicating.






This “Palace” is so much fun to watch in action. The equipment all looks pretty old and original.








Vintage vent grill and fan.






Today’s yummy specialty.







Disneyland’s “intimate” size works great when it not crowded, I love just watching the Main Street vehicles travel up and down the street.









Out at the hub there was lots of color, these even smelled like they just came out of that refrigerated case at the florist!






That tree with the yellow leaves was more vivid than this photo suggests, truly magnificent.






What do you know, here’s some more yellow!






This shot was actually in the discard pile until I realized if you look close in the background, the Astro-Orbitor is GONE! (Well most of it). I Didn’t even notice it was gone, do I hate it that much it’s just removed from my mind? Disney; Please don’t put it back; really, it won’t be missed.






Ducks own Disneyland. This duck leisurely waltzed right past me within about 3 inches, he seemed a little annoyed that he had to alter his path around me.







A brief visit to Frontierland. More pretty colors.








Zero line for Big Thunder Mountain Rail Road at 10:30, I rode it twice; “It’s the wildest ride in the wilderness”!






You can’t see it in the previous photo so I tried to zoom in with my camera; there are two real birds at the top, they were black and matched perfect with the fake birds down lower on the attractions. Do they have a contract with Disney?






What a great tree.






Did I mention it was a beautiful day?






These flowers where over by the New Orleans Square (at Frontierland) train station.






Splash Mountain was also looking extra nice today, I was temped to ride it. It was getting warm and the line was short, but I was not up for wet socks.






Way back in Bear Country and way back in a store that I think used to be the Mile Long Bar or the arcade, there is another active candy shop!






She is making marshmallows on stick, dipped in caramel then dipped in milk chocolate.






Once again, the smell was intoxicating.






This time I gave in, I got one (without the “celebrate” stuff). Oh boy, these are worth every penny of the $4 they cost. At first I didn’t think I could finish it, but I did. It was pure bliss.






Retro-land.






Three Fences is fine and doing its spring thing.






While taking the Three Fences photo, Monorail Orange came zooming by.






Loyal blog reads will know I’ve been chronicling the crack on the Monorail cement awning in Tomorrowland ever since the crack started last year (September 2008 w/old Monorial), (December 2008), (January 2009) (February 2009), (April 2009)  They attempted several fixes, mostly spackle and paste, all attempts failed and it just kept getting worse. A much large construction wall reveals a much larger problem.






As the next four photos show, a major portion of the 1967 cement monorail awning has been removed. It looks like rust was coming from steel plates within the cement and it looks pretty bad. At first I thought they tore out park of the PeopleMover track, but that’s on the other side of the beam, whew.












Here’s a little more than half of whats left of the awning.






The awning ends here as the monorail beam goes over the Matterhorn area. Notice the rust in this area too; I bet the entire vintage awning will be removed. What will go in its place remains a mystery. We could get a metal shield like the one in the Orange Monorail photo up a few pictures.





Here’s comes the Blue Monorail, she’s prettier than her Orange sister!








The Matterhorn was looking majestic as ever, the water was more than a trickle, but could have been turned up one more notch.






Not growing on me yet, you?





Ssshhhhh everyone quiet please, the band is about to begin.












A great Gurr-Mobile! They sure keep this machine clean as a whistle.






Nothing too complicated here.






Be sure and get your hand stamped.





Here's current gate flyer. Nice that it still has a BIG map inside, it's neat to see a lot of people studying this map at the park. Oh and what will you Celebrate?







Monday, May 4, 2009

Walt Disney's Magazine - 1956, 1957 & 1959

Welcome to Magazine Monday. It’s such a beautify spring day here in southern California and I’m probably at the “park” as you read this so let’s make today’s post a 3-for-1! Three great vintage magazines for the price of one, which is free anyway so how can you beat this deal?

For today’s vintage Disneyland related magazines we are going directly to the source himself, Walt Disney. Originally called “Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club Magazine” after a couple of years it was changed to “Walt Disney’s Magazine”. At some point it became “Disney Magazine”. Today we’ll look at three early issues.

First up “Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club Magazine” from the Summer of 1956. Fess Parker and a young Annette Funicello grace the cover. Most of the covers to these old MMC magazines are beat up pretty bad, I can just envision how these were read over and over. Fortunately, the inside pages are all in pretty good shape.






Bobby Burgess narrates his adventures in the New Frontiers at Disneyland. I guess none of the new stuff was ready for photographs in time for this summer 1956 issue. But the drawings are almost better than the real thing!






Here’s a couple close-ups, these are sure are fun to look at.








Again no photos of the new 1956 attractions, but lots of great drawings! The AstroJets look so cool, even in black and white.






A work day at the studio for Annette. Looks like a sweet job for a kid, at her age I was cleaning ash trays and sharpening yellow grease pencils at the Panorama Bowl.






Jiminy Cricket says: “I’m no fool with fire”. Notice the lower right corner talks about the 8-minute animated Technicolor film you can rent, I’ve got the entire set, they are among my favorite 16mm films, those Technicolor gems still look stunning 54 years later.






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Next up from February 1957 its still “Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club Magazine”, this time with the Hardy Boys on the cover. That’s Tim Considine and very young Tommy Kirk who appear to be hiding in the trunk of a ’57 T-Bird, good luck fitting in there. Oh wait, that's a Fairlane, they'll fit!






Consisting of only two pages, this Disneyland related article is about the new 1957 Sleeping Beauty Castle walt thru. Having seen the new (2008) version on each recent trip to the park, I can personally tell you they did an amazing job at capturing what’s in these pages. The feeling was captured so perfectly it’s hard to describe. Do not miss this attraction on your next visit.








These magazines have very few advertisements. If there are any at all, they are on the inside and/or back covers. This is a super 1950’s ad for roller skates. These things are deadly, I remember trying old ones when I was a kid and they literally fell apart as you used them.






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Last up (fear not, there are more of these, this is just it for today…) it’s “Walt Disney’s Magazine” from February 1959. Walt writes an article in this issue “How I met the King of the Leprechauns”.






For the Disneyland article is Mickey Mouse on Tom Sawyer’s Island. Can you guess where Black Bart hid his loot?







A fun map to help you solve the mystery.






Ok, if you give up (I did) here’s the answer. I was going to post it upside-down, but I realized it might be hard to turn your monitor upside-down…






Here’s Walt’s article. I wonder if he really wrote it himself?








Now that Sleeping Beauty was in theaters, here’s a great article with some of the amazing artwork that’s in this movie.










You can tell the western craze had hit the United States in full force by 1959, just “Look what we’ve rounded up for you!”



Saturday, May 2, 2009

Disneylander - July 1957

Today’s post is another in a series donated by James of at www.keeline.com, please visit his amazing website. Thanks again James!

The “Disneylander” was an employee publication that preceded the “Disneyland Line” and from I can tell they were issued from 1957 thru 1959. Today’s issue is from July 1957. Lots of fun early Disneyland stuff in this one, enjoy.  


Disneylander July 1957 - 17mb


Friday, May 1, 2009

Press Guest Sticker - 1983

“Press Guest” Wouldn’t is be better to call it a “Press Pass”? Maybe a “Pass” implies some privilege that a “guest” doesn’t get?  From 1983, this “Press Guest” sticker is a fun green color. I like the castle design, the Disneyland font is not so special.

I like how these “passes” are made from a woven material/textile of some kind and the backing is extra sticky. We used to get these types of stickers in the early 1970’s at my dad’s union family nights, that sticky glue stayed on my clothes forever! 





Once again from the stack of weird souvenir slides, here’s the entrance to Adventureland. This slide is (say it with me) undated, but looking at the clothes I’m going put it at 1978-79, but that’s just a guess. These slides have a weird look to them that’s hard to describe, especially staged ones like this.