Olympic Night Disneyland - 1984

This looks like it was a fabulous night at Disneyland, March 24, 1984. "Olympic Night Disneyland" Sponsored by Coca-Cola of Los Angeles, Disneyland and Security Pacific National Bank.

The 1984 Olympics was an exciting time to live in Los Angeles, I was at the open day ceremonies courtesy of my Grand Father who was an official volunteer. He volunteered over 800 hours from October 1982, thru August 1984 and he loved every minute of it.

WOW, check out the fact sheet. The Olympians are instructed to give autographs and pose for pictures, too much fun!

Besides all the great events, you get free meals, snacks and drinks ("NO ORANGE JUICE" bummer!). You get one free full mean, but then free, unlimited popcorn, ice cream, soda, cheeseburgers, hot dogs and fries!

Looks like management changed their mind at the last minute about free shooting at the Frontierland Shooting Gallery.

Here is a full scan of the booklet that came with the invitation (invitation follows), this is about 6 1/2" by 9".

Next is the Invitation itself. It's a neat "Pop-up Book" style card that's about 8" by 10" when closed. Here is the front cover.

This is a scan of the wording inside the invitation. FYI - That's a non-working number, yeah, I tried it!

The inside only opens part way due to the Pop-up, so I was not able to scan it, plus it would have scanned "flat" sort of loosing the "Pop-up" effect. I took a couple of photos' of the invitation in the open position.

It's fun, I always loved Pop-up books, didn't you?

Here is the nice thick paper envelope all this stuff came in. It's a little beat up, hey it's 24 years old and it did it's job of protecting these neat contents.





Moving away from Disneyland and to the actual 1984 Olympics, here is the cover from my ticket book.




The ticket book had tickets to ten events, the one's I remember going to are; Tennis at UCLA, Basketball at the Forum, Rowing at Lake Casitas, , Track & Field at UCLA, Volleyball, even Baseball at Dodger Stadium! This is my ticket for opening ceremony, July 28th 1984.





Tomorrow - Part 1 of the Knott's "B" Ticket Series.

Easter Weekend - Bonus Post

Happy Easter Weekend! Today's post will be a "weekend" post as I am taking Sunday off for Easter. We'll take a look at two "Easter" gate flyer's and a special holiday bonus of TWO complete guide books.

From 1974 its "Easter Week at Disneyland" Covering April 7th thru April 14th 1974.

Doc Seversinsen! Was he on the tonite show in 1974? Duke Ellington! I see a "Roaring Twenties Revue" at the Golden Horseshoe. 12 months later Knott's came up with the "Roaring 20's" themed area, coincidence?




"Watch for American Sings - Coming soon to Tomorrowland". I never gave it much thought (because I liked the attraction so much) but it really seems an odd fit in "Tomorrowland", this would have been perfect for "Liberty Square" had they ever built it....

Below please find the Complete Spring 1974 Disneyland Guide. Take one only please.


Complete Disneyland Guide Spring 1974 (12mb)

From 1982 it's a "Disneyland Easter Party" April 3rd thru April 11th, 1982. Peach & Herb on the front, boy were they hot in the early 80's. "Reunited and it feels so good" and who can forget "Shake your groove thing"?

Check out all the entrainment! Two full pages.





Ok, promise not to tell anyone, but I have never seen "Bambi". Start with the fact that there was no "home video" when I was a kid and the few times it made it to the theater I must have made better choice's like Death Race 2000! I have Bambi on VHS but I just haven't got around to watching it yet. I hear it has a sad ending?




And from the early part of 1982, here is the complete Guide book. Note; Page 4 of this guide has the very last reference to "ticket books" and "ticket booths" within the park. The 2nd edition of the 1982 guide has no reference to ticket books or booths...

Complete Disneyland Guide Book 1982 [1st Edition] (18mb)

Have a great Holiday weekend everyone!

Next Week: Monday is Special Event Day featuring the "Olympic Disney Night", then Tuesday is Part 1 of the Knott's "B" Ticket series, don't miss out.

This Day in Disneyland History

"Ladies and Gentleman, welcome aboard our McDonnell-Douglas DC-88 Spaceliner for today's mission to Mars. The Captain has asked that you remain in your seats at all times, and please, no smoking!"

March 21st, 1975 was the day Disneyland officially changed the designation of "Flight to the Moon" to "Mission to Mars". Since the USA had been to been to the moon for 6 years, I can see why the attraction was updated. Technically this is the third update to this attraction. From 1955 to 1966 it was the "Rocket to the Moon", although the first version was in a completely different building that was removed when the New Tomorrowland 67 was built.

Here is a June 1974 "D" Ticket. This would be the last appearance for "Flight to the Moon". Also notice; the "Tomorrowland Jets" are making a final appearance too*.

This June 1975 "D ticket has a couple of new names on it. "Mission to Mars" sounds much more exciting. *And we have the "Rocket Jets"! I'm sure the name was Rocket Jets since 1967, it's that way in all the Guide books. I was told "it just never got updated on the tickets", until 1975, that seems odd? So it was the "Astro-Jet" from 56-66, then the "Rocket Jets" from 67-96, when were they the "Tomorrowland Jets"?

Here are the attraction lists from Before and After, the first is June 1974, the second is June 1975:

Now here are the Guide Books, Before and After. First from the "Spring 1975" edition covering February 19, 1975 to June 13, 1975. Looks like it was closed for some time since it's "Opening Spring 75". And the second Guide book page is from the "Summer 1975" edition covering June 4, 1975 to September 6, 1975.

McDonnell-Douglas was the sponsor from a the 60' thru 1985. The last reference I see is in the June 1985 guide book. This 1986 guide book (printed 12/85) shows that Mission to Mars will "re-open March 15, 1986" I don't see McDonnell-Douglas anywhere. Funny how today the Pizza Port sign is still the shape of the stylized McDonnell-Douglas Logo from the 67' redo.

I rode Mission to Mars for the last time on May 6th, 1992. It was just a few days after the L.A. riots so I figured it would be a light crowd day, it was! I rode everything at least twice, even Mission to Mars. I think I enjoyed "Mission Control" more than the rocket part. It did seem pretty outdated by 1992, but it was still fun. Mission to Mars closed on November 2nd, 1992.

What's that I hear over the loud-speaker: "Ladies and Gentlemen, the outer locks are now open and you may vacate the spacecraft. Thank you for flying McDonnell-Douglas today, and we hope to see you again soon"

Audio Visual Souvenir Day Part 2 or Small World Madness

I hope you like “It’s a Small World” because there is a ton of Small World stuff on today’s post. In case you missed part 1, you can find it here (link).



Let get started with this 50th anniversary Commemorative ticket. This looks like a regular park admission ticket, it even has the magnetic strip on the back. But it has no authenticating printing on the back, so this must have just been for collectors.

“Small World Days” This is from a gate flyer. It’s for January 13 & 14, but no year is listed on the flyer. A quick lookup of the ticket prices puts this around May 1971 so this could be January 1971 or 1972.

Here’s a great little 7” record from 1968 with a book as the jacket. This is one of those story telling books were when you here the sound you flip the page.

Here is a page from inside the book. Is this Mary Blair’s work? It doesn’t seem like it, the people don’t look like her style at all. It’s all cute nonetheless.

Here is the record. It’s a 7” record, the size of 45’s, but this little LP plays at 33 1/3 for “Long Play”, that’s why it has the small spindle hole.

Side “A” is the story and “turn the page” part; it really is dry and boring. If someone asks, of course I’ll record it and post! But, Side “B” has an alternate take of the “It’s a Small World” song, I like this version, heck Dave might even like it (assuming I have not completely lost Dave with these IASW posts?).

Up next a neat brochure from 1967, courtesy of Bank of America.

The inside is large and wont fit in my scanner, but wait, guess what? I found a scanner sitting in the corner at work not even being used, it’s a Fujitsu fi5750, it does 12” x 18” scans, WOW! I will test it with the inside of this brochure and post it later today. This is the half before you open the whole thing.

Here is the full inside, 11 x 18 this thing is huge! How does the scanner look? It's hooked to a Windows 2000 machine, so my photo editing choices were limited, the crop feature is weak to say the least.







And by request, here is the Yodeling sequence from my post last week. If you’re expecting “Matterhorn” style music, it’s not here. If Mars should be attacking, this music will make their heads explode! (this paragraph is underlined and I don't know why....)











I guess it's just "A small world after all...."

Walt Disney Home Video 1984 & POC Update

Today's post is something a little different and not a ticket, but it is becoming Vintage.

This is a little booklet full of Walt Disney's Home Video selections from 1983/84. Most title's are available on VHS and Beta, also select titles available on Laser Videodisc and CED Videodisc. I collect 3 of these 4 formats (sorry Beta) with CED being my favorite.

CED (or Select-a-vision) disc's are 12" disc's that play Video and Sound, these are not laser disc's, the players have a micro needle and the disc's have a groove. They are like audio 33rpm LP's except they play at 450rpm's and have 10,000 groove's per inch, they are from 1980 thru 1984, but I digress. (If your interested in CED's check out this web site - CEDMagic.com)

I've posted the front cover and a few select pages of the movie booklet. The entire booklet can be downloaded here:


Walt Disney Home Movies Booklet - 1984 (10mb)


Don't miss the "Fun Center" in the middle of the booklet, but you'll have to download the whole booklet for that....

Tron! Underrated..... I loved it, still do. It's neat on CED (in Stereo!) TEX? I must have missed that one, on purpose.

The Original Freaky Friday! Jodie foster when she looked like a girl....

A few classics's. Old Yeller is the ONLY time I have seen my dad cry.

My work brought me within 3 miles of Disneyland yesterday so I just HAD to stop in and ride Pirates of the Caribbean for its 41st birthday. I guess about 50,000 other people had that idea too!! These are cell phone pictures, pardon the low quality.

Awesome weather at the park, does Disney order it that way?




Here's a warning for you, avoid the Simba Parking Lot! Unless you like to walk A LOT! I was in the far corner of this lot (in Buena Park I think) and they make you walk around the Paradise Hotel and thru Downtown Disney to get to the park. Not too bad on the way in, but OUCH my feet hurt on the way out!

Tomorrow, back by popular demand - It's a Small World Audio - Visual Day Part 2, Yodeling and more!