Monday Morning Vintage Disneyland

It has been a while since I posted some vintage Disneyland pictures. I've always liked these style of pictures that were used for publicity and various souvenir books and guide maps. The lighting is always good and everything is staged perfectly.

The Haunted Mansion officially opened on August 12, 1969. The attraction received heavy marketing by Disney but then on August 9th, just as the Mansion started public soft opening, Sharon Tate was murdered in her Hollywood mansion. The same strange coincidence happened in 1992 when Fantasmic had its public opening/press preview on April 29th. There was a huge marketing push for Fantasmic with the phrase "Be Here When the Night Ignites!" used in commercials and press materials. April 29th was also the same day that the 1992 Los Angeles Riots started. Disney quickly pulled all promotional materials that used the phrase.

 The Main Street Electrical Parade started June 17, 1972 at Disneyland. Now get ready for a roller coaster ride.

1. Disneyland's MSEP ran June 1972 to November 1996

2. Magic Kingdom's ran June 1977 to May 1999

3. Magic Kingdom's MSEP was sent to Disneyland Paris where it ran 1992 to 2003

4. Tokyo Disneyland's ran March 1985 to June 1995

5. In 1997, Disneyland's MSEP Pinocchio Pleasure Island section and Snow White diamond mine floats were sent to Disneyland Paris to be used in their MSEP. 

6. Disneyland's MSEP was refurbished (minus the Pleasure Island and diamond mine floats) and sent to Magic Kingdom where it ran May 1999 to April 2001

7. Allegedly, Magic Kingdom's ORIGINAL MSEP was sent to Hong Kong Disneyland at some point between 2005 and 2008. There has been rumors for years that the parade would debut in HKDL but so far the parade floats are in backstage storage.

8. Disneyland's MSEP (which ran at Magic Kingdom for 2 years) was sent BACK to Disneyland to be used at Disney's California Adventure. It ran July 2001 to April 2010 (also, in 2009 the previously removed Pleasure Island and diamond mine floats were returned when the parade was significantly enhanced)

9. Disneyland's MSEP (which went to MK, then to DCA) was sent BACK AGAIN to Magic Kingdom in June 2010. It is still running today.

 

This picture was taken at some in the late 60s or early 70s. I was not alive at this time so I can't tell you if the lighting was actually ever this bright for this portion of the ride or if it was lit for this picture. What I can tell you is that this scene of the attraction is significantly darker now. For example, the hat pirate that has one foot on land and one on the boat now sits in almost complete darkness. Anyway, this is one of the best interior Pirates of the Caribbean pictures I have ever seen. I love the way the water is reflecting everything.

This picture shows the Tomorrowland I remember as a child. I spent a lot of time here in the late 80s and early 90s. When new Tomorrowland opened in 1997 I was so bummed they took out all of the palm trees. Out of all the things to be bummed out about the new Tomorrowland, I chose palm trees and the removal of Captain EO. I was a strange child.

This is a obviously staged photo from inside the Enchanted Tiki Room. Why is it obvious? The host is using the stick to "wake up" Jose but behind here the bird mobile is already down which doesn't happen till around the middle of the show. Anyway. The Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland has probably changed the least out of any attraction in the park's history. To this day it shows the same show is still seen by guests, minus one song that was removed to lower the show length. Also, at Disneyland's version of the show allows people to bring the Dole pineapple whips they purchased from the tiki juice bar located in the queue of the attraction. No food or drinks are aloud in Magic Kingdom's version of the show.

Epcot Guide Map from December 1997

Epcot in 1997 was going through a transition from classic EPCOT Center to just plain old Epcot. Thankfully, most of the classic attractions were hanging around at this point.

This was the Christmas season so the cover shows the various holiday offerings such as Candlelight Processional and Lights of Winter. Notice the Walt Disney World 25th anniversary logo in the bottom right. When this map was printed the 25th celebration was just about to wrap up its 15 month long promotion (known for the infamous cake castle at the Magic Kingdom).

This page shows the typical park information. Notice the advertisements for the two parades. The Hercules Victory Parade lasted for less than a year before being replaced by a parade to promote the new Mulan movie in 1998. The "Remember the Magic" parade is also mentioned even though I could have sworn at this point it was renamed "Disney's Magical Moments Parade" (Magical Moments lasted from 1997 to 2001). Also notice the old Moulin Rouge portion of Illuminations at the bottom of the page.

The only thing I want to point out on this page is the Lights of Winter. Much rage was brought to Epcot fans when this Christmas feature was retired in 2009. Disney's official explanation was "Note:The Lights of Winter at Epcot has been enjoyed for years. But tech to operate the lights is obsolete, prompting us to retire the lights." Which is hilarious because a similar show on a much larger scale is still offered over at Disney's Hollywood Studios. 

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World Showcase hasn't changed much since 1997 but Future World has gone through many changes. Spaceship Earth:

At this point Spaceship Earth was on its second major revision. Jeremy Irons replaced Walter Cronkite narrator.

Universe of Energy:

The original UoE had closed in 1996 and was replaced by the version that is still running today, Ellen's Energy Adventure.

Wonders of Life:

I've talked a lot about WoL in previous posts. Basically it used to be filled with fun attractions, including one of the most popular rides in the park (Body Wars). Now, it is closed for most of the year, When it is opened there are no attractions and it is used for either wine tasting or gardening seminars...

Horizons:

I know, you're sick that every time I post about Horizons I say its the best attraction in Disney history. It was replaced by Mission Space in 1999. 

Test Track:

World of Motion closed January 1996. Test Track was originally scheduled to open in September 1997 but was delayed several times. Even though the map says "Opening in '98" the attraction still did not officially open until March 1999.

Journey Into Imagination: 

The original JII was still open at this point. Its replacement, "Journey Into Your Imagination," lasted 2 years before it was replaced by the current version.

The Land:

The Land hasn't gone though many changes since 1997, the major one being the arrival of Soarin'. Food Rocks closed to make way for Soarin' but "Circle of Life" and "Living with the Land" are still around.

The Living Seas:

The original Seacabs attraction was open until 2001 but a replacement (The Seas with Nemo and Friends) wouldn't come until 2005.

I've seen a lot of Kodak map advertisements during my adventures in collection Disney maps but this one is probably my favorite. Not only does it have Spaceship Earth in the background but it also shows Dreamfinder and Figment!

Disneyland Guide from the infamous 1997 Light Magic AP party

In 1997 Disneyland retired the popular Main Street Electrical Parade. Its replacement was called Light Magic, a strange half parade, half stage show (or "streetacular" as Disney called it). I won't go in to too much of the specifics about the parade, mostly because several other people have done that, like Jim Hill's EIGHT PART(!) series. On May 13, 1997 a annual passholder preview party was held, this was a separate "hard ticket" event that, if I remember correctly, cost $35 per a person. If you notice in the post title I called this event "infamous." The reason being is that it will go down in history as probably the biggest passholder revolt ever on Disney property. To make a long story short, the Light Magic presentation that night was filled with technical issues (not to mention it was an absolutely terrible parade). The annual passholder party was pretty much a disaster and keep in mind it had been billed as the world preimere. Then something hilarious happened, after all the issues with that night's performance Disney announced to thousands of their most hardcore and brutally critical fans in attendance that this party was not for the world premiere. Disney changed their mind and it was announced that the annual passholder party was for a dress rehearsal. After this the thousands in attendance reacted calmly, and left the park in an orderly fashion. HAHA, i'm just kidding. The APs at the party freaked out, screamed out loud and got in line at guest services at City Hall to complain. After a short amount of time the line of angry APs WENT ALL THE WAY UP MAIN STREET TO THE HUB!!! What a night! For some reason after all that fun Disney had suddenly been soured on throwing parties for annual passholders. It would be another 14 YEARS before they would hold another one. On to the pamphlet!

The front of the guide is pretty simple. Sleeping Beauty castle with some spotlights in the back. No mention of Light Magic is a little weird.

The second page shows the Light Magic logo and a quick run down of the event. I do love that the party went until 1:30 AM.

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Besides Light Magic, the park was open with its full roster of attractions and some small extras you can see on the map. Also notice at this point New Tomorrowland construction (which opened the next year in 1998) was in full swing. The only attractions in Tomorrowland at the time were Star Tours, Space Mountain, Autopia, and the Submarine Voyage. The front entrance of Tomorrowland was almost completely blocked by construction walls. Notice the "Light Magic Viewing" areas listed on the map. This was not a typical parade that could be watched at any point of the parade route. The parade floats would stop at two points and then the show would start. The one effect I thought was cool for LM was the facades on Main Street were covered with thousands of strands of fiber optic light. During some show scenes the Main Street buildings would light up and/or appear to glow with pixie dust. This effect was never used again for any other parade and most of the infrastructure was removed during various refurbishments over the years.

 The back of the guide book. Boring! In the next few months it became clear that Light Magic was a total failure. The passholder revolt and bad word of mouth from the general public doomed the show. Heres where it gets weird, the show was canceled on September 8, 1997 ($20,000,000 spent on a parade that lasted 5 months! Ouch!) but then for some strange reason Disney announced it would be on hiatus until 2000. Why 2000? Why put a parade on hiatus for three years to rework it? It all seemed very strange. 2000 came and went with no mention of Light Magic from the Disney company but its memory lives on as one of the park's biggest failures ever.

Disneyland Pog Wild set and Collector Caps Magazine from March 1994

First, thanks to the excellent Disney Tourist Blog for linking Angry AP in their blog post from the past weekend.Second, sorry for no update last week. Overtime at work again prevented me from preparing an update.

Today's update is a follow up to this post I made back in September 2011. It was about a promotion Disneyland held in March 1994 called "Go Pog Wild and Rollerblade Crazy!" From the previous update:

"For those of you who don't know what POGs are (or are acting to cool to remember) here is the link to the Wikipedia article describing the game. Naturally Disneyland (and even Knott's Berry Farm) wanted to capitalize on the fad so they offered an exclusive Disneyland POG set  (4 pogs and a slammer) to kids under 13. I have them around here somewhere but I can't find them (and for that reason I have failed you). A big part of the promotion was the all day POG tournament which was held in the area near the Motor Boat Cruise."

The fact that I didn't have the Disneyland Pog set to show you guys has drove me crazy. Luckily I finally got a chance to make things right. This weekend I attended a Disneyana Fan Club show. I was searching through boxes of hundreds of items of random Disney ephemera from the past 50 years, then I saw it. The Disneyland Pog Wild set! 

For $10 I was able to obtain it. As I mentioned in my previous post about Pog Wild, I did attend the event and at some point did own the Pog Wild set. But, like a lot of Disneyland items from childhood, the Pog set has gone missing from my collections. I'm not going to lie, if this set was any more than $10 I probably would not have purchased it. But the Pog gods smiled upon me that day.

Here it is. 4 Pogs and one slammer. The designs on the first two Pogs reek of the early 90s (which is what makes them so awesome), the second two are a but weak. It looks like they can be found in any standard Pog set. I'd like to point out that yes, I COULD have scanned this at better quality if I removed the Pogs from their sealed bag. I like you guys, but I don't like you so much as to disturb my set of Disneyland Pogs.

As if having this Pog set in my collection wasn't cool enough, the package also included a magazine!

Yes, at one point Pogs were popular enough to have several magazines dedicated to them. This one in particular is called Collector Caps Price Guide. The front features Mickey Mouse in a football jersey and helmet (what?).

(click to enlarge) 

Be sure to enlarge the scan of this magazine to see some truly rare pictures of this event at Disneyland (look for yourself, there are hardly any pictures of this online). As you can see in the pictures the Pog area was near the Motor Boat Lagoon. Also, as I speculated in my previous post, the Rollerblade ramp was located in front of the Mission to Mars attraction. If Disney did something like put a Rollerblade ramp in front of an attraction these days I think Disney fans would be filled with so much rage they would literally suffer from spontaneous combustion.

Vintage Walt Disney World: Disney World Village, River Country, and LBV

The Walt Disney World Village was WDW's original shopping district. It opened 4 years after Magic Kingdom in March of 1975. In 1997 it was renamed to Downtown Disney. Evidence exists that at one point Disney planned to have a Monorail line and station for this area, unfortunately this never came to be.

Downtown Disney has been expanded several times in the last few decades. In this picture from the late 70s you can see the similarities that the buildings have to their current versions.

This beautiful picture shows the Empress Lily. It held restaurants and a lounge. The structure was designed by Walt Disney Imagineering and is not actually a boat, but a building that is made to look like one. In the mid 1990s Disney handed over operation to an outside company and the name was changed to Fulton's Crab House. Notice in the picture the smokestacks and paddle wheel are visible. These items were removed and never replaced when Fulton's moved in.

River Country was WDW's first water park. It is located near Fort Wilderness. It operated 1976 to 2001.

The unique thing about River Country is that it used water from Bay Lake, which you can see was connected in the top right corner of the screen. Unfortunately this could have also been it's downfall thanks to the brain-eating amoeba that lives in the lake (known as Naegleria Fowleri).

 This attraction was known as White Water Rapids.

Lake Buena Vista was a planned community turned resort. It is now known as Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa.

Here you can see the original Fairway Villas built for the resort. These were removed when Saratoga Springs was expanded. Also seen is the resort's golf coarse and tennis areas.

The tree house villas are still some of the most unique lodging available at Walt Disney World (they better be at over $700 a night). The original tree house villas were closed for decades before they were remodeled and reopened in 2009.

New Years Eve at Disneyland 1958 and AngryAP.com year in review

This picture was taken in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland's first New Years Eve party (which was a extra ticket event! Even in Walt's time they had those!). The event welcomed 7,500 guests. It is hard to believe that Disneyland now fills to a capacity of over  60,000 people for the current New Years Eve events.

I started this blog in April of this year and since then it has received over 20,000 hits. It's been my absolute pleasure sharing my Disney collection with you. Thankfully I have so much more to show you in 2012. I don't plan on slowing down! I will resume regular posting on Tuesday January 2nd 2012. Until then I wanted to share some of my favorite posts from 2011.

What's inside this old Disneyland photo album? 

 

I've visited Disneyland at least once a month since I was a kid but for some reason I don't have many pictures of my family in the parks. In this post I put up the few that I did have.

1996 Walt Disney World Vacation Brochure

I love the pure cheesy-ness of these old vacation brochures. They also offer a great look on how some beloved extinct attractions were marketed when they were still around.

My Disneyland Club 33 Trip Report 

 

In June of 2011 I was lucky enough to attend a dinner and lunch at Disneyland's legendary Club 33. These are my pictures and trip report.

Disney MGM Studios Pictures From 1995 

This collection of vintage Disney-MGM Studios features this Star Tours publicity image which could be one of the greatest Disney images of all time.

Walt Disney World picture book from 1972

I can't get enough of vintage Disney souvenir books!

Revisiting Disneyland Afternoon Avenue

I take you back to the temporary land built for Disney Afternoon. For some reason this ended being one of the most popular entries on the blog.

Remembering EPCOT Center's CommuniCore

I've posted about vintage EPCOT Center more than anything else on this blog. The reason for that is because it is awesome.

The Worst Retro Walt Disney World Trip Report Ever!

Pictures and report from my first trip to Walt Disney World in July 1996. I call this the worst retro trip report ever because I was a terrible photographer and I didn't take any pictures of the classic attractions, including my beloved Horizons... I suck.

9 Amazingly 80's Items From The 1988 Disney Spring/Summer Catalog

The items in this catalog are pure 80s gold. My favorite is the "Mousercise" aerobic gear.

The Apollo 11 Moon Landing, Live From Disneyland In 1969

My favorite post because it combines my love for Disneyland and the history of maned space flight. This rare photo shows hundreds of Disneyland guests watching the Apollo 11 moon landing on the Tomorrowland stage (Around where Space Mountain now sits). Imagine being at Disneyland when something so significant in human history took place!

That will do it for 2011. There are many more great posts that you can see in the blog's archives.

"Galactic Gifts From Tomorrowland" From Disney News Magazine Spring 1992

I previously posted an article from the Spring 1992 issue of Disney News about the creation of Fantasmic! This time in the spirit of the lucrative holiday gift giving season I am revisiting the same issue to bring you "Galactic Gifts From Tomorrowland!"

As you can see our tour guides for these Galactic Gifts will be the three totally far out dudes featured in the middle of the page. They are all sporting the amazing satin Star Tours jackets the were formally sold in the Star Trader. The bottom picture shows items that haven't been found in Disneyland for years, but can still be found in museum gift shops around the country.

The middle picture conjures up a lot of feelings of nostalgia for me. I have vivid memories of riding the Peoplemover and getting an up close look at that replica X-Wing. I love the hanger door above it. It looks like it could open at any moment and that X-Wing could take off to go blow up some Tie Fighters. I really miss the Star Tours era themeing of that shop. It matched perfectly with the ride and it was filled with great Star Tours and Captain EO merchandise. The X-Wing was used in there from 1987 to around 1997 when the shop closed to be remodeled along with the rest of New Tomorrowland. From 1997 to 2010 the X-Wing was moved to the vacated second floor of the Starcade (which is still empty to this day) and hung from the ceiling for some reason. The only way to get a good look at it was from the queue for Space Mountain. In 2010 the Star Trader was remodeled again to give it a strange retro-future airport look and the X-Wing was again relocated back in to the shop.

The top middle shows the outside of the Star Trader as seen when the photograph was taken. The building still looks vary similar aside from various different color schemes over the years. That same Star Trader sign and neon Mickey Mouse are still up there. The Premiere Shop is located where the Star Tours 2 Fastpass machines are now located. The shop was removed during the New Tomorrowland remodel in 1997. In it's last few years in operation I remember mostly sports memorabilia being sold here, especially from the Disney owned Anaheim Angels and Anaheim Mighty Ducks. Not very futuristic but if it happened today  you know the Disney internet community would have a heart attack!

 Here is a bonus ad from the same magazine. The parade shown here is called Surprise! which ran at Magic Kingdom for 32 months! Before heading to WDW it was originally seen at Disneyland for it's 35 Years of Magic promotion and it still is arguably one of the park's most popular parades ever.

 

This ad is for the Disneyland Hotel and shows stylized art of the hotel's "Marina" phase.