Friday, August 1, 2008

Walt Disney World - 1973

It’s 1973 and the Magic Kingdom is only 2 years old but ready for some Night Time Fun! “We’re open ‘til 1” (June 11 – September 1).






New attractions! Walt Disney Story, now gone. Plaza Swan boats, gone too. Tom Sawyer Island, still there!






A 50¢ parking ticket from August 19, 1973. It looks like they parked at Goofy 46 and 47.






Hey I parked near them!






Ticket book from June 1973.






The June 1973 attraction list.






Here’s a “9 Adventure ticket book" also from June 1973 (you won’t find that on the flyer above). It's from Eastern Airlines. Looks like you got $1.05 discount and 1 more ticket.






Wait a second, if you compare this June 1973 attraction list to the June 1973 Attraction list on the above “8 Adventure ticket book” you’ll notice there is an attraction missing for the Eastern Airlines folks, too bad for them!






The Hall of Presidents from an old post card, not sure if it’s from 1973 but let's pretend it is.





And the 1973 Guide book. I’ve posted the entire guide before, but here it is again.


Walt Disney World Guide Book 1973 – 22mb





Come back this weekend for a two part Walt Disney World review blow out, tons of photos and this blogger's usual slightly twisted point of view.

3 comments:

ericpaddon said...

This is a snapshot of WDW just before I first experienced it in 1975 at age six, and just before it hit its full-blown 70s prime. Space Mountain and the COP didn't arrive until '75, but you'll also notice one key ride missing from the Guidebook. No "Pirates Of The Caribbean" yet, which didn't arrive until late '73 and only because of the customer complaints that it hadn't been installed.

The one drawback of this is that the hasty decision to put POTC in Florida meant shelving what was going to be Florida's signature attraction meant to top what POTC had been in DL, namely the "Western River Expedition" which probably ranks as the greatest idea that never got off the drawing board.

Yes, the HOP postcard is appropriate to the period since that image is also in the HOP souvenir LP that was released in the attraction's first year. Nixon is standing by himself as the most recent president (they generally clustered the later additions together).

I love going through the WDW Guidebooks of the 70s and 80s and remembering again the good old days. The lack of a large number of resort hotels on the WDW property gave WDW a more isolated from the real world feel that only enhanced its magical aura in that era. Thanks for providing the 73book!

Major Pepperidge said...

These items make me want to go through and scan some slides that I have of the park from 1972. Having never been there I can't really appreciate how different things look compared to today! AND I have a small batch from May 1971, when the park was still under construction.

Disneyana World said...

!

I've got some of this stuff too