Sunday, November 30, 2008

Bonus Sunday

Welcome to a short Bonus Sunday, short but sweet. From Monday's post (link) here is a great Vacationland from Winter Spring 1969. This is one from the two year period where the magazines were slightly larger, mostly taller.


Vacationland Winter-Spring 1969 - 50mb





Super Centerfold.






I like this C & H Sugar ad from the last page. I guess "Speckles" was no longer the official Disneyland sugar, when did that change occur?





Having some spare time this long Holiday weekend was great, I am happy to report my blogger desk is finally all cleaned up and most of my goodies are organized, categorized and safely placed in protective sleeves and binders.  Wow, I've got a ton of stuff to post.  December will be quite busy here on the blog, there's lots of Holiday tickets n' stuff to share! 


**** Update **** Here's a fun little (used) C & H Sugar packet.


Friday, November 28, 2008

Disneylander - April, 1958

From April 1958, this is what appears to be a reproduction of the “Disneylander” magazine, published monthly by the Disneyland Recreation Club.

While it is a so-so reproduction, it has a great cover photo and some neat detailed information about how the Columbia hull was moved into place.








Also an interesting article on the Grand Canyon Diorama official dedication. Did you know both Omnibuses left Disneyland and went to the Anaheim Santa Fe train station to pick up Santa Fe officials and take them to Disneyland?  Are the Omnibuses street legal?






The rest is pretty dry and “insider” info from 1958.  Did you know Joe Derkowski shorted out all of the lights on the last Viewliner car without even trying?




Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving Weekend at Disneyland - Nov. 28 & 29, 1980

It's Thanksgiving Weekend at Disneyland - Nov. 28 & 29, 1980. Great line-up of talent including Frankie Avalon and Harry James and his Big Band.






Lots of 25th anniversary celebrations still going on, at least they would cease by the end of 1980 and not continue for 2 more years, how silly would that be?





The "Polynesian Revue" Bring back the Tahitian Terrace, doesn't Disney know all thinks Tiki and Tahitian are in again!





Wishing everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving, god bless you and every single person in this great country, I don't know about you, but I sure have a lot to be thankful for.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Walt Disney World 1978 E-Ticket to Space Mountain

It’s time for the Florida park some to get some attention. Let’s take his 1978 “E” Ticket and see if we can have some fun. This “E” ticket really does have Walt Disney World’s best attractions, decisions decisions…





How about Space Mountain? The attraction sure looks great even in black and white! The photo is dated 1978, but it could be an older stock photo. The Skyway bucket sure seems "open"...






The description is taped to the back and the tape has become one with the photo backing so you’ll have to tilt your head to read it. Oh, Copyright Walt Disney Productions, so there.






In case you’re curious, here is the back of the 1978 WDW ticket book. They stopped listing all the attractions a few years after they shrunk the tickets down (Disneyland listed the attraction until the end of the lettered tickets). It does list the free attractions, too bad “If you had Wings” is gone, it seemed really fun.






$9, late 70’s inflation rearing its ugly head. Notice the Florida state sales tax, the marvelous state of California (in one of its many states of confusion) is considering a 10% sales tax on theme park tickets, that’s bound to help the economy!





Come back tomorrow to kick off a Thanksgiving Weekend at Disneyland with Frankie Avalon.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Square Dancers Night at Disneyland November 22, 1980

It’s Square Dancers Night at Disneyland November 22, 1980. November 22nd seems to have been a popular day for private events at Disneyland; I have at least 5 event tickets with November 22nd as the date, odd given the historic significance of that date.

A rare appearance of Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow (see them on a neat post from Gorilla’s don’t blog).





OK everyone, swing your partner, allemande left and promenade...

Monday, November 24, 2008

Aerojet Employee's Annual Family Fun Night at Disneyland - Nov. 22, 1969

Not much time for text today, so this is a self-guided post. Google "Aerojet" you'll see they are BIG, Check back on Bonus Sunday for the complete Vacationland shown below.












Sunday, November 23, 2008

Bonus Sunday & Knott's Before and After part 5

Welcome to Bonus Sunday. Up first, from Friday’s Disneyland Album - TV Guide January 1955 - Part 3 post, here is the complete TV Guide. Loads of fun 1955 stuff in here!


TV Guide Jan. 15-21 1955 – 24mb






This one is for you Katella Gate:






Heading back for one last look at my recent trip to the farm, here is the current Knott's map. It's HUGE, which does make up for the flimsy tissue paper it’s printed on.






Lot’s of detail on this map, for the high resolution version click here (Link – 24mb)






More details on the back.






One last before and after I forgot in the previous posts. Here is Deadwood Dick’s Grave on 1950’s post card.






Deadwood Dick is still dead. They either did a great job “recreating” the wooden tombstone or it's the same piece of wood that’s been there all along.






I have not seen this vintage fire engine in any old photos, has it always been at the farm?






Now for a little bit of “what’s gone”. The issue of "what’s gone" at Knott’s could constitute an entire blog on its own, there is so much vintage Knott’s that is gone without even a trace. So, I’d like to bring up these “recent” missing attractions, as I seem to recall they were there not too long ago.

First and foremost, WHERE IS THE ORIGINAL BERRY STAND???? It was at the farm in 2002/03 I’m sure of it, the stand had an old pickup truck next to it and both we located near where the Church of Reflections used to stand.






I sure hope the berry stand was kept somewhere at the farm, at least backstage in storage.






And second in importance is the Little Chapel by the Lake. This was a trademark building for Knott’s Berry Farm. I know they took it out to build a roller coaster (Silver Bullet I think) but what did they do with it? This is depressing, it would be like taking the Bears out of the Country Bear Jamboree, oh wait…..






And last up, indulge me as I get just a little more depressed. This was the entrance to Knott’s Bear-y Tales. Unused and…






Un-maintained. At least sand and paint this please.






As fans of Knott’s Bear-y Tales remember, the attraction had you exit via a ramp the let you out downstairs in the arcade. Well ramp is still there.






Very, very unused. Oh the many times I ran down that ramp just to go outside and run back up the entrance ramp to ride this fabulous attraction again and again.






The arcade looks remarkably the same. The games have been updated (in technology and price) but otherwise this room is so unchanged it’s like visiting my grandma’s house.





Hopefully I have not lost any of my faithful readers with this Knott’s before and after reminiscing all week. I really was surprised at how much old Knott’s (mostly Ghost Town) still exists so I’d thought it would be nice to share.. Next week we’ll get back to some cool vintage Disneyland stuff.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Disneyland Album - TV Guide January 1955 - Part 3

From January 15-21, 1955, this TV Guide is part three of a four part series called “Disneyland Album”. You can see parts one and two here (Part 1) (Part 2). Check back next Friday for the fourth and last part.

Why Panel Shows are ‘Rigged’. Interesting to note this was almost two years before the Charles Van Doren Twenty-one scandal that put these early games show out of business for a decade.






The TV TeletypeNew York Edition. WOW, that episode of Studio One “It might happen tomorrow” sounds like it was way ahead of its time, I sure would like to see it.






The Hollywood TV Teletype (still on the back side!) "ABC is working on plans for Walt Disney to do an hour-long, five-day a week daytime show from his new amusement park 'Disneyland' starting next fall". Did this become the Mickey Mouse Club? I don’t recall the MMC being filmed at Disneyland.






Here’s this weeks Disneyland page featuring Frontierland. Again its slim on info and not really related to the park, except some of those names would appear in Frontierland.






Wednesday’s line-up includes; two Color episodes on “Norby” (never heard of it except in these old TV Guides), the premier episode of “The Millionaire”. 'My name is Michael Anthony…' I loved that show! And of course, Disneyland. This week’s episode has Walt arguing the existence of sea serpents.






Who’s funny now? A young Johnny Carson, Jay’s OK, but sometimes I sure do miss Johnny. There’s Pat Caroll again!





Check back Bonus Sunday for the entire issue, it’s always a fun trip thru time.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Knott's Berry Farm - Before & After part 4

If you’re still with me then hang on because there’s another 25 images again today. Things start off nicely, but you’ll see as my tour progressed it got harder and harder to find the Vintage in the Farm.

Let’s start in Fiesta Village, here’s a great image from an early 80’s brochure.






The fountain is still there, I took this photo from he wrong angle to match the old photo, but since it was from my feeble memory, at least I got the fountain.






The spin and barf Hat Dance from the late 1970’s.






Still spinning and bright as ever!






The old carousel from a 1950’s souvenir guide. Did you know: Knott's carousel is a classic Dentzel carousel. The carousel has 52 animals and two chariots and is considered to be one of the finest examples of the "golden age" carousels still in operationhttp://www.bear-ytales.net/






The carousel is now enclosed and I'm sure it has been moved at least once according to the old maps (link).






My camera stinks for these shady shots, but its all still there, and in fine shape too. Some of the animals are a bit scary, those ostrich’s are weird. There were even a couple of giraffes.






This neat music machine was in a space above the carousel. It sure looks old, I would love to have heard it, do you think it still works?






The Skycabin Tower and the Parachute Jump from hell.






Still a tower and sky cabin, but thankfully, no cages daggling from thin cables hundreds of feet up.






This area brings back some darn freighting memories.






Looking at the fountain in front of the wonderful and much missed Knott’s Bear-y Tales attraction.






The fountain looks the same, the rest of the area seems boring now.






Sadly, the Knott’s Bear-y Tales attraction is long gone and the upstairs area appears to be unused or may be a laser tag arena (yikes). The arcade still exists below.






Interesting that this Roaring 20’s sign is still up. I don’t think they have a Roaring 20’s area any longer, unless you count this sign. Do you think it lights up at night?






Technically, this should be filed under “missing”, but, you be the judge. This is part of the super lake that was once a major element of the farm. At one time, this lake was rather large, big enough for the paddle wheeler Cordellia K. (This might be the lake that was across the street, oops...)






Portions of the lake were calm at one time, perfect for a Church or Chappell. Thanks for the 1955 photo Daveland!






This "after" photo is looking in the same direction as Daveland’s 1955 photo above. YIKES, just take the lake out completely, this is an insult.






Speaking of the above view, lets set things back again to the 1950’s. The Church of Reflections as seen in a 1959 Chicken Dinner menu. As you may have noticed in the above photo, the Church is now gone; some giant roller coaster load building is in its place.






The Church of Reflections is still at Knott’s, well, kind of. Its way over on the (west?) side of the parking lot! I accessed it from a path that also leads to a day camp. The Church looks great. I would guess it’s been completely rebuilt using just the windows and other trim from the old building. Maybe not, but it sure seemed “new”.






It’s even got central air conditioning.






Independence Hall as seen from across the street in October 1970, thanks Dave.






As seen today from across the street.






From the back of a 1975 souvenir guide.






As seen today. Hey, this “replica” is amazing. I always thought it was 1/5th scale or something small, its HUGE and VERY authentic.







My camera can’t do the interior any justice; you really should check this place out for yourself. I like this wording on the main entry wall.






This “lake” is around the back side of Independence Hall and appears to have an Island? Part of this area was closed off, I need to come back and check this whole area out better.






Parking was easy, no tram required.





Come back Sunday for a few follow-ups to this series; Full scan of the Current Map/Guide, “What’s Gone”?, and some odds & ends.