Wednesday, December 9, 2009

CastleView - December 1981

CastleView is the “Disneyland Cast Magazine”, not to be confused with the Disneylander or the Disneyland Line. Isn’t the cover painting on this December 1981 issue spectacular? It’s as if Charles Boyer knew that someday they would actually put snow on the castle and make it snow on Main Street.






Here’s a note from Dick Nunis. This is issue 1 volume 1 and the only issue of CastleView I’ve ever seen. Does anyone (Jason…) know how many issues were produced by “Cast Communications, Disneyland University, Disneyland”?






That looks more like Main Street in December. In case you are curious, that towering tannenbaum is a white fir, 62 feet tall. Notice the guy-wires (no relation to Guy-Williams) steadying the tree, they don’t use those anymore, come to think of it, they don’t use a real tree anymore either.






The index of the magazine lists this article as “Fantasyland (a brief history)” then proceeds to spill out eight pages filed with tons of super text and 21 vintage photos. Come back on Bonus Sunday to get the entire article.






This page is for my friend TokyoMagic. Doesn’t this awesome photo look amazingly similar to early 1955 photos of Disneyland Anaheim?






This maintenance article has lots of information about the tree replacements on Main Street (the original Elms grew too large) and rebuilding the Frontierland entrance from scratch.






Getting some color back in this post and getting back to Christmas, here’s your invitation to the 30th Annual Disney Family Christmas Party at Disneyland.






The party was exactly 24 years ago today - December 9, 1985. Tickets are based on your dependency listing - Huh? Are they talking about how many kids you have or your drinking problem, either way its kind of weird. Oh look, Dick Nunis signed our card, I recognize most of the other names too, but who is that Michael E. guy?





Come back on Bonus Sunday for the entire CastleView magazine.

8 comments:

TokyoMagic! said...

Hey VDT...yes, that shot does look like early aerial photos of DL under construction.

This magazine was from that one Xmas season that I worked at the park and I have wondered if there were other issues that followed it.

I've always thought it looked like there was a round Skyway bucket hanging inside the wooden framework of the Skyway Chalet in that one pic....what do you think?

TokyoMagic! said...

Also...do you think that could be the Rainbow Caverns show building under construction behind the Fantasyland Theater?

Major Pepperidge said...

So COOL, I have NEVER heard of this magazine before. Looks like it is full of good stuff, too bad they didn't run with the idea. I'm looking forward to seeing the whole issue, thanks!

Jason Schultz said...

I actually have this. I've asked around before, and nobody I've asked knows of any others.

What seems to have happened is the Disney University was experimenting with putting less in the weekly Line, to be supplemented with a (quarterly?) magazine with more in-depth material. The one issue of CastleView is fantastic, but unfortunately it meant that for months the Line was just four pages of mostly DRC (Disneyland Recreation Club) activities. If this hadn't happened, I think there'd be at least one good Line story about the demolition of old Fantasyland...

MIKE COZART said...

Is the cover art creduted to Charles Boyer?? It seems like some of his work. The Art of Disneyland book features the entire painting used on that cover of Castle View........it says the artist is unknown abd believed to have been created for a special event concept called "Winterfest"......and remember it did snow on Disneyland's Main Street in 1976 "Christmas at Disneyland" ABC holiday special!

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

TokyoMagic; That does look like one of the buckets in the Chalet, why would it be in there, I don't see any cables yet? Gotta be Rainbow Caverns in the background, looks like a lot of dirt to move around!

Thanks for the Info Progressland! This does feel like a "Line" with a major upgrade. I'm curious if this is the only issue? The credits claim 8 issues per year will be published?

Hey Mike: The cover is credited to Charles (link) no mention of "Winterfest" but I sure want to know more about it?? I forgot all about the 76 Christmas special with Sandy Duncan!!! I'd love to see that again, can't find it on youtube.

MIKE COZART said...

I suspect that a Skyway cabin was in there to test the clearence and openings. This photo was taken in a time that things could be build "off-the-cuff" and a decorative "challet" station probably had never been built like this for the Von-Roll sytem. Today there would be 82 agencies and endless red tape before conctsruction could even begin on a Skyway today.

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