Monday, January 18, 2010

New West Magazine - December 4, 1978

Welcome to Magazine Monday. Today we’ve got lots of Disney articles is the December 4, 1978 edition of New West Magazine. New West was started in 1972 by New York Magazine to cover California life. “The Disney Vision” is a series of lengthy articles with lots of text.






A great article, with a lot to say. I’m thinking the editors had the feeling that the more words the more intellectual it will seem.











At the end of the article John Hench notices the trees on Main Street have grown too large and are out of scale, "I guess we're going to have to do something about that" he says, and in 1981 they did so something about it (link).






Cartoons Come Back! Funky early Pinocchio sketch.






Interesting stuff here… Lord of the Rings? More about that later.








Everyone seemed to know the upcoming ECPOT was not Walt’s vision, so why bother?












A sign of the times…







How about some vintage advertisements? Most of the ads are for booze, this being the best one, give Amaretto to a Priest, whisper in his ear then watch him smile.






The American car companies were in a world of hurt in 1978 (has history repeated itself?) therefore there is a noticeable lack of any ads from them. VW of course stepped right in and was ready to sell you a Rabbit (pulled from a hat of course).






Ok, technically this is an American car company, but this cute little Challenger was imported from Japan. Gotta love that interior!






The New Toyota Truck” nah, it’ll never sell.






The Lord of the Rings”. I must have completely missed this back in 1978. Most notable for its extensive use of “rotoscoping”, this movie looks pretty bad (link).






Glad Rags indeed.






What? You can record a show and watch a different one at the same time, pure magic. I bet within 10 years everyone will have a BetaMax in their living room.






4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Charlie Haas article is unquestionably one of the best pieces I have ever read on the subject of Disneyland and the ways in which it subtly manipulates our psyches and emotions. His many faults notwithstanding, Walt Disney's instinctive and intuitive understanding of what it takes to connect with middling Americans, making them feel safety, enjoyment, contentment, and euphoria, continues to astonish. Very nice post, very nice indeed.

Major Pepperidge said...

I have that magazine... actually bought it off the news stand at the time! Love the John Hench stuff. The Bakshi version of "The Lord of the Rings" is a disappointment. Sometimes the rotoscoping looks like high-contrast Xeroxes of live action. And the article about the state of animation is great too, I remember my anticipation for all the upcoming Disney productions, especially The Black Cauldron (snore!).

TokyoMagic! said...

Yep, I have this one too from back in the day....my family subscribed to New West.

Wow, that Toyota ad reminds me of the commercial they ran back then, "You, asked for it...YOU GOT IT, TOYOTA...YOU GOT IT TOYOTA!

Disney On Parole said...

I still have my Beta Max !!!
Somethings you just don't let go!!! LOL