Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Walt Disney Word - 1972 Blow Out Celebration

As Walt Disney World’s 40th anniversary gets ever closer can’t you just feel the excitement in the air? Do you think Anaheim will do anything on Oct 1st to celebrate? (Is Florida even celebrating it?) Well we’re celebrating it here on the blog - just like Gorilla's Don't Blog.

Today’s post is all 1972! Up first the cover to the Fall/Winter 1972 issue of Walt Disney World Vacationland. This is issue number 2 of Volume 1; can you guess which issue I’m going to post on Oct 1st?





Here's a great 6 page article from this issue on the Grand Opening of Walt Disney World. Come back on Super Bonus Sunday for the entire magazine. For anyone that noticed, the Summer 1976 issue of WDW Vacationland from last week’s post (link) didn’t get posted last Sunday (insert dog-ate-homework excuse here) therefore look for it this weekend on WDW Super Sunday.











The following are reposts from 2008, but who can remember back that far anyway?

A nice glossy color brochure from 1972 showcasing how Walt Disney World is the Vacation Kingdom of the World!









Courtesy Guest” book of 5 A thru E good on any attraction tickets from September 1972. These are the “complimentary” tickets that seem pretty plentiful even today. I think hotels and travel agents gave these out like candy, especially in the later 1970’s.




Cool Key design with the original WDW logo in it.




A run down of the attractions available in September 1972.





Here is a nice “7 Adventure" book from March 1972. It has all it’s a thru E tickets, but it's missing the main gate and transportation ticket.



Again, a slightly higher price than a “10 Adventure book” from Disneyland of the same time period. I wonder what justification Disney used to constantly charge more for the Magic Kingdom than at Disneyland. With fewer tickets and fewer attractions at the Magic Kingdom, you would think it would be cheaper? Maybe the Disney Co. had to recoup its capital expenses?






Let’s take a close look at a special Magic Kingdom Club ticket for Walt Disney World. Dated 1972, this ticket offered up all kind of fun options. I want to try the Trapper Canoe.




Alcoholic beverages are not included unless specified” so there! Notice the Globe paper, it’s a little different than the attraction ticket paper. The water mark "Globe" seal is similar, but on this ticket it states “Globe Ticket Company”, on the attraction tickets it states “Globe Ticket Safety”.




Here’s a 1972 “A” ticket from Walt Disney World, you can see the different seal wording and the pattern of the background it wavy, not checkered like the special ticket above.




Gotta have some color! I love the Mickey Ear balloons.


5 comments:

Chiana_Chat said...

Super DeLuxe post!

You know I'd really like wallpaper sized images of some of those shots used in vacationland there (they wouldn't turn out from the mag I'm just pipe dreaming I guess). For example the night one outside of the Contemporary where you can see the mural inside.

Don't worry about the ticket prices, they fixed that by charging massively more for both!

I like the key ticket.

Looking forwards to Bonus Sunday!

Pegleg Pete said...

Great post! I'm really loving all the WDW items.

Abe Lucas said...

I'll be at WDW on Oct 8, so hopefully there'll be some residual 40th anniversary activity going on.

TokyoMagic! said...

Great vintage WDW items! But now I'm confused. I always thought that WDW opened on Oct. 1st, but that first article mentions three days of special pageantry, celebration and dedication ceremonies in LATE October and that dedication plaque is dated October 25th. Did the park open Oct. 1st, but then they waited three weeks to have the official ceremonies?

Major Pepperidge said...

I'm getting a good chuckle at the list of celebrities at the Grand opening. Not ONE young-ish, hip person. Nowadays they want as many young TV personalities they can rope in, even if you've never heard of them.