Disney World Opens - Life Magazine October 1971

Disney World Opens from Life Magazine - October 15, 1971. This is the last and best of the three early Walt Disney World magazine articles I have to post prior to my upcoming trip to the Magic Kingdom. Check out the other two here:


Take a LOOK at Disneyworld - April 4, 1971

Boys Life – July 1973







In one month I will be at the “other park” in Florida for the very first time. To be honest, I am ambivalent about the going. The more I read online about the current condition of the “Florida” property the less exciting it seems. Therefore, I am open to any and all suggestions regarding how a “Socal” guy can have fun in Florida. (Email me at: Vintagedisneylandtickets@gmail.com)

Now on to the article. This one is seven pages long; I’ll keep quiet and let you read all the pages uninterrupted. Be sure to check out the two page aerial photo. It’s taken from an odd angle and with a super wide fish-eye type lens. This place is disorienting enough for me, but the aerial photo gives me weird dreams.












Don’t forget to give me some hints for Florida, so far the “Mickey Mouse Revue” looks like the best thing going, but I missed that by a few decades.

Now for some vintage ads, I just love these, I hope you enjoy them as well.

Oh boy, lets buy a Pinto? “It was alleged that the car's design allowed its fuel tank to be easily damaged in the event of a rear-end collision which sometimes resulted in deadly fires and explosions.” In reality the number of fire related deaths from those early Pintos (over 2 million built) was 27, about the same as any other car of the period. Actually, it’s kind of cute.






Now this is more my size. I once owned a 73 Lincoln Mark IV (similar underneath to this T-Bird) it had those early anti-lock brakes (Sure-Track) and they worked rather well.






Can’t ignore the GM folks, this is the last year before the ugly bumper laws made the front ends look awful!






Moving away from the ads for a moment and for the sports fans, here is a great vintage article about George Allen joining the Redskins after being with the Rams. The “RamSkins” Interesting that his Redskins would loose to Florida (that seasons' undefeated Miami Dolphins) in Superbowl XII (1973) 14 to 7.







Back for two more ads. How about a couple of vices?

Let’s start with some alcohol. Ah yes Seagram's 7 Crown, what a lively looking bunch of folks, look how neat and organized everything is. When my friends and I hang around all day and drink whisky on the rocks in tall glasses, we aren’t quite as well behaved…






***Disclaimer – Cigarettes are gross and they will kill you, don’t do it!*** That said, “The Lady has Taste” Eve cigarettes will always have and odd and disjointed place in my mind, as a 6 year old, these ads really had an profound impact on my little brain. “Smoke Pretty”, Well “Lady”, you’ll look “pretty” in that open casket!





Preview: A couple of fun days coming up on the blog; Tomorrow come celebrate American’s 200th anniversary with a Vintage America on Parade preview ticket (plus laugh along with me at my attempt to scan some related and faded commercial slides) and for Friday, a different type of “200th” celebration!

Fortnight - August 1955 "Chaos in Disneyland"

From August 1955 it’s “Fortnight – Magazine of the Pacific Coast”. This magazine is outright strange. I am not sure who the intended audience was, but I don’t think it would have been me. It’s all black and white except the covers, yet it’s rather “upscale” in its tone and advertising. Oh, and kind of snooty too…

Let’s start with the cover. I am not sure what to say (mom always says, try and say something nice) that’s a beautiful dog, the photo has a nice depth of field, I have no idea how those two gentlemen are and I’ll let you add you own caption.






The index page. A few words about the gents on the cover, still not helping me figure out who they are?






Three whole pages of luscious black and white were used to “review” that new "Disneyland" place, and well, they really aren’t so nice. Read it for yourself and see if you hear a certain “tone” “undoubtedly the crowds would drop off and there would be price adjustments” they were half right!






All of these photos on the following two pages are new to me, having only seen them here. I wish they were in color and better quality, but still fun to look at. That stagecoach running thru the “mud hole” looks completely unfamiliar to me, anyone else?







No American car ads in this magazine, I guess those cars weren’t for people of the “Pacific Coast”? Fun little Triumph TR2, over 100mph and 35 mpg! Hey, it's not parked on the Pacific Coast!!!






The back cover with some great 50’s artwork demonstrating how wonderful France was to visit, “Meet a King”.





I have read most of this magazine and it leaves me with an odd feeling that’s hard to describe. If anyone is interested in seeing one of the other articles listed in the index pages let me know, you might as have a sleepless night too!

Why Disney changed his mind about TV - TV Guide October 1954

"Why Disney changed his mind about TV". Here's a super TV guide from the week of October 23rd thru the 29th, 1954. October 27th would see the debut of the new TV show "Disneyland". I like how Goofy is combing Walt's hair!






The Article is but three pages long, which seems average for TV Guides of this vintage. Lots of interesting things, the "Lands" are two separate words "Fantasy Land", "Frontier Land" and "Adventure Land" and the forth land is "The World of Tomorrow". Repeatedly referred to as an "Amusement Park" this article correctly predicts a July 1955 opening date.






The 9 million dollar prediction was way off! I have read Walt thru in his own money at the end (and money from ???) to make the final total over 17 Million!






Here's the full page ad Disney placed for the debut of the Disneyland TV show at 7:30pm. Conveniently on the page next to the actual listing. Hmmm, Perry Como is on at 7:45, I'll give this "Disneyland" thing 15 minutes to impress me, otherwise it's Perry all the way!





A great two page article on the up coming Sunday two hour special David O. Selznick's "Lights Diamonds Jubilee" Carried on all four networks (who is the forth one?) and in COLOR! Wow, Jennifer Jones looks oh so stylish and pretty, then for my buddy Richard over at the Viewliner LTD, here's Kim Novak, Zowie, "Lovey" indeed. Grrrrrrr...





Color TV was in its infancy in late 1954. As this historic article states, there were 31 million TV sets the US in 1954, and 7,000 to 10,000 of them were color! And a good number of those were in stores unsold. "Eventually it is predicted, most TV programs will be produced in Color". This issue of TV Guide has 5 programs in color, 5 for the whole week!





The "new" RCA 21 inch Color set is expect to be around $800 to $900. Can you imagine that? The average annual household income in 1954 was around $4500, lets spend 20% of our annual income on a TV???? It's no surprise it took about a decade to get the prices down were people could rationalize getting a color set. We got our first color set in 1970 and none of my friends had one yet, we would all huddle around it on Friday nights to watch the "Brady Bunch - In Color"...






By far my favorite part of the old TV Guides is the TV Teletype sections. I love how the New York section gets first billing, "Hollywood" is continued a few pages later. Liberace is talking of getting married, PR spin at its finest...





I hope you enjoyed this little time travel journey to one of TV's Golden Years.

Disneyland in Life - August 15, 1955

Staying with yesterday’s “Magazine” themed post, today let’s set the way back machine to August 15, 1955. This is a four page article on Disneyland from Life Magazine. I didn’t scan the cover; it has no Disneyland references and has a not so flattering photo of General MacArthur.

Interesting how only four pages were dedicated to this Disneyland article. MacArthur gets 25 pages and an article on a 1950’s house wife “The 80-hour work week” gets 10 pages! I guess Disneyland was still not a “sure thing” just a few weeks after its opening, therefore if only gets four pages. And it’s very “light” on the text.

First up, the Tea Cups with no paint on the deck! That’s the “Mad Hatter’s Tea Party” to be more precise.







Next some shots of from the river boat as they “Circle Jungle Island”? The Castle shot slides over to the other page so I tried to include the whole castle in this scan. Notice the castle windows, you can see straight thru them! I don’t think I have ever noticed that in any of the old photos. Obviously this went away when they created the “walk thru” which by the way, I hear rumors it may be coming back!!!






Children’s Saloon? I suppose that’s because they don’t sell alcohol? Those Coke fountains sure look neat! Notice a few things on the Casey Jr. Ride; Nice landscaping for the Canal Boats! Is that a TV camera on a raised platform thing? If so, was this for the opening day broadcast? I thought Casey Jr. didn’t open for about a week after Disneyland opened so what’s up with the camera?





Lots O’ Indians in this picture, real ones! Interesting “Buckboard” ride, I don’t think I’ve seen that on any tickets! Not much to hold the guests in, better hold on tight.






This Life magazine is FULL of great 1955 car ads. I am a vintage car nut, I used to buy and sell them like trading cards, I am much better now. But I sure love looking at these old ads. Since I am mostly a GM fan, the first three are beauties by GM. Then a Mercury, Nash and a Studebaker. I guess Chrysler was not up to spending the advertising dollars to be in Life Magazine.


My first car was a 1956 Buick Super 4-door Riviera hardtop, very much like this 1955 Buick Century.










Even the ink pens were “car crazy” in 1955. Styled in Multimillion-dollar new car colors.






I thru this large two page “Dan River” ad in just because I like it. I’m told the 1950’s really weren’t this fun; it’s just the way everyone wanted it to be. Maybe that wasn’t a bad thing; at least they “wanted” it to be idealistic. Today, I am not so sure….

Boys Life - July 1973

Taking another magazine look at Walt Disney World today we present “Boys Life” (not to be confused with “Nuns Life”) from July 1973. “Boys Life is a magazine published by the Boy Scouts of America. Its targeted readership is young American males between the ages of 6 and 18.”

It’s an interesting article, told from “your” perspective about a trip to the Magic Kingdom. The scans are not slanted, the article itself is slanted! I did the best I could, just tilt your head a little as you read.










I used to study these ads with much care. Even as a kid I knew there had to be a catch to these ads. I’m guessing that selling greeting cards door to door in 1973 might not be as easy as you would think.






Since we are in 1973 and at Walt Disney World, how about a book full of tickets? June 1973.






$5.75, just a few coins higher than Disneyland. Now including 8 adventures, up one from the original 7 in 1971.




Attraction List.






Information Guide for Summer/Fall 1973. Check back on Bonus Sunday for the full guide. (Yes I have already posted a complete WDW 1974 Information Guide, but who knows what changes occurred in a whole year?)