*** Magic Mountain Update ***

A little update on today's Magic Mountain post. Major, yes I rode it backwards, that was nutty and forwards before they "fixed" it was crazy fun as well. I still ride Goldrusher at least once each visit and it still gives me the biggest smile. Good MM ephemera is scarce. I do have a decent collection however, you haven't seen it all yet!

Viewliner, I'm glad these bring back memories, they sure do for me.

Jed asked a good question "Where are the cars". The following three photo's come from David Michael or "Darkbeer" as he is known to Disneyland fans. Check out his great theme park pictures at: http://darkbeer.smugmug.com/

Here are the cars at the maintenance building with Flashback shown for reference. The main Metro station is in the lower left hand side of the photo.

Here is a close up of the cars. They sure look fine to me, I believe they are fiberglass. They used to be solid colors, I'm not sure when they changed. The People Mover did a similar color change in the 1980's.

And this is the exit cue for the Main Metro Station, just waiting to be used.

From everything I have read the reason the Metro is currently not running is the company that made the Metro is out of business and no parts are available. This is true, BUT....

Six Flags Over Georgia has the exact same Monorail system (actually a few years older than Magic Mountains, but the same thing) and it's still running! I imagine they fabricate the parts they need. These systems are not that complicated. They don't have any side "banking" to worry about and they were fully automatic in 1971 (a new car every two minutes) so how complex of a ride system is needed?

Can you tell I am passionate about the Metro? I once rode it once for 2 hours straight, round and round the park. I'd do it again in a heart beat!

The ABC's of Magic Mountain

“Our ABC’s” From Magic Mountain. This undated brochure from Magic Mountain is from the early 1970’s. I believe the “ABC’s” comment is a direct poke at Disneyland’s ticket book plan. Disneyland even had the little handouts about the tickets that were titled “The ABC’s of ticket books”. This was Magic Mountains way of saying “look what one price gets you” (“o” is for one price).

First up of course you must park you car (“p” is for parking”). So here is your parking ticket, 75 cents! Hey it’s only $15 to park there now, WHAT?





And here is the entire little brochure. I love the trolls and they are sprinkled throughout. Wow, someone likes lime green!

And since there is not much color in this brochure, here are a few post cards from the early days, boy do I remember it like this.

The Grand Prix (autopia with a smaller track) and my beloved Metro. Don’t even get me started on the Metro Monorail. It’s all still there, the stations, the tracks, the cars. REOPEN IT Six Flags!

Ah Eagles Fright, I mean Flight. That thing scared the living daylights out of me. My friends would try to rock the cage at 200+ feet in the air. This was the only time I actually threatened to strangle someone, they stopped – I never rode it again.

And the Mountain Express. Currently Flashback is on this same site. Having ridden both, I can attest that the Mountain Express was a much better ride. I believe Flashback is still there, rotting and rusting away. I read somewhere that the Mountain Express was sold and is still in use, but I don't know where.



I hope you enjoyed a retro look at the Mountain!

One Price Buys the Mountain - Early 1970's

Here’s a great little Tri-fold brochure from Magic Mountain, before it was “Six Flags” and before it was roller coaster-land.

No date on this, but judging by the $5 price for an adult I would place it around 1973/74. It's after the opening day of May 29th, 1971 (Inaugural Day Guest Preview link) and before my 1975 post from last month (link) where the price was $5.95.

The characters used on this brochure are a little different than the usual “Trolls and Wizard” seen on most of the paper items and souvenirs of the 1970’s. These guys don’t look like Bloop, Bleep or Blop?

Do you think they are trying to stress “Family Fun”? Mom, Dads, Sisters, Brothers, Grandpas, Grandmas, Aunts, Uncles, 3rd cousins twice removed!

This map shows its age, folks around here will notice the 118 (Ronald Reagan Freeway) is missing.

I think I’ll use my BankAmericard!

I hope you enjoyed our little detour to the Mountain today, tomorrow it's back to THE park.

Magic Mountain - 1975

Today we travel about 60 miles north of Disneyland or "2 Gallons North of Hollywood" to Magic Mountain. For those readers not from Southern California or not familiar with Magic Mountain see my post about opening day May 29th, 1971. (Link)

For today, let's pretend it's sunny and warm like the front cover of this wonderful brochure from May 1975.




Supposedly Magic Mountain and it's "Our one price includes unlimited use of all rides..." policy from opening day is one of the contributing factors as to why Disneyland had to finally adopt the same policy, and lost the A-E tickets in order to remain competitive. One thing is for certain, Disneyland's tickets also has more class and actually look and felt like they were worth something. This ticket is cute, but it's just normal card stock paper and pretty basic.

That said, I have always dug the Wizard and the trolls; Blop, Bloop and Beep. I'm glad they made it on the ticket. $5.95 for an adult is about the same cost of a Disneyland Adult Admission and 10 Adventures book in 1975. Why do I like low serial numbers, are they really any different???

Your Guide to Magic Mountain. If you ever went there in the 1970's, why don't you study this map? It will bring back fun memories...

This brochure is HUGE, when fully open it's approx. 15" by 22", way out of range for my little scanner so I scanned it as best I could. The next two scans are the top left and right sides, sort of a day and night thing.

Daytime fun! I want the Metro Monorail back so bad it keeps me awake at night! It's all there still, the track, the trams, the stations. BRING BACK THE METRO!

Night time activities. Yes, that's Doc Severinsen!

Four new additions for 1975. Here's the first three; The Grand Centennial Excursion Railroad was Great, gone in 1985. Portal House, must still be there, remodeled I am sure. Oh, and some little Roller Coaster that has a LOOP! Too bad it did not make the Winter 1975 completion date, it opened in 1976. I wonder why it was delayed?

And forth of the new attractions, the Magic Pagoda. This has got to be one of the weirdest places in a major amusement park. It was a fun house of sorts. I don't remember it all, but here is what I do remember. It's a walk thru attraction that starts in a maze of mirrors and bad lighting, I've been lost in there for at least 15 minutes, next some freaky Buda statute, not sure what the point was there, I was kid I might be missing parts of this. Then there is a huge dark room with strobe lights and a dragon flying around the ceiling on a concealed track (this room was famous for, um, closeness with your date) then off to some odd little glass chamber where you could get in and then everyone else on the other side of the glass would witness you disappear then reappear. Man that place was just weird.

Here's Bloop (or is it Bleep or Blop?) telling how the 70's folks should get high, "On Fun" It's a cool message, an area Disneyland never traveled into. I wonder why this little bird has an exclamation point over his head?

Tomorrow is ----------> "Random Sunday" See you then......

Magic Mountain - Inaugural Guest Preview Day

Since we've been focusing on Disneyland tickets all week, lets take a one hour trip north from Disneyland this Saturday morning. Let go to Valencia, California, May 21st and 22nd, 1971!


Magic Mountain will open to the public on May 29th, 1971, but we are getting a sneak preview one week before. This ticket was never used, someone missed out on a very cool opportunity! I wonder what the "National Assistance League Enchanted Evening" was all about? "Gourmet Dinner and Champagne" Sign me up! Reiss Davis (Huh?) Preview day 12pm to 10pm, where do I check in????

Here is a compete scan of the brochure that came with this ticket. This is from before the park was even open.

My scanner isn't big enough to scan the entire front. it opens up as one big picture. I had to break it into two scans, but you get the idea. This is amazing art work, I love the early 70's feel, not too much detail, but enough to get the mood and look they were aiming for.

Inside, these artist renditions are great! Reminds me of the first Disneyland tour book from 1955, when there weren't any pictures to take yet since notice was finished until the last minute."Family Funland" interesting how Six Flags is currently trying to reinvent what they once had.

This is the Magic Mountain I remember well. My Grand parents took me and my brother to Magic Mountain in June 1971, all that Valencia grass and no shade! Magic Mountain being just a few miles from where I grew up and still live, I have spent every summer of my childhood there. Too bad I can barely recognize the place today....

Tomorrow, We are going back south, down interstate 5, almost to Disneyland, but we are going to spend the day at Knott's!