What, no Fantasmic? May 6th 1992

May 6th, 1992, as the ashes of Los Angles were still smoldering from the riots just days earlier I decided, “Let's go to Disneyland”. I Figured the crowds would be low and I could get to see the new “Fantasmic” show I had heard so much about.

Well, it wasn’t crowded; in fact, it was as empty as I have ever seen it. Zero lines and zero people, it was odd, but acted as a great distraction, since I live in Los Angeles and had just seen a total breakdown of society.

But there was no Fantasmic show that day. There really wasn’t any mention of why it wasn’t showing and I wasn’t aware at the time that it was scheduled to open on the day of the Riots, April 29, 1992. Source: Wikipedia (link). Can anyone verify that date as? I understand anyone can supply info to Wikipedia, so you never know.

From Wikipedia: "The original Disneyland soft-opening and press premiere was scheduled to begin Wednesday April 29, 1992 and continue through the weekend. By late afternoon rioting began in Los Angeles following the acquittal of the Los Angeles police officers involved in the Rodney King beating. Promotional materials with the catch-phrase "Be Here When the Night Ignites" were quickly pulled from public circulation."

Here is the Guide I was given at the gate on May 6th, 1992. Guide print date is 1/92. Isn’t it nice how I folded it as much as possible?





This is the Guide I should have been given and was given out after May 13th, 1992. The print date is 4/92.




The front cover folds out to a super 4-page layout of the new Fantasmic show!




Here is a cute page from the back section of the Guide.





Both of the above guides will be included in their entirety this coming Bonus Sunday.

I found the neatest thing at Disneyland yesterday - tune in tomorrow to see! No it wasn’t riding Thunder Mountain 4 times in a row (a two minute line) although that was FUN!!!

Knott's Berry Farm Ticket Sign

The last several Monday's have been dedicated to the Knott's Lettered ticket series, and while it did have to end (sob) I think we'll keep Monday's as Knott's ticket day for a while.

This great Knott's Ticket sign photo was donated to the blog by Chris Merritt. The price on the Super Bonanza Ticket Book places this around April 1979. However, as you can see, the prices were updated on this sign, therefore the sign itself is probably older. "Territory Unlimited" tickets, WOW, I've never even heard of those, I sure would like to see one, anybody?

Here are a pair of ticket books from April 1979. The prices (and the value prices) match the sign.



Front of the books, minus the gate admission ticket.



Although a couple of years older, this is what the Main Gate Admission ticket looks like.




The back of the sign has this "Special Event" sign. Chris suggested this could have been used for the Halloween Haunt and other private events. Thanks for sharing your sign with us Chris!





Here's a ticket from my last visit to Knott's. I went in July 2003. My employer gave me the tickets, which was nice and made the shock of what the place looked like not as bad. At least the Church and the lake were still there, now I am truly afraid to go and see "whats' left".

Tomorrow: What, no Fantasmic?

Today: I'm at the "Park" all day!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bonus Sunday

I bet you had a sleepless night wondering who was getting out of that Limousine in the Little Golden Book "Disneyland on the Air" from yesterday's post? Sorry about leaving the story hanging right there, please accept this full scan of the entire book. I promise, you will feel so much better after you read the whole thing.

The artwork really is great in this book, check out the all-star cast inside, even Tinkerbell gets herself in on one of the pages! It's a fun read too, enjoy.


Little Golden Book - Disneyland on the Air - 1955(39mb)

From 1974, this is a Postcard/Dial Guide. I have dialed in number "2" The Skyway to Fantasyland, it's that little pink dot.




Closeup of the "dial" section.




The back is very cool, it has the key with all the attraction numbers and a neat triangle opening that shows the description of the numbered attraction you dialed in. This "Postcard" is 8 1/2" by 11" so it's a pretty big postcard!

Tomorrow: The Monday Knott's lettered ticket series ended last week, but how about some great Knott's Ticket signage???

Souvenir Saturday

Today we have two neat little items for Souvenir Saturday. First up, a Disneyland Hallmark Card from July 10, 1962.




Usually the hand written text is pretty standard dry stuff, “Having fun, wish you were here”. However, the author (“The Gababouts”) of this card had an eventful small airplane trip to get to Disneyland. From trying to gain altitude in Death Valley to landing in Van Nuys with a broken radio. Since they had to drive to Long Beach to fix the radio, why not go to Disneyland and Knott’s!




Here is it flipped upside down.





Fascinating information on the back side, the author states “We have one more ticket for one more ride, then we will go”. I wonder what ticket they had and what did they use it on?





Today's other Souvenir is a “Little Golden Book” from 1955. Disneyland on the Air, I guess at one time they considered doing the TV show from the Opera house. This little book does confirm that. It also shows how impractical it would be. Here is the cover and a few pages that show Main Street, oh and Donald!









See you tomorrow on Bonus Sunday!

Magic Mountain Double Ride Days - How about the New Colossus?

Time to head north of the Disneyland (or about 2 gallons north of Hollywood) to Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia.

Its Double Ride Days, you get to stay on the ride and go around again! I wonder how you got one of these? This card is large at 8 ½ by 3 inches. It’s also made of thick plastic; it won’t tear, wrinkle or fade. They must have re-used these?





I think I’ll use this on the New Colossus! As soon as Six Flags took over Magic Mountain (in 1979 for 51 million dollars!) they “fixed” Colossus. I rode Colossus before and after the changes done in these photos. In my humble opinion, it was much better before. It was more terrifying and thrilling, I recall getting lifted out of my seat and having to hold on or else. Come to think of it, I can see why they changed it.





Looks fun still, of course they are not showing the hills they cut way down, the ones where you had to hold on for your life!





In this photo, if you look behind and to the right of Valerie Bertinelli in the front row, you can see the lower section of the tracks, those “humps” used to be much more dramatic. The wizard looks confused, maybe it’s Eddie Van Halen in there?





And because these post really needs some color, here is a nice post card of the kids area from 1986.





I hear lots of good things about Magic Mountain these days, they really are trying to clean the place up and make it friendly again. I will be going to the “Mountain” in a couple weeks, I’ll be sure to update you on its progress and the Magic Mountain Museum they put up in the Sky Tower!!!

20 tickets in one book?

Those familiar with Disneyland Ticket Books will recognize the “11 Adventure” book or the “15 adventure" book. Older folks might remember the “Big 10” and “Jumbo 15” books, and if you go WAY back, you might remember the original “8 Fabulous Rides” book. But how many people remember the “20” ticket book?

These are the rarest in my collection, and up until recently I had very little information on them. I still don’t have a lot of info, but here’s what we know.

June 1963, this Child Special Guest Book in a special blue color. Oddly, this book has all 8 of its “D” tickets left, but no other tickets?





June 1964, this Adult Special Guest Book gets a neat purple color. There is only one “A” ticket left in this book; someone had a Great 19 adventure day in 1964!





June 1965, this Junior Special Guest Book has one neat “D” ticket left, another happy guest!






This is a page from a fantastic and rare 1958 Disneyland Catalog. You can find the entire catalog on Jed’s great blog, “Vintage Disneyland Goodies” (Post link). The first thing for sale in this 1958 catalog is “Gift Ticket Books for Giving”. Listed are the standard “Big 10” and “Jumbo 15” books, but also the “Golden 20” book. Note; the “plus 2 free tickets” are the same type as the “Bonus” tickets from my previous post (link).





And here is one of those “Golden 20 Books”. Looks like a special serial number prefix of “B” then “G” or Book/Golden?






These are the first style of ticket books that had the “Welcome” message on the blue sheet. This book may look like the books for the next 30+ years, but notice the “C” ticket is in the 3rd of 4 positions; there was no “E” ticket yet. Also the letter “C” is in black print, not the familiar purple it will get in 1959 and retain until 1982.





The inside of the back cover did not list the attractions until June 1959, prior to that, this area had this neat little message about ticket books from Tinker bell.






The 1958 “C” ticket. 8 of those 11 attractions are still in operation today. I am in no way counting the current Astro Orbitor as the 1956 Astro-Jet, especially since the original Astro-Jet mechanism sits up on top of the people mover platform to this day.






This is interesting; this card (currently on eBay #290227048654) is also from 1958. This was for corporations to give their employees discounted tickets. I don’t have any of those books! Yet.

By the way, there was a 13 ticket book too (a future post!)....

Disneyland and the Armed Services

Today’s themed ticket post was an idea sparked by a great scan sent to me by Major over at Gorilla’s Don’t Blog (link). Disneyland had several special ticket plans for members of the armed services; let’s take a look at a few of them today.

First up, graciously donated scan from Gorilla’s Don’t Blog, from May 1970 “Welcome Home To All Returning Viet Nam Service Men”. $1.00 for admission and 10 tickets, way to go Disneyland! It sure is neat the way Disneyland honored the service men this way, they could have just offered the discount, but they made up special tickets too. Notice the serial number begins with “V”

Inside the May 1970 book are 10 special tickets, very similar to “magic key” tickets of the time, with the exception of these getting that special cyan print color on the key and “Admit One”. Also, Major reports the actual tickets in his book are 10¢ thru 85¢, so my “loose” ticket example below must be slightly older than 1970.






Next up, “Armed Forces Weekends” these examples are from the “ticket binder” scan collection. I think it says "1968". Nice touch with the each branch of the service getting there own logo/shield. Serial number begins with “AF”.





Two admissions and 12 tickets, still a great deal at $5.25.






From my collection, dated September 1977, it’s “Military Weekends”. This book has never been used. It has a “Second Day” ticket under the “First Day” ticket, then 12 green "good on any attraction" key tickets, with standard red print. Serial number begins with “MW”. You may have noticed that neither Major or myself have folded back these mint tickets, we are dedicated fans, but not that dedicated!





Still a great value at $6.50. *** Update*** Hey if you like this mint ticket book, there is one for sale on eBay right now (link), no I'm not the seller, I'm the guy who buys tickets on eBay!






Last up it’s “Military Night at Disneyland” Friday, April 8, 1988. Star Tours was only a year old so it’s still getting plenty of promotion, can’t you just hear R2D2’s cute little sound in your head?





On a personal note; Whenever I see a member of the armed services, I make it a point to shake their hand and thank them for their service; we all owe our freedoms to them.

Walt Disney Takes You to Disneyland - Audio Visual Day

It’s Audio Visual souvenir day and today we have an oldie but a goodie. “Walt Disney Takes You to Disneyland” a “Disneyland Record” recorded by “Walt Disney Music Co.” with the “Disneyland Concert Orchestra”. That’s a lot of “Disney’s”! See this and other Disneyland Record covers over at “A Sampler of Things” (link).

These were originally from 1956. This one is old, not sure it it’s from 1956, but it’s a “High Fidelity Recording” and the record itself is as thick as a plate! You can actually buy the CD from Disney (link) they place this LP as 1956.

Great cover, glossy and still in great shape, Walt sure looks proud to be on the cover.

The Inside:





Song information and a fun map on the back. Check out the Tomorrowland lagoon, look at the little Air-Boat, is that the Phantom boat replacement that never made it? I’ve seen an attraction poster for those somewhere?






Here are the Long Play 33 1/3 record labels.






And now a few choice samples. Please keep in mind this record is old. I cleaned it as best as I could, but it still has some cracks and pops, however the music still comes thru nicely. I wonder if Walt recorded the vocals just for this record. You really don’t hear much (if any) of this great audio being reused or maybe I’ve just missed it.


**** Check your volume, for some reason blogger defaults to full volume ****


Main Street (I think that squeaking noise at the start is the train brakes):






Adventureland (This music sure sounds like Jungle Book music):






Frontierland:






Fantasyland Music:

I hope you enjoyed today’s show and tell, if scratchy old records aren’t your thing, come back tomorrow for some Vintage Disneyland Tickets.

If you do like old Disneyland Records, I have more and their not as scratchy…