Home for the Holidays at Disneyland - 1980

Home for the Holidays at Disneyland, December 20 & 21, 1980.

What a nice photo on the front of this holiday gate flyer. The lady in the middle looks familiar to me?





Fantasy on Parade is back after a 3 years hiatus (sorry "Very Merry Christmas Parade", you must not have been "very" popular). Did they do the candlelight procession both night? Lots of great entertainment!




Parade Route and park map.

Another Twain Ticket of a Different Color

On Tuesday's post (link) we saw a forth color for the beautiful original Mark Twain tickets. Today we present a fifth color, the elusive "gray" ticket.

These two scans were sent in by a regular and valued reader of the blog, thank you! This gray ticket (and its yellow sibling below) are ultra-vintage, the date of "Aug. 2, 1955" seems accurate given the low serial numbers. These "grays" seem to be the rarest of them all, this is only the second one I have seen. Although I think my "X" serial number ticket from Tuesday's post it rather rare also.







These are just so fun to look at aren't they? Close your eyes and you can hear the steam whistle and the bell.... "Secure all cargo... Engine room, ahead one quarter, sound off, mark one.... Mark Twain......"





On my last visit to Disneyland I rode the Mark Twain at night, I had a great full day at the park, best memory, riding aboard the Mark Twain at night...

The Gala Premiere of Fantasy on Parade - December 18, 1965

Welcome to the Gala Premiere of Walt Disney’s Fantasy on Parade.  Saturday Evening December 18 – 8:00 PM. (Please be seated by 7:30 PM). There is no year printed on this ticket, but it must be 1965. Several sources list the start of the parade as 1965 and December 18th was a Saturday in 1965.

How in the world did you get one of these? It does not indicate admission to the park, maybe there was special seating for the parade that required one of these tickets? Was Walt at this event? 




Below is a ticket for December 18, 1976, complimentary of course. Fantasy on Parade ran thru the 1976 holiday season and was replaced for 3 years with “The Very Merry Christmas Parade” which was featured in yesterday’s post. Fantasy on Parade would return in 1980.  






A great 1975 Photo of Fantasy on Parade courtesy of Daveland, here a link to Daves post with several photos of the parade (link). Thanks Dave and we miss Madge & Mildred.






It seems clear the parade started in 1965, why did the Disneyland Collectors Series cards place it in 1964? Maybe because they wanted the “Tencennial” on the 1965 card?






If you want to see the entire parade on film from 1972 here’s a post from last Christmas on Micechat that has links to the parade in 4 parts. It super fun to watch (Link). Thanks MerlinJones!

The Very Merry Christmas Parade - December 17, 1977

Parade fans everywhere have been waiting for this, it’s “The Very Merry Christmas Parade” at Disneyland December 17, 1977. I am guessing this was the first year of this parade; I have similar ticket from December 18, 1976 (you’ll see it tomorrow) but it was for “Fantasy on Parade”.

This is a complimentary ticket, good on all adventures and attractions (except shooting galleries). The poor ticket never got used, it still has its stub and the little string is ready to be tied around one of the buttons on your Qiana shirt.






These next three scans were shamelessly borrowed from a super post on the blog “Disney on Parole”. The person that runs the Parole blog was a former cast member and was in “The Very Merry Christmas Parade” in 1977! Be sure to check out this great blog (link) there a post yesterday that has backstage photos of the 1977 parade! Great Stuff, thanks "Disney on Parole"!








And if you want to see the Parade, here’s a fun YouTube video of “The Very Merry Christmas Parade” in 1988. (Link).

A Twain Ticket of a Different Color...

Last month I posted a “Trio of Mark Twain Tickets” (link) showing the beautiful Mark Twain Steamboat tickets in green, yellow (goldenrod?) and pink. Major Pepperidge suggested there may be a gray version and I agree as I think I’ve seen it somewhere.

Well this just in from an eBay find… A Brown version! I wonder why there were so many colors? Maybe “adult, junior and child” were green, yellow and pink. This brown (or is it tan/beige) version has an “X” preceding the serial number, sometimes this to means “courtesy guest”, “complimentary” or even employee tickets.

This ticket is missing the “purser’s check” on the right, but it does have the binder stub on the left, while very plain, its pretty rare or at least I’ve never seen one.






The back is of course a marvelous field of Globe Safety Paper. I can never get enough; I want to wall paper my entire den in this stuff, come to think of it, I have enough tickets, hmmmm.






Here are the backs from the previous Twain Ticket post to compare the colors.






This next scan is a sneak peak to an upcoming weekly feature here on the blog. Starting in January 2009, each Monday will be “Magazine Monday” and will feature a Vintage Magazine with Disneyland related articles. There’s plenty to last us at least until spring.

This is from McCall’s February 1956 issue. McCall’s is one of those big “Life” size magazines. This issue features lovely ladies wearing the latest fashions, photographed on location at Disneyland.






OK, since I know everyone was curious, here are the details on what our lovely lady above is wearing.

Disneyland from the air - 1965?

Here's a great set of aerial photos of Disneyland from the 1960's. I would guess 1965 or early 1966 based on the work I see with Pirates and Small World, but its just a guess, its not like a have a compendium to look up such things, ah but I wish I did.

Originally I thought these were the same photograph, with one just being a cropped version. Upon closer inspection it appears these photos were taken at different times, maybe just moments apart as most of the parked cars seem not to have moved, but the Mark Twain has moved.

Here's the close-up version. You can download a high resolution version with the link below.


Disneyland Aerial Photo - 67mb






This is the large print and it has lots of detail regarding the surrounding area. Go to Google Maps, type in Disneyland and have a field day doing comparisons, I did!. The park itself hasn't change nearly as much as the area around it. Well, both have actually changed a lot!  You can download a high resolution version with the link below.


Disneyland and surrounding area Aerial Photo - 30mb

Bonus Sunday

Welcome to Bonus Sunday.

Up first from Wednesday’s Disney Family Christmas Party, December 10, 1979 post (link) here is the complete Your Guide to Disneyland Fall/Winter 1979


Your Guide to Disneyland Fall/Winter 1979 – 17mb






The 1979 Guide has a preview of super up coming attraction. “Hang onto your hats and glasses, folks, cause this here's the wildest ride in the wilderness!" Fun artwork. “Disneyland’s Newest Thrill Attraction, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, opening Fall 1979”.







From Thursday’s 1990 post (link), blog reader lilyfair commented about the Party Gras cover of the guide book “That was my favorite parade (besides the Electrical Parade.) It had these huge balloon floats and was loosely based on the idea of Mardis Gras, only it was called Party Gras. They even threw beads to the crowds”. Maybe I was premature in giving it a hard time, especially since I never saw it…

Here is the complete Your Guide to Disneyland 1990 (version 2). It's actually a great guide. I would say this is the last big revision to the guides before they kind of stopped and became the “Your day at Disneyland” leaflet similar to what they hand out today.


Your Guide to Disneyland 1990 (ver. 2) – 27mb






The artwork for the “lands” got a major makeover too! Ok, I must be getting old; I’m starting to miss the 90’s…

Trip Report

If you’re looking for Christmas decorations, amazing Castle and fireworks photo’s you’ve come to the wrong place, better try the Miceage. My trip reports are more obscure and odd. Today’s report is no exception.

Mornings are nice a quiet still, week days just before the Holiday rush are rather pleasant, the crowds don’t start till noon-ish and stay reasonable all day.







Breakfast of champions! I always manage to time the pancakes just right to get them “hot off the griddle” yummy-yummy!






The river sure is peaceful early in the day, makes you forget you’re in Anaheim just off the 5 freeway.







The headwaters of the river that runs thru Bear Country (or Critter whatever). This area has eluded both my old camera and my newer one. It never seems to want to focus, is it a magical river?






Bear Country is actually very nice when it’s not wall to wall people.






Here you go, there’s a few Christmas Decorations. Didn’t this used to be an Arcade? I guess I should know that?






Well I finally did it, I rode the Pooh ride. It was better than I expected, yes its mostly plywood cut outs, but it's cute and the “Heffalumps and Woozles” sequence is mind bending to say the least.






Alice and the Mad Hatter have been out in the park every time I visit lately and they really are becoming quite popular. A few minutes after this photo they had about 20 guests in a line with them dancing to “Tea for Two” with the band playing along. This really added to the mood and everyone was having a grand time. It’s all in the details…






My favorite little ticket booth is doing just fine.






I took this next set of 6 photos for Jason over at Disneyland Nomenclature (link). He had commented that certain elements in the shop “Mlle. Antoinette's Parfumerie” in New Orleans Square were chosen by Walt, the shop is now called “Jewel of Orleans” but it does have all the original interior. Here is an article about the shop from the Summer 1976 Vacationland magazine. Here is the entire Summer 1976 issue in case you are interested (link-68mb).






The nice ladies running the shop mentioned to me that the giant perfume bottle out front was also original; just the name has been changed.











A brief stop in Tomorrowland finds the Monorail track-crack has been repaired, well, kind of. Actually, I could do a better Spackle job than that. I’ve been reporting on this for 3 months now (link). I hope things are not “declining by degrees” in Tomorrowland.







As a kid I changed a lot of my allowance money into quarters in this little booth. When do you think was the last time it was open? 1992 is my guess…






For some silly reason I keep trying to take pictures of Dumbo at night while its moving. My lower end digital camera doesn’t have a clue what to do and neither do I. Its just mesmerizing to watch all those Dumbo’s flying around in circles!





There was an extra treat near the end of an already perfect day. Fantasmic was not running, I didn’t ask why, I don’t care why and can you believe I’ve never even seen it! This meant the Mark Twain was running at night and New Orleans Square was not a "circus after dark". It’s been 20+ years since I’ve been on the Mark Twain at night; I had forgotten how nice and peaceful it is. Once you leave the “square” it feels so authentic it’s amazing.







One last comment, I didn’t get a photo because you can’t take pictures inside the Haunted Mansion. As part of the Christmas overlay, they have a fun gingerbread coffin (with a gingerbread ghost inside) on the table in the ballroom scene. Just as your Doom buggy is entering that area you can smell gingerbread… It’s all in the details.