We Built a Better (Magic) Mountain - 1981

Not to be confused with last weeks post (link) were Six Flags was “Building a Better Mountain”. In today’s post from 1981 Six Flags has done it, yup, they “Built a Better Mountain” and it only took a year! It’s interesting (to me at least) to note that last weeks brochure from 1980 made no mention of the new Roaring Rapids, now open in 1981.






You are guaranteed to get wet on this ride. Anywhere from “My shirt is wet, it feels good and dries in 30 minutes” to “I’m soaked down to my socks, shoes and underwear, this is going to be a long squishy day”.






Better Rides, Better Shows. That Steve Martin puppet is not a “wild and crazy guy”, he’s more like a demon from Puppet Master! Barbara Mandrell, I’m starting to miss the 80’s. And there’s the brand new “Buccaneer”, it was only an artist conception in 1980 (link).






Better Adventures! Do you get the feeling Magic Mountain is “better”? Spillikin’s handcrafters, what fun, candy making and yes, basket weaving! That food on the silver platter looks a lot “better” that the food from the 1980 brochure (link).






“Only two Gallons North of Hollywood”. I guess they dropped that tag line some time after the fuel shortages of the 70’s.





If your into the Magic of the Mountain, be sure to check out all my previous posts here (link).


This week’s worth of posts had no Bonus Sunday teasers, so here you go. This is the center fold from a great 1965/66 "Schwinn takes a trip to Disneyland" catalog. If you haven’t seen it, it’s really amazing. It has 36 pages with tons of photos almost entirely taken at Disneyland (on a closed day obviously). I can’t find a date, but “66” is written in pencil on the back and this photo is somewhat rare in that it’s the “Old” Tomorrowland (55'-66') with the “New” square Skyway buckets (65' to 94').





Come back on Bonus Sunday for the entire “Schwinn takes a trip to Disneyland” catalog.

P.s. As a future bonus Sunday teaser, I’ve also got a Schwinn Catalog from 1970 photographed entirely on location at Knott’s Berry Farm.

Imagineeringland Today - November 15 & 16, 1997

Imagineeringland Today - November 15 & 16, 1997. I have no idea what this is about other that what you see here. As a Disneyland fan you’d think I would be more up to speed on this stuff. I guess it’s self explanatory, looks like an event for Imagineer’s and maybe their families? The brochure neglects to mention where this event takes place but I guess if you're invited, you'd know where it is.






Hmmm, interesting pictures, I see Test Track on the upper left, that's a fun ride, too bad the poor Rocket Rods didn’t come out that way.






Here’s a close up of the DCA concept art, looks close to what came out, I think.






Lots of fun things to do! I would head right to Bonusland (fun word!) and have a long discussion with the Imagineers regarding the Rocket Rods and the use of banked roadways. Don't they know the coefficient of friction is vmax = m/s = mi/hr = km/hr? Were they nuts trying to use the flat PeopleMover track?. They "imagineered" failure for the Rods by going cheap.

Bear Country - Now Open

Who else misses the Bear County Jamboree? It makes me as sad as this little bear. Why they removed this attraction from Disneyland is beyond me. The Pooh ride isn’t awful, but it’s pretty lame when you compare it to what used to be in that building.






Photo from Disneyland!  I love that letterhead.






And here’s the nice press photo of Wendell our Mandolin Maestro.  Boy is he ever looking shinny and new.  Where do you suppose Wendell is these days? In storage for his triumphant return one day? Shipped to Florida for spare parts? Tossed in the dreaded “dumpster” (gasp)?

March 24, 1971 - Day at Disneyland

It’s March 24th, 1971 and you’ve just been handed this flyer at the parking lot entrance. You have two wonderful ways to enjoy Disneyland. IMPORTANT: you better read this thing!





1. Personally Guided Tours. I’ve never done it. I’m not sure about 1971, but in the older Vacationland magazines the guided tours seem to be available on the off season only, which makes sense. Now they run them all year? How can they do a tour on days when there are 60,000 “guests” at the park?






2. Ticket Book Specials. “Maximum Family Enjoyment” folks, it could on happen at Disneyland.






A slightly used, kinda worn, September 1970 Junior Ticket Book, $5.45 for 15 adventures, you do realize that’s an $11.75 value; check the chart above, its true.





Spring Fling ’71. Coming April 3rd (1971) - See: Gladys Knight and the Pipps (go ahead, start singing it, "He's leaving, leaving on that midnight train to Georgia); Dawn with Tony Orlando. It wasn’t "Tony Orlando and Dawn" yet (ready; Whoa tie a yellow ribbon 'round the ole oak tree it's been three long years do ya still want me) Great prizes too. A PINTO, even hot combs!!!






For those of you who like to know wha the park hourswere 38 years ago (Progressland) here you go.






This receipt is dated March 24, 1971, it appears to be for two items and ¢18 tax (5.15 percent?). Department 89? I see sleepless nights ahead trying to figure out what this was for.






This last little item came with the stuff above, its  Me-n-Eds Pizza - Order 119.  I like the “It’s a small world” reference.

Take a Bus to Disneyland - 1956

Welcome to Magazine Monday. Today’s feature is a little on the short side (two pages) but I’ll try and make up for it with a great advertisement.

From an unknown magazine, but dated January 1956, this two page article deals with the new dedicated Metro bus service from Los Angeles to Disneyland. This magazine was most likely a bus industry periodical, there are other bus stores on the back pages.

The new “Snow White Bus” looks fun, those Disney artists at Burbank did a fine job. I want some of those photos Jacques Rupp installed in the bus card racks.





Is that a bus on Main Street, what's next a moving van? (link). Great photo of Walt, I always enjoys seeing new pictures of Walt (new to me at least).






From another unknown magazine (boy this “unknown” stuff makes me lose sleep) this wonderful 2 page advertisement for the 1956 Nash must be from 1956 or late 1955. Well look at that, they just happen to be at Disneyland! Air Conditioning priced for everyone, nice! The famous airliner reclining seats and a 220 hp Jetfire V-8, too bad even with that “Sports Racer Grille” its pretty darn ugly.






From the back side of the Nash ad, here’s a great Revere Patio Ware ad. Those pans look great, I want a set. I do love that artwork, in some alternate universe that’s me with the chief’s hat on.

Desktop Cleaning Day

No Bonus Sunday today, this bloggers desktop’s (both real & computer) are out of control and have become actual living entities.  I can’t find anything! Please accept this vintage snapshot of the log ride at Knott’s Berry Farm while I do some spring cleaning. Oh and of course this photo is undated...

Souvenir Saturday - Disneyland Tattoos

Welcome to Souvenir Saturday! Today let’s check out some Tattoo’s (no, not the little breather kind). These are undated, but I’m will to guess they are from the earlier days of the park, possibly 1956, does anyone know?

The cover prominently displays the Disney characters, however they are relegated to the last page of tattoos and even though most of the tattoos are still in this booklet, the character page is almost empty.






First we start off with a page of tattoos for each land. I reversed all these scans so you didn’t have to hold your monitor up to a mirror to view these properly. And yes, I know your asking “Do these still work” they sure do! In fact, the “certified colors” still adhere to you skin quite nicely.










An entire page of Disneyland Logos! The art work in all of these is really fun. Hey, you can crop all of these and create you own 1950’s Clip Art collection!






Two page of land “extras”. I am so digging those light posts and Main Street Vehicles!







Here’s the last page, there’s just about a quarter of it left, even the characters are in costume for Disneyland!

Bye Bye View-Master

Sad news from earlier this month: “View-Master 3-D discontinues scenic travel series” (link).  Frankly, I’m surprised they were still producing the reels at all. It seems they will still make cartoon versions (Dora anyone?), so the format is not completely dead, yet.

An undated (I’m really starting to hate that) early advertisement for View-Master Reels of Disneyland. The packets shown are the 1955 versions and that Tomorrowland building looks all wrong so it may be from 1955, does anyone know?






I've been collecting View-Master's way longer than vintage tickets, but realizing I could never collect ALL the View-Master reels (and not really wanting ¾ of them anyway) I decided to try and collect all of the “Talking View-Master Reels”. They come in these large boxes and contain 3 talking-reels and sometimes a booklet. Unlike the tons of variations of regular Disneyland reels, there is only one Disneyland talking version, it came in a couple different boxes, but from what I can tell, the reels are the same.






The cover to the little booklet is not the same size as the box above (why does blogger do that to my scans???) It’s the size of one of the reels. Oh, this set is undated too but most likely from the first run of “talkies” in 1970/71.






"The good old days"






The front of “Reel 1”; scene 1 starts at the entrance of course!






After collecting almost the entire Talking View-Master series, I came to a startling realization; the quality on these things stink!  As you can see, the little record is attached to the back of the reel. This causes a couple serious problems; (1) the little record is clear, but it totally cuts down on the light since it has to shine thru the record and (2) that little record wobbles and groans on the plastic spindle, making for demonic sounds from the player. Here's a link that shows how the viewer/player works (link).





I’ve got something else lined up for Souvenir Saturday tomorrow, but I’ll try and record and post the sound from some of these Disneyland Talking View-Masters, it will make you laugh or cry.

Blast to the Past at Disneyland - March 1988-89?

Are you ready to "Blast to the Past"? Heck forget the 50's, it's time to celebrate the 80's! This flier is dated 1989 but the parking lot brochure in this post is from 1988? Did they do this event for two years????






The "Blast" always seemed more fun in the promotion materials that it really was. In all fairness I only saw it once, but it felt so contrived in person it almost seemed sad. Maybe it was just the 80's funk I was in??? Anyway, enjoy this fun parking lot brochure from March 19 and 20, 1988.














I had no idea you could actually rent those classic cars from National! I probably would have done that. In 1984 I rented the "New" Corvette from a place in Beverly Hills, it was $110 for one day plus a $2,500 deposit on my Visa! (after all that and my old '70 Firebird was still faster...)