Walt Disney's Magazine - 1956, 1957 & 1959

Welcome to Magazine Monday. It’s such a beautify spring day here in southern California and I’m probably at the “park” as you read this so let’s make today’s post a 3-for-1! Three great vintage magazines for the price of one, which is free anyway so how can you beat this deal?

For today’s vintage Disneyland related magazines we are going directly to the source himself, Walt Disney. Originally called “Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club Magazine” after a couple of years it was changed to “Walt Disney’s Magazine”. At some point it became “Disney Magazine”. Today we’ll look at three early issues.

First up “Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club Magazine” from the Summer of 1956. Fess Parker and a young Annette Funicello grace the cover. Most of the covers to these old MMC magazines are beat up pretty bad, I can just envision how these were read over and over. Fortunately, the inside pages are all in pretty good shape.






Bobby Burgess narrates his adventures in the New Frontiers at Disneyland. I guess none of the new stuff was ready for photographs in time for this summer 1956 issue. But the drawings are almost better than the real thing!






Here’s a couple close-ups, these are sure are fun to look at.








Again no photos of the new 1956 attractions, but lots of great drawings! The AstroJets look so cool, even in black and white.






A work day at the studio for Annette. Looks like a sweet job for a kid, at her age I was cleaning ash trays and sharpening yellow grease pencils at the Panorama Bowl.






Jiminy Cricket says: “I’m no fool with fire”. Notice the lower right corner talks about the 8-minute animated Technicolor film you can rent, I’ve got the entire set, they are among my favorite 16mm films, those Technicolor gems still look stunning 54 years later.






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Next up from February 1957 its still “Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club Magazine”, this time with the Hardy Boys on the cover. That’s Tim Considine and very young Tommy Kirk who appear to be hiding in the trunk of a ’57 T-Bird, good luck fitting in there. Oh wait, that's a Fairlane, they'll fit!






Consisting of only two pages, this Disneyland related article is about the new 1957 Sleeping Beauty Castle walt thru. Having seen the new (2008) version on each recent trip to the park, I can personally tell you they did an amazing job at capturing what’s in these pages. The feeling was captured so perfectly it’s hard to describe. Do not miss this attraction on your next visit.








These magazines have very few advertisements. If there are any at all, they are on the inside and/or back covers. This is a super 1950’s ad for roller skates. These things are deadly, I remember trying old ones when I was a kid and they literally fell apart as you used them.

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Last up (fear not, there are more of these, this is just it for today…) it’s “Walt Disney’s Magazine” from February 1959. Walt writes an article in this issue “How I met the King of the Leprechauns”.






For the Disneyland article is Mickey Mouse on Tom Sawyer’s Island. Can you guess where Black Bart hid his loot?







A fun map to help you solve the mystery.






Ok, if you give up (I did) here’s the answer. I was going to post it upside-down, but I realized it might be hard to turn your monitor upside-down…






Here’s Walt’s article. I wonder if he really wrote it himself?








Now that Sleeping Beauty was in theaters, here’s a great article with some of the amazing artwork that’s in this movie.










You can tell the western craze had hit the United States in full force by 1959, just “Look what we’ve rounded up for you!”

Disneylander - July 1957

Today’s post is another in a series donated by James of at www.keeline.com, please visit his amazing website. Thanks again James!

The “Disneylander” was an employee publication that preceded the “Disneyland Line” and from I can tell they were issued from 1957 thru 1959. Today’s issue is from July 1957. Lots of fun early Disneyland stuff in this one, enjoy.  


Disneylander July 1957 - 17mb

Press Guest Sticker - 1983

“Press Guest” Wouldn’t is be better to call it a “Press Pass”? Maybe a “Pass” implies some privilege that a “guest” doesn’t get?  From 1983, this “Press Guest” sticker is a fun green color. I like the castle design, the Disneyland font is not so special.

I like how these “passes” are made from a woven material/textile of some kind and the backing is extra sticky. We used to get these types of stickers in the early 1970’s at my dad’s union family nights, that sticky glue stayed on my clothes forever! 

Once again from the stack of weird souvenir slides, here’s the entrance to Adventureland. This slide is (say it with me) undated, but looking at the clothes I’m going put it at 1978-79, but that’s just a guess. These slides have a weird look to them that’s hard to describe, especially staged ones like this.

Website Progress - Slow but sure...

A quick post today, I've been playing web designer all night, it's going slow, but progress is being made.

For some reason I started with the Disneyland Guides that were handed out at the main gate. You'd think I would start with "tickets"? Oh well, I knew my guide collection was almost complete so it seemed like an easy place to start.  I am only missing three guides; Fall/Winter 1970-71, Spring 1978 and 1994.  Please let me know if you might have one of these. Sample's are posted on the website, but they are super low resolution.

Realize this is just a working draft, nothing fancy, although it wont get much more fancy anyway... I thought it would be fun to share all the guide covers, I've posed about a third of the guides in PDF form so far here on the blog.  I don't plan on scanning every guide anytime soon, so keep checking back at the blog for those types of posts.

Link to "The Guides" page on the website.

Imagineeringland - Ticket Book

Looking back to last months post “Imagineeringland Today - November 15 & 16, 1997” (link) today’s post is a ticket book which I believe was part of that event.





Here’s the map from the previous post, all the “lands” seem to match up with the tickets in the book.






Not exactly A thru E tickets, but still a great tribute to Vintage Disneyland Tickets. This is a “14 Adventure” book, with a bonus ticket at the end for a free photo and free (very cool) pennant. It’s also not “Globe Safety” paper, but its close enough for me with the wavy lines and fun faces.






Presented in order are the "C" thru "T" tickets. Of all the ideas that should have been scrapped, the ones on this “C” ticket top my list!

Passport Trio

A light post today, I've been busy working on the website. No noticeable progress yet, I've discovered my filing system for all of my scanned files is a mess, not to mention some of my early scans are pretty bad so I have to re-do them. Look for an update later this week.

For now, please enjoy this trio of Disneyland Passports from 1986 & 1987. Pretty 80's colors...

Holiday Magazine - July 1963

Welcome to magazine Monday. Today’s featured magazine is from the “this just in” department. Having never heard of “Holiday” magazine, I wasn't sure what to expect when this arrived last week. Lucky for us it’s a great vintage “Camelot” era “Life” sized travel magazine, and it’s in super shape too! Holiday Magazine - July 1963.






There’s only one photo of Disneyland in the entire article. The lengthy text more than makes up for the lack of photos. The author, Aubrey Menen, seems a little schizophrenic, he can’t decide if Walt’s Disneyland is a masterpiece or a jumbled mess. This article is unlike the others I’ve posted in a few ways, the author gets behind the scenes looks at the studio and after hours at Disneyland.






I attempted to merge the two sides of the photo together, it came out OK.














Check this out: the author got a sit down interview with Walt Disney himself. My favor quote from the author regarding Walt: “Mr. Disney’s hands move restlessly all the while he talks, picking up things from his desk or the restaurant table, playing with them and casting them aside with a sharp gesture, as though they had failed to come up to his standards”. I knew there was a reason I love Walt!








There is an amazing quantity of quality advertisements in this oversized travel magazine, so I hope you like old ads, because here are 16 of them! Believe it or not I had to leave a few good ones out, maybe I’ll throw them in on Bonus Sunday.

Automobiles for your travels. Up first, Cadillac of course. Nice convertible and formal limousine. The smartly dressed couple are asking the chauffer if he’ll race for pink slips!






Buy a Ford because the of the new “Cushion Recoil”… Just sound like springs with rubber insulators to me.






Chrysler is absent from this issue, maybe a sign of things to come? Oh well, Mercedes Benz took out a full page ad, definitely a sign of things to come. “A Subsidiary of Studebaker Corporation”, say what?






1963 and they had some pretty darn cool run flat tires, it's almost James Bond-like.






ViewMaster! Boy the slides on that reel sure look vivid.






Here are a few cruise ship ads. This first one instantly reminded me of Pacific Ocean Park, what fun art work!










You’re going to need some stylish luggage for all your world travels. The lady is mega elegant; I hope they are going first class.






What a great Coke ad!






This magazine had no less than a dozen alcohol ads, I suppose travel = money = alcohol? This beer ad is innocent enough; it’s the smart way to buy… two at a time. Is the smart way to drink, two (six packs) at a time?






I always prepare my Fitz Mist with my red fluffy Santa gloves on, it makes the snifter easier to pack with crushed ice, then add a jigger of Old Fitz and a twist of lemon, let frost, relax and enjoy…






Has the rain stopped your golf game? Drink for awhile until it clears up.






Interesting art work and lots of drink recipes.





Now that you are completely drunk, why not smoke? Go ahead and forget this: Smoking causes peripheral vascular disease, Smoking causes emphysema, Smoking causes mouth and throat cancer, Smoking clogs your arteries, Don't let children breath your smoke, Smoking - A leading cause of death, Quitting will improve your health, Smoking harms unborn babies, Smoking causes blindness, Smoking causes lung cancer, Smoking causes heart disease, Smoking doubles your risk of stroke, Smoking is addictive, and Tobacco smoke is toxic. With that said, that couple does look ever so cool don't they?






Nice box.