"Holy Grail of Disneyland Ticket Books"

Every once in a while something extra special shows up on eBay. Since I’m not independently wealthy, the only way some of these specialties will show up on this blog is if I show the EBay listing.

According to the seller, this is the “Holy Grail of Disneyland Tickets”. I pretty much have to agree there. From the listing “On October 11th 1955 Disneyland put out it's first Ticket Book which had 8 tickets in it 3 A Tickets, 2 B Tickets and 3 C Tickets. This book up for auction has 2 A Tickets, 1 B Ticket and 2 C Tickets all in Excellent to Near Mint Condition. Only the Very First Ticket Books had the Word RIDE under the Large Letter on each ticket, which makes this ticket book real RARE. Towards the end of 1955 Walt Disney had made a decision to take the word Ride off the ticket books and replace it with the word COUPON. He said the word RIDE made him feel like it was a carnival ride”.






The eBay auction is here (link). As far as the price; it's at $975 now which was the opening bid. There was a “buy-it-now” option for $1,475, but now that someone has bid (not me!) that option is gone. Is that price fair? I have no idea hard evidence, but that seems about right.

I’ve heard that there is a ticket book out there that may predate this one. It is reported to have little drawings of the attractions (or rides) on each ticket. This information comes from the utmost reliable source; however I’ve never seen them myself.

Here's the tickets in the auction.






The tickets do look to be in excellent condition.






The “C” ticket in 1955 was the top of the line. I love the special font for all five of the realm titles.







Christmas is just around the corner – wouldn’t this make a great gift for that special Disneyland Ticket collector/blog operator you know?

Algo Magazine - October 1964

Welcome to an international version of Magazine Monday, or "Bienvenido a una versión internacional de Revista el lunes". From October 1964 its Algo Magazine, direct from Barcelona. I don’t speak Spanish (the internet did the above translation) so you are on your own with the vintage text in this post.






I see a phone number and something about subscriptions rates.






“Disneylandia” interesting choice of photos in this article.






Could these two kids be less excited? I like the Main Street Station shot. Doesn’t the Gully Whumper look swell on the Rivers of America? Imagine the PR you ring out of bringing the Gully Whumper back to the river for the 55th anniversary. Get Fess Parker involved, re-release the old Keel Boat movies, and sell tons of Davey Crocket related merchandise. Are you listing George?






These are nice photos also. Too bad the inside pages are basically news print on cheap paper!






At least this color beauty was on the back cover. The flight circle looks empty, Cox Pilot must be on a break. The Yachtsmen are nowhere to be found either, but their little stage sure is cool. Its amazing to me that the hydraulic mechanism that moves the Rockets Jets is the exact same mechanism that's still up on top of the PeopleMover platform, I’m sad that it’s now a joke.






No Advertisements, so here's a couple of fun articles. Monorails in Japan? Those things are ugly; didn’t they have a Japanese equivalent of Bob Gurr?








Hmmm, this submarine design looks vaguely familiar?






In the text there's something about 1,000 meters, so there must not be too many similarities to Disneyland’s Submarines, we all know those only submerge 500 meters.

Bonus Sunday

Welcome to Bonus Sunday. From Thursday's Divers at Disneyland post, here is the complete Fall/Winter 1978-79 issue of Vacationland.


Vacationland Fall/Winter 1978-79 - 90mb







Mickey will be 81 on Wednesday!






The Egg House looks fun, so does Movieland Wax Museum!





Things that make you go "hmmmm"

Golden Horseshoe Reservation Ticket

At one time you needed a reservation at the Golden Horseshoe. I’m guessing this was back when they actually had waitresses that brought you food you ordered from a menu like this one (link) from Stuff from the Park. This reservation card is undated, the style is similar to the menu and the Pepsi logo suggests it’s from the 1970’s. The code on the bottom right makes no sense at all to me…






How about a short game of “Before and After” with the Golden Horseshoe’s next door neighbor? Again from the wonderful “Stuff from the Park” blog, here’s the Oaks Tavern from 1960.






The Tavern gave way to the Stage Door Café in 1978. This photo from last week shows the changes over 49 years. Some elements are identical (how cool is that!) and there are some significant changes. Here’s my big question; what happened to the wooden porch? Not only is it gone, but did the ground actually rise or did the building get lower?




Happy Friday the 13th!

Divers Sunday at Disneyland - November 12, 1978

It’s finally that day you’ve been waiting for so come “Join in the fun” because it’s Divers Sunday at Disneyland, November 12, 1978. Looks like those wacky Divers had their IQ10 Convention at the Disneyland Hotel November 9th thru the 12th, with the big Disneyland Party on the last day.






The fall of 1978 was also Mickey Mouse’s 50th birthday (November 18th to be exact), maybe that’s why he is on the Divers flyer too? This Fall/Winter 1978-79 Vacationland celebrates Mickey 50th in grand style, with lots of great Mickey pictures. I know for myself, I tend to forget, “it all started with a mouse”.






Since its “Disneyland’s” Vacationland magazine, there’s plenty of stuff about the park. Some day I need to take the tour, I bet that would make an interesting trip report.






I let out a loud sigh when me eyes went to this photo, I sure do miss the old PeopleMover. Check out the guy on the left in the very back – what is with those clothes? 1978 is no excuse to look like that!!!






Bring back the American Egg House too! This area is currently under-utilized to say the least.






To read the rest of these articles and the rest of the Fall/Winter 1978 Vacationland, come back on Bonus Sunday. Happy 81st Birthday Mickey Mouse!

Disneyland Guest Certificate - 1966/67

This Disneyland “Guest Certificate” is not dated, however the rare “Castle & Star” paper indicates it is most likely from 1966 or early 1967. I believe this certificate was part of the “Executive Club” (link) that allowed employers to give their employees (or anyone I guess) Disneyland tickets. Not group discounts or discounts that the Magic Kingdom Club offered, these tickets were FREE to the recipient!

I’m lucky to get a turkey at Christmas from my employer, can you image getting one of these for your whole family? “Present at any Disneyland main entrance ticket window”. Those ticket takers really had to know their stuff back then. Don’t even try to copy this and use it at the park today (yes you!) - if Don over at the U.A.W. Local 1047 catches you he’ll break both of your legs.

Here’s a look some later Guest Certificates and the booklets they came in. These are from the 1970’s. Looks like the green tickets were for meals!!!






From an early 1980’s Executive Club booklet, this employee looks happy to be receiving his certificate.

1990's Disneyland Brochure - 2 year Anniversary!

Can you believe it’s been two years since I started this blog? Wow how time flies when you’re having fun. I’m blogging about Disneyland; “The Happiest Place on Earth” so how could this be anything but fun! BTW; I’m still not even half way thru my ever expanding collection so I think we can count on at least a couple more years!

This undated (why are so many Disneyland items undated??) brochure appears to be from the mid to late 90’s, Indiana Jones in prominent and no mention of New Tomorrowland or DCA…






Glossy goodness… I saw the new Indiana Jones AA last week (the one at the beginning of the ride that is holding the big doors closed) he looks amazingly real, the old one was really getting bad.






“The more days, the more ways to have fun” Who wrote that tag line, he's no Darrin Stephens.






A nice colorful trio of parking tickets, fancy digital printing for the serial numbers.





Well, I’m off to scan for another 660 posts!!! See you on the next one.


********UPDATE*********


This just in from Jason over at Disneyland Nomenclature, it does seem similar in style to the brochure above so I guess it must be from 1997! Thanks Jason!

McCall's - January 1955

Welcome to Magazine Monday. From the “this just in” department we’ve got a great vintage look at Disneyland (the concept) in the McCall’s January 1955 issue. Fun cover art work, where’s Curious George?






Looks like there were two covers published for the same issue, Grace Kelly is lovely, but I like the cartoon people better.






This Disneyland article really should be called “Fantasyland at Disneyland” since it’s the only land that's shown. You do get a flood of early concept art, some attractions made it, some didn’t. Those “mining carts” in Snow White are amazing. Going “into” Monsto’s mouth seems better than been “ejected”, this concept works better on a Brer Mountain. You can download/view the un-cropped, un-scanned file of each page here: (page 1) – (page 2).






The huge table in Wonderland would have been cool! The duck-bumps ride looks cool too; Magic Mountain had this and called it El Bumpo! Sweet diagram/fly thru of Peter Pan! You can download/view the un-cropped, un-scanned file of each page here: (page 3) – (page 4).






Do-it-yourself mania has hit the United States. Where’s Waldo?






Generally I like to feature full page color advertisements, but let’s make an exception here. Is this the same “Wonderful Wizard of Bras” that graced Main Street at Disneyland in 1955? Like there could even be another “Wonderful Wizard of Bras”! The Wizard is a festive looking little fellow. That bras is, well, oh my, the phrase “you’re gonna take someone’s eye out with that thing” comes to mind. “Press your Bra”? Not going there.






“Simpler is Better”… America in 2009 is ready for some simple, basic, straight forward advertisements, don’t you think? Look how simple this ad is, yet I bet its making you want Hunts Catsup & fried shrimp!






Crisco is digestible, who knew?






These are the coolest matches I’ve ever seen. On a side note, do they still sell Ohio Blue Tip matches; I can’t find them in the stores. Those red "Diamond" matches stink.






Pretty colors.






Nice fitted percale sheets… “They’re Combspun".






Hey, that box looks just like the box WordPerfect 5.1 (for DOS) came in, seriously.

Bonus Sunday

Welcome to Bonus Sunday. From Friday's "Top's Motel" post, here is the entire issue of Vacationland for the Fall/Winter of 1972.



Vacationland Fall/Winter 1972 - 61mb










Cool early 70's centerfold. I didn't chop off the top, that's the way it is in the magazine.






An all new Bear Country!






Why did they take out the clock shop??