Disneyland Nomenclature

Thesaurus Term of the Day: Enos, Debbie

2011-12-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

Enos, Debbie
Added: February 20, 2009

Imagineer; in Financial Systems in the early 1990s and later at the Disneyland Design Studio (the Imagineering office on site at Disneyland, Backstage on the west side of the Park).

Thesaurus Term of the Day: Travis, Jill

2011-12-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

(Apologies for the absence of the daily terms over the weekend. I was (time) traveling.)

Travis, Jill
Added: March 2, 2009

Recipient of a November 1995 Disneyland Resort Excellence Award (alas, I do not know the details) and in Information Services as of February 2001.

How to Turn a Disneyland Attraction Into a Cocktail Spear

2011-12-04T13:00:00.000-08:00

Like many of you, I'm sure, I have a certain reverence for parts of Disneyland that were around in Walt's time, and especially things from the 1950s when the Park was still so new and trying to figure out what what work and what wouldn't. The Monorail is a classic example of the innovation and risk-taking the WED designers pursued at Walt's direction.

Last July I hosted a party for Bob Gurr, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his first gin martini (which has become something of a daily tradition for him). (Go back to this post to see Bob mixing my first Gurrtini, on May 26, 2010.)

When Bob was telling me the recipe for his Gurrtini, he mentioned that the cocktail spears he uses at home were stolen from the opening of Tokyo Disneyland. A while later, he said they could also be crafted from a Mark I Monorail panel. I found this a bit humorous, and then put it out of mind.

A few days before this gathering, Bob sent me four photos, equally horrifying and fascinating, showing how a 1950s Disneyland attraction vehicle could be fashioned into a cocktail spear. The first is a panel from Mark I Monorail Blue, which debuted July 3, 1959, with cutting shears prominently displayed:

I showed these photos to Mike Cozart on the day I got them, without first explaining the situation. His first reaction was, "Wait, why are there cutting shears on the Monorail panel?"

The second image showed the cutting in action:

The third image captures, against a very distinctive backdrop, the three cocktails spears this endeavor produced:

And the fourth showed the functional spears, as they were delivered to me on July 9, 2011:

It should be noted that these 2024-T4 aluminum cocktail spears pose no threat to public health, as I have yet to be killed by a Gurrtini prepared with them. Mike and Bob--the only two others to have had Monorail Gurrtinis--are, as of this writing, also still in good health. I also want to mention that at the party, Bob was telling people that I had suggested cutting up a piece of 1950s Disneyland to make these, and that was certainly not the case. But a Disney Legend is free to cut up his own designs and mementos of the Park.

Thesaurus Term of the Day: Delgado, Rick

2011-12-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

Delgado, Rick
Added: April 4, 2009

From the June 1993 telephone directory, Rick worked in General Services at Imagineering. At Disneyland in the olden days, General Services handled things like the Warehouse, Costuming, Communications, Security, and other administrative functions. I don't know what Imagineering General Services did, or if that term is in use at modern Imagineering.

Thesaurus Term of the Day: Allen, L. B.

2011-12-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

Allen, L. B.
Added: October 28, 2008

Several Disneyland Lines from the early 1970s identify L. B. Allen (alias Leonard Allen) as a carpenter in the Mill department. Leonard probably worked with a lot of oldtimers.

Thesaurus Term of the Day: Olympic Elk (Nature's Wonderland)

2011-11-30T06:00:00.000-08:00

Olympic Elk (Nature's Wonderland)
Added: October 26, 2007

The parenthetical Nature's Wonderland acts to disambiguate this term from the film "The Olympic Elk." Ideally, at some future point in time, the thesaurus would have all the show scenes from every attraction. Because of the wall maps I have the Olympic Elk scene from Nature's Wonderland in the thesaurus itself, but I currently don't have any specific information on the scene. There may be a sentence or two in the notes for Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland (or just Nature's Wonderland), but nothing (yet) in the notes for this term. (There is yet a lot of work to do in the thesaurus, as you can tell.)

Thesaurus Term of the Day: Rounders, The (film)

2011-11-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

Rounders, The (film)
Added: October 16, 2008

Thanks to the Summer 1976 Vacationland, I know that this 1914 Charlie Chaplin film played in the Main Street Cinema. It'd be great to know every film that ever played there, but I doubt such a list exists. As it is I know 21 films, gathered from lists published through the years (such as in Vacationland) and that appear on the marquee in vintage photographs.

Thesaurus Term of the Day: Project Area Committee members

2011-11-28T06:00:00.000-08:00

Project Area Committee members
Added: April 15, 2010

This is another "role" term to link people to organizations. According to the July 27, 1987 Los Angeles Times, the Project Area Committee was established to advise the City of Anaheim on the Katella Redevelopment Project, which, among other things, would have included a peoplemover-type transit system. While the thesaurus focus is Disneyland, I also include relevant outside information, such as Anaheim's actions in the Disneyland area. The project was withdrawn before the end of 1987 in the face of opposition from Anaheim HOME.

Thesaurus Term of the Day: Parade of the Toys (1962)

2011-11-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

Parade of the Toys (1962)
Added: April 10, 2010

It's pretty simple these days when the same holiday parade runs year after year. There are changes in the parade, and the cast can have substantial changes year-to-year, but at least the name remains the same. In Disneyland's earliest years, there were holiday festivals of various names and events and a parade that occurred on a single day.

Parade of the Toys (1962) is an example of a term that I might eventually have point elsewhere. The Disneyland Holiday Festival began on December 15, 1962. The parade highlighted the festivities at an hour-and-a-half in length. The parade was described in the papers as a Parade of Nations followed by a Parade of Toys. Because most information is bundled together, it makes more sense to have a single term (perhaps Parade of All Nations and Parade of the Toys (1962)) than to separate them out.

Thesaurus Term of the Day: Mktg Special Projects

2011-11-26T06:00:00.000-08:00

Mktg Special Projects
Added: March 25, 2009

The thesaurus currently contains 8,033 nonpreferred/lead-in terms. These point to another term in the thesaurus. This is either because the term contains a spelling error, the term is an insubstantial variation of a name, or because I have decided that it makes sense to combine two concepts into one term. In this case, Mktg Special Projects points to the preferred term Marketing Special Projects.

Thesaurus Term of the Day: Show Ride Electronics Imagineers

2011-11-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

Show Ride Electronics Imagineers
Added: May 16, 2009

This is an example of a "role" term I created, to be able to link people to the jobs they've held at the Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney Imagineering. These terms are in turn linked to the various departments and divisions (in what is obviously an incomplete organizational structure, given my incomplete knowledge of internal organization through the decades). Interestingly, I only have reference to a single Show Ride Electronics Imagineer: William L. Wolf. He's listed in this department in the June 1993 telephone directory, but in February 2001 is in Electronic Engineering--a department for which I know many more Imagineers.

Thesaurus Term of the Day: Nelson, Greg

2011-11-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

Nelson, Greg
Added: February 22, 2009

This is an example of a person in the thesaurus about whom I have absolutely no information, other than that they were mentioned in a Disneyland Line, specifically the August 29, 1973 Line. The mention is that he was slated to perform as Thackaberry in the Disneyland Drama Workshop production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." I figure it is enough to record mentions of Disneyland Recreation Club-related activities without noting the details. If somebody later inquires about an individual, I can go back to the source to find out the context. And this strategy has already paid dividends. A co-worker's mother worked at the Park for a few years in the mid-1970s; because she participated in the Bowling League and the Canoe Races, I had her recorded in the thesaurus.

Tomorrow: a non-person term, non-date term!

Thesaurus Term of the Day: Barrios, Tony

2011-11-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

Barrios, Tony
Added: March 15, 2009

Tony worked in Facilities at least in the 1980s and 1990s (it can be hard for me to say definitively the years an individual worked at the Park, unless I have a source providing a narrative of his or her work history). Telephone directories identify Tony as working in Engineering and then Facilities Enhancement, and also the recipient of a March 1996 Disneyland Resort Excellence Award. I'd like to know what he received it for!

Thesaurus Term of the Day: Gillette, David A.

2011-11-22T06:00:00.000-08:00

Today's term is Gillette, David A., added May 27, 2010. Another reference from the May 28, 1956 Disneyland Telephone Directory, working in Main Street Operations at the time.

Thesaurus Term of the Day: Johnston, Madelyn

2011-11-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

Today's term is Johnston, Madelyn, added March 24, 2009. I told you there were a lot of people in the thesaurus. The sole reference I have to Madelyn is from The Walt Disney Company California Telephone Directory of June 1993, when she worked for Merchandise West Coast Attractions in the (soon-to-be Old) Admin Building.

Thesaurus Term of the Day: Sutton, Ernest

2011-11-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

Today's term is Sutton, Ernest, added May 31, 2010. All I know about Ernest is that he worked in Construction & Maintenance, as identified in the Disneyland Telephone Directory of May 28, 1956.

Thesaurus Term of the Day: Frazer, Bruce

2011-11-19T06:00:00.000-08:00

Today's term is Frazer, Bruce, added June 1, 2009. This is another Imagineer referenced in The Walt Disney Company Telephone Directory of February 2001, at the time working in Research & Development Glendale. This is the only mention I have of Bruce. I haven't decided yet whether I should use this daily term feature to augment the information in the thesaurus. For example, I did a quick-and-dirty online search for ("Bruce Frazer" AND Disney) and found reference to him being a Director at Set Box Integration at Walt Disney Imagineering.

Thesaurus Term of the Day: Thomasson, Tedd

2011-11-18T06:00:00.000-08:00

To try to give you a reason to keep coming back here, and to keep attention (not the least, my own) focused on the Disneyland Resort Thesaurus, I've decided to start a new feature here at Disneyland Nomenclature. The thesaurus currently has 60,744 terms, of which 38,786 are non-date terms. (If you are interested in such information, might I suggest to you Jason's Disneyland Almanac?) Each month I'll output a current list of these non-date terms, pull out thirty terms at random, and prepare posts. The posts won't necessarily contain the entirety of the information in the thesaurus. And I have to caution at the outset that many thousands of terms are for people, a significant subset of which I only know about from mentions in telephone directories. I don't anticipate that every entry will be significant or interesting to anybody (including me), but in the aggregate the series of posts will allow me to show the range of material contained within the thesaurus. I also hope that, for the people terms especially, down the road somebody will search on their own or a relative's name and have additional information to provide or inaccuracies to correct.

Today's term is Thomasson, Tedd. I added this term on July 25, 2009. As listed in The Walt Disney Company Telephone Directory of February 2001, Todd worked at Walt Disney Imagineering in Facilities Development in Celebration Place in Florida. Several years ago I made the decision to include all Imagineers in the Disneyland-focused thesaurus. This is partly because I know Imagineers often move around on different parks/resorts, and partly because Imagineering is a very collaborative environment, so I couldn't readily guarantee that an Imagineer had no impact on Disneyland. You can tell that I have leaned toward the inclusive side.

Preface to Jason's Disneyland Almanac

2011-11-14T12:13:00.000-08:00

So you know what you'd be getting, the below text is the entirety of the book's preface, describing its scope and its creation. You may also be interested in my first extensive post on the book, which includes several images of the its interior. Click here to find out where you can procure your own copy of this unique reference work.

Preface

Put simply, this book is a daily history of the Disneyland Resort, providing Park hours, weather, and significant events for both Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure since July 17, 1955. We have defined significant events as openings and closings of attractions, restaurants, and stores; debuts, endings, and dedications; entertainment events, television airings, and important visitors; and occurrences such as accidents and Resort expansion news. We have not included Cast Member events (such as holiday parties, blood drives, Canoe Races, and Cast previews of new attractions). Neither have we included the finer details of entertainment events, such as the specific dates each year that the Main Street Electrical Parade or A Christmas Fantasy Parade
performed.

My first act of historical scholarship was the creation of a Disneyland Timeline in late 1995 that in the late 1990s resided on the World Wide Web; this project is a natural outgrowth of that. The original timeline predated Dave Smith’s Disney A-Z and only featured what I would now consider to be a smattering of openings, closings and debuts at the month level, with information drawn largely from Bruce Gordon and David Mumford’s Disneyland: The Nickel Tour and some Internet sources. I subsequently refined the timeline over the next five years with the many details in Disney A-Z, The “E” Ticket magazine, other new publications and my own personal knowledge from frequent trips to Disneyland.

The various terms have been output as they come from the Disneyland Thesaurus (described below). Occasionally, for purposes of distinguishing two otherwise identically named entities, terms are appended with an identifier in parentheses. For example, in the Almanac there are entries for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride (1955-1982) and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride (1983- ). Sometimes we are unsure of an opening or closing date, and the parentheses will thus contain one or two question marks.

We do not always have an exact date that an attraction opened or a store closed. We have been as specific as our knowledge permits, but occasionally have had to indicate that something happened at the more general month or year level. This reflects the inherent uncertainty in trying to precisely reconstruct the past.

Jason’s Disneyland Almanac has been created from the ground up, rather than drawn from an existing comprehensive history of the Resort. Because of this process, there are certainly omissions. Some of the omissions occur because we do not have good information on an opening or closing date and some may be for an event which occurred so briefly that we have yet to find it mentioned in one of our many sources. We have included the dates when Grad Nites and Candlelight Processions & Ceremonies were held, when known, but for some years we do not have this information. For further details on how the data for the Park hours, the weather, and Walt-era attendance were assembled, see the following sections.

About the Hours

We are aware that no independent effort to reconstruct Park hours through the years can ever achieve 100% accuracy. Park hours could be extended or shortened in response to crowd levels and not be documented in a source that will ever be made public. As far as possible we have compared as many documents containing Park hours for a specific day. Although we do have documentation for some days Disneyland closed early or entirely because of rain, the Park hours here assembled should be considered a best compilation of the scheduled hours, rather than the operational hours.

Park hours have come from newspaper advertisements, newspaper articles, periodicals (such as the Disney News and Vacationland), guidemaps, Main Gate handouts, Park Operating Calendars, Cast Member fact cards, Entertainment Show Schedules, Cast Member Reference Guides, Disneyland Attendance Summary 1955-1966, and online sources (such as LaughingPlace.com and MousePlanet.com). Especially in years past, Disneyland would publish its hours many months into the future. We have always shown preference to sources issued closest to the date in question and those produced by Disney rather than appearing in external sources (as the external sources are at least one step removed from Disney).

We are missing Park hours for 773 of the 20,257 days covered by this Almanac. The first such day is February 12, 1984 and the last is June 30, 1999; the missing days are mainly concentrated in the late 1980s and early 1990s. While they are presently unknown to us, they are certainly not unknowable. They may be found in the entertainment section of newspapers, handouts from the Main Gate, Cast Member Reference Guides and Entertainment Show Schedules. If you have documentation for any of the missing hours (marked in this Almanac as “Unknown”), you can contact me at Progressland@gmail.com. [Online addendum: See www.dropinagain.com/missinghours.txt for the current list.]

About the Weather

In a perfect world, the weather data we draw on would be an unbroken climate record from 1955 to the present at a station in Disneyland (perhaps in the Central Plaza). The next best thing is to find a nearby climate station whose weather is similar to Disneyland. The Fire Station at 120 West Walnut St., Santa Ana (NWS ID: STAC1) is close to Disneyland (5.5 miles away), about thirty feet lower in elevation (not much), is only about a mile closer to the ocean, and has records dating to the early 20th century.

However, no climate station of any reporting length has perfect records, so I had to search for backup stations for when the Fire Station didn’t report data (about 500 days over the course of 55 years). In ranked order in terms of similarity to Disneyland’s weather, I chose:

• Tustin Irvine Ranch: records until 7/31/2003, when it was replaced by the station named Irvine Ranch. It tended to run a few degrees warmer than the Santa Ana Fire Station during the day and usually more than a few degrees cooler at night. Casual analysis showed it may have received more precipitation, as well. At 235 feet in elevation, it’s not too much higher than Disneyland.

• Anaheim: This might seem like a more natural first choice for evaluating Disneyland’s weather, but the station only began operation on August 1, 1989. While the station name is Anaheim, it is actually in Atwood, north of CA-91 and east of CA-57; its further inland location means it will generally run warmer than the Santa Ana Fire Station (and Disneyland).

• Irvine Ranch: This station succeeded the Tustin Irvine Ranch station as of 8/1/2003, but is much higher in elevation (540 feet). My assumption is that the old Irvine Ranch station was done in by suburbanization.

Even with all that data, there were still 29 dates for which I had no data. I used Long Beach Daugherty Field (LGB) as my last resort. It’s quite a bit closer to the ocean and not as close to Disneyland as I would like, but it has a lengthy reporting record that filled in when necessary. Unlike the other stations above, I only included LGB information for those days with otherwise missing data.

A note is also in order about the reporting times for this data. The information was often collected at 6 PM. As the low temperature would normally (but not always) occur in the early morning hours and the high temperature in the afternoon, these figures will usually match up with the calendar day. However, precipitation can occur at any time and there is no way now to tell, in a 6 PM-6 PM reporting cycle, how much rain fell on which particular calendar day.

This is certainly not a climate record usable for scientific research purposes, but provides color to the daily history. For example, you can see that the high on Opening Day was 82°F, not quite as hot as is generally remembered. Or you can see that the heat wave at the end of 1955’s summer really was rough: for eight days, from August 31 to September 7, the high temperature was 97 degrees or higher, with a peak of 108 degrees on September 1. The highest recorded temperature between July 17, 1955 and December 31, 2010 was 111°F, measured on September 27, 2010, and the lowest was 27°F, on February 5, 2003. 724.88 inches of rain fell on Disneyland in this period, with the heaviest rain occurring on January 26, 1956 (4.22 inches) and 18,071 of the 20,257 days experiencing no rain at all.

About the Attendance

I had always talked about what came to be titled Jason’s Disneyland Almanac as a book you would want to have in your time traveling DeLorean. With the weather, Park hours, famous visitors, and information on events, you could almost know exactly what to expect for that day. But it always felt impoverished without also seeing the day’s attendance. I had resigned myself to the knowledge that Disney carefully guards such information and would thus never be able to include it in the Almanac—and then discovered that the Anaheim Heritage Center at the MUZEO had possession of Roy O. Disney’s Disneyland Attendance Summary, dated July 18, 1955-December 31, 1966. More than just the daily attendance, this thick binder includes hourly attendance for almost all of these days, and notes of which days the Park closed early or entirely due to weather. There are two pages/weeks missing from the binder (those beginning February 28, 1965 and May 29, 1966), but otherwise includes all attendance data from Walt Disney’s lifetime.

Most of the 1955 data includes hourly attendance. Beginning January 11, 1956, each date has three unlabeled columns, which provide the cumulative attendance, the cumulative exit count, and the hourly in-Park count. Occasionally these numbers show the logically impossible, as on October 17, 1956, when the total attendance was 4,588, but the cumulative exit count was 5,656. Each of the pages includes a weekly total, so whenever a day has such an anomaly, we have ensured that our daily attendance figures add up to that weekly total. Although the binder includes attendance counts for special events, such as Dixieland at Disneyland and New Year’s Eve Parties, such information was not part of the regular daily attendance figures and so are not included in this Almanac.

The figures reveal some astonishing things about Disneyland’s early years. Weekday attendance in the off-season hovered in the low thousands, plainly indicating the wisdom of the Park’s closing on Mondays and Tuesdays for maintenance reasons. The lowest attended day during this period saw just 389 visitors, on a rainy January 20, 1962 when Disneyland opened for a total of three hours. In the rainy week beginning February 5, 1962, Disneyland opened for one full and two partial days and had a mere 7,424 Guests. The rain even had a tremendous impact during the traditionally busy week between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. In December 1965, when Disneyland was already well-established, the dry December 28 saw 42,633 visitors, the rainy December 29 a mere 4,367, and the less rainy December 30 48,526.

Conversely, in the summer of 1959 Disneyland smashed its previous attendance records. On July 4, 1959 the Park hosted 59,845 Guests. The previous high attendance day came just a few weeks earlier, on June 20, when 45,673 people visited the Park—showing a 30% increase of the highest attended day in an incredibly short period of time. The highest attended day during this period was July 4, 1964, when 60,917 visitors came to Disneyland.

About the Index

Items were added to the index using natural-language search terms when possible. A single search term is used even when multiple locations shared a similar name, such as the Fantasyland Theatre. All openings and closings of major locations—attractions, shops, and restaurants—should be included in the index. However, the index is not meant to be comprehensive in every respect. Smaller parades, entertainment, and events, especially if they occurred only once and in the distant past, are more likely to be omitted. Events that occurred year after year, such as Grad Nite or Candlelight Procession & Ceremony, were listed only upon first introduction, to avoid cluttering the index.

About the Thesaurus and Compendium

In late 1999, Kevin and I worked up the idea for the ultimate Disneyland reference work, something we refer to as The Disneyland Compendium. At the time, we did not have access to the information resources to make the project viable. Published resources like Disneyland: The Nickel Tour and The “E” Ticket magazine were tremendously informative, but we knew an extraordinary amount of detail was to be found in the decades of Cast Member publications, periodicals like Vacationland and The Disney Magazine, in the stories of Cast Members, and in many items besides we simply did not have easy access to, and so the project went on indefinite hold.

Jumping forward, my friend Kim T. Ha and I took an index language construction class in fall 2006. Unable to agree on a topic (a common problem), we fell back to an old Disneyland “land tree” I had tried to make. That finished thesaurus had a couple thousand terms in it, but was mainly just hierarchically arranged terms, with some cross-references. Aside from the source where we found the term, this thesaurus had little additional information on the terms and concepts.

On August 19, 2007, I came across the great vintage Disneyland blogs I had only previously seen in passing, and knew that things were now aligned for me to pursue my Disneyland interest with renewed vigor: I had the basis of knowledge (from all my previous years reading everything I could), I had the skill set to create the thesaurus (from my library science schooling), and I had a phenomenal sea of historical information (now easily accessible) to draw from. That first day I think I saved a few thousand vintage photos to my computer.

I toiled alone at first. I showed a barebones printed output to people for the first several months (the earliest Thesaurus showing on record is October 25, 2007, at the Café Orleans). As I worked on the Thesaurus, I realized my initial idea, to just have a hierarchy and cross-references, wasn’t working. I’d forget how I came to relate two terms together, or how I had chosen one among several possible variants to use as the preferred term. So I started sourcing everything. And then I began including full text, all while carefully tracking what I had available to me, what I knew to exist somewhere, and what I had already gone through. Once I made that decision, the usefulness of the Thesaurus to me expanded by leaps and bounds.

Wanting to be part of the conversation, driven in large part by the other blogs that updated every day, I began my own blog, Disneyland Nomenclature, on March 18, 2008. I shared some personal stories and talked about the Thesaurus. In early 2009, while on a 76-day vacation, I decided to make a daily history of the Resort a part of my effort. On an eleven-day weekend from the Washington, D.C. snowstorms of February 2010, I threw the weather into the mix.

In sum, the Disneyland Thesaurus is the informal research program and backend database that organizes the information; the Disneyland Compendium is an umbrella term for products derived from Thesaurus data. Jason’s Disneyland Almanac is the first such product.

Acknowledgments

This book would not have been possible without the assistance of the vintage Disneyland blogging group. Rev Vandervort, in particular, proved particularly enthusiastic about providing many previously missing hours from the 1990s. Timothy Youel, Patrick Jenkins, Mike Cozart, Kevin Doherty and Ken Stack also answered the call for help with hours. But the book isn’t just about the hours. As it is a detailed representation of the first 55 years of Disneyland’s history, the details I’ve picked up from reading blogs run by David Eppen, Dave DeCaro, Jed Blaugrund, Kevin Kidney, Chris Sandy, Paul F. Anderson and Todd J. Pierce have contributed immeasurably to this book and to the Thesaurus. The Park hours preserved by the MousePlanet.com Disneyland Park Updates (largely authored by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix) and provided to me by Doobie and Rebekah Moseley of LaughingPlace.com were invaluable. Jane Newell at the Anaheim Heritage Center helped me to quickly locate and use the amazing Disneyland Attendance Summary binder held there.

When I was first working on my Disneyland Timeline in the 1990s, Dave Smith at the Walt Disney Archives replied to seemingly endless queries about opening and closing dates of obscure shops and restaurants. My aunt and uncle, longtime Disneyland Cast Members Mary and Roy Masseth, in 1997 provided me with years’ worth of Disneyland Lines. Many of these had information useful in the construction of this Almanac. Another former Cast Member, Earl Archer, graciously allowed me access to his extensive collection of Cast Member materials.

Thanks, especially, to Kim T. Ha for taking that index language construction class with me and helping to create the earliest Thesaurus, and to my parents Melody and Hal and siblings Charles and Marcie for their support and rides to Disneyland given to me in those dark days before I got my driver license.

Jason Schultz
Anaheim, CA
September 2011

Where to Get Jason's Disneyland Almanac

2011-11-11T13:27:00.000-08:00

Many people who visit this blog ask, "When and where can I buy a book like this one?" (say in your best Monsanto narrator voice). I am here to tell you, friends, when and where this can be done.

If you are interested in one of the hardcovers (limited edition of 150):

Contact me directly using the e-mail address in my profile. I can ship it to you or we can make plans to meet up at the Disneyland Resort.

If you are interested in one of the softcovers, these are your options:

$24.95 through our CreateSpace storefront
$24.95 through Amazon.com
$24.95 at Compass Books in Downtown Disney
$20, including tax, in person, if you know me in real life or want to meet up at Disneyland
Potentially free, if you can help us with some of the 773 missing Park hours

February 19, 2012 I'll be doing a signing at Walt's Barn in Griffith Park from 11 AM-3 PM. Softcovers will definitely be available; hardcovers may still be available.

Related posts of interest:

ID That Clock (Answers)

2011-11-09T19:15:00.000-08:00

OK, by now you've all had enough time to figure out all the clocks, right? (If you're stumbling upon this and don't want SPOILERS, go to the original post now.) All of the bolded answers are clocks which nobody at the party could correctly identify.

We'll start with the mostly modern (and all On Stage) answers first:

1 - Innoventions Dream Home (Office)
2 - McDonnell Douglas Rocket to the Moon (bonus if you could identify ROSEANN PIRUS)
3 - City Hall Quiet Room (room south of the main lobby)
4 - Main Street Clock
5 - Peter Pan's Flight Interior

6 - Mickey's Toontown City Hall
7 - Fortuosity Shop Exterior
8 - Bibbiddi Bobbidi Boutique Exterior
9 - Disney Clothiers Interior
10 - Haunted Mansion Holiday Exterior
11 - Crystal Arts Interior

12 - Haunted Mansion Holiday FASTPASS Return
13 - Mural outside The Disney Gallery, Main Street, U.S.A.
14 - Fortuosity Shop (Jewelry Store) Interior
15 - Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters FASTPASS Return

16 - The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
17 - Emporium Interior
18 - Port Royal Interior
19 - Fire Station
20 - Innoventions Exterior

21 - "it's a small world" Facade
22 - 20th Century Music Company Window
23 - Enchanted Tiki Room Lanai
24 - French Market Restaurant
25 - Main Street Station

26 - City Hall Interior
27 - White Rabbit at "King" & "Queen" Restrooms
28 - Emporium Ratatouille Window
29 - Fortuosity Shop (Jewelry Store) Interior
30 - Main Street Magic Shop Interior
31 - Innoventions Dream Home (Kitchen)
32 - Sleeping Beauty Castle
33 - Port Royal Interior

34 - City Hall Interior
35 - Splash Mountain Entrance
36 - Mickey's House Interior
37 - Fortuosity Shop Interior
38 - Peter Pan's Flight Exterior

39 - Main Street Station Interior
40 - Fortuosity Shop Interior
41 - Mickey's House Interior
42 - Space Mountain Entrance
43 - Emporium Window
44 - Central Plaza White Rabbit

And now, the Expert Edition answers (as given in the August 1961 Disneylander)...

E-1 - Tomorrowland entrance
E-2: Swift's Market House
E-3: Santa Fe & Disneyland R.R. Station
E-4: In front of Timex Shop
E-5: Tower of Tinkerbell Toy Shop
E-6: Mark Twain Dock
E-7: Rainbow Ridge Mining Town
E-8: Inside the Emporium, Main Street
E-9: Bell System Exhibit
E-10: Pirate Ship
E-11: Dick Nunis' wrist
E-12: Joe Fowler's desk
E-13: Bank of America
E-14: Harbor Blvd. Time Clock House
E-15: Watchman's clock used in Security
E-16: Tinkerbell Toy Shop

So...how'd you do?

ID That Clock

2011-11-08T17:48:00.001-08:00

Over the weekend I hosted a book launch party for Jason's Disneyland Almanac (I hope to have photos of that up soon). One of the entertainments that evening was a clock identification game, with the winner entitled to a free copy of the book (or, since the results weren't going to be tallied that night, a refund on a book already purchased). The brave contestants could rely only on their wits; you have the entire universe at your fingertips (which is why you can't win a free book--sorry!).

I had assembled 44 clock photos, 42 of which are current On Stage photos, before discovering just such a game in the June and July 1961 Disneylanders. Afraid that more than one person might know all the current photos (an unnecessary worry, I learned), I included these 16 photos as an "expert edition" of the game. Go ahead and have fun in the comments. I'll post the correct answers in a day or two. Should you wish to concentrate on the difficult ones, nobody correctly identified the following: 1, 3, 13, 18, 22, 28, 30, 40, 43, E-7, E-10, E-11, E-12, E-13, E-15, E-16.

The clock is ticking!

Now You Know

2011-10-10T17:45:00.000-07:00

Jason's Disneyland Alamanc was created mainly with mail merge (and a formatting macro I created). But I had never used mail merge, or was aware of its capabilities, before I was trying to figure out how it might be possible to create a daily history of Disneyland on the evening of March 15, 2010 (a red-letter day in the history of Disneyland historiography). That night I played around around in Microsoft Word and, for the first time, output a rudimentary daily history of the Park.

But that's not what this post is about. Rather, my desire for such a history of Disneyland helped to move Richard Nixon's Presidential materials across the country. As a result of Congress amending the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act of 1974 (PRMPA), the National Archives was moving the Nixon Presidential Historical Materials from the Archives II facility in College Park, MD to the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA--and I was in charge of the details. In August 2009, I had worked with a colleague on a way we might print the move labels for over 26,000 boxes, but I wasn't completely satisfied with how they looked from a Microsoft Access report. I knew that these labels would be permanently affixed to the boxes, and I wanted them to look right. We had some time, so I put it out of my mind.

March 16, 2010 (about two weeks before we were to begin putting the boxes on pallets, to then load on to the trucks), I came into work and told myself I needed to finally come to a decision about how to produce the move labels. I hadn't been at work long before I thought to myself, "mail merge!" It didn't take too much time to create a template and get my managers to sign off. These move labels were then produced and applied to the over 26,000 boxes (enough to fill 21 53' trailers) that traveled to California, supplying a Move ID for each box and its California shelf destination.

For many years to come most of the archival boxes at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum will bear labels produced from the same process that birthed Jason's Disneyland Almanac.

Disneyland Statistics: Interesting Subject

2011-09-29T16:01:00.000-07:00

"Hi, folks! It's a little quiet around here today. You see, during the winter, Disneyland is closed each Monday and Tuesday..."

- undated Main Gate announcement

It's been a little quiet around this blog, too, but I'm finally ready to announce why: in November Zauberreich Press will publish Jason's Disneyland Almanac, the first daily history of Disneyland. The contents of the publication won't surprise anybody with even a cursory familiarity with my blog: Park hours, weather, Walt-era attendance, openings, closings, debuts, endings, events, milestones and other noteworthy occurrences. I collaborated with Kevin Yee, with whom I previously co-authored the Disneyland trivia books Magic Quizdom: Disneylandia Minutiae Semper Abusrda and 101 Things You Never Knew About Disneyland: An Unauthorized Look at the Little Touches and Inside Jokes.

I've talked about many elements of the book in blog posts of days gone by. I've blogged about Park hours on more than one occasion. I blogged about my attempts to gather weather information shortly after I added that to the thesaurus. I've additionally blogged about the difficulties inherent in thesaurusing entertainment events. With that in mind, I wanted to give you readers some insight into the cover design and the preparation of the manuscript.

For many of you, the design will be instantly recognizable. However, I have at least two friends who have not seen the movies, so some explanation is in order. I always thought of this book as a companion to keep in your time traveling DeLorean. With the Park hours, the weather, and events, you could choose the perfect day to visit the Park. The cover design is, of course, very reminiscent of Grays Sports Almanac from Back to the Future Part II:

I imitated the design as much as possible while trying to stay true to what Jason's Disneyland Almanac actually contains. I regret that we still lack Park hours for 773 of the 20,257 days covered by the Almanac, but am very hopeful that these will be found before future versions are published.

For the place of the sports figures, we considered Disneyland icons, but that wouldn't quite match up with the contents of the Almanac. While each figure on the Grays cover represents a different sport found within, we would need to have some objects that represented Park hours, openings, and events. Instead we went with the style of Park Operating Calendars used from the 1960s at least through the 1980s. Here is an example of an authentic January-March 1982 Park Operating Calendar:

The four calendars on the cover are for Disneyland's opening, Kevin's birthday, my birthday, and the most recent time period covered by the Almanac. I spent a lot of time re-creating the look of the calendars in full for the cover, but they are mostly obscured in the final composite. Below are my original creations for the four Park Operating Calendars:

July-September 1955

January 1970-March 1970

January-March 1982

October 2010-December 2010

I considered creating these for every three-month period of the Park's history, but then came to my senses.

I also wanted to share some samples from the book, so you know just what to expect. After a few pages of explanation of how the material for the book was assembled and how you should evaluate the information, there are 317 pages of daily Disneyland history. Below are three two-page spreads, chronologically scattered. The first covers the time around the opening of Disneyland '59:

The beginning of celebrations for Disneyland's 25th Anniversary:

And the opening of Disney's California Adventure in 2001:

Now, if you've been paying attention, you might notice that the Almanac includes attendance data for 1955-1966. Amazingly, the Anaheim Heritage Center at the MUZEO has in its collection Roy O. Disney's Disneyland Attendance Summary, July 18, 1955-December 31, 1966 binder. Not just daily attendance, it's a record of hourly attendance for most of this period. When matched up with the weather and other events, the attendance data provides a remarkable view of Disneyland in Walt's life (although two weeks, beginning February 28, 1965, and May 29, 1966, are missing from the binder).

The least-attended day in this period was a rainy January 20, 1962, when a mere 389 Guests showed up to experience a Disneyland that only opened for three hours that day (can you imagine?). There were, in fact, thirteen sub-1,000 visitor days in Walt's life, and quite a few days when the Park simply didn't open because of the rain. The high attendance during this time was July 4, 1964, when 60,917 visitors came to Disneyland.

I've had a lot of fun putting this book together, but I know it's only a start. We do not always have an exact date that an attraction opened or that a store closed. We have been as specific as our knowledge permits, but occasionally have had to indicate that something happened at the more general month or year level. This reflects the inherent uncertainty in trying to precisely reconstruct the past.

We are producing a limited edition of 150 hardbound copies (with dust jackets) and an unlimited run of softcover copies (sans dust jacket). Check back for further information on pricing and availability. And if there's a future Jason's Disneyland Almanac almanac keeper out there, the order for the hardcover edition of the book was submitted on September 29, 2011 at 2:46:57 PM, PDT.

The Origin of the Mickey Mouse Pancakes?

2011-06-25T18:36:00.000-07:00

Although I recognize the significance to many Guests of the Mickey Mouse Pancakes served at the River Belle Terrace, I do not believe I have ever had them. The above photo is from July 1978 and shows the making of a pancake; the Guests appear to be very interested in the preparation. While doing some thesaurus work today, I believe I have stumbled across the origin of the pancakes in the very first Backstage Disneyland publication from Winter 1962:

Let's See the Lessees

Elaine Williams
Reporting

Bud Coulson of Aunt Jemima's reports that Rick Hubbard, Vice-President in charge of batter, has invented a Mickey Mouse Pancake, which is a three-in-one combination and which is enjoyed by guests and employees, alike. Rick attends Long Beach State and, in the true spirit, of Disneyland, and Aunt Jemima's, has given the secret recipe to Bud's head chef, Leon Cole, and his assistants. They would appreciate your asking for the Mickey Mouse Pancake, only if the kitchen is not too busy. We feel Bud is slightly biased when he says it's a work of art, but we're sure it's delicious.

While I am quite a long way from having everything in the thesaurus, my current earliest recorded mention of the Mickey Mouse pancakes is in the summer of 1975. I have neither Rick Hubbard nor Leon Cole in the thesaurus, but Rodney ("Bud") Coulson was the Park's original lessee liaison. In the early days he also functioned as a town crier in Town Square, providing the latest news to Disneyland employees and lessees before Park opening. Later, from 1962 to 1966 he and his wife, Elizabeth, operated Aunt Jemima's Kitchen.

Déjà Vu

2011-06-17T20:12:00.000-07:00

It's not often that Disneyland destroys something for the second time, but that's what's currently happening at the Disneyland Hotel's (former) Never Land Pool. As I was watching the pool's destruction yesterday (in a scene that brought to mind construction workers hacking away at Swiss Family Treehouse branches), I was reminded of my recent Follow That Tree post.

Here is the former Pirate Ship as it was being pried and chopped apart:

There were other workers around the edge of the pool. But what caught my eye and what made me do this post are the boxed trees in the distance:

I wish I knew something about the trees to, you know, make this post interesting, but perhaps in another twenty years these trees will still be around on the property and these photos will provide a little information to such future arboreal archivists.

The Circle of Genuine Maseca Corn Flour

2011-06-13T17:08:00.000-07:00

In the late 1990s, Disneyland seemed to be closing long-term establishments left and right. Carnation Ice Cream Parlor, Carnation Plaza Gardens, Captain EO, Rocket Jets, Circle-Vision, Submarine Voyage, Swiss Family Treehouse, Tomorrowland Autopia... I was there for the last day of many of those. I had an evening meal at the Ice Cream Parlor with others from the alt.disney.disneyland newsgroup. I was there Captain EO's final night. I saw the final public showing of "America the Beautiful." I went on the Submarine Voyage and Tomorrowland Autopia multiple times on their final days of operation. I believe this is a photo of the Tomorrowland Autopia Cast Members shutting down the line on September 6, 1999:

All of the above mentions were really Disneyland classics. While I helped to open Disney's California Adventure, it wasn't, let's say, my favorite. There were some attractions I never got on or still haven't been on. Two of these are the Mission Tortilla Factory and The Boudin Bakery. On Memorial Day, as you know, I took the Welcome to Disneyland tour. While walking along the Performance Corridor nearby my friend told me that it was the Tortilla Factory's final day. Given my recent obsession with Disneyland signs, I felt I needed to visit this attraction to document all signs and artwork.

Anyway, I learned this bit of information fairly early in the tour and we also walked around Disneyland. At the end of the tour I was given several FASTPASSes, one of which was for the recently reopened Splash Mountain. By the time I got off that attraction I had totally forgotten about the Tortilla Factory and was ready to walk back home. I was home for about forty-five minutes when I realized what I had forgotten. I weighed driving back to the Park, but I was pretty tired from the walking. I considered walking back, but that was even less appealing.

Then another friend, who had been promising to get an annual pass since April 2009 and who finally came through by getting one with her husband the day before, sent me a text asking where I was. There were several things going through my mind at this point and a plan began to form. I ended up committing to walk back to the Park so the three of us could go through the Tortilla Factory and then head to Trader Sam's (my first visit!); they would drive me home. The lure of Sam's was too much, so I raced back to the Park (my fastest time ever, door-to-door).

I got to the Tortilla Factory and found out they were next in line for California Screamin'. Perfect. I could document the exterior and be ready to head inside when they were finished. When I arrived there was a small line outside. As I don't frequent the area, I didn't know if this was normal or not, but thought it possible that a few people may have found out about the attraction's closing and came to experience it one last time:

The Cast Member at the entrance periodically checked to see if inside they were ready for the next group:

I snapped a photo of these Guests waiting in line (more for the exterior than for the Guests themselves):

Of course, I took photos of exterior signage, including the "TOUR ENTRANCE" with the open door visible in the background:

And the proclamation of genuine Maseca Corn Flour:

And then I grew a tad disturbed... As Guests now came up to the exterior Cast Member, they were informed that the attraction was closed:

It turned out that the Mission Tortilla Factory had a hard closing time of 4:30 p.m. and I missed my date with destiny. Those Guests in line four photos above were the last ones in the attraction. My friends showed up about two minutes after it closed. No tortillas for me; I left only with the story of how I had walked to Disneyland a second time in one day to miss the attraction's closing by a couple of minutes.

I came back the next day (with Vintage Disneyland Tickets) just to confirm that the attraction had closed. We were greeted with a rather generic Tortilla Factory sign indicating it was closed (but not that it was actually closed forever):

And this is how the exit doors looked:

Mildly tempting, but if I'm ever arrested for trespass at Disneyland it will not be at Disney California Adventure! (For the record, I have never trespassed at Disneyland and have no intentions of doing so.) A few days later the interiors of the doors and windows were covered in black, the final curtain on the tortilla story.

Follow That Tree

2011-06-12T20:17:00.001-07:00

Nothing captures my interest in something at Disneyland faster than somebody telling me it's been around since Opening Day and has been relocated to a new spot. This excerpt from the October 14, 1982 Disneyland Line is a classic example:

This beautiful ficus, located in front of the Pirate Ship since opening day, was temporarily removed. It will be relocated in the new Fantasyland.

Now, checking the available photographic evidence, it appears this ficus did not appear in front of the Pirate Ship until the Skull Rock improvement of 1960. I suppose it's possible that the tree was on property Opening Day, but Disneyland World of Flowers did not mention it at all. Still, if present in today's Disneyland, the tree would have been on site for over fifty years and that's impressive enough. I was unable to find good enough photos of the tree trunk online, so I made it today's mission at the Park to confirm that the tree still existed on site.

You can see the ficus off to the left of the Pirate Ship entrance:

Pay no attention to the destruction in the following shots; you're supposed to be focusing on the tree!:

Tranquility:

One last shot of the tree in situ at its original themed location:

The destruction around the ship has started and the ficus has been pruned:

Remember, your focus is the tree:

No more ship, but the tree stands!:

Most people avoided taking a picture of the tree; for these Skyway riders, that was one of the few things left to photograph:

But the demands of the future Dumbo the Flying Elephant required the tree to move. It was first removed from the ground (presumably for the first time in 22 years)...:

...and boxed...:

...so it could be moved...:

...out of the way by the Mad Hatter for a couple of months:

At least 24 people supervised its new permanent placement in the Mad Tea Party queue:

The wooden fence affords the ficus a small level of protection from the construction vehicles:

From the Skyway:

Pictured here as queue construction is beginning:

And here it is as the first New Fantasyland Guests saw it:

And while the fencing has changed, you can see it's still the same tree there today:

I don't ride the Mad Tea Party often, but I'm sure it's a great shade producer:

You can see I was not the only one admiring the tree today:

You need a wide angle lens with this tree now:

I hope this tree remains at Disneyland for at least another fifty years--and that each of you climb it on your next visit. Here's to arboreal adventures!

Golden Ears

2011-06-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

Disneyland Line, January 21, 1982:

I don't know for sure, so I hope my parents took me to see The Golden Horseshoe Revue in my first eight days.

Dead and Alive

2011-06-06T04:55:00.000-07:00

There are people who are alive and there are people who are dead. Of course, at Disneyland, you can be both (even if you're not a cat). Back when Disneyland acknowledged that the frontier was a dangerous place, a dead settler (obviously not Mike Fink) lay with an arrow in his chest in front of his burning cabin. But did you ever wonder who the dead settler was? Well, wonder no more. The settler was modeled on Club 55 member Ed Winger, who also has a window on Main Street. From the September 3, 1981 Disneyland Line you can read about how his body came to rest at Disneyland:

If Ed Winger, Manager of Building, Grounds and Construction in the Maintenance Division, tells you he gave his all to Disneyland, you'd better believe him.

In 1957 the "Settler" (a scarecrow-like dummy in front of the burning cabin on Tom Sawyer Island) was torn apart and destroyed. At the time, Ed was a Plaster Tender in the Staff Shop and happened to be in the Shop office when a request for another "dummy" was made. Thus, he was volunteered to be the model for the new prototype.

The mold was made in two parts: the body from the neck down; and the face and ears. As he laid on a table, he was greased and covered with plaster on both sides. The plaster took 30 minutes to harden before it was lifted off. Not only did Ed learn to take short breaths as the plaster set, but had to contend with the heat that comes with hardening plaster.

During this period, Ed laid face-down with his head resting on a sponge. At that time, the Staff Shop was where the Administration Building is today. Cast Members used to drop by frequently on their way to work to see the latest creations.

A few stopped to talk to Staff Shop Cast Members standing next to Ed, completely unaware of him. He could only see their feet, and when he made a request to readjust his sponge, there were some startled reactions. "They took off like a shot," Ed recalls. "They didn't realize a live body was underneath all that plaster."

For the face and ears mold, straws were inserted in his nose to allow for breathing, and tissue dipped in cold cream was placed on his eyelids and eyebrows.

After the mold was made, a fiberglass figure was cast, then dressed and positioned on the Island."

Ed was born in El Dorado, Arkansas and raised in the oil fields of Oklahoma. He joined Disneyland during its construction (working for Herrick and Herrick) and then spent ten years in the Staff Shop under Bud Washo before working his way up in the Maintenance Division. In May 1972 he was promoted to Buildings Manager with responsibilities for the Mill, Paint, Sign and Sheet Metal Departments. He passed away on July 13, 1998 from complications of Alzheimer's.

Here he is as pictured in the 1975 book, Club 55: The Pioneers:

In the November 1957 Disneylander with other members of the Plaster Shop:

And in the July 15, 1976 Disneyland Line:

According to Disneyland: The Nickel Tour, in 1984 the dead settler was replaced with a drunken moonshiner, who himself was removed in 1991. I wonder whatever happened to the Ed Winger dead settler? Surely one of my readers has it in their collection...

Thanks to Daveland for providing the enlargement at top!

A Tribute to a Photographer

2011-06-05T14:01:00.001-07:00

As I often do on the weekend, I walked to Disneyland today. I like to walk and once I get going I don't like to stop. But as I was almost out of Town Square my eye caught on the mail box outside the Emporium and I paused for a moment, thinking to the photos posted today at Gorillas Don't Blog. As it happened, this ever-so-slight pause (it couldn't have been more than four seconds) gave me opportunity to run into a friend on her way into work. I don't remember what song was playing on the Main Street loop, but I imagine it must have been Fortuosity.

I stopped because I thought it would be interesting to capture similar photos. I think this first one embodies the spirit of what that photographer is all about, but I didn't get the framing exactly right (original):

I didn't get the second one quite right, either. I guess he or she just had a very unique perspective that is impossible to duplicate! (original):

Why Do I Have This? (Part 3)

2011-06-02T09:00:00.001-07:00

OK, obviously I hung around Redd Rockett's Pizza Port a lot when it opened. But I had forgotten all about these wings until I found them in a box last week. I have absolutely no memory of why they were produced. I don't think they were worn by Cast Members. I know they weren't generally handed out to Guests. Were they maybe handed out to select Guests to create "magical moments"? Does anybody else have these? (Mine are so scuffed up, I'm sure, because I always brought them to the Park.)

UPDATE 6/2/2011: Tonight while attending the media party at the Disneyland Hotel for Soundsational Summer I had occasion to tour the new suites. Who did I see there but Rona Kay, the first manager of Redd Rockett's Pizza Port and with whom I am pictured as the first dollar. She was able to tell me that they were created to hand to children as airline wings had been. They made one batch and then Safety got wind of it and prevented the production of any more. So, that explains why I only have the one. I am amazed that I ran into the one person I know who could answer that question (and whom I have not seen in years) on the very day I posed the question, but I've been amazed by a lot recently.

After Action

2011-05-30T21:28:00.000-07:00

Today, for the first time since 2002 or before, and definitely the first time as a Guest, I took the Welcome to Disneyland Tour. I had no idea what the tour was like now, but they were in need of (free) Guests to do the Performance Assessment for the Guide, and I really stumbled into it, so I figured, "What the heck?" (I also got several Disney's FASTPASSES, one of which allowed me to go on Splash Mountain, so I have no complaints.) On Saturday in a box newly released from storage I found a couple of After Action Reports from some of my last "Walk in Walt's Footsteps" t0urs. I hadn't seen these in many years and had forgotten they even existed. They display my trademark irreverence; I hope they give you a a little sense of the Tour program!

August 9, 2002:

September 2, 2002 (I indicate it's my last tour, because I had dropped to CT and was not sure I'd be coming back):

Imagineer at Work

2011-05-27T00:30:00.000-07:00

Or is this Imagineer at play? Regardless, the topic of this post is not Bob Gurr making his Gurrtinis (aww...). This is about how Bob created a camera mount for my car so I could document my road trips.

In January 2005 I got a Canon G6, with the intent to use it to take in-motion photos on my solo road trips. I described my requirements to Bob ("I need to take pictures while I'm driving!") and he told me to come on up and he'd take a look. I took him up on this offer on January 14, 2005.

I put the convertible top down so Bob could take a look and work his magic:

He didn't need to look for too long before deciding that he could create a mount for a camera bracket that would screw into where the passenger sun visor had been. It's been in my trunk these past six years; occasionally a passenger will comment on its absence, but you never know when you're going to need to get away on a road trip. He also gave me a black duvatine cloth to place on the dashboard to minimize reflection on the passenger side of the windshield. Here's Bob doing the honors of removing the visor:

And then he went to work in his garage:

Here is how it appears in the car. The camera hangs upside down, with the infrared sensor pointed to the driver, so I can use a wireless remote to snap the photographs. A thin metal rod (not pictured) wedges between the bottom of the camera and the forward roof for additional stability:

And here is Bob posing with it yesterday (his own camera is standing in for my G6):

Since that January day I have driven across the country six times and have taken well over 100,000 road photos with it. (I should make Bob see them all!) Here are just a few from the collection:

January 2, 2006, Nevada, US-50 E, east of Austin

January 4, 2006, Colorado, CO-14 N, just north of US-40

January 22, 2009, California, US-101 N, Golden Gate Bridge

January 26, 2009, California, CA-190 E, approaching Death Valley National Park

May 20, 2010, Montana, US-89 S, south of Livingston

Oh, and after I had been driving around with this mount and bracket for a year, Bob casually tells me that the duvatine cloth was left over from his work on King Kong for Universal Studios and the camera bracket had been at the Walt Disney Studios and came from Ub Iwerks.

You Can't Go Home Again

2011-05-25T19:35:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not feeling nostalgic for the Golden Gateway or Disney's California Adventure. On Saturday I brought back several boxes from storage and this photo happened to be in one of them. I understand that tonight Guest Relations Cast Members are taking their Cast photo in front of The Little Mermaid, so it seemed appropriate to post.

But a different event this afternoon left me a little dumbstruck. I recently (Monday) posted this photo on Facebook:

I took this photo of my broken D Pin on August 2, 2002 and like to caption it, "The day the magic died." These new D Pins were not as well-made as the previous Guide/Host pins and this seemed to be a frequent occurrence (but was the first time it had ever happened to me). I have been informed that broken Tink arms are not an uncommon occurrence at the present time. Anyway, I posted this on Monday. Today as I left work and had my day perk up a bit (for reasons beyond the end of the workday), I prepared to put the convertible top down. I looked in the back seat to be sure that I had no loose paper...and spied that very Tinker Bell arm. I was a bit speechless. I feel like I had seen it a few days ago and not known what it was; after all, it's just a lightweight gold cylinder. Until I found it this afternoon I was sure I had given it back with my broken pin. Although I haven't come to grips with the physical reality that would cause this to happen, it must have fallen out of one of the Saturday boxes. The alternative is that it has been rolling around in my car for the past nine years.

Even if it just found its way into my car on Saturday, I'm still flummoxed that I would feel compelled to post the vest photo only two days before I again found the wand. The last two weeks have been pretty amazing for me, so I feel as if it's a sign of some sort. I hope one of you can tell me what it means!

On Nomenclature of the New Attractions

2011-05-23T04:00:00.000-07:00

Summer is almost here and June 3 will see the first simultaneous opening of new attractions at Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure. As my blog's name would suggest, I have a keen interest in the nomenclature used in the new attraction names--not for any grand purpose, but just because I like details.

First up for review is the new Star Tours. It has colloquially been referred to as "Star Tours 2.0," but I doubt that was ever given much consideration as a serious attraction title (unless each seat were to be equipped with tools to interact with the social media elements of Web 2.0). I always place greatest weight on what the attraction marquee says, because I figure that with the costs involved and the intended longevity that those signs will have had the greatest vetting. This is the marquee as it appeared on May 12:

That is:

STAR
TOURS

THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE

You can also see this in the attraction poster artwork posted on the Disney Parks Blog:

In regular usage, however, the line break will not work, so the attraction's official nomenclature renders it as "Star Tours—The Adventures Continue" (that is, with an em dash in place of the line break). That's how it appears in the latest guide map:

Notice that "Adventures" is plural. This presumably refers to the multiple destinations involved in the new attractions. If you're not paying attention, however, it can easily become "The Adventure Continues," as happened on all the temporary pre-opening signs, like this one:

But, I think most of us know that for all practical purposes it will just be known as "Star Tours," and "The Adventures Continue" will only be a useful tagline to differentiate it from the original for, say, a thesaurus. The new signage at the Disney's FASTPASS distribution area doesn't even include the tagline:

Bottom line: If you include the tagline, make sure "Adventures" is plural, rather than "Continue." Incidentally, these are the other Disneyland entities that have used the em dash through the years (almost exclusively in the past decade):

Club Buzz—Lightyear's Above the Rest
Minnie & Friends—Breakfast in the Park
Playhouse Disney—Live on Stage
Snow White—An Enchanting New Musical
Walt Disney—A Legacy for the Future

Meanwhile, over at Disney California Adventure, the stylistic choice for The Little Mermaid is unique in Disneyland Resort history. The official nomenclature renders the attraction's full title as "The Little Mermaid~Ariel's Undersea Adventure." Yes, that's a tilde separating the title from the tagline, as seen below in the latest guide map:

The attraction's marquee was finally unveiled this past week:

Again, the attraction's signage makes use of vertical space, so the tilde is not present:

I was initially put off by the use of a tilde in the attraction name. I assume it was used in place of the em dash to suggest a wave. However, I warmed to the idea after I realized that a tilde has been in place for all of Disneyland's history right there in Town Square:

This is the only entity in the Disneyland Resort's history to use a tilde in its title. (The above example being just a separator on the signage and not part of the official nomenclature.) It will be interesting to see whether "Ariel's Undersea Adventure" fares any better than "The Adventures Continue." I expect it will last longer, but for practical reasons the attraction will just be referred to as "The Little Mermaid."

My interest in this matter, however, will end up with the opening of Trader Sam's...

Yeah, I've Been to Disneyland a Few Times

2011-05-22T06:00:00.001-07:00

For example, during September 1997-June 1998 I went 130 times. In going through storage yesterday, I recovered my high school agenda for that time, which helpfully recorded each visit. (I trust you can figure out my system.)

September 4 was the first day of school. I recall going to see the final performance of The Spirit of Pocahontas (I still have a bag of confetti from it--maybe I'll shoot it out of a cannon when The Disneyland Compendium is finished); that night we had a power outage and I had to finish my algebra homework by candlelight. The first full week of September the Astro Orbitor started to appear at the Tomorrowland entrance. September 28 marked the first of 26 consecutive Sundays that I visited Disneyland (during which I frequently attended the alt.disney.disneyland meetups at the Goofy statue in the Hub). October 2 was the first day I regularly started taking a video camera to Disneyland. On one of those October Thursdays Dave Smith came down to the Park to talk to Guest Relations and Walt Disney Story Cast Members about Walt's offices and I recall walking around the Park with him.

November 25 I attended (as a regular Guest) the "it's a small world" holiday lighting ceremony; November 27 my sister and I made a quick trip to Disneyland on Thanksgiving morning to ride the attraction for the first time. This was probably the first Christmas Day I visited Disneyland. Note my excitement on December 30 in having driven to Disneyland for the first time.

January 18 I went to Club 33; in my driver license photo taken on January 20 I wore a Club 33 pin on the neck line of my t-shirt (a photo just replaced this year, where I am now sporting a Kevin and Jody Adventureland shirt). Immediately following my passing my driving test, Disneyland closed the Parking Lot.

March 12 was the day I met Bruce Gordon. I made good use of Spring Break in April to document New Tomorrowland construction. The minimum day on April 30 allowed me to get to Disneyland earlier than usual, where I ran into Tony Baxter (leading to a chain of events that got me into the Moonliner media event).

Some of those May days I skipped school(!). The absence of school on May 1 was fortuitous. My dad was on the Orange County Business Council with Paul Pressler; the Council had a meeting at the Disneyland Pacific Hotel, so I was able to get my New Tomorrowland press kit signed by Paul and then head over to watch the Moonliner be placed upright for the first time (I have a ton of photos of this event). May 4 was the Moonliner media event. May 18 I was home studying for my AP US History test when I learned that all the construction walls were down, so I had to head to the Park. May 21 was the New Tomorrowland media day (see yesterday's post). May 22 was the opening of the New Tomorrowland. I assume I visited on both May 24 and 31 (possibly realizing, after coloring it in for the 24th that I would also need to visit on the 31st!).

I also apparently, for the first month or two, kept track of what I got with each visit to Redd Rockett's Pizza Port. (I have many, so many, receipts from Pizza Port.) You can see that my first time eating there was March 15 (during Cast previews, through helpful friends at the Walt Disney Story). March 21 I was the first paying customer at the restaurant with a Celestial Caesar Salad and a Coke. Most times I got pizza, though, until one of my Cast Member friends there turned me on to the Chicken Fusili, which I have been getting almost exclusively since the summer of 1998.

I hope you've enjoyed your trip back through my sophomore year of high school. You're now morally obligated to post your own high school planners!

A Selection of Images from New Tomorrowland Media Day

2011-05-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

I have previously blogged about some of my experiences with the New Tomorrowland. Today is the thirteenth anniversary of the Media Day. I actually went to school that day and didn't acquire my credential with help from Bruce Gordon until late in the day, after the events were through. The following are most of my images from that day. I probably also shot some Hi-8 video that day, but that will have to wait for another time.

The first is the newly repainted Starcade (they were still finishing this and The Star Trader up in the previous week):

I do not believe there were any children at Media Day:

This might be the nicest of the bunch; Tomorrowland almost seems welcoming and exciting!:

Various broadcasting tables were set up around the land:

Mickey on the Astro Orbitor:

Fresh and new:

This was only the second day I had ever been on the second level of the Carousel Theater (the first being May 1, 1998, when Bruce escorted me up there). I took a few shots:

The Premiere Shop interior (oddly, I did not take any photos of the Disneyland Forever kiosks):

Tomorrowland Rapid Transit logo from Rocket Rods exit into Premiere Shop:

Why so cartoony?:

This photo is noteworthy for including a Rocket Rod on the track above the Autopia:

I couldn't stay away from snapping other second level photos in the fading sunlight:

At this time the Innoventions interior was still a mystery:

Since the media had largely gone home, it was just me going through the Rocket Rods queue again and again:

Finally, a few taken while waiting to "blast off":

I've been busy lately with a number of activities, some of which will hopefully be useful long-term to my Disneyland research. I finished scanning my APS film photos from 1996-1998 (and discovered two rolls that need to be finished so they can finally be developed!). Once I match up dates with the photos I'll be in a better position to use them here and at Drop In Again Sometime. I've begun the task of organizing my 10,000 Disneyland photos from the past year. I also, of course, continue to visit Disneyland so that 2011 can be the best documented year in the thesaurus!

Why Do I Have This? (Part 2): Hosting a Character Tour

2011-04-29T19:54:00.000-07:00

While it's possible I hosted a Disney character tour before I was born, I think it's unlikely. Since I bought a domain for my new blog, I can now more easily share PDFs and other larger files. The first thing I'm sharing via this arrangement is a 1976 guidebook produced by Disneyland's Entertainment Division for venues (such as hospitals and shopping malls) that were set to host a character tour. It's basically a comic book informing the venue of the potential pitfalls, and you can easily imagine each of the problems (poorly constructed stages, too-small dressing rooms, lack of crowd control) happening many times before. I'm sure whatever materials Disney provides now does not feel this Disney.

Download: Here We Come: Secrets of Success... Hosting a Disney Character Tour

It All Began Here

2011-04-26T19:05:00.000-07:00

June 21, 1997 was the first time I saw construction work for Disney's California Adventure, in the former Alice Cast Member parking area. It was probably the first time for a lot of people, as the above photo was taken within a few days of the work beginning. The Disneyland Line clippings below explain what's going on, although once the closure date changed they (frustratingly) do not mention the exact beginning of the construction. I wonder how long it had been since bulldozers were last in that area...

May 9, 1997:

May 16, 1997:

June 6, 1997:

June 13, 1997:

June 20, 1997:

New Signage Blog: Drop In Again Sometime

2011-04-26T17:36:00.000-07:00

This blog will continue with its erratic (but hopefully more frequent) postings, but I wanted to mention that I have just launched a new Disneyland Resort signage blog called Drop In Again Sometime (after the obscure sign at the base of the Splash Mountain drop). I'll post a daily photo from my collection (which, at this moment, is enough to keep me going for several years). I hope you'll drop by!

Why Do I Have This? (Part 1)

2011-04-20T03:25:00.000-07:00

Introducing a new irregular (well, no more irregular than my posting "schedule") feature of the blog: As I am going through my boxes of many, many individual paper items I saved from my visits in the late 1990s, I sometimes come across items that are either (a) plain bizarre or (b) come as a complete surprise to me (hence, "Why do I have this?"). If you have a reasonable suspicion of how I have the item (perhaps you have it too?), you are welcome to help out with the facts. If you have no idea, you are welcome to provide your wildest speculation. I will provide as much information as I have.

The first entry is this Hercules postcard; I assume I got it in the summer of 1997:

Without the information on the back of the card, I would assume...well, I would assume I picked it up somewhere, and that would be the end of the matter. But there's also writing on the back:

While I was a frequent visitor to City Hall and the Opera House (and even then not until late in the summer of 1997), I never hung around the Bank. If I renewed my pass in person, it wouldn't have been until February 1998. I assume it's possible that a random Cast Member friend gave this to me, but why would "The Bank :)" be giving these out, anyway?

April 19, 1998 Entertainment

2011-04-19T17:31:00.001-07:00

Newly unearthed (literally--I went out to the garden and threw some dirt on it just so I could clean it and say this) archival material sure to change the accepted historical narrative:

Or, it could be worthless ephemera that I should have left at the Gate rather than saving four copies of...

Happy 60th Birthday, Bruce!

2011-04-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

Today would have been Bruce Gordon's 60th birthday. As evidenced by the many books to which Bruce contributed or designed, he was as much a fan of Disneyland as anybody. (He did once tell me, though, that in his off time he preferred to talk with people about things other than Disneyland. Shocking!) Although I was just a teenage Disneyland obsessive, he understood and facilitated my obsession, by taking me onto construction sites, helping me and Kevin Yee with our book projects, and even snagging the Swiss Family Treehouse branch which is presently on my kitchen table. Below is what I wrote for Miceage following Bruce's untimely passage on November 6, 2007:

I only knew Bruce Gordon as a fan. Well, okay, I was the co-founder of his fan club, with Kevin Livingston. That story, along with Kevin’s introduction, is detailed below, but I wanted to first recount how I came to know him—first through his work, and then personally, as I bummed around Tomorrowland in the spring and summer of 1998.

I became interested in Disneyland history in 1995, after visiting Disneyland several times a year growing up and getting an Annual Passport in 1994. From the online world I was quickly pointed to Bruce and David Mumford’s The Nickel Tour. The beautiful book captivated me with the plethora of photographs and the bad puns. My original copy of the book is a tattered mess from frequent use, supplemented by a leather-case version (sold when Bruce and David Mumford were down to their final 250 copies) and the second edition.

I found myself a frequent visitor to the construction site of Tomorrowland in 1997 and 1998. Since I had become an online Disneyland fan (and more aware of changes taking place at the Park), the New New Tomorrowland was the first big project I witnessed at Disneyland. Between September 1997 and June 1998, I visited Disneyland around 120 times—more than enough visits to run into Imagineers working on the project!

I first met Bruce on March 12, 1998. Like so many other days, I scouted around Tomorrowland with a still and video camera, looking for the minutest of details which may have changed since my last visit. I ventured to the second level of the Starcade (which always offered a good vantage to see behind the construction walls), and then returned to its entrance to photograph the Observatron. On the Rocket Rods loading platform, I spied somebody I knew, with Bruce Gordon sitting in a Rocket Rod. The next few minutes are a bit of a blur—they spotted me, waved, and then Bruce came down and offered to take me up to the platform to look at the construction. In addition to taking my picture in a Rocket Rod (“It’s from Cast Blast, if anyone asks,” he told me to say), he took me up to the Observatron platform, where I had a great view of the construction!

I was so amazed that he did this the first time I met him, but I saw him often in the next year and a half and he always did this sort of thing. The day after the Moonliner had arrived on site, I was at the Park; I found Bruce in Tomorrowland and I was one of the few people behind the construction wall to see it placed upright for the first time. He signed me into the Moonliner press ceremony the following Monday. On New Tomorrowland media day, I headed down to the Park immediately after school. After thirty minutes of hanging around the entrance, I ran into Bruce—who promptly got me press credentials. Bruce gave me a preview of Innoventions a month before it opened. During early phases of construction for Tarzan’s Treehouse, Bruce even scrambled over debris to present me with a branch from the old tree. (I was, however, on my own for getting that out of the Park!) The morning of the treehouse’s opening, he gave me a sneak preview.

At the time I was only 16/17 and always at the Park, but I never got the sense that he’d rather not have run into me. Moreover, I never had anything he wanted! He took the time to get me into these construction areas and press events because he recognized the same kind of interest in Disneyland that he had when he was younger. After 1999, I didn’t see him at the Park as much, but he continued his generosity. As detailed in Kevin Yee’s article, Bruce provided great assistance with our Disneyland trivia books. The fan club seemed a natural way to show appreciation for one of the most public characters at Imagineering…

One of the things I fondly remember from the spring and summer of 1999 were the online chats Bruce and David did through Disney.com. I have the transcripts for a few of them saved. Bruce once told me that he and David were the only chat guests who were allowed to type their own answers. You can see their personality come through in this transcript from May 4, 1999. I got a special mention near the beginning because I had run into Bruce that day at Disneyland...

Welcome to Disneyana: Behind the Magic. Our chat with Disney Imagineers Bruce Gordon and David Mumford will begin at 9 p.m. ET/6 PT. Start sending in your questions for them!

Moderator: Our chat with Disney Imagineers Bruce Gordon and David Mumford will be starting in 10 more minutes.

Moderator: Start sending in your questions for them!

Moderator: Are you ready for the event of the year?

Moderator: Hey there hi there ho there all.

Moderator: TRhanks for joining us!

Moderator: Welcome to Disneyana: Behind the Magic.

Moderator: Well, here it is the first Tuesday of the month...

Moderator: and y'all know what that means....

Moderator: Not only is rent due...

Moderator: but also Imagineers/authors Bruce Gordon and David Mumford

Moderator: are our guests.

Moderator: We're broadcasting to you today...

Moderator: LIVE from atop the Matterhorn.

Moderator: at Disneyland.

Moderator: Disneyland Park ®

Moderator: They should be along any moment now to answer those burning questions that you might have

Moderator: ...about what goes into the creation of a Disney Theme Park attraction.

Moderator: I have no idea where they are now.

Moderator: Guys?

Moderator: Oh guuu-uuys....

Bruce_Gordon [Yodels!]

Moderator: There's one.

David_Mumford: Boy it is a long climb to the top of this mountain!

Moderator: And there's another.

Moderator: Thanks for joining us gents.

Bruce_Gordon: Hello!

Bruce_Gordon [sits down before he faints from the height]

David_Mumford: If you are in Disneyland with your laptop, come over to the Matterhorn and wave.

Moderator: You guys look GREAT in lederhosen.

Bruce_Gordon: Hey, look, there's Jason now! Hi Jason!

David_Mumford: I like your knee socks

Bruce_Gordon [(flattered)]

Moderator: Are you ready to interface with our online audience?

Bruce_Gordon: Ja

David_Mumford: Ready and waiting.

Moderator: Then here comes our first question....

dsny-cader says: What do you exactly mean by "imagineers?"

Bruce_Gordon: Imagineers are the folks who design and build all the permanent attractions

Bruce_Gordon: at all the Disney parks around the world

Bruce_Gordon: TOkyo -- FLorida -- Anaheim -- Paris

David_Mumford: They were assembled personally by Walt Disney way back in 1952 to help design Disneyland

Bruce_Gordon: Imagineering is made up of architects and artists and writers and engineers and so on --more than 200 different discipilines....

Bruce_Gordon: It's the coolest job in the world!

dsny-YenSid says: How did each of you get involved in Imagineering?

David_Mumford: I used to watch the Wonderful World of Color show on tv every Sunday

Bruce_Gordon: When Imagineering started working on Tokyo Disneyland and Epcot Center in 1980, they needed a whole bunch of people to help build it. I was one of the lucky ones they hired!

David_Mumford: I especially liked the shows where Walt took you on tours of Imagineering

David_Mumford: I trained as an architect, and have been with Walt Disney Imagineering for about 20 years

Bruce_Gordon: I grew up hanging around at Disneyland, building models in the garage, trying to figure out how they did everything in the attractions...

Bruce_Gordon: Being one of the people who helps create the future of the parks is a real honor!

dsny-juliewolf says: Do you have to go very far to gather supplies for creating things?

Bruce_Gordon: Sometimes we go too far!

dsny-David says: What are the projects both of you are working on now. (Would love to see some slides of your work)

Bruce_Gordon: Tarzan's Treehouse is the next big thing at Disneyland....the Swiss Family has moved on, and Tarzan has moved in!

Bruce_Gordon: The Treehouse opens late June, around the time the Tarzan animated feature opens in theaters!

David_Mumford: For those of you who were not here last month, I am working on Mermaid Lagoon, a whole land for a new theme park in Japan called Tokyo DisneySea

David_Mumford: It is scheduled to open in 2001

Bruce_Gordon: This fall, you'll see some activity around the Autopias in Tomorrowland and Fantasyland....

dsny-krazee1 says: You mentioned permanent attractions. Are there temporary attractions?

Bruce_Gordon: The temporary attractions are things like parades, and live shows on the stages. Those aren't done by Imagineering....they're done by a live enteratinment group at the Parks...

thanks dsny-ReddRockett, your question has been received

David_Mumford: By the way, nothing is permanent. Walt said Disneyland would never be completed as long as there is imagination left in the world.

Bruce_Gordon [shivers from the wind....]

Bruce_Gordon: Boy it sure is cold up here!

Moderator: How high up are we anyways?

David_Mumford: About 150 feet

David_Mumford: It is a great view of Southern California today.

Bruce_Gordon: The Matterhorn at Disneyland is one one-hundreth the height of the real matterhorn in Switzerland. That's the kind of silly things Imagineers do!

Moderator: Yes, it is cold...

Moderator: so...cold...

Bruce_Gordon: OOoops, David just slipped and fell off the side of the mountain!

David_Mumford: Ouch

Moderator: but suffereing is all part and parcel of doing the first ever Netcast from atop the Matterhorn at Disneyland Park®

dsny-the says: Who came up with the idea for Space Mountain?

David_Mumford: Disney legend John Hench

David_Mumford: He came up with the next generation of roller coaster attractions for Disneyland after the Matterhorn

David_Mumford: He wanted guest to experience a high speed flight thru space inside an obsevatory

Bruce_Gordon: A designer named George McGinnis worked with John to create the mountains we know and love in the parks today. George also designed the towers that hold up the Observatron in Tomorrowland at Disneyland.

Bruce_Gordon: The matterhorn was the first roller coaster with multiple cars running at the same time on the same track, and one of the first to run on steel pipe rails (which almost all coasters do now).

Bruce_Gordon: Truly groundbreaking!

David_Mumford: Space Mountain in Florida was the first coaster to be designed on a computer way back in the early 70s

Bruce_Gordon: The sides of the mountain used to be open, so you could see out as you circled around the top of the mountain. In 1978 they closed in the openings and now you can't see Anaheim!

dsny-Wis says: Speaking of the Matterhorn, what about the rumors of another Matterhorn ride at EPCOT?

Bruce_Gordon: Yes there are rumors, but no mountain.

dsny-nmorgan says: Will Bob Gurr be involved in the new Autopia, and what will be changing on the attraction (combining the two tracks?)?

Bruce_Gordon: Yes, Bob Gurr has worked with us extensively on the new Autopia. Bob designed the very first cars in 1955, and each of the versions since.

David_Mumford: Bob Gurr was one of the first Imagineers. He also designed the Monorail and the Main Street Vehicles.

Bruce_Gordon: Whats new on the Autopia? New cars (three additional designs besides the ones that are there now) and a whole new load area and a whole new track layout.

Bruce_Gordon: All the Autopia tracks will load in Tomorrowland, rather than half in Tomorrowland and half in Fantasyland as it is now.

dsny-mr_liver says: I loved you Bruce in Ernest Goes to Splash Mountain. Are you planning to do anymore TV work?

Bruce_Gordon: Thank you, it was one of my proudest moments.

Bruce_Gordon: For those of you lucky enough to have never seen it, I don't get to say a single word in the whole bit, I keep getting cut off by an announcer who talks fast.

Bruce_Gordon: The reason they did that was because in all the interviews I had done before, I talked so fast they couldn't find anyplace to edit me out...so it was kind of "payback."

Bruce_Gordon: THey still run that show on the Disney channel, much to might, um, delight.

David_Mumford: I was on CNN on Labor Day talking about the closing of the Submarine Voyage at Disneyland. Did anyone see me?

Bruce_Gordon: I saw you!

Bruce_Gordon: Of course, you brought in the tape.

David_Mumford: My 15 seconds of fame

dsny-ReddRockett says: Will Bob Gurr ever get a window on Main Street?

Bruce_Gordon: Window on Main Street was a TV show in the sixties starring Robert Young. Honest

David_Mumford: Way back in 1955, Walt decided to honor people who had greatly contributed to Disneyland by placing thier names on the Main Street windows as "store merchants"

Bruce_Gordon: There's a whole committee who figures out the honors...and we're not part of it....so who knows!

dsny-Xiannie says: Is it true that my favorite ride, "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" is gone? If so, is there any plan to revive it. I have such fond memories...

Bruce_Gordon: The Toad ride in Walt Disney World is closed, and will be replaced with a brand new Winnie the Pooh attraction.

David_Mumford: The attraction at Disneyland is still going strong.

dsny-californiadventure says: what are the plans for the sub lagoon?

dsny-Nap98 says: speaking of the Submraine Voyage..are we getting anything new there?

dsny-imagineering_org says: What's going to replace the submarines at Disneyland?

Bruce_Gordon: We did a big mockup last year (in that famous blue tent) to demonstrate what we might be able to do with the subs to make them exciting and new. The demonstration was well received by all....\

Bruce_Gordon: Keep your eyes on the lagoon in the coming months.

David_Mumford: Hey, when do we get to go for a thrilling Bobsled ride?

Bruce_Gordon: Just hop in next time one goes by!

Moderator: After the chat, David...AFTER the chat.

Bruce_Gordon: What chat?

Moderator [growls]

David_Mumford: Sounds like the Abominible Snowman

dsny-californiadventure says: when will the new Autopia open?

Bruce_Gordon: The new Autopia is scheduled for Summer of 2000.

dsny-Herc says: How often do you get to ride th rides?

Bruce_Gordon: Any time we want. We cut right to the front of the line, knocking people down as we go.

Bruce_Gordon: But seriously folks.....

Bruce_Gordon: We ride them as

Bruce_Gordon: show checks

Bruce_Gordon: to make sure everything is working correctly.

Bruce_Gordon: And we do wait in line, unless we can sneak in before the park opens.

David_Mumford: We also have a lot of relatives who like us to take them their when they are in town.

Bruce_Gordon: Walt used to make the Imagineers go down to the park every few weeks, and wait in line for the attractions to experience things just like the guests experienced them.

Evangeline24 says: Are there any plans for more underground rides, such as Indiana Jones?

Bruce_Gordon: Uhhh, what exactly is an underground ride????? Everything we do is above board and perfectly proper!

David_Mumford: Look, someone lost another Mickey Mouse Balloon!

Moderator: Grab it! Quick!

Bruce_Gordon [grabs for the balloon and falls off the mountain]

dsny-WallyBoag says: Is everything working correcytly on the Matterhorn today?

Bruce_Gordon: We aren't!

Bruce_Gordon: No

dsny-nmorgan says: Are either of you two working on the California Adventure?

Bruce_Gordon: Like I said, no

David_Mumford: I'm not, I'm busy with the Tokyo project

dsny-MattyHere says: Is there any plans for any of the other Lands to get a remake like Tommorrow land

dsny-krazee1 says: Are any of the other lands planned for a major renovation like the new tomorrowland?

Bruce_Gordon: The treehouse finishes the Adventureland redo, which started a few years ago with new paving, the new Jungle Cruise load area....

Bruce_Gordon: That's at Disneyland...

David_Mumford: The lands are always getting fresh looks. Main Street at Disneyland is getting new brick pavers on the sidewalk. There are also new color schemes on the buildings

Bruce_Gordon: The Walt Disney World Tomorrowland was redone a few years ago, as well.

Pearl__1 says: is it true that there is a basketball court ontop of the matterhorn?

David_Mumford: In the employee break room on the upper floor, there is an area big enough for a half court. The cast members have put up a hoop and practice shots during breaks.

Bruce_Gordon: Mountains have floors?

Moderator: The very best ones do, Bruce.

David_Mumford: Yes, and elevators.

dsny-imagineering_org says: Will submarines ever run again at Walt Disney World?

Bruce_Gordon: Hey, we've been to your website!

David_Mumford: Hey, did I mention I was on CNN talking about the closing of the Subs?

Bruce_Gordon: Submarines are unsinkable.

[Here my transcript got screwed up. If anyone has this section, please post it!]

David_Mumford: But heck, we are in California, so what do we know?

Bruce_Gordon: It was cool--I actually built the frames around the undersea windows where the kid was swimming with the sea lion.

dsny-Shackelton says: What's the status on the Atlantis attraction at Disneyland?

Bruce_Gordon: What Atlantis attraction? YOu mean the blue tent?

David_Mumford [laughs]

riffkitten8 says: dsny-SpokkerJones says: Do you ever want to say, "Ah forget theming!" and build a monster roller coaster?

Bruce_Gordon: No, we leave that to the other parks.

Bruce_Gordon: But we're building a monster rollercoaster at the Studio Tour at Walt Disney World right now....it truly kicks you know what!

David_Mumford: Everything we do is about creating a story. Even if we build a monster roller coaster, it needs a story.

dsny-ish says: I would like to ask both of the imagineers....if they have a favorite design or ride or building, one that maybe means more to them than the whole job?

Bruce_Gordon: Splash Mountain will always be my favorite, because I was so involved in getting it approved....it's my little baby!

David_Mumford: I worked on the Alice in Wonderland attraction for the New Fantasyland at Disneyland in 1984.

Bruce_Gordon: From long ago, it would be the Viewliner Train of Tomorrow and the House of the Future...

David_Mumford: Alice was always one of my favorite Disney films, and it was a fun attraction to work on.

riffkitten8 says:

David_Mumford: Cool, but it is a beautiful sunset tonight

Bruce_Gordon: Bruce has gone inside.

David_Mumford: Shooting hoops

dsny-bluejay2b says: Can you hear the screams from where you are

Bruce_Gordon: Yes, mostly from the lawyers.

David_Mumford: Only when we tell bad jokes

dsny-californiadventure says: I thought the climbers were retired from Disneyland?

Bruce_Gordon: They're part of the live entertainment group we mentioned earlier....they rotate things around the park, so sometimes they're there, and sometimes they're not!

dsny-bluejay2b says: i went to disneyland 2 years ago it WAS A BLAST!!!!!!!!!YOUR IDAES WERE GREAT

Bruce_Gordon: Well, actually, Disneyland was Walt's idea....

Bruce_Gordon: But, on behalf of all the Imagineers, around the world, past and presnt, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

dsny-dsny1mom1 says: How difficult is it to stay within budgets given to you?

Bruce_Gordon: A project is not a complete success unless it opens on time and on budget....and is a great show to boot!

David_Mumford: Bruce and I are also historians of Disneyland Park. We would love taking questions about the history of Disneyland attractions.

dsny-Nap98 says: hey you keep dodging our Atlantis questions, do you have any info you can give us about it?

Bruce_Gordon [dodges the question again and falls of the mountain into the sub lagoon....]

David_Mumford: Poor Bruce

Pearl__1 says: Have you ever been in Club 33...and are there really microphones that tape peoples conversations?

Bruce_Gordon: Yes, we've been to Club 33...it's terrific!

David_Mumford: Yes, I had dinner there last week

Bruce_Gordon: The microphones were an idea of Walt's, so that they could listen to conversations at the table...

David_Mumford: There were Audio-Animatronics birds that would talk back to the guests.

Bruce_Gordon: And they would say things that responded to the converstaions overheard at the table...

David_Mumford: But this was never activated.

Bruce_Gordon: Or so they tell us....

dsny-ReddRockett says: What got you interested in Disneyland history (other than the postcards)?

Bruce_Gordon: Having grown up there...and talking with the legendary Imagineers at work!

David_Mumford: I liked hearing about how everthing built for Disneyland was an innovation.

David_Mumford: Walt and his staff often had to invent new technologies to create the attractions

dsny-WallyBoag says: How about talking a little bit about the history of the Golden Horseshoe?

David_Mumford: Wally, you were one of the stars

David_Mumford: you should know everything

Bruce_Gordon: There's a great TV special that runs ont he Disney Channel every so often..

Bruce_Gordon: It starred Annette Funicello and the whole Horseshoe cast....watch for it, it contains the whole show!

David_Mumford: Walt wanted a live entertainment show in the park based on an old western review

Bruce_Gordon: Also, watch the movie "Calamity Jane" starring Doris Day.....the interior sets of their saloon were built from the same blueprints used for Disneyland! It's an exact duplicate!

Bruce_Gordon: The movie came first, though....

David_Mumford: He hired Donald Novis and Wally Boag to come up with the show back in 1955

Bruce_Gordon: Walt asked Harper Goff to design the Horseshoe, and he had worked on the film...so he pulled the blueprints out of the file!

David_Mumford: It was the longest running stage show in history according to the record books

David_Mumford: Betty Taylor joined the cast in 1956, and was a great addition to the cast

dsny-YenSid says: What was the shortest-lived attraction, and what caused it to be discontinued?

Bruce_Gordon: The two shortest lived attractions were probably the Phantom Boats and the Viewliner. THey both lasted two seasons.

David_Mumford: The Phantom Boats were a two passenger boat that circled a lagoon near what is now the Submarine Lagoon

Bruce_Gordon: THe Viewliner was the predecessor for the Monorail....it looked like the monorail, traveled around Tomorrowland on pretty much the same path, but rode on regular railraod tracks on the ground!

Bruce_Gordon: It opened in 1957 and closed in 1958.

David_Mumford: The Phantom Boats closed due to outboard motors (mounted inside the boat) that overheated

David_Mumford: This was part of the learning process in the early days of Disneyland

Bruce_Gordon: A lot of people think the flying saucers were a short lived attraction, but they lasted from 1961 to 1966 -- five years!

David_Mumford: Also the low capacity of two guests per boat did not help either

dsny-TPA says: Hi Dave - it's Rick West; great to see you and Bruce here!

David_Mumford: You can see us all the way from the Bay Area?

dsny-californiadventure says: This is the Haunted Mansions 30th anniversary, is anything special planned?

David_Mumford: There is a big event on June 25 at the Disney Gallery in New Orleans Square

David_Mumford: Several of the original designers will be on hand and specialty merchandise will be available

David_Mumford: Contact the Disney Gallery for more information

Moderator: Guys, it looks like we're running out of time here today...

dsny-MattyHere says: whats the next Attaction that you will ne Webcasting on?

Bruce_Gordon: We'll be riding on the monorail, if we can get the wireless connections worked out!

David_Mumford: Please create Monorail questions for next month.

David_Mumford: We will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first daily operating monorail in the Western Hemisphere

Moderator: So join us then!

Moderator: Bruce, david thanks for joining us today...

David_Mumford: bye Hans, bye Fritz

Bruce_Gordon: Luckily the climb down off the mountain is easier than the climb up!

Moderator: You need any help getting down?

David_Mumford: Can we go for a ride now?

Moderator: Absolutely...the churros are on me.

Bruce_Gordon: You should eat more carefully!

David_Mumford: I'll tear out my E-Ticket

Moderator: Thanks all.

David_Mumford: Bye everyone

Oh Yeah? BITE ME

2011-04-14T20:55:00.000-07:00

I realized that my blog doesn't have enough attitude. To really make a name for myself, I need to take a stance and tell it like it is, no matter who it might upset. For some moral support, I turned to the Parking Lot Cast Members of the mid-1990s. I should explain: When I worked in Guest Relations, the City Hall attic was a dark, scary place. (Did you even know it had an attic?) It was at the top of a rickety staircase and had low light levels and an even lower ceiling. There were boxes and boxes of character photos and some past administrative materials (like reports from Duty Managers). But what I remember most are the piles and piles (and piles!) of slides of Parking Lot Cast Members having fun on the job. They must have been in a box or other container at some point, but I just remember them strewn about on the floor.

When they were renovating the City Hall attic, I grabbed a handful of these slides because they seemed rather humorous (and because, frankly, I'm sure the rest were going to be put in the trash). The slides were all dated November 18, 1996 and will reveal a side of Parking Lot Cast Members you likely have not seen. Because there were so many of them in the attic, I believe they were taken for some team building or group bonding experience, but feel free to speculate in the comments.

They start out innocuous enough; here's a nice view of the Parking Lot entrance:

Walt would have been apoplectic that these cones were not in a straight line (whatever happened to attention to detail?):

The Cone-Temporary Hotel shot is nicely framed to include the Disneyland Hotel:

For these photos, the Cast Members created a cardboard "Oh Yeah? BITE ME" sign that they then affixed to several signs around the Parking Lot. I can only imagine how many of these photos I don't have:

The Cast Members themselves got into the act, too, of course. I believe the following photos document training for those busy times when human speedbumps were required:

It wasn't all fun and games, though:

And I don't even know what to say about this photo (other than to say that the sign's message was undoubtedly true for some Cast Members):

I'll leave you with a nice Disneyland approach photo:

How to Turn DCA Into a Parking Lot

2011-04-12T18:48:00.000-07:00

Simple: reverse the arrow of time! But if you want something a bit easier...

I was scanning more of my film-based photos this weekend (from 1996-1998) and noticed that I had taken a few of the pick-up area, just beyond the Monorail Beam from the Disneyland Main Entrance. As I didn't get my driver license until 1998 (at which time I also got a cell phone), I spent quite a bit of time at this area. I realized that it couldn't be too far off from the present location of the Information Station in Disney California Adventure--a location I later worked while in Guest Relations. This got me thinking about how the Resort expansion was laid out over the old Parking Lot. I don't recall ever seeing a graphic showing what ended up where, so I created one myself.

I used the Parking Lot map from a Vintage Disneyland Tickets post as my guide for the names.

I then turned to aerial photographs taken by the United States Geological Survey and the United States Department of Agriculture for my base images. This is a 1995 aerial of the Disneyland Parking Lot:

Sure is a lot of space, isn't it? I then tried to map out the various sections of the Parking Lot:

Some of the boundaries were clear, with the interior roads dividing the sections. Others, particularly the Alice/Bambi divide and the north/south divide of the interior sections, I had to guess at based on pavement shadings. The map from Vintage Disneyland Tickets also includes a Chip section right at the Main Entrance, but from the aerial photo I couldn't figure out where that was located. Any help is welcome.

I then placed a 2009 image from the National Agricultural Imagery Program underneath my graphic, to yield the following composite:

So, now you can amaze your friends with your knowledge of which entities were in which Parking Lot sections. Tower of Terror? Mickey. Cars Land? Sleepy and Tinker Bell. Disney Animation? Happy and Goofy. Silly Symphony Swings? Exit road.

My real reason for wanting to do this is that I have dozens of Parking Lot photos I'd like to match up with current views (when possible, realizing that often there would be no point of reference), but I don't know that I have the enthusiasm to complete this for too many. Still, it was an interesting exercise to trace the evolution of the former Parking Lot sections to the current Second Gate.

On Temporal Reality at Disneyland

2011-04-11T21:48:00.000-07:00

If you don't get to Disneyland too often, your sense of the passage of time may be fairly conventional. Sure, Daylight Saving Time will mess with your head twice a year, and leap seconds and leap days crop up as a curiosity (no offense intended to those born on February 29). But at Disneyland, time is elastic in a way that is frankly not possible elsewhere in the universe. Perhaps this is why so many Disneyland obsessives also love the Back to the Future trilogy--anything is possible at Disneyland.

This was brought home to me today while visiting the Resort. The first such instance was at Innoventions (which currently has some reversed traffic pattern I don't fully understand). On the second level is one of three "Fun Phones" installed in late 1999 and early 2000. The phones (the others were outside the Indiana Jones Adventure and in Mickey's Toontown) would play a brief, humorous audio clip when a Guest picked up the phone. The Innoventions one had a hilarious take-off on the Adventure Thru Inner Space spiel ("For centuries, man had but his own two ears. Then he invented the telephone, a mighty ear") voiced by Paul Frees sound-alike Corey Burton. I believe the other phones were taken out before too long; the Innoventions one has been broken for years and years and years. That is, if you live in the real world.

Here's what the Fun Phone looked like on April 11, 2011, probably untouched (including the dusting--is that really so hard?) since they removed the AT&T logo from the cone:

Getting in a little closer:

That's right, we see that this is only a temporary inconvenience. Much like the Carousel Theater was closed for ten years to Imagineer a brand new attraction, or like Light Magic went on a two-year hiatus, or the return of the Rocket Rods is just around the bend, the Fun Phones aren't really gone (although I am sure that sign has been there multiples of time longer than the Fun Phone was originally operational). But the sign doesn't promise a definitive return date.

The Disneyland Hotel, on the other hand, in the midst of a major renovation, has some confusing signs up. Adorning the construction walls are reproductions of a few attraction posters and some signs advertising the changes to come:

Coming Spring 2011! Coming Spring 2012! Coming Soon! It is correct that everything in the top photo (that is, the Monorail slide) should be opening in Spring 2011. But most of what's in the bottom image (the Spring 2012 sign) should be opening in Spring 2011. I guess they are underpromising, but I would certainly be confused if I were a casual visitor. (In fact, I began to question what year it is.)

So, the next time you visit, and Security is trying to usher you out because the Park has "closed," just remind them that at Disneyland the temporal is flexible--and please let me know how that goes for you.

Is This the Future or 1998?

2011-03-26T16:42:00.001-07:00

(Hint: If you're not traveling around Southern California in a Rocket Rod, it's probably 1998.)

Get the Point?!

2011-03-14T18:13:00.000-07:00

This will be the most exciting post yet! See how the exclamation point lends that statement credibility? While combing through photos recently I noticed that the current "it's a small world" marquee doesn't quite reflect the attraction's name:

The exclamation point addition is not, however, a new addition to the signage, as I have a photo from 1998 that also includes it:

The exclamation point is not and has never been a part of the official nomenclature. The attraction's page on Disneyland.com uses the correct language. The original marquee contains what is still widely regarded as the correct form of the attraction's name (although not by Dave Smith; check Disney A-Z for the entry on It's a Small World):

I'm not much of a fan of exclamation points in attraction or entertainment events and have long felt that it's been overdone in the past, oh, twenty years (beginning with Disney Afternoon Live!). But then I started looking through my photos and realized that Walt wasn't shy about using exclamation points to drum up business for some classic attractions, like the Surrey Ride!...

...the Haunted Mansion!...

...and, of course, Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room!:

After finding these historical examples, I am more accepting of modern uses. How about you?

Third Anniversary of Bob Gurr's Window

2011-03-07T15:41:00.001-08:00

I thought I had promised a write-up on the dedication ceremony for Bob Gurr's window on East Center Street, but apparently I had only mentioned my attendance back on March 23, 2008. Today is the third anniversary of that ceremony and I thought the time had finally come for me to give a brief rundown of the ceremony (with ample photographic illustrations).

The ceremony occurred during my "wilderness years" while I was still off at Maryland, but Bob let me know two months in advance that the ceremony would be taking place and I was able to arrange to be in town for it. They had us check in at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa before walking us to the main gates as a group. Once inside, the Bob Gurr-designed Main Street Vehicles were out to ferry us to East Center Street:

I was happy to jump in the Fire Engine because it had been Bob's idea to add to the Park (see story at the previous link). It having been nearly five years since I was a Cast Member, I delighted in seeing Town Square before the Park opened--on what was really a gorgeous spring day.

My family was among the first group in and we were thus able to secure front row seats to the ceremony. The window (the first to also feature a three-dimensional prop) was nicely covered before the presentation:

The Dapper Dans started things off:

Disneyland Vice President Michael O'Grattan:

Bob emerged from Backstage riding aboard one of the VIP touring cars he designed:

Marty Sklar talked about his long-time colleague at Imagineering:

Mickey and Minnie unveiled the window...:

...to Bob's great joy:

Bob was touched by the honor:

Bob and Minnie:

The Dapper Dans then unveiled Bob's take-home copy of the window (designed by Warren Wilson):

The Fab Five (Goofy is in the back with a Mark VII Autopia car):

Like all Disney productions, confetti was involved:

A final shot of Bob and his window:

The ceremony was followed by a breakfast reception in the Opera House for the invited guests, where I met for the first time (among others) Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily. I was delighted to be present for recognition of Bob's tremendous contributions to Disneyland!

Fort Wilderness Photos

2011-01-09T21:41:00.000-08:00

No anniversary to commemorate here and nothing much to say, either, but I wanted to share some Fort Wilderness photos, ca. 1997, that I scanned this weekend.

And a final photo showing the signage which sadly went unheeded at Fort Wilderness:

Disneyland's Information Board

2010-12-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

When I started visiting Disneyland with exceptional frequency, on the order of three or more times a week in the summer of 1997, the first Cast Members I befriended were the Guest Relations folks at the Information Board in Disneyland's Central Plaza. Many of them loved Disneyland as much as I did and were happy to share information on upcoming events and projects--especially Jorge, who worked there five days a week and understood my fascination with Disneyland. They tolerated me far more than they needed to, as I would recognize when I was a few years older.

For me, the Disneyland Information Board is the perfect place to work at the Park. It's outdoors in the center of the Park, so it offers the best immersion experience of any stationary position. Because of its location and function, you're likely to run into friends who are visiting the Park. You get to wear a radio and call many attractions every hour, so you know what's going on--every CFA [Central First Aid] run, every attraction breakdown, and every liaison between Cast Members with radios. You'd get to see the parade pass by. Most importantly, it's purely an information position. Guests would occasionally come to us with problems, but there was very little we could do for them at the Information Board. I would direct them to City Hall and go back to humming along with the Main Street music loop. The biggest problem is that it's one of the first places Guest Relations Cast Members are trained; as soon as you get enough seniority to really request shifts, your skills are more valuable in other locations, like City Hall.

Ten years ago today, on Tuesday, December 19, 2000, I worked my first On Stage shift, at the Information Board. I wasn't scheduled this day, but got a call in the morning asking if I would like to come in. They might as well have asked me if I'd like to meet Walt Disney. Of course, I jumped at the chance and asked my parents to come document it. (They very graciously did; as you've likely guessed, the above photo is the three of us.) I honestly don't remember that much about my first shift, so I'm very glad to have the photos!

Here my mom plays the part of a Guest. I may have been explaining that sometimes strollers are stolen from Guests, but that the child can even so grow up to be a Disneyland Cast Member.

Note that the sign reads "Disneyland" "Park Hours:" and not "Disneyland Park" "Hours:".

Looking at the board now, I see a number of nomenclature issues. The definite article "the" is used incorrectly to preface "Country Bear Christmas Special" and "Golden Horseshoe Variety Show." "Fantasmic" is missing its characteristic exclamation point(!). The wait times don't look too bad for a late December day, and based on the Splash Mountain wait time and Guest attire, it looks like it was a warm day. (Oh, wait, I have that information: the high was 79 and the low was 47.)

My strongest memory from this day comes from when it was time to close up. Note that the fireworks were set for 9:30 PM. My shift also ended at that time. With the 15 minutes of "walk time," I would probably have been aiming to have the Board closed up by 9 PM. To close it, we had to get the wait time and show signs ready for the next day, the podium covered, and the cabinets and shutters locked. This was the first year of special holiday fireworks including snow, so a considerable number of Guests wanted to know the best place to experience the snow. My explanation included some pointing further into the Central Plaza and on to Main Street. This didn't cause much of a problem with changing the signs or covering the podium, but interfered with the locking up. The keyring for the Information Board should have included only a couple of keys, at most (if the cabinets and shutters really needed different locks). However, the keyring had about thirty keys--the correct ones being a complete mystery to me. I was not able to overcome the combination of the need to point to the snow and the need to keep track of which keys I had tried in the darkness, and ended up calling for another Cast Member to come assist. The next time I worked the Information Board, most of those keys had vanished.

Because of the seniority issue, I didn't get to work the Information Board very much--only about a dozen times between December 2000 and July 2002. I'm still a bit envious of Cast Members who get to work the Board. It was integral to my wanting to become a Disneyland Cast Member and finally getting to work was everything I hoped it would be.

The PeopleMover Lives On

2010-08-21T09:39:00.000-07:00

Fifteen years ago today Disneyland's PeopleMover closed for good. I felt old when I saw a message board thread titled, "What was the PeopleMover like?" It reminded me of Utah Phillips's song, "Daddy, What's a Train?":

Daddy what's a train? Is it something I can ride?
Does it carry lots of grown-up folks and little kids inside?
Is it bigger than our house? Well, how can I explain
when my little boy and girl ask me "Daddy what's a train?"

As a response to the Davelandblog post, "Kevin Doherty & The PeopleMover Project," here are some photos of the PeopleMover cars which continued life in the Rocket Rods queue.

The following Rocket Rods queue photographs were taken after the attraction had permanently closed:

Thesaurus Thursday: Third Birthday; I Need Your Help!

2010-08-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

My "Thesaurus Thursdays" haven't happened quite as often as I anticipated when I began, but I had to capture the alliteration while I could. (The 13th and 30th anniversaries will both happen on Wednesdays, so we would have had some wait before us.)

It was three years ago today that I put aside my California gazetteer and dove headlong (back) into the world of Disneyland minutiae. As I think I've explained before, my interest in Disneyland history became manifest in late 1995 when I got Disneyland: The Nickel Tour and as many issues of The "E" Ticket as were then available. I created a rudimentary Disneyland Timeline, which I maintained until early 2000. I learned a lot from habitually obsessive visits to Disneyland and the people I met during my visits and online.

But I wasn't a collector. Sure, I'd pick up Park maps (one time a Guest Relations friend gave me a whole box of unused maps that was otherwise on its way to the trash) and gratefully accept photocopied spiels or employee manuals. My aunt and uncle, who both worked at Disneyland for decades, gave me an incredible stash of Cast Member materials (including a great many Disneyland Lines) in 1997. I went to one or two NFFC Show and Sales and of course saw a lot of paper that would have supported my historical Disneyland research, but I despaired at ever being able to assemble a complete collection.

I worked at Disneyland from November 18, 2000 to July 17, 2003. I requested to work in Guest Relations because I knew that to be the best On Stage position with a historical component. I was able to (mildly) contribute some information for the Holiday Time at Disneyland and the re-write of the Walk in Walt's Footsteps tours. I (tried to) sell my management on the idea of an intranet site with a historical focus. With Kevin Yee I worked up the idea for the Disneyland Compendium, an ultimate reference work on the Resort. In October 2002, at a private Club 33 event, I even stood before a group that included Marty Sklar, Tom Fitzgerald, and George Head (global head of SQS) to explain the idea, but nothing ever came of it.

I came to a point where it was a big time investment to learn each new fact or story. I left Disneyland, began working on my undergraduate thesis, and broadened my interests. I continued to visit Disneyland on occasion, but I didn't keep close track of what was going on. After going on a weeklong camping trip along the San Andreas Fault with Bob Gurr in October 2004, I began researching California places, leading me to a California gazetteer with over 11,000 places when I left it suspended in time three years ago.

A friend and I took an index language construction class in fall 2006. Unable to agree on a topic (a common problem), we fell back to an old Disneyland "land tree" I had tried to make. That finished thesaurus had a couple thousand terms in it, but it mainly had some hierarchy and cross-references, without additional information. On August 19, as I've said before, I came across the great vintage blogs I had only previously seen in passing, and knew that things were now aligned for me to pursue my Disneyland interest with renewed vigor: I had the basis of knowledge (from all my previous years reading everything I could), I had the skill set to create the thesaurus (from my library science schooling), and I had a phenomenal sea of historical information (now easily accessible) to draw from.

I toiled alone at first. I showed a barebones printed output to people for the first several months (the earliest thesaurus showing on record is October 25, 2007, at the Cafe Orleans). My first ever blog comment was on this Gorillas Don't Blog post showing super-rare photos of the Crane Company Bathroom of Tomorrow. But as I worked on the thesaurus, I realized my initial idea, to just have a hierarchy and cross-references, wasn't working. I'd forget how I came to relate two terms together, or how I had chosen one among several possible variants to use as the preferred term. So I started sourcing everything. And then I began including full text, all while carefully tracking what I had available to me, what I knew to exist somewhere, and what I had already gone through. Once I made that decision, the usefulness of the thesaurus to me expanded by leaps and bounds.

Wanting to be part of the conversation, driven in large part by the other blogs that updated every day, I began this blog on March 18, 2008. I shared some personal stories and talked about the thesaurus. In early 2009, while on a 76-day vacation, I decided to make a daily history of the Resort a part of my effort. On an eleven-day weekend from the DC snowstorms of February 2010, I threw the weather into the mix. My blog posting pace has slowed. Since beginning the blog, I wrote my masters thesis; got a job; moved the Nixon Presidential materials across the country; and relocated back to California (on top of the thesaurus work). And, now that I'm back in California, I have a new claim on my time: twice weekly trips to Disneyland itself.

I've received some amazing help from fellow bloggers during this time. Matterhorn1959 not only let me stay with him and scan whatever I wanted, he even let me borrow numerous items from his collection to scan at my leisure. (The problem is that one cannot scan his collection in just two days, particularly when he drags you to a swap meet and then to Casa Bonita...) VintageDisneylandTickets is the most prolific scanner I know and the Vacationlands and other publications he's posted are immeasurably helpful. I'm eagerly looking forward to the day when his comprehensive guide to tickets debuts! Westcot 2000 has provided me with a significant number of Entertainment Show Schedules from the early 1990s which have already helped with Park hours and will be very interesting in the future for the group information.

There's so much information out there that I haven't even scratched the surface at putting it into the thesaurus. The primarily photo blogs (such as Gorillas Don't Blog and Davelandblog) provide great visual details--I just need to hire somebody to work full-time writing up descriptions of the photos! Todd James Pierce, blogless but working on a book about early Disneyland and its imitators, always has extremely thorough responses to my obscure questions about Walt-era Disneyland.

In short, I'm extremely grateful for the help I've received from the fan community. I know it seems I've been talking about the thesaurus forever without much to show for it, but Kevin and I are hoping to change that soon. We are, however, in immediate need of help from the fan community. To finish assembling Park hours for all operational dates in Disneyland history, I need hours for 1,741 more days, or 8.7% of the days since Disneyland opened. These are mostly concentrated in the 1987-1994 timeframe. The complete list can be found by clicking here. Please pass along to anybody you know who may have this information! I suspect it can be found in newspapers from that time (though not, unfortunately, in the easily searchable full-text online archives), from gate handouts, and from Cast Member materials (such as Entertainment Show Schedules). I will revise the list as I am able to cross hours off of this list.

I'll try to have more regular posts. Now that I have better access to my accumulated paper, there might be more posts waxing nostalgic of my hundreds of late 1990s visits, but I guess better that than nothing. Also, if you're a regular reader who wants to see an in-person demonstration of the thesaurus, I plan to attend the D23 event in September and I'm sure we could arrange something. Again, thanks to all for their interest and help. As Walt would say (if he knew of the word I made up), "We're just getting started--the thesaurusing goes on next year."

Fess Up

2010-07-26T22:50:00.000-07:00

Whose fingerprints are those, and how much are you asking?

Innoventions, July 1998

2010-07-03T10:37:00.000-07:00

Today marks Innoventions' 12th birthday. Here's the video proof:

I'm a big fan of the Tom Morrow in Innoventions. In 1999 I had too much time on my hands and made a Tom Morrow music video set to "Mr. Roboto":

I even interested the Innoventions Cast Members in it enough that they played it in the "Roots of Knowledge" area. That's right, my video production has been seen at Disneyland!:

(Apologies for the video quality; these are from MPEG files I've had on my computer for the past 10-12 years.)

A Marquee Experience

2010-06-30T20:59:00.000-07:00

Rather than update my blog on a regular basis, I decided to build a time machine and drop you back in that magical time...December 1997. Pieces of the old parking lot were in popular demand for the holidays. "it's a small world," holiday was all the rage. Light Magic was still a fresh memory. Something called the Swiss Family Treehouse was over in Adventureland--anybody know what that became? For some reason, everything just seemed to go by really quickly:

Oh, I forgot to mention that my time machine can get you to 1997, but in the testing phases I'm unable to bring you back. Don't worry, though, the New Tomorrowland's gonna be great!

Handy Ticket Price Guide

2010-06-17T21:58:00.000-07:00

If you thought ticket ranges are confusing now with the two parks and multiple days, be glad you're not visiting 1964 Disneyland. Backstage Disneyland thoughtfully included a handy guide in the April 1965 issue. This should help Tim in his ticket-collecting endeavors:

A Prophecy Fulfilled

2010-06-12T21:47:00.003-07:00

Every joke has a kernel of truth to it; sometimes it just takes thirty years for the truth to become so. From Backstage Disneyland's Winter 1969 issue:

The full spread of "Classic Questions":

A Visit to New England Circle-Vision Scenes

2010-03-21T07:20:00.000-07:00

Back in October, I made my first visit to the New England states. I had planned my weeklong excursion to travel widely through the region, but it was only after I had mapped a tentative route that I realized I could squeeze in some Disneyland connections along the way. I'm fond of the Circle-Vision film "America the Beautiful," and two scenes had always stuck in my mind: Rockport, Massachusetts and the Vermont covered bridge. Below is 1/9th of the bridge segment of the 1967 version of "America the Beautiful," as broadcast some years back on the Disney Channel:

Now, Rockport, MA was easy enough to find (see?)--and it only has one harbor. I had some trepidation in finding the bridge. The total information available to me was the narration from the 1976 version ("rustic America in Vermont, where an old covered bridge is still to be found") (which I had to assume to be correct) and visual cues from the video above. I initially hoped that the sign above the bridge's entrance contained the name of the bridge, but the sign was illegible (and, I later learned, didn't name the bridge). No information on the internet or my thesaurus identified this bridge. But knowing that there are other people like me in the world, I figured somebody would have troubled themselves to make lists of covered bridges.

Indeed, I quickly found Dale Travis's Vermont Covered Bridges List, with photos of many of the bridges. Now I had to hope that the Circle-Vision bridge was on the list and had at least one photo with enough contextual information. I opened up every photo link on the page, but in my first pass couldn't identify it. On my second pass, however, I recognized some details on the Mill Bridge page that caused me to perk up. First was the sign; no other bridge had such a sign. The second was more subtle. The background of the Circle-Vision video shows a short waterfall in the distance, with a road in the further distance. The third photo on the Mill Bridge page shows a waterfall. Studying the Google Maps aerial view made me comfortable that all the details matched. You can also drive through the bridge via Google Street View and spin around 360 degrees, which I find very fitting.

I knew where the bridge was, had it programmed in my GPS, and still missed the turnoff--it's that inconspicuous from Vermont State Route 110. The bridge is down below to the left, not visible in this shot from the road:

After circling back, I got down to the bridge and drove through it in "reverse":

I parked down the road so I could investigate on foot:

After walking across it several times, I decided to capture a series of photos that would mimic the main camera from the Circle-Vision film. The approach shows a little more "civilization": the other road (Spring Road) is now paved; there is a guard rail in place; and a sign warns about the bridge's interior height:

The next photo includes the sign I hoped would include the name of the bridge:

Instead, the sign warns

ONE DOLLAR FINE
FOR A PERSON TO DRIVE A HORSE
OR OTHER BEAST FASTER THAN
A WALK OR DRIVE MORE THAN ONE
LOADED TEAM AT THE SAME TIME
ON THIS BRIDGE

I didn't have a horse or other beast, so the local authorities didn't get a chance to shake me down. I also shot the details that helped me to identify the bridge. The waterfall is easy to see, but the road in the distance is now obscured by foliage:

Traveling through the covered bridge:

And the view once through the bridge:

Now, I had loaded the video on my phone, so I could do a comparison (and perhaps be the first person to watch Circle-Vision while at the bridge site itself?). I tried to also document this comparison. The result wasn't great, but the landscapes match unmistakably:

I do have some sad news to report: While the Mill Bridge I visited and documented looks just like that in "America the Beautiful," it is not the original. As you can read about on the Vermont Agency of Transportation's page, an ice jam destroyed that bridge in the spring of 1999. It was replaced in July 2000 by a lookalike bridge.

My second New England Circle-Vision destination was Rockport, which I saw on a glorious fall day. Unfortunately, that scene was filmed from a boat, and I didn't have the time or desire to try to recreate those shots exactly. (Also, there is no Google Boat View from which I could use photos.) The Rockport scene starts with a boat navigating into the harbor past Motif No. 1 (the iconic red building on the right)...

...to glimpse the picturesque harbor:

(And then the film cuts to Mill Bridge, so jump back up to the top of the post!)

Disneyland and the Weather

2010-02-16T17:06:00.004-08:00

Yeah, yeah, everybody always talks about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it. I'm here to change that: I'm putting it in the thesaurus. For some time I had contemplated enhancing my day-by-day history of the Resort with daily weather data, but it seemed a daunting task. Since I just had an eleven-day, weather-induced weekend, I looked into it further and came up with a plan.

In a perfect world, the data I draw on would be an unbroken climate record from 1955 to the present at a station in Disneyland (perhaps in the Central Plaza). The only thermometer I can think of at the Park is at the entrance to Coke Corner, but its unrecorded temperatures mean it's pretty much worthless for my purposes. It would be interesting to know if Disneyland did record climate information; I haven't found anything to suggest that they share it, if they do.

So, the next best solution is to find a nearby climate station whose weather is similar to Disneyland. Luckily, there is indeed such a reporting station: the Santa Ana Fire Station, part of the National Weather Service (NWS) Cooperative Observer Program. The Fire Station at 120 West Walnut St., Santa Ana (NWS ID: STAC1) is close to Disneyland (5.5 miles away), about thirty feet lower in elevation (not much), is only about a mile closer to the ocean, and has records dating to the early 20th century.

However, no climate station of any reporting length has perfect records, so I had to search for backup stations for when the Fire Station didn't report data (about 500 days over the course of nearly 55 years). In ranked order in terms of similarity to Disneyland's weather, I chose:

Tustin Irvine Ranch: records until 7/31/2003, when it was replaced by the station named Irvine Ranch. It tended to run a few degrees warmer than the Santa Ana Fire Station during the day and usually more than a few degrees cooler at night. Casual analysis showed it may have received more precipitation, as well. At 235 feet in elevation, it's not too much higher than Disneyland.
Anaheim: This might seem like a more natural choice for Disneyland, but it only began operation on August 1, 1989. While the station name is Anaheim, it is actually in Atwood, north of CA-91 and east of CA-57; its further inland location means it will generally run warmer than the Santa Ana Fire Station (and Disneyland).
Irvine Ranch: This station succeeded the Tustin Irvine Ranch station as of 8/1/2003, but is much higher in elevation (540 feet). My assumption is that the old Irvine Ranch station was done in by suburbanization.

So, within the thesaurus will be daily data (when available) for each of the above stations from July 1, 1955 to the present. Even with all that data, there were still 29 dates for which I had no data. I used Long Beach Daugherty Field (LGB) as my last resort. It's quite a bit closer to the ocean and not as close to Disneyland as I would like, but it has a lengthy reporting record that filled in when necessary. Unlike the other stations above, I only included LGB information for those days with otherwise missing data.

I make no representation that this pastiche is a true climate record for Disneyland, but it's close enough for my purposes. I think the weather information together with Park hours gives color to the daily history. Torrential rains and mid 50s is a lot different than high 70s and no precipitation, right? To show what I've done, let's take a look at a few dates in the summer of 1955. In The "E" Ticket #43 (Fall 2005), Ron Dominguez said, "In August of 1955 we had a terrible heat spell and attendance took a nose-dive. That kind of worried a lot of people." (I think this is also in Randy Bright's Disneyland: Inside Story, among other places.) For eight days, from August 31 to September 7, the high temperature was 97 degrees or higher, with a peak of 108 degrees on September 1. (The reading is among the highest in my Disneyland climate record.) This is what the record looks like for September 1, 1955:

1955-09-01

DATE: 0901d September 1
DAY: THU Thursday
DLHR: 1022 10 AM - 10 PM
DLHRNOTE: 10 AM - 10 PM
ETY: DATE Date
PRECIP: PRECIP-NO Day without Precipitation
TEMPMAX: 108°F(h) 108°F
TEMPMEAN: 89.5°F(m) 89.5°F
TEMPMIN: 71°F(l) 71°F
WX: Santa Ana Fire Station (STAC1): Obs Hour Temp: 6PM / High Temp: 108°F / Low Temp: 71°F / Mean Temp: 89.5°F
Obs Hour Precip: 6PM / Precip: 0 in.
CDD: 24.5 / HDD: 0 / GDD: 39.5

Tustin Irvine Ranch (TVEC1): Obs Hour Temp: 6PM / High Temp: 110°F / Low Temp: 66°F / Mean Temp: 88°F
Obs Hour Precip: 6PM / Precip: 0 in.
CDD: 23 / HDD: 0 / GDD: 38
BT: 1955-09

As I mentioned earlier and you can see here, the Tustin Irvine Ranch station is a touch warmer during the day and several degrees cooler at night than the Santa Ana Fire Station. And yes, I am tracking which days had precipitation, but it's not exactly perfect. The late afternoon reporting time means that that's precipitation from the 24-hour period 6 PM-6 PM--not the 24 hours of September 1. If it rained after 6 PM on September 1, it would be reported with the September 2 numbers. So, it's not an exact indication of all rainy days, but it can reveal wetter patterns (such as this one from 1978) and at least get one in the ballpark of rainy days. For the record, from July 1, 1955 to November 30, 2009 (the latest date for which quality controlled climate data is available), my climate record reveals 2,120 days with precipitation.

President Nixon's 1971 Gold Pass

2010-01-11T08:00:00.006-08:00

I've blogged about the Richard Nixon-Disneyland connections before. Today, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum (a part of the National Archives and Records Administration) is releasing additional Presidential materials (read a description). While the Library is releasing many documents of tremendous historical importance, I was also given permission to process the Disney Alphabetical Name File. The Alphabetical Name Files was a group of materials maintained by the White House Central Files, which was mainly a cross-filing of materials by the names of people and organizations. The Name Files do have some original materials as well. Walt had, of course, passed away before Nixon became President, but the Disney file contains correspondence from other Americans named Disney, as well as correspondence with members of Walt Disney Productions, such as Roy Disney and Bob Jani.

Also in the file is the President's 1971 Disneyland Gold Pass, as seen below. It was sent to the White House attached to cardstock...

...and came with brief instructions on the benefits it conferred:

For Vintage Disneyland Tickets, a close-up of the front of the pass:

Without a pressing preservation or exhibition concern, I wasn't going to remove the tape which secured the pass in place, so I do not have a scan of the back.

Elsewhere in the files I have seen evidence of the Nixon having received a 1969 pass, and in another as yet unprocessed file we have his 1970 pass. I have not found any later passes, which leads me to wonder if Nixon received these more because of his relationship with Walt and Roy than because of his position as President. (After all, the President would undoubtedly be able to visit Disneyland for free!)

A Discovery Bay Teaser

2009-12-12T03:00:00.003-08:00

For obvious reasons, Disneyland likes to promote its new and coming attractions. (When you have ideas like Walt's, wouldn't you want to proclaim them widely?) This tradition dates to the Park's origins, with the weekly ABC television show introducing viewers to the idea of Disneyland, and then to its additions over the years. But the Resort has had a number of on-site preview centers over the years, too, including at The Disney Gallery and the more recent Blue Sky Cellar for the Disney's California Adventure remodel. From 1973 to 1989, Disneyland Presents a Preview of Coming Attractions stood at the corner of the 600 block of Main Street, U.S.A., facing Town Square and seen here as it appeared in 1982:

This preview center's interior featured a mix of historic Park photographs...

Conceptual artwork...

And models...

On display above in the preview center are two new lands considered for Disneyland expansion in the 1970s and 1980s: Discovery Bay and Dumbo's Circus. Discovery Bay may be the most well-known and beloved unbuilt land, the brainchild of Tony Baxter and Tom Scherman. Dumbo's Circus would have been built up in the area now occupied by the Fantasyland Theatre (as indicated by the yellow map marker in the above photo).

On August 13 and 14, 1976, Tony, Tom, and fellow Imagineer Rolly Crump, presented ideas for these two new lands to Disneyland Cast Members. As described in the August 26 Disneyland Line:

An exciting proposal for the future of Disneyland was presented in the Center on August 13 and 14. Tentative plans were highlighted for a Park expansion program that could possibly take place over the next six years.

WED Designers Tony Baxter, Tom Scherman, and Roland Crump gave Disneyland employees a preview of the proposed design of two major theme areas now identified under the working titles "Discovery Bay," and "Dumbo's Circus."

Situated in the northern portion of Frontierland, "Discovery Bay" is designed to reflect the cultural and eccentric era of San Francisco in the mid-1800's. Featuring Captain Nemo's Salon and an "Island at the Top of the World" attraction, the area would symbolize the opening of mans' knowledge to the Industrial Age.

Moving from "Discovery Bay" to "Dumbo's Circus" would be accomplished by a sky-balloon attraction that would serve as an appropriate transition between the two areas. Among the proposed attractions in "Dumbo's Circus" are "Mickey's Mad House," a ride-through using vintage Studio cartoon footage from the 1930's and 40's; an Audio-Animatronic circus show with Disney Characters taking over traditional "Big Top" roles; and a Pinocchio-themed attraction.

Thankfully, the Line also included a couple of photographs from the Cast previews:

Tony Baxter describing the projects

Tom Scherman is at the far end of the model

Which leads me to the point of this post: Following one of Tony's presentations to Cast Members about this possible expansion, a novel preview came to the Fan I Food Stand, seen below in a June 1960 photo courtesy of Daveland.

This food facility was razed for Big Thunder Trail in 1979. But before this, for only a few months, lingering Guests could hear an eighteen-minute-long teaser medley of music from Maurice Jarre's score to the 1974 film "Island at the Top of the World" (with which Discovery Bay had strong ties and which premiered 35 years ago this month). The film's score has never been released commercially; a record album features Thurl Ravenscroft narration and audio from the film. The "Island at the Top of the World" Laserdisc has an isolated score on a secondary audio track (but only in mono). Maybe the association with Discovery Bay and the imagery of the Hyperion airship, but I quite enjoy the film's music and it's a treat to hear this short-lived promotional piece.

Thanks to my friend Huck Caton, I'm pleased to present this audio for download (for a limited time):

Fan I Food Stand, Island at the Top of the World Medley.mp3 (approximately 25MB)

Area music at Disneyland used to originate from endless loop cartridge tapes, which degraded over time from physical wear. When carts were replaced, they were discarded--or, apparently, if you were interested and asked for them, you could easily acquire the worn carts from the Sound Department. The above audio is sourced from such a used cart and is a definite rarity.

The only analog from Disneyland's history that I know about is the infamous Tomorrowland 2055 "Bathroom Loop," produced by Bruce Gordon as a new recording of themes from Tomorrowland's "greatest hits." The land never came to fruition, but the loop plays (played?) on the Space Mountain Concourse and in the bathrooms down below.

I know it's a longshot, but does anybody remember this music playing in Fantasyland long ago? Or perhaps attended one of these Cast previews in the 1970s?

1966 Summertime Entertainment

2009-11-23T16:55:00.003-08:00

Just like the summer of 1965 at Disneyland, that of 1966 also featured abundant live musical entertainment throughout the night. The summer season of 1966 was notable in other ways: the dedication of "It's a Small World" (the nomenclature then in use) on May 30 set off the summer season. The first new "land" since Disneyland's opening debuted with the dedication of New Orleans Square on July 24, 1966. The Primeval World Diorama also debuted in the summer. Following Labor Day weekend, most of the original Tomorrowland, including the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Exhibit, Rocket to the Moon, The Art Corner, and the Flying Saucers, closed down to make way for a bigger and better future the next summer.

There were changes behind the scenes, too. Disneyland pioneers Tommy Walker and Ed Ettinger left the Park's employ during the summer to seek employment elsewhere. Tommy spearheaded Disneyland's entertainment events and Ed had been director of Marketing. Donald Novis, an original star of the Golden Horseshoe Revue, and Johnny St. Cyr, a legendary Dixieland player who performed with Disneyland's Young Men from New Orleans, both passed away during the summer. The summer of 1966 was also the final summer of Walt Disney's lifetime.

The summer's musical entertainment was previewed by the Big Band Holiday of the Memorial Day weekend, May 28 and 29. Unlike the 1965, the summer of 1966 featured few big bands, concentrating more on folk, country, and rock bands. This was the only big band event of the summer. The promotion featured Xavier Cugat making his first appearance at Disneyland (together with Charo); the fifth appearance of Harry James, featuring drummer Louie Bellson and vocalist Ernie Andrews; Anita O'Day; and the first Disneyland appearance of Nelson Riddle. Some of Disneyland's own talent also performed at the event: The Elliott Brothers Orchestra, Tina and the Mustangs, the Young Men from New Orleans, and the Royal Tahitian Dancers.

Just like in 1965, each Monday Disneyland featured a folk Hootenanny, and each Tuesday a Humdinger geared toward the youth audience. Country Music Jubilee was held each Wednesday, and Thursday was reserved for Guest Band Nite, which spotlighted the band that generally performed Tuesday through Saturday of that week. In addition to the guest talent, Disneyland had its regular talent scattered throughout the Park each day. On Friday and Saturday nights, the Firehouse Five + 2 joined the roster (performing at the French Market when New Orleans Square opened), with the Glenn Kennedy Orchestra appearing on Sunday nights. New Orleans Square brought new entertainment to Disneyland, including the Royal Street Bachelors and tap dancers Gene and Eddie leading the Delta Ramblers Dixieland Band.

June 18, 1966 (Saturday)
9 AM - 1 AM

June 19, 1966 (Sunday)
9 AM - 12 AM

June 20, 1966 (Monday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Hootenanny: The Womenfolk; David Troy; Dapper Dans; Bud and Len; Clara Ward Singers

June 21, 1966 (Tuesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Humdinger: Vic Dana, The Blossoms, H. B. Barnum; Tina Mason; The Mustangs; Humdinger Dancers
The Association

June 22, 1966 (Wednesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Country Music Jubilee: Roy Acuff; The Dillards; Kathy Taylor; Dorsey Burnett Band
The Association

June 23, 1966 (Thursday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Guest Band Nite: The Association

June 24, 1966 (Friday)
9 AM - 1 AM
The Association

June 25, 1966 (Saturday)
9 AM - 1 AM
The Association

June 26, 1966 (Sunday)
9 AM - 12 AM

June 27, 1966 (Monday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Hootenanny: Greenwood County Singers; Kathy Taylor; Tim Morgan; Ward Singers

June 28, 1966 (Tuesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Humdinger: Jackie DeShannon; Olympics; Bantams; Humdinger Dancers
Jim Doval and the Gauchos

June 29, 1966 (Wednesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
County Music Jubilee: Roy Clark; Ramblers; Billy Armstrong
Jim Doval and the Gauchos

June 30, 1966 (Thursday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Guest Band Nite: Jim Doval and the Gauchos

July 1, 1966 (Friday)
9 AM - 1 AM
Jim Doval and the Gauchos

July 2, 1966 (Saturday)
9 AM - 1 AM
Jim Doval and the Gauchos

July 3, 1966 (Sunday)
9 AM - 1 AM
Jim Doval and the Gauchos

July 4, 1966 (Monday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Hootenanny: The Dillards; Steve Gillette; Darleen Carr; Candy Company; Dapper Dans; Bud and Len; Clara Ward Singers

July 5, 1966 (Tuesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Humdinger: Joey Paige; Ketty Lester; New Classic Singers; The Mustangs; Humdinger Dancers
The Spats

July 6, 1966 (Wednesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Country Music Jubilee: George Hamilton IV; Sue Thompson
The Spats

July 7, 1966 (Thursday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Guest Band Nite: The Spats

July 8, 1966 (Friday)
9 AM - 1 AM
The Spats

July 9, 1966 (Saturday)
9 AM - 1 AM
The Spats

July 10, 1966 (Sunday)
9 AM - 12 AM

July 11, 1966 (Monday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Hootenanny: The Pair Extraordinaire; The Aquamen; David Troy; Jim and Jean; Dapper Dans; Bud and Len; Clara Ward Singers

July 12, 1966 (Tuesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Humdinger: Leslie Gore; The Rivingtons; The Mustangs; Humdinger Dancers; Dobie Gray
The Sunrays

July 13, 1966 (Wednesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Country Music Jubilee: Minnie Pearl
The Sunrays

July 14, 1966 (Thursday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Guest Band Nite: The Sunrays

July 15, 1966 (Friday)
9 AM - 1 AM
The Sunrays

July 16, 1966 (Saturday)
9 AM - 1 AM
The Sunrays

July 17, 1966 (Sunday)
9 AM - 12 AM

July 18, 1966 (Monday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Hootenanny: Joe and Eddie; Irish Rovers; Mickey Elley; The Regulars; Clara Ward Singers

July 19, 1966 (Tuesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Humdinger: April and Nino; Jackie Lee; Gloria Jones; The Mustangs; Humdinger Dancers
The Regents

July 20, 1966 (Wednesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Country Music Jubilee: Hank Thompson; Wanda Jackson
The Regents

July 21, 1966 (Thursday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Guest Band Nite: The Regents

July 22, 1966 (Friday)
9 AM - 1 AM
The Regents

July 23, 1966 (Saturday)
9 AM - 1 AM
The Regents

July 24, 1966 (Sunday)
9 AM - 12 AM

July 25, 1966 (Monday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Hootenanny: Hoyt Axton; Goose Creek Symphonic Band & Stage Door Company; The Regulars

July 26, 1966 (Tuesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Humdinger: Brenda Holloway; Ray Peterson; The Steiner Bros.; The Mustangs; Humdinger Dancers; Dobie Gray
The Sounds of Soul

July 27, 1966 (Wednesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Country Music Jubilee: Canadian Sweethearts; Glen Campbell
The Sounds of Soul

July 28, 1966 (Thursday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Guest Band Nite: The Sounds of Soul

July 29, 1966 (Friday)
9 AM - 1 AM
The Sounds of Soul

July 30, 1966 (Saturday)
9 AM - 1 AM
The Sounds of Soul

July 31, 1966 (Sunday)
9 AM - 12 AM

August 1, 1966 (Monday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Hootenanny: The New Society; Walt Conley; The Uncalled Four

August 2, 1966 (Tuesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Humdinger: Mel Carter; The Standells; Carolyn Daye

August 3, 1966 (Wednesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Country Music Jubilee: Freddie Hart and His Band; Mary Taylor; Jerry Naylor

August 4, 1966 (Thursday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Guest Band Nite: The Magnificent VII

August 5, 1966 (Friday)
9 AM - 1 AM
The Magnificent VII

August 6, 1966 (Saturday)
9 AM - 1 AM
The Magnificent VII

August 7, 1966 (Sunday)
9 AM - 12 AM

August 8, 1966 (Monday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Hootenanny: Irish Rovers; David Troy; Darleen Carr; Dixson Bowles and the Dan Blocker Singers

August 9, 1966 (Tuesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Humdinger: The Hondells; Tina Mason

August 10, 1966 (Wednesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Country Music Jubilee: Tex Williams; Le Garde Twins; Cathie Taylor

August 11, 1966 (Thursday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Guest Band Nite: Knickerbockers

August 12, 1966 (Friday)
9 AM - 1 AM
Knickerbockers

August 13, 1966 (Saturday)
9 AM - 1 AM
Knickerbockers

August 14, 1966 (Sunday)
9 AM - 12 AM

August 15, 1966 (Monday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Hootenanny: The Dillards; The New Folk Trio; Tim Morgon; Steve Gillette; Disneyland Regulars

August 16, 1966 (Tuesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Humdinger: Joey Paige; Gloria Jones; The Rivingtons
The Regents

August 17, 1966 (Wednesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Country Music Jubilee: Jimmy Wakely; Joe & Rose Lee Maphis
The Regents

August 18, 1966 (Thursday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Guest Band Nite: The Regents

August 19, 1966 (Friday)
9 AM - 1 AM
The Regents

August 20, 1966 (Saturday)
9 AM - 1 AM
The Regents

August 21, 1966 (Sunday)
9 AM - 12 AM

August 22, 1966 (Monday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Hootenanny: The Back Porch Majority; Aquamen; Fred Thompson; Disneyland Regulars

August 23, 1966 (Tuesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Humdinger: Bobby Sherman; The Two People; The Bantams
The Premiers

August 24, 1966 (Wednesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Country Music Jubilee: The Geezinslaw Brothers; Bob Morris; Faye Hardin
The Premiers

August 25, 1966 (Thursday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Guest Band Nite: The Premiers

August 26, 1966 (Friday)
9 AM - 1 AM
The Premiers

August 27, 1966 (Saturday)
9 AM - 1 AM
The Premiers

August 28, 1966 (Sunday)
9 AM - 12 AM

August 29, 1966 (Monday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Hootenanny: The Greenwood Singers; Casey Anderson; Goose Creek Symphonic Band and Storm Door Company; Disneyland Regulars

August 30, 1966 (Tuesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Humdinger: Martha and the Vandellas; The Mustangs; Humdinger Dancers
The Spats

August 31, 1966 (Wednesday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Country Music Jubilee: Rex Allen Show; Jimmy Wallis
The Spats

September 1, 1966 (Thursday)
9 AM - 12 AM
Guest Band Nite: The Spats

September 2, 1966 (Friday)
9 AM - 1 AM
The Spats

September 3, 1966 (Saturday)
9 AM - 1 AM
The Spats

September 4, 1966 (Sunday)
9 AM - 1 AM
The Spats; Nellie Lutcher

September 5, 1966 (Monday)
10 AM - 12 AM
Hootenanny: Disneyland Regulars

September 6, 1966 (Tuesday)
10 AM - 12 AM
Humdinger: Jackie & Gayle; Curtis Brothers; The Mustangs; Humdinger Dancers

September 7, 1966 (Wednesday)
10 AM - 12 AM
Country Music Jubilee: Merle Haggard; The Dillards; Bonnie Owens; Jimmy Wallis

Disneyland's nighttime entertainment continued daily through the weekend. The last Date Nite of the season on Saturday, September 17 featured what must have been a truly odd event at Disneyland: the headlining of Mrs. Miller. The popular 58-year-old performer was noted for her inability to carry a tune. (One newspaper report indicated she would be performing "in the Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea exhibit," which had already permanently closed. It's far more likely she performed on the stage out front, but the suggestion of an out-of-tune concert in the closed exhibit provokes a rather odd mental picture.) Also performing on "Mrs. Miller Night" were The Youngfolk; H. B. Barnum; 6-year-old Gary Ferguson (they were, apparently, running on novelty); The Regents; Firehouse Five + 2; Nellie Lutcher; and Tina Mason and the Mustangs.

Just as in 1965, the annual Dixieland at Disneyland event capped the summer's musical program. The October 1, 1966 special ticket event featured Louis Armstrong (as usual), Bob Crosby and the Bobcats, Turk Murphy's San Francisco Band, Firehouse Five + 2, Young Men from New Orleans, Southern California Hot Jazz Society Marching Band, Nellie Lutcher Trio, and the Royal Street Bachelors. Walt flew in Doc Souchon's Milneburg's All Stars direct from New Orleans on his private plane for the event. Doc Souchon was well-regarded for both his musical ability and his work on preserving jazz traditions in mid-twentieth century New Orleans. After a brief group torchlight ramble down Main Street, the groups split up to perform in locations throughout the Park. Reviews lamented that guests could see all the talent in previous years, as they would each perform short sets on rafts in the Rivers of America, before a rousing finale on the Mark Twain. There was too much to see and overcrowding to see some artists (such as Louis Armstrong and Firehouse Five + 2).

Of course, this wasn't the last year Disneyland featured such an extensive musical line-up. After all, you can't attract people to Disneyland just with the debut of Carousel of Progress, Adventure Thru Inner Space, a new Circle-Vision, the PeopleMover, the Rocket Jets, and Flight to the Moon, right? Surely none of my blog readers would be content to just experience those attractions for the first time...

On Disneyland Employees

2009-11-03T17:38:00.007-08:00

Today, I have a reading comprehension exercise for you. The above excerpt is from the January 15, 1976 Disneyland Line. The text is rendered below:

Disneyland is one show that Ride Operator TOM PLETTS has been a Permanent Part-time cast member of for over 15 years. Currently in Fantasyland, Tom has been performing on stage since his preschool years and has continued his semi-professional career here in the Park with our Drama Workshop.

"Chicken Ranching for Fun and Profit," was a comic melodrama that Tom performed in one summer for our guests through the Entertainment Division. He has been an active member of our Drama Workshop since its inception in 1970.

Attending the Film Industry Workshop in Studio City takes up most of Tom's spare time. His main interests are in the motion picture business, however, he does enjoy photography, art and jazz.

"Walt Disney made the most lasting impression on me since I've been working in the Park," said Tom. "He was a childhood idol anyway and seeing him and talking with him were great experiences."

I'm sure it jumped out for you as it did for me. No, not the somewhat awkward grammatical construction ("of for"). No, not even that, according to this, "Chicken Ranching for Fun and Profit" was performed for Guests. No, what jumped out at me was there in the first line, where the Line refers to Tom Pletts as a cast member. This is the earliest such reference I have found.

Any regular reader of this blog is well aware that those employed by the Disneyland Resort are Cast Members. For all you can read about Cast Members, you might expect that this is how it has always been. Disneyland has always been a Show and therefore its employees have always been called Cast Members. (Even Van France's book Window on Main Street doesn't mention this 1970s shift. As Disneyland's founding trainer and a man intimately involved with the Disney University for many years, Van would have come up with this language.) But it took twenty-one years for the term to enter the Disney lexicon and several more years, at least, for it to displace the existing "Disneylander" and "Disneyland employees" references. This conscious shift to a show language occurred in the mid-1970s, as the Disney University professionalized its offerings and communication style, including improving the Disneyland Line.

Disneylander is the original term referring to 'those who work at Disneyland' (and the title of the monthly publication for such workers in the 1950s). It was used not just for internal communications, but also in the pre-opening newspaper insert, Vacationland, and the guidebooks handed out to Park Guests. Its vagueness meant it could and did apply to those employed by Disneyland, by WED (working on the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad or the Disneyland-Alweg Monorail System before Retlaw), or by the lessees. Today, when the number of lessee personnel is so small, this may seem like an unimportant matter, but in the 1950s the number of lessee personnel may have outnumbered the Disneyland, Inc. employees. Most of the shops, many restaurants, and some of the exhibits (i.e., most of Tomorrowland) had such outside personnel. The divide between those employed by Disneyland and those employed by others just wasn't there, and needed unity was doubtless aided by calling everybody Disneylanders.

The term Disneyland employee also has a long history. It wasn't as preferred as Disneylander early on, but Disneylander publications in the 1950s did use it, and it appears in the 1965 Park guidebook. When the Disneyland Line began publication in 1969, the term appeared in practically every issue. By the time of the Line, a much greater proportion of those working at Disneyland were directly employed by Disney, and thus the distinction between such individuals, Retlaw, and lessee personnel became a little more important. Disneyland had long ago assumed control of most food and merchandise operations, and there were far fewer exhibits in the Park employing outside personnel. Aside from the weekly references to Disneyland employees in the Line, The D.E.C. (Disneyland Employee Cafeteria) Backstage under New Orleans Square and the Disneyland Employees Federal Credit Union (today's Partners Federal Credit Union) incorporated this nomenclature.

The term Cast Member took several years to establish itself and resulted from the Disney University's communications professionalization. Under the editorship of former Attractions Hosts Joel Halberstadt and Ron Kollen, the Line itself became more standardized in appearance and more formulaic in approach. (The use of formulaic isn't meant to denigate the Line's content, as there were some great articles in the 1970s. It is merely to represent that previously the Line's content from week to week was unpredictable.) It makes sense that the text would also reflect greater Disney sophistication. The word Show itself in the Disneyland Line dates back to at least November 27, 1974, when the publication began an introduction to a Cycling Shop article thusly:

One of the qualities of the Park that consistently impresses our guests is the fresh, new look about most everything. Although every craft in the Maintenance Dept. is concerned with the "Show" aspect of Disneyland, this week we'd like to take a good look at the area that might be more intimately involved than most...

Backstage had been in the Disney lexicon at least as early as 1962, when the employee publication of the same name began publication. But, as I mentioned above, Cast Member (or, more accurately, cast member) didn't appear until January 1976. It's debatable whether the author intended that use of cast member in the sense that we now know (since Tom Pletts also performed in "regular" shows). The term did not appear again (this time familiarly capitalized) in the Line until April 22, 1976, in an article about the Inn Between. The first hint is on the front page:

the Inn Between serves the year-round needs of the Disneyland Cast with the major emphasis on appetites. This Backstage Buffeteria serves a complete assortment of meals prepared by an expert staff.

The first familiar, capitalized reference is on the second page. Fittingly enough, the paragraph uses both Disneyland employees and Cast Members, seemingly interchangeably:

One of the unique aspects of the Inn Between is serving Disneyland employees, many of whom spend their day serving guests. Lead Karen Johnson commented that because Cast Members who use the Inn Between are there for such a limited time, "there is extra pressure to move them through quickly and still treat them with the kindness that they extend to guests."

There you have it. What appears to be the first official use of Cast Member comes not in a stirring tribute to the men and women of the Park, but in a buried comment about how it's important for the Cast to be served quickly at its cafeteria. It did, however, take several years before Disneyland employees became taboo. It still showed up in Disneyland Lines of 1977 and is in the Fall/Winter 1978-1979 guidebook. As I continue to closely examine each and every Line, I expect I'll be able to document this transition more fully--one of the most important language transitions in Disneyland's history. (Other important linguistic curiosities in Disneyland's history include the shift to Disneyland Park, the replacement of attractions for rides, and the origin of the theme park appellation.)

I'll leave you with this essay from the May 1957 Disneylander (periodical), entitled, "What is a Disneylander?":

A Disneylander is both male & female, comes in assorted sizes, shapes and colors. Never seems to have a last name, answers to Jo, Louie, Hutch, Chuck, Judy, Joan, Alice, Mary, Walt and Hey you!

He's a river boat captain; top-hatted gambler of the lawless West; rocket pilot with plexiglass helmet; angel of mercy in white; or an indian on the war path. He's an executive in an old Buick or a teen-age ice cream vendor with a 1957 Chevy; likes his steaks rare and Pepsi-Cola strong. His diet is unique and consists of large quantities of malts, coffee, hot dogs, banana splits, coffee, tuna sandwiches, coffee, Yankee bean soup, hamburgers, more coffee, french fries and fritos.

Now, it's a scientific fact that mice cannot live on this diet which seems to provide a real snappy comeback to the old "are you a man or a mouse" question.

He's a walking source of information; knows where to eat; most direct route to the comfort stations; drinking fountains and lost parent department, but never knows the best road to Knott's Berry Farm.

Disneylanders represent every profession; teacher, mother, artist, cowboy, Indian, carpenter, secretary, clerk, cook, painter, mechanic and photographer.

With a sticker on the windshield, I.D. card in hand, he's top-drawer with the local small fry who regard him with that special "gee, he works at Disneyland every day" look.

Naturally every red-blooded Disneylander is loaded with ride passes and is considered by the in-laws as a very soft touch. (We know this is just an ugly rumor)

By golly, this Disneyland character is pretty great, in fact, the most!

Welcome to the Magic Kingdom.

What a swell job!

Halloween: The Holiday That Brought Disneyland to Anaheim

2009-10-31T03:00:00.003-07:00

Halloween at Disneyland? That’s only really been celebrated since 2006, right? Sure, Mickey’s Halloween Treat debuted in 1995, and Haunted Mansion Holiday emerged as a combined Halloween/Christmas themed attraction in 2001, but Disney's HalloweenTime celebration begun in 2006 sets the Disney standard for Halloween. Disneyland, however, has a much longer record of celebrating Halloween that extends beyond the gates. (It would almost have to be outside the gates, as Disneyland has been closed on October 31 nine times in its history—including 1955.) In Disneyland’s early years, Anaheim hosted a Halloween extravaganza with a pedigree dating back to 1924, with Disney often lending its support. There is even evidence that Disney’s involvement in the 1953 celebration helped Walt Disney choose Anaheim as the site of Disneyland!

My introduction to the annual Anaheim Halloween Festival came from the October 1957 Disneylander (the monthly publication for Disneylanders published by the Disneyland Recreation Club). The issue described in detail the contributions of Disneyland employees to the 34th Annual Anaheim Halloween Festival (more on that below). Through another Disneylander and a surfeit of archival newspaper articles, I’ve pieced together Disney’s involvement in and support through the years of what is now known as the Anaheim Fall Festival. Below I point out Disneyland’s Halloween activities from 1953 to the present, through when Disneyland first (tentatively) got into the Halloween spirit to the present all-consuming celebration.

Disney first became involved in the Anaheim Halloween Festival in 1953. The tradition extended back to 1924, when a crowd estimated at 20,000 watched grand marshals Walter Johnson and Babe Ruth in the parade (perhaps the most exciting baseball parade in Anaheim until 2002). The tradition included a breakfast in the park, a children’s parade, and a nighttime parade, with tens, then hundreds, of thousands of people coming to Anaheim to witness the largest Halloween celebration around.

A 1953 Los Angeles Times article could not boast with more superlatives: “biggest Halloween party in the nation” … “first in the country to stage a community-wide Halloween celebration to keep youngsters out of mischief” … “biggest night procession in the country.” And yet the most significant part of the 30th annual festival could hardly have been recognized at the time, for how many knew that Disney was shopping around for locations for its Park?

Disney participated by designing floats for the Fairyland division and providing such characters as Snow White, Peter Pan, and Pinocchio. They also provided one of the float judges, but sources conflict over whether this was Joe Reddy (publicity director at the Studios) or Nat Winecoff (on Walt’s personal payroll). The bigger story, however, is what went on behind the scenes. Earne Moeller of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce was angling to increase the prestige of the festival beyond its already lofty reputation. Also recognizing that Anaheim’s future did not lay in agriculture, Moeller also hoped to attract the attention of Los Angeles industry.

At the time Disney received Moeller’s invitation to participate in the 1953 festival, Walt’s men already had Anaheim on their radar as a potential site for the Park. They used the invitation to (they thought) stealthily gain the confidence of Anaheim officials and learn the finer details of city ordinances and building requirements. It is altogether possible, however, that Moeller had advance knowledge of Disney’s search, and extended the Halloween Festival invitation in an effort to bring the planned park to Anaheim. Todd James Pierce will have more details on these wheelings and dealings in his forthcoming book on 1950s Disneyland and its non-Disney offspring. The book’s working title is The Artificial Matterhorn and is one I very much look forward to.

Again in 1954, as construction on The Site continued apace, Disneyland had a strong presence at the annual Anaheim Halloween Festival (theme: “Legends and Fantasies”). One of the five divisions was a “Disneyland” one, and Donald Duck served as the grand marshal for the parade (the first of several times that a Disney character would perform in that capacity).

October 31, 1955. Monday. What are the odds that Disneyland would be closed that first Halloween? Well, one-in-seven. Beginning Monday, September 12, 1955, Disneyland was closed on Mondays in the off-season. (The next year, this was expanded to Mondays and Tuesdays, in an operating schedule that lasted with few variations until February 6, 1985.) Halloween 1955 fell on the eighth day Disneyland was ever closed. Disney’s participation in this year’s Halloween festival was more subdued than in the two previous years (there was no Disneyland division this time), but the Disneyland Circus Wagon did bring home honors as the best Horse Drawn Float (conveniently around for the Park’s forthcoming Mickey Mouse Club Circus). This year Knott’s Berry Farm “Birdcage Theatre” float won the Grand Prize.

I haven’t found too much on the 1956 festival, but Wally Boag did serve as master of ceremonies for the traditional festival breakfast. Wally also served as master of ceremonies for entertainment in the 1961 celebration.

The 34th Annual Anaheim Halloween Festival in 1957 was run by Disneylanders. Myrt Westering (in charge of Swift’s Red Wagon Company at Disneyland, which operated the Market House and Red Wagon Inn) served as festival chairman and was assisted by Tommy Walker (Disneyland’s entertainment impresario). (Walker’s participation leads me to believe this festival would have been the one to see!) Preceding the parade, the Mouseketeers performed at La Palma Stadium—said to be the first time they had performed outside of Disneyland. One of the parade’s five divisions was a Disneyland affair: the “Fairy Tales” division, captained by Bud Coulson (the Park’s lessee liaison in its early years) with assistance from Ron Dominguez (the Disneyland Site native and later Park VP who has a well-deserved reputation for community involvement). The Disneyland Merchants Association (sort of a Chamber of Commerce for Disneyland lessees) entered its own float in Bud’s division, and naturally a Disneylander served as the parade’s queen: Judy Underwood of the Frontier Trading Post. But in a twist rich with irony for the future Halloween drama between the two theme parks, Walter Knott served as grand marshal for this year’s parade.

1958’s festival wasn’t quite the Disneyland show as the previous year’s, but it still featured participation of Disneylanders. Again, the parade featured a division with a theme keyed to Disneyland. This year it was the “Fantasy” division, captained by Rose Wilson from Main Files, with assistance from Larry “Hutch” Hutcheson of Guest Relations. Dee Fisher, Wurlitzer organist, coordinated the Disneyland Halloween costume contest a week before the parade to determine who would ride on the Merchants Association’s float; he also performed in the parade itself. Also participating in the parade were Disneyland icons the Disneyland Band and the Omnibus. Red Wagon folks Tommy Scheid and Charlie Fowler helped with the festival’s annual breakfast.

The 41st Annual Anaheim Halloween Festival in 1964 was again centered on Disneyland, with a “Festival of Fantasy” theme. The parade had divisions one would expect for such a parade—Tomorrow Land, Adventure Land, Frontier Land, Fantasy Land, and the El Bekal Shriners. (Like “Main Street, U.S.A.” “El Bekal Shriners” doesn’t have land in its name, either.) This parade was noteworthy in having the participation of the six finalists for the first Disneyland Ambassador tradition: Venita Wold; Glenellen Cooper; Marcia Miner (who served as the 1967 Ambassador); Ethel Walker; Julie Reihm (who was selected for the position); and Kathy Albright.

Disneyland continued to participate in the parade through the years. In 1965, the Park donated costumes for the Kiddie Parade; that year, the Dapper Dans participated in the parade. In 1970 Disney used the parade to advertise “The Aristocats.” Disney characters continued to serve as grand marshal: Goofy in 1973, Cinderella in 1987, and Mickey in 1978, the same year that Disneyland, Carl Karcher, Herb Leo and others helped to save the parade after the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce had pulled its support.

From time to time, in light of the tremendous success Knott’s Berry Farm had with its Halloween Haunt (begun in 1973), Disney would be asked if Disneyland would ever itself celebrate Halloween in the Park. In 1983, Park spokesman Bob Roth indicated that Disneyland had effectively conceded Halloween for the time being. The time was used as a lead-in for “Mickey’s Month,” an on-and-off celebration begun to celebrate the Mouse after his 50th birthday in 1978. In early 1988, Jack Lindquist (then in Marketing, Disneyland President as of 1990) suggested Disneyland was contemplating some sort of family Halloween event, but come October, Roth was again saying Disneyland didn’t need Halloween: “It’s one of those things we keep putting off till next year (or) we get comfortable with the format.”

With the number of times a Disneyland Halloween celebration was put off, then, it’s curious that the first Halloween event held for Guests was such a debacle. In concert with KIIS-FM and Rick Dees (who was broadcasting live from the Haunted Mansion on Halloween morning), Disneyland in 1994 offered free admission to anybody who showed up at its gates before 8:30 a.m. Free admission? And all you have to do is show up in costume? And the popularity of this event caught anybody by surprise? Gridlock, of course, developed around the Park and backed up the Santa Ana Freeway, keeping many from gaining the free admittance they sought. Community schools weren’t too thrilled with this promotion, either, and the stunt wasn’t repeated. 1994 also marked the first year of the continuing Cast Member exclusive event Little Monsters on Main Street.

The next year Disneyland threw its first themed event for Halloween: Mickey’s Halloween Treat!, held the evenings of October 26, 27, 30 and 31. Envisioned as an event complementary to Knott’s events (rather than in competition), it featured trick-or-treating at fifty locations around the Park, a Kids Costume Cavalcade, and seasonal food items. Starting in 2001, Disney’s ambitions toward owning Halloween accelerated. The Haunted Mansion Holiday premiered that fall, mixing the Park’s only year-round Halloween-like attraction with the very popular world of Tim Burton’s "The Nightmare Before Christmas." The overlay was an immediate smash, repeated every year thereafter. Disney’s HalloweenTime debuted on September 29, 2006 as a promotion that transformed both theme parks with special shows and lavish decorations.

The Anaheim Halloween Festival has fallen on hard times more than once. I already mentioned Disney’s role in saving it in 1978. After declining in popularity, the Festival went on hiatus from 1992 through 1994, returning in 1995 as the Anaheim Fall Festival (the name under which it is still held today). And despite the success of the Disneyland Resort’s HalloweenTime promotion, Disneyland still actively supports this community celebration—even if few now remember, they go way back.

I'm Waiting for This in Google's LIFE Photo Archive

2009-10-28T17:53:00.003-07:00

From the July 1957 Disneylander:

Opening Day memory: BUD COULSON...will never forget the wonderful experience he had on opening day as he guided Life magazine photographers, Allen Grant and Loomis Dean to vantage points. They took over 1,000 pictures that day, including many rolls from the top of the TV camera tower in the Plaza. It's still a mystery as to how Allen and Loomis negotiated that tower with cameras in both hands as well as around their necks.

I have yet to see these appear in the LIFE photo archive hosted by Google.

What a Week

2009-10-14T17:47:00.004-07:00

The October 1, 1975 Disneyland Line noted:

Leisure plans and carefree days are on the agenda for these Disneyland employees who retired this week. They will be taking with them countless memories and experiences as well as our warmest wishes. Each and everyone of them will be missed.

Following this is a list of 34 names. In these days the Line would normally only mention one or two people that may be retiring, if any. Later, the Line had a regular "Golden Ears" column that included a photo and paragraph describing retirement plans for long-tenured Cast Members. As I recognized many of the names on the list, it seemed an almost historic group of retirees. As of July 17, 1975, there were 109 Club 55 members. Five Club 55 members, or 4.6% of the total, retired this one week! Most of the other names I've come across several times thus far in my thesaurusing activities. Here is my annotated list of retirees, all drawn from the information I've already assembled:

Howard Block: Employed at the Park for 20 years and served as a Foreman on most Park attractions.
Helen De Masi: Decorating Department.
Harry Dickey: Animation Department, Actuator Shop.
Herman Falk: Paint Shop; received a 15-Year service award in November 1975.
Eugene Galentine: Club 55 member of the Disneyland Fire Department.
Kenneth Getty
Robert Hanna: Retlaw Foreman on the Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad; contributed to Backstage Disneyland ("Mainly on Main Street" column) and received a 15-Year service award in November 1974.
Herman Heidel: In Disneyland's Plumbing Department since 1957; received a 15-Year service award in November 1975. In 1971 Herman was a representative on Disneyland's Maintenance Safety Committee (each Maintenance department had one) and in March 1974 had a winning Creative Idea to disperse a foam build-up on the Bear Country waterfall.
Dorothea Heidemann: Merchandising; received a 10-Year service award in November 1973.
Homer Holland: Club 55 member from Main Street Operations. Homer served on several committees (Employee Cafeteria Food Committee, Operations Safety Committee, Main Street Stage Safety Committee) and in September 1973 had a winning Creative Idea to mount rear-view mirrors on the Main Street horseless carriage and fire trucks.
Steve Horvath
Carolyn Hughes
Edwin Johnson: Maintenance; received a 10-Year service award in November 1974. Served as the Maintenance coordinator for Disneyland's 1971 United Fund drive.
Katherine Kilpatrick: New Orleans & Plaza Inn Kitchens.
Lulu Miller: Club 55 member of Costuming. Lulu was known to everybody at the Park for her motherly ways. Stuff from the Park has a photo of Lulu taken in the late 1950s.
George Kohlenberger: Sound Department; received a 10-Year service award in November 1975. With others (including my uncle), George helped maintain the first Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln show at Disneyland.
Walter Lindstedt: Maintenance; in 1972 participated in a 16-week blueprint reading class with other Maintenance Cast Members at the University of Disneyland.
Urban Mendoza: New Orleans & Plaza Inn Kitchens.
Adrian Munoz
Ralph Myers: Finance Division; received a 10-Year service award in November 1973. Ralph was one of the original signers of the Charters of Organization for the DRC [Disneyland Recreation Club] Federal Credit Union (today's Partners Federal Credit Union).
Charles Nichols: Came to Disneyland in 1959 at the request of Eddie Meck as the head of Disneyland's Photo Department; received a 15-Year service award in November 1974.
Ethel Penfield: Worked at the Baby Station since 1957 (possibly from its very first day). In 1975 Ethel recalled, "One man came in with his family and told us that through the years I had helped change and feed all six of his kids!"
John Power: Superintendent of the Electrical Department; received a 15-Year service award in November 1973.
Fred Roamer
Fran Salazar: With Landscaping since the late 1960s.
Elias Salloum
John Schimmelman
Joe Soto: Landscaping; received a 15-Year service award in November 1974.
Golvin Street: Main Gate Ticket Taker.
Charlotte Teague
Helen Westin
John Westlake: Maintenance; received a 15-Year service award in November 1974.
George Williams: Club 55 member and Mill Foreman.
Hugh (Woody) Woodsworth: Club 55 member in Payroll.

That's quite a roster to walk out the door in one week!

Disney's California Adventure Hours

2009-08-05T18:21:00.002-07:00

As a follow-up to yesterday's post, a present a similar table for Disney's California Adventure operating hours. The big difference is that, unlike for Disneyland, I do have operating hours for each day in its history. Notice the experimentation that went on early in its history in 2001 as management tried to determine the best hours for the Park. It's very rare these days for Disney's California Adventure to open before 10!

Disneyland Park Hours

2009-08-04T18:31:00.004-07:00

As followers of this blog know, one of my goals with the thesaurus is to have a day-by-day history of the Resort, including operating hours, openings, closures, notable visits, events, etc. I have operating hours for about half of the days since Disneyland opened and thought I'd share some statistics regarding those 10,000+ plus days I've documented thus far. The table below provides the operating hours, the number of days which the Park had those hours, and the first and last days I've documented as having those hours. Since I'm still missing a significant number of days, these statistics should not be considered representative of hours for Disneyland's entire history.

50,000 Terms

2009-07-19T16:21:00.002-07:00

I marked a milestone last Tuesday, July 14, as I entered the 50,000th term into the Disneyland Resort Thesaurus at 11:06 PM EDT. At roughly 50,000 terms a year, I expect I'll reach 100,000 terms in the summer of 2011 and 1,000,000 terms in 2047. Of course, the number of terms isn't the sole criterion on which to judge the thesaurus--the number of relationships also count, as does the amount of information recorded for each. There are more than 131,000 relationships contained in the thesaurus and in the past week I have edited 2,224 terms (or 4.4% of the total thesaurus). So, when I'm not posting here, I am still busy working behind the scenes on gathering sources and working through them. I've been meaning to undertake a broad look at the state of the thesaurus and its possibilities, but I feel, here, now, I can at least share a little about the sources with which I'm working.

Probably the greatest source in numbers is the Disneyland Line. I estimate there are somewhere over 2,000 of these (52 issues a year [fewer in recent years with a biweekly publication schedule] x 40 years). As of this writing, I have very thoroughly and methodically pulled apart 314 of those, or around 15%. (I have immediate access, either in hard copy or scans, to almost 1,500.) From the earlier monthly Disneylander of the 1950s and early 1960s, I have thesaurused 9 issues out of an unknown total which probably numbers between 50 and 60. For Backstage Disneyland, the quirky publication started by Wally Boag that was published on an erratic basis between 1962 and the 1980s, I have gone through but two issues out of an unknown total that I estimate at somewhere less than 80.

From materials produced for the public, I have input information from 8 of 159 Disney News/Disney Magazine issues. Of Disneyland Holiday/Vacationland, I have thesaurused 13 of about 84 issues. From The "E" Ticket, a mere 5 of the 46 issues. A mere 8 guidebooks from Disneyland's 54-year history. I've only started recording information from 3 of the roughly 26 souvenir wallmaps. I've only gone through a measly ONE copy of The Disneyland News (but it did yield information for 278 terms). I have made it through several books (including Disneyland: The Nickel Tour and Disney A-Z, two of the first sources I worked with), but have yet to start working with other treasure troves such as Disneyland: Then, Now, and Forever and Van France's Window on Main Street.

I have used a few hundred newspaper articles out of about 7,500 saved so far. Other sources will include miscellaneous Cast Member publications (such as land/departmental newsletters and phone directories), interviews, press releases, blog posts, and anything else that contributes substantive information about the history of the Disneyland Resort. (Note that I didn't specify it has to be accurate information; it's just as important to document the origins of misconceptions!) I'm meticulously documenting where all the information comes from and what sources have been used or should be used, so if I drop dead tomorrow somebody would know exactly what I had done.

If anybody has bibliographic information for the Disneylander or Backstage Disneyland, I'd appreciate it, as I would a staff to help me out!

Snow White's Adventures Demolition

2009-07-13T18:26:00.001-07:00

More? Of course there are more! Here's one of Snow White's Adventures, from right around the very day I was born:

Peter Pan Flight Demolition

2009-07-09T19:19:00.002-07:00

As a companion to the post showing the exterior of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (1955-1982) shortly after its closure, here is an equivalent photo for Peter Pan Flight:

To the far right of the picture, you can see some of the medieval shields amidst the other debris. The ride vehicle track is still present, as is a very small portion of the Claude Coats/Ken Anderson mural, but otherwise the entire attraction was gone within a few weeks of closing.

Thesaurusing Area Music Loops

2009-07-08T18:10:00.002-07:00

I'm still doing the whole thesaurus bit. On Monday I added the 3,000th Imagineer. I'm closing in on 50,000 terms total. (You can always check the sidebar for a reasonably up-to-date view of thesaurus statistics.) There are some aspects of Disneyland that I have procrastinated on thoroughly investigating, because they require the creation of so many new terms and linkages. If you recall my post Thesaurusing Live Entertainment, you'll know that I strongly desire new terms to be well-linked. Tonight I spent a little time adding terms in a similar vein: area music loops.

The area music loops themselves aren't too knotty a problem; conceptually, they're narrower terms of media -> media by types -> audio material -> audio material by contexts -> Resort audio material -> background music. But, I wanted each individual song to be linked to the area music term (e.g., Space Mountain Concourse area music). I settled on first creating an umbrella term for each song (e.g., Tomorrowland 2055 Fanfare (song), Miracles from Molecules (song), Monorail Song (song), etc.).

When known, I have linked the song creators to these broader terms. I then created a new term for each of these songs, linked to the music loop. I did this because these songs are just manifestations of the broader song concept. For example, there could be sheet music released for a song; it could have been recorded for a film soundtrack and rerecorded for the Park; or a song could have several Park versions. It seemed useful to me to make these distinctions, to record information about these separate instances. It also leaves open the possibility of future indexing of these individual audio tracks.

To demonstrate what I mean, below is the term record for Space Mountain Concourse area music, the mixture of music from the EPCOT Center entrance loop and new recordings of Tomorrowland's greatest hits, produced by Bruce Gordon for the never-was Tomorrowland 2055:

DLRERA: 1990s 1990s
DLRERA: 2000s 2000s
ETY: AME Area Music
LOC: DL-TL Tomorrowland
OPSTA: CUR Current

DFJHS: 0:00 - "Tomorrowland 2055 Fanfare" (0:48)
0:49 - "Tomorrowland 2055 Theme & Fanfare" (1:38)
2:27 - "Energy" (3:23)
5:50 - "Timekeeper" (2:07)
7:57 - "Golden Dream" (3:45)
11:42 - "Miracles from Molecules" (1:43)
13:25 - "It's Fun to Be Free" (3:29)
16:54 - "Monorail Song" (2:58)
19:52 - "Let's Listen to the Land" (4:30)
24:22 - "Tomorrowland 2055 Theme #1" (0:19)
24:41 - "Tomorrowland 2055 Theme #2" (1:44)
26:25 - "One Little Spark" (3:24)
29:49 - "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (2:24)
32:13 - "Nemo's Theme" (0:40)
32:53 - "Go Go Goodyear" (1:46)
34:39 - "Magic Journeys" (5:35)
40:14 - "Pop Goes the Weasel" (0:08)
40:22 - "We Are Here to Change the World" (3:13)
43:35 - "Universe of Energy" (3:54)
47:29 - "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" (2:25)

BT: background music
BTP: Space Mountain Concourse
BTP: Space Mountain Guest rest rooms [editor's note: yes, it plays here, too!]
CTBF: Gordon, Bruce
NTP {01}: Tomorrowland 2055 Fanfare (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
NTP {02}: Tomorrowland 2055 Theme & Fanfare (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
NTP {03}: Energy (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
NTP {04}: Timekeeper (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
NTP {05}: Golden Dream (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
NTP {06}: Miracles from Molecules (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
NTP {07}: It's Fun to Be Free (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
NTP {08}: Monorail Song (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
NTP {09}: Let's Listen to the Land (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
NTP {10}: Tomorrowland 2055 Theme #1 (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
NTP {11}: Tomorrowland 2055 Theme #2 (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
NTP {12}: One Little Spark (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
NTP {13}: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
NTP {14}: Nemo's Theme (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
NTP {15}: Go Go Goodyear (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
NTP {16}: Magic Journeys (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
NTP {17}: Pop Goes the Weasel (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
NTP {18}: We Are Here to Change the World (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
NTP {19}: Universe of Energy (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
NTP {20}: There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)

The information at the top (DLRERA/Disneyland Resort Era, ETY/Entity, LOC/Location, OPSTA/Operational Status) are various classifications that I apply to most of the terms in the thesaurus. I have various definitional note fields, preceded by DF. DFJHS is one I use when I have come up with the information myself or if I just want to make notes about a term. BT/BTP are ways of linking to broader terms, NTP narrower terms. CTBF stands for "contribution from." The numbers in the curly brackets are node labels, so the songs are ordered as they play in the loop. Now let's take a look at one of the Space Mountain Concourse songs, Miracles from Molecues (Space Mountain Concourse) (song):

DLRERA: 1990s 1990s
DLRERA: 2000s 2000s

BT: media by names
BTI: Miracles from Molecules (song)
BTP: Space Mountain Concourse area music

And this is what the main term for the song (Miracles from Molecules (song)) currently looks like:

SRC: Disneyland: The Nickel Tour (2000)
The Disneyland Encyclopedia (2008)
Walt Disney's Imagineering Legends (2008)

BT: media by names
BTI: songs
NTI: Miracles from Molecules (Space Mountain Concourse) (song)
CTBF: Sherman Brothers
RT: Adventure Thru Inner Space

SRC is used to show where this exact term came from. In this case, I have not yet come across any variant names for the songs. The Sherman Brothers are shown as contributing to the writing of the song (obviously, they wrote it, but I do not currently have a finer grained relationship to use). Right now, Adventure Thru Inner Space is shown as a related term for the song. In the future, when I've created terms for each instance of Miracles from Molecules in the attraction's soundtrack, I may delete this more explicit reference. (The song would be related through the song instance which would be related to Adventure Thru Inner Space.)

At any rate, you can see why I have put this off for so long! So far, I have only added the Space Mountain Concourse area music and Main Street area music (1992- ), but more will follow.

More Old Fantasyland Demolition

2009-07-03T19:44:00.004-07:00

It's been a long time since I last posted a destruction shot of the old Fantasyland from the 1982-1983 timeframe. Here's Mr. Toad going to pieces:

I Wonder What They Found

2009-06-26T21:42:00.003-07:00

September 11, 1974 Disneyland Line:

At the present time, the Disney University is doing research on the history of the Park. In trying to re-create Disneyland as it has developed through the years, they are tracing the changes that have taken place both on and off stage. If you have any old maps, photos, guide books, or any other historical data, the University would greatly appreciate your help. All material used will be Xeroxed and returned. For further information or inquiries, please call Jon Worsdell at the Disney University at Ext. 641 or 642...Thanks!

What motivated them to research the Park's history at this point in time? A specific training program? Did anybody submit anything that we today would find amazing? What did the University eventually do with the material?

Mineral King Wilderness

2009-03-30T15:30:00.002-07:00

President Obama today signed into law the 2009 Omnibus Public Land Management Act. Among other things, the Act includes the Mineral King valley as part of the John Krebs Wilderness. McClatchy has a good article about the wilderness area and John Krebs.

Nixon and Disneyland, Part 7

2009-03-21T14:01:00.002-07:00

The Disneyland Line furnishes details on another Disneyland Cast Member who went to work for Nixon. From the January 9, 1974 issue:

Joanne Miller, Personnel Representative in Employee Relations, will assume the duties of Receptionist/Guide and Secretary at the Western White House beginning January 7. Joanne will be the secretary for the Buildings and Facilities Manager and will be responsible for coordinating conferences at the Western White House.

We wish Joanne success in this new endeavor.

Disneyland Resort Era

2009-03-16T16:58:00.003-07:00

In the past couple of weeks, I've been hard at work on a new category I've added to the thesaurus: DLRERA, short for Disneyland Resort Era. I'm currently thesaurusing four Disneyland telephone directories, covering a couple of decades. In addition to the Cast Members named in these, I had many from Disneylanders, Disneyland Lines, and other sources. I currently have over 6,600 Cast Member names recorded, and finally realized it would be useful to add some temporal perspective.

So, I created a new category (DLRERA, with decades as subcategories) and also created new terms for 1950s Cast Members, 1960s Cast Members, 1970s Cast Members, 1980s Cast Members, 1990s Cast Members, and 2000s Cast Members. While the Cast Member terms denote something specific, the DLRERA category is a little more ambiguous. I have a working definition that a a decade should be applied to a term if it had some presence in or influence on the Disneyland Resort during that time. A Cast Member who worked at the Park in the 1970s would have the 1970s category applied, obviously. I worked at Disneyland in the 2000s, but I've also applied 1990s to myself because I was active in the Usenet community, had a popular Disneyland web site, co-founded the Bruce Gordon Fan Club, etc., etc. The categories are sort of a way of pulling all the terms for a particular decade together.

I have not gone through to apply this categorization to every term in the thesaurus just yet (and frankly, I'm not sure I'd go to the trouble of categorizing all of the date terms themselves). The process of back-categorizing thousands and thousands of Cast Members was onerous enough, as I had to read the notes I'd typed about them to determine when they worked. These are the numbers I have so far, with overlap between categories possible and occurring:

1950s Cast Members: 628
1960s Cast Members: 1,203
1970s Cast Members: 2,111
1980s Cast Members: 1,096
1990s Cast Members: 1,240
2000s Cast Members: 2,779

The numbers reflect the sources I've used thus far and so shouldn't be used for statistical purposes. The number of 1970s Cast Members, in particular, reflects the large number of Disneyland Lines from early in that decade.

The Disneyland Resort as an Organization

2009-02-21T21:46:00.001-08:00

As I've mentioned before (and you can see here in my post listing 1,000 Cast Members and lessees), the thesaurus goes beyond just documenting the public parts of Disneyland, but attempts to encompass the entire operation, including Guest, Cast, and Imagineering perspectives. So, I'm attempting to track the organizational structure of the Park/Resort through the years. This can be a bit daunting at times because Disney (especially modern Disney) loves to rearrange and move functions around, and I'm operating with incomplete information. Rarely do I have a complete organizational snapshot at any point in time.

This October 1959 Disneyland, Inc. division responsibilities chart provides very valuable information, but is just the tip of the iceberg:

It only provides the division directors, not any lower managers, and does not provide information on the finer distinctions (such as all of the various shops to be found under "Maintenance"). But mostly I don't even have this level of information, and just have to document each of the departments and divisions as I find them, and periodically assess what I know. For instance, here Janitorial is part of Construction & Maintenance (which became simply the Maintenance division sometime in the 1960s). In 1973, it was part of Operations, and in 1975 part of General Services. Today it's known as Custodial (a change which I believe occurred in the mid-1970s) and is part of Guest Services.

The best sources for this information are Disneyland Lines, particularly those which include feature articles on various departments or have lists of service anniversaries or committees which draw from around the Park, and Park telephone directories. My plan is to do the best I can with the information from these sources, and hopefully in the future run it past some people who have great familiarity with the organizational Resort over the decades.

As I was looking through the June 1993 directory, I was struck by just how many people were working off-site. The original Disneyland Administration Building consisted of two houses from the property joined together in the East Service Area, behind Main Street, U.S.A.--one of the houses belonging to Ron Dominguez's family. Seen here is the building as modeled in the model of 1955 Disneyland currently on display in the Opera House:

A larger Administration Building was constructed nearby in 1966, also housing the Primeval World Diorama. (According to a 1984 Cast Member training book, The Spirit of Disneyland, Walt Disney rejected an expensive admin building, stating "There isn't going to be any administration building. The public isn't coming here to see an administration building." It's not clear from when this quotation dates, but the large administration building was built under Walt's leadership.)

By the 1980s the Park had outgrown that Administration Building. In early 1985, Disneyland purchased the site of the Global Van Lines building. Global Van Lines had used this building, north of the Park and along the Santa Ana Freeway, as its western regional headquarters before moving it to Orange:

As Disneyland began contemplating expansion in the 1980s, it also recognized the importance of a new administration building. In 1987, in what Disneyland spokesman Bob Roth described as a "temporary move," Entertainment, Marketing, Finance, and Disneyland International moved into leases offices in the Plaza Alicante at 300 Plaza Alicante, Garden Grove, just down Harbor Boulevard from Disneyland. An April 1988 account of the move in the Orange County Register said the new building should be finished by the end of a three-year lease. While the Cast Members decorated their new digs to make it feel like home, one CM commented that they sometimes didn't get to the Park for several days. When Jack Lindquist was named President of Disneyland in October 1990, he said in regards to the Cast Members scattered in area offices, "I don't even know where they all are."

Disneyland didn't select an architect for the new administration building--Frank O. Gehry--until December 1992. Below is a graphic illustrating where Disneyland had Cast Members working circa June 1993, using an October 1995 photo as the base:

The immediate Operations staff remained on site, of course, as did the Facilities, Engineering and Construction personnel. The Administration Building still housed Administration, Public Relations, Costuming, Legal, Cast Activities, Broadcast Services, and Security/Fire. Publicity and Vista-United were on the second floor of the Opera House. Some parts of Entertainment were in the America Sings building (such as Show Operations and Stage Management). The Walt Disney Travel Company was over at the Disneyland Hotel, as it had been since its formation in 1972.

Disneyland had a small presence at the Pacific Inland Bank, 888 S. West Street, Anaheim (now 888 S. Disneyland Drive); on the second floor were offices for the Purchasing Office, Walt Disney Specialty Products, and Contract Administration. Disneyland also rented out a couple of floors at Stadium Towers, 2400 Katella Avenue, Anaheim, housing operations related to Human Relations functions. On the 12th floor were Labor Relations and Wage & Salary Administration, while the 8th floor contained Cast Communications, the Disney University, Personnel Records, Guest Claims, Workers' Compensation, and related departments.

But the greatest number of Cast Members ended up at the Plaza Alicante, 300 Plaza Alicante, Garden Grove, somewhat more than a mile down Harbor Boulevard from Disneyland. All or most of the Finance, Marketing, and Entertainment divisions ended up here, and Disneyland had space rented on all but the 9th floor (that I can tell). These are some of the departments found on the various floors:

1st: Business Process Reengineering; Queen Mary Finance
2nd: Finance Division: Accounting Department; Finance Administration; General Ledger; Planning & Analysis
3rd: Finance Division: Accounts Receivable; Inventory Accounting
4th: Finance Division: Capital Development-West Coast Finance; Facility Finance; Industrial Engineering
4th: Entertainment Division: Entertainment Art; Choreography; Music Department; Show Development/Directors
5th: Disneyland International; Euro Disney; TDL Finance; Walt Disney Attractions Documentation
6th: Marketing Division: Advertising; Creative Services; Promotions; Marketing Special Projects; Vista Advertising
6th: Entertainment Division: College Music Program; Music Library; Entertainment Special Events; Talent Booking; Guest Talent Development
7th: Marketing Division: Marketing Administration; Alumni Club; Ambassador Program; Magic Kingdom Club; Magic Years Club; Corporate Alliance; Synergy; Disney News Magazine
8th: College Relations
10th: Attraction Sales; Convention Sales; Corporate Sales; Private Parties; Grad Nites

Following the naming scheme established with the corporate headquarters (Team Disney Burbank) and Walt Disney World (Team Disney Orlando), the new administration building was known as Team Disney Anaheim when it opened in February 1996. People sometimes complain that management who work at TDA don't get out into the Parks, and so make decisions divorced from the Guests and any personal connection to how things are in the field. Surely there are some Cast Members like that, just as there must have been some who went to the old Administration Building and didn't go into the Park. But having the main administrative functions consolidated in one location, on property, is a huge improvement over the scattered way things were in the late 1980s into the mid-1990s. I'd be interested to find out how this Cast dispersal interacted with concurrent efforts to expand and form the Disneyland Resort. If anybody reading this blog worked off-site, I'd be very interested to hear your perspective on how efficiently Disneyland functioned during this time.