Revolucion's Amusement Ice Box

[Revolucion]

I was going through a box of Disneyland employee stuff at my house and found some interesting stuff. Here's my first of several posts.

Look who's putting the magic in the Magic Kingdom.

Imagination!

The Skyway cable jumped off a wheel around 1991 due to bouncing kids. Everything north of the Skyway was evacuated and guests were removed via cherry picker over several hours.

Freedomland in the Bronx had a sky ride with two sets of cables to increase ride capacity.

Why does the Matterhorn have holes? Because it's Swiss!

[robbalvey]

^ Dude that's awesome! The creepy part of this is that I had a meeting the other day at the Disney Studio lot and I went over to the Archives to have a quick look around. They had binders of the old Disneyland Line magazine so of course I had to check out the issues from when I worked there, and I ended up thumbing through that EXACT same issue!!!

 

Anyway.....

 

Robb has a "dork" moment.

 

--Robb

[RIP Psyclone]

^I've always wondered if that pic was just a quick snapshot from a friend or, as now revealed, an official Disney pic. I would have asked, but I was afraid I'd have been attacked, since it was no doubt discussed in detail in a thread in or around March 2005, for example.

[Revolucion]

In keeping with the Skyway theme here's some magical Tiki goodness.

I included this page for Orange Countians out there. In 1988 the employee picnic was at a HUGE park on Jamboree at the 405. It's now a bunch of 15-story highrise offices and condos.

I thought Danny Kay had the original F Ticket.

Bad bird! This is a brand new suit...

[robbalvey]

^ Photos didn't work. Can you upload them again?

[Revolucion]

In the latter half of the 80's Disneyland experimented with special event promotions to increase attendence in the off-season. The first of the three promotions was Circus Fantasy. I'll dig out info on State Fair and Blast to the Past another time.

The article doesn't mention a little known fact about the Human Cannonball: when the demolition crews were unsuccessful in destroying the House of the Future, the Human Cannonball was brought in to finish the job.

I included the classified ads because of two items of interest. 1) I couldn't help adding "Ask for Cruella". 2) Do you think this guy bought an HD-DVD so he wouldn't get screwed by Sony again?

Is that a bear riding a bicycle?

I think this act was at the gateway to Tomorrowland at the end of the PeopleMover midway. My recollection is that the PeopleMover was shut down for Circus Fantasy. For at least one of the years of Circus Fantasy, the "Globe of Death" was placed in Central Plaza where the statue of Walt and Mickey is now.

[Revolucion]

Disneyland has had an annual employee scavenger hunt at the park since the late 80's. Each year usually has had in theme -- in 1993 it was Minnie's 60th Birthday. The winning team was *really* good that year. Almost as good as the team that won the year before: Bruce Gordon and David Mumford.

[Revolucion]

Here's an article about the Matterhorn climbers and a related tidbit on how Walt made a Mountain out of a snow hill.

One of these climbers was lured away later that same year to climb Bobsled at Nara Dreamland.

[PURE]

^I've always wondered if that pic was just a quick snapshot from a friend or, as now revealed, an official Disney pic. I would have asked, but I was afraid I'd have been attacked, since it was no doubt discussed in detail in a thread in or around March 2005, for example.

[Revolucion]

Epcot Center liberally borrowed ideas from the 1939 NY World's Fair. One example is Spaceship Earth, which combined the Perisphere with Buckminster Fuller (Geodesic Structures).

 

Futurama was sponsored by General Motors. The ride system was probably the first Omnimover type ride system...except for the Omni part.

 

The icons of the fair were the Trylon and Perisphere. The Trylon was a 700' tall pylon. There is an untrue urban legend it that it was supposed to be 700" tall but there was a misunderstanding by the construction foremen. The Perisphere was a 180' globe which contained a model of a utopian city of the future called Democracity.

 

Plans for WestCOT included a central spherical icon, but these plans were later changed to....wait for it...a triangular pylon.

 

The World of Croutons featured dinosaurs looking for croutons...but there weren't any...so they went to the Exxon Pavilion to make petroleum.

The intersection of the future

Futurama...Welcome to the world of Tomorrow

FDR's famous four freedoms speech is said to have been inspired by "The Four Freedoms"

A nightly fireworks show could be seen on the Lagoon of Nations

A reflecting pond with "The Four Freedoms"

The Lifesaver Parachute Jump was one of the few artifacts to survive the fair. Most buildings and statues were destroyed after the fair.

[robbalvey]

Futurama was sponsored by General Motors. The ride system was probably the first Omnimover type ride system...except for the Omni part.

Ahh, I had forgotten this was called "Futurama."

 

Seems a lot funnier today!

 

 

--Robb

[mcjaco]

You can all note that the Trylon was the first attempt at the wand.

[Revolucion]

Futurama was the big hit of the fair and commonly had a wait of hours despite a high hourly capacity. The ride simulated an airplane ride over an idealized vision of the US in 1960. Visitors looked down at models of networks of interstate freeways and a prediction of what cities fould be like in the future. The last model was the "Intersection of the Future" with a pedestrian level above the street level for cars. After unloading, visitors walked into a life-size version of the intersection and there were further exhibits at each of the four corners of the intersection. My understanding of the ride system is that it was a cousin to airport luggage systems. As you can see in the picture the ride system was functionally very similar to Horizons at Epcot. The name of the entire GM pavilion was Highways & Horizons.

 

A featurette with scenes from the ride can be found url=http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/DISPLAY/39wf/futurama1.mov]here[/url] Included in the model scenes was the amusement park of 1960.

 

 

Futurama was also the name of the General Motors exhibit at the 64 NY World's Fair. It was more of a Horizons-ish glimpse at where and how man would live in the future. (Mars, the Ocean, Antarctica, etc.)

[Revolucion]

Disneyland used to publish a magazine for area hotels called "Disneyland Vacationland". I focused mostly on Disneyland, but also ran ads for other area amusements. There was also a "Walt Disney World Vacationland" magazine.

 

The following are ads of now defunct operations from the Summer 1974 issue of Disneyland Vacationland.

Anybody know the last year they did this to the Sky Tower??? The shorter tower was for the Magic Pagoda Funhouse. (Not from Vacationland Magazine)

Vintage Magic Mountain Ad with trolls! Note the picture of the loving lion, not to be confused with the loving lion of Lion Country Safari.

Here's another park you may remember-Knott's. Don't forget to visit the John Wayne Theatre. Gypsy Camp was on the back side of the Mine Ride.

Before Windows 95 and Epcot 95 there was...Marineland 74. Marineland opened in 1954-one year *before* Disneyland. Marineland was shut down in the 80's to develop a resort that is still under construction...

Sambo's was a huge restaurant chain. It was basically run out of business in the 80's but one remains in Santa Barbara,

Japanese Deer Village was later purchased by Six Flags and became Enchanted Village before shutting down. Attractions included: Den of Iniquity, The Third Eye, The Touching Place. Insert Michael Jackson joke here.

Lion Country Safari was a drive through safari experience. There was also a village with children's rides. Some remnants of LCS can still be seen today at Wild Rivers Water Park.