Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Autopia Employees 1974

Three photographs of employees working the Autopia Ride in 1974. I distinctly remember these blue and yellow outfits as the Autopia outfits. There was also matching jackets that were cut like gas station attendent jackets. This was a time when individual rides had themed costumes for the employees. In the 1990s, in order to cut costs, many lands went to a generic costume. The generic costumes were awful as the specific theming of costumes helped to create a feeling of reality amongst the fantasy. Also most of the unique badges and patches for the costumes were done away with. The Submarine Voyage felt like a real voyage due to the cast members appearing to be part of a distinct Navy with its own insignia and clothing. The Jungle Cruise skippers were a unique band with their safari style hats, and the Matterhorn cast members appeared Germanic in their Lederhosen. The Autopia crew appeared to be part of a race car pit team. Thankfully, attraction specific costuming is making a small comeback as the last time I was at Disneyland the Enchanted Tiki Room cast members now wear shirts with drawings of the tiki gods on them including a nice rendition of Pele.

Oh- check out the back end of the green Monorail and the nice signage in the second photograph. I also like the blue autopia car as it looks like the car body in my collection.

4 comments:

Major Pepperidge said...

Hooray for the girl in photo #2! What a cutie. It's fun seeing these images from a time that I actually remember!

thepicklebarrel said...

yeah, uniforms are a major screw up over the last decade. they add an incredible amount of theming to the park.

in that last shot, the peoplemover guy looks fairly peeved...perhaps because his polyester itches?

Anonymous said...

I think the girl in photo #2 is Nancy Colvin. I just saw here at the Disneyland Alumni 50th Anniversary dinner party, and she hasn't aged a bit!
The guy in photo #3 is Mike Egan, who later worked in the Disney Warehouse.

Anonymous said...

That PeopleMover photo shows the 70's A version of the Costume--I think it debuted in 1972--designed bt Jack Muhs of Disneyland--in 1977
many of the Tomorrowland costumes were revamped or altered a bit--the PeopleMover costume lost it's tappered pants and blue shirt-got a flared pant and white shirt with a summer "open" shirt or the winter
turtleneck--Oh-and also stoped using the WHITE BOOTS and went to the DL General issue work shoe! Oh Man! is this too much info?? -Mike (WEDWAY)