Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Swiss Family Tree House Souvenir Slides

I have not come across many Swiss Family Tree House slides. But this set of slides was available for purchase from the Main Street Camera Shop. Some very nice shots of the tree...cue the Swisskapolka and relive this attraction.
First up is the sign that greeted you at the entrance:

A nice overall view of the tree, look at the size of it!

The ingenious water system rigged by the Robinson clan.

The interior sitting room with the details that made the walk up the stairs worth the exercise.

(Like most of the souvenir slides, these had turned a nice magenta.)
For those in Southern California, Don Ballard the author of the Disneyland Hotel book will be giving a talk at the Glendora Public Library on May 24, 2010 at 7:00 PM. The talk will be a full multi-media presentation on the history of the hotel and the Wrathers. If I was in Southern California, I would be there.

9 comments:

Connie Moreno said...

OMG, as soon as I started looking at the pictures, I could hear that music in my head. I actually miss it!

Annie said...

These are great! I was sad when Disneyland took out the original theme and transformed it to Tarzan... I was extatic when I saw it was still at WDW, haha we practically ran to it :)

Katella Gate said...

The overall shot of the treehouse is very interesting. You can see over the fence at the right that the entire footpring of pre-New Orleans Square is an empty field.

Today the treehouse is crowded in on all sides; it's hard to imagine it as an "outpost" attraction.

I do miss attraction: it was kinetic and the film's story line was trivial to its enjoyment. The Tarzan make-over brought nothing to the venue. Change it back.

Thufer said...

Being the 'traditionalist' that I am, of course I prefer the Swiss version to the 'Tarzan' offering. A lot of things are stored away from my first visit to the park, and that tree is right up there on the list. The polka, the water wheel and the view. Just a wonderful low-tech attraction.

TokyoMagic! said...

I agree with everyone. And I have to steal Katella's line....CHANGE IT BACK! (the explanation point and the all caps part were mine.)

At least Tokyo, Paris and WDW haven't converted their treehouses to the Tarzan theme.

bubbagoes2anaheim said...

Those are some great shots. I forgot how good it really was.

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

2012 is the 50th anniversary of the Treehouse, maybe (yeah right) Disney will see it fit to put it back? They must have spare parts/props since they have Robinson's still at other parks.

On a side note, I just watched the DVD of Swiss Family Robinson - wow, that film still hold up great! But on the second DVD (the extras) there is about 5 minutes of amazing footage from 1962 with Walt at the grand opening of the treehouse, candid footage I've never seen before, worth the price of the DVD just for that and the NOS construction walls!

Major Pepperidge said...

Whoa, these are great!

I haven't seen the movie since I was a kid, but I remember Moochie annoying me even then. I should check it out!

outsidetheberm said...

What a great set of souvenir photos!
We even get a glimpse of NOS construction on the right side of the second shot.