Friday, October 12, 2012

Souvenir Friday- Walt Disney Studio Stickers

Two stickers used at the Walt Disney Studios in the 1950s. The design is from the Mickey Mouse Club. The red one has V5 typed in the top of the sticker. I believe these stickers were used on file folders for departments. The red and yellow colors and design remind me of early McDonalds.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Grand Canyon and Primeval World

Three images of one of my favorite attractions at Disneyland. When you ride the train, make sure you go from Tomorrowland to Main Street to see Grand Canyon and the Primeval World. The pictures are from the mid-1980s. First up is the Mountain Lion in the Grand Canyon diorama. It looks like the photographer followed the rules and did not use their flash.

Next up are two images from the Primeval World. The dinosaurs were created for use in Ford's Magic Skyway at the 1964 New York World's Fair and moved there after the fair.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Alice In Wonderland Characters Plus Tiki at Children's Fairlyand

One of the popular books at Children's Fairyland is Alice In Wonderland. Not only is there the tunnel and maze, but also a carrousel and building with great Alice characters. First up is Cheshire hanging out on a building.

The Alice In Wonderland carrousel is for young kids and features great designs of characters who reside in Wonderland.

Tweedle Dee and Dum stand guard in front of the ride.

Fairyland also has a festival celebrating Hawaii and the South Pacific. In order to honor the tales of the islands, the park has two Tikis. One is a nice Moai and the other is more in the vein of a New Guinea style.

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Japanese Tea Garden Area at Children's Fairyland

Children's Fairyland has grown over the years and added many different folk tales to the park. One of my favorite is this Japanese Tea Garden with murals of various Japanese folk tales on the walls. The architecture is nice as well and creates a nice venue to have a party.

Monday, October 08, 2012

A Visit to Children's Fairyland Oakland

This past weekend I took a quick trip to the California Bay Area, visiting San Francisco and Oakland. In Oakland, I was a special guest to Children's Fairyland at Lake Merritt. The park is a fantastic experience and is a great park. The sets are fun and whimsical and much of the original park from the 1950's has been maintained and restored. I want to thank Children's Fairyland for the visit and to Randal J. Metz for the tour. If you have not purchased his book on Children's Fairyland, Creating a Fairyland you should look for a copy and buy it...one of the best books on a single park. The first picture is one of the giraffe lamp posts. Although no longer used as light poles, they still stand and add a touch of whimsy to the park.

Being a sign geek, I had to document the directional signs in place.

Outside of the wonderful Alice In Wonderland tunnels and maze is this pocket watch as left by the White Rabbit. The numbers are characters from the Lewis Carroll book.

One of the original sets is the crooked man, his crooked house and his crooked cat.

Thanks again to Children's Fairyland, my wife and I appreciated the visit.

Friday, October 05, 2012

Souvenir Friday- Walt Disney Character Parade Record

A cool souvenir from 1974 for a parade that was at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland. The parade was the Walt Disney Character Parade and featured the costumed characters parading down Main Street. A souvenir flexi disc that was meant to be mailed, a flexi postcard, was created with the music from the parade.

I tried to convert the record into digital, but my program is being a pain....

Thursday, October 04, 2012

More Disneyland Characters

The Totally Minnie parade used many obscure characters. First up is Sherrif John from Robin Hood.

Next up from the same film is Prince John.

This Pinocchio walk around character is really nice.

Final image for today are two Dwarves who finished the parade.

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Characters at the Park 1980s

Some nice portrait type photographs of various characters out and about at Disneyland. First up is a nice Snow White posing in front of the Main Street Gates near the American Egg House.

Next up is Tigger on Main Street.

One of the little pigs (I believe Piper Pig) marching in a parade.

Final shot is a goofy shot of Goofy.

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

America Sings

Late in it's run as an atraction, America Sings still makes me happy. The songs were fun, the theater moved and the AA figures are still fun as seen in Splash Mountain. These photographs all feature the singing groups. Enjoy this flash back to this spectacular Marc Davis designed attraction.

Monday, October 01, 2012

Golden Horseshoe Jamboree

These photographs are from the same mid-1980's photo album and feature the show that replaced the Golden Horseshoe Revue which is the Golden Horseshoe Jamboree. First up are a couple nice images of the can can dancers on the stage. Note that the backdrop was changed for this show.

Next up are two images of the lead Miss Lilly interacting with the audience.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Souvenir Friday- A Couple of Random Pieces

A couple of random souvenirs from the collection. First up is a nice unused train ticket for the Frontierland train. It is unusual to see a Child's unused ticket. Note that the ticket is for freight or cattle passage.

Next item to add a little color is a travel decal for the Disneyland Hotel. The graphic features the futuristic Monorail heading to the Hotel with the nice Disneyland Hotel sign.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Totally Minnie Parade- Part 2

Based upon the photographs, this was a very interesting parade. Minnie appears in her Flashdance (or Mousedance) outfit and look. She is definitely on a pedestal.

Some of the characters in the parade were ones not usually seen walking around, including this mouse from Cinderella. She must be sewing the Flashdance outfits for Minnie.

Next up a view of Chip and Dale as DeeJays spinning some wicked tunes.

Final image is of a dancing video, literally dancing videotape. I do have to say that the cans have nice legs.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Mariachi Band Casa Mexicana 1980s

The Gonzalez Trio expanded from the 1960s to a full size Mariachi band that played at Casa Mexicana. The photographer really enjoyed the band, snapping several photographs. Put on a classic Mariachi album and enjoy the photographs.