Monkeying Around at Disneyland

For a while Disneyland had an organ grinder and his monkey stationed at the Plaza to entertain the crowds. By the look of the kids faces in the photos, it was a definite hit. Images of the organ grinder monkey are pretty scarce, but have appeared on Daveland, Gorilla's Don't Blog and Perky Pickle blog images. Here are two more to add to the mix.

In this image, you can see a newspaper rack for the Disneyland News.

Here is a view from where the monkey played.

Spanish Village Art Center Balboa Park San Diego

Taking a little detour down to San Diego, here is a tourist attraction that still looks almost the same. The largest collection of studios and artists in San Diego. Originally created for the 1933 (edit- make that 1935) Fair as a recreation of a Spanish Village, the area was changed and filled with artists and craft artisans. If you head down to San Diego, you can see the village. But I do not think there is a Don's Taco there now. The poster in the first slide is for the 1958 San Diego Fair.

Don't worry, there will be more Disneyland tomorrow from the same collection of slides.

Main Street Station

For those fans of the beautiful Main Street Station, two views from 1968.

Small World Outside Facade 1968

Keeping with the Small World theme and the Rolly Crump theme, three images of the entire facade of the Small World attraction. The last shot is very nice with the green of the train (number 3 I believe) contrasting with the white of the building.

Souvenir Friday- New York World's Fair It's A Small World Patch

A rather scarce patch is the It's A Small World costume patch from the New York World's Fair. Worn by the cast members who worked for Disney and Pepsi Cola, the logo features a representation of Rolly Crump's Tower of the Four Winds.

Some Random Views from 1968

Here are some nice random views from the photographer in 1968. First up is the bird mobile from Enchanted Tiki Room. Always a difficult subject to photograph.

Next is a nice view of one of my favorite rides, Casey Jr. along with a roof top edge of Vintage Disneyland Tickets favorite structure, the Casey railroad station.

Finally, two nice view from the lost Peoplemover. The first is a view looking towards Fantasyland.

The next is a view showing the winding track of the Peoplemover, Autopia and the Monorail. This is one of my favorite images with the kinetic and colorful blobs of the Peoplemover cars.

A Trip on the Jungle Cruise 1968 Part 2

Continuing with the Jungle Cruise in 1968, here is the African Veldt with the herd of Zebras.

Right after the Veldt is my favorite scene, the lost safari. This scene has always brought a smile to my face, especially since the rhino will always get his point across in the end.

The end of the ride has Trader Sam, the Jungle's head salesman with a two for one special, two of his heads for one of yours.

I hope you enjoyed your ride on the Jungle Cruise.

A Trip on the Jungle Cruise 1968 Part 1

Today I start a quick two part post on the Jungle Cruise in 1968. Here is the line to get on the boats. Check out the groovy fashions on the kids in line.

The first site we see from the inside of our boat is the elephant god Ganesha.

Ganesha is at the entrance to the sacred elephant bathing pool with old this elephant taking a perpetual shower.

Before heading out the African Veldt, we meet one of the feared animals in the jungle, the African Bull Elephant.

Tomorrow the African Veldt and finish.

Dusk at Disneyland 1968

As the hot day settles into the warm evening, the crowds gather for the night time parade down Main Street. A wonderful time at Disneyland is dusk when the lights start to turn on and the air is warm and enveloping.

Rather than wait for the parade, let's ride my favorite ride, the Matterhorn.

Views from Town Square 1968

The person who snapped these images stood at the center of Town Square and took a photo of each side. This makes for a very nice documentation of how Town Square looked in 1968. Town Square was definitely a nice place to sit and relax. I realize Disneyland has removed many of the large trees that once shaded the middle of Town Square to increase the sight lines, but somehow it does not seem like a city park anymore. I also enjoy the fact that guests are sitting down and reading the Disneyland gate guides.

Night in Tomorrowland

Two nice dusk views of the new Peoplemover track in 1968. Along with most of you, I miss this ride as it was an enjoyable and relaxing way to see an overview of Tomorrowland. At night the lights and the action was very beautiful.

Souvenir Friday- Disneyland Railroad Patches

Continuing with the costume patches, here are two Disneyland Railroad patches as worn by the train engineers and firemen.

You Will Not Find Nemo On This Submarine Voyage

Kodak film stock, dated September 1968, Disneyland's Submarine Voyage. These are pictures of a ride you are about to take. The secret agent photographer managed to infiltrate the Motorboat Cruise and photographed the Submarine you will ride.

Once upon the ride, the agent was able to sneak a few photographs of the sea creatures.

Then the submarine will go even deeper, so deep that our operatives camera will not work.

Upon your exit, the agent was able to photograph how all those bubbles are created.

And not one sighting of Nemo, his dad or the annoying Dory.

Northwest Pacific Indians at Indian Village

One of the additions to Indian Village when Columbia Below Decks opened was a Northwest Pacific Indian series of totem poles and lodge house. It was not a popular photograph shot, so images of that part of the park can be difficult to find. Here are a couple, the first being one of the totem poles.

The second is of the lodge house with totem poles out front.

Boats on the Rivers of America

From the same grouping as yesterday are these four shots of the two boats on the Rivers of America. First up is the Mark Twain.

I like this shot taken from Indian Village. The large decoration on the pole really catches my eye.

The other ship is the Mighty Columbia. Here it is in dock.

And as it disappears around the bend.

Some Characters in Tomorrowland

Quick post today, Denver has some spring snow...here are a couple of characters having fun in Tomorrowland. Also check out the tour guide in the background.

A Little Follow Up

The first thing I want to post about today is to tell you all about a new DVD that has been released. The DVD is The Secret Tour of Disneyland featuring Lauren who takes you to many places in Disneyland and shows many of the secrets. Within the DVD are many of the images you have seen here, Daveland's, and Major Pepperidge's blog. My wife watched the DVD and enjoyed it immensely and I did learn one new secret hidden mickey. Click on the link above for purchasing information.

The next item is a follow up on the Dwarf's Mine Ride drawing I posted about a month ago.

I received an e-mail from Kevin Kidney with the following tale:

When I saw it this evening, my jaw hit the floor. You'll find this hard to believe - and maybe you'll even be slightly disappointed by the news - but the artist who drew that picture is ME! It's not from the 70s but specifically from December of 1989.
It's a long story, but the illustration was done for an article on "Early Disneyland" by Bob Jones. Bob was the model builder whiz-kid who is most remembered for his maquettes, clocks and puppet models used in making Pinocchio and Fantasia. In 1939/40 with Snow White, and soon Pinocchio, already in the Disney repertoire, Walt asked Bob and his brother Bill to help design an early type of "Disneyland" park to be built on a small piece of land adjacent to the new Burbank studio.
Bob suggested an idea to Walt that the park might include a little train ride which would pass through the Dwarfs' Mine from Snow White. During the six weeks that Bob and Bill were brainstorming ideas for the park, Bob had worked up a plan to make life-sized figures of the seven dwarfs which would perform simple movements operated by cams, and triggered to life by the approaching train. Apparently Walt liked the idea, and it planted the seed for the Disneyland dark rides to come. Of course, the little Burbank park never materialized, and sometime later Bob left the studio for a position at Lockheed engineering aircraft for the war effort. When Disneyland was being built in 1954, Walt contracted Bob to build the flying galleons for Peter Pan's Flight.
When I first moved out to California and started working as a designer at Disneyland in the mid-80s, I met and became close friends with Bob and his wife Margie who were living in Fullerton at the time. Because I was also a model builder and puppeteer, Bob and I really connected and we worked on several projects together, just for fun. He had a secret room in his den, literally behind a revolving bookcase, that he kept models and mementos of his work at Disney. He was an inspiring friend and so supportive of all the things I was doing back then.
One evening Margie was cooking dinner for us, and Bob relayed the story of designing the proto-Disneyland for Walt, and showed me a 20-page "article" he had been putting together. He had typed it all out by hand and had Scotch-taped some photographs to it as illustrations. He hadn't kept any of the drawings that he had done for the park, and so he asked me if I could sketch something to show his vision for the mine train tunnel. Back then I always had PrismaColor pencils with me and drew the picture from his description while we sat in his living room after dinner. I had no character reference with me and drew the whole scene from memory, which impressed Bob to no end. I recall he wanted me to put my signature on it, but I wasn't confident that the characters looked right and so I didn't.
Bob sent the article to Dave Smith at the studio archives in 1990, literally months before Bob passed away. I was devastated, but remained very close with Margie for several years until she also passed away. She was one of the dearest women I've ever known. Not long after Margie's passing, one of their sons submitted much of the art and models that Bob had saved to Howard Lowery Auctions, and I was really sad to see so many of Bob's things scattered out into the unknown. I'd completely forgotten about the dwarf illustration until you posted it!
Thanks Kevin for the drawing, the memory and the story and I am not disappointed at all. I now know I own an early Kevin Kidney drawing.