I have been using the app Dubsmash a lot lately with some other Disneyland fans. For those that don’t know, Dubsmash is an app full of movie and song quotes and you can lip sync to them and send them to your friends.
We noticed there were NO Walt Disney or Disneyland quotes so we started uploading them — a LOT of them. Maybe I’ll share them here one day, but while looking for famous Walt Disney quotes to add to the site, I came across this gem:
Not sure if this is well-known in the Disney community, but this is Walt’s last interview and it was in September of 1966 just as he was preparing production of “The Happiest Millionaire.” He sounds great here! It’s from a South African radio program and Walt’s interview starts after the musical introduction at 6:25.
They talk about Mary Poppins, The Sherman Brothers, and even a little about Disneyland in this short but fun interview. It’s terrible that this was his last interview and he would pass away not 3 months later. He was a legend of not only his day but into today and beyond.
Take a listen to this interview sometime and imagine a world where radio programs sounded like this, Walt Disney was still a living legend, and the Disney company, while a mega-giant in its time, was relatively new and still finding its place in the world.
What a guy!
For fun, here’s one of our Dubsmash clips:
Pardon the audio quality, it’s the best version of the clip I could find.
For “Throwback Thursday” this week, we decided to go WAY back to 2010!
In 2010, we got to visit Club 33 — FINALLY! We are so glad we did, looking back, because we were able to see the game room and the original entry way from when it opened. Both are now gone with last year’s refurbishment.
Take a look at our photos from that trip here. Do you have some favorite photos? Let’s seem them below!
This is a re-blog written by our friend Inthia over at This Little Disney Life about the recent (and, unfortunately, now closed) “Story of Disneyland” exhibition and sale at the Van Eaton gallery in Sherman Oaks, CA. Here’s a slide show of the photos we took when we went to visit the gallery last week:
Today is the last day to set your eyes on one of the most amazing Disneyland memorabilia collections that is completely up for auction at Van Eaton Gallery in Sherman Oaks, Ca. If you’re out of the area, they have a wonderful online catalog for your viewing pleasure.
We made the short drive over to check out the exhibit last week and it did not disappoint. Well, only in that I can’t afford a thing there. Well, I could but then I wouldn’t be able to pay rent or eat or anything trivial like that.
The galley is held in two room but it packed wall to wall with all sorts of artifacts. Costumes, signs, furniture, concession containers, souvenirs, models and more! All of them amazingly displayed for my up-close and personal viewing.
I picked out a few awesome favorites to share here but there is soooo much. I know I’ll be hitting up some flea markets and eBay this summer.
Nothing is better than going through your parents’ or grandparents’ home movies and seeing real film footage of your family. The places, the fashions, the friends long forgotten. I got this chance when my grandfather asked me to go through some old home movies and cut a nice reel together. When I came across this footage from Disneyland in the early 1970’s, I had to share!
No, that’s not an Instagram filter in the featured image for this post! That is a still-frame from a file I made from a DVD that I copied from a VHS that was made from an 8 or 16mm film reel my grandpa had. That’s a lot of generations, literally and digitally, to go through but the footage is still great looking!
I have narrowed this down to what I believe is the summer of ’73 because of the age of my uncle (who cannot remember the year exactly), the Main Street Electrical Parade, Prince John of Robin Hood in the parade, and the flag bunting garland on the light poles on Main Street. I was unable to find out when Bank of America stopped sponsoring It’s a Small World but I thought that might also help narrow it down.
Well, yesterday was the highly anticipated Disney24 event “One More Disney Day.” Disneyland Park in Anaheim, CA and The Magic Kingdom at WDW in Florida were open from 6am on the 29th of February to 6am this morning for the leap year… and we have questions.
Did you get in?
We here at RSP tried, like much of the rest of Southern California, to go for the night after work yesterday and we were met by gridlocked traffic and a lot of “shave and a haircut” horn-tooting with other frustrated Disneyland hopefuls. Since we had to work both yesterday and today, we planned to head down after work for a few hours, have some dinner, catch the 1am Fantasmic! show with some friends, and head home around 2am. We, however, sat in 3 hours of traffic while – on the resort grounds – a worse picture was being painted by the twitterspere.
photo credit: @btr0n
Long lines, capacity signs, and the almighty APs all met for a pow-wow in the esplanade between DCA and Disneyland at 8pm and it never seemed to die down from there. Ticket booths were packed, cell phones were dying, and, as I can imagine, people were really upset. “One More Disney Disaster” was a potential headline thrown out by a few Disney-fan twitter feeds. Had we planned on staying until 6am, we may have stuck it out, but it was 11:15 and we hadn’t crossed Ball Rd. yet after exiting the 5.
Not everyone was waiting in 3 hours of traffic though. “[We got there at] 11:50pm. Took [an] hour to park. We bypassed the [trams] and walked to the park. My pass was scanned in around 1:10am” says annual passholder Tiffany B. “Would I do it again? Probably not. Its been crossed off my to do list.” Jenene C. from Los Angeles said, “I got there at 9 o’clock tuesday night… we waited outside for about 9 hours. The only real problem was with the charging lockers. [They] malfunctioned and people’s phones were stolen.”
Why wasn’t DCA open?
photo credit: @CharlieSpillers
I just don’t understand what the logic here was? Perhaps it was a staffing shortage to have both parks fully staffed for 24 hours straight with normal operating park days bookending the event, but one would think one would have planned for that when planning an event of this magnitude. One park guest said, “The real insanity started after 7pm a lot of people came after they got off work to stay the night, the wait times more than doubled in a matter of minutes…” This is when DCA closed and just as all the APs and SoCal residents coming straight from work descended upon the resort. Keeping DCA open just makes sense. From what I read, people were left in the esplanade with nowhere to go but home while waiting for the chance of the park to re-open to first-entry guests.
And by many accounts, the ticket booths were still crowded at 2am! Everyone wanted to take part in the promotion whether it was for a few hours or the entire 24 hours and whether they were APs or not.
Why did we all want to go?
photo credit: ocregister.com
This isn’t something new — at least it wasn’t for me. In fact, I remember when the #disney24 tweets started and there was a great video promotion and whispers of a great announcement. Robert tells me, “They think there’s going to be a 24 hour party at Disneyland.” To which I responded, “That’s the stupidest promotion I have ever heard of.” Cut to: 2 months later, I am sitting in 3 hours of traffic only to turn around and go to In-n-Out in La Mirada, CA. What was the draw? I wasn’t excited about any of the mercy or food or pins, I just wanted to go to Disneyland overnight. But where have I heard of that before?
Oh yeah, Gradnight. High school, people! Still, Tiffany B. says of one of the highlights “…it was awesome to see the sunrise from the park!” But Disneyland also did a similar event when Star Tours opened in 1987 — the park was open for a full 60 hours just so guests could ride the new attraction.
So if we all have passes, go to Disneyland whenever we want, and for the most part have been to Gradnight or Disneyland at night, what was the draw? The merchandise? Why did we all feel the need to take part in this event which, for some, was so disastrous? Some guests weighed in on the subject. “it wasn’t worth the hype, just like a crowded Disneyland trip that started at 1a versus 5pm”, “it doesn’t seem like they were prepared enough for the huge crowds”, “people began to clear out of the park after [Fantasmic!] at 1am then again around 4am by 6am there weren’t that many people left in the park for the sunrise over the castle.”
But to some, it was a different story. “It was something different to experience.”
What was open and what was closed?
photo credit: ocregister.com
I haven’t been able to get a solid answer on this one yet. One of our biggest peeves with the park here at RSP is how early the restaurants close. Last night, we were to meet up with friends at the Café Orleans for a 12:20am “breakfast” which was awesome to be able to go to eat that late in the park — but what else was open and what was closed?
One of our friends in the park said, “They should have kept more food places open because the ones that were open had very long lines for them as well.”
Was all the hustle and bustle worth it?
photo credit: @MousePlanetAVP
Among the list of offerings from the park for this event were special edition mouse ears, a t-shirt, sweatshirt, watch, pin, and food stops. With all that said, it seems a majority of the people came after all of these offerings were gone. “In all my time at Disneyland for this event seems much like a very crowded summer day at the park.” says Alexandria who drove to the park that evening to only get in after 1:30am. “Was it worth it for me to go? Sure!… [however] I would have to pass [on] any kind of future event like this. I’ll just stick to going on Sundays during the fall/winter with my pass.”
“I don’t feel like they focused on making people happy because I don’t think anybody enjoys being at the park when it’s that crowded.” says Michelle H. who travelled to the park from the Santa Clarita Valley. “I don’t think it was worth it at all. I wouldn’t go again.”
The most consistent take-away we got from the 10-or-so people? “Any cast member I interacted with were quite friendly.” It’s their job and even with all the craziness, they should all be commended. I am sure the angry crowds outside didn’t make it easy to wear a smile all night.
Were you there? Did you try to go but gave up? How did it go for you?
I love park maps. During the 50th and even a few years after, there was a influx of great park maps. I would always eagerly await and collect these new maps as they came out. Then they did the “Year of a Million Dreams” promotion and the park maps took a turn for the worse. And there’s nothing terribly wrong with them but they almost never change and when they do, none of the designs are as good or creative as they were during the “Happiest Homecoming” celebration.
Then we have these classic park maps. These are maps of a park that many of us Disneyland bloggers never got to see. Sure, there are pictures and even old film strips from those early years but these hand-drawn park maps have a level of detail and care that you just don’t see anymore.
I could look at this all day — and I probably will. But I thought I would share this park map from 1962 posted by Flickr user Wishbook who has a ton of other great park maps. Check him out!
1962 Park Map
CLICK HERE to see a high-res version of the park map and download it as well!
I love Disneyland history. Recently, Disney Parks Blog posted this amazing look back at the construction and creation of one of the park’s flagship and most iconic ride:
This picture was one of my favorite shots from the piece:
A rare look at the creation of the home of "the wildest crew that ever sacked the Spanish Main"
I had never seen a photo quite like this one before and it’s shots like these that really excite me. If I were a kid back in the 1960s, this would have been the cornerstone of the Disneyland trip’s photo album. I have a lot of photos of the creation of Ariel’s Undersea Adventures, World of Color, and the Finding Nemo Submarines.
What are some of your favorite ride construction photos?
In May of 2005, Disneyland started its celebration for their 50th anniversary. To start the event, Disneyland had a press day where Disneyland was closed to the public. Fortunately for me, Disney decided to let a few select annual passholders attend and my Dad won tickets!
My Dad and I arrived to Disneyland early in the morning and Main St. was lined with gold carpet. Press and media were lined up and down Main St. getting ready for the day of festivities, which would soon include big time movie stars!
Once we made our way off of Main St., Disneyland was basically to ourselves. Since it was a press and media day, no one was riding rides, but they were still open. The first ride my Dad and I decided to go to was the Jungle Cruise. Since we were alone and had our own boat, the Jungle Cruise skipper let me “skip”! Boy was that thrilling!
Walking around the park was so exciting not only for the fact that we were alone, but because there were many new things to see to celebrate the anniversary. Throughout the park, rides and attractions had 50th anniversary logos on their facades. There were 50 of them in total and many of them were displayed in extremely creative ways.
Another unique thing Disney did to celebrate was to mark which attractions were there from the beginning. Each attraction which opened in July of 1955 had a bit of gold painted somewhere on it. Here is an example of the golden entrance to “Snow White’s Scary Adventures”.
After riding a few rides, my Dad and I headed back to Main St. and we saw Tim Allen preparing for the dedication of Disneyland’s newest attraction, “Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters”!
Disneyland closed that day around 5:00pm to get ready for its celebrity infested golden anniversary kick off. My Dad and I left having spent an incredible and magical day at Disneyland. The whole experience was very special to me and it is something I will never forget.
