The 1981 Main St. Electrical Parade - Part 3 (And My 100th Post!)

This is my 100th post! Who would have thought it? I know that number is kind of small potatoes when compared to some of my fellow bloggers (see the links in the column on the right)...all of whom continue to inspire me very much! I will keep plugging along, and maybe someday I will reach post number 900 like Major Pepperidge of Gorillas Don't Blog!

This is the 3rd and final part of this series. Again, these photos are from an early 1980's souvenir photo album.


First up today, is the Pinocchio unit. The photo above is actually older than 1981. If you look closely, you can see the little frog band that used to sit in front of the whale/Monstro float. The music for this section used to be "The Briny Deep" from the movie, "Bedknobs and Broomsticks." I'm not sure when, but at some point prior to 1981, the frog band was replaced with Pinocchio and Gepetto standing on a raft, and the music was changed to "Give A Little Whistle" and "I've Got No Strings" from "Pinocchio." Sometime even later than that, two "Pleasure Island" floats were also added to this unit.

Not too many people remember these next two floats. They are from the movie, "The Fox and the Hound" and they only ran in the parade during the summer of 1981 when the movie was in it's original theatrical release. Widow Tweed drove her car while someone hidden inside the float operated a "Todd" puppet in the back portion of the car. Amos Slade (the hunter) drove his truck behind her and a person in a "Copper" costume stood and waved from the back of the truck. Is it just me, or does the head for the Widow Tweed costume look like it could have been adapted from an "America On Parade" costume? Remember the large dolls with the even larger heads?

If you look behind the hunter's truck, you will see the "It's A Small World" unit of the parade This unit included Small World dolls standing on a revolving carousel float. There were also guys dressed in gondolier costumes pushing miniature sections of the Small World facade. There was one more float to this unit that was kind of a conglomerate of icons from around the world. I remember a windmill and a large tiki.....and possibly a volcano. Does anyone out there have better memories of this unit....or photographs? To see photos of the updated Small World unit from Tokyo Disneyland's Electrical Parade, click here: New Small World Unit

Next, we have Pete and his dragon, Elliott. To see photos of Tokyo Disneyland's current version of Pete and Elliott, click here: New Pete's Dragon Unit

Last up today, we have the "To Honor America" float which still runs in the parade today. If you look closely, you can see red skyrockets. At a later date, miniature aerial fireworks were added above this float.

Whew! That does it for this series...and my 100th post. Post number 101, here I come!