Monday, July 26, 2010

Viewliner In The Sky & Second Anniversary!


While strolling the grounds of the Disneyland Hotel and checking out the soon to be removed waterfalls, I came across this artwork in the lobby of one of the hotel towers. There were two other pieces of concept art for Tomorrowland that I had previously seen either in books or in the Disney Gallery, but I had never seen this particular piece before. I wonder how long this "Viewliner on a monorail beam" concept was being considered before the final "Mark I" design came about?


Well that's it for today....sorry for such a short post! Oh, and today marks the second anniversary of my blog!

9 comments:

Daveland said...

Wow—The Viewliner might have had a longer life if it hadn't been for that ol' Monorail! Happy Anniversary!

The Viewliner Limited said...

Amazing concept art of my all-time favorite Disneyland attraction. I have never seen this before. Great post, much appreciated.

outsidetheberm said...

What an awesome piece of artwork. How has this never appeared in a book before? Wow.

Thanks for finding it.

Dan Alexander said...

Happy Second Anniversary! Looks like you celebrated with another great post!

Major Pepperidge said...

Whoa, that's pretty cool! I never knew that the Viewliner was considered for a beamway. Any idea if that artwork is by Herb Ryman?

TokyoMagic! said...

Major, there wasn't anything below or next to the painting to tell us the date or the artist's name, but now that you mention it...it sure does look like it could be Herb Ryman's work.

MIKE COZART said...

That artwork image of a Viewliner/monorail design appears on page 72 and 73 (big picture!!) of the Herbert Ryman book "A Brush with Disney" first published in October, 2000.

The same image appeared in several locations at the Disneyland Hotel in the early 90's when WED/WDI concept images were used to decorate. In 1992 me and a reluctant friend went thru the ENTIRE hotel (minus the guest rooms) and photographed these images--at the time most of them I had never seen before ---it was better than The Disney Gallery!! The monorail/viewliner appeared in hallway west of the Marina Tower's elevator lobby, and in two meeting rooms in the Bonita Tower!

My favorite DL HOtel "Gallery" was in the lower and upper hallways surrounding the Neon Cactus : about 20 pieces of WESTERN RIVER EXPEDITION concept art by Marc Davis, Mary Blair and possibly another artist!

MIKE COZART said...

CORRECTION: page 172 and 173!!

Herbert Ryman
MONORAIL (elevated Viewliner)
Acrylic and pen, 20"x40.5" c. 1958

TokyoMagic! said...

Thanks for the info, Mike! Somehow, I never managed to pick up the Herb Ryman book.

WOW, 20 pieces of Western River Expedition artwork? I hope you post some of that on your blog one day! WHY HAVEN'T THEY EVER BUILT THAT??? They should put it into at least ONE of the Disney parks. Hey Disney....put it into DCA and it might even make me "like" that park!

Ha, I had forgotten all about the Neon Cactus!