More Vintage Disneyland Ads & "Loose Ends" from Previous Posts (Knott's & Magic Mt., Too!) - Part 2

It's time for some more "loose ends"!  Loose ends are items relating to subjects, which I have already posted about in the past.

First up, is this "Pinocchio" record from my childhood.  I had originally thought about including this in my Walt Disney's Pinocchio "mega post" from last year.  However, I chose not to at the time, just because it wasn't "Disney's" version of Pinocchio.  I have since changed my mind, and it has now been added to that post.  The company that made this was "Cricket Records."  We had quite a few other children's records from this same company.  The record sleeve not only includes their logo/mascot in the upper left corner, but they were also able to incorporate him into the artwork, as "Jiminy Cricket."  I tried doing a search for the artist, Evon Hartmann, but nothing came up.

Next, we have this 1981 Disneyland ad, which was attempting to recruit people for jobs at the park.  "Immediate openings" were available.  This is the same year that I was hired for the park's Christmas parade.  The ad has now been added to my "I Was A Teenage Christmas Tree at Disneyland" post.

This 1979 ad was for the now defunct May Co. department stores.  A robot "inspired by" V.I.N.CENT from the Disney film, "The Black Hole," was going to be appearing at select May Co. locations.

I wish the text in the middle of the ad was a little more legible, but the dark background makes it difficult to read.  I'm going to attempt to transcribe the text:  "You could win this (one?) for your own.  V.I.N.CENT (Vital Information Necessary Central) is the star of the Walt Disney Productions science-fiction thriller "The Black Hole," opening December 21st at a theater (near you?) This limited edition V.I.N.CENT clone valued at $1,000, stands 3 feet high, not including the base.  He plays games, tells jokes, answers true, false, and multiple choice questions, and even plays cassette tapes.  And he could become a member of your family.  Just fill out the coupon in this ad, and bring it to the Children's Department of the May Company near you.  Then bring the kids to meet our V.I.N.CENT clone in person at the following stores."

I wonder who won this $1,000 "clone" of V.I.N.CENT, and if they still own it, today?  This ad has now been added to my Disney's "The Black Hole" (Mega Post!) post.

In November of 1984, some of the original Mouseketeers were appearing at Disneyland, as part of a month-long celebration for Mickey Mouse's birthday.  Pictured in the then-current publicity photo are, Bobby Burgess, Sherry Alberoni, Lonnie Burr, Sharon Baird, Cubby O'Brien, Tommy Cole, Don Grady, Darlene Gillespie, and Bonnie Lynn Fields.  I have now added this to my Mickey's Month at Disneyland post, where you can see the 1983 version of that free "Mouscercise" headband.  That year, the headbands were given to everyone entering the park.  One year later, they were apparently only given to children 12 and under.

I meant to include this Los Angeles Times review of Disneyland's Light Magic, in my "What Were They Thinking - Light Magic at Disneyland" post, from 2017.  When I originally read this unfavorable review, 27 years ago, I felt that my personal thoughts on the monstrosity that replaced the Main Street Electrical Parade, had been completely validated.  I didn't crop out the movie listings below the article, because I thought it might be interesting to see some of the films that were being released at that time.

This image of a Canon® shopping bag has now been added to my "Disney's Sam the Eagle & the 1984 Olympic Games" post.  The bag was given to me at the Consumers store, where I bought my very first 35 mm camera, back in 1985.  The Olympics were over, but the store was still using these themed merchandise bags for purchases of Canon products.

I posted this photo of the camera previously, along with the very first Disneyland photos I ever took with it.

And speaking of the Olympics....the 1984 Winter Games had been held in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.  That summer, Six Flags Magic Mountain opened their new "Sarajevo Bobsled" ride.  This advertisement and the following article, appeared in a Los Angeles Times advertising supplement.

I rode the Sarajevo Bobsled the summer that it debuted.  I remember it being a fun ride, but I was surprised that it was gone by the next time I visited the park.  It only lasted two summer seasons, and was then dismantled and moved to Six Flags Over Texas, where it opened as "Avalanche Bobsled."  It is still standing today, but now operates under the name "La Vibora" (The Viper).

For a comparison of what Knott's was doing that same summer of '84, here''s an advertisement and article from the same Los Angeles Times summer supplement.  Knott's was beating Disney to the punch, by unveiling their new teenage nightclub, "Studio K," one full year before Disney opened "Videopolis."  And Lucy's line about how "People can meet us in person......" was referring to the fact that the Charlie Brown and Lucy "walk-around" characters were making their debut that summer of '84.  When Camp Snoopy opened the previous summer, Snoopy was the only costumed Peanuts character at Knott's.

And Knott's was introducing the 8th edition of their summer ice spectacular, "Snoopy's Quest For The Gold," starring Olympic Silver Medalist, Dianne de Leeuw.

This ad from the summer 1984 issue of Vacationland magazine, depicts Snoopy dressed in athletic wear and donning three "Olympic" medals.  However, the Olympic themed ice show is not mentioned.

I've recently come across additional issues of the Knott's Berry Farm employee newsletter, The Berry Vine, from 1983.  These are related to Camp Snoopy, but are all dated prior to the opening of the new area.  These have now been added to my "Camp Snoopy - 40th Anniversary (Mega Post!)",  from June of 2023.

This first one is dated February 18, 1983.  The cover article is about the official press release by Knott's, announcing the addition of Camp Snoopy to the park.  It mentions how Snoopy had already been at Knott's since May of 1982, but only on a trial basis.  Knott's was now entering into a long-term contract with Snoopy's creator, Charles M. Schulz.

This next issue is dated March 11, 1983 and is about the construction of Camp Snoopy's scale model.  The model was on display just inside the park entrance, during the construction of Camp Snoopy.  It was built by Rick Bastrup and Richard Ferrin, of R & R Creative Amusement Design Inc.  Richard Ferrin had previously worked for Disney, and we recently saw a photo of him performing as a clown, in the 1981 version of Disneyland's Fantasy On Parade.

This cover article from May 20, 1983, is about the new "Grizzly Creek Lodge" restaurant in Camp Snoopy, and it's menu items.

There was an article in that same issue, about the filming of the first Camp Snoopy television commercial.  I posted the commercial in my Camp Snoopy post from last year.  The plot revolves around a family of four.  The kids dream about going to Camp Snoopy before it ever opens.  They rudely awaken their parents, to tell them about the "trip" they took to Knott's and all the things they did.  The dad tells them that they are seriously mental, and that there is no way that they could have visited Camp Snoopy, since it hasn't even opened yet.  The mom is played by Lucy Lee Flippin, who played Eliza Jane Wilder, the school teacher on "Little House On The Prairie," from 1979-1982.

I pointed this out in my original Campy Snoopy post, and it's also mentioned in the article....the commercial was filmed before construction on Camp Snoopy was completed.  For the shot of the "Cordelia K." steamboat (pictured above), the boat was lifted by a crane, and placed on the pond next to Jungle Island.  Even though the boat was originally intended to be relocated from the Knott's Lagoon area to Camp Snoopy (along with a new boat, the "Walter K."), she never made the move.  I have always wondered what happened to that plan.

I hope everyone enjoyed these additional "loose ends"!

 

A Vintage Disneyland Trip Report from February 20, 1985 (& A New Camera for Me!)

Picture it.....February, 1985.  I was leaving for Hawaii in just a few weeks, and I was determined to take some decent photographs on that upcoming vacation. For quite some time, I had not been very happy with the Disneyland photos I had been taking, with my brother's Kodak Instamatic camera and it's "110" film. (We have seen some of those pics posted here, in the past.) I really wanted to buy an "automatic" 35mm camera that would do everything for me, just like the ones I had seen Bruce Jenner and Cheryl Tiegs advertise on TV.

I went to a store called "Consumers," which was similar to Service Merchandise or Jewelcor, if anyone remembers those stores. They would only have one of each item out on display, and if you were going to purchase something, they would have to go bring it out from the stockroom.

The camera that I ended up purchasing, was the 35M Canon "Sure Shot" with auto focus.

Here is the cover of the camera's instruction manual:

I found the original store receipt, tucked inside the manual!

So, now I had a brand new 35mm automatic camera. I was very excited and I wanted to try out all of it's features right away, so the very next day, I went to Disneyland!

The park had already begun it's year-long 30th anniversary celebration.  This first shot that I took, shows one of the 30th anniversary "tents," which were set up in front of the ticket booths. Below them, various GM cars were out on display. The promotion for the 30th anniversary was "It's our birthday, but you get the gifts." That year, they were giving away a GM car to every 30,000th guest who walked through the gates.

Notice the old Disneyland parking lot in the background. And is that a boat strapped to the roof of a van on the left? It looks like something is also strapped to the van on the right, but I can't make out what it is. The Grand Hotel can also be seen in the distance. That hotel was eventually imploded and I believe that site is now a parking lot for Disney cast members.

The "Gift Giver Extraordinaire" machine had been installed at the park's entrance. It kept track of the number of guests passing through the turnstiles. For every 30th guest that passed through, an alarm went off and a light bulb lit up at that particular turnstile. The guest was then awarded a prize. As I mentioned above, some of those prizes were cars. We'll see some of the other prizes in just a minute.

The turnstiles also produced a ticket for each and every guest, letting them know what number guest they were, and whether or not they had won a prize. This was my ticket for the day, which reads, "Sorry No Win."  It was also letting me know that I was the park's 242,206,833rd guest!

This was the Disneyland Guidebook for that day:

I don't seem to have an entertainment guide from that same day, but here is one from about a month later:

And here is a list of the various prizes, which were awarded to guests:

An "Official Birthday Party" was held daily:

This is the button which was included in the "Birthday Party" price of $2.50.  It was exclusive to the guests who paid for the birthday party package. The button shown at the very beginning of this post, was smaller in diameter and could be purchased in various souvenir shops throughout the park.

I just had to take a picture of the train engineer, since he was so friendly and waving to us from up above. I'm glad that the Global Van Lines lockers building can be seen through the archway, because I don't have any other personal photos of it. I have never liked the building/facade that replaced it. In my opinion, it never matched the rest of the architecture on Main St. It's really too bad they didn't just leave the facade of that original building, when they expanded the Emporium into that space.

I climbed the steps up to the train station, to get this pic of Town Square with the Castle in the distance. Of course, if you try to "center" the photo, then the flag pole will block the Castle, so you have to step to one side. Notice the special signage and bunting on the lampposts. This was for the park's "Salute to American Heroes" promotion. Each sign had a different hero on it. The one closest to us and on the right, is John F. Kennedy.  The one on the left is, Ronald Reagan.  To see close-up shots of these signs, taken just about two weeks later, check out this post from Major Pepperidge and "Lou and Sue," over at Gorillas Don't Blog. 

Back in the day, the free Disneyland guidebooks would state that "It's A Small World" was the only attraction, where flash photography was allowed. We went on the attraction that day, so I could test out the camera's built-in flash.

Two years earlier (in 1983), while the "New Fantasyland" was still under construction, many of the Tomorrowland cast members were telling us that Tomorrowland was going to be the next "land" to be completely remodeled. Because of this, I decided that I better start documenting it on film. That is the reason for this shot of the Mission To Mars facade. I probably should have waited for that PeopleMover vehicle in the distance, to come a little closer!

Even though plans were obviously changed, and Tomorrowland did not get remodeled for many more years, Adventure Thru Inner Space was rumored to be closing at the end of the year, for a brand new attraction. For this reason, I tried (in vain) to capture several of the scenes within the ride.

This first one didn't turn out too bad, I guess. The only thing missing here, is the projection of the smaller snowflake, rotating in the center of the larger three-dimensional snowflake. The projection ended up being "washed out" by the camera's flash. I know, I know....that's what I get for using a flash inside the attraction!

I also tried to capture the wall of "vibrating" water molecules; "What are these strange spheres? Have I reached the universe of the molecule? Yes, these are water molecules, H2O! They vibrate in such an orderly pattern, because this is water, frozen into the solid state of matter!"

The molecules in this part of the ride, were behind a two-way mirror (and I believe they were also in front of another mirror, which helped create the effect that they went on forever). Unfortunately, the bright camera flash was reflected back in the mirror. I know, I know......don't say it! But at least one of the molecules showed up in the photo (upper left corner).

This is the part of the ride when the vehicles, or "atomobiles," would pass by the eyepiece of the microscope and riders would see a giant eyeball looking back at them. As the eye shifted back and forth, riders would hear the narrator state, "There is no cause for alarm! You are back on visual and returning to your normal size!" I LOVED everything about this attraction, but the giant eyeball was my favorite part! Unfortunately, the flash from the camera reflected on the piece of glass in front of the eye and blocked out most of it. I know.....I KNOW!

I took this pic of the Atomobiles in the unloading room, just as a PeopleMover car was passing by. The hourglass-shaped structure on the other side of the Atomobiles, was at one time, a giant floor-to-ceiling "rain lamp." Rather than try to give my own description of what a "rain lamp" is, here's the definition from Wiktionary: "A type of lamp, popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s, that moves droplets of water or oil along filaments, to create the illusion of falling rain." Disney turned off the oil on their lamp, sometime in the 1970s.

That's it for the photos I took that day. Well, actually, I placed the camera on top of a trash can, in order to test the automatic timer. It worked and I got a decent photo of myself and a friend, but there wasn't anything very interesting in the background. And since I would have to place white ovals over our faces, I decided to leave that one out!

As an added bonus, here is the GM flyer, which was being handed out at that General Motors car display, in front of the park:

 

 

And one last item.....in addition to the prizes awarded to every 30th guest, all winners were given one of these buttons:

 

 

I hope everyone enjoyed this trip back to 1985!

Sears Christmas Catalog / Wish Book & Pooh - 1972

In 1972, the Sears Christmas Catalog (or "Wish Book," as they used to call the Christmas version of their catalog), featured the characters from Disney's "Winnie the Pooh."

Not only were the characters on the cover of the catalog, but they were also on the first several pages, along with stories of what Christmas was like for children in various countries around the world.

First up was Holland:

Spain:

Italy:

Sweden:

Germany:

Mexico:

Let's go back to those pages with the Sesame Street puppets. I had that Roosevelt Franklin Puppet (and the Ernie and Big Bird too). My brother had Bert and the Cookie Monster (and also Oscar the Grouch and Grover, which aren't pictured). We briefly saw Roosevelt Franklin on the Sesame Street float in my 1971 Rose Parade post, back in January of 2017. Roosevelt Franklin was the first black-influenced Muppet and was co-created by Jim Henson and Matt Robinson, who played the role of "Gordon" on Sesame Street.

My brother and I still have all of our old Sesame Street puppets. Here is what my Roosevelt Franklin puppet looks like today:

Out of all of the original boxes that the puppets came in, the one for Roosevelt Franklin, is the only box that managed to survive. And incidentally, he didn't come from Sears. The top of the box still has it's original "Gemco" price tag of $5.19!

It's interesting for me to go through this catalog now and see what other items my brother and I had, and in some cases, still have. My brother had both the Pinocchio marionette and Danny O'Day ventriloquist dummy, shown below. He even had the ventriloquism instructional record that is listed on the same page (but not shown).

Here is a shot of my brother playing with his Pinocchio marionette on Christmas morning. I still have that stuffed Santa Claus visible in the background and that red wagon (which had "SEARS 300" painted on the side of it). I wish we still had that portable record player!

And here is my brother the following year, with his Danny O'Day ventriloquist dummy.

I remember him listening to this record and trying to master "Instant Ventriloquism."

I had the Disney "Shaker Maker" figure set, pictured below. And my brother had the "Cool Cast Very Scarys." In fact, he got that at the same time that I got my Roosevelt Franklin puppet. I remember we were both playing with our new toys and some of his "RUBBERGOO" accidentally shot out of the squeeze bottle and landed on Roosevelt Franklin's shirt. Even though there was an attempt to wash it out, it left a stain that is still detectable today!

For the Shaker Maker figures, you added water to the provided powder mixes and mixed them in sort of a plastic cocktail shaker. The character mold was down inside the shaker, so after shaking you just turned it over and let the mixed material partially dry, before pulling the mold apart.

After the figure dried, you could paint them....or like the side of the box says, "Paint Like Wild!" What does that mean?

The original instruction sheet even managed to survive all these years.

"Over 5 million little girls have learned how Kenner's Easy-Bake Oven earned it's name!" What about all the boys, huh? How about some non-gender-specific advertising? Okay, okay...it was the seventies. And no, I didn't have one of these Easy-Bake Ovens! However, I did have an "Incredible Edibles" gummy candy maker. The metal cooker was sort of in the shape of a flying saucer and it would get REALLY hot. When I ran out of the gel that was used to make the candy, my mom took me to the local "Karl's Toys" store to purchase refills, but we were told that it had been discontinued, because too many kids were burning themselves on the metal cooker. I never got burned! It had a big plastic knob on top to open the lid and plastic tongs for lifting the metal candy molds out. I'll have to post some pics of it in the future.

Anyway....I did have the Hasbro "Frosty Sno-Man" sno-cone maker, pictured below the Easy-Bake Oven.

And here is what it looks like today.

The catalog featured many Pooh-themed items for children:

I was given the Winnie The Pooh "Grab Bag Game" (pictured below) for my 5th birthday.

In this late 1960's/early 1970's picture taken inside of a Sears store, the sign for the Catalog Sales desk can be seen on the far wall. Other interesting things to note in the photo, are the cameras in the glass case, and the typewriters on display just beyond the cameras. What's a typewriter?

If we zoom in, we can see Polaroid's "Big Swinger" camera on sale for $9.88, and there are movie projectors in the glass case below them. There are also greeting cards visible off to the right, in the stationary department. At one time, Sears sold almost EVERYTHING! There is also a sign in the background for "Karnival Korner," which was a snack counter that sold hot dogs, soft-serve ice cream, large pretzels and Icee's. Popcorn and warm nuts were sold over at the candy counter, which would have been located directly behind the person who took this photo.

And for anyone who's interested, here is what the Sears candy counter looked like. This photo was taken around Easter time. Notice the Easter baskets, plush bunnies and other furry critters for sale!

We will end today, with the back cover of the 1972 Sears Christmas catalog. The Kenmore (Sears' brand) appliances were available in "Tawny Gold" and "Avocado" for only $5.00 more than the standard "White." My mom's appliances were all "Avocado" green....and so was our shag carpet!

Happy holidays, everyone!

*****POST UPDATE*****

While looking around on ebay, I came across the same Hasbro Frosty Sno-Cone Machine that I had, still in it's original sealed box! The seller states that it is "Old Stock" and is asking a "Buy It Now" price of $399! (It can be found here, if anyone is interested: New/Sealed - In Original Box)

Someone else is selling a used one, but with it's original box, for $115! (That one can be found here: Used - In Original Box)