The 1966 Rose Parade - Part 5

We have been working our way backwards through the 1966 Rose Parade. This is the second to the last post in the series. Tomorrow's post will include Walt Disney himself, Mickey Mouse, Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Pinocchio, Mary Poppins and the Disney version of Cinderella (see the second photo below for the non-Disney version.)

First up today is, the 1966 Rose Parade Queen and her royal court.


Next....a non-Disney version of Cinderella riding inside of the Huntington-Sheraton Hotel's float entitled, "Cinderella Returning From The Ball."


Below, is San Francisco's float entitled, "Osaka - Sister City."

Next we have an Apollo space capsule that appears to have just landed on an alien planet. This entry belonged to the City of South Pasadena and was entitled, "It IS A Small World."

Last up today, is Dr. Pepper's float, "The Land Of Oz."

The 1966 Rose Parade - Part 4

This is Part 4 in a 6 part series on the 1966 Rose Parade. Once again, the theme was "It's A Small World" and the grand marshal that year was Walt Disney. Check back on New Year's Day for a photo of Walt and Mickey riding in the parade.

First up today....Cal. State Poly's float, "It's A Child's World."


Next we have the City of Los Angeles' float entitled, "June in January."

Below, is the Union Oil Co.'s float, "The Old Swiss Clock" Note the large fork and knife and the plate of Swiss cheese with a rat poking it's head out through one of the holes. Weird!

The City of Long Beach, California sponsored this float entitled, "Marco Polo Returns From The City of Cathay."

And last up today is British Columbia's float, "A Royal Welcome - Centennial 1966."

Stay tuned....only 2 more days of the parade remaining. Tomorrow's floats will include The Land of Oz, Cinderella, and a visit to an alien planet via an Apollo space capsule.....after all, it was 1966!

The 1966 Rose Parade - Part 3

We continue with our next installment of the 1966 Rose Parade. The theme: "It's a Small World." The grand marshal: Walt Disney.

The first float is from the City of Alhambra, California and is entitled, "Gator-A-Go-Go." Groooovy!

Next, we have floral butterflies on the front and back of the Chevy/Division of GM float. This one is entitled, "World Of Roses."

Below, is the Occidental Life Insurance Company's float entitled, "Boys Day in Japan." For more information on what Boys Day was (it is now called Children's Day), click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodomo_no_hi


The Florist's Transworld Delivery Association's float was called, "Gift to the World."

And the last one for today, is the Bakery and Confectionery Workers Union float with the title, "A Small World of Sugar and Spice."

The 1966 Rose Parade - Part 2

We continue today with the 1966 Rose Parade. Again, the theme was, "It's A Small World" and Walt Disney was the grand marshal. We are working our way backwards through the parade and will end this series on New Year's Day with photos of Walt Disney, as well as the Disney Studio's float.

First up, we have the Negro Rose Parade Committee's float entitled, "The World of Culture."

Below, is the Salvation Army's float, "No Man Is An Island."


The American Trucking Association's float is next. The title of this float was, "A World of Music - Swan Lake."

Redondo Beach's float was entitled, "Mexican Fiesta In Early California."

And last we have the Al Malaikah Temple with their entry, "Love Makes The World Go Around."

Again, I will be posting every day from now until New Year's Day with more photos from this parade. Coming up......Cinderella, The Land of Oz, Mary Poppins, and Go-Go girls!

The 1966 Rose Parade - Part 1

What do Walt Disney, Mexico City, Go-Go dancers and The Land of Oz all have in common? They were all part of the 1966 Rose Parade! I thought I would take a break for a while and post on something other than Tokyo Disneyland. I've been going through family photos and slides and came across these shots from the 1966 Rose Parade. The parade's grand marshal that year was Walt Disney (along with Mickey Mouse) and the theme of the parade was, "It's A Small World". At that time, the It's A Small World attraction had already entertained millions of visitors to the 1964/65 New York World's Fair and was scheduled to open later that year at Disneyland in Anaheim.

First up today is "Peacock Throne", which was a float sponsored by the City of Glendale, California.

Next, we have Fess Parker as Davy Crockett standing on the National Rifle Association's Float, entitled "Land of the Free, Home of the Brave". I like the miniature Cherry trees in bloom around the model of the Capitol Building.

Below, we have the National Orange Show's float entitled, "All Aboard."

Next, is Rotary International's float entitled, "A Closer World Through Rotary."

The last entry for today is Mexico's float, promoting the New National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. I wonder if that giant disc at the front of the float is a calendar and if so, I wonder if it goes beyond the year 2012?

I will continue to post photos from this parade up until New Year's Day.....ending with the Disney Studio's float and the parade's grand marshal, Walt Disney himself!

Christmas On Main Street

Perhaps I should have called today's post "Christmas in World Bazaar", since that is what Tokyo Disneyland's "Main St." is called. Tokyo's Christmas tree gets placed in the intersection of World Bazaar, where "Center St." and "Main St." cross.

To view non-seasonal photos of Tokyo Disneyland's World Bazaar, click here: World Bazaar

The Plaza area begins at the end of World Bazaar and it is HUGE! The photos from my last post showed the Christmas figures from 2006 that were in the center of the Plaza. The figures above and in the two photos below are also from 2006, but these were located just at the end of World Bazaar. For non-seasonal photos of Tokyo Disneyland's Plaza, click here: Tokyo Plaza

Note the Walt and Mickey statue behind the Pooh characters in the photo below. Oh, and once again....all of these figures are replaced with completely new figures every year. I wish Anaheim would inherit some of Tokyo's hand-me-downs!

Christmas In Tokyo Disneyland

Today's photos are from the 2006 Christmas season at Tokyo Disneyland. As with Halloween, several character vignettes are set up throughout the Plaza at Christmas. See a Halloween comparison shot here: Plaza At Halloween. These figures and sets are completely different every year. The costumes on the Plaza figures usually reflect what the park characters are wearing in the Christmas parade each year, as well as the theme for that year's Christmas merchandise.

The theme in 2006 featured the "fab five" caroling while dressed in sort of a Dickens attire.

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Peter Pan and Tinkerbell were also featured in the Plaza......

....and while Peter Pan isn't included on the postcard below, he and Tinkerbell were both featured on other 2006 Christmas merchandise such as plates, mugs, ornaments, etc.

Holiday Haunted Mansion Ride-Thru (Part 6)

This is the last post of my Tokyo Holiday Haunted Mansion series! The first two pics are from the graveyard and they look like they could be right out of Anaheim's holiday version. The only difference....the giant pumkin angel in the photo below actually has a blast of air come out of his horn as you pass under it. Anaheim's is lacking the air effect.

Next, we enter the crypt and see Lock, Shock and Barrell popping up out of packages in the spot where the hitchhiking ghosts normally stand. In Anaheim's holiday version, this is where Oogie Boogie stands and spins his wheel. Anaheim originally had a different scene in this spot before Oogie Boogie was added. (That scene can be viewed here over at Davelandweb.com). Remember, Anaheim's Haunted Mansion Holiday attraction has had some changes made to it since that first year that it debuted. Another major difference was that they did not originally use the Danny Elfman music on the soundtrack. I believe that was because in the first year, there was a problem securing the rights to his score.

After seeing Lock, Shock and Barrel, the Doombuggies pass by the mirrors that would normally have the illusion of the hitchhiking ghosts riding with the guests, but for the holiday version, Lock, Shock and Barrell are seen reflected in the mirrors. Beyond that, the Doombuggies continue on and pass beneath "Little Leota" (non-holiday version) or "Little Sally"(holiday version). This is similar to the scene that guests see while exiting up the Speedramp in Anaheim's Mansion. In Tokyo and Florida, the Doombuggies ride through an extended crypt setting and actually ride underneath a ledge containing the miniature scene. After this scene, the Doombuggies then enter the unloading area.

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I hope everyone enjoyed the tour of Tokyo's Holiday Haunted Mansion. Over the next couple weeks, I will continue posting other holiday photos from Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea.

Holiday Haunted Mansion Ride-Thru (Part 5)

This is the second to the last installment on Tokyo Disneyland's holiday version of the Haunted Mansion....one more post and we'll be done! Once again, these scenes are almost identical to Anaheim's holiday version. Jack Skellington (as Sandy Claws) and his dog Zero replace the graveyard's night watchman and watchdog. This is Tokyo's second fully audio-animatronic Jack Skellington. The first one was seen in part one of this series of posts.

The singing busts are covered up for the season with singing jack o' lanterns.

A flying reindeer skeleton holds a tray of drinks in it's mouth.

Check back tomorrow for the final post in this series featuring the last of the Graveyard scenes as well as the Crypt where we'll see who (or what) replaces the Hitchhiking Ghosts in the Tokyo version. We will then move on to other Christmas happenings in the park.

Holiday Haunted Manison Ride-Thru (Part 4)

Today's photos are from the attic scene of "The Haunted Mansion Holiday Nightmare" at Tokyo Disneyland.

Tokyo's attic is almost identical to Anaheim's holiday version. The train on the chewed-up track is included, as well as the toy duck with the bloody bullet holes (sorry, I don't have a photo of him). The exception here would be the "naughty and nice" list that the snake is eating. Tokyo's list includes some Japanese names. I am assuming poor little "Eiichi" won't be getting anything from Santa this year since he has a little skull and crossbones next to his name. Or does that mean he is the only one on the list that WILL be getting a present?

Upon exiting the attic, guests encounter Scary Teddy chewing on a string of Christmas lights. As he bites down on it, sparks fly from his mouth. Anaheim has this same scene, but the placement of Scary Teddy is different....he is sitting on a branch over the Doombuggies, instead of off to the side.

As a side note, Tokyo's non-holiday version does not have the updated bride that Anaheim and Florida have.....fortunately! I say that because, while the idea probably looked good on paper, I don't think it works in the finished product. The effect looks too phony. The projection of Madame Leota in the crystal ball works because her face is projected onto a three dimensional head. I noticed the last time that I saw the new bride, that her face is not three dimensional, it's flat. I think this adds to the lack of realism because there is no "depth" to the features of her face. It's the same thing with her arms, they are just a "flat" projection. They may as well be showing her on a television screen!

In tomorrow's post, we'll head on down into the Graveyard scenes!

Holiday Haunted Mansion Ride-Thru (Part 3)

Today we will look at the Seance Room in the holiday version of Tokyo Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. The only real difference between Anaheim's and Tokyo's version is that the wall behind Madame Leota shows Lock, Shock and Barrel peeking into the room through a window. Madame Leota's spiel is identical in both versions. Part of a floating fortune card can be seen in the photo above. This year, Tokyo DL sold replicas of these in the form of playing cards and also as note cards. Below are scans of all the fortune cards that hang in the Seance Room. Sorry, they were scanned out of order.....reading from right to left instead of left to right. I just didn't want to go back and rescan them all again!

-On the thirteenth day of Christmas, my ghoul love gave to me, thirteen rings of power, embracing strength that never ends.

-Twelve signs of the zodiac that rule the future and transcend.

-Eleven candles floating. Their scent of mystery in the air.

-Ten telling tea leaves that (unintelligible) with secrets yet to share.

-Nine magic crystals that sparkle with a force that is pure.

-Eight Balls of knowledge that answer with a truth that is sure.

-Seven pearls of wisdom to keep my love bewitched to me.

-Six mystic mirrors reflecting futures yet to be.

-Five lucky charms to understand the right from wrong.

-Four wheels of fortune to spin their rich and golden song.

-Three life lines extending help to those in need.

-Two passion potions that love and romance may succeed.

-On the first day of Christmas, my ghoul love gave to me, a star, a brilliant star for my fortune card tree!

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Next, the Doombuggies enter the ballroom, which is a very difficult scene to photograph....so I do not have any photos of it. It is virtually identical to Anaheim's version except for the doorway at the top of the stairway on the opposite side of the room (below the dueling paintings). In Tokyo, there is a curtain there and behind that curtain are the silhouettes of Jack and Sally standing under mistletoe and he is handing her a present.

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In my next post, we will venture on into the Mansion's Attic!