Vintage Disneyland Magnets

Today's post is a quick one. The photo above shows six vintage magnets that were sold at Disneyland in the late seventies/early eighties. These are from my personal collection of Disneyland souvenirs. I remember purchasing these in the Character Shop in Tomorrowland (now the Star Trader), but they were also sold at other locations throughout the park.

This wraps up a month of "souvenir" themed posts. I'm not sure what I'll be posting about in February. I may go back to posting about Tokyo Disneyland, but I still have more vintage Disneyland souvenirs, as well as some slides that I have been busy scanning for future posts. Stay tuned....

I "Like" Disneyland

Today we have three vintage lenticular* pins from Disneyland. They are from the late sixties/early seventies. The Mickey Mouse pin above, is a personal souvenir of mine from a childhood visit to the park. This same version can be seen changing while worn by a "celebrity" park guest in this wonderful photo series posted recently by Daveland.

The Goofy pin below, belonged to my brother and was purchased during the same park visit.


Next, is the Tinkerbell version. I purchased this pin recently on ebay just to complete my collection. I believe there were only these three versions available....at least I only remember these three being sold at the park and I haven't seen any others out there for sale since then.


Below is a pic showing what the backs of these pins look like.

(*Lenticular images are those that display one image when held at one angle and another image when tilted slightly.)

More Disneyland Cups

Today we have more paper cups from Disneyland. These are all much newer than the cups shown in my last post. The photo above shows the front and back of a cup from Christmas of 1997. This was the first year that Disneyland did their holiday conversion of "It's A Small World."

Below, is a cup that was used in the park throughout the nineties, and I believe into the 2000's as well. Tokyo Disneyland actually used this exact same design until just last year, when their graphics were changed for the park's 25th Anniversary.

Next, we have a cup from Disneyland's 50th Anniversary, "The Happiest Homecoming On Earth."

The cup below should look familiar to regular park goers. It was used during the "Two And A Half Years Of A Million Dreams" campaign.

Last up today, we have a cup from Christmas of 2007. The logo reads, "Disney Parks, Where Dreams Come True." I am assuming they used this cup in Florida as well. I wonder how much money is really saved by making everything generic? Personally, I think it stinks! I don't want a shirt or hat that says "Disney Parks" on it. I want one that says "Disneyland", "Walt Disney World", etc......but that's just me!

Vintage Disneyland Cups

Today, we have a collection of vintage cups from Disneyland. These cups were used for serving beverages at various restaurants throughout the park. Like the matchbooks from my earlier posts this month, I acquired these during routine visits to the park, both as a kid and as a teenager. They are in relatively good shape considering their age.

In the photo above, we have two wax-coated paper cups with the same graphics, but with two slightly different color schemes. The one on the left is from the early to mid eighties, while the one on the right is older and was used through the seventies.

The next pic shows the back and front of a cup that was used during the park's 25th birthday celebration in 1980. Again, this is a wax-coated paper cup.

Below, we have a cup from 1984, the year that Donald Duck was celebrating his 50th birthday.

I don't remember the date of the Cafe Orleans cup below, but I would guess it is from the early to mid-eighties. The cup on the right is made of styrofoam and was used for hot beverages during the park's 30th birthday, in 1985. At that time, PSA Airlines was the sponsor of the CircleVision Theater ("World Premiere CircleVision") in Tomorrowland.

And last up today, we have a pic showing the front and back of another cup from the park's 30th birthday year. It has the same 30th birthday logo as the one above, but this one is made of wax-coated paper and would have been used for cold beverages.

1967 Universal Studios - The Psycho House

Lately, it seems that one post leads me to an idea for my next post. In my last post, I ended with a photo of "Bates Motel" matchbooks that were sold in the early '90s at Universal Studios. This reminded me that somewhere among my family's slides, I had a couple shots of the Psycho house on the Universal backlot. The photos above and below were taken by my dad in 1967, only 3 years after Universal began their backlot tram tour.

Here is a close-up of the Psycho house from the photo above.

The Psycho house exterior originally only consisted of two walls....the left wall and the front of the house. After the filming of Psycho (1960), the house was used in many other movies, television shows and commercials. In 1964, a third wall on the right side of the house was added for the filming of the western film, "Invitation to a Gunfighter." In this film, the house was the home of one of the film's characters (Sam Brewster.) The house did not get a fourth/rear wall added until 1982 when the filming of Psycho II began. At this time, the house was also moved to a new location, where it currently remains today. Prior to 1982, the house sat on the edge of the backlot's "western town" and above what was then called Singapore lake (now used as the Amity set for the "Jaws" portion of the tram tour).

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In addition to the matchbooks mentioned earlier (and pictured here), Universal sold other "Psycho" related merchandise in the '90s. The "Do Not Disturb" sign below was one such item. There were also white bathroom towels with "Bates Motel" embroidered on them which I did not purchase, but now I wish I had!

More Vintage Matchbooks

Today, we have a couple more matchbooks from Disneyland (see my last post for matchbooks from other areas of the park.) The photo above shows the front and back of a book that is from the late 70's/early 80's, and the photo below shows a book that is from 1975-1976, when the park was celebrating the nation's bicentennial. Both of these were given out at the Tobacco Shop that used to be on Main St. The shop was located between the Main St. Cinema and the Magic Shop (where the music store is now). The old "cigar store indian" still sits out front on the sidewalk.



I have now gone through my very small collection of Disneyland matchbooks, so just for good measure, I will throw in a couple from other theme parks. The matchbook below was given out at Knott's in the early 80's. At that time, Knott' s had just the one design and this is what was given out in all areas of the park.


In the mid to late 80's, Knott's redesigned their matchbooks and added Snoopy to the front and back covers. These were available in red and green.



The last photo for today, shows matchbooks that were sold in the souvenir shops at Universal Studio's in the early 90's.

Vintage Disneyland Matchbooks

Continuing today with a "giveaway" or "free" theme.....these matchbooks were free to Disneyland guests in the late 70's and early 80's. They were available at the various shops and restaurants, but were kept behind the counters and only given out upon request.



Each of today's photos show the front and back of a single matchbook. You can see in the two pics above, that Fantasyland and Tomorrowland had their own matchbooks, but notice below how Frontierland had to share a matchbook with Bear Country.

Adventureland and New Orleans Square were also combined into one......

.....but The Blue Bayou Restaurant had it's own.

I will have one more post after this one that covers matchbooks (no pun intended). I do plan to get back to posting about Tokyo Disneyland......I'm just taking a little break from it for a while.

Star Tours Watch Giveaway

Today, we will be continuing with a "souvenir" theme. This is a watch that was given to guests that rode Star Tours (at Disneyland in Anaheim) on it's grand opening day, back in January of 1987. Actually, Star Tours opened on January 9th and Disneyland celebrated with a 60 hour long party that ended on January 11th. I did not go to the park for the opening, but the coworker that gave me this watch said that at one point, the line for the attraction went all the way down to the Opera House in Town Square!

Be sure to check out the Star Tours "Spacesickness Bag" posted over the weekend on , Vintage Disneyland Tickets. And check out his previous posts for other incredible theme park ephemera, as well as trip reports that include fantastic "then and now" photo comparisons!

Disneyland Souvenir Flashlights

These are vintage souvenir flashlights which used to be sold at Disneyland. When you push down on the white bar on the side of the flashlight, the small white door on top pops open and the light comes on. Check out Gorillas Don't Blog to see a great vintage window display of these flashlights.

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!

The 1981 Main St. Electrical Parade - Part 2

These are the next four photos in the Electrical Parade souvenir album mentioned in yesterday's post. First up is the Cinderella unit. Back then, the Fairy Godmother's face was a character mask. Today, she is a "face" character, meaning the performer's actual face is visible. Tokyo Disneyland has updated their Cinderella unit with all new floats. To see Tokyo's updated Cinderella unit, click here: New Cinderella Unit

Next we have the Dumbo Circus unit. Just behind the bear float, there were clowns that pushed small balloon carts. I believe these have been eliminated from the current version of the parade.

Last up today, we have the Hippo float pulling the calliope that is played by King Lion from Bedknobs and Broomsticks. This float is still in use in the parade today.

Check back tomorrow for the last post in this series.....including two floats from the movie, "The Fox and The Hound."

The 1981 Main St. Electrical Parade - Part 1

I've decided to continue with a parade theme, so today we will be looking at a Main St. Electrical Parade souvenir from the early eighties. This mini photo album had clear plastic pages with actual photographs inserted into them (printed on Kodak photo paper!) There were also Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion versions. There might have been a Small World version....but I can't remember for sure. The front pages of these had sort of a title card insert with an oval cut-out that allowed you to view the first photo.

For some reason, the album starts with the Alice unit....visually, it probably made for a better cover. After that the photos are in the correct order of the actual parade.

This parade really does belong back on Main St. I think it was more magical when it was in Disneyland. Actually, it really should be reworked and updated. To see Tokyo Disneyland's updated versions of the Blue Fairy and Casey Junior units, click here: New Parade Units To see Tokyo Disneyland's updated Alice In Wonderland unit, click here: New Alice In Wonderland Unit

There will be two more parts to this series. The last part will include a photo of the rarely photographed.....and often forgotten, Fox and the Hound unit!

The 1966 Rose Parade - Part 6

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! Well, we have finally come to the end of this series.....and the beginning of the parade. This is the 1966 Rose Parade and below, is the official grand marshal of the parade, Walt Disney.

Following Walt Disney was the City of Burbank's float entitled, "Our Small World Of Make Believe." Note Mary Poppins and the penguin waiters on the table in front of her. "Mary Poppins" would have had it's Los Angeles premiere just 16 months prior to this.

I've included three publicity shots below. The first photo is of the 1966 Rose Queen, Carole Cota. I wonder what she's doing these days?

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The next photo was labeled, "1966 Theme - It's A Small World." (Once again, at that time, the "It's A Small World" attraction had already been seen by millions of visitors to the 1964/65 New York World's Fair, but it wasn't going to have it's grand opening at Disneyland until later that year.) I think the lady on the left is Carole Cota....at least it looks like her and she is holding the larger of the two bouquets. Anyone out there happen to know who the lady on the right might have been?

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This last photo wasn't labled at all and it was the most faded of all of them. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do too much with the color. I don't think either one of these ladies is Carole Cota, but I can't be sure. Any ideas? The two ladies actually look like they might be twins. The two headlines on the prop newspaper read, "Pasadena Is Home Of Roses" and "Millions Enjoy Sunshine (last word not legible)". I leave you for now with this strange, faded, confusing photo! I hope everyone has enjoyed this series!

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