Frank Lloyd Wright At The Disneyland Resort

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Today is a follow-up to my last post on the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. These photos show the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired bathrooms in the Hollywood Backlot section of Disney's California Adventure.
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The bathrooms actually borrow a design from the Storer House, a private residence in Los Angeles that Wright built in 1923 using his textile block method of construction.
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The Sprites Of Chicago's Midway Gardens

As I mentioned in my last post, I flew to Phoenix, Arizona last weekend for a family get-together. While there, I visited the Arizona Biltmore which is celebrating it's 80th anniversary this year. This historic hotel has played host to every American president since it's opening in 1929, as well as countless celebrities. Albert Chase McArthur, a former student of Frank Lloyd Wright was the hotel's architect, and the consulting architect for the project was Frank Lloyd Wright himself. It has been debated for years just how much of Frank Lloyd Wright's work went into the final design. The hotel was constructed using a variation of the textile block that was first used by Wright to build private homes.
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In 1914, Wright designed Midway Gardens, an indoor/outdoor entertainment complex in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. The Gardens were adorned with concrete figures designed by Wright and sculpted by Italian artist Alfonso Ianelli. Wright called these figures "Sprites." When the Midway Gardens was demolished, these figures were thought to be lost forever, but in 1945 they were unearthed on a piece of farmland in Wisconsin. The Sprites were then returned to Taliesin, The Frank Loyd Wright School of Architecture. In 1985, at the request of Mrs. Wright, molds were made from the originals and copies were poured up and then given to the Arizona Biltmore, where they still stand today.
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Each Sprite stands six feet tall and weighs 450 pounds.
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As a side note, the Arizona Biltmore was the birthplace of the "Tequila Sunrise" cocktail. It is also where Irving Berlin penned "I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas," while lounging by the hotel's Catalina pool. Additional celebrities that have stayed at the hotel include: Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Fred Astaire, Marlon Brando, Clark Gable, Gregory Peck, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Harpo Marx, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Magic Johnson, Joe Montana, Shaquiel O' Neal, Michael Jordan, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Jay Leno, George Clooney, Nicholas Cage, Johnny Carson, Steven Spielberg, Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, Whoopi Goldberg, and Barbara Walters.

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I wanted to write a little something about this architectural gem, but I do plan to return to posting about Disney, Knott's and other theme park related stuff beginning with my next post!

The Zombie of Pixie Hollow

Last weekend, I flew to Phoenix for Father's Day and a family reunion. While on the airplane, I noticed the following ad in the "Sky Mall" magazine and couldn't help but think how great this would look strategically placed somewhere within Pixie Hollow at Disneyland. Or how about in Minnie's garden in Toontown? Sick, huh? Okay, so I was bored on the airplane and my mind was wandering. By the way, this was my first "non-Disney" trip in over two years.
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Here are a few other items from the catalog. Perfect ideas for converting you own home or garden into......
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The haunted forest from Snow White's Scary Adventures.
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The Jungle Cruise
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The Enchanted Tiki Room
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Pixie Hollow (or a tribute to Light Magic....Ugh!)

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I wish to thank Sky Mall for helping to pass the time on my flight! (I better not mention that the flight to Phoenix is only an hour and fifteen minutes!)

Farrah Fawcett 1948-2009

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Vintage Disneyland Hotel Stuff

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I recently purchased Don Ballard's book entitled "Disneyland Hotel -The Early Years, 1954-1988" and I highly recommend it! I have not had time yet to sit down and begin reading it, but I am very eager to find the time. I my opinion however, It was worth the price of the book just for the photos alone! The book can be ordered on Don Ballard's website, http://www.magicalhotel.com/. There are also sample pages from the book that can be viewed on his site, as well as additional rare photos and scans of vintage DL Hotel brochures. Additional photos and information can also be viewed on his blog, http://magicalhotel.blogspot.com/.
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Looking through the book made me think about the small amount of DL Hotel items that I have in my collection, so I dug deep to find them. It really is a VERY small number of items, but here they are.
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These first two items are postcards. The first one shows the Sierra Tower and the second shows part of the miniature golf course that used to sit across from the DL Hotel on the corner of Cerritos Avenue and West Street. I remember purchasing both of these postcards at a Sav-On Drug Store back in the late seventies/early eighties.
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Next, we have two packets of Domino sugar. These are from the early to mid 1980's and came from Mazie's Pantry which was located on the lower level of the Plaza Building at the DL Hotel.
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This next scan is pretty large, but the actual item is about the size of a postage stamp. It is a validation sticker for one free hour of parking in the Disneyland Hotel parking lot. This is also from the early to mid '80's.
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These stamps had glue on the back that could be moistened, and then applied to a parking ticket like the one below. Even though the stamp is square and the "Validate Here" area on the ticket is rectangular, that is the spot where the stamps would go. I remember there being a limit of two stamps/two free hours per ticket and that you would have to pay for any additional time that went beyond that. The validation stamps could be acquired at the various hotel shops and restaurants when making a purchase, but they preferred that you show the ticket so that the cast members could affix the stamp themselves. If you handed them a ticket that already had two stamps, they would tell you that they couldn't give you another one. I found out at some point that if I told them that I had left my ticket in the car, they would just hand me a stamp for me to lick and stick myself. This way, I was able to receive more than two stamps per visit, and save the additional ones for use at a later time in case I didn't purchase anything on my next visit.
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Well, that's it for my collection of DL Hotel items....unless I uncover something later that I forgot about!

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Totally 80's Grad Nites!

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It's Grad Nite time again at Disneyland. These souvenir buttons are from three consecutive years back in that fabulous decade of excess.....the 1980's. The first one is a personal souvenir from my Grad Nite at Disneyland. Wow, it seems so long ago....I guess that's because it was!
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A friend that graduated the very next year, picked up this Pluto button for me at his Grad Nite. .

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And last but not least, I purchased this Grad Nite '84 button on ebay a few years back. This was the year that the Olympics were held in Los Angeles. To see a better photo/scan of this button, and to read an account of what it was like working in the park during an actual Grad Nite in 1984, check out this great post at the blog: The Best Possible Job. Also, check out this month's posts (and the archives) over at Vintage Disneyland Tickets for some incredible paper items from Disneyland Grad Nites going all the way back to the very first one!

Non-Vintage Disneyland Candy

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Staying with a candy wrapper/label theme, we present two newer items. The label above is from just a few years ago and might even be currently in use on packages of chocolate honeycomb (and other chocolate items) sold at the park today. As a kid, I always liked getting honeycomb candy from the candy counter at Sears department stores, but alas....those candy counters no longer exist!
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Next, is a header from the top of a bag of candy "spots." These were the candy dots that used to come stuck to a strip of paper. I think there were other types of "Candy Your Parents Remember" sold in the park. This is from the nineties, but I can't really remember where the candy was sold because it was actually purchased by a friend and then the label was given to me because I liked the retro style graphics....and because I collected this stuff!
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Fudge Pies and Frozen Bananas!

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Today we have another candy wrapper from Disneyland circa the late seventies/early eighties. This cellophane wrapper contained a small aluminum "pie tin" filled with chocolate fudge. Like the candy bar wrappers from my last post, the Fudge Pies were also sold at the Candy Palace on Main St. and the Castle Candy Shoppe inside Sleeping Beauty Castle. The price tag is still on the back...only .55 cents! Now they would probably charge $6.95. (I'm just guessing.)
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Next, we have a paper wrapper for a Frozen Banana. This is also from the late seventies. I believe these were sold throughout the park, but for some reason I remember always buying them from an ice cream cart that sat at the entrance to Bear Country.

Here's a close-up of the print on the back of the banana wrapper.

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And just in case you want to make your own at home, here are the ingredients. Just make sure to process your cocoa first with alkali. That actually doesn't sound very healthy. Don't they put that in batteries?
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Does Disneyland still sell frozen bananas? I lost interest in them quite some time ago. They take too long to thaw and in the meantime, it always feels like you are going to break a tooth on them. During a recent trip to Tokyo Disneyland, I discovered that they sold chocolate covered banana SLICES. They thawed much quicker, which made them less frustrating to eat. I wish I had saved the wrapper for those, darn it!
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Both of the wrappers today were saved from childhood visits to the park. I remember being fascinated by the graphics on these and I wanted to take home a piece of the park that normally would not have been kept or saved. Yes, even as a kid I was thinking of stuff like that. One person's trash is another person's.........

Vintage Disneyland Candy Wrappers

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Today, we have two vintage candy bar wrappers (fronts and backs.) These were sold at Disneyland in the late seventies/early eighties at the Candy Palace on Main St. and at the Castle Candy Shoppe located inside Sleeping Beauty Castle.


The candy bars were actually wrapped in foil, and then these paper sleeves went around the outside of the foil. I saved these from a childhood visit to the park and just recently came across them.

For other vintage Disney ephemera from my collection, check out my previous posts from January 2009 on Disneyland paper cups and also, old Disneyland matchbooks.