Vintage Disneyland Ads & "Loose Ends" From Previous Posts - Part 1

While looking through my old newspaper advertisements last month, searching for ads for Thumper's Easter Egg Hunt at Disneyland, I came across some other ads that I had forgotten all about.  Many of them related to other subjects, which I have already posted about in the past.  I've decided to scan those ads and include them all here, but I have also added them to those earlier posts.  I will include the links to those posts, just in case anyone wants to go back and revisit them, or perhaps read them for the very first time.

First up, is this colorful Toontown advertisement from a 1993 edition of The Los Angeles Times.  It has now been added to my "Disneyland's Toontown - 30th Anniversary" post, from last year.  Notice all of the costumed Disney characters, standing around in this publicity shot.  I count nine!

In September of 1981, Disneyland was hosting a "Country Weekend."  The previous September, they were calling it, "Cowboy Weekend."  I remember Jerry Reed.  He was in all three of the "Smokey and the Bandit" movies, although I never saw even one of them.  He also sang and co-wrote the theme song for the first of those films, "Eastbound and Down," which was a number two song on the Billboard Country Chart.  I had to look up Don King, since I was pretty sure that Don King "the boxing promoter" wasn't appearing at Disneyland.  It turns out there is another Don King, and he received the 1981 Academy of Country Music award for "Top New Male Vocalist."

Just five months later, in February of 1982, Disneyland was hosting another "Country Weekend."  I never knew that Mel Tillis and Reba McEntire ever performed at Disneyland!  It wasn't the Christmas season, but I wonder if Elmo 'N Patsy sang their signature song, "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer"?

This advertisement for the original "Tron" film is from the July 4, 1982 issue of The Los Angeles Times.  It has now been added to Part 2 of my "ElecTRONica Is Here!" posts, from 2010.  I have a full-sized color poster very similar to this ad, which I purchased in Tomorrowland's Character Shop at Disneyland, back in 1982.

Next we have an advertisement from the December 16, 1984 issue of The Los Angeles Times, for the 1984 re-release of "Walt Disney's Pinocchio."  This has now been added to my "Walt Disney's Pinocchio - Mega Post!" post.  Note the special logo at the bottom of the ad, for Disneyland's 30th anniversary.  The following month, the park's year-long 30th anniversary festivities would be kicking off.

I found this ad after writing my recent Japanese Village & Deer Park post.  Enchanted Village replaced Japanese Village in 1976, but it was only open for about a year and a half, before shutting down forever.

This advertisement has now been added to my "Raging Waters Waterpark" post, from 2018.  The ad was from a seasonal supplement to The Los Angeles Times, and dated June 8, 1984:

An article about the park and it's new attractions for the summer, appeared in the same newspaper supplement:

One year later (June 14, 1985), this advertisement was included in the summer entertainment supplement of The Los Angeles Times:

And there was another article, about the park's new attractions for 1985:

Getting back to the Disney-related ads, this one was from September of 1983, and claimed that Disneyland's summer season was "still going strong."  However, if you look at the hours listed at the very bottom of the ad, the park was going to start closing at 6 p.m. on weekdays, beginning September 12th.  The following weekend, Disneyland was hosting, "Viva Mexico" days.  The "Flights of Fantasy" parade (which had debuted that summer), was still being presented on weekends, but it would soon be ending it's performances in time for the holiday season, and would never return.  I've added this article to both my "Viva Mexico/Cinco de Mayo" post, and my "Flights of Fantasy" post.

This Los Angeles Times ad from July 1, 1984, ran just four days prior to the debut of "American Journeys" in Tomorrowland's Circle-Vision Theater.  However, the name of the attraction had now been changed to "World Premiere Circle-Vision 360."  And shortly after the grand reopening of the attraction, the EPCOT Center film, "The Wonders of China," was included in the theater's line up.  This advertisement has now been added to my "American Journeys & Wonders of China" post, from 2016.

I hope everyone enjoyed these "loose ends."  I may be posting more vintage ads, in the not too distant future.

Post Update!  I have done a "Part 2" to this post, with more vintage Disney advertisements, as well as other theme park ads, newsletters, and miscellaneous items.  You can see that post by clicking here!

 

Japanese Village & Deer Park - Buena Park, CA

Today, we will be visiting a little extinct theme park called, Japanese Village & Deer Park.

The park was located just off the 5 freeway in Buena Park, about six and a half miles northwest of Disneyland.  It opened in 1967 and closed in 1974, just seven short years later.  Japanese Village was built by Allen Parkinson, who in 1962, had opened Movieland Wax Museum (which was only five minutes away, and just up the street from Knott's Berry Farm).  In 1970, Parkinson sold both Japanese Village and Movieland, to the Six Flags Corporation.

This brochure actually promotes both attractions, however I am only including the part of the brochure which relates to Japanese Village. I will post the Movieland portion in a future Movieland Wax Museum post.

The green "people" on the brochure's cover were called "Fuji Folk," and were the park's attempt at having "walk-around" characters to greet the guests.  The character on the left was "Izzy Moto."  The character on the right was, "Oto Moto," and the blue fish he is holding was "Flip Flop."

The text inside the brochure is written in the "first person" style, and gives a description of the park, by someone who is visiting with their family.  It's a better description than I could give here, so I will let the brochure explain the highlights of the park.

The brochure also included a colorful map.  After many years of searching, this is the most detailed map of the park that I have come across.

I was fortunate enough to visit Japanese Village, on multiple occasions.  Below, are some souvenirs from my visits, as well as some items that I found on ebay.

A Japanese Village fold-out postcard booklet:

I should mention that the park's deer were sika deer, which are native to East Asia, most notably, Japan.  And Japanese Village & Deer Park itself, was inspired by Nara Park in Japan, a public park where wild sika deer roam freely.

A packet of View-Master reels, featuring 21 "stereo" pictures:

I found this unopened light switchplate on ebay, and for some reason, I had to have it.  Will I take it out of the package and use it?  Nah!

This coloring book is another item from ebay:

 Next, we have two Japanese Village patches.

This second one was given to me by a friend, who I believe found it at a flea market.  It is still attached to a remnant of red material.  I thought this might have been cut off of an employee uniform, but that is just a guess.

How about a look at some Japanese Village ephemera?

A ticket to the park:

The reverse side of the ticket was offering a same-day discount to Movieland Wax Museum:

A matchbook cover:

This merchandise bag has fine print at the bottom, once again, reminding guests to visit Movieland Wax Museum and it's adjoining Palace of Living Art.

I have two of these plastic beverage cups, which I saved from one of my childhood visits.  The plastic is clear, with the park's logo painted on the front and back.  I curled up a white index card and placed it inside the cup, to make the logo show up better when photographing it.  Considering their age, the cups are in pretty good condition, without any cracks and only very minor scuffs to the paint.

A side view:

This "mini" deck of cards is another childhood item, and was purchased during a family visit to the park.

The cards came in a red plastic box, with a cardboard sleeve around it.

Each of the cards has a different Japanese "character" printed on the reverse side.  At least, I believe that is what each of the symbols represent.  And now that makes me wonder if it would be possible to memorize every card in the deck, by memorizing the symbols/characters?

Another J.V. souvenir from my childhood, was a set of little plastic animals.  The set only came with four figures; the smaller/young deer, the brown bear holding the basketball, the leaping dolphin, and the sea-lion.  The sea-lion was originally balancing a blue ball on it's nose, but that broke off years ago.  Unfortunately, damage also occurred to both of the "adult" deer figures, when they were stored in a garage for several decades.  I learned the hard way, that some plastic items will actually melt, when stored in a garage and exposed to the extreme heat of the summer months.  That is why each of those deer now only have three and a half legs.

The "adult deer" weren't a part of the souvenir set.  They were actually included inside boxes of deer "biscuits," which guests could purchase and feed to the deer.

The petting and feeding area for the deer had gumball-style machines, which dispensed handfuls of food "pellets."  Those machines can be seen in the background of this postcard view.  But there were also larger machines that dispensed the boxes of "biscuits" (or I guess you could call them "crackers"), which also contained a plastic deer figure.

Going back to that set of plastic animals, the dove figure was also "free" and was included in boxes of dove food, which could be purchased in the park's dove pavilion.  One of those boxes can be seen in this next photo, courtesy of "Stuff From The Park." (The young lady is holding the box in her left hand, while feeding a dove in her right.)

Sadly, Japanese Village and Deer Park closed just before the 1974 Christmas season, due to it's "shrinking attendance" and a "lack of profits."  There was an article in the Los Angeles Times about the closing, which I cut out and shared at school for "current events."

A spokesman stated that the park had only operated "in the black" for one year, since Six Flags purchased it in 1970.

The spokesman went on to cite possible reasons for the drop in attendance, such as the economy, a travel ban in 1974 (I wonder if that was that due to the "energy crisis"?), and also because of their nearby competition, Knott's Berry Farm.  And apparently, Knott's only cost $3.75 for adult admission at that time, whereas Japanese Village was charging $4.25, and didn't offer any rides.  Other parks owned by Six Flags are mentioned, but Southern California's Magic Mountain isn't listed, because the company didn't purchase that park until 1979.

Six Flags ended up selling the Japanese Village property.  The new owners overhauled the park, and reopened it as, Enchanted Village, with a new "exotic animal" theme.  The new park opened in June of 1976, but closed just a little over a year later, in the Fall of 1977.

Once Enchanted Village closed, the property was sold once again, and a business park was built on the site.  The roadway into the industrial park can be seen below.  Basically, the buildings to the left (north) of the roadway sit on the land formerly occupied by the park, and the buildings on the right are where the parking lot was located.

This view shows the northern half of the property, where the park once sat:

I'm assuming that the use of the word "Village" was an intentional nod to the previous residents of the property.  For a while, the business park used the same tall rotating sign alongside the freeway, which had been used by it's predecessors, but with "The Village" painted on it.  That sign was eventually removed.

This parking area behind the buildings, is where the deer feeding and petting pen was located.  The 5 fwy is located just on the other side of that dirt mound on the far left.

Here's an old postcard view of that same corner of the property, and looking in the same direction.

I hope everyone enjoyed this visit to Japanese Village and Deer Park.  We'll end this post with a few postcards, with the titles and descriptions printed in Japanese:

****Post Update (03-02-24)****

I've decided to add these family photos to the post.  These are from my very first visit to Japanese Village & Deer Park.  I also have some home movie footage from this same visit.  I should probably try and get that digitized!

****Post Update (03-12-24)****

Here's another family photo, from a few years later.  This shows a plywood cut-out of Oto Moto (and Flip Flop!) in the background.  It was actually a directional sign, pointing the way to the Dolphin and Sea Lion Shows (to the right), and the Bear and Karate Shows (to the left).

I had mentioned in one of my comments below, that during one of our J.V. visits, an employee told us it was "too hot" for the Fuji Folk to be out.  This was not that particular trip, however, we did not see any of the Fuji Folk during this trip, either.  We did encounter this guy.  I'm not sure if he had a name, or what his mask and costume represent.  He was also holding that tall pole, which for some reason, I decided to grab hold of.  My brother is wearing a Davy Crockett racoon skin cap (only the tail of it was "real racoon"), which was acquired just a day or two earlier, during a Disneyland trip.  (My grandmother was visiting from Maryland that summer, and we took her to Disneyland, Universal Studios, and Japanese Village, all in the same week.)

****Post Update (3-18-24)****

This Enchanted Village ad is from a 1976 Los Angeles Times summer entertainment supplement.  I have held onto that special section of the newspaper for almost 48 years now, but only recently remembered that it included this ad.  It pins down the exact opening date for Enchanted Village, to June 18, 1976.