Vintage Magic Mountain Trip Report & Colossus Opening - 1978

Are you ready for something completely different here at Meet The World? It's my very first Magic Mountain post, and it's all about my very first Magic Mountain trip! The year was 1978 and I had just graduated from eighth grade (and had recently gone on the school's Eighth Grade Graduation Trip To Disneyland.) Up to that point, I had been taken on many family trips to Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, Marineland, Universal Studios, Japanese Deer Park, and Busch Gardens (Van Nuys), but for some reason (probably distance), we had never gone to Magic Mountain. Well, as an eighth grade graduation present, my mom decided to take me to Magic Mountain.....probably because I had been asking her.....A LOT!



My mom even took this pamphlet and wrapped it up as one of my graduation gifts. I was very excited. I had been wanting to go for a long time, but even more so now because this was the summer that Colossus was opening. The model for Colossus was pictured in the pamphlet along with a description of the "greatest rollercoaster in the world."




Here are some other pics from the pamphlet.



I'm flipping this one pic around to show what's happening to the two kids in this photo. This exact same thing happened to me the first time I rode Revolution. When we went through the 360 degree loop, my head was forced down into my lap. I remember it kind of screwed up my neck for the rest of the day. They hadn't installed the headrests on the cars yet, so I don't know if that is what made a difference or if it was just being kid-sized, but I went back about a year later and the headrests were there and I didn't have the same problem. Did anyone else have that happen to them while riding Revolution?



And here are the only four photos that I shot that day. The first one shows Revolution's loop. I had actually rode Revolution one year earlier...."virtually," that is. It was featured in the 1977 Universal film, "Rollercoaster." I remember really liking that movie. The tag line was something like, "This summer, watch for the man watching the Rollercoaster!" If you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it. It stars George Segal, Henry Fonda, Helen Hunt (before she won her Oscar), Richard Widmark (after he signed Lucy's grapefruit), and features guest appearances by L.A. radio disc jockey, Charlie Tuna, and the band "Sparks." The real star however, is Timothy Bottoms (before he hilariously played our nation's former president in Comedy Central's "That's My Bush!") as a young man who travels around the country blowing up amusement parks. The film was one of only four that were filmed in "Sensurround."



Colossus had already opened before our visit. In fact, it opened on June 29th..... 33 years ago today! But as with many new rides, it was experiencing some technical problems and when we got to the park, we were told that it probably would not be opening until sometime in the afternoon. We did get in line for it later that day....I believe even before it opened, because they had announced that it would be opening for sure. I took these next three pics from the Colossus observation deck while my family held our place in line. Note the dirt and the trucks at the base of the structure.



Just on the other side of those trees was "Trollywood," home to the Magic Mountain Trolls. This was sort of Magic Mountain's version of "Storybook Land" and was only visible while riding the "Train to Trollywood" (see the map below).




Here's the parking ticket from that day.



And here's the park map and entertainment schedule.





We had seen people in the park wearing these buttons, but when we went to purchase one at the Colossus merchandise cart, they had sold out.



When we got home, I wrote a letter to the park asking if it was still possible to purchase a button. They sent the following response.





So I sent them the money and I did end up getting an "I RODE IT!" button.

One other memory from that day is that my aunt and my grandparents went along with us on this trip. Actually my grandfather is the one that drove us all up there. He also rode on every ride that day with my brother and me, including Colossus. I remember the ride operators on Colossus warning him about removing his eyeglasses, so he took them off and put them in his shirt pocket and buttoned the pocket up. Well, on the very first hill, the button ripped right off from the force of the glasses which flew straight up out of the pocket and into the air. I remember feeling really bad about him losing his glasses.

When I think about it, my grandfather was always such a good sport. He was also the one that sat next to me the very first time I rode Space Mountain. In my Father's Day post last week, I thanked my dad for taking us to many of the different Southern California theme parks throughout my childhood, but my grandparents also took us on many of our fun theme park outings....including my one and only trip to the Long Beach Pike! I'd like to take the time now to also thank my grandparents for all the wonderful memories they gave my brother and me......I love and miss you both very much! And thanks to my mom too, for such a cool graduation present!

Eighth Grade Disneyland Trip - 1978

Hey kids, it's time for another Vintage Disneyland Trip Report! Thirty three years ago today, my eighth grade class went to Disneyland for "Grad Party '78". This was different than the "Grad Nite" events. This event took place all day long up until park closing. Here is my ticket from that day.

I saved a copy of the parental consent form that was typed up and handed out to all eighth graders. That's right, typed as in on a typewriter and then Xeroxed.....or would it have been mimeographed? Well anyway, I'm pretty sure it wasn't copied on a ditto machine!

Tickets AND transportation only $8.00!!! Lunch can be bought at the park for $1.50!!!

I also saved my school receipt for the ticket. This really was an important trip for most eighth graders. It was something that many of us looked forward to all year because we would get to spend the day in the park without direct supervision. There were adults that accompanied us on the bus trip, but once inside the park, we never saw them again until it was time to go home.

I took my Kodak 126 Instamatic Camera on this trip and out of a roll of 12 exposures, I only took 6 pictures that day...I'm not sure why I didn't shoot the entire roll at the park. The rest of the shots on the roll were taken during my eighth grade graduation ceremony. Sorry, but those shots WON'T be seen here!

I mentioned in an earlier post that after Space Mountain opened, it was always the first attraction we headed for. In the shot below, it would have been only one year old and already part of the glow-in-the-dark decals on car number 5 had been peeled off! It was probably done by some eighth grader that was "not mature enough to meet the trip's conduct requirements" and "brought discredit to their entire class"! The flash cube really wasn't powerful enough to reach as far as I was hoping it would. I'm posting the original pic and a scan of the negative. It's weird how the cast member outfits came out looking red in the new scan when they were actually a horrible orange color.





We've met some of my childhood friends in my past Vintage Disneyland Trip Reports. Today we'll be meeting....well, let's just call her Carrie B. We had known each other since Kindergarten, but we had become even closer friends in Junior High. We had planned to go on this trip together since the beginning of the eighth grade school year. I actually located her about 10 years ago through Classmates and we exchanged emails for a while. Since she doesn't appear to be on Facebook, maybe I should go through my old email addresses and ask her permission to post her picture here. For now we'll just have to settle for Jane of "Dick and Jane" fame (that's actually BEFORE my time....I tried to find a decent picture of Janet from the "Janet and Mark" books, but didn't have any luck.)



I don't remember what it was that she bought that day, but it must have been a lot since she purchased the heavy duty Disneyland shopping bag with handles. I have one of those bags and I will eventually get around to posting it.



This next photo is probably a good place to tell my "New Matterhorn" story. Once again, the year was 1978, so most DL fans probably know that this was the year the "New Matterhorn" was unveiled. At this time, the 19 year-old attraction became more "enclosed" and special effects were added such as "glistening crystal ice caverns" and "howling winter storms". The bobsleds were also redesigned and were now tandem instead of single. And of course the Abominable Snowman himself began making an appearance within the attraction.

I had already been to the park twice since the beginning of the year and had seen the construction taking place on the mountain. I had saved the special color Disneyland advertisement from the newspaper and I had seen the "New Matterhorn" commercial playing repeatedly on TV. The new attraction was even featured on the front of the Grad Party ticket. It had opened almost 2 whole weeks earlier (May 27th) and I was soooooo ready to ride it. Then a friend's father who worked at the park told me just days before the class trip, that the Matterhorn had shut down because they were having technical trouble with it and they didn't know when it would be up and running again. AW NUTS!

Okay, so at least we knew before our trip that it was going to be closed, but then at some point during the day while riding on the PeopleMover, we noticed one of the brand new bobsled trains traveling down and around the mountain with people in it and we got very excited. We got off of the PeopleMover and immediately ran over to the Matterhorn, only to have a cast member tell us that they were just testing the ride and that it would not be opening to the public that day. Yep, at second glance we noticed that everyone riding in the bobsleds was wearing "office attire" and Disneyland name badges. DOUBLE NUTS!

Well, time goes by very slowly when your that age, so it seemed like forever before I was finally able to experience the new attraction, but the reality was that I got to see it within a month or two when my friend's father got us into the park. That will have to be a story for another post....but that friend's father worked on the construction of Big Thunder, so I have construction shots and backstage shots that I will be posting in the future!

This photo was taken while riding the PeopleMover and shows the "test subject" cast members going for a ride on the New Matterhorn.



One last New Matterhorn detail.....while riding the Skyway, we happened to notice that the Abominable Snowman was visible while passing through the Matterhorn. We passed by him too quickly though and I just had to get a picture, so we went on the Skyway again. Actually, we went on it two more times and I have a second photo almost identical to this one. Alas, my attempts to capture him on film were all in vain since I didn't know that the flash cube wouldn't reach that far. Of course I didn't realize it until I got the prints back from Photomat. TRIPLE NUTS!



Oh, and speaking of Big Thunder construction, this sign was hanging on the construction wall over in Frontierland so I had to take a picture of it. There was a more colorful version of this artwork that later replaced this earlier version. Note the geysers which did not end up in the attraction at Disneyland.



Other memories that I have from that day are, calling home from the "Chatterbox" speaker phones in the Bell exhibit in Tomorrowland and purchasing this souvenir book at The Character Shop across the way (now The Star Trader).



Here are a few scans from the inside of this 74 page hardcover book.





At the time this book was purchased, these Matterhorn pictures were already outdated. The piece of Matterhorn track seen below, was an outdoor portion that became enclosed after the remodel.




If you have read this far, I hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane....and thanks for going with me!

Space Mountain - 33rd Anniversary!

Thirty three years ago today, Space Mountain opened at Disneyland. About two months after it opened, my grandparents took my brother and me to the park to check it out. I still remember sitting in the front seat with my grandfather for that very first ride and the excitement of not knowing exactly what to expect.

Below, is the park entertainment guide that I saved from that day.

Here's a photo that I took with my Kodak 126 Instamatic camera during that visit. Doesn't the whole Space Mountain Complex look bright and shiny and new? Hey Disney, bring back the Speed Ramp, the Space Mountain Stage, and the Space Place Restaurant!

Prior to this visit, I was clipping and saving everything that was written about the new attraction, including this L.A. Times article that reported on the opening day ceremony and "inaugural flight."

This photo ran in the local newspaper. I have saved these newspaper clippings for thirty three years!

I bought the Space Mountain set of Pana-Vue slides about thirty years ago, but never realized until now that the people in this particular slide are the same people in the photo above. I wonder where these people are today? Hey, that guy in the second row is looking at the camera.....BAD MODEL!

When I ride Space Mountain today, I often think back to when I rode it that first time with my grandfather. My grandparents actually took us back to the park seven months later and I was able to ride it with him again. (I also rode Colossus at Magic Mountain for the first time with my grandfather after it opened in 1978....but that's the subject for a future post!)

Happy Birthday, Space Mountain!