Return Of The Omnibus Ride To Destruction!

In my last post, we saw some video footage of the New Tomorrowland construction that was shot from the upper deck of the Disneyland Omnibus. Today I have some photos that were taken from the very same vantage point. This first one was taken of course, from The Plaza. You can see just a bit of the Omnibus parked over to the far left behind the tree.

I should mention that these first three pics were taken in May of 1997, prior to the video that we saw in the last post. Notice the large amoeboid bowl planters are still in place in front of the shiny silver Tomorrowland entrance panels. I wonder what they did with those planters? They were much nicer to look at than the perpetually dead-looking Persimmons trees that are there today.

These next two pics were taken in June of 1997, after the video footage was shot. The amoeboid planters are now gone and you can see that a "pit" is starting to be dug where that piece of....uh, well.....oh, let's just call it revolving space garbage....ended up going. I say, bring back the Palm trees and colorful flowers that graced the Tomorrowland entrance for 30 years!

Omnibus Ride To Destruction! - Part 1

I recently uncovered quite a bit of Disneyland home video footage that I shot back in the nineties and I've decided to start posting some of it. My first Disneyland video posting was of the live Macaws in front of The Swiss Family Treehouse in a post from last month.

First up for today, we have video that was shot in June of 1997 while riding the Omnibus up Main Street towards The Plaza. As it passes Tomorrowland, we get a pretty good view of the demolition that was taking place in preparation for the New Tomorrowland of 1998....or as I like to call it, "Brown Tomorrowland." Note the two Omnibuses passing one another. Do they even run two Omnibuses at the same time anymore? Too bad E.J. Peaker and the Osmonds weren't riding along with us and singing "Down On The Corner"!





This second video begins with the Tomorrowland construction and ends with a ride down Main Street towards Town Square. Note the large Olive trees in The Plaza that have since been removed and also the teepees set up in front of the entrance to Frontierland.....I had forgotten all about those!

Easter on Main St. - 1995

Today we have a photo taken inside the Market House at Disneyland in April of 1995. In the background, we can see a variety of Easter merchandise on display. The Roger Rabbit figure on the floor next to the flower cart is wearing a furry pink bunny outfit and may be the same figure seen here in a Candy Palace window display one year later. This round-shaped room has since been converted into part of The Disneyana Shop, but for years it belonged to the Market House. Some of the Market House's "party line" phones were even located just at the entrance to this room.

Here is a photo of the room as it appears today (borrowed and used with permission from the blog, Vintage Disneyland Tickets.) 

 

 

At one time, this room was known as the "Birthday Cake Room." Check out Kevin Kidney's fascinating post on the history of this room here: The Birthday Cake Room

This next item is dedicated to Viewliner Ltd., who posts wonderful images from the past on his blog. I'm not sure if this was a postcard or a product insert. It is undated and the back is completely blank. It is just about the size of a postcard and it's printed on similar card stock. It appears to be quite old. 

 

Happy Easter, everyone!

Roger Rabbit "Hearts" Jessica Rabbit & Squeaker Postcard

In honor of Valentine's Day this weekend, we have a photo of Roger Rabbit all decked out in a tuxedo. He's holding a heart-shaped box of chocolates in one hand and a picture of his wife, Jessica Rabbit in the other. The wallpaper in the background even contains silhouettes of Jessica Rabbit and Baby Herman. This was a Main St. window display at Disneyland in February of 1996. The window was located next to The Candy Palace on Main Street and is the same window as this one that contained a paper sculpture of the Castle for Disneyland's 25th birthday in 1980. Sixteen years had passed since I took that first pic and I had now learned that if you are going use a flash to take a photo of something behind glass, you have to shoot it at an angle to avoid seeing the reflection of the flash!

I'm throwing this image in just because of it's heart-shaped background. This is one of my earliest Disneyland souvenirs from childhood. It's a "squeaker" postcard. These are called squeakers because they are extra thick with a little device located inside and when squeezed in the middle, they let out a "squeak." The pin hole at the top is there because as a kid, I had this pinned to a bulletin board in my bedroom.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!!!

Walt Disney Sat Here!

Today we will be visiting the Main St. Opera House at Disneyland. All of the photos from today's post were taken over the recent Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend.

Notice how The Walt Disney Story/Steve Martin film marquee is now missing from the facade of the Opera House.


Posters on either side of the doorway announce that Lincoln is coming!


Inside there is more Lincoln artwork. The sign says "Opening Later This Year - In Celebration Of His 200th Birthday," but a cast member informed us that Lincoln would be ready HOPEFULLY by the end of the year.....and if not, then hopefully by February (in time for his 201st birthday.)

The film, "Disneyland, The First 50 Magical Years" still plays inside, but on a smaller screen.

I asked the cast member if he thought this film would ever be released on DVD and he said they get plenty of requests for it and that they do pass that information on to management. I'd buy a copy!

The large glass case in the main room that had previously been covered up, now has a new display. There is a sign above it that reads, "Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow."

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Let's work our way backwards here, shall we. First let's look at "Tomorrow." A new Star Tours? That's it??? Why do I find it hard to get excited about this? Maybe it's because we've been hearing about it for years now and it should have happened already! And what about the rest of Tomorrowland.....Honey I Shrunk The Audience, Innoventions, an abandoned PeopleMover track? Need I say more?

Next we have "Today." Hey, didn't the Pooh ride open like back in 2003? Isn't it now almost 2010? And they want to BRAG about this attraction? Sleeping Beauty Castle walk-through....EXCELLENT!!! And I do enjoy the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage (maybe not as much as the original subs), but I don't like the way they crammed more seats into the subs. If you're 6 ft. or taller, you better just hope that they don't stick you in one of the new seats that hangs over the bottom of the stairway.....NOT FUN!

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Last up, we have "Yesterday." It's very sad looking at these photos and realizing just how many wonderful attractions have been destroyed over the years. The ones that I miss most are The Carousel of Progress, Adventure Thru Inner Space, Country Bear Jamboree, and Nature's Wonderland Mine Train. Which attractions pictured do you miss the most? Oh well, I guess we will have a new Star Tours sometime in the future....and we'll always have the newly painted swings and ferris wheel to ride across the Esplanade.

Well, I'm going to end this post with something positive! Here are a couple items that are currently on display in the foyer of the Opera House.

This first one is a bench from Griffith Park and it is THE bench that Walt Disney sat on and dreamed about a place where "parents and children could have fun together" while his daughters were riding the merry-go-round.

And here is an actual horse from that merry-go-round. It is currently on loan to Disneyland from Griffith Park.

There wasn't a plaque for this peanut cart, so I don't know if it is just there for atmosphere, or if it is the actual cart that Walt bought peanuts from back in the day. It's even filled with bags of peanuts!

Well, 2010 is almost here and that means the park will soon be celebrating it's 55th birthday. Here's to hoping that there's more in store for Disneyland in the near future than just an updated Star Tours attraction. And here's to a brand new Abraham Lincoln....one that hopefully won't require "surround sound" headphones or 3-D glasses to enjoy!

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.

World Bazaar

This is Tokyo Disneyland's World Bazaar. It's called World Bazaar because it was originally going to be themed to different countries from around the world. That concept was later dropped and replaced with the classic Disneyland "Main St." theme, but the name "World Bazaar" was never changed. The original concept came from early plans by Walt Disney to have an "International Street" at Disneyland. That street was going to run parallel to Main St. and would have been accessed off of the east side of Disneyland's Town Square, approximately where the gate opens for park parades.

The roof over World Bazaar is made up of 3,000 panes of glass. It provides guests with protection from the elements, since Tokyo gets a pretty fair amount of rainfall. The photo above shows Center St. which crosses World Bazaar from east to west. Disneyland in Anaheim has a Center St. that crosses it's Main St. in the same fashion, but it is very short with "dead ends" on both sides. In Tokyo, this street actually leads somewhere. If you turn left, you can go directly into Adventureland without having to go through the Plaza. If you turn right, you can go directly into Tomorrowland. This extra access greatly improves the flow of traffic.

Notice the "flat curbs". This also improves traffic flow and cuts down on the number of guest "accidents".