Uncle Henry Visits Disneyland - Summer of 1966

Sixty years ago, my Uncle Henry came out to California (from Maryland) to visit my mom and dad.  He was my dad's younger brother and there was a 17-year difference in their ages.  During his stay, my dad took him to Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and Marineland.  In the past, I've posted just a couple photos of him at each of those locations, but today, I am presenting all of the photos from his trip to Disneyland.  There are 24 shots, that's a whole role of film!

This is the first shot my dad took that day, and it appears to have been taken from the upper level of an Omnibus.  (Awww, rest in peace, E.J. Peaker!).  Based on the time on the clock, we know that they arrived at the park fairly late in the afternoon.

These were all scanned from slides, and I have never seen physical "prints" of any of these.  My family's slides were buried in the back of a bedroom closet for years, and were not "dug" out until I was in high school.  I remember being excited to see a hint of The House of the Future in this next shot, but also frustrated that more of it wasn't showing.  As a huge Disneyland fan, I was well aware of it's existence, even though I was too young to have experienced it.

In these next two pics, my uncle is standing on the Castle's drawbridge.

My dad lowered his camera a little bit for this next shot.  Maybe he wanted to capture my uncle's reflection in the moat?

Based on the numbering on the slide mounts, it looks like they headed over to the west side of the park, first.

I love my dad's Jungle Cruise pics!  Incidentally, all of these scenes have been altered to some degree, or removed altogether.

I wonder if this photo was a "whoopsie," or if it was intentional?  There were some large circular lines that I wasn't able to eliminate completely.  I'm not sure where they came from, since there didn't appear to be a fingerprint on the slide.  Maybe they were caused by the bright sunlight coming through the bamboo and hitting the camera's lens?

It looks like my dad went on ahead of my uncle, so that he could snap a pic of him coming down the stairs of the Swiss Family Treehouse.  (That's my uncle in the blue shirt and jeans.)

 The Columbia was teeming with people!

This photo of the Friendly Indian Village was probably taken from the Mark Twain or a Keelboat, since it is too low of an angle to have been taken from the Columbia.  Just beyond the trees, we can see the abandoned right of way for the Disneyland R.R.  The tracks had been relocated further north very recently, for the construction of It's A Small World (which had opened just two months earlier).

Speaking of Keelboats, the Bertha Mae was passing by at just the right moment, as my uncle was crossing the pontoon bridge on Tom Sawyer Island.

Next we have the former Fort Wilderness.  I hope my uncle didn't lose a finger in one of the fort's blockhouses!  I am now realizing how many other things in my dad's photos no longer exist, or have been majorly altered.  Sad!

These next two photos are the only ones that my dad took in Tomorrowland.  I wish he had taken pics of other parts of the land, since it would be closing in just three months (October of 1966), for construction of the New Tomorrowland.  Oh, well.....beggars can't be choosers!  I'm just happy to have ANY vintage Disneyland photos taken by my dad.

Since there are just these two Tomorrowland pics, I can't help but wonder if they experienced anything else in that land, other than the Autopia and the Submarine Voyage.

They did catch the Skyway in Tomorrowland, and made their way over to Fantasyland.....

In this next pic, we can see that the Anaheim Convention Center was under construction.  It would open just one year later, in July of 1967.

Attn: "JB"......Pumpkin Coach Alert!

Here's another view of Cinderella's Castle, but taken from a Storybook Land Canal Boat.

This next shot was taken from the deck of Captain Hook's pirate ship....we can see some of the ropes and rigging on the far right.  We can also see Timothy Mouse holding his whip, and one of the Character Food Stands (Fan I).  I think the small specks of light in the sky might be the beginning or ending of a bursting firework shell.  Although, it might be a little too far south for it to be that.

The last two pics taken that day were of the fireworks.

I hope my uncle had fun during his one and only visit to Disneyland.  I do know that he never returned to California after this childhood visit.  He was averse to flying, and never flew in an airplane his entire life.  For this 1966 trip, he had shared a car ride across the country and back, with some "family friends" who were coming out to California to visit relatives of their own.

****BONUS****

I wanted to add something else to this post, so I searched on ebay and purchased a 1966 Disneyland Guidebook.  I've scanned every page, so here it is in it's entirety.

Since these were free to every guest (courtesy of INA), I wonder if my uncle saved his and took it back home with him?

Only .25 cents a day to board your cat or dog at Ken-L-Land, and it included food, too?  What a deal!

Since this isn't one of my own Disneyland Guidebooks from one of my own childhood visits, I find even some of the slightest differences very interesting.  For example, seeing the Mad Tea Party listed as a "B" Ticket attraction.  It was always a "C" Ticket, during my childhood and teenage years.

The new four-seat Skyway "buckets" were being touted in the attraction's description, and Pirates of the Caribbean was "Coming Soon!"

It looks like they were using the ticket booth built into the facade of the Opera House (the black star).  I don't think it was there very long and at some point, a poster was placed over the ticket window.  That ticket window can be seen here, in this post from Gorillas Don't Blog.

I don't remember Aunt Jemima's Kitchen, but when Aunt Jemima ended it's sponsorship at Disneyland (in 1970), the restaurant briefly changed names to "Magnolia Tree Terrace," before becoming the current Riverbelle Terrace.

New Orleans Square would have been brand-spanking new!  I bet the smell of fresh paint was still in the air.  Once again, Pirates of the Caribbean was listed as "Coming Soon."  It would open in March of the following year, just about six months after the summer season ended.

The Haunted Mansion was listed as a future attraction on the Frontierland map.  Construction on the exterior of the house had been completed in 1963, so it had already been sitting there for 3 years, and it would be another 3 years before the attraction ever opened!

It looks like Fantasyland had the most ticket booths out of all the lands.  I think it's interesting that they put one on either side of the Mad Tea Party.  The one to the east of the attraction was not there during my childhood visits.  And It's a Small World, which was only a couple months old, looks a little mispositioned here on the map.  It is shown sitting directly behind (and maybe even overlapping) Storybook Land.  That was corrected in later guidebooks.

It's fun for me to see the schematic layout for the original Tomorrowland, since all of my personal guidebooks are from after the opening of the New Tomorrowland.  Note that the Matterhorn Bobsleds were still listed as a Tomorrowland attraction at this time.  Apparently, both of the Autopias were also being listed as Tomorrowland attractions.

I also don't remember the Main St. train station's "Train Depot Snack Bar."  I wonder how long it existed?

So the Space Bar and the Yacht Bar had the exact same menus?

The Submarine Lagoon's live "mermaids" were listed in the guide's entertainment schedule.

Free Shows and Exhibits:

The back cover featured an ad for INA, the Insurance Company of North America.  They sponsored this format of the Disneyland Guidebooks for 10 years, from the very first one in 1965, all the way through 1974.

Disneyland's Submarine Voyage - 1998 Closure (& Finding Nemo Subs)

Disneyland's Submarine Voyage attraction opened in June of 1959, and closed in September of 1998.

Since this month marks the 26th anniversary of the attraction's closing, let's take a look at some related items.

This button was handed out to guests who rode the Subs, on the very last day of operation. 

Prior to that last day, several newspaper articles were written about the impending closure. This article was from the "Business" section of The Los Angeles Times and was published July 30, 1998, five weeks before the closure.  According to a Disney spokesman, the Submarine Voyage was closing "to make way for a new, snazzier attraction to debut in 2003."  Well, that didn't happen!  A new attraction didn't actually debut until 9 years after the Subs' closing.  But then on a similar note, the Carousel Theater actually remained closed for 10 whole years, with a sign out front stating, "We're Closed to Imagineer a Brand New Attraction," and that didn't happen either!

Speaking of the Carousel Theater, this part of the article claims that the Carousel of Progress got the boot, for the 1998 renovation of Tomorrowland.  It had actually closed 25 years earlier.  Do your proper research, people!!!

This Los Angeles Times article was published on September 3, 1998, only five days before the closure.

This one informed readers that the Submarine Voyage was one of the first three attractions given an "E" ticket designation, back in 1959.  The other two attractions were the Matterhorn and the Monorail, which opened on the same day as the Subs.

The journalist included some quotes from Shannon Baughmann, a former "live mermaid" at Disneyland.  The quotes originally came from David Koenig's book, "Mouse Tales."

And this one is also from The Los Angeles Times, and is dated September 9th, 1998, the day after their closure.  The article mentions that the wait for the Subs on the last day of operation, was at times, up to 90 minutes.

All three articles quoted Disney spokespeople, stating that guest surveys showed the public wanted a more "thrilling" ride.....supposedly.  But I wouldn't put it past the Disney spokespeople to be lying to the reporters, and the real intention was just to save the company some money by shutting it down.

I took these next three photos, the very last time that I rode the Submarine Voyage. The photos are date stamped "November 1998" on the back, but since they closed in September of that year, I must have waited a couple months to have this roll of film developed.

This first one was taken just as a Sub had pulled up to the dock. In the bottom left hand corner, you can see the boarding ramp for guests, which cast members would lower down over the front and back ends of the subs.

The same ramp can be seen in the bottom right hand corner of this pic. The ramp led to a staircase, which spiraled downward into the sub. The pilots of the subs would board the vessels prior to the guests.

I took this next pic of the empty sub, after everyone had already disembarked. Notice the little "air blower" vents in each of the portholes.

Going back one year earlier, I was taking many pictures in an attempt to document all aspects of the attraction. At that time, I didn't know for sure that it was eventually going to be shut down. However, a "remodeling" of Tomorrowland had already been announced and I knew there was a chance.....a very likely chance, that they were going to ruin the attraction, if not remove it altogether.

These next pics were taken in Spring of 1997. Note the fencing and tarp along the PeopleMover track. Work had already begun, to convert it to one of the biggest flops in Disneyland's history, the Rocket Rods.  Okay, maybe the Rocket Rods are actually "tied" with Light Magic!

These sea turtle pics were actually taken while standing on the walkway, between the Matterhorn and the Submarine Voyage, looking down into the lagoon.

Now, let's take a ride on the Submarine Voyage!

"Among these coral reefs, you'll see various species of marine life, feeding among the seaweed and unusual rock formations.  There are lobsters, crabs, and sea turtles."

"These reptilian patriarchs of the deep, are the amphibious descendants of the dinosaur, and have changed little in the past 200 million years."  (I believe this is one of the sea turtles we saw from above the surface of the water.)

"Roaming the coastal sea bottoms in search of food, are the Groupers, or Giant Sea Bass."

"And speaking of giants, the giant clam has a fluted shell that can weigh up to a quarter of a ton."

Here are a couple "silent sentinels of the deep"; an octopus battling a young shark.  And speaking of "silent"....."the fish world has always been considered a silent habitat, but now thanks to remarkable advances in marine technology, we can use instruments such as our sonar hydrophones, to actually hear the fish talk."

This one is saying, HEEEELP MEEEE!!!

Quality photographs couldn't really be achieved, once the Subs were inside the ride's show building/caverns....at least, not with my camera. So instead, I decided to take a picture of the inside of the submarine.  Oh, and there is "NO smoking, please!  The smoking lamp is out!"

This is a shot (from Wikipedia) of the last scene before exiting the caverns.  "It...it looks like a....it is, it's a sea serpent!"

Here are two more exterior shots:

After the Subs reopened in 2007, as the new "Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage," I tried to replicate the shot above, for a "before and after" comparison.  They had changed the exit and entrance ramp for the Monorail station, so now it is located very close to where the subs exit the caverns.  The new ramp can be seen on the far right.

Construction on the "Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage" began in 2005, after the lagoon had just sat there for 7 very long years.  A construction wall went up around the lagoon, along with artwork announcing what was coming, and when.

As the opening date got closer, a sign appeared out in the Esplanade, in front of the park.

Banners also appeared on the lampposts in both the Esplanade and Downtown Disney.

Inside the park, a countdown sign was posted at the entrance to the attraction, displaying the exact number of days until opening.

Before the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage officially opened to the public, Disneyland Annual Passholders were given a chance to "sea" it early.

As a part of the attraction's new "Nemo" theme, a large buoy was added to the lagoon.

Three animatronic seagulls sit atop the buoy.

Every so often, the seagulls will open their mouths, and start saying the one and only word they ever spoke in the film, "Mine!  Mine!  Mine!" 

I've been on the new version of the attraction many times now, but I've only taken a few pics during the actual ride.  Here are those shots:

"DIVE!  DIVE!  Take her down easy!"

A giant sea bass, very similar to the originals, returned to the lagoon.

Colorful coral:

The two battling crabs vignette returned, but now they are standing over the grate of an underwater pipeline.  According to Wikipedia, they are supposedly just "pinching bubbles."

I hope everyone has enjoyed this "adventurous voyage through liquid space....our last frontier on the planet Earth!"

****UPDATE - October 7, 2024****

Here are two Disneyland guides from the Summer of 2007.  Both were announcing, "The Subs Are Back!" on their covers.

And both guides featured this description, inside.