California Adventure's 10th Anniversary....Who Cares?

Well, Disney's California Adventure turned 10 today. Does anyone care? Disney didn't seem to. Let me start by saying that I have been to Disneyland on it's 26th, 30th, 40th, 41st, 50th, 51st, 53rd, 54th and 55th anniversaries. I have also been to Tokyo Disneyland on it's 25th and 26th anniversaries. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a fan of California Adventure, but for some strange reason, I decided to go there today for the 10th anniversary (it helped that I already had the day off). I did think that something special might have been planned for the occasion. Even on Disneyland's less significant anniversaries, some sort of ceremony is held. Sometimes they even have special dated merchandise available....and on a very rare occasion, there is a special map for that day or something special is given out to guests. Not at California Adventure. Not today. But, rather than go on with the negative, I will try very hard in this post to focus just on the positive. Ready for a mini-trip report? Here we go....

There is a new "Disneyland Resort" sign out in the Esplanade that is reminiscent of the original sign that used to stand out on Harbor Blvd. Each panel changes at different times to reveal either a letter or a photo. Pat, Vanna....can I have an "n". I think it adds a nice retro touch to the new "Let The Memories Begin" campaign.


Photos have been available online for while now showing the construction walls at the entrance of the park, so I'm just posting this one panel. I do like the retro artwork and the use of the earlier Disney characters which include Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar, Clara Cluck, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Pegleg Pete.

The tile murals at the entrance are gone. Yay!

I did go into Guest Relations just to ask if anything special was being done today and I found this mural inside. Just look at all the things that aren't around anymore.....the Maliboomer, the sun on the Ferris Wheel, the Mickey head on the roller coaster, the giant orange and Superstar Limo!

Construction on Carsland is moving along.

This sign shows guests what the view from this spot will look like when Carsland is completed.

Here's a view of just the construction.......

....and here's a shot of just the sign.

These new attraction posters are now on display inside the Blue Sky Cellar.

A model of the future Little Mermaid attraction has been on display in the Blue Sky Cellar for a while now. This photo shows the "Under The Sea" portion of the ride.

Below, is the "Kiss The Girl" segment. Behind that, is "Ursula's Lair."

This shows a close up of the "Ursula's Lair" scene.

And here's a new (and much larger) model showing the same scene. With flash......

.....and without flash. I hope it really looks like this when the attraction opens!

Again, I like the artwork on the construction walls....even if I don't think they should be spending money to re-theme Mulholland Madness into "Goofy's Sky School". Just tear it down and give us something that isn't "off-the-shelf"!

Here's the construction wall that is located at the exit. Funny, I didn't notice until just now that it has the same artwork as the one that's located at the entrance. You can just barely see that the center portion of the entrance/exit structure has been removed.

There was one tiny acknowledgement of the park's 10th anniversary that was made, but it was only for the cast members. They were all given these badges to wear for the day.

Happy 10th Anniversary, California Adventure! Sorry, but I still wish you were WESTCOT Center!

Fowl Stuff At Disneyland - The Enchanted Tiki Room Barker Bird

(This is the first of a three-part series on "Fowl Stuff" at Disneyland.)

Today's post features The Enchanted Tiki Room's "barker bird", which sat on a perch over the entrance to the attraction when it first opened back in 1963. The idea was to have one of the audio-animatronic birds outside talking to the crowd below, trying to get them to come inside and see the show. Supposedly he was so popular, that he bogged down the flow of traffic through the area and was eventually removed. The photo below is courtesy of Major Pepperidge (thank you again, Major!) of Gorillas Don't Blog and shows one of the audio-animatronic birds that was used (there was also one with blue plumage).


For a while, one of the barker birds was on display inside The Walt Disney Story in the Opera House on Main St. He sat in this showcase which now contains a display of past, present and future Disneyland attractions.


Below, is a photo of the same showcase taken in 1997. The barker bird can be seen sitting on his perch at the bottom of the display.

Here's a closeup shot.

If we zoom in, we can see the cords that were used to provide the bird with sound and movement.

I was going to attempt to include footage of the barker bird doing his thing outside the Tiki Room, but being AV challenged, I just couldn't get it together. However, footage of the barker bird can be seen in the "Wonderful World of Color" episode, "Disneyland's 10th Anniversary" which aired in 1965 and is included in the DVD set, "Your Host, Walt Disney" (released in 2006 as part of the Walt Disney Treasures series.) There is also a short audio snippet available on one of the CDs from the "Musical History of Disneyland" boxed set (released in 2005 for Disneyland's 50th anniversary.) I should also mention that Wally Boag provided the voice of both the barker bird and the show's host, Jose.

***POST UPDATE*** - May 13, 2011:

Here is some footage that I found of the Barker Bird on display in The Walt Disney Story. I shot this footage in 1997.





And here is that footage from "Disneyland's 10th Anniversary" showing the Barker Bird in action.

Knott's - A "Major" Then and Now Photo Comparison & Windseeker Construction

I have said this before, but I really do love "then and now" photo comparisons. When I first saw this 1977 photo on Gorillas Don't Blog, something about it just called out to me for a "now" shot. Whether it was the fact that as a kid, we went to Knott's Berry Farm many times or the fact that having worked at the Farm, I was very familiar with this area....for whatever reason, I decided I needed to get a shot showing what this area looks like today. Before we get to that "today" shot, I would like to say thank you to Major Pepperidge for his generosity and allowing me to repost his photos here.

Okay, here it is, the "now" shot taken from roughly the same spot. So why can't we see the Log Ride maintenance doors in this pic? Well, at some point, Knott's added that building we see to the right onto the game area (formerly known as the "Pilot's Rec Area"), extending it out so that it now blocks the maintenance doors.


In order to get a picture of those doors today, it was necessary for me to move to another spot. This angle allows us to see a bit of the log flume extending out over the rockwork above. We can also get a better view of the signage for Supreme Scream, the attraction which now sits in the spot once occupied by the Loop Trainer. Of course, in between the Loop Trainer and Supreme Scream was the short lived XK-1 attraction which can be seen in (this post) from April 2009.

Supreme Scream is sort of a "reverse" Maliboomer. Fortunately, that eyesore has been removed from Disney's California Adventure!

Riders are taken up thirty stories and then dropped for a weightless "free fall" experience.

Personally, I preferred the old Sky Jump parachute attraction that was only twenty stories tall and had more of a "controlled" drop, but that attraction was removed some time after Supreme Scream was built. However, the actual Sky Jump tower and the Sky Cabin observation car that travelled up the center of it remained.

Last year, Knott's announced that the Sky Cabin tower would now be demolished and a new tower would be erected in it's place.....ten stories taller, making it just as tall as Supreme Scream. This tower would be home to a new attraction called "Windseeker."

Windseeker is a "swings" type of attraction that lifts riders to the top of the tower and then spins, swinging them out 45 degrees....and again, thirty stories high (take that, Silly Symphony Swings!)

I was feeling kind of sad about the old tower and Sky Cabin being lost. Does everything HAVE to be a thrill ride? I will go on the new Windseeker but at the same time, I enjoy attractions like the Sky Cabin every bit as much. In my opinion, these parks need to find a balance and make an attempt to appeal to both the thrill seekers and the guests that are either unable or do not want to ride such attractions (Hey Knott's, bring back the Haunted Shack and Knott's Bear-y Tales!)

Well, I guess Knott's management began to think that maybe the Sky Cabin should be kept around and refurbished. Either that, or they just realized they could save a ton of money by finding a new location for Windseeker and not demolishing the old tower.....which is exactly what they did. The new location is in Fiesta Village. Here's a shot from the OC Register that was taken during the offical ground breaking ceremony for Windseeker.

That yellow building in the background is Fiesta BBQ. The exterior sign reads simply, "Mexican Food." I remember being sent over to work in this location a few times when they were super busy and needed extra help. This was back in the day when it was a very popular buffet service restaurant called La Cocinita. After Camp Snoopy was built, the Walter K. Steamboat and the Grand Sierra Railroad attractions cut off one of the major pathways into Fiesta Village, the one that happened to lead right past this restaurant. The restaurant suddenly became hidden in a dead end corner of the park, which I'm sure had to hurt business. I remember visiting Knott's with my brother and my nephew about ten years ago and this location had been turned into a "Mrs. Knott's Chicken Express." There was nobody in line, which should have told us something right then, but we ate there anyway. That was the one and only time I've ever had "bad" Mrs. Knott's chicken. Obviously, it was not being cooked at this location....it was being brought over from the main restaurant and sitting there under heat lamps until people dumb enough....like us, came along to purchase it.

Ahhh, but I digress......Here's a photo that I took one week ago.

And here's one that I took two days ago. Adios La Cocinita!

To give a better idea of where this is, here's a shot taken from further back. The Merry Go Round (rest in peace, Bud Hurlbut!) is seen on the right. The two photos above were taken through a small opening in that green construction wall on the left.

Here's another view of the site taken from across the lake......

....and a close up showing the restaurant.

And POOF, it's gone! According to Knott's, this new location is going to be a very tight fit for Windseeker. The Merry Go Round sits on one side, Montezooma's Revenge is on the other and the the Silver Bullet and Jaguar rollercoasters also intertwine around in that area. In fact, they have stated that Silver Bullet will have to shut down for one week in order to relocate one of the track's support columns. Can something like that be done all that easily?

Well, enough with the La Cocinita pics. I guess I was just a little sentimental about it because I had actually worked there a few times. Now for a few more Major Pepperidge "then and now" shots. That path into Fiesta Village that I had mentioned earlier is shown below in this photo from 1977. Once again, after Camp Snoopy came along, this was no longer a direct route, so this archway was torn down. For several years after, that part of the building on the right that the arch was touching remained unpainted and a different color than the rest of the building.....but hey, that was Knott's and they definitely WEREN'T Disney. Even Disney isn't Disney today, if you know what I mean.

Here's the "now" shot. In 1985 when Knott's refurbished Ghost Town during their "Ghost Town Alive in '85" campaign, a Pepper Tree was planted against that building covering over the previously unpainted spot. You can see the arbor over to the left is still standing (or has been rebuilt). In the early nineties, when the Indian Trails area was added to Ghost Town, the giant logging wheels visible just beyond the arbor were moved out to Grand Avenue.

By the way, that building on the right is a part of the Sutter's Fine Family Fare restaurant (formerly Sutter's Grub-Stake). If we back up just about fifty yards, and cross Market Street, we get a better view of the building. This is another shot courtesy of Major Pepperidge, but taken much earlier.....1964 to be exact. This was several years before that archway or even Fiesta Village existed. Note the Covered Wagon Show sign hanging out in front of the Gold Trails Hotel.

Here's the "now" shot. The Covered Wagon Show and sign have been removed and now the Silver Bullet rollercoaster plunges through the roof of the restaurant....or so it appears. A sign has also been added to the planter across the way dubbing the restaurant and it's neighboring Icee Stand as "Sutter's Corner." Note, the roof over the queue for the restaurant has been updated. This was done very recently. When I was working at Knott's in the eighties, one of those decorative logs sticking out from the building (seen above) fell off the facade and almost hit a guest. Knott's promptly removed ALL of the logs.

And just for kicks....and because we are in that same area, here's one more "then and now" comparison. First, is another Major Pepperidge shot taken from Market Street looking up at Sutter's restaurant from the other direction. In the foreground, the Knott's Organ Grinder and his monkey perform while a fascinated crowd looks on. One of the guests is taking a photo.....a photo that might even turn up on the blogs one day, fifty or more years later.

This "now" shot was actually taken in 2007. Note the original roof attached to the front of the restaurant. I'm surprised it even lasted until 2007 without needing replacing....it was looking pretty bad! The Turquoise Jewelry stand on the right was also added to Ghost Town during "Ghost Town Alive In '85." I have some Ghost Town promotional materials and employee items from 1985 that I will try to get posted in the future.

Thank you again, to Major Pepperidge for the use of his photos!!!

Mary Blair Dolls & Small World Days At Disneyland

Here are some items that I picked up during my recent trip to Japan. These Small World dolls were being sold in the Disney Gallery at Tokyo Disneyland.


I bought the entire set, including the cowboy (pictured above, but not below).  The doll on the far left is a copy of the "Mary Blair" doll that is featured in Disneyland's It's A Small World attraction. I'm not sure if the other Disney parks' versions of It's A Small World include the "Mary Blair Doll" or not.


The doll's tag has a photo of Walt Disney and Mary Blair posing with her doll. I believe the person that is cut off on the far left is Marc Davis.

And now, another thirty year old newspaper ad from The Los Angeles Times. Thirty years ago today, Disneyland (which happens to be YOUR land) was celebrating Small World Days. I wonder what the free poster looked like? And look, you didn't have to give up an "E" ticket to ride It's A Small World, it was free that weekend. Free of course, with the price of admission. Without that disclaimer in the ad, I wonder how many people would've shown up at the gate and said "Let me in the park to ride Small World.....you said it's free!"

POST UPDATE - January 31, 2011: Here's a photo that I took just yesterday, showing Mary Blair's doll inside the attraction. She can be seen standing on the Eiffel Tower and holding a red balloon.