Friday, December 05, 2008

Posterama II

It's time for another look at a couple of fabulous vintage Disneyland attraction posters!

From 1956, this Skyway poster is one of my favorites. I bought this one from the Janzen brothers (of "E-Ticket Magazine" fame) for $300, which seemed cheap even then. Repros usually get the buttery yellow background completely wrong, using a much more harsh version of that hue. One particularly interesting feature of this poster is the depiction of the never-built "Air Boats" attraction over on the left; these were going to be large versions of the boats that are used to skim through the Everglades (see the giant propeller on the back?). Noisy and dangerous, and not particularly futuristic either! But part of me wishes that they really existed, if only for a little while.


Howard Lowery's auction catalogs often referred to this beautiful Submarine Voyage poster as "the Cadillac of attraction posters", and it's hard to argue the point. Such a wonderful design, and great bold colors. Mermaids are frolicking around the ruins of Atlantis, and there is a sunken wreck, probably full of pieces of eight (or even pieces of nine!), while each porthole of the submarine has a little face gazing out. The underside of the sub reflects the warm light of an open volcanic vent. The very first (and extremely rare) version of this poster mentions the sponsorship by General Dynamics, I have only seen one of them and still kick myself for not buying it (it was in rough condition).

9 comments:

  1. The Submarine Voyage poster is one of my personal favorites as well. I also love the new one for Finding Nemo- they stayed very similar stylistically with a bit smaller sub and Marlin and Dori on the left and Nemo and Squirt where the mermaids are. It's cute!

    Again, thanks for sharing!

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  2. Anonymous1:38 AM

    Oooo! I just love these old posters, it's all in the style style style (thrice o'er, I say!). Wow what a feeling of depth overhead and in the ocean despite "simple" graphic design, masterful.

    I'm happy to hear they took the wonderful art to heart with the new or revised sub attraction poster. :)

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  3. A couple of true beauties!

    Those air boats would have been too cool (also noisy and dangerous!) they remind my of "Gentle Ben", as a kid I wanted one of those air boats so bad!

    Love the artwork on both of these! Thanks!

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  4. Anonymous2:18 PM

    Along with the never-built 'Air Boats' attraction, the Astrojets are going in the opposite direction!
    But still a classic.

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  5. If you stare at your Sub poster as long as I've stared at mine, you will notice two guests who look suspiciously like Alfred Hitchcock and...I kid you not...Hitler. Smiling, no less.

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  6. Oh, fine...I'll tell you which ones....

    Hitler is the first guy on the right...Hitchcock is the third one in.

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  7. Ug...got that one wrong. Hitchcock is the 6th one in, not the 3rd.

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  8. Jed, are you sure it isn't Charlie Chaplin?? I can't believe that Hitchcock would ever agree to share a sub with Hitler!

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  9. lol, you guys...

    two classics here! the detail is awesome. the submarine poster is one of my personal favorites

    thanks, Major :D

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