Saturday, December 31, 2016

New Year's Eve Tickets

Goodbye, 2016! You were a real kick in the pants. But tonight's the night when so many people party like it's 1999. As usual I'll be attending a low-key affair with many of my celebrity friends; it's a pot-luck, and I hope Beyoncé will be bringing her famous tuna noodle casserole. She puts salt 'n vinegar Ruffles potato chips on top, my favorite.

I wanted to post something unusual or special, and all I could come up with was to scan all of my Disneyland tickets from past New Year's Eve parties. There are only four, but they'll have to do.

First is this fun ticket from 1962. Tickets were a mere $5.50 - but when you adjust for inflation, that works out to about $45 in today's bucks, believe it or not. Still a relative bargain! And you get hats and noise makers. Hopefully when they say "noise makers" they mean loaded pistols, which everyone  can fire into the sky at midnight. It's a SoCal tradition. I love the artwork on this one. The park was open until 2 A.M. so I hope you had a nap.


This next one is from 1966. Pretty dull, design-wise. That $8 admission was the equivalent of about $60 today, which was quite a lot. You and your date - let's see, 60 X 2, carry the 4, divide by π, multiply the remainder by the hypotenuse, skim off the fat - that's $120! (New Math). Sure, it was a lot of money, but didn't you see the thing about noisemakers?? 

Meanwhile, I wonder why somebody punched "VOID" into this ticket. You'd think they would have just thrown the unused examples in the trash. History, shmistory.

Walt Disney passed away on December 15th, I wonder if that put a damper on things. One would think so.


As you can see, it's now 1967. This pink ticket was for advanced sales; once again I love the artwork! I wonder what bands were performing? Probably all of the acts from the recent Monterey Pop Festival. And notice that now guests would receive crazy New Year's hats! Say, what are the odds that New Year's Eve would fall on December 31 again?


And finally, another 1967 ticket, this time for those who didn't plan ahead. Be spontaneous! Sure, it will cost more, but you're worth it. I especially like that this one is unused, and does not have the dreaded VOID punched through it. Do you think that the "Surprise Midnight Spectacular" was a fireworks display?


I hope you all have a fun and safe New Year's Eve, and a happy, healthy, prosperous 2017!

10 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-

Some nice tix you got there.

Happy New Year's eve to all-!

K. Martinez said...

You can have the noisemakers. I want the crazy New Year's hat!

I think the 1960's are my favorite era for Disneyland ephemera. The graphics and illustrations can't be beat. You've definitely picked some good stuff to show today.

I can't wait to say goodbye to 2016. I guess you've gotta have a bad year to appreciate the good years. 2017 can't come soon enough for me. At least it was a great year here on "Gorilla's Don't Blog"

Thanks for another fun year here on the GDB, Major. I look forward to another year of vintage fun.

Happy New Year, Everybody!

TokyoMagic! said...

The one and only time I ever went to one of the separately ticketed New Year's Eve parties at Disneyland, was 1981 and the ticket cost $15.00. I don't remember the crowds being too bad that year, but I have been two more times since then for New Year's Eve and the crowds were a nightmare both times. That was 1996 and 1997, and you couldn't pay me to ever do it again! Does anyone know what year Disney stopped having the separately ticketed New Year's Eve events?

Happy New Year, Major and everyone!

TokyoMagic! said...

P.S. Major, you had me laughing out loud several times throughout this post! Thanks!

Nancy said...

Pretty cool, Major! I wonder how many tickets were made available? Sounds like a fun party, but I agree that too crowded is definitely not much fun. I think I would have spent the evening at the dance pavilion....maybe Annette was there!

Wishing everyone a great New Year's Eve, and I am hopeful that this coming year is a happier one than the one we are leaving behind. As K.Martinez said, looking forward to lots of "vintage fun" (luv that, Ken) here! :-)

Scott Lane said...

I think the "surprise midnight spectacular" that year was Phyllis Diller zip-lining from the top of the Matterhorn with sparklers in both ears. You just can't get entertainment like that for $8 anymore!

Happy New Year everyone!

Unknown said...

Well that's it! It all looks like so much fun (Crazy Hats!) that I'm going to the park tonight. I should be able to sneak in by shinnying up a Monorail pylon and... wait, maybe not. I could always fly my Bell Jet-pack in for a Tomorrowland entrance as long as I wear my silver lamé jumpsuit, right? Right? C'mon, who's with me?

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, I only wish I had more!

K. Martinez, there are a lot of great 1960’s souvenirs; in spite of my years of collecting, I don’t feel like I have an exceptional bunch of stuff. That’s what happens when you compare yourself to Matterhorn1959!

TokyoMagic!, can you imagine what the crowds are like now? And yet, those people seem to love it no matter what. I’m one of those people that tries to avoid crowds if at all possible. Glad I could provide a few laughs!

Nancy, presumably many thousands of tickets were printed for a big event like New Year’s Eve . According to “Jason’s Disneyland Almanac”, the attendance was as follows. Dec 31, 1962 - 17,914. Dec. 31, 1966 - 29,266. (There are no attendance figures for Dec 31, 1967).

Scott Lane, you had me at Phyllis Diller!

Patrick Devlin, I really do wonder if it is possible to sneak into the park these days. Motion detectors, infrared cameras, mines, doberman pinchers, snipers… it’s probably pretty tough to do.

Chuck said...

Hmm...I wonder if I can get a job as a Disneyland sharpshooter...

Nanook said...

Major-

You know, come to think of it, I'm fairly confident I attended either one - or both - of the 1968/69, or 1969/70 NYE celebrations there. But have little memory of the experience - just the conversations with my folks about driving home on those evenings.