Wednesday, January 24, 2018

"Disneyland '66" Brochure

Today I have another fun paper item from Disneyland's days of yore. On the rarity scale I would rate this about a 5 out of 10 - not super scarce, but you can't wallpaper your living room with them, either. It's a nice multi-page item touting the new attractions that visitors would be able to enjoy.

Say, that cover's pretty classy! Not a single character to be seen on the front or back. I love the classic characters, but those old-timey designers didn't need to use them.


"It's a Small World" has been at the park for nearly my entire life, so it's hard to imagine the place without it. Folks love to mock it, but I love the attraction. The music, the Mary Blair/Rolly Crump designs, the humor, and the message of peace and unity just do it for me. Your mileage may vary.


New Orleans Square, wow! What an incredible addition to an already incredible park. Walt and his boys really outdid themselves. Of course, there was no "Pirates of the Caribbean" until 1967, and no "Haunted Mansion" until 1969, so for now the brochure emphasized charming shops, dining, and live music.


The addition of the Primeval World to the Disneyland Railroad's route was a stroke of genius. And as a kid, I always wanted to see the dinosaurs. Little did I know that they had come from the recent World's Fair in New York - in fact I probably did not know what a World's Fair was


14 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-

"Three new attractions", and so many more to come in 1967. The addition of Primeval World was a favorite with me, and always looked forward to seeing it - which meant a 'grand circle tour' around The Park. Oh boy-!

Thanks, Major.

TokyoMagic! said...

Major, what a great little piece of Disneyland ephemera! It's such a shame that they don't build anything this fun, exciting or imaginative anymore.

Chuck said...

Primeval World was probably my favorite attraction as a dinosaur-crazy kid.

When I was six, I remember seeing the poster as we were buying tickets at the gate and asking my parents later if we could "see the dinosaurs." They looked at me as if I'd just asked if we could mambo dogface to the banana patch. I tried to explain that I'd seen a poster with dinosaurs on it and they assured me that I'd misunderstood, that there were no dinosaurs at Disneyland.

Later, as we were waiting to board the monorail after a side trip to the Disneyland Hotel, I saw another copy of the poster and excitedly (maybe triumphantly) pointed my parents to it. They had to agree with me at that point that, yes, there were dinosaurs at Disneyland, and there was a round trip on a grand circle tour of Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom in our very near future, followed by the first time I can remember my parents reminiscing about their trip to the 1964 NYWF.

On a later visit, I talked them into staying on the train for a total of three trips through Primeval World. Not that it's ever been difficult to talk my dad into taking a train trip, and I'm sure they were happy to sit for a while.



Gnometrek said...

I went to the 64 NYWF when I was 6 years old and remember the dinosaurs being huge. But I remember the dinosaurs in Disneyland's Primeval World Dinorama as being much smaller. Does any one know their actual size?

MIKE COZART said...

Gnometrek: the audio-animatronic dinosaurs inside Disneyland's Primeval World ARE the relocated dinosaurs from Walt Disney's Ford Magic Skyway attraction from the NYWF 1964/65.

Your size variation recollection might be because at the World's Fair the Ford convertible vehicles guests rode in came much closer to the dinosaur figures and may have seemed bigger to you then - as opposed to the farther distance guests view the same dinosaurs at Disneyland .

MIKE COZART said...

Tokyo Disneyland also features PRIMEVAL WORLD on The Western River Railroad . These dinosaurs were built New in double : one set for Tokyo Disneyland and a second set for EPCOT CENTER's UNIVERSE OF ENERGY attraction ( now closed) many of the displaced EPCOT dinosaurs have been sent to Disneyland as back-ups or potential replacements of the 1964/1966 originals.

MIKE COZART said...

The dinosaurs are not the only Magic Skyway transplants - added to the Disneyland jungle Cruise elephant bathing pool was a re-skinned (and furrless) mastodon that was being attacked by cave man in the FORD attraction - he's the elephant climbing out of the water in the far back - facing away from guests ( presumably to hide the fact his face really isn't an elephant!) he's also a darker skin tone than the rest of the 1962 bathing elephants.

K. Martinez said...

I always liked this piece of ephemera, but never had the opportunity to acquire it. As Nanook said, there was so much more to come in 1967. And then in 1969 came the Haunted Mansion which is about when I think Disneyland hit its peak. Thanks, Major.

MIKE COZART, Now that is some really interesting information about the elephant climbing out of the water in the Jungle Cruise being the former mastodon from the Magic Skyway exhibit at the NYWF. I never knew that. Thanks for sharing that.

Patrick Devlin said...

I just had a funny realization: As I read the blurb on Primeval World, I expected to see Fantasyland listed as one of the places to board the
SF & DRR but it wasn't listed! what could have happened to take away the Fantasyland Station!? Wow, it really does seem like IASM has been there forever, Major. Or at least 50+ years...

Chuck said...

MIKE COZART, thanks for that awesome information!

For everyone's reference, the evolved mastodon in the elephant bathing pool is the darker one (just as Mike described) in the back of this photo.

Here's what he looked like at the NYWF. That also helps explain his position at the back of the pool on a rock - not only does he have the face of a mastodon, he's also dead.

Chuck said...

Here are a few photos of the Primeval World Dinosaurs in their Magic Skyway context, showing just how much closer they were to guests at the NYWF:

Triceratops family

T-rex & Stegosaurus battle

Here's an animated GIF of assembly of one of the Brontosauruses (as they were then called), giving you an idea of the size of the animatronics relative to an average-sized adult (human) male.

And I may not have identified the correct mastodon in my earlier comment. There was another one being attacked by cavemen (as Mike mentioned) that can be seen here, although I'm guessing that this one probably didn't have a full armature.

Stefano said...

Thank you Major, for the brochure, and thank you gentlemen for all the information: fun and interesting, like Disneyland in its great days. Walt Disney being from the golden age of Hollywood studios, his park also economically reused and recycled sets and props and costumes.
Don't remember where I read this (E Ticket Magazine?), but Walt himself dropped his pants slightly for a baggy look, and climbed on a chair to instruct an Imagineer on how the masto-elephant should look.

Anonymous said...

This is a terrific post and comments today. I have learned a great deal, thank you Major, Mike Cozart and Chuck.

I had no idea the NYWF was so complex with so many tableaux. I thought the Disneyland Primeval World was all it was.

And the mastodon in the Jungle Cruise... just wow.

I don't have any real clear memories of Disneyland before IASW, but I do recall riding it for the first time and my parents commenting on how it was new and that they enjoyed it. I'm a big softie, I guess, because I have always liked it too, especially the music. I'm apt to break out into song now and then and annoy my family with it. It's just a good, fine, positive ride experience, sitting down, for about 7 minutes, in air conditioned comfort and a back rest, usually with a minimal wait. An excellent diversion in an increasingly crowded, tense, hot and now overly commercialized park.

I've read that there are some changes to the IASW queue planned for this year. Apparently someone finally noticed the huge conflict with the parade route and the line. My hope was that they would reduce the absurd number of parades that make it impossible to navigate the park.

But instead, they are going to reverse the queue direction again, putting it back into the original configuration. Since that change was originally designed to drive traffic flow through a new gift shop, I guess the gate take for visitors coming for parades is higher than the merch sales at the shop. On my last visit, it was so crowded that it was difficult to get through the shop to get clear of the ride, I'm sure "shrinkage" is a problem in those tight quarters.

There was also something about adding more stroller parking, which might or might not be a bad thing, depending on how and where it is placed.

JG

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, it’s hard to believe that Disneyland debuted three new features of such quality - all of them are still around today. These days one of them would be a cause for celebration.

TokyoMagic!, that’s what I love about ephemera like today’s flyer; it gives just a little taste of what it must have been like to visit the park when those things were new.

Chuck, I can picture your concerned parents slowly shaking their heads, wondering where you got the idea that there were dinosaurs at the park! I’m not sure if you’ve mentioned that your folks went to the NYWF; did they take any pictures (hint hint)?

Gnometrek, as far as I know, the dinos in the Premeval World are the same ones (with new skins by now) as the ones from the Fair, or at least the same size. I don’t have any statistics on how big they actually are, though.

Mike Cozart, I should have read ahead! Your theory about the dinos seeming bigger because folks were closer to them seems reasonable.

Mike Cozart again, it makes me sad to think of the old Universe of Energy closing - one of the few original EPCOT attractions, even though there had been changes. I had never heard about that elephant in the Jungle Cruise being a former mastodon!

K. Martinez, nowadays you could probably acquire one of those flyers for a tiny fraction of what they used to go for. I remember going to Disneyana shows in the pre-eBay days, and seeing them for $80 or $100. Now… maybe $25, or even less.

Patrick Devlin, yes, it is strange to think that an entire DLRR station went away. I’m guessing that IASW was at the park for my first visits, so as far as I’m concerned, it HAS been there forever.

Chuck, seeing those photos makes me wish (for the 1000th time) that I had been able to see the Magic Skyway in person!

Stefano, don’t forget that one of the things that appealed to Walt about participating in the NYWF is that corporate sponsors would pay for developing attractions and technology that he could later bring back to the park.

JG, yes, the Magic Skyway was more than just the dinos, although the cavemen and dinosaurs seem to be what folks remember most vividly. As for IASW, maybe it truly does drive people nuts, but I also think that it’s just an easy target for people to make fun of. I’ve heard something about the IASW area at Disneyland being revamped, but I haven’t payed too much attention to what they are going to do. Maybe I need to look at Mice Chat or some such site!