Sunday, February 03, 2019

Jungle Cruise Snoozers, September 1966

You know the drill; Sunday = low readership = me posting dumb photos that nobody wants to see! 

Well, OK, this first one isn't too bad, but that's because any occasion is lightened up by a boat full of skulls. Nowadays we can all just drive over to Skull City for all of our skull needs, but back in those days, you had to make do with what you could find. Not long after this picture was taken, a pile of colorful throw pillows was added to this tableau.


I know that you probably want a full refund after seeing this picture, but if you stand on your head and squint real hard, you can spy the shadowy form of a rhinoceros. This is probably a Sumatran rhino, which can be found in jungle areas, though they are notoriously shy.


And here is a too-dark photo of frolicking elephants - they love that sacred bathing pool. Not too far from the pool is the sacred tennis courts and the sacred picnic tables. Elephants are very spiritual.


10 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-

Well, that finally explains it. No one believed me when I told them that infamous pile of skulls had been replaced with a decorative pile of accent throw pillows - in the latest "on trend" colors. I can't understand why folks are so doubtful of the beautiful things in life. Trader Sam loved to dabble in interior decorating-!

Thanks, Major.

TokyoMagic! said...

I also remember the throw pillows. They weren't there too long, because they didn't weather very well, but I remember seeing them when they were brand gnu.

JC Shannon said...

Nothing says come hither like a boat loada skulls. Is that a rhinoceros? He certainly is a shy one. The last scan reminds me of Hatari with John Wayne and Red Buttons. And now I have Baby Elephant Walk stuck in my head, thank you very much. Everything has skulls on it now, so I guess Walt was ahead of his time, again. When I was a kid I thought throw pillows were specially shaped and weighted for throwing. When the parents were gone, my brother and I made good use of them. I think it is an Olympic sport now. Thanks Major for a another Sunday morning smile.

Chuck said...

Anybody know - were those skulls all cast from the same mold? And - did they use the same mold for the skull in the Spike Room (and elsewhere) in the Indiana Jones attraction?

Jonathan, your story reminds me of a friend I had in 7th grade. His house had a finished basement, but there was almost no furniture in it, just a big, huge open room with unused things stored in piles along the walls. Amongst the mathoms were two old, lumpy, king-size pillows. One day we hit upon the idea - who knows where it came from - of using the pillows as "rocks" for "caveman wars."

The game had a fairly rigid set of rules. Each of us started on the opposite side of the room with a "rock," and the basic idea was to beat your opponent to "death" with it. If you hit a limb, that limb was "crushed" and couldn't be used anymore for the remainder of the match. "Rocks" could be thrown, but we learned that was a bad strategy unless your opponent was already badly "crippled." You "killed" your opponent with a "fatal" strike to the head or spinal column.

I have fond memories of the two of us happily pummeling each other to exhaustion.

Melissa said...

It *just* dawned on me that that old punster Marc Davis was probably making a play on "scull."

Anonymous said...

That 1st pic takes me back to piloting my boat through the JC. I can feel the warmth of the day and see that canoe rocking back and forth with the previous boat's wake. So much for detail...

The question is...where is/was this canoe located?? (Yes...I know the answer). KS

K. Martinez said...

This is when Disney tried to theme the Jungle Cruise to Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness".

Love the Arts and Crafts pic. Of course that's Art on top. Thanks, Major.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, a lot of people complained about those gross skulls, so Disney replaced them with pillows. They should have used a pile of plush toys, in my opinion.

TokyoMagic!, you are lucky that you remember those Audio-Animatronic pillows!

Jonathan, I can’t think of a more natural movie duo than John Wayne and Red Buttons. “Baby Elephant Walk” is one of those songs that I used to hear a lot, and now it has been years and years. Wonder why? And my mom had pillows that had beaded decorations on them, so if you got hit with one, it HURT. And she got mad at us for throwing her expensive pillows. Guess what? We kept throwing them anyway. Would an Olympic pillow competition involve throwing them the farthest, or inflicting damage on one’s opponent?

Chuck, I think I see variations in the skulls, but perhaps they could be customized (teeth removed, etc) so that they didn’t look so “cookie cutter”. Ha ha, “caveman wars”, such a kid idea. My friends used to play a “tackle the guy with the football” game that had a name that I can’t print here - it was offensive, but I don’t think we even knew that it was bad!

Melissa, hmmm, I suppose that is possible, though I think that might just be a coincidence. I could be wrong though!

KS, so that canoe actually floated? I thought it might be a rigid prop that might have had some sort of solid support underwater. I thought that the canoe with the skulls was visible pretty early on along the river, but I don’t really know. I guess it would make sense that it would be closer to the dancing headhunters? Or Trader Sam?

K. Martinez, jeez, I never thought about it, but I really do wonder if the Imagineers were familiar with that story!

Anonymous said...

Major... Yep...it was adjacent to the headhunters after leaving the hippo pool. While it was tethered, it was a floating prop. KS

Anonymous said...

Always enjoyed the pile of skulls. Seemed like it fit right in. Has this really been taken out?

The rhino is doing a great job of "not being seen".

It's ok to watch the elephants bathe, they have their trunks on.

Thanks Major.

JG