Thursday, January 30, 2020

More Peoplemover Views, November 1975

It's time for more pictures from a continuing series of photos taken from a trip on the Peoplemover, circa November 1975. 

Let's start with this interesting and unusual view looking down on a Peoplemover train as it passed beneath the Monorail beamway. So much criss-crossing! "Walt, baby..." I said to Walt Disney, "... ordinary people don't like all this jazz, with the crissing and the crossing. In my years in showbiz, I have found that they like two things - trains that go in straight lines, and funny pictures of cats. ". I thought I was pretty persuasive, but Walt didn't listen. Hey, he was paying me a cool million a year, he could do whatever he wanted.


"Walt, bubeleh... nobody wants to ride on a rollercoaster that looks like a mountain. People like two things - flat rides, and the Kardashians". Makes sense, right? Not to Walt it didn't. Sometimes I couldn't figure that guy out. But he had moxie, ya gotta give him that! Moxie to spare.


There are still 12 more photos from this batch! Mostly Peoplemover-related, and all Tomorrowland-related.

20 comments:

Nanook said...

Major, Sweetheart -
It looks like the 4-Level Interchange-! So much of... everything-! I guess this is part of the reason that "Tomorrowland is a world on the move".

Thanks, Major.

TokyoMagic! said...

I don't think there is going to be enough clearance for that PeopleMover car to pass beneath that Monorail beam. I can't watch.

MIKE COZART said...

TOKYOMAGIC is right!! That view and angle looks as if the Monorail beam has collapsed and is too low for the Peoplemover to pass ..... but this wouldn’t be the only deaths that occurred on the PeopleMover!!!! NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE PEOPLEMOVER!!!


Andrew said...

Finally! Someone agrees with me that Walt put in the wrong type of Matterhorn at Disneyland.

Nice pictures today! Now all we need is a Monorail train - preferably green.

Chuck said...


Check out the red-and-yellow bucket hat on the kid in the far-left PeopleMover car. There's some moxie right there.

Musta been a windy day - the Matterhorn waterfall faucet knobs are set to "dribble."

Our sub is still stuck out in the lagoon. I hope they sent Bob Ballard and the Alvin to rescue the crew.

Andrew, I remember being at Cedar Point as a kid and thinking "that's not the real Matterhorn - the real one's at Disneyland!"

Stefano said...

There was a gap or defect in the PeopleMover track right about here, unfixed for years, nay DECADES. Those in the know would clench their tuchis for the jarring bump; lean people especially felt rattled.

Alonzo P Hawk said...

If Dr H. George Wells ever gets around to building that Time Machine it really needs to be housed in a teal Peoplemover car!! The Eloi and the Morlocks would be impressed for sure.

Nice photos Major

Anonymous said...

While Moxie was certainly big in the North East, I would think Walt would be more partial to Dad's Root Beer. My dad was from MO, and he loved the stuff! He would go on and on about root beer places that old served root beer, but would have salt shakers on the counters to sprinkle into your suds (it made it sudsier and you got the whole sweet/ salty thing going). He said later people would dump salted peanuts in. I really don't remember what I was talking about. I need a root beer...

JC Shannon said...

I love the turquoise Peoplemover cars and the intersecting tracks. The Sub Lagoon photo is first rate as well. Walt had a vision, and look what has happened since his passing. I can hear Walt now "Where's that Pepperidge fellow?" "He always knows what I like!" Thanks Major.

"Lou and Sue" said...

OUCH! I'm seeing stars!! Darn Peoplemover!! I should've read these comments, first.

Great "you are there" pictures! Love everyone's comments; that "other" Matterhorn ride is funny!

Sue

Tom said...

"Mostly Peoplemover-related" is my favorite sentence for the week. Bring 'em on!

K. Martinez said...

"..... but this wouldn’t be the only deaths that occurred on the PeopleMover!!!!"

Also known as the PEOPLE REMOVER.

Love both pics today! Thanks, Major.

Anonymous said...

Hey, we got to see a turquoise PM train, that's better than riding in one, because you can see it!

Amazing coordination here with all the tracks and headroom-sideroom clearances, again, I may remind you, all done without computers.

I'm envisioning today's Major P dialog being delivered from a hot tub while the phone sits on the silver tray beside the pool.

JG

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, I’ll take Disneyland’s version of traffic any day!

TokyoMagic!, the roof of the Peoplemover was probably torn off by the Monorail beamway right after this photo was taken. Happened every time.

Mike Cozart, it is so strange to think that the slow-moving, relaxing Peoplemover would be such a deadly attraction. Reading on Wikipedia, one teen girl ran though a tunnel and fell off the track and broke bones, it says that her family sued the park for “not having any warnings about the exit”, I hope that she lost her lawsuit. No rewards for stupid behavior.

Andrew, that version of the Matterhorn looks much better and Disneyland should just go ahead and tear theirs down. AM I RIGHT?!?!

Chuck, bucket hats definitely had their day, I wonder when they fell completely out of favor? For all I know they still sell them at the park, to be honest. Everybody needs a shapeless, dumb-looking hat sometimes, don’t they? Unfortunately Bob Ballard could only take the Simon and Theodore to rescue the sub crew. There were no survivors.

Stefano, it’s like that “Can-opener Bridge” in Durham, North Carolina. Note to self: use the word “tuchis” more often.

Alonzo, so funny, I wrote a post with a “Time Machine” reference the other day, and then removed the reference thinking, “Aaaaa, people won’t get what I’m talking about”. I hope to meet the Eloi that looks like Yvette Mimieux.

Stu29573, I didn’t skip you today! I’ve never tried Moxie, but have heard that the flavor was “herbal” and reminded one old timer of “old socks”. Sounds great! Did people really put salt on their root beer suds? That’s just wrong. I’m calling the authorities.

Jonathan, I wonder how involved Walt was in the design of the lagoon and the intersecting tracks? “Move that over here, it will look better and give the riders are better experience!”. Or did he mostly rely on his skilled staff to come up with the best design? We may never know. Or maybe we will!

Lou and Sue, always read GDB before doing anything in your life. This is a rule to live by.

Tom, I didn’t want to mislead the poor readers, who rely on me to guide them and protect them (See: my comment to Sue).

K. Martinez, they should bring back the Peoplemover, but only use it as a form of punishment. EXTREME punishment.

Major Pepperidge said...

JG, ah, you commented while I was commenting! It takes a while to respond to a dozen comments, believe you me. As much as I love the turquoise Peoplemover trains (and the yellow ones and the red ones and the blue ones), I would still rather ride one than just look! Your description of my situation today is spot-on, only you forgot to mention that my nose has zinc-oxide on it.

Anonymous said...

Major, the monorail beam at that point had the word "Mind Thy Head" painted on in Olde English Lettering, so no one got hurt.

Seriously, someone got out of a train and ran along the tracks? Drugs had to be involved. Dying from things like that is an evolutionary imperative.

JG

Nanook said...

@ JG-

... is an evolutionary imperative. Precisely. Yet another one of those "hard facts" Walt is so-famously quoted for.

TokyoMagic! said...

Alonzo P. Hawk, WEEEEEEEEEEEENA!!!

Anonymous said...

@Nanook, the hard facts that built America...

It's sad, but it's true.

JG

Major Pepperidge said...

JG, I use Olde English lettering for everything, including resumes and letters to the editor (in other words, complaints). It’s classy as hell! The story about the girl who got out and ran along the track said that she was a teenager and had dropped her mouse ears, but I’ld bet money that she was just being a squirrelly teen.

Nanook, and thus the Darwin Awards came to be!

TokyoMagic!, ha ha, I forgot her name was Wena (or Weena?). Hilarious to a young boy, but darn, she was pretty.

JG, I’d like to think that bad decisions are a worldwide phenomenon and not unique to the U.S. of A!