The Golden Horseshoe Revue, September 1983
I'm sharing more "Lou and Sue" photos - this time they're from September 1983, and they feature images from the Golden Horseshoe Revue! There were a bunch of photos in the batch that Sue generously sent to me, and they'd turned pink/red to various degrees. For some reason I had more success restoring the color on a few, and less success on most. So I did the best I could and picked seven photos for today's article.
First up is Pecos Bill himself (what are those chaps supposed to be made out of anyway, a sheepdog?). The legendary Wally Boag had retired in 1982, and Dick Hardwick replaced him until the Revue's last performance in October of 1986. From what I've read, he was excellent! You can see that he has a cheekful of dried beans, which he will spit out as "teeth".
I am guessing that the gentleman on the right is the Irish tenor, but I don't know the performer's name. Do you?
Aw, there's Betty Taylor, who performed in the Revue for 30 years. Amazing!
There's Betty again, in a slinky gown, with her heart-shaped mirror, which she used to help find her man.
Dick Hardwick looks pretty snazzy as the Traveling Salesman. He's still going strong today, doing clean standup comedy at the Grand Old Opry and many other places.
Much to my shame, most of the photos of the pretty dancers were beyond my abilities to restore; at best I could bring them to a combination of orange and pink. Not great, Bob. But I had to share at least a few photos of them purty gals!
Looking at the world through rose-tinted glasses isn't all it's cracked up to be. But leggy dancers make it worth the effort.
As always, a big THANK YOU to Lou and Sue!
19 comments:
Major-
Ahhh, the dance hall dancer. Hubba-hubba... E-Z on the eyes. As for Dick Hardwick's 'fuzzy leggings', they appear to be the fluffiest pair of straw-colored boa's, re-purposed as the ultimate pair of chaps.
Thanks to Lou & Sue.
Wow! These pictures are so good they could be publicity stills. Was Fulton Burley still the Irish tenor at this point?
I’ve always loved the saloon girl/can-can costumes from the GHR.
Thanks to Lou &Sue & the Major too!
Thank you, Major! Considering these had turned fire-engine red and day-glow pink, you really did a great job of making these look much better.
Nanook and Melissa, I'm glad you like these!
Sue
What a great collection of GHR pics! I'm glad that I was able to see the show once, before Wally Boag retired I wonder what that was like for Betty Taylor, to do the same show over and over, for thirty years!
Whose job was it to clean up those "wet" dried beans?
Thank you Lou, Sue, and Major!
Those chaps are made of horse feathers, I checked with Groucho. With Lou's shutter skills and Major's depinking prowess, there would be no stopping you guys in the business world. If you open a theme park, dibs on the first Peoplemover ride. Lou can snap my picture as I grin from ear to ear. Thanks Lou and Sue and Major.
Great pics today, Lou! I can't remember if we went to the Golden Horseshoe when we were at Disneyland (I almost remember going, but that could be a false memory; like my getting abducted by aliens or eating breakfast this morning). I do remember having to get a reservation for the Diamond Horseshoe at the Magic Kingdom. You had to do it first thing in the morning or you would miss the show! I remember my mom being concerned about that. I was more concerned with riding The Haunted Mansion over and over...Good times!
The Golden Horseshoe Revue was a must with my Mom. She was a big fan of live entertainment and Wally Boag so we sometimes had to sit through the show twice in one day. Needless to say, I could sit through it two times a day now standing on my head.
These are indeed great pics Major. Rose tinted dance hall girls work for me just fine.
Thanks Lou & Sue and thanks Major for some fine pics.
I've decided that when that time machine shows up (and its late), I'm just going to follow Lou and Sue around the park Ad infinitum.
Like Tokyo, I was fortunate to see Wally Boag in this show, once. I went in with my friends on a high school trip.
Mom and Dad refused to have anything to do with a saloon show, even if only soda pop were served, so we never saw this as a family. Teenage me rebelled once I was on my own.
Lou and Sue, you had great seats and made the most of them, thank you for sharing the photos.
Major, your restoration process is simply wonderful. I rather like the pink tinge, all the best memories have a bit of this, so it is perfectly appropriate.
I believe that Pecos Bill's chaps are the result of a tragic Rogaine spill.
Speaking of time travel, our daily chats around the Market House cracker barrel remind me a bit of the Star Trek story where an alien race used time travel to their planet's distant past to escape it's certain destruction in the future. It's hard to imagine what our future will do next, but in the GDB universe of Old Disneyland, we can follow one another onto the PeopleMover.
Thanks Major and everyone.
JG
Thanks, TM, JC, Stu, DrGoat & JG!
DrGoat, we would LOVE to have you join us! The fun and laughter would never stop! My dad was always full of surprises; he would "secretly" plan special things to do - and I would just follow and know I was in for lots of fun. (My mom was the really silly one, she kept you laughing.) Being in Disneyland with you and all the other Jr. Gorillas would be sooooo much fun!
JC & JG, I love your idea - let's all ride the PeopleMover together, and I'll make sure my dad has his camera!
Sue
Nanook, I’ve realized that I need a dance hall gal in my life! In one of those outfits, preferably. I thought those leggings that Dick Hardwick is wearing were made from pampas grass.
Melissa, yes! Fulton Burley was there until 1987!
Lou and Sue, I didn’t have much luck restoring a lot of the photos, but today’s selection made for an excellent post. Thanks as always to Lou, and to you!
TokyoMagic!, oh man, you got to see Wally Boag. Lucky! I assume that at some point he returned from doing the show in Florida, and that’s when you saw him? I would think that doing the same show over and over would be maddening, and yet… it might be fun, and nice to have some security as an actor too. And no traveling. They took the wet beans over to Casa de Fritos and threw them in a pot!
Jonathan, horse feathers! Why didn’t I think of that. You should build a Peoplemover powered entirely by baking soda and vinegar. Sure, it will smell funny, but who cares, it’s the transportation of the future!
Stu29573, I never set foot inside the Golden Horseshoe until years after any revue. Well, correction, there was some sort of Toy Story 2 revue. It was fine. Cute, but nothing to write home about. I didn’t know you had to have a reservation for the Diamond Horseshoe, amazing. Shows how popular it was for a time!
DrGoat, I always thought that my dad would be the perfect audience member for the Golden Horseshoe, he would have loved the music and the corny humor. And yet, we never went. I guess he either didn’t know what it was going to be, or else he and my mom didn’t want to sit through a show.
JG, funny how your mom and dad thought of the Golden Horseshoe Revue as something potentially off-color! I only had success on a few of Lou and Sue’s slides, many of them were beyond my abilities, sadly. Most of those were the best shots of the pretty gals, too! Rogaine spill, yuck. Jeez, I don’t remember that Star Trek story, is that from the original series?
Lou and Sue, gosh, it sure sounds like a trip to Disneyland with Lou in charge would have been a good time. Of course I had a good time with my own folks, but I like that Lou would plan surprises. Thanks again for sharing!
I do miss my Mom, Dad, Uncle and Aunt laughing. They did it a lot. Sounds like everyone would fit right in Lou & Sue. Mom did love surprises too, so we'll just have to grab Major's Dad and Mom and head in to the Revue.
Yes, DrGoat, I’ll save seats for everyone at the next show!
Sue, sitting with the GDB group at this show would be the best thing ever.
I'm with Dr. Goat, my family loved a good laugh and I miss them so much.
Major, I'm guessing that both Mom and Dad would have had the same opinion about the saloon show, they were both very religious and straight-laced. But the show was the kind of corny country humor that they both loved, so it was sad that they refused to see it.
The Star Trek Episode was "all Our Yesterdays", but it was the original series, Spock got sent back to the stone age, and Kirk and McCoy to a kind of Middle Ages period, and they all got back just before the sun went nova. All the population of the planet vanished into the past to escape the disaster.
I feel like GDB is like that time machine for me, I can't escape to the past Disneyland permanently, but sometimes for a few minutes at a time, I can do so with my friends.
JG
Well said JG
PS On a non-Disney related note, my family were big fans of Tom Lehrer and he just posted the lyrics to all his songs. I remember them laughing a lot at his material, and it got passed on to my sister and I.
https://tomlehrersongs.com/
DrGoat, my dad had the goofiest laugh (though not a “Goofy” laugh!), it would make other people laugh just hearing it! Hard to describe.
Lou and Sue, I’ll bring plenty of Dr. Wimple’s Meat Flavored Gum to share with everyone!
JG, your parents sound like my Minnesota grandparents, very pious, and fun, but not when it came to anything they found to be offensive. We played cards (I didn’t like playing cards that much, but liked being with my grandparents, so I did it anyway), went fishing, my grandma made lemon bars and shoo-fly pie. I sure do miss them. Even reading your description of that Trek episode has me scratching my head. I think all of TOS is on Netflix, I’ll have to watch that one! I’m sure I’ve seen it and am just not getting a clear memory of it.
DrGoat, oh my gosh, my dad used to play Tom Lehrer, he had several albums, and even a record that was bigger than a 45 rpm, and smaller than a 33 rpm, he’d had it since college. We knew all those songs by heart!
Major, thanks for sharing your memories of your grandparents. Mine were gone when I was very young, I don't remember much except my Mom's Dad. He went with us to Disneyland once, but I don't think he enjoyed it. Mom and Dad and his younger brother were all I had.
Yes, TOS is on Netflix and I think it was season 3. It is a very sad story.
Dr. Goat, thanks for the lyric dump, much appreciated.
JG
From 1980 to 1982, I understudied Wally Boag in the Disneyland's Golden Horseshoe Revue... this was about the same time that Dick Hardwick came over from the Main Street Maniacs to fill in as well. The Irish Tenor in question was Jay Meyer, who also can be seen as the high tenor singing bust in the Haunted Mansion Graveyard scene. The moist lima beans were swept up after each performance by the stage tech, Bobby Davis, who was with the show for many, many years. I'm not sure what kind of fur covered the chaps; felt like it might have been yak hair or some such.
Thank you so much, Ron!
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