Magic Kingdom Attraction Posters, September 1972
Happy Birthday to GDB friends Mike Cozart! It's Zach's birthday as well, I'm not sure if he's still reading GDB, we can wish him a happy birthday too. Sue B. sent me some amazing slide scans that will be especially interesting to Mike. BUT FIRST... here's a cake for both of them.
Lou Perry went to Walt Disney World in September of 1972, when the park was not quite one year old, and as he so often did, he took photos of things that most guests did not. In this case he took a series of rare photos of attraction posters, which (I believe) were on display in the tunnels to Main Street USA. In all my years of looking, I have seen darn few images of these Florida posters - the ones that I have seen were on Mike's old blog. Since Mike is such a poster aficionado, this seemed like a great subject to cover on his birthday.
First up is this "Mickey Mouse Musical Revue" broadsheet, in a style quite different from what most of us probably think of when we think "Disney attraction poster". One of three opening-day Fantasyland attractions, it featured many of your favorite Disney characters as they performed beloved Disney songs such as "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" and "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo". Mickey Mouse was the conductor, of course.
That's it for now, but there will be one more Magic Kingdom attraction poster blog post to come! Thanks to Lou and Sue as always.
29 comments:
Major-
Wow... talk about your re-purposing-! I suppose in the long run, it really doesn't matter; but still. What a great treat from Lou.
Happy birthday(s) to MIKE and Zach-! Thanks to Lou and Sue for this swell AP assortment.
Happy birthday, Zach and Mike:
Two great guys we really like.
Come on in and sit on down,
And have some cake shaped like a clown.
Such gorgeous posters, and such foresight on Lou’s part for documenting them all! Way too many of them are for attractions I never bothered to visit because I assumed they would always be there the next time I went back. Sic transit gloria bloody mundi, I guess!
@ Melissa-
I didn't know you were British-!
Maybe it's just the low camera angle, but the clown on the cake looks a little EVIL!! Partly the gumdrop teeth. ("Not the gumdrop buttons!") Partly the unibrow. Good use of colored coconut though.
Strange art-style on that first poster, IMO. Seems so un-Disney. Even the "Mickey Mouse" font at the top looks odd. Not a bad poster, just... odd.
Of all the rest, I think the Swiss Family (Island) Treehouse is my favorite. The colors speak to me.
Thanks to Lou and Sue and Major for bringing these to us. And happy birthday to you, Mike and Zach.
Wow!! These are great!! I’ve never seen photographs of the first series of WDW posters “in action” in such great color and clarity!
And thank you for for birthday wishes! You know today is also The Pirates of the Caribbean’s 55th anniversary!!
Lou definitely knew what he was doing when he took photos! Thank you for sharing these.
Major: actually there was a mistake in by blog regarding the first WDW posters : the opening 20 posters from 1971 are identical in size to the original Disneyland posters : 36” x 54” in fact many of the same “positives” used to burn the screens were the same ones used on the Florida posters. Attempts were made on most of the posters to add WDW only elements or details : the 1971 Dumbo poster is identical to the 1956 Disneyland version , but the scroll pattern to the Florida carousel tent has been added . Others are more extreme … The Haunted Mansion…. 20,000 leagues keep the flavor of the Disneyland version but have included any of the WDW design changes . Others lift Disneyland piste art and make only lettering changes or omissions as necessary. The Tropical Serenade poster uses the United Airlines 1967 revision poster for Disneylands Enchanted Tiki Room artwork INCLUDING United Airlines 1967 tiki god of Leisure: note the jet plane wings in his headdress?? I wonder if Florida Citrus Growers noticed another corporate character on their poster. Other Florida posters took Disneyland generic posters and used them with only minor adjustments with sponsors like it’s a small world , flight to the moon and Peter Pan for example. Interestingly I have seen photos taken at Disneyland with a WDW small world , Peter Pan and Swiss Family ISLE posters displayed in Anaheim. Were they mistakenly Sent to Disneyland? Had they been used at some point to cross advertise the new Florida park to California guests? The completely all new Florida debut attractions HALL OF PRESIDENTS , MICKEY MOUSE REVUE and THE COUNTRY BEAR JAMBOREE attraction posters were painted and reproduced lithographically with lettering and some graphics added photo mechanicaly in the printing process. All of the 1971 posters were done in single production runs and weathered quickly with water and moisture damage. In 1976 the first of the new size posters were being created for both parks … and for awhile the smaller posters had to be matted to fit inside the larger frames. In 1978 ALL the Florida entry tunnel frames were replaced with new smaller sized posters and and to fill out the collection , posters not already being silkscreened were done lithographicly so as to have all the poster frames filled .
Between 1971 and the start of the smaller generation posters there were 3 additional (technically 4) addition 36” x 54 “ posters . These include a 1972 revision of The Country Bear Jamboree poster featuring altered artwork to the way the poster looks today .. some printer with “Frontierland” some printed with Disneyland & Walt Disney world .. ( this poster was used at Disneyland too and some had Bear Country screened over the two parks. A version of CANADA THE BEAUTIFUL and a MISSION TO MARS ( that altered original Flight to the Moon posters .
The 1978 posters - besides being smaller all have “Walt Disney World” on them whether they are screenprinted or lithographed.
Thanks again for sharing these great images!
Thank you Lou and Sue!!!!
Happy birthday, Mike & Zach!
JB, the clown doesn’t look evil because of the low angle - the clown looks evil because it’s a clown.
Mike, thanks for all of the additional info. You are the poster boy for, um, posters.
Thanks again, Lou & Sue!
I love that Lou seemingly just went down the line and took pictures of all the posters. The Swiss Family "Island" Treehouse is pretty funny. The "island" that it's on used to be circled by the Plaza Swan Boats, but I guess they needed to make some change for WDW, so they crammed in the word.
Wow, these are great photos. I agree with Major and Andrew about the Swiss Family Treehouse poster. Couldn't they have just used the identical poster from DL, without having to shoehorn "Island" in there so awkwardly?
I think my favorite is the Mickey Mouse Revue. I loved this attraction. I'm so glad that I got to enjoy it multiple times at Tokyo DL, before the Japanese decided to kick it to the curb.
Happy birthday, Mike and Zach! And thank you Lou, Sue and the Major, too!
P.S. Sue, please tell me that a real clown came jumping out of that cake, terrifying all of the kids at the party!
Happy birfday Mike and Zack!
May that clown not haunt your dreams tonight.
These are great! My favorite is probably 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It was also one of my favorite attractions. I think I've told the story about how we took my daughter to WDW when she was five. I wanted to share 20,000 Leagues with her, but it was "Closed for refurbishment." It never reopened. That's when I first figured out that Disney brass does indeed ruin everything. (I would point out the current state of affairs, but my brain has almost blocked them out and resigned to the fact that Disney is, indeed, dead (and not cryogenically preserved).
I agree that the first poster is ...odd. It has none of the happy feeling of the other posters, and, for some reason, Mickey reminds me of Jerry Lewis. I'm glad that style never caught on, because who knows what else they might have ruined! Oh...wait...
Thanks Lou and Sue and Major too!
The 1971 MICKEY MOUSE REVUE and HALL OF PRESIDENTS attraction posters were designed and painted by John Decuir. Decuir of course did the set design for Cleopatra and 1969 HELLO DOLLY. He joined WED after Hello Dolly doing Main Street USA and some atmospheric paintings for Hall of Presidents and the stage backdrops and interiors for The Diamond Horseshoe Revue. I have to admit there is something a tad “wonky” about this Mickey Mouse Revue poster art….. it just seems off … and the title lettering of “Mickey Mouse “ is painted on the original while the rest of the graphics were added photomechanicaly during printing. I do like it however as it brings back memories of early WDW. DeCuir’s Hall of Presidents poster is 70’s perfect! Eddie Martinez did the Country Bear Jamboree poster art. The 1971 version had the attraction title painted lower in the poster. “Frontierland” was added photomechanically and done to look like it was “carved” in the wood. When Disneyland was going to get “Bears” in 1972 , they had Eddie go back and alter the original artwork and added a painted scroll at the top of the poster with the attraction title in larger lettering : this is the version Used at both DL and WDW starting in 1972… and was the same art used for the 1978 smaller posters and later the 1983 Tokyo Disneyland bear poster. All three of the WDW 1971 lithographed attractions posters feature a WDW “D” in the lower right corner . The 1971 artwork for Mickey Mouse Revue and Hall of Presidents was reused to make the smaller 1978 versions of the attraction posters , but the lettering fonts were altered a bit on those versions using the latest in Photo Lettering.
In 1983 for Tokyo DL a whole new Mickey Mouse Revue attraction poster was created by animator Bill Justice and it was silkscreened… it’s beautiful!!
Happy Birthday, Mike and Zach! And POTC!
I think the same person who drew Mickey Mouse for those paper plates also drew the poster Mickey Mouse.
Mike, thank you for all the interesting poster info. You worked hard on your birthday to entertain us...it was supposed to be the other way around. I’m glad you like these pictures. There are more, including Disneyland ones, too.
I’ll be back later.
Thanks Lou and Sue. These are a sight for sore eyes. Mickey is a bit of a stretch but the rest are gorgeous.
Thanks Major and Lou & Sue again. You could make a coffee table book of Lou's photographs. I want a signed copy.
What Dr. Goat Said.
That’s not Mickey in that poster, it’s his Evil Twin created by a transporter accident.
I love attraction posters but some of these look like “ do something, anything” was the rule.
HBD Mike and Zach! Any backstory on why the WDW Posters had to be smaller? Seems like an odd notion when the whole program was already established.
Thank Lou and Sue, and Major.
JG
Nanook, for years I have been looking for good pictures of the WDW posters - but never imagined finding anything like these!
Melissa, it’s as if Lou somehow knew that the little details would be the things that we would want to see 50 years in the future!
Nanook, Melissa isn’t British, but she did spend the night at a Holiday Inn Express.
JB, gumdrop teeth make look harmless, but oh ho ho! They are the worst. It takes at least half a day to gnaw through a leg with gumdrop teeth. I agree, that first one looks out of place, but then again, it is not based on the classic silkscreens from Disneyland. It’s hard for me to choose a favorite, but the Swiss Family Treehouse is pretty great.
Mike Cozart, hooray, I knew you’d like these. 55 years of “Pirates” too, I had no idea. Thank you for the corrections on the poster sizes; in a way I thought it would be nice to have slightly smaller posters, not that I will ever find any of these to buy. But the large Disneyland posters are kind of unwieldy! I don’t know why, but it still seems so strange to think that 1971 was only 16 years after Disneyland’s opening, it felt like such a completely different world. I’d love to find photos of the WDW posters at Disneyland!! So far no luck. Based on your comment, I wish YOU had written that Disneyland poster book. Not only did that other one have a lack of details, but they did weird things to some of the reproductions, adding a weird ocher color where it should have been white (Jungle Cruise).
Mike Cozart, YES, thank you Lou and Sue!
Chuck, I’m sure some people think that they want to become clowns to bring joy to people, but something happens along the way, and their teeth grow sharper and they become evil.
Andrew, you should see some of the stuff that Sue has shown me from Lou’s archives, he truly did take amazing rare photos of things that most people would have ignored. That’s why they’re so great!
TokyoMagic!, they should have just written “Island” with a Sharpie. I’m glad you like the Mickey Mouse Revue poster! I’m all about the silkscreens, but it’s subjective of course.
TokyoMagic!, I don’t think I ever went to a party with a clown, or a pony, or a magician, or anything more exciting than “pin the tail on the donkey”.
Stu29573, I think I did see a 20,000 Leagues poster up for auction once, but of course it went for a fortune. My days of acquiring anything new for my collection are over, since the prices have skyrocketed to an incredible degree. I’m sorry you never got to take your daughter on 20,000 Leagues, that is a bummer. The first poster has a jittery feeling, as if Mickey was on a “substance”. I guess they wanted to evoke energy?
Mike Cozart, I wonder if John Decuir did other posters? He was clearly an excellent designer, but I do feel like the classic Disneyland posters have stronger, less cluttered designs. Just my opinion! It’s interesting how many Disneyland folks used to be designers for other studios (Marvin Davis, Herbie Ryman). I’m not sure I’ve seen the WDW Hall of Presidents poster, to be honest, or if I have, I’ve forgotten it. You have so much great detailed information that never made it into that poster book! Now I have to look for that Mickey Mouse Revue for Tokyo.
Lou and Sue, what paper plates?? Did I miss something? I love paper plates more than posters! ;-) Thanks for sharing these great photos, Sue.
DrGoat, gosh, you have to see what Sue has that we haven’t even looked at yet. Amazing stuff.
JG, I can applaud the attempt to make that Mickey Mouse Revue poster feel modern, but it’s just not to my taste. TokyoMagic! loves it though, so what do I know!
Major, there are Mickey Mouse paper plates in that clown cake photo, above...
Yeah, I think that cake may have been baked by The Joker. Watch out for candles that are actually sticks of dynamite.
Happy birthday, Mike and Zach! Wow, that is a preponderance of coconut; someone put a lot of love and effort into that cake, but yikes! I'll take a candy cup and kitty hat and be on my way. Mr. Perry does it again with these crisp, clear poster shots. Thanks Lou, Sue, and Major.
Happy birthday, MIKE COZART & Zach!
Major- Great job on the cake & on such short notice...;)
Thanks Lou & Sue for the great poster shots (& Major for posting them). Anything featuring the Nautilus is going to be my favorite.
Also, happy birthday to the Pirates of the Caribbean- my all time favorite Disney attraction (at least the orignal version...).
-DW
So again the 1971 Walt Disney World attraction posters were the same size as the Disneyland attraction posters. The last new attraction poster that size 36 x 54 produced WED (although not screenprinted by Disney - Disney used the Burroughs Co and another vendor ) was Country Bear Jamboree Revision in 1972. It was then Walt Disney productions decided to end any production of attraction posters.
The sign shops at both parks had the ability to screenprint as well as offset lithography printing and some variation posters were produced by the sign shops later than 1972. Example included Walt Disney World’s sign shop creating a CANADA THE BEAUTIFUL tunnel poster for Salute to Canada days in 1974 and a re-screened and partially hand painted over MISSION TO MARS poster in 1975- only two were made altering two existing 1971 Flight to the Moon posters.
That was to be the end of attraction posters because of the high cost of production, except a group of graphic artists at WED convinced management that Imagineering was capable of silkscreening new attraction posters using the newest Serigraphy printing techniques and doing the posters in current modern graphic trends ( the simple stylized attraction posters of the 50’s and 60’s were very obsolete and amateurish for graphic and art trends of the 70’s ) it would be like trying to sell new 1956 style cars to consumers in 1974 if that helps explain the design taste . A group of WED graphic artists wanted to show management what could be done with modem screen printing techniques…. So knowing that Disneyland was getting all new a new graphics program for the change over from Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad , a new railroad poster was created and included in the new signage package program budget . This poster was the DISNEYLAND BICENTENNIAL SPECIAL. The new screening techniques were expensive so to lower the costs a smaller more popular size ( still really big for posters) was selected. Had the old 36”x54” size been selected it would’ve turned management away. So graphics was allowed to create new screened posters in the new size and style with costs being covered with new projects … the 1976 jungle cruise additions , the 1977 Auto-train sponsorship of WDW RR, Space Mountain complex , Big Thunder Mountain. Etc…. Also tied in to some rehabs were poster revisions for WDW Monorail , and Pirates of the Caribbean ( redesigned in 1976 but not screened till 1982!) for other posters that there wasn’t enough time or a big enough budget for lithographed posters with some graphic updates were created to fill in the gaps of posters not revised in screenprint yet. Examples were WDW’s 1978 series where they took surviving examples of old 1971 screen print posters and lithographed them and adding new lettering etc like 20,000 leagues Under The Sea , Tropical Serenade , Peter Pans flight … and some completely revised new artwork but produced using lithographed printing like It’s A Small World, Cinderella’s Golden Carousel , Grand Prix Raceway, America The Beautiful - also many posters were redesigned and planed to be redone but didn’t get the go head because of costs … and there were no sponsors to justify the change or it was an attraction at only one park like the unproduced new 1980 20,000 Under The Sea , the 1978 Matterhorn Mountain, 1980 Sailing Ship Columbia etc.
Mike, next year we’ll try harder to find photos of a topic you might be interested in.
;o)
BTW, my dad didn’t take that cake picture, and I have no idea who made it, so feel free to say what you want. My feelings won’t be hurt. I agree about that unibrow. Not becoming.
Lou and Sue, OH YEAH!
Melissa, sure, sticks of dynamite are bad, but what about those candles that you can’t blow out??
Kathy! I would not be down with all that coconut. It’s more the texture than the taste (though I don’t really care for the taste much either).
DW, I have to give Sue all the credit for today’s post, even though I did bake that cake ;-)
Mike Cozart, I wish we knew (“we” meaning the general public) more about the sign shop; I’d love to see photos of it, and know just what kind of stuff they did on a regular basis. I seem to recall that there was an article about it in Disney News, but that was a LONG time ago. Not sure I’ve ever seen a Mission to Mars poster! I have one of the Bicentennial train posters, I forget how many different screens it used, but I still have the little document that came with it. It was over 100! I also have one of the Jungle Cruise posters in the same style, but it is in rough shape. I guess I should get it restored, but worry about the cost. Maybe it would be worth it, considering what posters go for now. I wonder why posters were affordable in the 1950s and 1960s, and then were considered “too costly”? What changed? The price of labor? Materials? My understanding is that the Opera House was used as a temporary print shop for a while for those early posters. Thanks again for all the great info!
Lou and Sue, maybe you have photos of ExinWest model kits??
Chuck, yeah, the clown is just evil. I was trying to be diplomatic so as not to ruffle any feathers of the clown-lovers out there. Are there such things as clown-lovers?
JG, wouldn't Mickey's evil twin have a mustache and goatee?
Major, I actually don't have a problem with clowns (or gumdrops). But, like swans and ducks, it's just fun to make fun of them.
About yesterday's red & yellow umbrellas vis-Ã -vis The Amazing Race: On that series (do you watch it?), red and yellow are the Amazing Race colors. Everything; clue envelopes, clue boxes, arrows pointing the way, flags, etc. are striped with red and yellow. Sooo, naturally, I surmised (jokingly) that the red & yellow umbrella tables were meant for Amazing Race contestants. Clear as mud. ;-)
Melissa, there is one candle sticking out of the clown's hat, unicorn style. I bet that's where The Joker hid the dynamite. Although, those buggety eyes look kinda suspicious too.
Yes…. Over the years Disney park attraction posters have been screened and printed by various divisions and areas of the Disney Company as well as several vendors. It depends on existing work loads within Disney and the capability of outside vendors. In the mid 70’s when new Disneyland Opera House posters were needed, the mechanical art ( printing positives on clear plastic were driven down from WED to the Disneyland sign shop and screenprinted there on property. The WED graphics department was so overloaded with sign and poster work for Epcot Center , Tokyo Disneyland and all new signage for Disneyland and WDW with the switch from coupons to no coupons , a great deal of attraction poster silkscreening and signage silkscreening production was sent to vendors in Los Angeles and San Diego. Even some merchandise vendors were put to use for WED graphics … like Murray Skoff Enterprises - the manufacturers of Glasstiques ( the attraction poster mirrors sold at the parks in the early 80’s ) .. Skoff produced hundreds of silkscreened decals for signs used at all Disney parks and the popcorn wagon decals when Disney stopped hand painting them in the early 80’s. Central Graphics of San Diego screenprinted many signs and graphics used for 1983 New Fantasyland.
Even into the 90’s the Walt Disney World sign shop screened and printed several attraction posters like The Walt Disney World RR - Reverse Route …. Main Street Electrical Parade, and Main Street Vehicles for National Rent A Car. In the 70’s Martin-Murrieta printed the WDW Omnibus attraction show cards and many of the offset lithography attraction posters done in 1978.
Don’t mock the power of EXINWEST…….lol!
That cake is of Wilton The Clown……. The dissatisfied clown……the VERY dissatisfied clown …..
The Disney produced attraction poster book was great in many ways …. It showed some rare examples of attraction posters as well as some concepts from the WDI art collections. Unfortunately it was written by people who were very young and not experienced designers nor authors. I provided some interviews and information … and what little text in the book is greatly plagiarized directly from my attraction poster blog…… including some mistake I posted but was able to go back and correct other than a update post : like the mistake regarding the smaller WDW size posters and not correcting that the first 20 1971 posters were indeed the same size as Disneyland’s first posters. Also the book implys that ALL attraction posters are screen printed and are all on tyvek paper. Not so ….. also the authors credit many of the poster designs to people who did not have anything to do with them and left out many people who had a great deal to do with the attraction posters. The authors give the impression a group of 6 imagineers sit in a ALL ATTRACTION POSTER wing of WED and do nothing but attraction posters for all the parks of the world. And were more concerned with giving thank you’s to their friends. A uproar of corrections came in from many of the imagineers who worked on this posters in the 70’s and 80’s ….. and in the new version of the book some of those mistakes have been corrected and amended. It’s also interesting to note that many of the attraction posters are not even in the collection of WDI. Vanesa Hunt lifted the image of my PeopleMover Thru Super Speed Tunnel poster and cleaned up the scratches on the plexiglas to use for the book image ( a little too red but it works) and in defense of the book it focus on the core of the subject and that is the art of the attraction poster …. And possibly it is best to leave out too much technical information and background stories.
I think the updated poster book comes out this year.
Happy Birthday Mike, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Zach- who I'm not familiar with, but Happy Birthday all the same. I love cake even if it's a scary creepy clown. Give me a lump of frosting and I will eat it. St Patty's day was a great day for a Princess Cake from Victor Benes Bakery in the Valley yesterday. Possibly that, and the Alligator Cake are the two things I miss about LA. Attraction posters! They were part of the "first act" we discussed a few days ago with the parking lot. You would see the magical, fanciful posters and speculate which ones you would ride, and in what order...it was like the previews of a movie except much much better. I had some access during my time, but never availed myself. I suppose I was focused on other matters. I remember a couple of employees leaving one of the surplus sales with DLRR posters INSIDE of elaborate wooded boxes. They were kind of primitive looking- the posters, not the boxes. I was "man!" "they had inside knowledge". Although they were cool, ultimately there would have been no where for them in my house...that's when I went home with a piece of the parking lot that was probably 3 times the size of those poster boxes! Funny how things work out. I remember those mirror posters for sale in the 80's. I wasn't a fan...they look really '80's :) The simplicity of the early posters was awesome. I will take a Peter Pan over a 1976 Bicentennial Train thing. The paper before the water proof stuff I thought (as an art student) took the dye, paint, ink, etc. better than the later ones. I can see why they don't produce them now...KIND OF....if you had a sponsor, and produced a poster with their logo on them, for the poster to be reproduced, photographed, etc. etc. etc....in ETERNUM...posted on GDB ....etc etc etc...I think your ROI would be intact. No? The Tiki Room poster with the old United logo is one of my favorites. ...Just sayin'. Thanks Lou for looking into the crystal ball, knowing that many years later his art of photography would be as appreciated as the art itself :) Happy Birthday Mike and thanks for your contributions to this site which tend to correct my somewhat faulty memories at times. A GDB morning is like Back to the Future.
Happy birthday, Mike & Zach! The Major's pictures are great, but the Junior Gorillas' comments really make the place special.
That cake picture looks like something out of a 1970s home ec textbook. Save me a piece with a gumdrop, please.
That Mickey Mouse Revue poster is an oddball. Mickey's eyes and smile seem a bit off-model, and the overall look reminds more more of the box art on early Atari game cartridges than any Disney attraction poster.
We all learned quite a bit about the technology and economics of poster printing today, didn't we? I have to go brush up on the differences among litho and screen printing techniques.
Thanks for all the nice comments. I'll share everything with my dad, tomorrow. And, thank you, Major.
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