Big River, June 1961
I'm trying to imagine what a riverless Frontierland might have looked like. After watching countless westerns with dry dusty streets and brush-covered hills, it might look authentic (or "TV authentic" anyway), but I'm sure glad that they went with a river. Based on the ten kajillion photos of the Mark Twain that are out there, the public approved too.
Here's a fairly standard - but beautiful - shot of the Mark Twain gliding majestically on the glassy water; patriotic bunting on the sides might be there for the upcoming Fourth of July. You can see the petrified tree trunk, the Golden Horseshoe, and even a bit of the Castle.
I really like this pretty shot of a raft heading over to Tom Sawyer Island, framed by the wrought-iron of the old riverfront bandstand that would be removed a few years later. The quality of the afternoon sunlight and the picturesque river make this one particularly appealing.
Tom Sawyer Island closes at dusk, but that won't be for a few hours, so there's plenty of time to climb Castle Rock, explore Injun Joe's Cave, visit Fort Wilderness, and generally have lots of wholesome fun. I've never noticed red lanterns on the mast of those rafts, what a cool souvenir that would be. You distract the raftsman ("Hey! Is that Walt Disney?"), and I'll reach up and grab it. Meanwhile, the pretty girl in the vivid blue dress is the star of this picture.
19 comments:
Major-
It may have been photographed a 'kajillion' times, but this image is no less lovely. And it makes very clear just how precarious all those guests are sitting in chairs on the bow of the ship, mere 'inches away' from falling into the drink, held in place by a mere couple of chain links-! Oh, those brave souls-!
Boy, doesn't that Huck Finn raft look relaxing and oh-so inviting-? It appears there's room for all of us to hop aboard.
Thanks, Major.
On the upper deck of the Mark Twain there are two ladies(?) wearing red kerchiefs, or scarfs. I think maybe they're safari hats. And on the bow, there are three women all wearing ocher-colored shirts with name tags affixed to them.
No red-shirted climbers on the Matterhorn... and no Fudgie. Been a while since we've seen him.
Looks like there are three Animatronic Exploding Ducks headed toward the MT. Everybody say yer goodbyes.
In the raft close-up, I wonder what's going on at the bow? (Do rafts have bows?) It looks like the kid in the white shirt is trying to jump overboard, while the girl (sister?) behind him is trying to hold him back. Let him go, Sis. The ducks are hungry.
As Major noted, the girl in the vivid blue dress is a stand-out with her graceful, ballerina pose.
There is a red lantern at the back of the raft as well, next to the CM. Major, I bet they're attached with wire, so you can forget about that prized souvenir; unless you happen to have a pair of wire cutters with you.
Thanks for showing us some everyday life on the River, Major.
As majestic as the river is, I'm glad they killed the "Skiing With the Twain" idea. Even if the upcharge brought in extra bucks, the Exploding Animitronic Ducks would have made short work of any skiing guests. By the way, they regularly have to replace the Mark Twain due to those darn ducks. I think this picture is actually "Twain 26." The depths of the river used to be littered with riverboat bits, until they drained it, paved over them all, and refilled it. Now you know!
The girl in blue certainly is the star of the raft. I hereby promote her to "Queen of the Island!" And so shall she be forevermore.
Mark Twain looking fabulous as usual. The three gals in Beige up front are a nice touch. I agree, definitely jump right in quality to those two last pics. Excuse me while I just go for it. Don't get your shoes wet.
Thank you Major.
Major, I think Walt had New Orleans in mind from the very beginning, and you can’t do New Orleans without a River or a riverboat, and once you have a River you need an island, otherwise it would just be a lake. But all of it together is awesome.
The whole ensemble is so cinematic and carefully arranged, it’s brilliant. Even missing otherwise key pieces like Cascade Peak, the illusion still works. Every few moments there is a new vista for our passengers.
The framed raft picture is just perfect, the shadowy background brings up KS’s comment earlier, how magical that esplanade could be.
I just realized this old raft design is quite different from the later ones I remember. The engine shroud here is a lean-to, while the later ones are a “doghouse” with a ridge, more accurate to the book.
Major, I do have a red lens lantern like that, but it is a remnant of my uncle’s time working on the railroad in the CCC, some 90+ years ago now. I hate to think that he hijacked it, but how else to account for having it? Maybe he bought one for use on the truck or wagon.
I don’t recall such a lantern on the raft in the book, but one would be welcome to avoid being run down by a River boat as the boys risk in their night escape. Even a relatively dim light like that would be visible for miles on a dark river in a pre-electric era when one’s eyesight is fully dark-adapted.
Thanks for these pictures!
JG
I forgot to point out the white gingerbread on the Plaza Pavilion and the thatched roof of the Tahitian Terrace (undoubtedly thatched by a relative of Becky) in the background of photo 1.
And the girl in blue is definitely the Belle of the Raft.
JG
Wow...Mark Twain is photo-bombed by everything today. Still standing (floating) proudly, though.
Love the raft ‘you are there’ picture.
Thanks, Major.
—Sue
I think Walt had New Orleans in mind from the very beginning, and you can’t do New Orleans without a River or a riverboat
Yeah, it's one of my recent pet peeves, ever since the Princess and the Frog retheme of WDW's Splash Mountain was announced and the "New Orleans doesn't belong in Frontierland" crowd started making themselves heard, how many people seem to forget what a big part New Orleans played in the westward expansion of the U.S. I mean, hello, Louisiana Purchase, anyone? Lewis and Clark? All the TV Westerns that featured the Mississippi River and its adjacent areas - Yancy Derringer, The Adventures of Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett, Wagon Train, Maverick, Riverboat (with our old friend Darren McGavin), and probably more I can't remember?
Anyway, rant over, the composition of both these shots is lovely. You can't go wrong with a good sun-dappled reflection.
Nanook, I can’t recall if there was even a chain on the bow of the Mark Twain in the early days. How did all the passengers manage to not fall off?? The lighting on that Huck Finn raft is very evocative. I love it.
JB, back then, wearing a red kerchief meant that you had killed a man in prison. I think those ladies might just be wearing plain old straw hats (possibly souvenir hats), but it’s hard to tell. You’re right, Fudgie has been especially elusive. And I am not sure we are going to see him over the next few months, either! Come home, Fudgie! Who knows what’s going on with those kids … boys that age are spazzes anyway. Maybe he’s training for the men’s gymnastics team? I noticed that there are a number of nicely-dressed young ladies on board the raft, and if this was really June, maybe they were there for some form of Grad Nite? As for the wire on the red lantern, I always bring wire cutters with me. You just never know.
Stu29573, I didn’t really mind “Skiing With the Twain”, but the fact that it was “all nude” was kind of a shocker. Of course back in the 1880s, people swam nekkid all the time, so it was no big deal. I wonder if some of those “other Twains” have now fossilized? People thousands of years from now will have so many clues about life in our time.
DrGoat, ha ha, I was looking for the “three gals in beige”, expecting pretty young things. Not grandmas! There’s actually a young girl to the right of the ladies wearing the same color, were they all together? “If we all wear the same color, we can find each other if we get separated”. Hey, not a bad strategy.
JG, you might be right, or at least Walt wanted a “mini-Mississippi”, and some plantations. Now I’m wondering what the earliest Disneyland/New Orleans reference was? At the 1948 Railroad Fair in Chicago they had a New Orleans section, and we all know that Walt went there (with Ward Kimball), I imagine it had an influence. I really do love that raft photo - it’s nothing super rare, but the quality of the image puts it above so many others. Good observation on the differences in the older rafts, I think I even noticed (but didn’t notice, if you know what I mean) those differences. Wow, very cool that you have that railroad lantern! I’d want to have it wired for an electric bulb so that it could glow all the time. No drilling holes in it though, that is verboten. It’s been so long since I’ve read Huck Finn that I can’t recall if there is a mention of lanterns on the rafts. Huck and Jim were trying to not be noticed (since Jim was a “runaway”), so I’m sure they floated in the dark.
JG, I still remember the first time a book (“Disneyland: The First Quarter Century”) pointed out that one building had the Pavillion architecture on one side and the thatched look on the other - it blew my mind!
Sue, oh my gosh, I hate to even think it, but can you imagine if they ever got rid of the Mark Twain?!
Melissa, I didn’t know that people were saying “New Orleans doesn’t belong in Frontierland”. Pretty dumb. I love it when people who know nothing have to loudly tell us their opinions! The Louisiana Purchase, I think I’ve heard of it. Lewis and Clark, did they have a hit single in the 1960s? You are welcome to rant here anytime! :-)
on the very right of first photo, above the rooflines, can be seen a bit of the entryway to Adventureland... so this photo shows four Lands (was Matterhorn in Tomorrowland in 1961?)
Stu, as dangerous, bothersome, and costly as those ducks are, you'd think the Imagineers would stop manufacturing them. OR MAYBE... the AEDs have become self-replicating! [shudder]
Major, who can forget the scene from the movie, "Fudgie, Come Home" when the frisky whale, having found his owner's home again, jumps onto the front porch and crushes the entire house... such a heart-warming moment!
JB, if we could only find their secret lair!!!! (I think it might be in Injun Joe's cave, but I'm too scared to look!)
LTL, hey, you’re right! And yes, I don’t think the Matterhorn was “moved” to Tomorrowland until the early 1970’s.
JB, I am just grateful that those ducks seem to stay within the borders of Disneyland. Imagine if they escaped into the rest of the world! Zombies have got nothin’ on those ducks. “Fudgie, Come Home”, I remember crying my eyes out at that one. Zsa Zsa Gabor played Fudgie’s mom.
Stu29573, yes, some risks are not worth it. Might as well go into a dragon’s lair.
LTL, I think the picture has visible bits of FIVE lands, if the Plaza Pavilion counts as part of Main Street, or conversely if the Hub is a land, at that time, it seemed to mostly themed to Main Street.
Fantasyland = SBC
Tomorrowland = Matterhorn (as then designated, later moved to Fantasyland as part of the Treaty of Eastphalia)
Frontierland = most of the picture
Adventureland = Roof of the Tahitian Terrace
Main Street (or the Hub) = white gingerbread on the Plaza Pavilion
It's really a great panorama.
JG
I think the fans complaining about Splash Mountain’s theme and location ( and the possible Tiana Bayou change) has been coming mostly from Florida. And it’s been a complaint since the 1990’s. WED imagineers spent a great deal of effort to accomplish two things for WDW : the Walt Disney World Time Line: as guests entered LIBERTY SQUARE the theme of local and time progress together …. From the 1690’s and the earliest Dutch architecture to new England’s development to the Virginia expansions abd architectural styles then further out till the 1820’s federal period then St.Louis … the 1840’s …. Then the “Colorado plateau “ now the architecture and time is the 1850’s …1860’s … then the American southwest of the 1870’s and 1880’s …. Terminating with ( Thunder Mesa …. Eventually Big Thunder) yes … big thunder mining company was built during the gold and silver rushes … but it’s the ‘70’s and ‘80’s and big thunder has been abandoned since the 1870’s mining economic collapse. So historically and regionally SPLASH MOUNTAIN ruined all the imagineer’s hard work!! Splash mountain’s story’s take place after the south’s reconstruction period so long after you could consider Georgia a “frontier”. Imagineers never wanted Florida’s splash mountain to go where it did - Michael Eisner insisted on that.
Disneyland ‘s Splash Mountain didn’t really fit we’re it was squeezed into either … but it wasn’t as obstructive as Florida’s in THEME. Now with a potential re-theme of splash from rural red clay Georgia of the 1870’s you are changing it to Louisiana of the late 1920’s. This was a period on New Orleans decline and deterioration. Nothing like the “gay Pari of the American Frontier .., when she was the “Crecent City” Walt wanted his New Orleans Square to be the Glorious jewel during her heyday of the 1850’s …. So the proposed splash change adds the correct local … but destroys it all with an inappropriate time frame.
Earlier this year I worked on Imagineering models of just this change from Walt’s New Orleans Square to PORT ORLEANS …. The ornate delicate look to a seedy dirty worn out port city. Some of the changes are needed - larger area restrooms … and recessed courtyards … relocated train station ques ….a demolished French Market complex - with a imposing twin stacked jazz club. And a blue bayou restaurant reduced to a coffee and desert cafe operated by a coronet playing crocodile. Whether these changes ever proceed is unknown especially with the economy taking a turn for the worse : but know this; Walt’s Disneyland is disappearing and it’s being planned that way by management so be prepared. TOKYO has warned us regarding WOOKIE World and “TRE” …. .
So when you let designers get to loose with a theme you loose “DISNEYLAND” and you get a DCA …. Or a Disney Studios PAris /Orlando …. IMAGINEERS call “DUMP PARKS” where anything is dumped in together.
"yes … big thunder mining company was built during the gold and silver rushes … but it’s the ‘70’s and ‘80’s and big thunder has been abandoned since the 1870’s mining economic collapse."
In my head, I had always associated the original mining operation at Big Thunder with the Black Hills gold rush of the 1870s, but it's far from the first time the version of things in my head has been wrong. Kind of like when I assumed I knew how to tap dance but it turned out I didn't.
The Magic Kingdom seems to exist in a world where the same riverboat can sail from the Hudson River that flows by the Haunted Mansion straight into the Mississippi River that surrounds Tom Sawyer Island, so I guess the "s" in "Rivers of America" does a lot of heavy lifting.
The earliest concepts for THUNDER MESA used the Superstition Mountains as inspiration for its rockwork … but later evolved into a hybrid of “high desert” scenery of Arizona and Utah . Imagineer Clem Hall’s renderings used Monument Valley as a style guide . Eventually Disneyland’s Big Thunder look was guided by the look of Bryce Canyon and WDW’s went with a Monument Valley look and Grand Canyon coloring . But all the major mining operations in those regions were mostly exhausted by the 1880’s …. And the cost of silver had dropped enough by that time to make continued operations not financial viable. These mines in the Great Basin , California and Colorado saw some resurgence in the teens early 1920’s but died off again. By the 1930’s . The Wild West was officially declared “closed/over” in 1890 by the US Government….. so Main Street USA picks up where Frontierland ends.
BEAR COUNTY was different …. You understand that the settlement was founded sometime during the Klondike gold rush and timber rushes of the northwest …during Bear Country’s heyday a patent medicine salesman came Thru with sone trained dancing bears …. . And after the humans moved on to the next RUSH left the bears behind….. the bears continued to do what they knew best : to entertain. From dates on Bear country’s establishments you can tell it’s heyday was in the 1880’s & 1890’s …. And the the first founding “dancing bear “ passed in 1928 …..
Again Disney parks are conglomerates historical , idealized and fictional elements …. So Big Thunder can also be park “Black Hills” and Mississippi Riverboats ( mark Twain ) can sail with Missouri Riverboats ( Richard F Irvine / Liberty belle ) and Sacramento Riverboats ( The Molly Brown) and they can time travel along American rivers and dip into the 1790’s …. The 1830’s …. And the 1880’s …..
Wow, thanks so much for the historical background Mike. I really enjoyed reading your posts.
TOKYO has warned us regarding WOOKIE World and “TRE”……
Mike, yes I tried to warn everyone, but nobody would listen to me! ;-) I am kidding. I think most people here are in agreement about them ruining pretty much everything. And that redesign of New Orleans Square sounds absolutely hideous, but it really doesn't surprise me. At this point, I don't think anything they do will ever surprise me.
Post a Comment