Pretty Good Snoozles
Here's a pair of Sunday Snoozles for you, but they aren't too bad, really. Just a bit darker than I'd like. But there's still lots to enjoy!
This first view is from November 1957, looking across the Rivers of America toward the shore of Tom Sawyer Island, where one of the rafts seems to be disgorging its passengers. To the right is the pier that had been used for fishing -guests could use a cane pole to catch trout and catfish and swordfish (I believe). But in this photo it's a place where guys with red shirts could stand and pare their fingernails with a penknife.
I assume that this next photo is probably from 1956; we've got the Skyway chalet after all, and if you look closely, the "giant storybook" billboard that was there at the opening of the Skyway is partly obscured by those umbrellas. That light pole to the extreme left is adorned with the usual nautical-style flags, something I've never noticed in this location before. If only this picture was not so dark!
17 comments:
There's a rude sign behind the guy bending over in the yellow shirt. It says, "*uck Finn", whoever Finn is. Oh wait... my mistake. It says, "Duck Fink". Or is it, "Buck Fish"? I guess we'll never know.
Anybody know what that red thing is in the trees above the guy paring his fingernails?
Too bad the lighting isn't optimal in the 2nd pic. Think of all the colorful little details we would see in the Chalet. We get a really good view of the Chalet, too; nestled in its forest. Oh well, that's why it got tossed into the Snoozle bin. And what is that little bit of something in the lower right corner? Part of the Dumbo ride?
Not bad shots at all, Major. Just not quite ready for prime time. Thanks.
Looks like "Duck Fixin's" to me...which means "delightful things to be prepared as an accompaniment to duck." I never developed a taste for duck: to me they are a bit like squirrels (and people eat those too). I DO like potatoes fried in duck fat however, and who wouldn't? As I stated in a previous Tom Sawyer Island photo: I DO now see vegetation in front of the mill, which dates this after that photo. It does need a bit of green up front there. Although I would be the first one in line to catch a "Rivers of America Fish"...(somebody has GOT to still have one in their freezer)...it seems a wee impractical, unless the fish was jettisoned off immediately to the Plaza Inn to be cooked. Even then, I'm not sure I would want anything out of that river. It's kind of like the East River, (if the east river was a duck toilet) to me....but not like the Nile...which you can't touch as little parasites get into you and kill you...true story...anywayyyyy....The Swiss Chalet...what a wonderful building to have such a very sad end. Don't tell me SOMETHING could have been salvaged. I know its "hard" to salvage bits and bobs...but come on people...didn't someone have a heart?... "nope". Table service restaurant please! Serve Swiss foods, or Swiss Miss Cocoa Factory? Little Swiss Misses, stirring big cocoa vats. Or "Lindt's Chocolate Bar"....Official Disneyland Swiss Chocolate made on premises...sponsored by Lindt...if you go to Lindt in Switzerland you can join many tours, including a Truffle Making course...$80. That does not include admission to "Lindt World" or what they call "Choco-World". The course is an hour. Makes Disneyland sound inexpensive, but I would happily plunk down my USD's for it. Hope everyone enjoyed "World Chocolate Day" on July 7th. Legends have it that this is the day Chocolate was introduced to Europe in 1550. US National Chocolate day is October 28. September 13 is International Chocolate Day (Mr. Hershey's Birthday), February 14th is Ghana's Chocolate day...sounds random, but Ghana apparently is the second largest producer of cocoa in the world...Latvia's World Chocolate Day is July 11! (and that IS random to me.) Other chocolate days do exist for different chocolates: like Milk Chocolate Day, etc etc etc..... Fortunato Chocolate is my vote for best chocolate: a small company in Washington that makes chocolate from previously thought extinct cocoa beans. There IS a difference. Wait till cooler weather to order. This is not an ad. I am not an influencer. I just like chocolate, and that was a lot of information to absorb, so thanks for reading. Happy Sunday Snoozles (tm)!
The sign is definately "Duck Finn." The "Finn Series" of Audioanamatronic Expoding Duck was a particularly dangerous design, and therefore signs were placed all around the park warning guests about them.
Now you know!
The red-shirt CM is checking his communicator just before he is blown up by the conniving super-computer that runs TSI.
Wait, wrong series…
I think the red thing in the shrubbery is a guest’s (or CMs) clothes. The red clothes are like pimentos in olive loaf. There’s even a trash can at the end of the fishing pier, undoubtedly filled with fish guts and discarded fishing tackle.
Major, there were no swordfish in the river, only tuna, and you could take your catch to the Pirate Ship to have it converted into a tuna sandwich. Now that I think of it, was that the only place in the Park serving fish dishes?
I have loved, and will always love, the Skyway Chalet, even the Palm Springs Aerial Tram Chalet is only a distant second. It looks like another explanatory sign part way along the “Up” staircase, under the pole light. Might even be a trash can at the top landing, but it’s hard to tell. Seems like a good place for one, remove temptation to drop your collectible soda cup onto the heads of folks below. I think maybe the ride isn’t running, no one in line, no buckets visible, and folks blocking the exit resting on the wall?
If not a restaurant, then the Chalet could have been converted into a jeweler’s shop to sell fancy watches? Maybe even rhinestone-covered toy spaceships? No, no one could possibly be dumb enough to pay $18K for something like that…
Thanks for the sleep inducing views today, Major. Much appreciated.
JG
Just examined the skyway pic at max zoom, I think there’s a plain green trash can lurking under the tree between two umbrellas, just to the left of the “up” staircase, confirming a date pre-1957. My faith is restored.
JB, I think the thing in the lower right must be part of Dumbo, there’s nothing else close by it could be.
JG
I like that silly-looking tree in the first image - in the back, to the right of the mill. it's wearing a poofy hat or something.
And, speaking of trees, don't miss the Daveland blog post from yesterday. If you read the comments, you'll also learn about Ella and Robert. Fun info for us Disney geeks. (Thanks, Dave D. & Jason)
I haven't eaten lunch yet, and now I'm craving chocolate. Thanks, Bu.
Thanks, Major, for more good Snoozles and laughs.
Those nautical flags in the second photo were a relay system to pass signals between the Columbia and the Jolly Roger. For some reason, the tuna boat never managed to make any of their scheduled rendezvous.
Sue, funny - I’m craving olive loaf. Thanks, JG.
I wish the Skyway chalet Coyote hav remained as a background building ….
I know I’ve explained this before , but it would have been impossible for Disneyland to continue guest access to that building … for an attraction …. A shop or a food service location. It’s the WHOLE reason the SKYWAY at Disneyland was removed to begin with .
The NEW SKYWAY designed in the 90’s featured a larger cabin that had two designed to accommodate wheelchair guests … the new SKYWAY would have no longer gone thru the Matterhorn but “dog leg” at a cable directional tower like it did in Florida .
HOWEVER: Disneyland could NOT have wheelchair access at the Fantasyland station….. it was recessed too far back on a hillside … and a elevator could not be constructed without creating a horrible out of place monster like construction … guests in wheel chairs withdraw have to have been brought through a tunnel
Of about 200 feet between Frontierland and fantasyland …. The. Backstage even further in a service area and cast support area for the Fantasyland Theater … it would be like asking guests to board pirates of the caribbean by going behind the haunted mansion show building ..
So the unbuilt NEW SKYWAY was to have an elevator at the Tomorrowland station … and handicapped, wheelchair bound , or anything other guests unable to climb the SKYWAY station stairs , would have to board in tomorrowland and RIDE ROUND TRIP.
The state of Californian said this was unacceptable…. And Disneyland had to provide wheelchair guests access at BOTH SKYWAY stations …. And not have to ride round trip …And everyday that Disneyland could not do this they would get a fine .
So: Bye bye SKYWAY!!
Californians: remember this when you vote!!
My phone changed “ could have “ to “coyote” ….. the power of Ai in action!
Disneyland’s SQS ( show quality standards) team had proposed doing a 15 minute animated clock tower type mechanical clock show from the fantasyland Skyway Challet …very similar to the one at EPCOT’s German Pavilion, but it was determined the building was recessed too far back for guests to really ever see it ….
Had it not been torn down for GALAXYS EDGE , it would probably have been torn down had the NEW NEW FANTASYLAND not been derailed by Covid. That whole area including Casey Jr. And Storybook land was the proposed site for the Seven Dawrfs Diamond Mine Coaster …
JB, Tom Sawyer was known for his rude signs, in fact he was famous as far as Cairo, Illinois. The red thing appears to be the skirt of a woman up on a trail that is partly hidden by bushes. I’ve always liked that they put a forest around the Skyway Chalet, though it would take a while to look respectable. It gave the place a real “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” vibe! I’ll have to do some research to figure out what that thing in the lower right is, but part of the Dumbo ride is a good guess.
Bu, my grandfather liked both duck and goose - my memories of eating duck are foggy, but I remember goose being incredibly oily. I like potatoes fried in 3-in-1, it’s delicious. Imagine having a fish in your freezer, caught 65 years ago! I have a piece of Queen Victoria’s wedding cake, it’s a piece with Snoopy on it, so it’s extra valuable. I would not be surprised if the Nile has all kinds of nasty things in it, but I always think of a Katharine Hepburn movie where she falls into a Venetian canal. YUCK. I agree, I always thought that they would figure out something clever for the old Chalet, but it wound up getting razed, so I was wrong. I don’t need to learn to make chocolate truffles, thank you. I need to learn how to make Zingers. Ghana is the second largest producer of chocolate? Who knew (besides Bu)? I watched a YouTube video of a lady who rode her motorcycle from Ecuador to Alaska, and she bought chocolate in… Nicaragua, I think? Flat discs wrapped in foil. She said it was good. Not sure I have a favorite chocolate company, but I’m always happy to have a box of See’s.
Stu29573, “Duck Finn” sounds like the title of an animated short! You know how they loved their punny names.
JG, I like the idea of a computer that runs everything, sort of like that Twilight Zone, something about the “Old Man in the Cave”. I agree, the red thing is some piece of clothing. We know how tomato-red was so popular around 1957. I would love to battle a powerful tuna on the Rivers of America, seated in one of those chairs that needs to be bolted to the floor. I’d be exhausted when it was all over, but man, I’d have enough tuna for months afterwards. I’d love to ride the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, I wonder if they run it after dark? Maybe you wouldn’t be able to see anything, but I imagine stars overhead and twinkling lights below. Folks always cited the fact that the Chalet was up a small hill as the primary problem, but good grief, there has to have been a way to deal with that!
JG, it is always a comfort to see a plain green trashcan, sort of like seeing a McDonalds after living for years in the Antarctic. You know!
Lou and Sue, I guess the silly tree is just a transplanted pine of some sort? I like the idea of a tree wearing a poofy hat though! Ella and Robert? No idea what you are talking about!
Chuck, I always thought it would be fun if there were hidden messages in those nautical flags, but I actually tried to translate using Wikipedia (or something), and it was gibberish. Oh well.
Mike Cozart, “Skyway chalet Coyote”?? I’m guessing your phone has done a number on you! You’ve probably mentioned it before, but I did not realize that there was some sort of Skyway redesign underway in the 90s. It seems a bit strange that the state would not allow guests to only board at Tomorrowland - it’s not ideal of course, but at least it was something. While the Skyway certainly transported people from one place to another, it was not a form of “transportation” like a bus or train, AND there was an actual train that wheelchair users could take to get from one part of the park to another. Strange.
Mike Cozart, ah! Now it all makes sense.
Mike Cozart, it’s kind of too bad that we did not get the animated clock, but it WAS a bit far from the walkway. Meanwhile I am grateful that they did not put a Seven Dwarfs Mine Coaster in Fantasyland!!
They should have torn down the rest of Fantasyland so we could see that clock.
@ Chuck-
It's that sort of thinking that put a man on the moon-! Keep it up.
The Disneyland SKYWAY equipment was nearing the end of its life in the 90’s … so a new drive cable was going to be needed … Disney decided to upgrade the entire thing … the BIG change was that the stations could actually operate with just two employees … one to assist guests exiting ( away from the cabin ) and another to direct guests to load … a automatic clamping system that kept the cabins leveled and balanced while bording. Saving the backs and spines of many Skyway castmembers ! It also would have been the first time in Disneyland history a wheelchair guest could have ever ridden the SKYWAY attraction … with an elevator in the new Tomorrowland station. Since the new cabins were slightly larger , they could no longer go thru the Matterhorn … and they would have gone thru a cable turnaround tower near motorboat cruise and then back to fantasyland. Since both statins were getting new cable wheels and balance loading clamps I’m sure other changes would have had to be made to the existing fantasyland station.
A yeah … I don’t think a 200 foot long bridge and elevator building would look nice Fantasyland….. it would probably look as bad as the tacky elevator tower built between the treehouse and the Pirates of the Caribbean to make the “Royal suite” compliant as a hotel for the extreme wealthy….
The whole wheelchair issue is why you’ll never ride a PeopleMover at Disneyland again….
I forgot to mention: or why Casey Jr. And Storybookland are not long for this world … any required upgrade to make them compliant makes them lose their grandfather laws … I know the evacuation situation of Casey jr. Is a major safety issue with Disneyland and the state of California…. The loading and unloading problem with storybook canal fix will cause it to loose it’s grandfather laws “protection”
What I learned is that goose tastes like what it eats. If someone shoots a goose, make sure it's one from an area with cornfields, not one that was eating weeds in a lake.
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