Tour Guide, November 1974
Most of the Disneyland photos that I own that show any of the classic plaid tour guides have them in the background, or off to the side, rarely the subject of the photo. So I particularly like this great portrait of a friendly guide! Thanks to the tag we know her name was Christina. If you're out there, Christina, chime in (yes, I'm sure that will happen)! It looks to me like Christina is at the exit of the Country Bear Jamboree, though I don't personally remember that little bridge. As I've said in earlier posts, I wasn't a huge fan of the CBJ, so I think I only watched the show once.
Here's a nice shot of the waterfall that is behind Christina' this sure looks convincing and not man-made! I'll bet there are some feisty animatronic trout in there.
21 comments:
My, what a pleasant, friendly, Disney-looking Tour Guide. Everything you could ask for in a TG.
Christina isn't gonna catch much trout (animatronic, or otherwise) with that pitiful lure on the end of her riding crop. What is it? A popped Mickey balloon? Maybe she got into a tussle with a Killer Swan, and WON! She kept the Swan's tongue as a trophy.
An excellent photo of Christina, Major. And I agree, that steam looks very natural. Thanks.
Christina: practically perfect in every way. We had a LOT of photos taken of us...I am surprised that I haven't seen more surface, and there were plenty of solo-acts in the bunch. Many with families, and many of us standing on benches spieling to groups...videos, etc etc etc. There was also the many many public appearances, and we were all schooled on how to stand, look, smile. Since press event photos were distributed world wide: we knew it, and acted/presented accordingly. At a reunion I went to a few years ago we could still "turn it out" with smiles and subtle Disneyland "posing". You can see Christina here, with one arm behind back, other arm with crop in hand perfectly angled. Disney look: Could be in the "Look Book" (yes...that is a thing: I was in it, I guess I "rank"....) Back to Christina: Wrist watch: subtle and charmingly feminine. Makeup: natural. Riding hat: worn correctly. All pins in place. Pressed and perfect. A perfectly sweet girl who probably babysits the neighbors kids. All the "things" on the end of the crop are different color tour tags. The tag indicated the color tour you were leading as many tours would leave in the same time frame: 20 minutes apart in the busy season. "Yellow Tour follow me!". The girls would keep the previous tags on their crop...I don't know why, and I thought it looked messy. The crop should only have the color of the group you are leading. So Christina, this knocks you down a point- with picky picky "me". Photos of these tags can be found on another blog that I don't remember, but the tags were mine as my name is written on them. The same triangle tags were used until sometime in the mid 80's, when Stacia Martin designed a new mouse ear design. I liked it at the time, but looking back, I think the triangle was more polished. Boys did not have crops, so people had to follow the red plaid. The tags were also useful to the park employees that enjoyed ratting on us for whatever thing...."the red tag group guide did XYZ thing....or the blue group Tour Guide was eating popcorn with their guests...." etc. I did not eat popcorn with the guests flippantly. A guest offered (politely demanded) that I eat a few kernels and poured them into my hands and as not to offend I ate them while mingling with them. I'm not quite sure why we were so surveilled, but after that I refused any offer of food or drink etc, and if someone bought something for me here in Bear Country, I would excuse myself to the small break room to gobble it down, or throw it out explaining that I could not be viewed eating while on stage. Since the boy costume was the same for a VIP tour, we got these rat calls a lot...."XYZ is in line for Space Mountain, XYZ is drinking a Coke at Coke Terrace"....but on a VIP tour you do whatever your guests did. Perhaps others thought that going on rides with strangers for a living was "fun", and if they were sweating away on Autopia, I get it... in some ways...yes, it had it's moments...but you are also very "on" for 3 to 4 hours with no break whatsoever, and on a VIP tour: possibly from open to close during Summer. It's not a job for mortals, which is why getting into that department was not easy, and there were many interviews. Christina was from the days of Cicely and that is an entirely different thing from my time as I came in just weeks after Cicely joined the Ambassador program. Bear Country looks great and this was a nice cooling down moment half way through the tour. Bear Band: can still recite the entire show verbatim. Major: you saw it once, I saw it hundreds of times...and this is why...the job is not for mortals :) Thanks for the flashbacks!
JB, this young lady reminds me of one of my sister’s friends, which I guess was the point with Disneyland tour guides. “The Girl Next Door”. Hey, Christina might land a real lunker, you never know - I read about people using a piece of flannel soaked in lard as a lure. What fish could resist lard? NONE.
Bu, I agree, you’d think that everyone would take a picture of their tour guide, and yet… photos are scarce enough that, when they come up on eBay, they often fetch a premium price. What sort of public appearances did guides do? I’m glad that Christina mostly passes muster with her “look”. You can definitely see one of those triangular tags on the end of her crop. The rest looks like a tassel, almost like you’d see on a graduate’s mortor board. Perhaps it was just a bigger target for guests to follow? Christina would never do anything wrong! It does seem counter-productive to have more than one colored tag on the crop, that would just make things confusing. I’ve seen several different variations of those triangular tags, and have a number of them myself (mine have the date “1958” on them, but there are others that are far more recent). The “mouse ear” tags are OK, but I guess I’m just sort of tired of the mouse ear trope. You’d think that they could have given male guides something else to carry, if not a riding crop. A pair of BBQ tongs? A shrunken head on a stick? It’s weird and a little disturbing to me that fellow employees were so ready to snitch on a tour guide who was not strictly following the rules. What the heck, man? Calm down! Long ago somebody had a partial tape recording of a young lady giving her tour guide spiel, I believe it was from the 1970s. I wish I’d saved it! The thought of sitting through the CBJ hundreds of times is not inspiring, but maybe doing so would have made me appreciate the good things more?
Bu, thanks for the exposition. Never guessed the degree of detail in that job.
I’m glad Christina is mostly up to expectations. It’s a great picture and knowing the details makes it more fun.
The stream, and the whole general landscape theme of Bear Country was exceedingly well done, and the change to Pooh didn’t hurt it, IMHO.
I’m hoping this quiet corner survives the transition to Bayou’s Edge.
Thanks Major!
JG
Bu, isn't that discrimination, not allowing the male tour guides to be able to "whip" the guests, whenever they get out of line?
I remember seeing many tour guides over the years, with the multiple strings and triangular tags hanging from their crops. Now I know why! It does seem like it would make more sense, to only carry the appropriate color of the current group that you are leading. I have one of those triangular tags from the late seventies, or early eighties. I remember picking it up off the ground. There was no writing on it, and it was in perfect condition, with no dirt, or scuff marks from being stepped on. It also doesn't have any popcorn butter stains on it.
Well folks, I didn't even have to look at the name tag. I remember Christina S. well. And for that matter worked with her in rotations on Pirates before she was a TG. A smile and personality that couldn't be beat. The girl-next-door that you couldn't get! Sigh. But one that could be a friend for life.
Our 1976 Disneyland Ambassador! As a result, I think 'negative points' don't count in our discussions.
Going to post this one on my FB page. KS
KS, thanks for that info! I did a search and found this article:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c2/7f/fa/c27ffa67c457d87c66bc12401a5ccf70.jpg
I posted that link, before reading the entire article. Interesting....Agent 99 was the hostess of the ceremony, where they chose the 1976 Disneyland Ambassador! I guess E.J. Peaker wasn't available?
JG, I am not surprised that tour guides were held to a high standard, though it sounds like they couldn’t get away with any of the hijinks that some of our other CMs could get away with! I do get it though, the guides were very prominent representatives of Disneyland. I personally can forgive Christina’s little tassel on her riding crop!
TokyoMagic!, the male guides should have been given aluminum baseball bats. “You’re all gonna follow me around, see? And you’re gonna be NICE and QUIET, see?”. Very cool that you found one of those tags just laying on the ground. I’ve paid good money for mine!
KS, WOW, that is so cool! I actually have a photo of a future Disneyland Ambassador. AMAZING! Thank you!
TokyoMagic!, funnily enough, Ken S sent me a link to that very same photo not long after you shared it. So neat! I wonder what Christine is up to today?
TokyoMagic!, E.J. Peaker’s duties were so great that she couldn’t be everywhere and for all occasions. She was probably addressing the UN or something. Meanwhile, Barbara Feldon of all people - was there any sort of Disney connection for her (other than her previous Ambassador hosting duties)?
She's well and enjoying life in SoCal. KS
@ Bu-
Thanks for all the TG info. There's no messing around with this group of CM's. (Undoubtedly she's 'resting' her right hand to better enable all the 'two-finger pointing' during the balance of the tour-!)
@ KS-
Ahhh - and there you go. Thanks.
Seems like the male TGs could have carried a whangee or maybe an Irish blackthorn walking stick, maybe one of those with a sword inside, or at least a whisky flask under the knob.
JG
Thanks to Bu for the nitty-gritty on Tour Guides, to KS for the specifics on Christina, and to Tokyo! for the link to that article.
We're lucky here, at GDB, to have so many people who are so knowledgeable about the Disney parks, and some who actually worked there to tell the tale. Thanks!
Major, I was wondering the same thing about Barbara Feldon. She seems, to me, like the perfect type to have been a Tour Guide at one time.
Lee Merryweather , Vera Miles , Doris Day : perfect Disneyland Tour Guides
Elke Sommers : perfect WDW tour guide ( minus the accent ) … ah what the hell : let her keep the accent !
Oh : and also for Disneyland Tour Guide : Lori Saunders
And for WDW Tour Guide : Meredith MacRae
…. Both from Petticoat junction
I did some re-con on why the girls kept the tags on instead of shelling it for the tour color: it was to show/denote how many tours they conducted in a "pride" sort of way. It wasn't SOP, and those girls stuck together without some dude (there were only 5 of us) to give them feedback. I kept my mouth shut, however my OCD compels me to dislike such disorder, and as time went on...so did the wear and tear of those melting tags...looking messier and messier and grayer and grayer...with dissolving strings. At Christina's time it was girl power, and I don't think boys came along until a few years before me. I should know when as I was doing my 25th anniversary TG book back then, but don't. If someone does, I'd be interested in knowing the year and who it was...now: excuse me as I measure fingernail length at the morning "line up" as "desk lead" 1984.
KS, awesome!
Nanook, somehow just the phrase “two-finger point” sounds naughty. To me.
JG, as long as the guide could whack guests, I’m all for it!
JB, I sure never imagined that anybody would know Christina, but then again, I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised! GDB has a very high caliber of reader. As for Barbara Feldon, I see that she was in the 1976 Disney movie, “No Deposit, No Return”, which I am sure I saw, but don’t remember at all.
Mike Cozart, what about Joey Heatherton??
Mike Cozart, what about Loni Anderson??
Bu, I wouldn’t mind so much if the guides kept their daily accumulation of colored tags, but yes, over the weeks and months, those old paper tags would get pretty gross. “Girl power”, don’t mess with those tour guides! They will open up a can of whoop-a••! My fingernails are never too long. Because I bite them.
This is another 'classic-GDB-at-its-best' post! I love meeting Christina and reading all the wonderful stories about her, plus all the employee behind-the-scene's info...
Thanks, Major and everyone!
The male TGs could dress like Alex from A Clockwork Orange and carry a cricket bat with a big spike through the end. That would keep the groups in like. "Roit! Now move along, an' nuffin' will happen a ya."
"Or me an' my little droogies here will have to resort to a bit o' the ol' ultraviolence."
My TG friends certainly lit up my FB post of her picture! KS
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