Parade, 1980
I have a group of about 20 slides in an very small oddball format; the actual transparency is not much more than a half-inch wide. Looking these up, they are apparently 110 slides. Were they taken with Minox "spy cameras"?
These were undated, but thanks to this first one I'm pretty certain that they were taken during Disneyland's 25th Anniversary, which was in 1980. It's not easy to do-si-do on a moving float, but these two were professionals. Please don't try to dance on a parade float at home. Notice the sign for the Motor Boats behind the letter "N".
Whoa, those are some tiny horses! Of course we know from "Cinderella" that they (and the footmen) were actually mice, transformed by the Fairy Godmother. The fellow to the right would never admit it, but he liked wearing his powdered wig.
There's Cinderella herself, looking beautiful in her fancy coach. All curlicues in Southern California were used up in the making of this coach. I assume that it still exists somewhere... possibly in Florida?
Cindy's dress is covered in thousands of iridescent sequins, just like my prom tux. When the spotlight hits her, it's DISCO TIME!
I was reminded of this Summer 1980 copy of Disney News... I was a subscriber at the time, and always looked forward to the latest issue.
And finally (for today), one of the Tweedles shares a float with the White Rabbit, while Bernard (from "The Rescuers" can just be seen to the left of Tweedle Whoever.
There will be two more installments from these teensy 1980 photos - all but one is from this parade, but they are still fun.
EXTRA! EXTRA!
GDB pal Michael Sandstrom saw an item called "Disneyland Promotions" - date unknown, and I'm not really sure what is inside. BUT... that's not the important part! LOOK AT THAT DENT! You can't miss it!
9 comments:
Major-
"... in an very small oddball format; the actual transparency is not much more than a half-inch wide"...
"Whoa, those are some tiny horses!"
The oddball format was specially-designed for photographing 'tiny horses'.
Thanks, Major.
So, what does that giant letter "n" go to? It looks to be in the traditional 'Disneyland' font, but there's no "d" to the right of it, so it can't be spelling out "Disneyland".
I wonder if Cinderella slid from one side of her coach to the other, so that she could greet the guests on both sides of the street? Or maybe [gasp!] there were two Cinderellas in the coach, one for each side.
Wow, that's the dentiest Dent we've seen in a looong time! And there are multiple Dentlets and other irregularities surrounding The Dent. The guys who did the installation of that tower must've used it as a soccer ball for a few hours before hoisting it up into place. Thanks for that pic, Michael.
Thanks for the parade pics, Major. I hope SoCal managed to replenish its supply of curlicues!
I loved this parade! And it's theme song, "Disneyland is Your Land!" It was reused for the stage shows and the premiere parade, when Tokyo Disneyland opened two years later. JB, those letters did spell out Disneyland. The letters were far enough apart, to allow the performers to stand between them. They were also able to spin those letters around, because they were mounted on a pole (the letters, not the performers).
Major, I believe the Cinderella coach did go to WDW the following year, for WDW's Tencennial anniversary, and then came back to Anaheim to be used over at the DL Hotel for "Disney" weddings. Or maybe two were made, one for both coasts. I bet Mike knows! Back in the day, I remember seeing the cost somewhere for adding the use of the coach to a wedding package at the DL Hotel, and it was a fortune!
JB, when I did the Christmas parade (Fantasy On Parade), one year later, a different Cinderella's coach was used, which was more enclosed, so they did have two "Cindys" with a curtain down the middle, so each one could stay focused just on the crowd on one side of the street. The Family Reunion Parade, seen in Major's pics today, only used one "Cindy," and she was forced to turn back and forth, from left to right. However, it did keep her waist trim, so she was able to eat an unlimited amount of Zingers between parade performances, since she would "twist and turn" those calories off during the parade itself.
Major, I have a pic that I took, which is almost identical to that "close up" shot of Cinderella. I took it while sitting on the curb, looking up at her. Also, around 1979 and 1980, I started using 110 slide film to take all of my pics. At the time, I thought the film gave me a sharper image than the 110 print film. Now I am not sure if that was the case or not. I've posted some of those slides in the past, but I would like to re-scan them with my newer scanner and see if I can get a better image.
Thanks for sharing these, Major. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the parade. One of the original DL Stagecoaches was used in the Frontierland unit of the parade, so I hope you have a photo of that, because for some reason, I never took one. Thanks to MS, too, for the crystal clear dent pic!
Make that THREE years later, when Tokyo Disneyland opened!
Mark this date in time....I can finally see the dent...and it's brothers "dentlits"....that they didn't retouch this photo is kind of odd...to me anyway...I suppose someone thought "no one will notice!". In the days before Photoshop, retouching meant actually retouching by hand, and you needed some skill to do it...in any case....The "Family Reunion" parade. Also known as the "25th Parade". This was a great parade with loads of humans, and horses, and a few artifacts as well. The coach was also used for Elizabeth Taylor for her (private) birthday party for her to "officially" arrive to Disneyland. One of my TG buddies at the time who was in parades previously played Cindy quite a bit, and there's photos of her in this coach as well. I remember the spinning letters and dancers. Those skirts were made with a very "twirly" fabric, and swirled and twirled ever so nicely. This parade also featured the herald trumpeters...which are always so great to hear...and a very unique "Disneyland" sound to me. That these photos can be seen from such a tiny negative is pretty impressive. From my memory, I thought that they all came out pretty "meh" compared to 35mm. I literally took hundreds of photos of Disneyland with a 35mm camera in the 70's and 80's....mostly all disappeared through moves and "life" happening. I hope someone is enjoying them and didn't throw them in the trash. Thanks Major for a memorable morning! and thanks to Michael for exposing the dent it it's denty glory!
It's a wonder they just didn't rotate the tower roof so the dent wasn't visible from the front!
I usually wear my powdered wig only when I’m dancing on a parade float, it’s a safety thing, better looking than a hard hat.
I’ve heard that we have made great strides in industrial policy and are now nearly self-sustaining in curlicue production, reducing the need for imports. That photo of Princess Cindy is likely to be as close as I ever get to royalty.
It just occurred to me that the Tweedle Bros adopted the Asian language habit of putting their patronymic first. The things I learn on GDB!
Thanks to MS for that brilliant clear photo of the Dent! It’s a shame we can’t see the Stain in the same view.
Thanks Major for the tiny looks back. I found a bunch of my old 110 negatives with a trip to Disneyland. Now I need to figure out how to scan them.
JG
Nanook, you make a good point!!
JB, I can only assume that the “N” goes to Disneyland, but you’re right, there does seem to be a lot of space around it. Cinderella sat on a special seat with ball bearings so she could slide from side to side easily. Just like on the Apollo spacecraft. That Dent is pretty darn obious! Michael wanted folks to see this in case they’d ever had trouble spotting the Dent.
TokyoMagic!, ah, nice, thanks for the info about the letters. It just seems as if parade floats do double duty at the very least - they go from one coast to the next. And back again. I can only imagine how much it must cost to get married at Disneyland. $50K just to set foot in the place? Interesting about that other coach with the curtain in the middle - you’d think that at certain angles you’d be able to see both Cindys. I’d love to see your photos of that parade, in fact it sounds like I already have, but I can’t remember it all. Or anything. YES, I have a photo of the Stagecoach!
TokyoMagic!, I’m feeling generous, I’ll even make it FOUR years later.
Bu, ha, I didn’t know you hadn’t seen the Dent yet! I’m sure most people did not notice it, or if they did, they didn’t think about it much. There are some really fun segments of this parade coming up, including hula dancers from the Tahitian Terrace, and beautiful old circus wagons that I believe date back to “Toby Tyler” or thereabouts. It’s too bad that the Cindy in today’s photo isn’t your friend, that would have been fun. And I sure wish you’d hung on to all your photos so that we could share them here!!
Steve DeGaetano, maybe there was an even worse dent on the other side??
JG, powdered wigs are nice, but I prefer a powder that is slightly violet for that extra pop. I hope that the US supplies of curlicues are secure and voluminous. I guess it’s too much to expect the Dent and the Stain in one photo, though it has happened of course. If you’d like, I can scan your negatives, though that risks two trips in the mail…
Joined the Magic Kingdom Club in 1977 and subscribed to the Disney News until it mutated into a more general family magazine. Thrilling coming attractions included not only movies and park attractions, but records and 8mm films. And of course those members only vacation packages in back pages. Incredible values if you could live with shooting galleries being excluded.
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