Sub Lagoon, September, 1964
I just scanned a small group of 126-format slides, and most were not that interesting, but today's examples are pretty good, even though the color is a little wonky (these are date-stamped "September 1964").
This first one appears to have been taken from the top of the Speed Ramp that led up to the Monorail platform. It's actually kind of an unusual angle, looking back with the Yacht Bar to our left. The round Skyway gondolas were not long for this world, they'd be replaced with the dodecahedron-shaped gondolas in 1965. (I just wanted to say "dodecahedron"). You can see a "Picture Spot" sign near the Yacht Bar. At first I thought there was a CM wheeling something heavy to the right of that Monorail pylon, but it's just a man behind a lady. Sorry, ma'am! The Sub Lagoon waters are bubbling and churning, evidence of deep-sea volcanic activity.
Next is a fairly standard (but still nice) view from the Skyway, looking down on the Lagoon, while the new-kew-lar sub the Sea Snert begins its journey through liquid space. There's not a single bobsled in either photo, and now I must weep.
Hey! I just noticed that there IS a bobsled, the nose of one is visible in photo #2, on the right edge of the Matterhorn, near the top edge of the picture. Hooray!
12 comments:
…. As Paul Lynde said … “a voyage Thru liquid space !?? As long as there’s olives floating in that liquid!”
And Al Jolson famously said “I never met a man I didn’t like. - except Will Rogers …”
Major-
Another image with two, Skyway gondolas practically 'kissing'. We can also see the opening in the 'sidewall' of the lagoon with the pipe connecting to the dark water system.
Thanks, Major.
Major-
"... there IS a bobsled..." So there is-! Good eye, Major.
I've always liked those rock bridges on the Matterhorn. They add a lot of visual interest. LOOK OUT! Those two Skyway buckets are in the process of colliding! Just like the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are gonna do... at some point. Major, I bet the bubbling and churning water will send up a geyser any time now... about the same time the two galaxies collide.
I don't believe the Sea Snert was a part of the Disneyland fleet for very long. People kept giggling and chortling whenever it passed. I'm sure the photographer meant for that interesting, stripy trashcan to be the main focus of this photo. He should have zoomed in a bit to make it more obvious. Beginner's mistake.
Major, I see the green and yellow Bobsled! Thanks for the Lagoon pics.
The Imagineers should have added a large clown head, peering out from that drain vent on the edge of the Sub lagoon.
Thanks for the lagoon pics, Major!
Strange as this might sound, I've always loved the pathway between the Matterhorn and Circle Vision Theater. That's usually were the two lines for the Matterhorn met up back in the old days. That and the Alpine Gardens were a favorite.
TokyoMagic!
We all float down here, Georgie! We all float.
Beautiful sub and Matterhorn pics, and a guaranteed seven minutes of good luck brought to us by that bobsled!
Thanks Major!
JG
"Liquid Space"...and I agree with Mr. Lynde. Usually I do agree with "the center square". Some of those gags were positively naughty...cloaked in a tongue within the cheek. That being said, these are marvelous photos: I can hear the waterfall, and a few screams...and smell the cholorine, bromide, bromine...whatever it is...but I smell it. The subs take up so much real estate...I'm not sure they are long to be "taken over"...Which is kind of a shame as we say, but I think inevitable. Hopefully, it's a "new new" Tomorrowland....designed with the cooperation of "futurists" where they can really create something incredible...and not a re-hash of some IP crap...there I said it. I'm sure Disneyland is absolutely packed this week, as I have said before Christmas week was unsettling...it wasn't like summer which was a "slow build" to the explosion of July 4. Your body was just assaulted. Thanks Major for the Mighty Matterhorn.
Mike Cozart, was Paul Lynde on a Disneyland TV special? He seems like an odd fit, if so. And jeez, it seems weird that Al Jolson would say such a sick burn about Will Rogers!
Nanook, would that be the dark water system? Or the other one (the “clear water system” I guess)?
Nanook, I feel dumb that I didn’t see it before.
JB, I like those bridges too, and they remind me a little of the one time I was in Switzerland. I remember going toward Zermatt, and we’d pass little waterfalls coming down the cliffs, and we’d see bridges that were very much like the ones on the Matterhorn. The Sea Snert is named after one of Jack London’s most iconic books, I don’t know why people would laugh so much.
TokyoMagic!, what studio owns “IT” anyway? Pennywise would be a good Halloween walk-around character.
K. Martinez, I assume that there are days when the two lines for the Matterhorn still extend all the way back to that same general area? If I saw lines like that, I’d just go do some other ride! Alpine Gardens is just one example of a pretty, peaceful area for folks to relax.
JG, I thought that a bobsled sighting meant good luck all day, but I haven’t read the rules lately.
Bu, even as a kid I thought that Hollywood Squares was a weird show. It was so obvious that Paul Lynde’s zingers had been written ahead of time, but I guess people didn’t care? Not sure how he (of all people) became the “center square”, i.e. the star of that show. I think you were the first person I know of to mention bromine as one of the distinctive smells of Disneyland water. I don’t really know what bromine is - if only there was a way to look it up! I agree, I feel like the days of the Nemo Subs are numbered. Maybe it will be five more years, maybe more, but that’s still and expensive ride to maintain, and without Lasseter to defend it, I don’t know if anybody in charge cares that much. I’m sure it will be replaced with some dumb IP ride. Meanwhile, folks seem to be tiring of the Avatar franchise, and yet… we will be getting that attraction in, what, a year? Two?
MAJOR : several years ago at WDI my boss was a big fan of Paul Lynde and I can do a pretty good impression of him . On Thursdays the WDI model shop would stop work early so we could clean shop equipment , our work benches , our supply rooms etc .. and he started “Paul Lynde Thursdays” where I’d hade to make some comments about some current event or news bit in the voice and style of Paul Lynde . Sometimes on slow news days someone would pick an attraction and I’d redo some of the narration as Paul Lynde. And the olives floating in liquid ( martinis) space was part of my Paul Lynde Submarine Voyage bit …
The AL Jolson /will Rogers joke goes back to the 30’s or 40’s …
Of course Will Rogers is who made famous his “I never met a man I didn’t like”
So the joke credits Al Jolson with the saying …and the addition of “except Will Rogers” implying Will Rogers had stolen the saying from Al Jolson .
….. well people of the 30’s & 40’s loved that joke! Even SNL’s Jane Curtain used it on the show in the 70’s.
MAJOR: Jim J. Bullock tells the story how he was a waiter and was serving two game show producers … he really wanted the producers to remember him so he threw a tray of food in front of a bus making it crash …. He was fired as a waiter , but the game show producers remembered him and he got the CENTER SQUARE part on the NEW HOLLYWOOD SQUARES!!!!
(Wink!)
Post a Comment