Swiss Family Treehouse, May 1971
THANK YOU to every man and woman who has served our country and who gave their lives for all of us.
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Here are two nice shots from the Swiss Family Treehouse, plus one mystery photo! These are all date-stamped "May, 1971".
As a kid, the Rube Goldberg plumbing system was endlessly fascinating, if I'd been able, I would have probably gaped at it for 15 minutes. Did the treehouse in the Disney movie have such a system? It's been decades since I've seen it. Whoever cooked it up hopefully got a $1.00 an hour raise (that's $300 in today's money). I'm very glad some of the waterworks have returned to the new Treehouse, though they were not working the last time I was there.
From up in the branches we catch a view toward Fantsyland, with the spires of the Castle, and of course the Mighty Matterhorn gleaming in the sunshine.
This final jpeg was in the same lot, with the same date, and at first I tried and tried to imagine where it could be. "Judging from the height it must have been taken from the upper deck of the Mark Twain!". But I finally realized that it can't be Disneyland, no matter how hard I tried to make it fit. Unless I'm wrong! Any idea where this actually is?
14 comments:
Major-
Love the shot with the Matterhorn. I too find it hard to believe the final image is from Disneyland, but...
Thanks, Major - and let me join you in honoring the men and women who serve our country.
In the first photo, we can see the cast member taking "B" Coupons. But there appear to be three buttons on his little "podium" and it looks like he is pushing one of them. What's that all about? I would assume that the ticket takers didn't have to individually count guests coming through.....wasn't that done automatically by the turnstiles? Hopefully someone will chime in and let us know. KS?
Oh, I see now that the guest has one hand on the metal bar of the turnstile. So maybe the cast member was pressing the button that sent an electrical charge to the turnstile. And maybe the other buttons were labeled, "Squirt Guest's Pants With Water" and "Drop Rubber Spider On Guest's Head." ;-)
Thank you, Major! And yes, thank you to all the servicemen and women who have served or are currently serving.
I like the mood that the lighting imparts. The photo's a bit murky, but we get the gist. I do believe that the movie Treehouse had the same, or nearly the same, plumbing system as the Disneyland Treehouse. It's amazing what an industrious Swiss family can construct with some bamboo and various ship parts.
It's almost startling to see that giant snowcapped Mountain jutting up into the sky! And the Castle almost looks to scale if we assume that the Matterhorn is off in the misty distance. Nice picture, framed by all the foliage (even if it's fake).
Hmm, maybe this is an arboretum, someplace? That sign, near the center (we can only see the back of it), looks like it could be describing various types of trees and flowers. Or maybe it just says, "Restrooms" with a pointing arrow. At any rate, there do seem to be a lot of different kinds of trees and flowers here. It seems odd that those people would be walking on the grass, not on the paved path.
Tokyo!, I like your guesses about the buttons. :-D
Thanks, Major. Mystery photos are fun, even if we can't solve the mystery.
Memorial Day can be a hard holiday, thanks for the mention Major.
I’m with you, the waterworks is in old proper treehouse was endlessly fascination, and not just to kids. I remember my Dad and my uncle spending a good while tracing the route and marveling over the idea. I don’t recall anything similar in the movie treehouse (Book ‘em, Danno), or in my storybook version, although the book did have an illustration of a fountain at ground level. I’d love to see a schematic of the system, one must exist somewhere.
I seem to remember a three-button gadget at the entry podium, but I can’t be sure. I know KS worked this post, maybe he will see this and explain.
The views of the Park beyond are a great reason to climb the treehouse today, it’s about the only place left where guests can get a viewpoint above the ground. Here, the Matterhorn takes the place of Mt. Everest or some other exotic locale seen over the forest canopy.
The last photo is a mystery indeed. I agree it isn’t Disneyland and there’s not much to go on. Those look like daffodils, but could also be chrysanthemums or some other yellow flower. It does look like a pleasant place.
Thanks for these pics, Major!
JG
Nanook, I’m wondering if that third photo could be Descanso Gardens? I could imagine a Disneyland visitor also wanting to see Descanso, which is hilly - it’s a theory anyway.
TokyoMagic!, hmm, I didn’t really notice the cast member, or those buttons. NO idea why they would need three buttons for a ticket-taker. Yes, the turnstiles would count the entries, so it’s a real mystery.
TokyoMagic!, “Squirt Guest’s Pants With Water”?? I’ll wet my OWN pants, thank you very much. This is America!
JB, yes, that afternoon sunlight is very dramatic. In this instance, I like the play between light and dark. I’ll bet the Swiss Family would have built an automobile out of bamboo and ship’s parts if they’d been there a little bit longer. I’m always impressed with how realistic the tree for the Treehouse is - even up close it totally sells the illusion. There could be arboretums that I am unfamiliar with. The LA Arboretum is pretty flat, but you could theoretically get a view looking down if you were at Descanso Gardens (which was a favorite place for some Disney Imagineers).
JG, it’s been a long time since I’ve read the Swiss Family Robinson book, but I do remember that the treehouse was not in it that much - instead the Robinsons found a nice cozy cave to live in after marauding apes made the treehouse unlivable. I might be remembering it wrong! I’d love to hear from KS if he knows what the heck those three buttons were for - it seems like overkill for such a simple attraction. There were no vehicles to stop or send on their way. I do still like climbing the Treehouse, though I am not as crazy about the almost sci-fi tableaus that are in some of the rooms. My favorite is the little cage with the chameleons who leap about, very cute. Now I’ thinking that parts of Huntington Gardens could potentially work for that third photo.
Major/TM!-
Those 'buttons' are Veeder-Root counters, and I've always presumed the set of three was to differentiate between daily running tallies for the Adult-Junior-Child tickets...
Remember those who never came home today.
That first picture's lighting makes it look like it was indoors, like in the Blue Bayou or one of the EPCOT pavilions.
And to all who served...thank you. I'll go with what Nanook says about the push buttons. I did man the treehouse but that began in 1972. I had seasonal JC and gallery positions in .71. By the time I arrived at that turnstile, it was just that. There is a counter built into the turnstile and management just wanted to know the total hourly count. KS
If I recollect accurately, the live action MGM Tarzans featured a treehouse with a similar water supply, plus some other bamboo tech. This was probably around "Tarzan Finds a Son", when they steered away from the sexy and scary stuff to more kid-friendly approach. The implication was that when Tarzan took Jane in his arms and the scene quickly faded out, they were working on home improvement projects.
^ HaHa!
Nanook and KS, thanks for that information! That's interesting that they removed them prior to KS working that position. I wonder how often the tally of the three buttons didn't match the total on the turnstile? And when that happened, was there severe "disciplinary action" taken against the cast member? ;-)
Nanook, “Veeder-Root counters”, how do you know this stuff??
Dean Finder, I kind of see what you mean.
KS, I figured that Nanook’s theory sounded as good as any! You’d think they could have just looked at the ticket stubs to see how many adults, juniors, and children went up the treehouse, but those buttons might make it unnecessary to do an additional count.
DBenson, since Tarzan “finds” a son, we can’t assume that anything naughty went on between he and Jane!
JB, somehow DBenson’s comment reminds me of the way Superman comics became so neutered, to this day my best friend hates DC Comics for things like the Super Horse, etc.
TokyoMagic!, if the tally was off, the cast member would have to work as a costume character. Cruel and unusual punishment!
Major: It was purposely spelled out in the title, since the studio was worried about that very assumption. Quite a change, since the first two films were about as precode as you could get with all that sex and violence. TFAS presented infant Boy as sole survivor of a plane crash, raised by Mr. and Mrs. Tarzan. As with other movie couples, you assumed twin beds in the same tree.
The various Universal monsters likewise began as edgy adult dramas. Then came the increasingly cheap sequels targeting the matinee crowd, followed by mockery in Abbott and Costello comedies. The 50s-60s comeback had the original movies, even the genuinely scary ones, presented as kiddie shows with comical horror hosts, There was an ironic vibe to the whole monster craze, kids declaring love of scary movies but never admitting being scared. Remember those trading cards of old horror stills with joke captions (Wolfman: "Maybe I do need a shave.")?
Bud and Lou themselves went from big, occasionally racy pictures full of burlesque routines to increasingly kid-friendly fare. Lou was more emphatically a guileless innocent rather than a sucker.
The Thin Man films echoed Tarzan's progression. Nick was a tough, hard-drinking private eye, and Nora was his oversexed very young bride. With each new case Nora became more sensible and respectable, a bit more stylish than sexy, quietly holding the leash on a playful but less gritty Nick. Near the end "The Thin Man Comes Home" gave Nick upright small town roots, seeming to forget he was ever the streetwise tough guy.
And of course Mickey evolved from a randy little swashbuckler to an avuncular suburbanite, seeming immune to temptation and temper.
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