Enchanted Tiki Room Brochure, 1963
Oh boy, vintage Disneyland ephemera! My favorite. Today I am featuring a wonderful 1963 brochure printed for the "World Premier Engagement" of Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room (which debuted on June 23rd of '63). These are rare-ish, but often fetch high prices on the collector's market, often over $200. The cover graphics show talking tikis, a hint to what guests would see inside the attraction.
Unfolding the brochure once, we see an add for "Papotin's Revue", a "unique musical fantasy starring the incomparable puppet-master, André Tahon”. It was an "E" coupon attraction! For a puppet show! I gather that Papotin's Revue was only at the park (in the Fantasyland Theater) for a few months.
Unfolding it further, you can now see both sides of this item. We'll take a closer look!
It's fun to think of how amazing the Tiki Room show must have been to audiences in 1963, when "Audio Animatronics" was something new. I'm so glad that we can still enjoy it, 63 years later!
They pulled out all the stops for this paper item, with full-color on this page - it's probably not the first use of full color in a Disneyland brochure, but it has to be one of the first. See! Hear! Enjoy!
While the "Papotin's Revue" version of this brochure is the most commonly seen ("common" being a relative term), you'll sometimes find one (if you are lucky) with this ad for the 4th Annual Dixieland at Disneyland event, which included Al Hirt and His Band, The Dukes of Dixieland, Kid Ory and the Young Men From New Orleans, and MORE! I'd say the Papotin version is the one you'll find 90% of the time.
And, just as rare, or perhaps rarer, is a version of the brochure with a blank back. A mutual friend and I agree that they should have printed something there. And yet, here it is, with nothing at all. Collect all three and be the hero of your neighborhood (like me)!
3 comments:
Major-
"It's fun to think of how amazing the Tiki Room show must have been to audiences in 1963, when "Audio Animatronics" was something new".
I was there then, and thought just that.
"You have to see it to believe it..." I saw it and I still don't believe it-!
Thanks, Major.
The talking/chanting tikis are the best part of the show! The taliking/singing birds and flowers... I can take 'em or leave 'em. But the thunderstorm and the chanting tikis make it memorable and worthwhile.
I wonder what is meant by "world premiere engagement"? That makes it sound like the attraction is only going to be at Disneyland for a month or so, and then move on to another location, Vegas maybe.
I like the cover illustration. Somehow, seeing only part of the tikis makes it more enticing. Hmm, "André Tahon" sounds suspiciously like "André Toulon", the puppet maker in the "Puppet Master" movies. I'm guessing the filmmakers did that deliberately.
I love the artistic style of the Dixieland at Disneyland illustration. So "Disney", so sixties.
I ooh-ed and ahh-ed over the complexity and detail of the back cover for several minutes!
One of the nicer pieces of paper ephemera you've shown us, Major. Thanks. JB/Lothar gives his stamp of approval for today's scans. Homeless orphans, rejoice! :-b
This is such a beautifully done brochure! Major, maybe that blank page was for kids to draw their own birds. I think you should do that now. It could only increase it's value!
I know we will never get another incredible non-IP attraction likes this again. But I think if the current designers did come up with something similar, they would probably insist on the birds sneezing, spitting, burping up chili dog breath, and maybe even relieving themselves on the guests, below. They've already done the first three actions in "newer" Disney attractions, so the next step in their minds might be the fourth action. Or maybe they would just have José explain how envious he was of his brother, because he got a job working as a "carrier pigeon", delivering the mail. :-/
Thank you for sharing this beautiful brochure with us, Major!
Post a Comment