Friday, September 11, 2009

Fantasy on Parade, January 1974

It's hard to believe that 1974 was 35 years ago; so these images of "Fantasy on Parade" from that year definitely qualify as "vintage".

First of all, check out the insanely huge crowds gathered for this parade! There's Herbie the "Love Bug" (and a baby bug driven by Dale the chipmunk); Herbie was one of the Disney company's newest stars, having debuted in 1968.


Mary Poppins dances on the rooftops of London, while Jane and Michael wave to us in their PJs. I see at least one busker, and behind the float there are some of the penguins and the Pearly Band.


You don't see Uncle Scrooge around Disneyland too often, but here he is in his blue scooter (or whatever it is!) with bags of money (conveniently marked with a dollar sign so that you don't mistake them for bags of Cheetos). You can tell this is the 70's because of all those "god's eyes". I believe that the soldier with the camouflage represents a character from the 1966 film, "Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N."


Pinocchio never seems to learn; here he marches arm in arm with Honest John and Gideon, while Stromboli glowers behind them.


I don't think that Robin Hood was seen very often at the park!

6 comments:

Chiana_Chat said...

I'm feelin' old lol

...fortunately, Disneyland has a way of cheering one back up. :)

You'd think a good nanny would have been sure Jane and Micheal were dressed decently instead of greeting thousands in their PJs ;p

Unknown said...

Sweet shots.

Katella Gate said...

Great "you are there" pictures of the parade... Does Robin Hood ever make an appearance at the Park anymore? Even in crowd scenes?

"God's Eyes" ... I went 35 years without remembering these forgettable flecks of 70's fluff, and you have to go remind me...

Curse you (but in a non-threatening, Disney way).

TokyoMagic! said...

I LOVE parade pics! I was in Fantasy On Parade in 1981 and they brought out the Herbie car again and the Robin Hood characters. I believe that guy playing an instrument and wearing the safari garb was part of the Jungle Book unit. We had the same group of musicians wearing the same costumes while they played "Colonel Hathi's March" and I Wanna Be Like You." Another musician can be seen there bending over behind him.

Fantastic pics today....did I mention that I LOVE parade pics? I think you have mentioned in the past that you aren't a huge fan of them Major, so I thank you very much for posting these!

Nancy said...

these are great! so colorful and a nice, crisp, sunny day is the best for a parade :D

speaking of reminding ppl, Katella, i graduated from HS in 1974 and just had our 35-year reunion last month. i simply cant be that old ;)

Galileo said...

I'm quite surprised that Scrooge of all characters received an in-park persona prior to Duck Tales and Mickey's Christmas Carol.