The first two photos are from Lion Country Safari, in Irvine, California. It's long-gone, but I did get to go there once or twice, and was very disappointed that a lion didn't hop up on the hood of our car like they always did in the commercials. Anyway, here is a look at what I believe is a"chimp island", surrounded by a moat so that the chimps don't get out and become superintelligent and take over the world.
This washed-out slide shows a young lion (or is there more than one?) sitting on some very uncomfortable-looking rocks. Meow!
The next two photos (in BLUR-O-RAMA!) are from Japanese Village and Deer Park in Buena Park (thanks to Chris Merritt for help in identifying the location). That dolphin pool is pretty tiny, I hope they didn't have to stay in there for very long. The lovely blond has just fed Flipper a stick of Juicyfruit. They'll get even with her when they become super intelligent and take over the world!
".... just step a leeeetle further back.... a leeeetle further.... two more steps".
Thanks for sharing these! Even though I grew up in Irvine, I only went to Lion Country Safari a few times. Japanese Village maybe once or twice - and I recall a school field trip to the Enchanted Village makeover once. But weird, fleeting Zapruder-like memories are what I have left... Were there some sort of indoor pools and tubes that the dolphins swam through at Japanese Village? I seem to have a memory of that.
ReplyDeleteWhen Bubbles the Hippo went awol at Lion Country, and ended up in that small lake on Laguna Canyon Road, we actually drove out there to try and get a look at her, to no avail. What a strange park Lion Country was! I highly recommend getting a copy of the film 'Frasier the Sensuous Lion' - written by Lion Country P.R. man Jerry Kobrin, and filmed on the property. It doesn't get much stranger than that!
I loved Japanese Village. I hope you have more slides of that family's visit, Major!
ReplyDeleteI remember when Frasier the Lion died. I was in second grade and I used the L.A. Times article about his death for "sharing." Pretty morbid, huh? Actually, all items "shared" had to be from the newspaper and since there probably weren't any articles about Disneyland that particular day.....
I just found an old post I contributed to on Tiki Central about 4 years ago (I used to post as Tangaroa on there):
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tikiroom.com/tikicentral/bb/viewtopic.php?topic=13764&forum=6
Dan Goodsell has some great Lion Country pics here: http://theimaginaryworld.com/lc.html
ReplyDeletevery cool pictures! i think i see 2 lions there as well. poor critters need some grass there!
ReplyDeleteJapanese Village would have been great to visit. we had one here at Sea World in neighboring Ohio and that was always my favorite place to buy a souvenier!
seeing pics like this always makes me regret so many missed opportunities when i was a kid. i dont have one photo of us at my beloved West View Park, where we went for all of our school picnics, and then it closed in 1977. those were the best times, but what HS kid back then thought about bringing a camera??
thanks for the memories, Major, coz every post like this makes me remember those fun times! ;)
Amazing. How did they train that dwarf pachyderm to walk on that trunk in image dos?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the additional info and memories Chris! I think I went to Lion Country Safari 2 times, but am not entirely positive. I actually have lots of photos from there, but they are endless shots of sleeping lions, and the usual pictures of zebras, giraffes, rhinos, and so on. Kind of boring!
ReplyDeleteProbably went to Japanese Village half a dozen times, but this was before the Enchanted Village stuff. I remember the karate demonstrations, and a guy holding a cigarette for a koi fish to smoke (!), and some weird rice candy that my brother liked but I didn't.
Dolphins swimming through tubes, that sounds pretty cool!
Your top shot of Lion Country is really nice.
ReplyDeleteBoy, hate to be at odds with you guys, but I suspect that your bottom two shots are actually Sea World rather than Japanese Village. The trash cans in the background seem to carry the Sea World logo.
Sea World, huh? Well, I just don't know for sure either way (obviously!)... the last shot really did feel like it could have been Japanese Village!
ReplyDeleteBoy - it's hard to see - but Ken is right! For sure the 2nd from the bottom is Sea World - the trash cans with the logo are there... So likely the bottom is the Murata Japanese Village with the pearl divers from Sea World. My mistake!
ReplyDeleteNo worries Chris!
ReplyDeleteHey now, you two break it up. You're in a 'No Man-Crush Zone'. Didn't you get the memo?
ReplyDeleteSeriously, it's the detective work that makes slides like these interesting. It's all good. Thanks again, Major.