A Pair From May 1973
This is an unusual photo taken from Tom Sawyer Island - the way we're looking through the foliage makes it feel more like "Peeping Tom Sawyer Island". Here comes a Davy Crockett Explorer Canoe, while the Mine Train passes beneath Big Thunder Falls. The Mine Train would only be around for another 4 years or so.
I love the busy clockwork façade of "It's a Small World"; the mechanical dolls are emerging for their once-every-15-minutes performance, the C.K. Holliday passes slowly by, and large crowds wait their turn to ride the Happiest Cruise That Ever Sailed Around the World. Note the costume of the cast member in the lower right!
12 comments:
Great first image. It's a beauty. The Mine Train was now going it alone in Nature's Wonderland, as the Pack Mules just closed permanently 3 months earlier.
Love the angle of the first photo, quite unique. Also the combination of "front side of water" for the canoe and "back side of water" for the train.
It looks like IASW is doing brisk business. Nice mutton chops on the stabbington brother (from Tangled) going down the stairs.
Good shots today, Major. Thanks.
JG
Beautiful angle on that first shot. Two thirds of the interest of that scene are history.
I’ll always think of it as “Peeping Tom Sawyer Island” now!
The iasw CM looks like the French mime who stole Napoleon’s coat. The only other people-watching item I noted is an appearance by Tammy Wynette in a black-and-red striped shirt just right of center. I’d know that golden bouffant-flip anywhere!
Man, this gorgeous close-up shot drives it home how much the California iasw façade makes the Florida version look like something knocked together by a junior high wood shop class using plywood pulled off abandoned tract houses. It’s even worse now that the pretty load-area fountains in Florida are turned off. I don’t know how I never noticed there’s a WHOLE TRAIN up there before!
@Melissa - I actually liked the IASW exterior and load area in Florida for being different from the California version. I don't like how they tried to imitate Disneyland's gold & white exterior on the interior load area though. It was better before with the more colorful interior design and water fountains. Also the shared window between the IASW load area and the Pinocchio Village Haus is a cool feature.
I do love that window into the restaurant! I always wave at the diners and see if anyone waves back.
Maybe the load area is just suffering from lack of maintenance and needs a good refurb. I do like that it's different - maybe they could have embraced that even further and made it something completely different instead of just scaled down.
They should re-theme the Florida iasw load area with zombies.
I was going to suggest pirates, but they're so 2007. Imagine what disaster might have befallen if they'd redone a classic attraction - one that still had vestiges of Walt's personal touch - with something so transitory in popularity...
K. Martinez, of course now I wish I could ride all of those old Frontierland attractions every time I visit the park!
Alonzo, it's surprising how much a different angle can make - that first one is definitely unique to my collection.
JG, you're welcome!
Tom, yep, the Mine Train and the Mountain… R.I.P…
Melissa, there is nothing worse than a French mime. And I thought the "golden flip" belonged to Tanya Tucker. I am not familiar with the old IASW façade in Florida, but I know it has been changed to be more like the Anaheim version.
K. Martinez, I definitely would want DIFFERENT stuff at WDW. Otherwise, what would be the point of flying all that way??
Melissa, why wave when you can shout rude words? That is my motto. Does the redone IASW look shabby?
Chuck, I would LOVE to see a Halloween makeover of IASW with a zombie theme!!
I haven't been to WDW since Christmas 2012, so I may have missed a refurb. It was looking pretty rough back then.
Now all I can think of is a bunch of grayish, milk-eyed dolls in tattered native costume groaning the tune of the Catchiest Sherman Brothers Tune EVER.
Now, now, the ride interior was as lovely as ever! It was just the load area lookin' rode hard and put away wet!
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