Thursday, June 11, 2015

Sleeping Beauty Castle, August 1968

If I had a rare 1937 "3-legged" Buffalo Nickel for every slide of Sleeping Beauty Castle that I owned, I would be a happy fellow. I'm trying to figure out how to make this scenario a reality.

There it is,  the ne plus ultra of castles - at least until Cinderella Castle was built in 1970. They're both good though, working in very different conditions. I admit to being totally biased and loving Sleeping Beauty Castle more than the Florida castle, but let's not fight about it. We can disagree and still be pals!


On the other (back) side of the castle you can see that the courtyard is chockablock with guests. In spite of all that is going on at ground level, I can't help looking at the door that is on the upper level of the castle (behind the crenellations). This is where gremlins emerged at night to misbehave. Lucky gremlins!


Everybody's milling around; they don't know where to go next! I recommend the "Mr. Hippity" ride! 

"What the heck are you talking about, Major Pepperidge?"

Well, I went to Disneyland with a girl one time, and she wanted to go on "Mr. Hippity". Turns out she meant "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride". Ever since then, I like to call it "Mr. Hippity" too!



28 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-

Ne plus ultra. Say no more.

Thanks, Major.

K. Martinez said...

What I find puzzling is that after building five magic kingdoms and a sixth one on the way, why hasn't the fairest of them all been given her own castle? You'd think Snow White worthy of it. As of now it's two Cinderella Castles and three Sleeping Beauty Castles. I read that the Shanghai castle will not be named after a princess but instead will be called 'Enchanted Storybook Castle".

It's amazing how simple and beautiful Sleeping Beauty Castle is without the bling. Thanks ,Major.

TokyoMagic! said...

I hate how Hong Kong's castle looks just like Anaheim's. It doesn't bother me so much that Tokyo's castle looks like Orlando's, but I do think that the original Disneyland should have been allowed to have it's castle remain unique.

Debbie V. said...

I agree with TokyoMagic! It not nice to steal our castle. Really they should have made each one to a different princess.
The thing I don't like about the Cinderella castle in Orlando is the huge stage that sits in front of it. I love that view through the Sleeping Beauty castle where you can see the carousel. The hint of the magic to come.

K. Martinez said...

I was disappointed when I discovered that the Hong Kong castle was a copy of ours. You'd think they could've been more creative and made each castle unique in style and appearance as well as related to a different princess. At this point the only unique looking castles are in Paris and Shanghai.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, I got pretty fancy with the lingo!

K. Martinez, you are so right, Snow White should definitely have her own castle. There must be a “logical” reason why they haven’t done it yet, but I can’t imagine what it might be.

TokyoMagic!, it doesn’t really bother me that the Hong Kong castle looks like Anaheim’s. It sure is strange to see photos of it, with those mountains so close behind it; just be thankful it isn’t a Princess Elsa castle, I guess.

Debbie V., we still have our castle! But I agree, it would be nice if they had designed unique, beautiful castles for each park. You mentioned a stage in front of Cinderella Castle, has that always been there? Or is it a relatively new addition, like the stage at the end of Tom Sawyer Island?

K. Martinez, do you happen to know if the Hong Kong castle is the same height as ours? I wonder if the Chinese specifically *wanted* their castle to be just like Anaheim’s?

Unknown said...

Gee, I thought I'd made a comment regarding the castle's colors yesterday. I guess it wound up on Wikipedia or something. Anyway...

That second shot nicely shows off how I think the castle should be painted: tones of gray that look like stonework. What a concept! I could have sworn they had dialed back the colors after the latest scaffolding came down, but it's clear that's not the case. Right now the castle's stonework looks like it was a victim of a battle between Flora and Merryweather (pink! no, Blue!) Hee.

OK, for fun I'm going to Disneyland today. Who wants what? Does anybody want a big ol' multi-colored-lead pencil? Or maybe a rubber Disney character eraser to go on top? A felt hat with an ostrich feather and your name on the back? Ah, the possibilities...

Chuck said...

Fortunately, there's only ever been one attempt to clone Disneyland's castle...

http://retardzone.com/2008/10/16/the-life-and-death-of-disneyland-clone-nara-dreamland/

Major Pepperidge said...

Patrick Devlin, the castle looks so weird to me now, with the multicolored “stones”. As usual, subtlety seems to be a foreign concept - gotta hit people over the head with everything. If you are going to Disneyland, please go to the Art Corner and pick up a few animation cels for $1 each!

Monkey Cage Kurt said...

OH MY! I had to look up the Hong Kong castle, it IS exactly the same. But what’s really funny is that I had seen a pic of it before, assumed it was Anaheim and thought to myself “Wow, somebody did a REALLY good job Photoshoping in those mountains in the background.”

Obviously I don’t spent much time looking at the other parks. I want Disneyland to always know that I hold myself to a high degree of fidelity.

Major Pepperidge said...

Chuck, did you happen to see my comment to you yesterday, mentioning Nara Dreamland? Weird! The site you linked to uses a number of my photos for the "Disneyland" comparison.

Monkey Cage Kurt, in some photos it really does look exactly the same - except for those mountains. Even the colors seem a bit more subdued, though photos can lie.

Nanook said...

@ Major-

The "stage" of the WDW Cinderella Castle is an opening day 'feature'. Debbie V. is most-assuredly correct about the stage ruining the 'castle feel', but clearly was a precursor of things to come.

K. Martinez said...

@Patrick Devlin - you're so right about how the castle should be painted. And since you're going to Disneyland today, could you pick me up one of those white Mickey Mouse t-shirts with the google eyes? It was a favorite of mine but was lost to the passage of time.

Debbie V. said...

Cinderella Castle at WDW has a huge stage in front of it where there are almost hourly performances. It is about as wide as the castle. In order to enter the castle there are walkways that go up around and behind the stage to the castle portal.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/52/Cinderella_Castle_2013_Wade.jpg/640px-Cinderella_Castle_2013_Wade.jpg -

You can't see the walkways in that picture but you can in this one from 2012.

http://photos.burnsland.com/Travel/Florida-Trip-June-2012/i-VV85Zfk/0/L/Cinderella-Castle-091212-l-L.jpg

zach said...

I see what you did there 'back side' of the castle. And it's a fun day when you can see a vintage Sleeping Beauty Castle and the words chockablock and crenellations. And I laughed out loud and got a 'look' from my office partner when I read about 'Mr Hippity' which Patrick should definately ride today. Thanks Major,

dz

Chuck said...

Major, until your comment yesterday, I actually hadn't thought about Nara Dreamland in some time. Now the nightmares are back. Thanks a lot.

I hadn't picked up on the fact that he was using pictures from your early posts. I'm amazed that some people just don't see that as a problem, and I completely understand why you've had to start watermarking.

Anonymous said...

Architectural oddball word of the day: "Bartizan" >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartizan ...

...of which there are several on the Castle (To me there is only and can be only, one Castle). These elements can also be crenelated, roofed or unroofed, and fitted with oillets or not.

Major, perhaps you know, there are some twitter accounts also spreading your photos around, some with and some without watermark. You had one not long back of the waiting area for America the Beautiful with the contemporary state flags, it was weird to see that on someone else's twitter TL. His website is full of disclaimers about stealing his images.

Thanks for the trip back. I'm off for some grape juice.

JG

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, wow, I am amazed that I never really knew about that enormous stage before.

K. Martinez, I had one of those shirts too!

Debbie V., jeez, that stage really is huge. I guess I just assumed that folks walked straight through the middle, like they do in Anaheim.

David Zacher, your perspicacious comment is appreciated! I have used “Mr. Hippity” for other things too, like a particular statue at our local museum.

Chuck, I wish I had seen Nara Dreamland at its peak, when it had a Monorail, a Submarine ride, and so many other Disneyland lookalikes. As for the that website… at least the examples he uses are small!

JG, “Bartizan” is a new one on me. So is “oillets”. Is that where they dump hot oil on foes? I don’t really look at Twitter, but I see tons of my photos on FaceBook, never credited. It is a laugh when people who steal don’t want “their” images stolen. I also see folks who add their own watermarks (sometimes more than one!) to my photos. What can you do… I only wish I had started watermarking my own photos since the beginning.

Melissa said...

My sister and I used to call Mr. Toad's Wild Ride "Mr. Frog's Wild Ride." But it was deliberate - It wasn't that we couldn't remember the name. But, there was a song in our piano method book called "Mr. Frog is Full of Hops," and we thought it was funny. Kids those days, amirite?

Unknown said...

And another cool architectural term that didn't make it into yesterday's post: quoin. The quoins are those bigger than average stone blocks at the corners of intersecting walls, like on the clock tower. Or like in the movie, Three Quoins in a Fountain... Oh I'm going to get poked by an imp for that one.

Chuck said...

Melissa, you just triggered a long-dormant memory. I recall my sister playing "Mr Frog Is Full of Hops" when she was learning piano; I wonder if you and your sister had the same book?

As an adult, I find it odd that a children's piano book featured a song about a beer-saturated amphibian, but those were different times.

Melissa said...

Sounds like the same book, Chuck! It was the John W. Schaum Piano Course, which we OF COURSE called the "John W. Scum Piano Course," budding little Oscar Wildes that we were.

Dean Finder said...

The raised stage with gold railings in front of Cinderella castle at WDW apparently was added in 2005 as part of the Disneyland 50th anniversary celebrations:
http://www.imagineeringdisney.com/blog/2013/9/10/wdw-construction-cinderella-castle.html
However, the curved pathways (and a much less intrusive stage) have been there since day 1.

Debbie V. said...

Thanks Dean Finder.

Dean Finder said...

There's something about that mural's design that makes me think of the images pressed on the "golden record" installed on the Voyager probe:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/The_Sounds_of_Earth_Record_Cover_-_GPN-2000-001978.jpg

TokyoMagic! said...

Thanks, Dean Finder! I didn't make it to WDW for the first time until 2002, and I went a couple more times between that and 2005. I thought that raised stage had all been added in 2005 for "Cinderellabration" which was brought over from Tokyo Disneyland (in a majorly abbreviated version, however) for Disneyland's 50th. The MGM/Walt Disney Studio Park in Orlando also got the "Lights, Motors, Action" show from Paris DL that year once again, for DL's 50th....which if you ask me, was kind of weird. Why was WDW getting all new stuff for DL's 50th. That was how they advertised it.

Tokyo Disneyland sometimes puts up a temporary stage in front of their castle (between the two staircases) for seasonal shows, but otherwise it is a low concrete area with maybe a step or two leading up to a pair of wooden doors. WDW's castle used to look the same way. The castles look so much less "junked up" that way.

Dean Finder said...

D'Oh!
My second comment was supposed to be on the Tomorrowland images from Friday's post.

Anonymous said...

Hi Major. Oillets are the odd cross-shaped slots in the masonry used to shoot arrows through. These usually occur only high up the in walls since in lower locations, they offered a way for attackers to penetrate the walls or even cause their collapse by hammering at the holes with catapulted stones or later, cannonballs.

The slots were often cross-shaped to offer a wider range of aim for the archers.

The holes used for boiling oil and similar threats were usually referred to as "murder holes". These were set up directly over gates and sally ports in positions where things could be dumped directly onto the attackers from above. This is why gates or portcullises are often recessed under gate houses, so the defenders had a room overhead where they could work mischief on the attackers below.

Boiling oil was rarely used since it was a fire danger to the defenders as much to the attackers. Usually these dispensed projectiles, rocks, orts, potsherds, dung, and later, special cannons discharged nails, spikes, glass, chains and various kinds of similar anti-personnel ammo.

These types of fortifications continued almost up to the present day. The old fortress gate at Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco has a similar set-up on the main gate from the wharf up to the plateau where the main fort was located. This was built after the Civil War to protect the Army fort which later became the celebrated prison. The gate is in the back wall of a brick gate house which has an internal moat in front of a cannon port located with direct field of fire at the gate only feet away. The moat was placed so attackers could not get close to the cannon port. It would have required great courage and many fatalities to attempt a rush at such a gate.

Fortunately, Sleeping Beauty's defenders have never needed to man the battlements against the Park guests, but if necessary, they could be well protected and efficient.

JG